Lynching is 100 per cent American, truly American, and only American. It is part of our soil, our economics, our ancestral history. It came through the Lynch family, established by Charles Lynch, Sr., my 4-gt. grandfather, of Ireland. The exact word came from Charles Lynch, Jr., his son, who was damned to eternal infame thereby.

The story of the senior Lynch is like that of a very large proportion of our ancestors. He came to America against his will, was politely called "an indentured servant," but was really a white slave, hi-jacked or shanghaied away from his native land, and sold. Kidnapping from the British Isles and Ireland was a regular racquet in those days. Some of the American colonists preferred white instead of black slaves, since they used similar language, were more intelligent, and more suitable to the climate. They were bound for a term of years, from four to twenty. Many ship captains had agents to do their dirty work, and of course the split was made over the number of kidnappings, and the victim, usually a boy, was sold for his passage. Girls, also, of the indigent or criminal class, were picked up and brought to the colonies, and since there was such a scarcity of women they soon were married.

The Crown was not handling its subjects any too well. It was constantly in hot water over what to do with hungry, discontented, and undesirable subjects. The colonies were the answer, to which were forced by hook or crook the indigent populations.

The economics of the crown was simple. Use the excess land for colonies! Sell the colonies! Get rid of the people. Sell them manufactured goods. Make money on them! Let them have no currency.

All this, unfortunately, is the psychology of man today. Somehow, we must get rid of our reliefers, our indigents, or "undesirables," and "balance the budget." Our stuffed shirts of today have the same remedy as the stuffed shirts of England in Colonial times.

But since this is the story of Lynch, an indigent, the originator of one of the largest families in America, let's finish him off.

In accordance with the customs of the time, when he arrived in the land of the F.F.V.'s, he was put on the block to be sold as any other merchandise or property, and knocked down to the highest bidder. And of such ancestors come millions of us now living, who call ourselves aristocratic.

Lynch was bought by Clarke, a farmer, who, fortunately for our hero, lived in a Quaker colony where slaves were humanely treated, and where slavery of white men was soon abolished.

But it is important that we be on speaking acquaintance with our ancestors, good Nordics, or Gaels, if the term be more suitable, who were brought here and auctioned off like the chattels they were.

Lynch, the indigent, the apple-cheeked Irish boy, grew up and became as respectable a citizen as you ever saw: he married the landlord's daughter, and became a property owner himself. In comparison with any livelihood that he, a pauper, may have had in Ireland, he bacame fabulously wealthy. He lived among the Quakers quite peaceably, and his relatives were Quakers. But he never was converted, and he died a Catholic. The nearest priest was in Baltimore, which could only be reached by weeks and weeks of arduous travel. In any event, he had tried to visit a priest, and the fact became known, it is possible he would never have gotten there alive. Apparently, he never went to mass after leaving Ireland; but neither did the records show that he ever attended a Quaker meeting.

Charles Lynch's son, Charles, Jr., was the brother of my great-great-great grandmother, who married Robert Adams, Jr. Lynch was a member of the court that originated the name of "lynch law." He was a colonel of militia, a justice of the peace, a colorful and good-humored gentleman, a fair speaker and one of the best regimental commanders of the revolution. I find his modern counterpart in Fiorello La Guardia, mayor of New York.

He lived near Bedford, about twenty miles from what is now Lynchburg. Athough this was a most pious Quaker colony, those who persisted in that faith did so at the risk of their lives, as in Massachusetts. Indeed, it was a mortal sin to profess Quakerism, and those who committed that sin were given a warning first, prison second, and finally, if still unrepentant, the penalty was death. I find the Quakers were persecuted severely in Virginia, but I find no record of death penalties being carried out. Massachusetts Colony did a better job, as I have already shown through Sam Maverick of Noddle's Island.

In spite of all this, Charles Lynch was a good Quaker, though his fun-loving disposition was hardly compatible with a religion of drab colors, modest behavior, and peace. As long as it was against the law, Lynch remained a good Quaker. But as the severity of their treatment decreased, he ran for the House of Burgesses, as his father had done, was elected, took the oat of office, and was promptly disowned by the Quakers for "taking solemn oaths."

About this time the jail was found to be insufficient to house the people who did make said ryotes; whereupon the sheriff did "protest against the Insufficiency of the Said House for all Escaips that may be made by Reason thereof." No wonder. Whiskey was five shillings per gallon; New England Rum, four shillings per gallon.

Lynch and his court, serving in the Revolution, never lynched anybody, but they originated the term by greatly exceeding their authority. They were justices of the peace, and assumed whatever powers were necessary to maintain order. Tories were hung up by their thumbs, given thirty-nine lashes, and I suspect a few more for good measure, until they promised to fight the King, and to cry "Liberty Forever." They were fined and put in jail, but none was killed either by mob violence or sentence.

After the war, suits were files against Lynch and Adams; they became an issue in the State of Virginia. The legislature then met, passed an act exonerating them, and here the term "lynch" became a part of the American language.

Lynch, who had a grand sense of humor, must have lobbied the bill through the new legislature. Though history says not a word about it, I believe this must be so. The law says: "whereas, divers evil disposed persons in the year 1780 formed a conspiracy and did actually levy war against the Commonwealth"—the implication being that Virginia was an established Commonwealth, and along came "evil disposed persons," who of course were Tories, and started a Revolution against Virginia! The law goes on:

"And it is represented to the present General Assembly . . . that Charles Lynch, Robert Adams, Jr., and other faithful citizens . . ." took "effectual measures" to suppress this conspiracy, that the Legislature stood them indemnified as exonerated "of and from all pains, penalties, prosecutions, actions, suits, and damages on account thereof, including indictments, etc."

The word lynch was carried on after the Civil War, but its meaning changed. In the West its practice originated from the necessity of frontier justice where there were no officers of the law. In the South it developed through the Ku Klux Klan, which all of us Southerners are taught to think was a swell outfit, but which was not.

Behind the psychology of lynching is the American's idea of individuality the "free and independent" complex he brought with him when driven by persecution from England or other parts of Europe. Lynching now means the illegal murder of an individual by a mob, usually carried out with disgraceful brutality, venting inhibitions of sadism. The cause is now generally supposed to be the rape of a white woman by a negro, although there are all kinds of lynchings.

Whatever the original excuse for lynching, there is none now. It is not only a disgrace to the South, but to the nation.

Killing common people, white or black, by mobs or wars, is common. The killing of a member of the nobility, however, by our common ancestors is different, and much more interesting.