Lynch-law; an investigation into the history of lynching in the United States

by James Elbert Cutler

[327]. See, in addition to New York Tribune, April 15, 1892, United States Statutes at Large, 49th Cong., 2nd Sess., Ch. 253; 50th Cong., 1st Sess., Ch. 1210; 54th Cong., 1st Sess., Ch. 373; 55th Cong., 1st Sess., Ch. 9; 55th Cong., 2d Sess., Ch. 571; 56th Cong., 2d Sess., Ch. 831; 57th Cong., 2d Sess., Ch. 1006.

[328]. American Law Review, September-October, 1900 (34: 709).

[329]. See Congressional Record, 57th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 5902–5905, 5956, 6214.

[330]. Leslie’s Weekly, Aug. 20, 1903; Independent, Oct. 29, 1903 (55: 2547).

[331]. See Harvard Law Review, March, 1904 (17: 317).

[332]. On the work of the courts in the State of New York, see “Report of the Commission on Law’s Delays,” January, 1904.

[333]. Review of Reviews, March, 1898 (17: 321).

[334]. Governor Newton C. Blanchard, at his inauguration on May 16, 1904, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, stated his position with reference to lynchings in unmistakable language. “Lynchings,” he said, “will not be permitted under any circumstances, if it be possible for the military at the command of the Governor to get there in time to prevent them. And if they occur before the intervention of the Executive can be made effective, inquiry and investigation will be made and prosecution instigated. Sheriffs will be held to the strictest accountability possible under the law for the safety from mob violence of persons in their custody.... The courts are adequate to the prompt vindication of the law and the punishment of crime.”—Outlook, May 28, 1904 (77: 197).

[335]. Governor Vardaman ordered out two companies of militia and went himself to the scene of the trouble in a special train, bringing the negro away in his private car, at a cost to the State, it was said, of $250,000. See New York Times, Feb. 29, 1904.

[336]. Vigilance and prompt action on the part of the officers of the law, together with the presence of the militia, probably prevented the lynching of the three negroes who assaulted Mrs. Biddle at Burlington, New Jersey, on July 5, 1904.—See New York Times, July 16, 1904.