The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-01-19
TIE LAW ON LYNCHlNG.
Judge PRESLEY to tho Orangeburs Grand
Jury.

Judge Press1ey to tho Orangeburs Grand
Jury.
ORANGEBURG, January 9.-The Court
of General Sessions for this county was
convened by Judge Presley this morn
ing. Being the first term in the year a
new grand jury was organized with Mr..
]. G. Darby as foreman. Judge PRESLEY
charged the grand jury at considerable
length, laying particular stress upon the
evils of lynch law and the carrying of
concealed deadly weapons. The Judge
said:
zone matter which I seldom fail to
call attention to at this term of the Court
is the growing crime of lynch law. 1t is
growing crime and it cries aloud to
Heaven. 1t is doing more to introduce
anarchy over the whole country than
almost all other causes combined. We
shout victory over the execution of a few
Anarchists at Chicago. We call those
men Anarchists, but what else are lynch.
ers? Are they not violators of the law?
Do they not openly defy law? Our peo-
pie are very much to blame with reference
to this mater. 1t is utterly useless to
waste the time Of the Courts in trying
lynchers until we can correct public opin-
ion on this point, and that public opinion
is to be corrected partly through the
presentments of grand juries, partly by
their influence and partly by the influence
of all good citizens.
"Tbere is prevailing impression that,
for one criminal offence, to.wit, crimi-
nal assault upon woman, it is lawful to
lynch. That for tina! offence lynching is
lawful and is to be tolerated. Persons
who hold that opinion forget that the law
cannot be violated upon any one matter
without Invoking its power in all other
respects. Judge Kershaw struck the
keynote in this matter in his charge 10
the grand jury at Aiken, when be said:
Let the people acquire the opinion that
it is right to violate the law in this one
regard and they will soon lose all respect
for our law
at would be misfortune to any judge
to acquire the reputation Of being an
alarmist. 1t destroys his influence for
good. Yet, for ten years, have been
trying to alarm the people of the State on
this subject. One point which l always
bring to the attention of the grand jury
when touch upon this subject is that the
people forget that the colored race is very
apt to initiate the white race. That the
colored people are very apt to follow the
examples which the white race set them,
and people who follow the examples of
others are more apt to follow their bad
examples than their good examples.
"I have said to more than one grand
jury: You let public opinion tolerate
this crime of lyuching for criminal assault
upon woman, and you do not know at
what time young white man may be
falsely accused and lynched before his
friends can rescue him. On that subject
I have warned and warned, and l have
said to the people of the up country:
you do not know how your example
may injure us down in the low-counlry
where the colored race prcdominates so
largely.
"No attention has been paid 10 my
warning, and in the last few weeks one OF
their young men has paid the penalty
with his life, and most people belive he was
unjustly charged. It is wrong to violate
the law, and it is useless to say that it is
necessary to doso. People say that quick,
sudden rstribution for this horrible crime
will strike terror to the perpetrators and
to the criminal classes. 1t is the duty of
those who plead necessity to show that
an execution according to law and under
the forms of law and justified by ali the
citizens of the State will not exert better
influence than an execution unlawfully
conducted by mob.
"I have always held and believe that
when crime is punished by organized law
it is very much more wholesome in its
effects than when it is done by unauthor.
izsd persons illegally. 1t is the duty of
grand jurics all over the State to make
presentments upon this matter and of all
good citizens to use their influence to put
this crime down"
The Judge very severely condemned
the carrying of concealed deadly weapons
as practice not to be tolerated and one
which should be frowned upon by all
good citizens. Speaking to the grand
jury on this point, he said:
"You should not only 60 into your
grand jury room determined to find a true
bill against every man proved to your
satisfaction to have carried deadly
weapon concealed, but you should present
this practice as an evil, as dangerous
evil, and one which will lead to the de.
fiance of all law-not 80 bad as lynching,
but very nearly so.
~ appeal to you, and to all who hear
me, that you should lose no opportunity
whatever to set your voices and your
faces against these two evils, one of which
is introducing anarchy over this country
and the other is introducing q habit in
our community under which, if it contin-
ues to grow. no man will be SAFE"
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