2

Mob Law

EDITOR ARGUS: — We are all aware that war has been inaugurated by the traitors and disunionists of the south. They have raised the fratricidal hand, they have insulted and trailed in the dust the flag of our country — that sacred emblem whose ample folds have so long and so repeatedly protected them from the insults of a foreign foe. In this emergency no patriot, whether he be in the north or in the south, will hesitate as to his duty. He will stand by the flag of his country — aye, and if need be, he will die by it!

But while we are prepared in the north to sustain our country in this hour of darkness, in this conflict which I fear will prove the most deadly that has stained the pages of our country's history, let us be careful to resist anything like mob law. The loyal and true citizens, the men of intelligence and firmness, the men in short who are in favor of the observance of our constitution and laws, should set their faces like flints against a spirit of this nature. The properly constituted authorities will be equal to any emergency and to these we must leave the acts of traitors, if any should be found in our midst. For myself I should dislike to think that we have even one traitor in our vicinity.

If mob law should take precedence of all other law, what a terrible state of things would soon exist. During the progress of the French revolution, Desmoulins, Danton, and Robespierre were three of the great leaders of the monocracy. They led the mob and after they had been instrumental in watering the streets of Paris with some of its best blood, they saw they had originated a whirlwind and ineffectually attempted to control it, but that hour had passed. The rabble who the day previous as it were, shouted hosannas in their praise dragged them to the scaffold the day following and mingled their blood with that of those they had ruthlessly murdered. No man's life is safe when mob rule prevades the land. I do not apprehend the existence of mob law to any great extent, but in times of peril like these let us guard well the rights of our citizens — the laws of the Land. John.