The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-08
The Jesup LynchinR.

We publish tits morHing another com
municati0l from them mayor OF Jesup relative
10 the lynching that occurred ia that town
some ,geeks ago. The mayor says that our
! comments on a previous communication of
his. with respect to the same m1tter- in
which be stated the of snses for which the
! two men who were lynched were in jail,
were ''manifestly unjust becaus,
/ they implied a doubt Of the accuracy
( Of his statement The mayor must
have read our comments hastily. We c.r-
/ tain V had no intention Of questioning the
| correctness Of his statement. and fail 10 ses
| that we did so. In the article Of which he
complains we SAID: 1--WE have no reason to
/ question the correctness of tie mayors
/ statement That ought to have been
| sufficient 10 salty him that we &C
capted his statement as correct
| Indeed, the conclusion of our article
was that, though correct, it contained
no excuse for the lynching. 1t is true that
we said that our reporter, who was in Jesup
when the lvnching occurred. did not hear
OF any such oTense as was mentioned in the
mayors communication, but we referred 10
our reporter, not to throw doubt upon the
mayors statement but to explain, in a
measure, why We had referred to the
otfenses Of the men who were lynched as
minor ofFenses."
In his communication, which we publish
this morning, the mayor, while deploring
the lynching, makes what we interpret to
be excuses for it, aad he further asserts that
editorials like those which have appeared
in the MORNING NEWS ''are fearful instru-
ments in perpetuating strife between the
races" We are perfectly willing that the
mayer shall entertain whatever opinion he
pleases about our editorials We propose
to be the judge of whether they tend
to stir up strife or not. We
have said that the Jesup lynching was an
outrage, and that we repeat. We have al
ways condemned lynch law. We condemned
the Barnwell lynchiEg III the strongest
terms, and We condemned the Jesup lynch
ing. We have never been able to see any
excuse for either. We have no fear that
the condemning Of lynching will stir up
strife between the races, and we regret that
the mayor of Jesup appears to entertain the
opinion that it will
~ may 10 tudI Ou Dec. - LD9 people OF
Jesup were excited and apprehensive, bat
the military were there, and, we have
every reason to believe, were ready to
afford ample protection to the town. If we
are not mistaken the officer in command of
the troops offered to guard the jail If his
offer had been accepted the excuses which
the mayor deplores would not have oc-
CURED. AS we have said several times, we
regard the lynching as inexcusable, and the
governor clearly takes the same view of the
matter, because he has offered reward for
the arrest of those who were concerned
in It.
The mayor makes defense of the people
OF Jesup. We have never said they were
not law-abiding, and we have never doubted
that they We're We have stated that we
have never supposed that they had any part
in the lynching or that they approved it.
We do not understand therefore, why the
mayor should defend them as if they had
been attacked.
We shall continue to denounce lynch law
and lynchings, and to urge the punishment
of those who take the law into their own
hands, whether the lynchings occur in this
state or other states In well-regulated
communities it is the duty of the courts, not
OF mobs, to administer justice.