Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1892 — THE COURT OF LYNCH. [ARTICLE]

THE COURT OF LYNCH .

Bhat a Foreign Paper Sags of an American Institution. The Edinburgh Jud cial Review says. In a recent article: Probably lynch law is indigenous to America i soil. Some oi its refinements may be due to red Indian sources. Its Ly urgus was on* John Lynch, of Irish rave, a farmer, perhaps a justl e of the peace, who nourished n Virginia or Carolina in the seventeenth •r eighteenth century. It is said that he was r< cognized as judge over a wide d strt t, and chastised offenders by summary floggings, a punishment lynch law in its modern development rotalna The court of lynch consists of a law ess multitude, occasionally drunk, always savage, impelled by a common desire to maltreat or kill some ob.,ect of theii dislike. lire number of judges varies with the force necessary to carry oul their will. For they are accusers, judges, executioners, and legislstore ail in one and at once. Its procedure cannot be reproached with delay. No charge, is made, no proof taken, no defense allowed. In tho case of a foreigner Ignorant of the language, any opportunity of defending himself would be clearly superfluous. Even the identity of the accused is left to chan e. Everyth nr is arbPrary and undefined. Occasioiiall , to Induce confession, torture 1 ■ resorted to. The punishment, however, is the most interest Ing, and t is only protra ted part of the proceedings. At San Antonio, on the 7th of March last, lynchers dipped an' alleged thief in petroleum, set fire to him, 'lighting up the surrounding country,” And after a sufficient enjoyment of hie agonies, diewhim up by the neck. Few Jountries have been free from occasional outbreaks of an excited populace. In >she nit‘d States, howeve-, tho tendency drifts toward creating the cas'ia 1 will of any temporary majority into a standard of right and wrong. \\ hat val uo Is Set on individual liberty in a community like New (Irieans, where killing is no murder, if a sufficient number of citizens of standing take part in it, aad subservience to the “ciivum ardor prav* Jubentium” Is the spec al duty and virtue of ministers of justice.