The Sheriff’s Bold Stand Against Mob Rule
A newly minted newspaper editor-sheriff argues that local complicity, not just law enforcement failures, fuels vigilante violence in Washington.
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.
We feel like we have a little to say on the subject of the Colfax lynching, and as we could not very well talk before we were born, we hasten to improve the first opportunity we have to unburden our mind on this lynching business. It seemed at first that the press in this part of the state was inclined to divide the blame for the killing of Marshall about equal between the 21 masked men and the sheriff's office, but lately it seems that the latter is to come in for the lion's share. We do not wish to become popular by embracing the popular idea when our better judgment tells us it is a mistaken one. Our opinion is that the sheriff did the best he could under the circumstances. It is no use to fume about what the sheriff or his deputies did or did not do at that time. All the talk in the world cannot bring the victim to life. We are not particularly in favor of mob violence, but we believe the best time to try a mob is just before the violence happens. But in order to do this successfully, the officers must have the sympathy and support of the law-abiding element of the county. I remember being in Colfax just days before the lynching of Chadwick Marshall, and when I suggested the sheriff might make a serious attempt to defend the jail, the answer was: 'Who is going to try to stand off a Whitman county mob? If they come, they will clean out the jail or blow the courthouse to atoms. I would not take a hand in it, but I’d be at home.' What sort of encouragement is that from leading men? It takes a man of iron to stand against such sentiment. We believe that the people at large are more to blame than the officers. Instead of advocating the theory that resistance is useless, the people should support the law. When they do, mobs will go out of fashion.
“It is all well enough for people who never looked down into the muzzle of a six-shooter to say what they would have done had they been in the guard’s place.”
This editorial offers a rare, candid look at the normalization of vigilante violence in frontier Washington. The editor's dual role as both a journalist and an elected sheriff highlights the thin line between civic order and communal complicity in late 19th-century Washington.
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