The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-10
COMMENDS DURBIN.
Letter of the President to Gov
ernOr of Indiana.

Oyster Bay. N. Y. Aug. 1O.-In a let
ter, the publication of which was au-
thorized. President Roosevelt cOmmends
Governor Durbin of Indiana, for the at
titude he assumed recently respecting
the lynching. The president also en-
braces the opportunity to express his
own views in reference to lynching and
mob violence generally, saying mob vio-
lence is one form of anarchy and that
anarchy is a forerunner of tyranny.
The president vigorously urges that the
penalty for crimes that induce a resort
to lynching shah be applied swiftly and
surely, but by due process of the courts,
so that it may be seen, that the law is
adequate to deal with crime by freeing
it from every vestige of technicality and
delay"
President Roosevelt's letter to Gov
ernor Durbin. is in part, as follows:
Oyster Bay, N. Y, Aug. 8, 1903.
My Dear Governor Dur5in:-Permit
me to thank you an American citizen
for the way in which you have vindi-
Gated the majesty of the law by your re-
cent action in reference to the lynching.
The well-being, indeed, the very exist
ence of the republic depends upon that
orderly liberty under the law which is
as incOmpa tble with mob violence as
mob violence is simply one form of an
archy; and anarchy is now, as it al
ways has been. the handmaiden and
forerunner of tyranny.
"All men must feel the greatest alarm
over the growth of lynching in this
country and especially over the pecul-
larly hideouS forms so often taken by
mob violence when colored men are the
victims. on which occasions the mob
seems to lay most weight not on the
crime but on the color of the criminal
In large proportion of these cases the
man lynched has been guilty of a crime
horrible beyond descriptions a crime so
horrible that as far as he himself is
concerned o has f0rfpitod i0bf tn
any kind of sympathy whatsoever.
The feeling of all good citizens that
such hideous crime shall not be hid
eously punished by mob violence is due
criminal, but to a very lively sense of
the train of dreadful consequences
which follow the course taken by the
mob in exacting inhuman vengeance for
an inhuman wrong.
Every effort should be made under
the law to expedite the proceedings of
justice in the case of such an awful
crime. But it cannot be necessary in
order to accomplish this to deprive any
citizen of these fundamental rights to
be heard in his own defense which are
so dear to us and which lie at the root
of our liberty. 1t certainly ought to be
possible by the proper administration
of the laws to secure swift vengeance
upon the criminal and immediate ef-
forts of all legislators, judges, and citi-
Zens should be addressed to securing
such reforms in our legal procedure Is
to leave no vestige of excuse for those
misguided men who undertake to reap
vengeance through violent methods.
This matter of lynching would be
terrible thing even if it stopped with
the lynching of meu guilty of the inhu
man and nideOuS crime of rape; but,
as a matter of fact, the lawlessness of
this type never does stop in such fash
ion. Every violent man in the cOmmun-
ity is encouraged by every case of
lynching in which the lynchers go I'M
punished. to take the law into his own
hands whenever 1T suits his own con-
venience. In the same way the use of
torture by the mob in certain cases is
sure to spread until it is applied more
or less unfortunately in other cases.
The spirit of lawlessness grows with
what it feeds on, and when mobs with
impunity lynch criminals for one cause,
thew are certain to begin to lynch real,
or alleged, criminals for other causes.
In the recent cases of lynching over
three-fourths were not for rape at all.
but for murder attempted murder and
even less heinous offenses.
1.-The nation, like the individual. can
not commit a crime with impunity- If
we are guilty of lawlessness and brutal
violence whether our guilt consists in
active participation therein or in mere
connection and encouragement, we snail
assuredlv suffer later on because of
what we have done. The cornerstone or
this republic, as of all free governments,
is respect for. and obedience to, the law.
Where we permit the law to be defied
or evaded. whether by rich man or poor
man. by black man or white man, we
are by just so much weakening the
bonds of our civilization and increasing
the chances of it's overthrow, and OF the
substitution therefor of system IN
which there shall be violent alterations
of anarchy and tyranny Sincerely
YOURS. THEODORE ROOSEVELT"