Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-07-02

LANCASTER, PA, July 2, 1889.
A Race Amaronism.

The unex pected acuuittal of DIR. Nc
Dow in Charleston has excited peculiar
interest outside of the community
chiefly affected by it, because of the re-
joicing of the Charleston negroes at the
verdict, and the sympathy which they
gave to the cause of q manwho was clearly
guilty, in the opinion of every inteili-
gent man, of unjustifiable homicide i'm
4the staying of Capt. Dawson.
The reason for this negro sympathy
for DIR. Mellow seems to have, as part
of its foundation the fact that he
accepted seven negroes upon his jury,
his counsel manifesting eagerncss
to get all the negro juryinen they
could. II looks therefore as if they
thought that there was some negro
prejudice against their clients victim
and this may have existed and have
acted in conjunction with the favor
shown their race by selecting its repre-
sentatives for the jury, in turning the
sympathy Of the negro population to-
ward Mellow though II Is possible that
McDow's counsel had as one great
reason in selecting negro jurymen, n be-
lief that they would he more readily
susceptible to their eioquence and more
easily oblivious of the logic of the testi-
mony.
Whatever their reasons, their plan
worked to charm and they secured the
ready aequittal of client who was un-
dOubtedly guilty of manslaughter if not
of murder. The fearful condemnation
he heapcd upon himself by seeking to
bury the body in the earth under the
stairway Of his office, and his calm pur-
chase Of candles at "a neighboring store to
do the deed, and of apples whercwith to
regale himself while doing il, had no
effect upon this negro jury, TO persuade
them that he had not done justifiablc
deed of slaughter. If he had dissectcd
the body and burned its members, as
Professor Webster did those of Parkman,
he still would have been acquitted by
this South Carolina dark intelligence.
There II nothing strange In this ver-
dict from such jury, and there would
be nothing particularly sensational in it
though il had come from n jury of white
men. The comment that IL causes Is
based chiefly upon the disclosure II
makes of the race prejudice in the states
where the colored population is strong.
The negroes were seized upon IA instru-
ments to acquit a white man of prom-
nence in the community, the editor of
the leading journal and one who com
manded the unlimited esteem and con-
fidence of his fellows of like social de-
gree. He represented the superior and
NJ pa, nd inf
race, when il had the opportunity of
power, seized 1t eagerly tn show it's hos
tility to its superiors. II is the common
course Of inferiority towards superb
ority.
The lesson is that the inferior race can
not safely be given the privileges of citi-
,.;cnship which the negro enjoys in the
SooiEet e,here his numerical superiority
entities him ~ Powei" nn'ier the theory
of our government but where his mental
infirmity forbids his taking II. The
negro can never be permitted To govern
the state and the semblauce of such q
right should he taken from him by law
as absolutely as il is here with Us in the
North by custom. We have no negro
juries, justices and officials. They are
as scarce as hens teeth in the most an
dent Republican districts of the North (;
and Republican national administra-
tion shows less disposition to put them
In official place than did Democratic
president. The sentiment universally
current is that this il white mans
government and doubtless il will
SO continue always. There is no
longer race issue i'm the North
where the colored population has settled
down to ready realization of the fact
that il is released from the responsible
ties Of government. 1t is otherwise in
the South, because Of the prepondcrance
of the negro population, aud the greater
seeming readiness there To yield them
all the rights and privileges of citizens (;
which tBefperdict demonstrates tha,
they c"i'tlat he judiciously invested with
Itshows that the white population of
the South will always he in danger from
the miscarriage of negro administered
justice, and that the equal privileges Of
citizenship cannot be continued 10 this
inferior race in fact as well as in
form, without great hazard of II COLI
sion that will end in putting the
disturbing element where it can no
longer disturb the progress and order of
of society and imperil good government.
1t is intolerahle that "A negro jury should
be recorded to-day as having acquitted
the guilty for no other reason than that
the victim was one of their governors.
Such things may not often happen.