The Durham recorder. [volume] (Durham, N.C.) 1879-19??, 1893-02-22
Causes for Lyaching.

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we can give some just reasons
why such facts exist.
IL negroes or poer illiterate
white men commit murder
they are either lynched immedi-
ately, or tried, condemned and
executed, but the intellectual
criminal, or murderer fairs
differently. He may shoot down
his fellows in cold blood, and a
kind of a mock trial is held and
he is found guilty of murder in
the second degree, or guilty of
manslaughter. In such cases
the condemned are sentenced to
prison for a term of years-not
often exceeding ten years-and
they are put to work. They
behave so remarkably well, or
they become so delicate in
health that their valuable lives
are endangered by confinement
and an appeal for pardon is
gotten up and signed by the
jury that convicted and by the
eminent lawyers that argued
the case, and after the judge
who sat upon the case gives his
sanction, and the Governor,
who holds in his hands the par
doning power, yields to the
earnest appeals, and again the
murderer is turned loose in the
land.
We know it is a dreadful
thing to put a rope around the
neck Of a lawyer, a doctor, or
any other human being, and
choke MIN 70 deatH.
We know it takes stout
heart to say "you shall hang by
the neck until you are dead"
when at the prisoners side sits
the wife and children bathed in
tears and praying for mercy,
but this question has two sides.
Perhaps on an opposite side sits
An euaciated form dressed in
mourning and by her side sits
little children looking up into
her sad face and wondering,
why all this great assemblage:
What does it mean!
law justice is thWarted and the
prisoner escapes while the wife
and children rejoice that his
life is spared.
The other side feels, very per,
ceptibly, that the verdict is not
what it should have been, ane
she only comfort gained by then
10 in the fact that other hearts
are made to rejoice that the life
of one they loved above al
others will not be taken and q
chance for pardon will sooI
open the way for the lost one, tC
the family, to come back home
We do not wish to judg,
harshly or unrighteously, but
our observation has been thai
not many men of prominence,
however black their crime, have
ever suffered the full extent Of
the Law for such crime.
II it is unlawful for me to kill
one of my fellows in Geld blood
it is also unlawful for you to dc
80.
One of the great factors in
criminal cases is money. II .
man has plenty Of money the
law does not deal out TO him
what is justly due him in every
case, aud justice has been
thWartsd in 80 many instances
that the people are becoming
disposed TO dispatch justice
without law.
If q few Of these starchsd
skirt fellows who carry pistols
in their pockets fer sslf.de
tense ~ were made to suffer
death for their bravery u there
would 10 fewer lynchings and
not SO many murdererE When
an unlsttersd man breaks the
Law be 10 severely punished, but
when an intellectual scSundrel,
who ought to know better,
treads the law under his feet, il.
the Law, 10 picked up and the
rough places smoothsd over ~
as 10 cover the defect,
II is tims 10 reflect.
- @- -
A Young cabinet OfiiceF.
A correspondent Of the Phila
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