Lynch Law 
place to imprison the culprit; there remains, 
then, nothing but the punishment of flogging or 
death, the latter being chosen as the more certain 
preventive. Theft, or the results of theft, may, 
and do, bring results that destroy one or a 
number of men from no fault of their own. You 
must, if I am to persuade you that lynch law is 
justifiable in most cases, consider an instance. 
We will suppose that one, two, three, or a party 
of men after the greatest hardships and perils 
succeed in penetrating an unknown and, to a 
great extent, uninhabited country. They have 
been obliged to pack, either on their backs or 
freighted in boats over rapids and other dangers, 
their six months’ or more supply of foodstuffs, 
etc. These are hidden, stacked away, or, in the 
vernacular, ‘‘ cached ” at a base camp known to 
all. From this store the prospectors draw their 
needs when on their expeditions. The cache 
is unprotected. A thief in the shape of a man 
stumbles across these stores and deliberately 
steals the whole or a portion of them. The 
rightful owners return to find their means of 
sustenance, after all their hard work, gone. 
They are face to face with death in its worst 
form; therefore, if they can catch the thief, the 
penalty is death, and very justly so too. There 
is the exception to this rule, for I have pur- 
posely made use of the words deliberately steals a 
few lines previously. If a man who is himself 
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