The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-10-25
cRIME AaAINsr cIvILIzArIoN.
4 Strong Appeal Against Lynehing
 for Whatever Cause.

TUT whatever cause.
 There seems to be 6 great deal of
 misconeeption in the public mind with respect to Iynehing. Because man has committed a crime for which the
 jaw provides the death penalty. many persons believe that it makes little diff ference whether the criminal meets his
 death at the hands of a mob or through due process of law. But it
 makes all the difference in the world the difference between civilization and anarchy or barbarism.
 Wherein does civilization especially differ from barbarism? In civilized society we have laws for the protec- tion of life and property and courts for the administration of justice and the punishment of crime. Under barbar- ous and savage conditions there no es- tablished laws; brute force rules and a spirit of revenge dictates punishment,
 In our country we have constitutions and laws made by the people them selves through their chosen represen- tatives in conventions and Legislat- urees. The people thus deligate their sovereign power to representatives to make laws for the government of or ganized society-the state When those laws are made they represent the sow ereign will of free people expressed
 through the ballot-box; and it is the duty of every law-abiding citizen and of every lover of his country to obey and uphold the laws made for the pub
 lie good. Even if man believes law to be impolitic or unjust it is his duty to obey it because it represents, while on the statute book, the will of the majority, the power which makes the law of the land. IT law Is not wise or just a majority of the voters can
 have that law repealed or modified by the Legislature. The constitution it.
 self may be revised wherisoever the
 people wish it done.
 Our laws then represent the will of the people, deliberately expressed through regularly constituted legisla- tive bodies. Each man by his vote limits his individual freedom for the general good, and thereby agrees to obey the laws which express the will of the majority of the people. Hence there can be no such thing as conn
 munity taking the law into its own
 hands" in a civilized country where the
 courts are in operation. The mob, whether it numbers 100 or 1000 or 5000. simply tramples the law of the land under it's feet when 1t undertakes to
 punish a criminal for any cause what
 soever. For whatever the crime the criminal is entitled to tritl where evidence on both sides may be pre- sented and considered with due deli- beration in a counrt Of justice. That is a very different sort of thing from
 mob frenzied by passion and thirst I ing for blood.
 Our laws enjloy the mature thought and wisdom of the Angio-Saxon race for centuries: our statute book is simply the recorded will of the people, lcrystalized into legal forms through long and painful experience. The rights we enjoy to-day cost our ances- tors many severe struggles with un- willing monarchs. These rights have lcome down to us through baptism of heroic blood. Hence they ought to be
 regarded as a sacrel, priceless legacy.
 Men, therefore, who corrupt the bal- Hot, who prostitute our courts, or who Itrample our laws unler their feet, should be regardel and treated as ene-
 mics of olr country. as violators of hu-
 man rights, as lnurderers of laws anl
 constitutions. Such men are essent-
 tally alike in their lawlessness. The
 man who corrupts the elective fran chise defeats the end Of a free ballot by using voting mob: he who lefeats
 the end of justice by prostituting our
 courts uses judicial mob Cf may
 use that expression) and he who al- vocates taking. the law into the peo- l lple's hanls'' encourages the lyncring
 mob. These classes are largely res
 ponsible for the present reign of law-
 essness in our country.
 l The reports of lynchinng for the first
 few years always assigned as the cause the usual crime" But it is no onger the usual crime that calls for the the vengeance of the mob. If men may be ynched for rape, may they not aso be ynchel for murler? Very itte reason satisfies the mob in sact, it does not
 reason; it draws no fire distinctions. Vengeance is it's motto. When the mob
 wanted to lynch a murderer it did so.
 And then the list of lynchabe crimes grew longer and longer. After awhile
 misdemeanors were alled to the list, land negroes have been lynched for ltrifing offensses, for which our flaws
 do not even provide a penalty.
 Men who trample on the laws of course have no respect for courts,; and so the mob enters even the temples of justice to execute it's lawless will. It
 takes prisoners from officers and jails, when the hanging of such prisoners by tho orderly processes of the law are
 as certain as anything human can be. The mob usually onfines itsef to kil-
 ling and occasionally burning negroes;
 but now and then a white man is the victim. In South Carolina three white
 men have been lynched by white men and one hy negroes, which is, so far
 as I knew, the cnly case in which
 negroes have lynched a white man.
 But negroes have lynche6 number of
 negroes.
 It is high time to iilt 1lire whither are have now drifted so fa. that the only .I,1s.