Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/174

 The Origin and History of Lynch Law. "the practice of punishing men for crimes or offenses by private, unauthorized persons, without a legal trial," adding : " The term is said to be derived from a Virginia farmer named Lynch, who thus took the law into his own hands." And in that edition no ques tion is raised as to the accuracy of this account of its origin. In Webster's edition of 1893, however, we find the following: "Lynch: To inflict punishment upon, especially death, without the forms of law, as when a mob captures and hangs a suspected person." Also this: "The term lynch law is said to be derived from a Virginian named Lynch, who took the law into his own hands. But the origin of the term is very doubtful." There are two differences between the definitions of these respective editions which are particularly significant. The one is the decided development of harshness, and the other the express equivocation as to origin, ¡n the later edition. The first edition does not even suggest death in this connection, and, without question, accepts the words as purely American, while the second accounts death as an especial characteristic, and ex presses grave doubt as to its origin; without, however, advancing any other theory than that which the work had previously, and for many years endorsed. The reasons for these changes seem evi dent. That for the increased harshness of the definitions is that the nature of the punishment inflicted under the same name has become much more severe, as we shall demonstrate; and that for the expression of doubt as to origin, when no strong conflict ing claim is set up, is doubtless due to the tact that no one has heretofore taken the trouble to investigate fully, and establish authentically from the records, the Ameri can claim. "Xuttall's Dictionary" (London edition) follows Webster, but falls into the error of falling the Virginia planter John Lynch. Johnson's " Universal Cyclopaedia," edition 0f 1896, also follows Webster, as do the

"Imperial Dictionary" (London, 1893), the "Standard Dictionary" (1895), and the "Encyclopedic Dictionary" (1897), except that the latter takes the responsibility of stating positively that the term is of Ameri can origin, and " is naturalized in England." The " Century Dictionary and Cyclopae dia " is the only work of general reference, so far as this investigation goes, which may be considered an authority on this subject. In deed, the other works appear to be following each other in a circle, pervaded by a com mon uncertainty, except that some of.the English writers aver with certainty that the term is an Americanism. The "Century" defines lynch law as the " kind of law ad ministered by Charles Lynch (1736-96), a Virginia planter." It then briefly touches on the principal features of Lynch's oper ations, and adverts to the fact that its origin has been sometimes erroneously ascribed to John Lynch, the gentle Quaker, founder of the city of Lynchburg, a brother of Charles Lynch, and to James Fitzstephen Lynch, at one time mayor of Galway, Ireland. Its sketch is brief, but accurate. The •' Encyclopaedia Britannica," while expressing the Websterian doubt as to the origin of the term, and submitting the state ment of its probable derivation from the Virginia Lynch, intimates that it may be traced back to the act of James Fitzstephen Lynch, mayor of Galway, Ireland, in 1493, "who is said to have hanged his own son out of the window for defrauding and killing strangers, without martial or common law, to show a good example to posterity." A full account of this event ma)' be found in Hardiman's " History of Galway" (Dublin, 1820), at page 70. It is, in substance, as follows : The mayor was on one occasion visited at his home in Galway 'by the son of a gentleman named Gomez, whose hospi tality he had previously enjoyed while on a visit to Spain. His son, Walter Lynch, who was deeply enamoured of and betrothed to a young lady of that vicinity, made his guest