"No commentator," says Judge Hall, in his Letters from the West, "has
taken any notice of _Linch's Law_, which was once the _lex loci_ of
the frontiers. Its operation was as follows:--When a horse thief, a
counterfeiter, or any other desperate vagabond, infested a neighbourhood,
evading justice by cunning, or by a strong arm, or by the number of his
confederates, the citizens formed themselves into a "_regulating company_,"
a kind of holy brotherhood, whose duty was to purge the community of its
unruly members. Mounted, armed, and commanded by a leader, they proceeded
to arrest such notorious offenders as were deemed fit subjects of
exemplary justice; their operations were generally carried on in the night.
Squire Birch, who was personated by one of the party, established his
tribunal under a tree in the woods, and the culprit was brought before him,
tried, and generally convicted; he was then tied to a tree, lashed without
mercy, and ordered to leave the country within a given time, under pain of
a second visitation. It seldom happened that more than one or two were
thus punished; their confederates took the hint and fled, or were
admonished to quit the neighbourhood."
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