The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-23
TIRE WEEKLY JOURNAL
xsrued Thursday, One Dollar a Year
TIE UNWRI1TEN LIE.

is known as the unwritten law this
year should give thoughtful people
much concern. 1t is not question of
lacking human sympathy with certain
afflicted people. If that was all that is
involved in this arbitrary suspension
Of the law OF the land it would require
but little consideration, but as a mat
ter of fact 1t strikes at the very roots
OF government and sets In motion cur
rents OF independent action which can
ultimately result in but one thing and
that is disrespect for the formal pro-
cesses Of law, the beginning of the reign
Of anarchy,
The unwritten law comedies the right
Of an individual or group of indlvid-
uals to substitute for the methods
adopted by society to protect itself
against the lawless and vicious the
methods which are suddenly formed
out Of what is known as "a brain
storm" Until now the enforcement of
this unwritten law has confined itself
to acts against the family hearth, the
family honor, and has been more popu-
lar among people living in warm eli
mates than in the climate we have at
the North. A New York jury recently
declined to accept the law as sufficient
10 cover particularly maddened muir
der which was followed by the most
sensational trial that State has ever
seen, the chief witness for the defense
laying bare the innermost secrets of
her heart. Since then there have been
acquittals in the South which have
turned on exactly the same maddened
! pretense. 1t is only the other day that
q notorious woman appealed to the I'M
written law to rescue her from the con-
sequences OF having murdered her par
amour, whose guilt in her eyes CON
sisted in his having boosted of his con-
quest In public when under the in1u-
ence Of liquor. IA more respectable case
was that Of the Virginia parent who
shot and killed the man who had ruin
ed his daughter. He was freed with
the compliments Of the court that tried
him. These appeals were made to the
gentler instincts of man and that the
appellants knew to what an instinct
they were appealing is shown by the
outcome of the trials and by the en-
thusiasm of the crowd outside the
ccurthouses.
It goes without saying that all men
instinctively feel the outrage which
marks the destruction of a home and
fnd 1t difficult not to protest against
the anger Of the afflicted When young
Thaw was arrested for the murder of
Stanford White there were manv who
asserted that it was good thing that
such a man had been put out of the
way, but the same men would have
felt apprehensive for the future had
the court added its sanction. But It
should make no impression upon the
state, as machine, that individuals
find themselves with difficulty con-
dcn1ning acts Of revenge which are pro-
voked by this extreme distress of mind
II there is virtue in the unwritten law
as 1t applies to one maddened act of a
man there is virtue in the law as If
applies to any act which drives des-
perate man to act impulsiyely and ir-
responsibility. The difficulty with the un-
written law is that 1t is capable of in.
definite development. We have all seen
the plea of insanity stretched to the
limit since its usefulness was first dis
covered and We have seen the argu-
nlent calmly made that acts commit
ted when man is temporarily de-
mented should not be taken as seri-
ously to heart. There is not an inmate
In the States prison at Wethersfield
who would not gladly avail himself of
that plea If he felt that the more prac-
ticial board of pardons would listen.
So 1t is not bit inconceivable that
the more the unwritten law is appealed
to with success the more it will be
stretched until it reaches cases which
have nothing to do with the family
hearth, but which rest on the loss of
temper and the consequent loss of ball
ance on the part of the offender This
is the plain trend of things to-day.
Fortunately the State of Connecticut
has escaped a test of popular judy
lnent on behalf of this unwrltten law,
though had it been made we have not
the slightest doubt what the issue
would have been. The Connecticut temx
permanent takes slowly to the suspen-
sion of the law though it does not al
ways show like enterprise in enforcing