Murder and Lynching

We are sorry to have to record two instances which have recently transpired, where the laws have been superseded and four persons unlawfully executed.

The first of these occurrences took place in Ogle county, in this state. It seems that suspicion having rested upon a number of persons for horse thieving, &c. The citizens had warned them to quit the state. This aroused the desparadoes [desperadoes] , who determined to be revenged, and a gentleman of the name of Campbell was shot. This occurrence aroused the entire community who made all possible search for the murderers, but did not succeed. They, however, captured several of the gang and took them to a grove to await the decision of the multitude, the following we copy from a corespondent of the Chicago Democrat.

"A more respectable assemblage of individuals could hardly be convened in the northern part of Illinois. There were ministers, doctors, lawyers, farmers, and mechanics, and amongst them men whose weight of character was sufficient guarantee that no single step would be taken which was not justifiable and even absolutely necessary. Before this tribunal the prisoners were put upon their trial. The examination was conducted with a calmness, a gravity, and deliberateness which could not have been surpassed had their responsibility been augmented by the obligation of an oath, or if they had been controlled by the fear of the pains and penalties of perjury. After a full investigation it was unanimously decided by the company, of whom at least 250 must have been present, that John Driscall and William Driscall had conspired with others to take the life of John Campbell, and had been accessary [accessory] to his murder-and that they were guilty of many other criminal offences [offenses] previously committed. Whereupon it was moved that they should be shot forthwith, and the motion was unanimously carried. At their request a minister of the gospel was provided, and an hour's respite granted for the purpose of religious conversation. At the expiration of the hour, the sentence was carried into execution, and without a struggle or a groan they yielded up their respective spirits to Him who gave them. Thus died two hardened ruffians, whose whole life had been one uninterrupted career of crime and wickedness.

The other circumstance took place in the state of Kentucky. The following are the particulars:

Maythe and Couch had been confined in the jail at Williamstown, Grant Co. Ky., for the last three or four weeks, charged with, and no doubt guilty of, the attempt to murder Mr. Utterback the Droyer. Mr. U. it seems, has been lingering in a miserable state-his throat having been horribly mangled-at a tavern a few miles beyond Williamstown, on a much traveled road, and an object of commiseration with every passer by. He is a citizen of Bourbon, the next co. to Grant, and where the excitement has been increasing ever since the attempt to murder him. It being now problematical however, whether Mr. Utterback might not survive-although in such restored situation as to be neither useful to himself nor his fellowmen-the uncertainty increased whether the utmost penalty of the law would be visited upon the prisoners, nothing less than which, it seemed,

would pacify the people of Bourbon.-Many of the citizens of that county, therefore, deliberately resolved upon the summary execution. They first deputed ten citizens of the county to visit Williamstown, and inform the citizens of that place, and the prisoners particularly, that at such a time the prisoners were to be executed. This notice was thirty six hours previous to the actual execution, and a clergyman was also sent, and actually went to the prison for religious converse with the prisoners.

On Saturday last in pursuance of the notice, about five hundred citizens of Bourbon, to which were added some from Scott and Harrison counties, came into Williamstown in solemn procession and most perfect order. They had chosen their Sheriffs to act for the occasion, and proceeded to the jail, and demanded Maythe and Couch. The Sheriff of Grant refused to give them up, or the keys of the prison; he offered, however, no other resistance, and the people at once broke open the doors. They then took the prisoners, placed them in an open wagon, their irons on them took up the line of march without the least noise or confusion, to the spot of ground where the murder was committed about four miles distant. By this time the number assembled was believed to have been at least two thousand. After arriving on the ground, Mr. O'Hara, a member of the bar, addressed the people for some time upon the propriety of permitting the law to take its course. He was listened to with the utmost silence and respect, but without apparently altering the determination of a single person present. The preliminaries were then adjusted and the prisoners were asked if they had any thing to say previous to the closing of their earthly accounts. One of them, Maythe, addressed a few remarks to the people, admitted the commission of the act for which they were to suffer, denying however, that it was his wish to commit actual murder. Religious service was then performed by a clergyman present, and Maythe and Couch were hung in their irons upon a tree standing over the same spot where their crime was committed. Rude coffins were constructed, and there they we buried.

However deserving the culprits may have been of the fate which they have suffered, yet every reflecting mind must at once stand appalled at such unwarrantable and unconstitutional proceedings.-If the laws are defective, why not the people rise up en masse and have such amendments, and alterations as will better secure the end proposed, instead of carelessly looking on until the evil arises to such a height as threatens to overwhelm the social order, and thieves and marauders practice their iniquitous and bloody designs without fear? Let the people do their duty and nip the evil in the bud, and there will be no cause for those outbreaks and flagrant violations of the constitution. We have had too much mobbing and lynching for the honor of the United States, and such proceedings are not calculated to raise her in the estimation of her best citizens or of enlightened foreigners.

If the main pillar of the constitution, viz: the Judiciary is tottering, and the citizens after delegating that power into such hands as they choose, and then again take it into their own at pleasure, and use it as their excited passions may dictate-then farewell to order and virtue, the foundation of the social compact is at once destroyed, and the glorious constitution of America-the boast of freemen and the admiration of the world will fall, and in its ruins crush its best and noblest friends.