Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1899-05-18
The Cumberland Shooting.

ne IunlDeTISnu SnOOlhlB'
According to the dispatches from
Cumberland there was much indigna-
tion among the colored population be-
cause Of the shooting of young negro
by white man who came to the rescue
of an aged white woman whom the
brute had overpowered. But as far
as we have heard there is 10 condem-
nation among them of the negro for
the crime he had committed. 1t is
this sentiment among negroes all over
the country and among certain white
people in the Northern States which
fosters the crime that brings on the
lynchings and so promotes the lynch
ings themselves. Among the North
ern people it seems that crimes against
the negroes are the only ones to be
considered. Those against the white
people do not count. And the very
ones who profess to detest the crime
of lynching so utterly are the ones
who at this time are gathering funds
to erect a monument to the memory
of one of the most brutal and heartless
Iynchers and murderers that this
country has ever produced, namely,
John Brown.
A negro named J. E. Bruce, now
living in New York, in letter to the
New York Sun, unwillingly comedies
th. whole contention of the Southern
people as to the history and cause Of
the present IawlesSness among the
negroes of the South. He says
"No white man living North or
South ever heard of that sort Of out
rage by negro before the War Of the
Rebellion. As a slave boy | have
seen negro men accompanying white
girls and women in the capacity of
servants and protectors on journeys
and pleasure parties, and | never
heard of a single case where one OF
these NEGROES ever forgot his duty.
Indeed, it was the boast Of the white
people that their negro men servants
were Chesterfeldian in politeness and
courtesy to women. Habits are formed
in races as they are in individuals
and they become fixed, and, therefore,
not easily eradicated. The same rule
applies to the negroes, to whose preyi-
Gus good character Southern statesmen
and writers of both sexes have testi-
fed so abundantly. l have heard
Southern Senators and Congressman
in Washington boast in speeches about
the kindness Of their" black mammies.
| have heard Alexander Stephens,
whom I knew personally, pay the
highest tribute to the faithfulness and
LOYALTY of the negro race.
This is entirely true. When the
negroes of the South were under the
control of the white people of that
section who understood them they
were such as Bruce describes them.
But as soon as a generation grew up
not having this guidance, but, on the
contrary, were excited and misled by
political adventurers from the North,
the character of the negro changed
These adventures for their own SCI
fish purposes put the negro race in
antagonism to their white neighbors,
who have always been their best and
only friends, and so the race feeling
and antipathy such as exists has grown
up. 1t has grown entirely since the
negro has been rendered presumptu-
GUS and defiant by the right to vote,
which right he has been taught to ex-
ercise for the ruin of the States in
which he lives. Lynchings were un-
known until the agitator arrived from
the North and the negro was forced
into politics.