Year: 1877

The New York Nation makes the following


observation upon the relative order of regulars


and militia in conflict with rioters:


Another illusion which riots have dispelled


Is that the means provided by the several states


for the protection of life and property in the


shape of police and militia, are at all adequate.


Riots on the scale on which they have taken


place during the past fortnight put almost as


much strain on the nerves and on the disci-


pline OF the force called on to suppress them as


the operations of regular warfare. A Lawful


enemy forms an organization which keeps


itself in a defined position, and its attacks are


controlled by rules with which men are more or


less familiar and dictated by motives which


can besguessed, and the force of which can be-


weighed. A mob. on the other hand, is essen.


TALLY irrational, and its conduct has all the fit


fulness and incomprehensibility of that of


wild beast, and is just as merciless and de-


structive. 1t requires, therefore, to be met by


coolness and cohesiveness, and presence Of


mind, which are not often called for in actual


campaigning. Nothing can supply these


things but the habit of obedience-not simply


intellectual readiness to obey, as part Of


contract, but the habitual readiness


to obey particular man, produced by obeying


him every day on all sorts of small matters,


and the familiarity with his person and char


acter which results from living under his or


ders. This regular troops have; this even the


best militia has not and cannot have. The con-
sequence is that q militia regiment no matter
how well drilled, when it finds itself acting
against mob, and the temper of the men be-
gins to be tried By missiles and insults loses


very rapidly its sense of organization. The
company and the regiment and the officers fade
from the private's view, and he becomes in his
own eyes an individual man, at whom q fellow
on the, sidewalk is throwing brckbats; so he
gratifies his rage and provides for his personal
safety by taking shot at him. The mob, on
its side, takes more or less the same view of the
force; that is, it believes it has got before il
body very much like itself, although armed aud
uniformed, and does not believe in its discipline
and cohesiveness, and does believe it Can dis
solve it by vigorous pelting or series of single
combats. or by appeals to the sympathies of


the men. Regulars, on the other hand, 1t
knows to be machine-the most terrible of all
the machines invented by man, by which the
wills of a thousand are welded, even unto
death, by the will of one. and which knows
nothing of single shots, which feels every blow
through its whole mass, and when it strikes
strikes like the fail of destiny, without re-
morse or pity or misgiving The consequence
is that many of the horrors and aggravations of
m0b-risines come from the unsteadi ness of


militia. Killing by militia is apt to rouse


thirst for vengeance, like the killing in street
fight, while volley from regulars has the ter
rors of legal execution. OF course there are
militia regiments which are exceptions to this
rule, and several during the late troubles have


rendered inestimable service; but they are not


ia ha rallied ON for seriaus enaeronoie5, 5usota
We trust every sensible man now sees are
among the contingencies of American life.