New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-04-29
"SOl[ERODY Ills 10 DIE.

LAST Monday the citizens of Denmark, :. t.,
TO the number of five hundred INDUCED IN tho
luxury Of cid blooled. brutal murder They
took negro named John Peterson, strung HIM
up and filled his body with bullets. John
Peterson, crime wa, his color. Some one Of
the same color had committed an assault on
white girl. That is IN offence which is apt TO
excite in any community the worst passions
In puthcrn communities, where there Is large
negro population not yet fully emerged from
the brutal and degraded condition which Is
the natural inheritance Of ages of slavery and
wrong this CRIME or any ait mt to pelpetrate
it rouse, the entire white population to pitch
Of rage bordering on inSanity-a madness that
nothing but the shedding of blood can aS>uagc.
II will not wait for the slow processes Of law,
nor for the proofs of guilt which in all civil
lied cluntle, are required 10 be ndubtable
before the extreme penalty is administered
which bars all appeal and can never be re-
voiced 1t docs not always, or even often, CON
tent itself with the swift taking oil of the
offender. bit laps with brutal satisfaction the
fond>h delight of seeing it, victim die by slow
torture with all the accompaniment of in
ccnious barbarity. That five hundred citizens
Of any community should Use up in body and
Kill ont 81 hand without trial any one man of
any color for any offence does not seem 10 lis
10 he, ken m encouraging social condition.
In this cas the citizens Of Denmark had not
the palliatol for their crime that their victim
was guilty If the offence charged. On the
contrary. he was plainly, and by the best testi-
mony possible entirely innocent The girl
whom h. was charged with a>saultlng exon
clatc1 him. ." don't know him. She said,
when conirntcd with him. d" He don't looh
like him at all. He don't talk like the man.
lie is the same color; that is all To the queS-
tin REPEATED whether h. " looked like the nght
man she answered with an unqualified " No.
and with equal poSitycncS' ADDED thai She
should know the man who assaulted her II she
saw him That would sem 10 be enough 10
satisfy the ancric,t of uObS rs 10 the innocence
f. John pctrsan II nas apparently conclusive.
Eut he was "of III same color" so when the
mob were told ,hc result of the examination
one Of them simply said " some one has To
die" and tl1n they took John Peterson ont and
strung hin up and fired his poor black body
full oe bullets. There was the end of John
Peterson. Put to death with cold blooded
,,aclty. not because he had done anything that
deserved it. but because he was of "t the same
co!or' with some one who had and " somebody
had to die And a CoroncrS jury. taking up
the forms Of law which had been 50 cruelty
denied the dead man, looked at the work of
the laWbrcahcrS and said Oh their oathS that
John Peterson " came 10 his death by hanging |
and shot wounds AT the hands Of about five |
hundr Il citizens who intended to inlIict the |
punishment of death upon him. for having com |
mittcd an assault. Grim travcSly Of law and |
justice.
And the five hundred citizens. having Satcd |
their rage, are no doubt proud of having vim
dicat.d law by the violation of il, and of hay |
ing administered Il lesson and warning 10 |
NJ grocs who are tempted 10 commit crime by |
killing an innocent negro who was "Of the |
same color with a criminal because some
body bad t. be killed" II is TO the credit of |
such newspapers rs 1.-THE Charleston News and |
Courier and "1hc Atlanta Constitution that
they denouncc in the most unqualified terms the
savagcry and barbarity oi the Denmark five
hundred. II is not likely that any one of the
will ever he brought to Justice or
suffer the loss of a moments liberty for this
brutal crime. But it is quite possible that if
such journals aS those we have named and
theirs + presenting the intelligence and human
~ of the Southern people, hold them up to
public cxccraion as cold boodcd murdercrs
who kill without provocaton for the sake Of
killing the lesson may not be lost on other
communities.