, the laws of the country were found wholly ineffectual
for the punishment of these individuals; and, emboldened by impunity,
their numbers and their crimes have daily continued to multiply. Every
species of transgression followed in their train. They supported a
large number of tippling-houses, to which they would decoy the youthful
and unsuspecting, and, after stripping them of their possessions, send
them forth into the world the ready and desperate instrument of vice.
Our streets were ever resounding with the echoes of their drunken and
obscene mirth, and no citizen was secure from their villainy.
Frequently, in armed bodies, they have disturbed the good order of
public assemblages, insulted our citizens, and defied our civil
authorities. Thus had they continued to grow bolder in their
wickedness, and more formidable in their numbers, until Saturday, the
4th of July (inst), when our citizens had assembled together, with the
corps of Vicksburg volunteers, at a barbecue, to celebrate the day by
the usual festivities. After dinner, and during the delivery of the
toasts, one of the officers attempted to enforce order and silence at
the table, when one of these gamblers, whose name is Cabler, who had
impudently thrust himself into the company, insulted the officer, and
struck one of the citizens. Indignation immediately rose high, and it
was only by the interference of the commandant that he was saved from
instant punishment. He was, however, permitted to retire, and the
company dispersed. The military corps proceeded to the public square of
the city, and were there engaged in their exercises, when information
was received that Cabler was coming up, armed, and resolved to kill one
of the volunteers, who had been most active in expelling him from the
table. Knowing his desperate character, two of the corps instantly
stepped forward and arrested him. A loaded pistol and a large knife and
dagger were found upon his person, all of which he had procured since he
separated from the company. To liberate him would have been to devote
several of the most respectable members of the company to his vengeance,
and to proceed against him at law, would have been mere mockery,
inasmuch as, not having had the opportunity of consummating his design,
no adequate punishment could be inflicted on him. Consequently, it was
determined to take him into the woods and _Lynch_ him, which is a mode
of punishment provided for such as become