The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1885-09-10
MOB LAW IN CHATTANOOGA.

Charles Williams, negro, was |
elected from street car in Chatta-
nooga last Sunday by Polk Mitchell, |
a street car driver, because the ne
gro persisted in smoking in the pres
ence of ladies, refused to deposit his |
fare and using obscene and abusive |
language when ordered to pay his |
fare. The negro swore he would |
have revenge and went to his house |
and armed himself with 81 calibre |
pistol and followed the car to the |
southern outskirts of the city and shot
Mitchell three times and fired twice
at his PROSTATE body. About 800
citizens followed the negro and ares
ted him, eight policemen bringing
him back and put him in Jail. About
1000 people assembled, broke into
the jail and took the negro and hang
ed him
During the riot, William Nanny,
prominent and wealthy white man,
was shot and died from his wounds,
and Ben Palmer, colored, was also
fatally shot
On Monday the excitement was in
tensifed by rumors that the negroes
were organized and intended to
4
ayenge the lynching OF Williams by
burning the leading industries Of the
city and by killing the leaders Of the
mob. This caused the citizens, 200
strong, to arm themselves and patrol
the streets Monday night, while the
police force was increased twenty
five additional men, and the sheriff
put on extra guards at the Jail. The
negroes were addressed by some of
the leading colored men urging them
to avcnge the death of their "broth-
er in black, but the active prepare
tons Of the whites deferred the put
ting of their threats into execution.
We are no apologists for mob law.
On the contrary we think it anarch-
ial in its tendencies and destructive
of good government. We believe
that the courts Of the country fur
nish every safeguard for the protec-
ton Of the law-abiding and ample
strength for the punishment Of the
outlaw. Mobs are. without reason
and therefore savage in their acts.
But when the negro Williams actua-
ted by fiendish malignity shot and
killed in cold blood the car driver,
Mitchell, he invoked the wrath Of an
outraged populace. He took his own
life in his own hands to crafty and
avengc baseless grievances, and that
his doom was quickly sealed, was
something he might have foreseen,
if his whisky-soaked brain had not
been befogged.
One Of the strangcst developments
Of the tragedy was the promptness of
the negroes Of Chattanooga to en-
dorse the crime of the murderer by
incendiary harangues and armed or
ganization, clamoring for more blood
to appease their highly offended
race prejudice 1t is damaging re-
tlection on the negroes that they are
always incensed against the whites
when one of their race becomes II
criminal, and they earnestly protest
against his punishment. In place Of
condemnmg wrong-doers and making
their race respecters Of the law, their
remarkably clannish proclivitics in
cite to mutiny, thereby encouraging
persistency in crime. They have
everything 10 gain by a due obsery-
ance Of the enforcement of the law,
and everything to lose by its reck-
! less disregard. 1t should be para
mount consideration that no act Of
theirs should, by its enormity and
frequency, incite mob rule. For the
more frequent these mobs are called
into reqlusition greater is the tenden-
cy to them, and a race conflict is the
one thing that should be stunned
! and dcpored