Lynch-Law: an Investigation Into the History of Lynching in the United States
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Cornell University Law Library. THE GIFT OF jiX>c:z^, 9181 ""'"*"">' HV 6457!c98" Library ..Lynch-law: The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024871497 LYNC H-LAW LYNCH-LAW AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE HISTORY OF LYNCHING IN THE UNITED STATES BY JAMES ELBERT CUTLER, Ph.D. Instructor in Economics in Wellesley College; sometime Henry C. Robinson Fellow and Instructor in Political Economy in Yale University Ir LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK LONDON AND BOMBAY 1905 Copyright, 1005 By Longmans, Green, and Co. All rights reserved The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. FOREWORD Few people are able to read about lynch-executions, with atrocious forms of torture and cruel death, such^as ; have occurred from time to time within ten years in thfs country, without a feehng of national shame. It is neces- sary that facts should be known and that pubhc opinion should be corrected as to the ethics of that mode of dealing with crime. Lynch-law is a very different thing where laws and civil institutions are in full force and activity from what it is where they are wanting. It is not ad- missible that a self-governing democracy should plead the remissness of its own selected agents as an excuse for mob-violence. It is a disgrace to our civilization that men can be put to death by painfjjl methods, which our laws have discarded as never suitable, and without the proofs of guilt which our laws call for in any case what- soever. It would be a disgrace to us if amongst us men should burn a rattlesnake or a mad dog. The badness of the victim is not an element in the case at all. Torture and burning are forbidden, not because the victim is not bad enough, but because we are too good. It is on ac- count of what we owe to ourselves that these methods are shameful to us, if we descend to them. It is evident, however, that pubhc opinion is not educated up to this level. The reader of the present book will learn very interesting facts about the causes alleged for lynching, and about the pubUc view of that crime. Many current errors will be corrected, and many notions which are irrelevant, although they are popularly believed to be germane and important, wiU be set aside. W. G. SUMNER. New Haven, Conn., February, 1905. PREFACE In making this investigation into the history of lynching in the United States, my point of view has been that of a student of society and social phenomena. The purpose of the investigation has not been primarily to write the his- tory of lynching, but to determine from the history the causes for the prevalence of the practice, to determine what the social conditions are under which lynch-law operates, and to test the validity of the arguments which have been advanced in justification of lynching. At the present time many positive opinions are held with reference to lynching, and these are quite at variance one with another. Any one who attempts to investigate a sub- ject under such conditions cannot hope to escape criticism; neither can he hope to have given the subject equal con- sideration from every standpoint. The most that one can say is that he has pursued the investigation with perfect honesty of purpose and with openness of mind. To this study of the history of lynching I have brought no theories to prove and no conscious prejudices to confirm. My first endeavor has been to obtain all the facts possible; my final endeavor has been to point out the conclusions clearly warranted by such facts. The material for a study of this nature is found in a wide range of sources and I gratefully record here my obhga- [vii] viii PREFACE tions to those who have aided me in the task of collecting and sifting this material. For some very valuable notes on the early history of lynch-law I am indebted to Mr. Albert Matthews, of Boston, Massachusetts. Of his notes I have made free use, indicating my obligation to him in each instance, either by the use of the letter (M) or by special mention. Six of the chapters have been read by him in the manuscript, and he has given me much en- couragement and kindly criticism during the preparation of these pages for publication. For many valuable suggestions during the prosecution of this study I am indebted to members of the Faculty of the Social Sciences of Yale University, especially to Pro- fessors Sumner, Farnam, Bourne, and Keller. The edi- tors of the Yale Review have very courteously permitted me to use in Chapter VIII the material which was pub- lished in a condensed form in the Yale Review for August, 1904. To many others whom I cannot here mention by name I desire to express my thanks and acknowledge my indebtedness for information given in response to in- quiries. The number of requests which have come to hand for copies of this study, from persons hving in various sections of the United States as well as in Europe, and the atten- tion that has been given the subject of lynchings in news- papers and magazines, indicate a desire on the part of the general public to learn the facts concerning lynchings. By many it is believed that in no other respect to-day is American civilization so open to reproach as in its tolera- tion of the practice of lynching, and there is an increasing demand that this summary method of administering jus- PREFACE ix tice be suppressed and utterly abolished. That this book may contribute in some measure to a better understanding of this most serious and difficult problem is the hope with which it is placed in the hands of the reader. J. E. C. CONTENTS Chapter I p,„^ Introduction i Chapter II Origin of the Term Lynch-law 13 Chapter III Early Lynch-law 41 Chapter IV Lynch-law 1830-1860 90 Chapter V The Reconstruction Period 137 Chapter VI Lynchings 155 Chapter VII Lynch-law and its Justification 193 Chapter VIII Remedies 227 Chapter IX Some Conclusions 267 List 0} Periodicals Cited 280 Index 282 [xi] CHARTS FACING PAGE I. Number lynched compared with number legally executed, 1882-1903 .... 162 II. Number lynched according to months in different sections of the U. S., 1882-1903 163 III. Percentages lynched for various causes by months, 1882-1903 . ... 170 rV. Number of Whites, Negroes and Others lynched according to years, 1882-1903 171 V. Number of women (Whites and Negroes) lynched according to years, 1882-1903 172 Proportion lynched for various causes, 1882- 1903, Women (Whites and Negroes). VI. Percentages lynched for various causes by years, 1882-1903, Whites and Others . 173 VII. Percentages lynched for various causes by years, 1882-1903, Negroes . 174 VIII. Proportion lynched for various causes, 1882- 1903, Whites and Others . ... 175 IX. Proportion lynched for various causes, 1882- 1903, Negroes .... ... 176 [ xiii ] xiv CHARTS FACING PAGE X. Proportion lynched for various causes in Southern States, 1882-1903, Whites and Others ... .... 177 XI. Proportion lynched for various causes in Southern States, 1882-1903, Negroes . 178 XII, Proportion lynched for various causes in Western States, 1882-1903 .... 179 XIII. Proportion lynched for various causes in Eastern States, 1882-1903 .... 180 LYNCH-LAW CHAPTER I Introduction It has been said that our country's national crime is lynching. We may be reluctant to admit our peculiarity in this respect and it may seem unpatriotic to do so, but the fact remains that lynching is a criminal practice which is pecuhar to the United States. The practice whereby mobs capture individuals suspected of crime, or take them from the officers of the law, and execute them without any process at law, or break open jails and hang convicted criminals, with impunity, is to be found in no other country of a high degree of civilization. Riots and mob executions take place in other countries, but there is no such frequent administration of what may be termed popular justice which can properly be compared with lynch-law procedure in the United States. The frequency and impunity of lynchings in the United States is justly regarded as a serious and disquieting symptom of American society. In general, it may be said that the practice of summarily punishing pubhc offenders and suspected criminals is found in two distinct types of society: first, the frontier type where society is in a formative state and the civil regulations are not sufficiently established to insure the [1] 2 LYNCH-LAW punishment of offenders; and second, the type of society which is found in older communities with well estab- lished civil regulations, the people of which are ordinarily law-abiding and conservative citizens. In this second type of society, recourse to lynch-law procedure may be had either in times of popular excitement and social dis- ruption, or when there is a contrast in the population such as is to be seen in the South between the whites and the negroes, or against disreputable characters in the community for whose punishment under the law no tangible evidence can be adduced, or against persons guilty of committing some heinous ofifense which on account of its atrocity and fiendishness is particularly shocking to the community. In other countries one or more of these conditions has at times existed, and summary methods of punishment to which lynch-law procedure in the United States bears a close resemblance have been followed.