Page:Journal of Religion and Society Volume 24.pdf/7

Who Lynches on the Frontier? paranoia, and that Father Tosi’s statement was critical in securing Fuller’s arrest (WL 1893, 440–41, 437–38, 447). The text’s reference to lynching appears as part of the story regarding Tosi’s statement to the authorities.

Tosi was on his way to San Francisco to report the murder when he was interviewed at Ounalaska by the captain of the US revenue cutter Bear, who was investigating a report that a priest had killed the archbishop (Barnum 1893, 447). Before the development of railroads and roads in Alaska, revenue cutters “were the primary federal presence in the territory,” with a wide variety of responsibilities, including law enforcement (Thiesen; O’Toole 1997, part 3). Barnum does not name the captain, but he was Michael Healy, brother to James Healy, the bishop of Portland, Maine, and Patrick Healy, SJ, the past president of Georgetown University (O’Toole 1997, part 1; Curran 2010, 274).

Barnum (1893, 447) describes the encounter in this way: “A meeting of the white men was then held in the office of the agent, and Father Tosi made a statement of facts.” As a result, the Bear set off the next morning to arrest the real killer. Barnum’s account adds one additional detail: “There had been some talk of lynching Fuller, but the scheme failed on account of the small number of whites.”

This detail of Barnum’s narrative stands in sharp contrast to his account of the aftermath of the crime itself. The archbishop died one day before his group would have reached his destination, a village called Nulato where he had spent the winter on a previous visit (Barnum 1893, 436–37, 440, 442). According to Barnum, when Fuller and the Indigenous guides arrived in the village after the murder, the enraged Nulato people considered shooting Fuller, until a trader convinced them not to retaliate. Thus, Fuller did not face summary justice in the village or at the trading posts where he spent the winter (Barnum 1893, 443–46). It was only after news of the murder reached the authorities that lynching became part of the narrative.

Of course, Tosi had only secondhand knowledge of Fuller’s reception in Nulato, and Barnum’s information was even more remote. Nevertheless, the events at Ounalaska include a clear implication about lynching: it is an option that white men can choose when they are present in sufficient numbers. Lynching is less a frontier practice than a monopoly available to whites on the frontier.

Barnum’s reference to lynching includes no moral argument: it is only a description of events as he has chosen to portray them. However, two young Jesuits teaching at Las Vegas College in New Mexico invoked lynching to contrast Anglo and Nuevomexicano cultures. This contrast, moreover, depends upon an implicit moral assessment of lynching. To appreciate their arguments, it is helpful to consider the background of the town in which they came to teach.