OCR Text |
Show Lvxciiixr.. U.vunt Uio above heading the Xew York Saturday Oleic, which is always instructive and lias become be-come n very valuable political and financial journal, has the following well written article oa a sut jeet of interest to the people of Utah: A lyncher Is too often a brute. If he was a man bforo ho becamo a lyncher, be must lay aside his manhood, man-hood, hiscourage and bis reason, and conacntto put himself oa a level with cowardly assailants of human being who happen to be belp'ass because, obnoxious. True, all lynchers are not alike; for there have bsen casta when Uw was helpless of Justifiable lyncfa-Ing-as In the days of the vigilance committee In San Francisco that was slmplyjustiualile revolution to restore tbe supremacy of tbe laws. But lynching by government is more base than that practised by a few blackguards black-guards in a village. All transgressions of chartered authority by thnse commissioned com-missioned to exercise such nutbonty according to tho letter of tbe law, in compliance with momentary pablfe senUment, resulting In Injury to the persons of those under tho popular ban, are nothing else that! pure lynch-tags. lynch-tags. The kidnapping of citizens during the late civil war by alleged military authority, trials of civilians by court martial, and the murders committed by military commissions were of this I character. Tbey were tlietremlaUoss cf tho passions of thebour into cruel and bloody deeds by men willwt the fauthorlty cf society to sit In Judgment upon their fellow men. natltlsonlhomeral raUier lLan on political points that your true lyncher U most nidvo and most anxious to display his disapproval of all manner of allege.! wickedness. Ho Is, accordingly, accord-ingly, very quick to detect tbe supposed sup-posed sins of others, loud In his denunciation de-nunciation of them, and usually eager to Iwcomo tbe instrument of some brnlal punishment invested by tbe gmssnessofblsowninlnd. II0fa especially es-pecially concerned for (be protection of the family virtue and deeply shocked by any tale of Immodesty, not to say licentiousness, In his neighborhood; neigh-borhood; and be feels that any disclosure dis-closure of offenses of this sort furnishes fur-nishes a license (o ruffianism, wateh. In Justice to himself, he cannot n -lecz. " We observed recently in the daily papers a minute account of a lynching lynch-ing which exhibits the exquisite ewosi-Urcness ewosi-Urcness of tbe lyncher upon these moral poinu in a very striking manner. man-ner. Two young women, not out of their teens, were walking with thelr friends In the BeMa. A large number of tbe self-constituted guardians of the homes of that vicinity, beholding thl, flagrant exhibition of Immorality, felt In duty bound to proceed at once to correct It, according to thsir own lofty conception cf Juue, and without waiting for tbe slow and uncertain processes of the law. Tber accordingly accord-ingly clubbed the gentlemen away, stripped tho i oung ladiesnd carried them, riding on the edge of a board, through the streets, followed by an admiring concourse cf blackguards. Having performed this brave act of chivalry they, no doubt, returned to their homes conscious of bavin? rt ,i icated their own characters from any future imputtil on of evil conduct in tho direction they had thus so nobly condemned, and enrolled their names among tbe "most prominent citizens" of the place. Hut If the lyncher! s always strong on mere morality, he is even more so when It comes to religion. Give him a chance to prove his own pure faith and be will generally wipe out any little differences of opinion touching cur relations to our Maker in the blood of those who disagree with him. It was chiefly for this reason that tbe church and State were divorced as they are today under all American constitutions. History diowslhal as long as they were yoked together, siolent and coarse churchmen were forever desiring to employ the sword of the Stato lo lynch the oumtani-Uvely oumtani-Uvely helpless dlrfenttr. Here in America we are In no dinger, oral leawwe ought to b In no danger from assaults by the Stato upon religious re-ligious opinions of any class of our people, whatcvor those opinions may be. lluthowislt when tbe lyncher finds himself in accord with a vast, overwhelming body of his fellow etti-zens,and etti-zens,and learns that It Is easy and convenient, and, perhaps, profitable to him or some of his kind, to abuse, or, possibly, to detroy, some who happen to differ from him? Ho regards re-gards constitutions and law and the great principles of human freedom and of religious toleration embodied in our institutions no more than does the Speaker of tho present Honse of Representative, tbe rules that have been held sacred for a hundred years. We have been noticing for more man a year lynching., in vailou. partsof thecountry.of certain preachers preach-ers of the Gospel of the Church known as the Church of Jesas Christ of L... ter-daySaln.a. They go Into all parts or the world. In all free ccuairlesof Europe, such as Kogland, all Scandinavian Scandi-navian countries' and Switzerland, they are beard as other men on similar missions are beard. Whether their hearers accept their teachings oi no: Is a question whfch no governmen', no communlly, and. certainly, no lyncher, is permitted to be concerned la. Bat In this country, such Is the In-ense In-ense religious zeal on the part of a certain lower order of rufaanj,lhat the preacher who preaches what the raf-fian raf-fian never heard before, or what tbe ruffian does not came to believe, carries his life in his band. The very fact that ths preacher appears at all under circumstances v threatening Is ample evidence of his prsonal courage, faith, heroism, and martyr-liks martyr-liks devotion, ilut there are usually only one or two. or, fat the most, three preachers together, while there are many, oftentimes a rjialii- tnde, of the pious blockheads who long to kill somebody for the sake of what tbey pretend to them-sslves them-sslves is the love of Christ. nd so we see that In Alabama an JTenneasee, and various other places, during tbe last few years these preachers have been shot, tarred and feathered, ducked, drowned, bcaun and ridden oa rails, their few friends exiled, their houses burned, their families abused, and the prevailing religion of those "peaceful communities" thus very effectually ef-fectually protected by the substitution of lynching for the law of the land. Dauntless the lynchers In these cases were much encouraged by the attitude of various great men and a great political party in the history of our country. Tbey could look back to a time, not very dis!ant,wbcn the Know Nothing party lynched the Roman Catholic Church, when they attacked it nunneries and monasteries, burned its edifices, proscribed socially and politically Its priests and peopio, and were very anxious to get a general authority to lynch It under tho farms of law. They might have seen, also, that Mr. Edmunds, united with a large number of other saintly Christian leaders la Congress, and with tho aid of a devout bench of Svpremo Court Judges had actually succeeded In tho Know Nothing plan, now directed towards another church, and had. Is very troth, lynched It by law. Tbe troublo with this church is, not that ha doctrines have been Intell-gently Intell-gently examined and found to bo bad, not that its teachings are unpatriotic and subversive of aodsl order for these the lynchers have never condescended conde-scended to look at bu: that Iu people cave some projvny wjilch may bo plundered, that tbey hae redeemed a desert and made a garden, which may be seized, that they are few and distant, and msy bo denounced without with-out danger, and, abovo all, that they have no votes either in Congress or in tbe electoral college, and any capital that maybe mado by assailing them Is dear gain. Tbo baio politicians, who are seeking to profit by this crusade, cru-sade, can only be classed with the lynchers am ve mentioned." |