The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1898-06-23
THAT CABARRUS COUNTY LYNCH
ING.
A Couple of Comments on the Re-
marks of the Biblical Recorder.

Inc hoHToc LNJuTtT iHdktS iii
| comment on the article in the Bib
ticat Recorder copied in part in these
columns last week about the recent
lynching of two negroes in Cabarru 5
county:
We think that the men who love
virtue and who believe in protecting
| defenseless women are few and far
between in our State who would
say that the citizens Of Cabarrus.
| who to revenge the hellish crime
| committed in the humble home OF
Sam Hartsell, took the law into their
own hands and hanged the criminals,
should be put to death for that act.
We have heard some of the best and
most conservative citizens of the
State declare that the lynching was
just. The Recorder would do well to
give its sympathies to the stricken
family of that humble farmer and
good citizen, Sam Hartscll, instead
of frothing at the mouth and de-
manding the lives of the men, many
Of them as good citizens as will be
found in the State, who hanged those
two brutal, bloody handed criminals
who committed two of the most awful
crimes known to law.
Let the Recorders desire to see
the men of Cabarrus, who lvnched
johnson and Kizer put to death be
gratifi ed and every devil in human
form would feel that to some extent
he is protected in his work of rob-
bing womanhood of its virtue. We
doubt not that some of those who
took part in that lynching at Con-
cord are men of noble character, men
who in the business. the social
and the religious walks of life are
of high standing as he who de-
mands their blood and says they
should die as criminals. Cursed be
the hand which is lifted against the
good citizens of Cabarrus who
avenged the blood of an innocnnt
girl and sent to their death two
wretches who SO richly deserved to
die.
The Recorder makes itself disgust
ing in demanding the lives of the
lynch ers Of Johnson and Kizer.
The Concord Times has this after
copying what both the Recorder and
Enquirer said:
The Recorder condemns in unmeas-
ured terms the "crime'' of lynching
the two negro brutes, but is as mute
as an oyster regarding the crime for
which they were hung, which in every
detail was one of the most horrible and
revolving in the whole history of foul
deeds. No greater crime can be mag
ined. A young girl, not yet in her
teens, left at home alone while her
parents attended divine worship, set
upon by two human tiends, her person
ravished in the most brutal manner,
her body hacked and cut in many
places, and after untold suffering an
end put to her life-this is the picture
A community of citizens which would
let such brutes live in it one day after
being caught would be a disgrace to
the State, and would advertise itself
as an asylum for the perpetrators Of
the fOulest crimes. and as a COM
munity where human life is without
value and where female virtue can
claim no protection.
We do not believe there is COM
munity in the country which would
fail to visit with summary punish
ment-lynch, if you please any
wretches who would commit such a
horrible outrage and crime on one Of
its innocent girls. If such exists, it
is a fire field for the exercise of civil
ling influences.
We want to say to the Recorder that
if its desire to hang all who helped
execute the negroes were carried out,
Concord would be deprived of many
of its best citizens. The hanging
was done openly on moonlight
night by men with unmasked faces,
and no one who was there will deny
it. We have yet to hear of single
man here or elsewhere, except the
lonesome editor of the Recorder, who
does not say that the hanging was
just.
We wish to assure the Biblical Re
cOrtier that it was not .:hideous
mob" that executed Joe kizer and
Tom johnson. 1t was the deliberate,
well considered act of crowd of out
ragged citizens of town and county
They were our best citizens too, and
our best are as good as anybody's
best.
AS to the guilt Of these two negros
there is no sort of question of doubt
in the minds of persons well inform.
cd. In fact both died acknowledging
their guilt instead of '.protesting
their innocence" Says the Times
on this point in conclusion:
Besides every circumstance is
against them-their clothes, their
manner, their failure to prove an
alibi, and the further fact that no
sort of evidence has vet been adj
duced to show that anyone else was
Notwithstanding shows I'M
mistakably that they were guilty.
No man who knows anything about
it doubts their guilt; and those who
do not know anything about it
should inform themselves before
they fire off their little guns.
General Lees Diplomacy.