The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-03-16
THE FUTURE NATION.
nsTo Be STRONG IN Law. TRUTH
AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.

slNatFzi t@dtEgufAN8As
Law. cad Gsnsrai Observation-Disclosures
on Southern LynehinGs-
New YoKE. March 5--The Rev
Thomas Dixon. Jr.. preceded the ser
mon in Association hall today by review
ing briefly the subject Of lynehing, in
which he strongly appealed 70 the Chris
tan leaders Of the south TO form great
law and order league. He said;
The taking Of life by lew or without
law is contrary TO the teachings of Chris
tianity. The old Mosaic law Of revenge,
IAN eye for an eyre, tooth for tooth,
life for life, WAS specifically set aside
by Jesus Christ. and in its stead the
higher law of love proclaimed. The SEN
timent against the death penalty is daily
growing in power Two of the great
medical schools of New York state have
pronounced against it, and committee
from the State Medical society of New
York. of which DR.. jacob was chair
man. recently reported ag4hst it. and
the report in this conservative body only
failed of adoption by five votes.
In the meantime, while public senu-
ment. expressed or unexpressed, Is
against capital punishment, murder is
unchecked. The punishment for muir
der should be swift and summary, and
it should be life Imprisonment not
death To the majority of men the
swift and terrible penalty of life i'm
prisonment would be more powerful
deterrent of murder than the bare pos
- af cavantv
for death. which is the proportion now
held in the administration of law.
To kill man by law is a communal
survival of barbarism and is no more
justified by reference to Moses than
Mormonism is justified by reference 10
Abraham But to kill a man in the fury
of mob is a lapse to the original brute
out of which man grew. 1t is "a total
abrogation of the first principle of hu-
manly. Man is no longer man. He
ceases to articulate language, and his
voice becomes the snarl of a tiger, the
scream of an eagle, the howl of a wolf and
the hiss of snake. / do not deny that
there is much of this brute inheritance
yet left in us all. But it is our frstduty
to subdue and cruelty it. In the name
of God and of humanity, appeal to the
Christian manhood of the south to rise
and stay the avenging hand of the brutal
mob The south has as profound respect
for law as any other section of the ma
ton: but. brethren of the south, you
have poor way of showing it. To say
that the south lynches negroes because
they are black is an infamous SANDER
But the SANDER does not excuse the hor-
rible brutality of the fact that white and
black are alike killed without a trial,
and sometimes with suspicion only as
evidence.
But amid all the sentimental mush re-
Gently dished up in the north about ne
gro lynchings it is refreshing to read the
following words of wisdom from the ne
gro Bishop Tanner:
while it is true that within the past
eight years 1928 negroes have been thus
barbarously treated, 379 whites met the
same fate. Our first ray of light, then,
is that it is not question entirely of
race, for the criminal class of both races
are treated alike. though not in thesame
proportion. An additional ray Of light
is seen, and it is good. broad one, too,
In the fact that it is only men of disrep-
utable characters who suffer, or char
acters supposed to be disreputable. The
southern mob in its fury does not assail
tie good men of their race, but the sup
posed bad.
"In its blind and satanic fury the
southern mob passes not only by the
colored teacher. but by the schoolhouse
in which he teaches; it not only passes
by the colored preacher, but the church
in which he breaches; it passes by the
colored hall. whether Masonic or Odd
Fellow; it passes by the goodly home
stead of the well to do colored citizens
passes by all these and only makes for
miserable wretch who is supposed to be
guilty of rape, of murder, of robbery and
OF kindred crimes. With the discern
ment to which attention has already
been called, the negro-especially those
of the educated, well to do and religious
class-sees this, and while he recognizes
the enormity of the crime of lynching in
common with others he does not feel
called upon to take it to himself any
more than do the whites when a white
man is lynched. Why should he? 1t is
true the per cent of bis class made to
suffer is much larger than among the
whites, but so is the per cent of poverty
and wretchedness in general"
And the bishop might have added,
80 Is the necessary percentage of crime
because of poverty and ignorance great
err" for such is the fact as shown by the
census tables of crime by color.
| | repeat what>I have said, and can
prove any day in the year, that the most
lawless community in America today is
New York city. 1t is the garden spot
OF desperate criminals. It Is their town.
They rule it. Murder is the stepping
stone to public Office here, and a coterie
OF men who have been tried for their
lives and cheated both the gallows and
the pen1tentiary are our supreme dictar
tors. Yet the south Is held up to the
iscorn and ridicule of the world as the
fostering soil In which barbarism breeds
and lives
: Is 1t lot time, then, for the Christian
manhood of the south to unite in deter
mined effort to remove the cause of this
disgrace? The time has come for the
leaders of Christian thought In the south
ito form an invincible law and order
league for the suppression of mob vio-
lence, the reform of criminal procedure
and the swift enforcement of law.
THE NATION OF WASHINGTON AND
THE NATION OF THE FUTURE.
We have strong city; salvation win God
appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the
gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth
the truth may enter in.-Isaiah XVII.
believe that God reveals himself to
man in history. The Bible teaches us
that. God chose Israel es a nation
through which to speak to the world,
and the history Of that people Is the un-
folding Of divine national purpose IN
the history of races. So I believe that
God has led and leads TODAY tb;s oro,+