The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1898-03-03
bastard Cowardice.

lima we record the dastardly and
damnable work at Lake City Mou-
day night. Mob savagery reached irs
apex IN it; the usual lynching for
the usual crime were white handed
Justice compared with it. In resent
ment Of the appointment of negro
postmaster aparsy OF white men sur
rounded his house in the dead of
night, set FIRE to it and riddlel it
with shot; the postmaster, seeking to
escape, was killed at his doc /; his
two daughters were shot and. the ac-
counts say, MANNED for life; his wife
was wounded, and the infant in her
arms was killed, falling to the floor
of the burning building, where with
its father it was consumed in the
flames. And this in South Carolina.
this in a State and u neighborhood
where people read and vote and SIT
en- jurles, where Christianity is pro-
fessed, where the church aud school
house send out their teachings, and
the supremacy of law, the enforce
ment Of Justice are the conditions of
the social compact! Great GoG could
Apache savages be more cruel, more
ruthless, more lustful of blood than
! thesseiyilized white men of Williams
burg county?
The race pride of these men, it
seems, was wounded by the appoint
nient of q negro postmaster-so to
blazon TO the world their high resent
nient and prove the injustica Of thus
giving office toan inferior, they place
themselves on the moral and refg-
ioas level of the aboriginal African,
they attack at midnight under cover
of darkness-the many against the
few, the strong against the weak and
helpless-and they assassinate indis
scriminately man, woman and child I.
Where are the white mans char
: aoteristics in this deed? Where is his
superlority shown? Where do we find
e1e fruits of his thousands of years
Of civilization and self-control and
cultivated conscience?
s A negro postmaster! Is that
s,lnething to resent with assassinat-
tion? Who are these people in Will
liamshurg county that they cannot
endure that which the most refined
the most sensitive citizen of The
State has endured with patience and
dignity in years gone by! Columbia
bad a negro postmaster for eight years
Charleston had negro postmaster
for eight years. Dozens of South Car
olina towns have had negro post
masters. 1t was offrnsive-necessarily
Bo--but who was hurt by it? None
hnt the party that appointed them,
BY its persistent elevation of the ne
gro above the white man in the South
the republication party has sacrificed
sll its opportunities; 1t has destroy
edits hope in this section. That is
its punishment, and Democrats who
wish to see it weak and manned aud
fitureless here NAV well bear with
philosophy the inaictions by which it
seals its fate
But even if the afront and injury
were unbearsble, WHO should be held
responsible for it? Not the poor ne
gro who in taking Office accepted
what it was bis right to accept; not
his wife, his children, his helpless
babe. Rather the white man, the State
boss, who had him appointed; still
rather the president who made the
appointment, or the national boss
who made the bargain for votes al
ST. Louis which has resulted in the
choice of negroes for Federal Offices.
Not Baker. but Mark Hanna! All! but
Webster and Mckinley and Hanna
are white men. and to attack them
with .murderous intent wonid be
franght with danger. And that is
where the bastard cowadice Of re-
renge upon tie negro displays itself
revenge upon the tool, not upon
the men who used it; revenge upon
the weak and unprotected, not upon
the strong, entrenched III authority,
whose hurts would be ayeased.
We are shamed and sickened. For
the sale of South Carolina, her good
name, her pride and her manhood We
would have preferred to see athous-
and lost in battle than have to record
such coward's deed as that which
stains her today. Ali of us have to
bear she disgrace of it, the million
innocent alike with the mob. For
years and decades it will be a taunt in
the mouths of enemies, and We must
bow our heads under the lash of their
scorn.-The State.