The Van Buren press., 1897-09-11
ARR ON LYNCHINGS.
The Southern Philosopher Writes
o Strong Letter
says the People of Georgia Are Law
AbidinE-unprotcct Wives and
Daughters In Rural
Districts,

l had not intended TO write anything
more upon lynch law, but recent utter
ances from the press and the pulpit
provoke me TO say that the people of
Georgia do not deserve the eondem-
nation of friends or foes for their con
sent to lynchings when the crime is
one that is nameless. Our people are
as humane and law-abiding to-day rs
they were 80, 40 or so years ago, and the
records of the courts prove it. In 1861
there were PIG white convicts in the
penitentiary; now there are but 19G,
and we have greater population.
There is so per cent. less of felonies in
Georgia than in New York or Massa
chusetts, according to population. OF
course, | mean among the whites. Now
set that down.
An Ohio paper has recently investi-
gated the record of that nameless crime
for the past ten years in that state and
gives the figures which show 324 cases,
ard the negro criminals outnumber the
whites six to one in proportion to popu-
lation. In Georgia they outnumber the
whites sixty to one and it is because of
our scattered and unprotected popula
ton in the rural districts. Before the
war that crime was unknown and al
most unheard of in the south. | never
heard of a case in north Georgia. In
1852 | had, occasion to visit Cedar Bluff
in Alabama and my companion, Judge
Underwood, stopped the horse to show
me a pile of stones that was heaped UP
around a dead and blasted tree. 'Thosc
stones" said he, mark the place where
= negro brute was burned two years ago
and also mark the place where he com
mitted the ecrime and then murdered his
victim" That was the only case thar
came to my knowledge. During the
war, when in hundreds of families the
only protectors of women and children
were negroes, not deed of violence or
a betrayal of trust was heard of from
the Potomac to the Rio Grande; and
Gen. Henry R. Jackson eloquently said
of them: "They deserve a monument
that would reach the stars
How is it now? Nearly 5000 colored
eonvicts in the chaingangs and less
than 200 whites, and the nameless crime
is committed by negroes somewhere
every day in the year. What is the
cause of this alarming degeneraey of
the negro? | heard a preacher say the
other day that lynching for this crime
or any other was the evidence of de-
PRAYED and lawless public sentiment.
He is mistaken. 1t is rather the evidence
of minds charged, perhaps overeharged,
With love and respect for wives and
daughters, and no man who has neither
is a fit juror to try the case. He is in
capable of understanding or appreciGt-
ing the common peril that, like a
shadow, hangs over the farmers home,
be it ever so humble. Parental love is
nearly all that these people have to give
to their children and they give that and
cherish them and will defend them as
a tigress defends her whelps. What is
the majesty of the law worth to a man
whose child asfallen victim to brute?
What is it to his neighbor who all these
years has been from time to time appre
hending a similar visitation? What
does young man, whether preacher or
editor or lawyer, know about it? Jean
Ingelow (God bless her sweet mem
oryl) 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
a fisherman? Some of those learned
judges and lawyers and preachers 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
wife visits a neighbor, or whose chill
dren have to go a mile away to school?
Perhaps some inquiring mind will
ask what do l know about it? Twenty
years ago | moved from the city to the
country and farmed there for ten years,
and all that time the apprehension grew
stronger and stronger, for there were
negroes all around,me on the farms, and
more negroes not far away working in
the mines. Inever expressed my fears,
not even to my wife; but twhen our boys
all left the farm for other avocations,
and | had to be away most of the time,
my wife became alarmed, and immedi-
ately left the farm and moved to town
for security. SO did every neighbor
that | had, and our school was broken
mp and the whole settlement abandoned
and turned over to negro tenants. The
schoolhouse was mile away, and | used
to look with parental eagerness for the
first appearance of the children's hats
as they rose into view over the distant
hill. Until then l never realized the
common peril that environs the coun-
try people. l have a poor opinion Of
opinions unless they come from those
who are competent to judge. Great
men are not always wise" saith the
Scriptures. The nearer the press is to
the people, the country people, the
none ready it is to apologize, or even to
justify, the speedy execution of this
class of criminals. The preachers and
the press may illuminate and the gov
ernor proclaim, but I cannot help re-
ioicing at every capture and every eX-
ecution. The laws delay has nothing to
do with it, It is the spontaneous out
burst Of emotions long felt and long
smothered. and those emotions arc
based upon love-love for home aud
wife and children, love and respect for
the wives and daughters Of the neigh
bors. Lynching negroes for this crime