the night in a
steamer.

At Natchez, a young man married a young lady of fortune, and, in his
passion, actually flogged her to death. He was tried, but as there were
no witnesses but negroes, and their evidence was not admissible against
a white man, he was acquitted: but he did not escape; he was seized,
tarred and feathered, _scalped_, and turned adrift in a canoe without
paddles.

Such are the instances of Lynch law being superadded, when it has been
considered by the majority that the law has not been sufficiently
severe. The other variety of Lynch law is, when they will not wait for
law, but, in a state of excitement, proceed to summary punishment.

The case more than once referred to by Miss Martineau, of the burning
alive of a coloured man at St Louis, is one of the gravest under this
head. I do not wish to defend it in any way, but I do, for the honour
of humanity, wish to offer all that can be said in extenuation of this
atrocity: and I think Miss Martineau, when she held up to public
indignation the monstrous punishment, was bound to acquaint the public
with the cause of an excitable people being led into such an error.
This unfortunate victim of popular fury was a free coloured man, of a
very quarrelsome and malignant disposition; he had already been engaged
in a variety of disputes, and was a nuisance in the city. For an
attempt to murder another coloured man, he was seized, and was being
conducted to prison in the custody of Mr Hammond, the Sheriff, and
another white person who assisted him in the execution of his duty. As
he arrived at the door of the prison, he watched his opportunity,
stabbed the person who was assisting the Sheriff, and, then passing his
knife across the throat of Mr Hammond, the carotid artery was divided,
and the latter fell dead upon the spot. Now, here was a wretch who, in
one day, had three times attempted murder, and had been successful in
the instance of Mr Hammond, the sheriff, a person universally esteemed.
Moreover, when it is considered that the culprit was of a race who are
looked upon as inferior; that this successful attempt on the part of a
black man was considered most dangerous as a precedent to the negro
population; that, owing to the unwillingness to take away life in
America, he might probably have escaped justice; and that this occurred
just at the moment when the abolitionists were creating such mischief
and irritation:--although it must be lamented that