Suwannee Democrat. (Live Oak, Fla.) 1897-current, 1909-01-22
4 yEpDIcT 10 THANK Con F0k

pobstIv 10 verdict Of deeges sisnln-
s.Dss 3 that viii exert 3 wider mia
49, rs ever rendered IN the South
tbsD that If the iyry IN Union City,
Tenn. . few days ago which convicted
ei0bt night riders Of the murder q
csDt. Rankin and gave SIX Of them the
death penalty and the other two TWEEN
" wears each in the pen. In all that
mart Of Tennessee and the nearby re-
giOns Of Kentucky thevery foundations
Of civilization have long been shaken
BY the increasing crimes Of widely or
panizea malefactors claiming to have .
grievance, who, grown bold by immu-
nifty from punishment resulting from
the terrorism they created, went from
one form Of outrage to another until
the elimination came IN the peculiarly
BRUTAL and cruel murder Of Capt. Ran
kin. Appointment citizen, merely because
he wanted to protect his property from
their depredatiOns. They went about
this murder with the devilish deibera-
ton of savages tOrturing aeaptive, and
the crime was so atrOeiOus and the
criminals so numerous and weIl-Organ-
lied that the nation was shocked.
Governor Patterson filed the county
with troops and their vigorous work re-
suited in the arrest of a large batch Of
the scOundrels. The conviction Of eight
of them by jury made up Of citizens
Of the county, after a fair train which
guilt was fully proved, is triumph Of
law over lawlesness of the most for
midable character which brings q deep
sense Of relief to decent people all over
West Tennessee.
But the significance Of this verdict is
by no means limited to Tennessee. II
is a rift IN the black cloud Of crime
which, finding its origin in the night
riding iniquity of Tennessee and Ken
lucky, spread rapidly through several
Southern States and is creating most
OminOuS and distressing conditions in
large areas of the country districts.
Burning property, posting threats,
whipping helpless peOplein their homes,
and in some instances torture and muir,
der by vicious, eOwsrdly degenerate;
armed and banded for the purpose are
typical crimes under these new anC
fearful conditions. Their perpetrators
living amid a weak enforcement of The
law and seeing the abOrtiOns on justice
50 frequently resulting from the tria
of criminal cases in the courthouse
came to despise the law as thing evi
IDENTIFY weak and worthless, and so tool
it upon themselves to avenge their owl
wrongs, real or fsnCied, crafty theil
grudges against neighbOrs, cOerce then
in the disposition Of their crops an,
feed the revengeful passions of thet
Ignorant, primitive natures in any di
rectiOn their lawless caprice nigh
point. All this presaged the reign O.
conditions IN the SOuthWOrse than thOs,
of the civil war, for then the line wa
broadly drawn, we knew friend iron
foe and had an open enemy to fight IN
der the rules Of civilized war-nO
masked sssassins riding to their fOu
work sheltered by darkness and out
raging and shooting down their YER
neighbOrs to crafty their brutal pas
siOns. The dispatches for weeks pas
have told US Of the spread of this nigh
riding form Of crime like a moral pest
lence, cropping out inunexpected spots
and like most things evil, rapidly EN-
bracing within its scope vicious and ig
nOrant elements already depraved a
heart, reckless of the rights of Others
and wanting only the prospect of i'm
immunity from punishment to Join tn
criminal ranks and inaugurate reigns 0
terror in every neighbOrhoOd infeste
by them.
A lesson was needed, one too plain
sharp and decisive to be mistaken, an
it comes in this verdict from Tennessee
which bids all the Iaw-abiding SOut
brace up and be of good cheer, for q
last a jury has been found not to b
hoodwinked or eajOled by the pleading
of the lawyers or external influences {
any kind and that dared to do right in
grave crisis when the very civilizatio
of their State was one of the issues {
. the trial. The news of that verdicr
and its example, too, viii sprea
through all those regions cursed by tn
lawless spirit of the night-rider, carry