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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