The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-09-03
4 WORD FOR OUR PEOPLE,

Il W UNI 4 Oh OIh LOI III.
Now that we are safely through the
excitement Of the negro troubles in
our county, We trust that few words
from lis will be needed. We know
nothing Of the causes that impelled
the negroes TO attempt the wholesale
slaughter of the whites, as the proof
disclosed their intention to do, but we
do know the causes impelling our
people TO take the steps they did to
repress the rioting on the part of the
negroes. They were actuated alone
by a desire and resolution TO protect
at all hazcrds the LIES of those de-
pendent upon them and the virtue of
their wives and daughters. They
thought the proof of the negroes
guilt ample, being supported as it was
by the confessions Of the negroes
themselves. Acting upon the facts
proved and the confessions of the ne
groc>, and being DESTROYS Of putting a
stop 10 all such in the future, they
took the steps they did.
Perhaps the measures were too
harsh, and for one, we are of the
opinion that the matter once having
passed into the courts, the negroes
should have been allowed a trial, and
il guilty, punished under the law.
knowing nothing Of the intense eX-
citcmcnt, the fever heat, raging
through the country at this time,
We deem it ill-advised and wrong in
the press Of the State 10 characterize
our people rs band Of assassins and
oar county $ turbulent. Gibson
county i, law-ahiding, and. her people
sober, quiet and industrious. We
doubt if in any county in Tennessee
the negroes would have been dealt
with less harsi,ly under precisely the
same state Of facts. We doubt wheth-
cr the people of any other county in
Tennessee would have stopped where
our people did. We don't wish to be
understood as endorsing the harsh
measures rcsortcd to. Living here in
the midst Of the trouble We know the
excitement Of the people at the time,
and, while we don't endorse the reci,-
less action in taking the negroes out
of Jail and shooting them, yet we are
not one of that class that can forget
the enormity Of the offtnse of the ne
lsocs because Of their unfortunate
,,d. We lclicye they richly deserved
II, and when we take in consideration
tie oU;ragcs they contemplated and
the miidness of the punishment the
law vou!i have given them if let
alone, the offence of those too reck-
I,,s Young men in shooting the ne
goes i II least palliated 10 4 great
extent.
We abhor lyach law, because wrong
in theory and worse in practice; but
We say plainly, once for all, there are
things worse than lynch law, and
those things were, at our very doors
before We ever had a hint. We also
say, once for al, that We cannot see
tie policy or the right of denouncing
the whites and forgetting the negroes,
whose otiense, for cnormity, outwcighs
theirs tvofold. Nor can we see why
rewards are not offered for those ne
groes vet at large who shot at Warren
and Moore on the public road near
Pickettville: nor vet for those negroes
who shot the Young man while pro-
tecting his property at Columbia. Is
il simply that they did not do what
they attempted, or that in our haste .
10 disclaim acts Of cur own race we /
We forget the cnormity of the other? .
Gov. Brown did right TO offer rewards ,
for those outlaws who killed the
at Huntsville and for
those who killed the negroes at Tren- |
ton, but does he not encourage negroes
to violence by thus overlooking their
crimesg
We deprecatc violence, and no pun
ishment is too severe for the perpetra-
tors Of the vile murder upon the per-
son Of the negro, Henry Canes, two .
miles east of here, last Wednesday .
night. 1t was unprovoked, dastardly /
and cowardly. For such as they we
have no words too strong in denounc- |
ing their crimes; but while this is so,
We regret the wholesale denunciation
Of our people by the press of the
State, and thidk they do harm instead
IF good by their course. First, they
houli put themselves in our place