Live Oak daily Democrat. (Live Oak, Fla.) 190?-190?, 1906-08-27
NOT PARALLEL CASE.

ITO sustain It's contentious InaC
lynching is due TO a savage lust for
revenge" to the blind, primitive,
savage instinct in human nature for
vengeance" the Live Oak Democrat
devotes a long and able editorial to
what might be called the ethical his
tory of the development of lynehing
in the South. The Democrats article
is very interesting; it is exhaustive
and convincing, and We wish We could
print il in full in this paper. 1t
was written in answer to the Herald's
claim that the uncertainty Of the
criminal being legally punished is as
much the provocative cause of lynch
ing as the innate spirit OF revenge.
The Democrat tacitly admits that the
uncertainty of legal punishment be-
ing visited upon the criminal has
something to do with arOuSing the
mob, but it insists that revenge is
the chief moving cause. If We ad-
nit the revenge theory, We may ask
! why are there no Iynchings in Eng
( land, France and Germany, whose
citizens are supposed to have as
much OF human nature as we of the
/ South? "-Punta Gorda Herald.
In what We said about lynching
We, of course, referred TO its mani
festations in America, for it is
practically unknown in Europe.
We are all the creatures of
evolution and European character
has been evolved under conditions
radically different from those which
have prevailed here. In the old coun-
tries until within comparatively re-
cent times the masses of the people
have had practically little or moth
ing to do with either making or en-
forcing their own laws. Self-asser-
ton in that direction was rigidly re-
pressed by deSp0tic governments,
and so it came to pass that in the
moulding of individual character over
there, there was abject fear OF the
law because its penalties were swift
and dire, and the primitive passion
heart, there as here, did not dare
assert itself and men and cOmmUni-
ties submitted to Outrages of every
character from sheer dread of the
tyrantS, who owned them and drove
them at pleasure. We are not
troubled that way here. hence at
times We give unrestrained expression
TO the passion for revenge. Out of
that iron discipline through the long,
fearful centuries in Europe came
the present race of people whose
very instincts compel obedience to
Law, no matter what the prOvocation
TO disobey it and avenge an individual
| or community wrong. But even there
: despotie restraint could not always
? conquer the primitive passion for
revenge and if you want TO learn of
: the most widespread, long-continu-
: ed, pitileSS and devastating reign Of
!, this passion and the greatest lynch
| ing furore in all the worlds history,
/ go read the record of the French
, Revolution, and shudder over the
bloody story of the National Barber.
t But all this aside, Europe at no stage
OF the game presents a parallel case TO
: America, for that country was never
F. confronted with a white and black
t race problem, in which the TWO
: chronological extremes in humanity
, mingled with each other millions
strong every day in the year on
terms of perfect legal freedom, and
in country in which the vile.
shameless, bloOd-soaked lie of Lib
erty, Equality and Fraternity" was
the shibboleth of the political party
in power and the cant-phrase OF all
It's literature. Under such circum-
stances We suspect that even in law
abiding Europe We should have an
occasional expression of the print
tive passion for revenge" that would
take the form of a lynching bee.