The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-08-17
origin OF LYNCH
Law TRACED BACK
.,-ncE LYNCH WAS NO WILD DE-
FER OF LAW, BUT GOD-FEAR-
ING GALWAY QUAKER.
wASyFRY WORTHY GENTLEMAN

HE Family Founded City Lynchburg,
Fought as Colonel in Revolutionary
Mar. and Was With Washington
when CORVALLIS Surrendered.
Undoubtedly the most conspicuous
--ords contr buted in modern times
=, the English language through the
-nodium of family name are "lynch"
and boycott" 1t is, moreover, a CO.
:ncidance that, though a century di-
ridad the individuals who acquired
sncb fortuitous immortality they were
botb Galway men.
Cant. Boycott, the Anglo-Irish land
ouo,+ found fame within easy men,
wv merely as the first victim of a
.,,stam of persecution that became a
.oooonized weapon in the Irish land
,rar The name of Judge Lynch, a
Galway settler in Virginia, was i'm
printed in the dictionary not a few
-oars ago, like the other, but rather
bv q lingering tradition which, like
many others, was distorted by time,
and did not mature and take root till
long after the death of the supposed
truculent American.
Charles Lynch, whose name is now
SYNONYMOUS with a barbarous con-
+omn+ for the criminal law, was no
wild bloodthirsty Irishman, as even
americans often imagine, but sim
nile God-fearing Quaker and worthy
ran+1pman; a deservedly respected
chairman of magistrates in Bedford,
o. conntv of Virginia, before the revo-
1rtionarv war; and late in that
struggle colonel of the local patriot
ragiment. Instead of ruthless exc
curiOner of Tory partisans, as the
vulgar tradition has it, Lynch was,
On the contrary, a merciful and or
derby soul.
Even in those violent times, when
in the Carolinas and elsewhere TO
rips'' and Patriots were committing
deD1orable barbarities on each other,
the record of Charles Lynch, justice
and colonel, was like that of the dis
trict which he controlled, free from
anything of the kind.
Origin of Lynch Law.
The Tories of the county, being in
minority, naturally engaged in
schemes for reasserting the authority
4 of the crown. The leaders of one
4 such enterprise, after a long trial,
we're sentenced by Lynch to impris-
I onment: relatively mild decree in
q the war-wrecked state of the coun-
4 try and the fierce division of the par
q ties, and mild, indeed, compared with
Il doings elsewhere. This was in 1880,
Il and the said Loyalists were fairly
n convicted of making war on the COM
s. monwealth of Virginia, then threat
n ened by Corvallis armies.
The sentence was morally justified
beyond a doubt. They took their
chances like either side in a civil
war, and possibly thought themselves
81 fortunate in getting off so cheaply.
81 Technically the prisoners should have
been sent to trial to the higher court
= Of the state; but Virginia, then un-
der Jefferson, was quite disorganized
8 by the CORVALLIS peril and domestic
n discussions. so Lynch and his court
Il had no choice but to settle the matter
s@ themselves.
After the war some of Lynch's OPP
81 ponents threatened a suit against
II him for what was technically an IT.
81 regular proceeding. The state legis-
lature, however, of which he was
Vt burgess, took the matter up, and for
# maIly eXonerated Lynch from all
8 pains and penalties for such justitia-
bic irregularities, at the same time
compiimenting him on his action at
time OF imminent peril.
\ Symbol of Infamy.
But the mere fact that a state leg