Note 45 — XVII. ST. LOUIS, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, COLUMBUS.

Irving saw the beginning of one of the periodical disasters to which Cincinnati is subjected,—the overflowing of the Ohio. “Within a few days after his visit the city was inundated, thousands of people were homeless, entire families flying from their homes, their houses wrecked, their property floating down the river. Many lives were lost up and down stream. Great floods occurred in other districts, the busy manufacturing city of Pittsburg being among the most serious sufferers. Cincinnati had hardly recovered from the floods, and thought out new devices for dealing with any future trouble of the kind, when she was visited with another disaster,—a great and fatal riot. All countries have their public abuses, their governmental shortcomings. England has plenty of them; the administration of the law in America is far from perfect. As long as judges are elected by popular vote so long will there be serious miscarriages of justice; so long as juries can be packed, intimidated, and bribed, so long will the jury system be found defective. Such glaring instances of malfeasance and failure in the administration of justice had, from time to time, occurred at Cincinnati that (upon the principle that it is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back), when “another notorious murderer was let off,” the populace arose, attacked the jail where a company of other ruffians were imprisoned, with a view to taking the law into their own hands. The militia were called out, and fired into the rioters. Many persons were killed and wounded before order could be restored. The press of the country, while regretting the breach of the peace and the loss of life, generally insist upon the moral that governments must not look for people to respect the law in face of corruption in high places and notorious compromises with thieves and murderers. “The objective point of the mob,” wrote the special correspondent of the “New York Sun,” “was the jail, and the murderers it contained, whom they meant to hang. Twenty-three murderers are in that jail, none of whom have had a trial, except William Hugh, who is to be hanged; and Emil Trompeter, who has had two trials, and is to have a third. In the list are William Hartnett, who murdered his wife with an axe; Joe Palmer, the negro confederate of William Berner in murdering William Kirk, and Allen Ingalls and Ben Johnson, the Avondale negro burkers. In addition to these there are several murderers out on bail and walking the streets. They have not been tried, though the murders for which they were indicted were committed months ago.” The “New York Herald,” editorially discussing “the results of the riot,” says that, in the first place, “no jury in that city for some time to come will outrage justice and public decency by making a mockery of murder trials,” and that, “in the next place, the people of Cincinnati have become deeply impressed with the importance of divorcing partisan politics from the administration of justice and municipal affairs generally. Before the echoes of the riot have died away they have started a citizens’ movement, with the determination to put in the field and elect at the coming municipal election candidates not identified with either party machine, but representative of the highest order of citizenship. When this is done there will be a more effective administration of law and justice and a reform of abuses which contributed, directly or indirectly, in no small degree, to the disastrous events of the past few days.”