Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-11-23
A Northern investigation.
ATLANTA constitutional

Word Is sent out in the press dis
patches that the Methodist ministers OF
New York have appointed committee 10
investigate certain outrages alleged TO
have been committed recently upon color
ed citizens of North Carolina"
Why should these ministers elect 10
confine their Investigations to North car
DINA? What can be the object or narrow
ing the matter down to North Carolina,
when the whole country offers them a
field at once broad and inviting? The
cause of the trouble in North Carolina,
when sif.ed down, will be found to be
the result Of long-suppressed Indignation
with a state of things which has never
offered any hope even to the best friends
of the negro. To go down to the bottom
of the whole business, negro supremacy
with all that II now means, never has
been and never will be, tolerated In any
white community in this country-East
or West. North or South. 1t has been en-
dured for season, but IL has never been
tolerated; and when endurance comes to
a sudden end, there Is always wrong and
injustice done by the blind indignation
of those who have suffered from negro
rule.
This whole subject Is an inviting one,
and we shall discuss 1t more at length
present we are interested in the move
ments of the Committee of Investigation
which is to pursue its labors in North
Carolina TO the exclusion of other parts
of the country where have occurred
outrages which cannot be so easily ex-
planned as those In North Carolina
We do not say that an explanation is a
Justification; but IL at least satisfies the
curiosity of those who are familiar with
the saying that human nature is much
the same the world over.
But why does not the committee in
quire as to the recent outrages at Vir-
den, in the State of Illinois? We know
that the North Carolina affair was the
result Of a lorg-pent-up rage at a condi-
ton OF things that no reasonable per-
son, black or white. will justify. But
such explanation will not satisfy the
mind with respect TO the violence aimed
at colored citizens OF the United States
in Illinois We know why the miners
resented the efforts Of their bosses
TO supplant them with negro laborers;
but we do not understand why the Re-
publican Governor of a Republican State
refused to protect the negroes-not only
refused to protect them, indeed, but ac-
tually threatened them with the States
militia.
any adequate explanation been made. Do
the ministers or the North understand
it? If they do. they will place the whole
country under obligations by explaining
il: II they do not understand 1t, why do
they not have it investigated? We say
nothing about the various lynchings that
have occurred from time to time in Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, and even in New York;
we simply desire to know why Repub-
lican Governor OF Republican State not
only refused TO protect the negro citizens,
but, by his example. gave the miners and
their sympathizers a cue to murder and
outrage.
And there Is another thing the preach
ers OF New York might set themselves to
investigate. There is law on the
statute book which imperatively COM
mands the President TO protect citizens
of the United States who are proceeding
from one state to another on peaceful
errands. The law does not say he
omay" protect them by all means in
his mower; 1t says he "shalP' protect
them at all hazards. The point to in
vestieate here is the failure Of Mr. Nc
I<inlev TO so much as lift finger to stay
tho hands of the Virden rioters.
ANY investigation that falls short of a
,rogramme of this kind VIII have small
Interest for the public at large.