The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-12
LWNCHINGs.
The Laws Delay Responsible for
Them.


Them.
Lyons, Ga, June TO- The press, both
north and south. for number of years
has had much 10 say against "lynch law"
I In the southern states, or at least in
many of them The northern press has
always used il as political capital The
roorcd ministers of South Carolina have
met IN convention and condemned IL as "a
persecution of their race Even old Eng
land has caught up the refrain across the
ocean and condemns us as barbarians,
forgetting in her bigotry her own black
history Of hypocrisy and oppression. As
a nation, though, we need care but very
little about what England thinks or says,
but it seems that il would be much better
for US if we understood each other better
at home.
The question arises, would not the citi-
same as we of the south do
if they were placed in theE5 same
circumstances, that is having a set of
lawless negroes roaming over the country
committing the most atrociOus Outrages
upon wives and daughters ! do not mean
to say that all negroes are lawless. What
man is there at the north who, upon
coming home at night or a noon and find
ing his wife or daughter had been as
mon his friends and go in pursuit, and
woe TO that fiend if he is caught, let him
be white or let him be black. II is not
because this class of criminals are black
that they are lynched, but it is because Of
the Nervousness of their crime Those
cOlOred ministers in convention in
Charleston took no notice of this part Of
the case at all, but were very loud in
their denunciatiOns of the white men of
the state who participated in the recent
lynchings in South Carolina Would it
not be well for those ministers, as
acknowledged leaders of their race, to
make an effort to educate their people
above such beastly and fendish crimes?
In other words, let them try to
remove the cause of these re-
peated lynchings, and the lynchings
will stop just so long as
black or white men either, persist in as
saulting detenseless women, and, in many
cases children, just so long will lynching
bees be a consequence.
am not advocating lynching in the leaat.
Far from it, Is not the tardy execution
OF our laws to blame for lynchings to
great extent2 Let me mention at least
two cases in point The murder of Au-
gust Meyer of Savannah is no doubt still
fresh in the memory of most Of the people
of that city. Possibly a great many of
the people of the state on account of the
length of time that has elapsed since it
was committed, have forgotten it,
As court after court approaches we see in
the daily papers the names of three of
those demons still upon docket for trial
who for the paltry reward of a few dol
lars entered good mans home, took his
life, and for something over a year have
been an expense upon the state. You
well remember the intense excitement
that prevailed in Savannah the morning
after the murder, and possibly had it not
been for the advice of cooler heads quick
work would have been made of those
same men who for so long a time have
been required to answer for their crime
Taking into consideration such cases as
this where punishment is so tardy, and,
in many instances, justice is completely
thwarted, is it very surprising
thing that often men while in
the heat of passion. knowing as
they do of this condition of affairs,
is it surprising, I say, that those men
should take matters into their own hands
and administer what they believe to be
justicel
Let the good colored people of our coun-
try, the minister's for instance, use their
influence among their people to wipe out
the cause and not when one of their race
has committed an outrage and by brute
force violated the most sacred rights of
a fellow citizen and is caught and sum-
marily dealt with by an enraged people,
hold him up to the eyes of the world as a
martyr and a victim of persecution and
completely ignoring the crime of which
he was guilty. G.. K. GUM.