| Show L VIGILANCE committees FR til some time past the newspaper S press in different parts of the country has haa occupied a portion of its space with or mounts accounts of the acts of vigilance com corn rait lait tees teea these committees have not been confined to the great west nor to newly settled localities but they have been operating east cast as well as west in i places where the rough elements which are often found associated with pioneer and frontier life cannot be said to pre dominate quite recently three persons were hung by a vigilance committee in nei 1 braska something over three weeks eago rago on the uit the citizens of seymour county indiana indians acting as a zin min vigilance V i ance committee stopped a railway irain train took from it three prisoners pr boners who were in the custody of officers leers of the law charged with having a short time previously evious ly attempted to rob an adams express car and hanged banged them on a tree one of them protesting his innocence up k to his death on the night of the mitt ell the same combination of citizens acting as a vigilance committee again took three prisoners from the officers of the law who we recharged with the same crime and hanged haDged them in loth these last earned cases there is no evidence that the prisoners would not have had ghe the dhe law justly administered in their I 1 case but those who wrested them from the charge of the law in the person of its off omm meers officers and became their execution ers without trial and without sufficient proof declared they were part of a confederated federated con gang of lawbreakers law breakers who bere IV rere guilty of many other crimes I 1 if men can assemble and with impe apu anity n eting acting under the influence of passi slon eion n j justly u aly excited or not become the execution executioners ers of alleged or real criminals without w trial or defence setting aside 4 and ignoring the law and its agents and executors there is no safety in legisla tive enactments and society becomes the slave of a hydra headed mob irre unwise and easily goaded to commit the most terrible crimes under the plea of duty claiming for them the semblance and color of virtues such acts mark a transition in society where they occur leading to a radical and al 4 fearful change where the law daiv has not f power and respect to its majesty cannot be e enforced it has been deemed wise and necessary at times for men to corn combine iobine to together ether ethen to purify society but where the machinery of the law is iu in A full ani and free operation it shows a grow ing power of defiant of i healthy restraint which augurs ill for dhe the country in which it exists we have just reason to feel proud of t the settlement and growth of this terri tory with the authority au authority thorit y which the law has ever exercised in it while the neighboring states and territories have been compelled to witness the tion and nover mover movements rients of vigilance committees mit tees anel anil now wh while 11 a they are manifesting themselves in what to us is the eastern states wo we have never had occa lon ion sion to resort to such extreme measures that law and order mig I 1 it be maintained in iii utah the officers of justice few as they have been with the strong sense of right exhibited by the people have ever been found sufficient to sustain the supremacy of the courts even when we were cursed with the largest number of lawless individuals that has ever been in the territory |
