Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1897-08-27
LYNCH|NG JUsT|F|AbLE.
BILL ARP THINKS 1T IS
UNFER CERTAIN PROVO
CATIONS.
At Any Rate He Does Not Find
it in His Heart to Condemn
Men Who Put to Death
Semi-Savage Brutes
Who Rape Helpless
And Innocent Wom-
en- and Children.

| had not intended to writ
anything moro upon lynch law
but recent utterances from tn
press ard the pulpit provoke M
to say that the people of Geor
gia do not deserve the condem
nation of friends or foes for thei,
consent to lynchings when tn.
crime is one that is nameless
| Our people are as humane anc
law-abiding to day as they were
thirty, forty or fifty years ago
and the records of the courts
prove it. In 1861 there were
2Io convicts in the penitentiary
now there are but 1876, and we
have greater population. There
is 50 per cent. less Of felonies in
Georgia than in New York OF
Massachusetts, according to pop.
ulation. OF course. l mean
among the whites. Now set
that down.
An Ohio paper has recently
investigated the record of that
nameless crime for the past ten
years i'll that State and gives the
figures which show 3I4 cases,
and the negro criminals out
number the whites six to one in
proportion to population. In
Georgia they outnumber the
whites sixty to one, and it is be-
cause of our scattered and unpro-
tected population in the rural
districts Before the war that
crime was unknown and almost
unheard of in the South. I
never heard Of a case in North
Georgia. In 1862 l had occa-
sion to visit Cedar Bluff i'll Ala
ba1na, and my companion, Judge
Underwood, stopped the horse
to show me pile of stones that
was heaped up around a dead
and blasted tree. "These stones, "
said he, "mark the place where
negro brute was burned two
years ago, and also mark the
place where he committed the
crime and then murdered his
victim. That was the only
case that came to my knowledge.
During the war, when in hun
dreds of families the only pro
tectors of women and children
were negroes, not deed of vio-
lence or a betrayal of trust was
heard of from the Potomac to
the Rio Grande; and General
Henry r. Jackson eloquently
SAID of them, "They deserve a
monument that would reach tn e
stars"
How is it now? Nearly 5000
colored convicts i'll the chain
gangs, and less than 100 whites,
and the nameless crime is CONS
lnitted by negroes somewhere
every day in the year. What is
the cause of this alarming de-
generacy of the negro? l heard
a preacher say the other day that
Lynching for this crime or any
other was the evidence of a de-
PRAYED and lawless public senti
ment. lie is mistaken. 1t is
rather the evidence of minds
charged, perhaps overcharged,
with love and respect for wives
and daughters. and no man who
has neither, is fit juror to try
the case. He is incapable OF
understanding or approaching
the common peril that, like a
shadow, hangs over the farm
er's home, be it ever SO hum BILE.
Parental love is nearly all that
these people have to give to
their children and they give that
and cherish them and will de-
fend them as a tigress defends
her Whelps. What is the maj
esty of the low worth to a man
whose child has fallen victim to
a brute2 What is it to hisneigh-
Dor, who all these years has
been from time to time appre-
hending a similar visitation9
What does young man, Wheth-
er preacher or editor or lawyer,
know about it9 Jean Inglelow
(God bless her sweet memory }
makes the old fisherman to say
81 feel for mariners Of stormy
nights and feel for wives that
watch ashore" Who knows
the perils of the deep like fish,
ermen3 Some of those learned
Judges and lawy ers and preach
ers of Atlanta, have given vent
to language that is bitter and
malignant against lynchings for
any crime, but it is to be noted
that they have long lived in call
of the police by night and by
day and within brick walls and
with neighbors at hand on every
side. What can they know of
the peril of the farmer whose