The Afro-American., 1895-08-17
rHE cuRsE or LYNcHINe.

y
Of July goth, this year. The writer
of the'same. Mr.. Charles Gordon New
ton. is Virginian by birth, and dur
ing the war shouldered his gun in the
ranks ot the Gray on behalf Of his
fatherlaud. Nevertheless, sinking the
feaietv of sectionaiism on behalf of hui
manitarism. he has the courage to look
his brethren of the South in the face.
TO rebuke them for their errors, and
demand the crime Of lynching shall have
an end.
We observe with degree of pure
pleasure that Gov. Clarke, has offered a
reward of 5000 each (the extent of his
limit) for the apprehension OF the
villains who recently hung, under So
called mob law, two Negroes in Cal
houn county. The governor goes still
further and very properly condemns
such skbrutal course.
What has come over the people OF the
South in the past few years, anyway :
And.yhy shculd they take recourse to
such 81 unmanly and inhuman species
81 revenge?
n
rape should be met with swift and GER
ain death penalty, and we question II
the moral good by mob law execution IS
as efEpetiye as regular trial and due
ecbtion upon the gallows of the Gull
niit, And surely for the crime of muir,
and lesser offenses no people, how
ere efg lax their habits, have the right,
either III law. or by teachings Of COM
mon humanity, to rush upon the prisons
of the country, seize those charged OF
crimes and execute them by rope tied
around a limb of tree, and then dis
perse and 60 unpunished. The prin-
cipal is wrong from humanitarian point
of view.
1t is generally conceded that the black
man does not like the editor Of The
Commercial, and were he less intelli-
giant and just he might be disposed to
Taught every time the Negro is made to
suffer. But he is not ''built that way
He always has and always will criticise
the Negro when it is necessary to do
SO. not because he wishes to tantalize
them, but because not being their enemy
he is anxious and desirous of seeing
| them improve and make progress in all
that 90 to make people whose aim
| should be to become enlightened, and
| thus bv a friendly spirit of emulation,
advanced in the line of competition and
ascend, if possible, along with the other
races to higher fame and renowned PIN
nacle where glory should await all OF
Gods children.
That the Negro has failed of many
duties is not to be disputed. That he
has not made the advancement expected
OF him since his liveratiOn for seritdom,
the peer of his brother caucasian and
the self-laudatory braggart, who, ram
hustlings for six thousand years has to
the whole world proclaimed himself the
superior of all Of the other four races of
people
Yes, this same Caucasian who, at
least iu some instances, might have
died in infancy but for the faithful,
ness of bf&ck ndfsen n ut ttAgR4ftr gR4f trfs fssra8dH s8H5
caucasian seems to have forgotten not
only the statues OF the land, but the
kindness of the Negro men and women
when :'friend in need was friend in
indeed" But we put aside all thoughts
of gratatude. From our stand poiEt let
Us admit that the Negro is not adVanc-
ing in intellect and decorum; let us
draw the fiercest and most horrible
picture of them that we can and will
hang it upon the wall. Then strait
way "wheel our cushioned chair" to
our drawing table and there map out,
lay out, portray and paint companion
picture to the Negro and show the
white man, aye, mobs of white men,
in their true colors overpOwering the
the law officers, breaking down the
iails, sezing the untried and unconvict-
ed, helpless prisoner, dragging him
forth, hanging sim in beastIy fury to
the first tree, with yell and repeated
curses and impreciaiions yet added and
heaped upon the dying culprit, and
can anv picture of the Negro be worse
than this that has been above des.
cribed of the Caucasian?
Here we are nation, pretending to
be good protestant Christians. Not
content with teaching our own people
the code and principles of Christianity,
we have declared that we must send
missionaries abroad, and we do send
them. And yet. right here in Arkansas,
in the land and home of the supposed
to be free and enlightened Caucasians,
we find them unwilling to abide by the
very laws they themselves enacted for
the protection of men.
There is villainy in mob law. No
man of honor will engage in it at all un-
less under circumstances which we have
mentioned, or because the officers will
not do their duty. If in the latter case,
if any body has to be hung, hang the
officials, bat why the arrested, down
tyodden, the pinioned, handcuffed pris-
oner, and especially that prisoner, the
weakest of all races, the Negro?
The time is here when the press of
the country will have 10 speak out on