The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-21
man read EN-" So with Southern press

itdii feau EN-. 80 Win southern press
dispatches.
Again, not five white men have been
hanged in all the South since the war for
numbering black men, 1t is considered
no more Of a crime than to shoot q rabbit.
kich and poor, ignorant and intelligent
indulge alike in the horrible pastime- Did
not Senator NJ. c. Butler, of South Caro-
lima. lead the bloody mob in the massacre
OF Hamburg? Has not Cassius NJ. Clay, a
consistent friend of the Afro-American,
winged his black man? Was not the
brother of General Powell Clayton, of
Arkansas, shot down like dog for pre-
Stunning to stand for the Fifty-first congress
against Congressman X. C. Breckenridge?
Has anybody been even tried for these
high crimes?
The bare contemplation of such deprav-
ity is sickening. Ten thousand graves
made since the war, 81 per cent. of them
black mems caves, have these words in
seribed upon the headstones: Died by
the hands of parties to the jury unknown
What an indictment of "home rule" and
white supremacy"
With the legal machinery of the town,
the county and the state in league with
and often constituting the mob. is it to be
marveled at that men who rushed into the
jaws of death with the courage of the
Light brigade at Port Hudson, at Battery
wagner and at Petersburg, deeming it suffi-
cient glory to die for the Union and to strike
one blow at slavery, should lose their
nerve and appear to the country as
cowardsl One might Just as reasonably
expect the Homestead rioters to rush
upon the bayonets of the soldiers of Gen
erai Snowden, representing the power and
the dignity of Pennsylvania. Certain
death or life imprisonment would be the
consequences. Organized governments are
only overturned by handful of desperate
men IN the South American states and
the West Indies. AS matters now stand
II these Afro Americans should turn upon
the mob and seek to protect their
lives and property they would at
once be treated as rioters or revolution
lists. The local authorities could appeal to
the state authorities, and the governor
could appeal to the federal authorities for
assistance to put down the disturbance, and
the assistance would be given. The gov
ernor of Pennsylvania did not refuse it in
the Homestead strike and the president
dld not refuse it in the Cnur d'Alene
strikes. and it would not be refused to
suppress black uprising.
Afro mericans of the South know this.
They know that they are hemmec in by a
to escape they will be shot down like dogs
Home rule" must be maintained and
white supremacy" represented in the
power of the state, and the unrestrained
fury of the mob. as matters now stand
will see that they are. These men are not
towards. They are brave men. In every
hour of the nations peril they have proved
their metal to be as true as refined gold.
But they cannot oppose the whole power
OF the republic. They should not be ex-
pected to do il. The strong arms of the
government. state and federal. should do
that.
The entire system of ''home rule" and
white supremacy" is a menace to the
national peace. predicated upon a contra
diction of the constitution and the spirit
Of republican institutions, in which color
is neither test of citizenship nor of pro-
lection to life and property. 1t is the
nations concern. When a great mob broke
into the Jail at New Orleans in March,
1891, and took from it eleven Italians and
murdered them the civilized world was
shocked and Mortified. Three of these
by solemn treaty stipulations, and yet the
New Orleans authorities ifailed to appre-
bend one of the murderers. death
at the hands of parties unknown to
the jury" and when the federal au-
thorities sought to secure some satisfac-
ton fo- the Italian government the gov
ernor of Louisiana, with the insoience of
q sovereign, told them to attend to their
own affairs. Would he have done this if
the Italian government had sent man-of-
war into the port of New Orleansf The
New Orleans mob committed the outrage
and the state of Louisiana refused to give
any satisfactory reasons whatever. and so
the taxpayers of the republic had to pay
an indemnity in order that good rela-
tons" might be resumed between Italy
and the United States. Home rule" in
deedi
A year later, in March, 1892, a mob at
Memphis. Tenn, broke into the public
Jail and took from it three reputable Afro
Americans and lynched them. They were
men of character and property. They
conducted grocery store in the suburbs