mob of to-morrow may, and probably will, hang
or burn some of them by the very same mistake. And not only so; the
innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law
in every shape, alike with the guilty fall victims to the ravages of
mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected
for the defence of the persons and property of individuals are trodden
down and disregarded. But all this, even, is not the full extent of
the evil. By such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such
acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become
lawless in practice; and having been used to no restraint but dread of
punishment, they thus become absolutely unrestrained. Having ever
regarded government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the
suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing so much as its total
annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who love
tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits,
who would gladly spill their blood in the defence of their country,
seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted, and their
lives endangered, their persons injured, and seeing nothing in prospect
that forebodes a change for the better, become tired of and disgusted
with a government that offers them no protection, and are not much
averse to a change, in which they imagine they have nothing to lose.
Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic spirit which all must
admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any
government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may
effectually be broken down and destroyed--I mean the _attachment_ of
the people. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever
the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands
of hundreds and thousands and burn churches, ravage and rob
provision-stores, throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors,
and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity,
depend on it, this government cannot last. By such things the feelings
of the best citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and
thus it will be left without friends, or with too few, and those few
too weak to make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under
such circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be
wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that