LYNCH LAW. In the United States, a term applied to the summary method of inflicting pun ishment for certain offenses Without authority of law. Formerly the term was applied to any unauthorized punishment. but now it is re stricted mainly to punishment by death. The origin of the term is surrounded by The most generally ne•epted explanation asso ciates the beginning of the practice with one Charles Lynch (q.v.). a Virginia planter. •hc undertook to maintain order by takin,i into his ownm hands the imnishment of all disorderly on disaffected persons. This method of dealing with the hawk ss eh ment met the approval of public opinion and was practiced after the Revolution with the result, it is said, that many suits were before the courts in 1792 for inflicting lynch law in the region south of the James River. In Eng land lynch law was early known by the name of Lydford law; in Scotland it was often called Cowper law. Except in the early settlement of California before civil government had been established, the practice of lynching in the United States was seldom resorted to until after the Civil War. In the disorders incident to the emancipation of the slaves and the enforcement of the reconstruction acts, bands of white men under the name of the Ku-Klux Klan (q.v.) fre quently resorted to lynch law to get rid of objec tionable colored men. The demoralization and disregard of the majesty of the law which the influences of the tune created in the minds of the white race did not disappear with the restoration of white supremacy in the South. With the increasing amount of crime among the black race went an increase in the number of lynchings. Presently it became an unwritten law that no colored offender charged with rape upon a white woman should be allowed the privilege of trial before a court of law. The method of punish ment by lynching is not now restricted to the offeinco of rape, as the statistics quoted below will show. Moreover, it is not wholly confined to any paiticular section of the country, although more general in the South than in other parts of the country. It ie also resorted to more frequently in the newly settled West than in the older North and East. Reliable statistics gathered for the year 1592 show that 241 persons were executed in the United States by lynching during that year. All of these eases except 3S occurred in the former slave-holding States of the South, Louisiana heading the list with 29, Tennessee following with 2S, Arkansas with 25, Alabama with 22, and Mississippi with 16. Of the 241 victims of lynch law 160 were negroes. While the offense charged was in 57 eases rape or at tempt at rape, in 5S eases it was murder; in 18 cases the offense was equally divided between race prejudice, robbery, and incendiarism ; in four instances it was suspected robbery. and in two eases the charge was insulting women. During the year 1902 the number of lynchings reported was hut slightly more than 100, which was 21 less than the number reported during, the previous year. Nine of these eases occurred in the north
ern section of the country—one each in South Dakota, Colorado. Wyoming,, Miehigan, Oregon, Indiana, and Kansas, and two in Illinois. Under the Constitution the National Government has little or no power which can he employed to cheek the barbarous practice of lynching. The administration of the criminal law, except in a few eases, is left to the individual States, and the punishment of those who are guilty of taking part in the business of lynching is the duty of the States. Nevertheless, whenever the subject of a foreign goTernment is lynched by an Ameri can mob, the United States is held responsible and has on several occasions been called upon to pay an indemnity to the families of vic tims of lynch law. This happened twice in the case of several Chinese subjects who were lynched by mobs in Wyoming, and California, and twice in the ease of Italians lynched in Louisiana and California. The total amount of the indemnity paid in these cases exceeded $250,000. Recently there has been a marked increase in the activity of the State governments in several quarters with a view to checking the growth of mob law. Several of the present executives of States where the practice of lynching is most frequent have made earnest appeals to the legislatures of their respective commonwealths to enact extraordinary measures to meet the situation, and they have, in a number of eases, foiled the attempts of lynching mobs by prompt use of the militia. Several States, notably Ohio and South Caro lina, have enacted laws making the county in NVidell a lynching occurs responsible in pecuniary damages to the family or heirs of the person lynched, while in Indiana and Kansas laws have been passed which provide for the suspension from office of sheriffs who fail to protect citizens of their respective counties from the violence of mob law. These measures have not proved to be adequate. The remedy most generally advo cated for the suppression of lynch law is the just, prompt, and efficient activity of the courts in bringing to speedy justice persons guilty of the offenses for which lynching is usually resorted to. But public sentiment in those parts where lynchings are most frequent is too strong against publicity of trial where the honor of a woman is involved to allow the courts to had the punishment which the offender is believed to de serve. Moreover, the recent action of mobs in several instances in lynching eriminnls who had been duly convicted by the courts and sentenced to death shows that the remedy suggested will scarcely be effective. The conviction and pun ishment of persons guilty of taking part in lynch ings is of the rarest occurrence, owing to the sympathy of the juries with the guilty parties.