Year: 1873




Our letter from Wetzel county this
morning contains an account OF the
lynching Of JOHN JENNINGS last We'd
nesdsy morning by band of armed
and disguised citizens. The JENNINGS
family in wetzel county has long been
considered chief among the desperate
criminals who have made life and
property in that county insecure during
several years past, though until lately
but little blame has been attached to
the man who was shot to death last
Wednesday morning. His sons were,
doubtless, most justly blamed. One
of them has already served a
term in the States prison and
both have been under indictment for
some time past for highway robbery.
They seem to have had some confed-
crates, for whenever arrested they were
speedily released on bail or had some
convenient witness who would swear
them innocent OF wrong. But in the
meantime robberies were Of frequent
occurrence and in two instances MUIR
ders have been committed under such
circumstances as to leave no doubt in
the minds of the citizens that the JEN-
xIxos gang were the criminals.


During three or four weeks past the
Labor Vindicator. a weekly newspaper
published iu New Martinsville, has
printed communications calling upon
the citizens to band together and by the
summary process Of lynchiDg break up
the company Of the robbers. These
papers have, without any disguise or
conceslmeut, exhorted the people to
violence, but the officers of the law
seem to have been either unwilling or
unable TO repress the threatened tu-
multi.


At last, one of the accused parties, an
old man, prayed for and defended by
his wife and children. has been put to
death in his own house and under pc
culiarly distressing circumstances, by
an armed mob, and now the question
to be considered by the people OF Wet
zel county is, is not the remedy as bad
as the disesse7


We have no doubt that the citizens
who participated in this murder, (be-
cause it is a murder. no matter what
reasons may be adduced to justify it,)
thought themselves actusted by good
motives and fully excused by their own
views OF the public necessity. But this
disposition to right by violence the
wrongs under which community has
suffered is to be scarcely lees depreca-
ted than the wrongs themselves. 1t
breaks down all reverence for law and
order and itself begets the very crimes
which it strives to eradicate. In their
cooler moments the people Of Wetzel
county will bitterly regret their partici-
patton in or the countensnce they
have given to this bloody deed. 1t is
the seed which may bring forth har-
vest OF lawlessness in the name OF law.
aud riot in the name Of good order and
peace. 1t is incredible that the JEN-
SlsGs family and others Of the gang who
have heretofore pursued lives Of crime
in that county could not be brough to
Justice in accordance with the forms OF
law which civilized society has prescrib-
ed for its protection. We canno'
believe that all legal remedies
were exhausted in their case
or that the circumstances afford Justi-
ticstiou for the murder that has been
committed. Hit drives from the State
the men who have heretofore psrtici-
pated with JOHN JENNINGS in his crimes,
i, will be attended by that much OF good,
but it is doubtful.whether even this will
atone for or repair the damage done by
the decentralization that must ensue
from such an act Of arbitrary lawless'
ness as that of the men who have put
JENNINGS 10 death.