The United States of Lyncherdom

"The United States of Lyncherdom" is an essay by Mark Twain written in 1901.

[2] Twain blamed lynching in the United States on the herd mentality that prevails among Americans.

[1] Twain decided that the country was not ready for the essay, and shelved it.

[1] A redacted version was published in 1923, when Twain's literary executor, Albert Bigelow Paine, included it in a posthumous collection, Europe and Elsewhere.

[1] In his essay, Twain noted two law enforcement officials who had intervened and prevented lynchings in early 20th-century America.

Thomas Beloat was a sheriff of Gibson County, Indiana at the turn of the 20th century noted for stopping a lynching in the county seat of Princeton