The daily gazette., 1878-03-15

10 DE hANGED.-lnerc are TWO negro
men in New Castle Jail, who were sem
fenced to be hanged on next Friday. The
crime with which they were charged and
convicted was rape upon woman, who,
with her male companion, were met near
a barn yard by two negroes. They were
induced to enter corn field, to pass
through it to 60 to farmers or peach
growers, who would, as the negroes said,
give them work. After the two negroes
got the white man and woman well into
the field amid the high standing corn,
the white man was knocked down sense
less the woman was dragged, and push
ed into another field, and only yielded to
promises, and threats to beat or 20 kill
the white man, cher so-called husband }
If she did not go. 1t was night and the
wretched woman was bewildered and
knew not where she was. The brutes
who were dragging her had, SO far as she
knew, killed her companion. 1t was
under these circumstances that the horrid
crime was perpetrated, first by one ne
gro, and then by the other The latter
confessed the crime, but alleged that he
did not wish to commit the rape but the
older and larger negro compelled him to
do so by threats.
The crime took place in a field not far
from where Governor Cochran lives
and the circumstances We're all made
known the next day or two. The negroes
We're arrested aud given hearing and
had the woman not been poor stranger
looking for work-had she been r
spectacle person of the neighborhood
the negroes would not have put the
courts to the cost of trial. AS it wa,
the officers thought it prudent to get the
negroes to Jail as soon as possible.
Now this whole case is in the hands o
the Attorney-General. He had no mo
tive whatever in having the negroes con
victed; nor had the jury any animosit,
or malice to crafty. The counsel labor
ed diligently, and every facility wa
afforded him by the court to prove tn
innocence Of the negroes. But the con
fession of one of the negroes, and tn
direct evidence Of the man and the VIC
man, the bleeding head of the whit
man, and the attending circumstances
the tracks of the parties in the fields IAN
the fact that the woman was dragge
from one field to another, all were cor
lains. If they had been white men, W
doubt if this sympathy had been raiset
If they had been Germans, Irish Englis
or Swedes they would have been left t
their fate.
This crime and the recent crime i
Chester county, with the numerous one
that are reported almost daily prove tina
our country people are not safe and tina
the law with all its terrors, when carrie
out to the letter is not sufficient to pre-
tect them. What then will be the case
these wretches are let loose upon societ
because the crime perpetrated was upon
person of doubtful character? Of thi
charge against the woman the authoritie
have not yet sufficient creditable eyt
dence. But even here it is insufficient fo
the negroes had no evidence of the W,
mans immoral character, if she was III
moral. They did not know but what sll
was as innocent as any poor woma
looking for work could be, and if she ha
been as pure as the driven snow, so fl
as we can see, the awful deed woul
have been committed. 1t will not do [
attempt to bring our courts and iur
trials into contempt, and these men wer
proven guilty with all due forms of la,
and with as much compassion for til
criminals as strict and impartial justic
would permit.
AS we said yesterday we cannot loo
for pardon from the Governor He Ii;