New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-08-25
Justice In the South.

When a negro kills white man in the
South the negro is promptly arrested, and
either tried and executed or hang without
trial by vindictive mob. When a white
man kills negro the offender is carefully
guarded from violence, furnished with ex-
celient counsel, and generally escapes with
no further punishment than the loss of his
time and the inconvenience of an arrest.
We make the following assertions with the
confident belief that they can not be truth.
fully gainsaid:
l. That since the war no negro in the
South, convicted of numbering white man,
has escaped hanging.
2 That during the same time no white
man guilty of numbering a negro has been
hung for the Ofense.
If we are wrong in these assertions, will
some of the newspapers which are pratinz
OF the degradation of the whites please to
name an instance where we are in error,
Let US illustrate the mode of doing these
things down there: At Austin, Mississippi,
white man killed a negro boy. The col
Ored people were intensely excited. The
man was arrested, but was admitted to bail,
contrary to all precedent, and appeared
again on the streets, ready for another ex-
plot of the same character. He was again
arrested and lodged in jail, but the officer
refused to turn the key on him, and he once
more walked forth This act excited the
Indignation of the colored men, and thev
demanded that the murderer be imprisoned
and tried for his crime. The demand led to
the serious troubles which we chronicled
last week, the suppression of which neces-
STATED call for troops. We have not yet
heard tina: the murderer has been returned,
or that arrangements have been made for
his trial. We make the prophecy, however,
that he will never be punished for the crime.
Now f6ta apOfnar in Tho Ofhor
day, according to a report from white
sources. negro killed white boy in
Chicot county, Arkansas. The murderer was
pursued by party of white men and cap
tured, but while being taken to jail escaped,
or at least this was the story. A few days
atuerward his body was found in the
canebrake, riddled with bullets. We do
not know whether the colored man deserved
death or not. The circumstances and pro-
are not gwen, but the prompt and speedy
manner in which he paid the penalty Of his
0tense illustrates the difference between
dealing with white murderer and black
one in the South. As in these cases, so in
every case which has come to our knowl-
edge. The negro has pointed to the law
and has asked its impartial execution, re-
gardless OF color. The whites have disre-
garded 1t, and taken the punishment of
CAAlAiAd4o lutO llolE OWN uduUo, mdhluS IL
severe to the extent Of cruelty in the case
OF the blacks, and mild to the extent of
absurdity where one of their own color was
concerned. More than this; we have not
heard of one case-and if there has been
one we should be glad to have it pointed
out-where jury of white men have con-
vic ted one Of their own color for serious
crime against black man. On the con-
trary, the instances are numerous where
colored juries have tried those Of their race
for otfenses against white persons, and have
dealt with them to the utmost rigor Of the.
law.
These are facts. They can not be truth
fully denied. In the face OF these, the peo.
pie of the North are asked to believe that
self.protection demands the organization of
White Leagues in the South, and author
ICES the bold avowal that hereafter the
colored men shall cease to claim their
rights or cease to exist. There can be but
one termination to these troubles. They
must end in the abandonment and disper
sion OF these impudent and wicked organ
izations. How long it will last depends
entirely upon the nature of the atrocities
committed. But when the reign of terror,
cruelty and humanity, as foreshadowed by
the utteEances of the organs of the league,
shall be fairly begun, prompt and speedy
means will be found to put it down as its
twin enormity. the ku-Klux klan, was de-
Inter- Ocean,