THE ROBBERS AND THEIR FRIENDS.
"Wherefore, in the hour of need,
Shall a people house them?
Wherefore did our brothers bleed,
When great wrongs did rouse them?
Is this the sod,
So blest by God,
That slaves swear by its clay, men?
Or are we still,
The men of will?
We ask you that to-day, men!"
Why have the James Boys so many friends? Is it because there are
so many people disposed to lawlessness? Are the friends of the
Jameses, like themselves, all outlaws? If they are not, why do they
yet sympathize with them? How can any honest man succor and shelter
them? Can it be possible that any one can be so impervious to
testimony as to believe these men to be anything but outlaws? These
are the questions asked by those who believe that the Boys ought
to have been caught long ago, and lay a large part of the blame
for their escape from arrest so long on the people of the states
where their most notable deeds have been committed. Some persons
point to the results obtained in Minnesota, after Northfield,
as an evidence that a large part of the population in Missouri,
Arkansas, Texas and Kentucky, where their most successful raids
have been made, must necessarily be in sympathy with them, if,
indeed, they are not in direct collusion with the great outlaws.
Such a charge is evidently made by persons who have not examined
into the circumstances of the case, and the conditions which have
favored them in escaping apprehension by the officers of the law.
It will be remembered that the James Boys have committed successful
robberies in both Iowa and Kansas, and it will not be claimed
by the most prejudiced mind that the people of Iowa and Kansas,
resident in the neighborhood where these exploits were committed,
were more in sympathy with the marauders than were the people of
Northfield and vicinity. And yet the Jameses escaped capture.
Without in any way assuming a defence of the people of the
states named above, on account of their failure to capture the
outlaws--for they need no service of the kind from us--we may be
permitted in this place to state a few facts which may enable
cavilers to form a more rational judgment in this matter.
That the Jameses have friends scattered through many states we
readily admit. That all those who have a friendly feeling toward
them are not in the lower classes of roughs, is undeniable; that
some who move in respectable circles of society, and who are
above reproach, so far as their individual actions are concerned,
are yet disposed to apologize for them, is unfortunately true.
But such "friends" as these have nothing to do with obstructing
the execution of the law. The Jameses have numerous friends in
Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. And
under like conditions they would have equally as large a list
of friends in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota and
Wyoming. Their active, helpful friends are to be found among that
class which the law is ever pursuing but never subduing. They are
called "thugs" in New York and all the other large cities; and on
the border everywhere, the same elements in human nature which
create "the thugs, pariahs and roughs," of the urbane populations,
produce the desperadoes and road agents of the wilderness regions.
Now the fact is, the Jameses have ranged over the entire country,
from the Ohio river to the shores of the Gulf; from the borders of
Iowa to the Sierra Madres, and from the Blue Ridge to the Rocky
Mountains. Their reputation as daring men and skillful leaders has
made them known to all that class of people who are without the
pale of society, as that term is applied--and there are members of
that class in every community--who at once seek an alliance with
such distinguished leaders of their class--the outlaws. The result
is, that these people embrace every opportunity to serve such men
as Frank and Jesse James. Why has not Pinkerton, with all his
ability and resources as a catcher of lawbreakers, caught these
men?
The answer is simple enough. They know the country thoroughly; they
have, not one, but many places to which they can retreat, and when
hard pressed or sorely wounded, they go to their retreats, where
they are nursed and cared for until they choose to go away.
Again, there may be, and doubtless are, a few persons who have
known the Boys from early childhood--knew their father before
them--and afterward remembered the deeds performed by them in a
cause which they regarded as right, who are loth to believe that
the Boys are brigands and robbers. And then it is certain that some
of their "friends" are persons who are free to admit that the Boys
have degenerated into lawless marauders, but excuse them on the
ground that they were driven to it by the terribly bad treatment
which they received at the hands of those who were enemies of the
Southern cause in the struggle of long ago. It is barely possible
that a limited number of people, whose whole mind and strength were
devoted to the success of the South during the great conflict,
yet look back with deep regret at the melancholy failure of their
efforts, and have apotheosized every man who engaged on that side
and fought for the cause which had become sacred in their eyes--a
very few persons who belong to that class, representatives of which
are to be found everywhere, who can neither forgive nor forget--who
only remember that Frank and Jesse James were fighters in that
struggle, and hence all subsequent bad conduct cannot exclude them
from a place in their affections. This is in accordance with the
laws of human nature. All men are not cosmopolitan in their views,
and hence, when disasters fell upon a cause which was believed to
be right and sacred, the little world in which these persons lived
and moved and had their being, suffered a moral convulsion from
which it has not yet recovered, and, in their minds, can never
recover.
With the social conditions and mental state which enshrouded people
like those described above, and rendered them insensible to the
requirements of social order, we have nothing to do. Such people
are found in all climes now; and such people have lived in all ages
since the human family commenced the struggle for existence.
But the "friends" of the Jameses are for the most part persons who,
like themselves, have rebelled against the established order of
society. They are scattered all over the country, and among that
class, from the Rio Grande to the Ohio, the Boys have personal
acquaintances and active allies. Even beyond the lofty range of
the Rocky Mountains they have confederates in spirit, if not in
action. These children of an ill-starred destiny roam over a vast
extent of country. And wherever they go, they are likely to find
some one who, from some cause or other, open their houses to them
and willingly afford them succor and shelter. Some of these men
doubtless share with the renowned freebooters the spoils gained in
their daring profession.
The "friends" of the Jameses--even those who are active allies and
participators in their lawless deeds, are many of them respected
in the communities where they belong. Among their neighbors they
are known as liberal-minded men of unquestionably good character.
Some of them have families who are respected and honored by their
associates. Some of them, when at home, are regular in their
attendance at church, and liberal in their donations for the
support of the ministry. Some affect to patronize the educational
interests, while there are others who are promoters of improvements
in horticulture, agriculture, and all other movements intended
to benefit the communities of which they are members. Who would
surmise that these staid and respected members of society are
leagued with outlaws? Generally, their evil deeds are committed far
away from their places of residence. They are not often mixed up in
any affair near by, and when they join the band for the purpose of
committing depredations, they always give out that they are about
to make a journey in a way directly contrary to that in which they
intend to travel.
But the most valuable of the members of the band of friends of the
Jameses are those who never go abroad to depredate. They are of
infinite service to the Boys. In all their relations with their
neighbors and the members of the society with which they are
brought in contact, these allies of the brigands are scrupulously
exact and strictly upright. The consequence is, no suspicion attaches
to their character, and with them the outlaws are safe.
Not only do these "friends" not go abroad to plunder, but when
their confederates who "do the work" commit a deed of outlawry
in their vicinity, they first conceal the robbers, and then turn
out as leaders of the hunters of the outlaws. They are sometimes
loudest in their execration of the plunderers, and strongest in
their expressions of hatred toward all lawless men. Being good
citizens of honorable repute, no one suspects them, and their
friends, the robbers, rest until the storm has swept by, and then
quietly they ride away. Many of these men are well-to-do; have
good farms, live in comfortable houses, and have many fine horses
and fat cattle. Of course these valuable allies have a liberal
allowance of the brigands' spoils set apart for their use and
behoof. It must be borne in mind that these men are residents of
regions of comparatively recent settlement, where the antecedents
of newly-arrived citizens are not strictly inquired into by those
who only arrived yesterday themselves. So long, therefore, as
the citizen deports himself as "a clever man," so long will his
neighbors implicitly trust him.
Such is the character of the men which Jesse James' fertile brain
has called into service; the character of the organization, which
all the devices of the shrewdest detectives, all the bravest
executors of the law have failed in ten long years of effort, to
disintegrate or destroy. The very fact that such an organization
does exist, and that Jesse James furnished the brains which
summoned it into existence, and has maintained it for so long a
time, stamps him as an extraordinary man--one who, under other
circumstances, might have become a leader of men, and passed into
history along with George Cadoudal, Paoli, and other like actors on
the world's wide stage.