The Local Press and the Mob
A critique of Washington newspapers that refused to take a hard moral stand against lynch law.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It was Chief Justice Bleckley of Georgia who denounced the cowardice of the country press as largely responsible for the prevalence of mob law. The mob is educated by the policy of omission, evasion, and silence to consider it a light thing to commit acts of lynch law. Here is an extract from the Colfax Commoner: 'While there are two opinions, the sentiment of approval seems to be largely in the majority... Personally we are opposed to lynch law, yet there are times when it seems prompt and vigorous measures are needed.' It is on this namby-pamby talk that mob law feeds and grows fat. Another paper, the Pullman Graphic, says: 'We believe in the people taking those things into their own hands. While we deplore the necessity, we glory in Whitman's grit.' All this defense of lynch law is utter rot. The mob is never the people; it is a murder committed in some corner of the state that confesses free government has fallen down and we have relapsed into barbarism.
“What kind of civilization is this that confesses that free government has fallen down flat; that we have relapsed into barbarism, since we trample our laws under foot and call a 'mob' in some corner of the state 'the people.'”
This editorial exposes the fragile divide between the rule of law and vigilante violence in the 1890s. The tension it describes—between community-driven 'justice' and state-governed institutions—mirrors modern debates about the role of media and public sentiment in shaping political outcomes and civic stability.
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