The Demoralizing Effects of Lawlessness
There is every reason for believing that such shocking occurrences are the natural result of familiarity with scenes or descriptions of torture and the infliction of “cruel and unusual punishments” put under ban by the Constitution as characteristic only of a savage race. Such scenes unfortunately belong to the history of recent events in some of the Southern States. On such occasions more harm is done to the community than can be offset by any possible good secured by the acts of vengeance. Such occasions can only be demoralizing in the highest degree. Not only do they substitute anarchy for law and government, but they arouse and encourage passions against which civilization everywhere has erected legal barriers. These passions, at first exercised for the protection of white women, appear now to be reacting with precisely the opposite effect upon this very class. Nothing can be more effective in providing safety for a community than regard for law and order.