Public Sentiment and Lynching
ALTHOUGH special reference was made to the crime of lynching by Chief Justice Lore, of Delaware, in a recent address to a grand jury, in which he set forth in strong language the terrible nature of the act itself and of the consequences which must ensue from its ascendency in the community, and reminded them that they were bound by their oath to uphold the laws of the State, the grand jury which met recently in Wilmington refused to bring an indictment against any of the persons who participated in the lynching of the negro White at Wilmington last June, although the identity of several of them and their participation in the act were perfectly well known. The grand jury simply refused to do anything at all in the matter, on the ground that public sentiment was against the punishment of the lynchers. When this kind of public sentiment gets to be universal, or even to preponderate in this nation, it will soon disorganize all courts of justice, and stop all the machinery of civil government. When the Spirit of God shall be withdrawn from the earth, every evil passion will have sway in the minds of men, there will be mob rule everywhere, and civil government will no longer be a reality anywhere; and already we have occasional glimpses of what is coming.