Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1892 — THE COURT OF LYNCH. [ARTICLE]

THE COURT OF LYNCH.

What a Foreign Paper Says of an American In. til lit ton. The Edinburgh Jud cial Review says, in a re Int article Probably lynch law is indigenous to Amcrii a i soil. Some of it* refinements may be due to red Indian sources. Its 1 y urgus was one John Lynch, of irish ra e, a farmer, perhaps a justi e of the pea 0, v ho 1 our.shed n Virginia or Carolina in t le seventeenth or eigmeenth century. It is said that he was r cognized as judge over a wide d sir! t, and chas ised ofT< n lor- by summer lloggin-s, a punishm-nt lynch law in its modern development retains. The court of lynch consists o.' a law ess multitude, oc asional y drunk, always savage, impelled by a < oinmon desire to nta treat or kill some ob ect of their dislike. !he number of judges varies with the force necessary to carry out their will For t tey are acc sers. edges, executioners, and legislators all in one and at once. It* procedure cannot be reproached with delay. No charge, is made, 1.0 proof taken, no defense al'owed. In the case of a foreigner ignorant, of the language, any opportunity of defending himself won d be clearly superfluous Even the identity of this accused is left to chan e. Everyth ng is arbi rary and ui defined Occas ouall . to induce confession, torture L resorted to 'I ho punishment, however, is the most I itere.-t ing, and the only protra :ted part of the proceedings. At San nutouio, on the vth of March last, lynchers dipped an alleged thief in petroleum, set fire to him, “lighting up the surrounding country," and after a sufficient en oynr nl. of his agonies diewhim up by the ne k. Few countries have been free from o casional outbreaks of an excited populace. In the Unit d States, howeve , the tendency drifts toward creating the ca< a will ot any temporary majority int. a stand ard of right and w.ong. \Vhat value Is set on Individual liberty in a community like New Or.eans, where killing is no murder, if a suii cient number of citizens of staudiug take part in it, and subservience totho “0 ivum ardo • prava jubentium” is the spe •al duty and virtue of ministers of justice.