The age-herald., 1899-01-11
ELLERBE DOWN
 ON LYNCHING He Handles tho Subject Vigorously ID
 His Message TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY Officer Who Allows Victim to bo Seized Should Forfeit Office.
TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
COUNTIES SHOULD BE MADE TO PAY
Relations of Deceased $5,OOO, and a Man Participating in Lynching Bee Should be Deprived of
 His Right to Vote.

Columbia, s. C., January 1o.-The genreal assembly of South Carolina convened in annual session today. There are eighty new members in the body.
 In the house, the former speaker Frank B. Gary, was unanimously reelected.
 In the senate the governors message was read and two resolutions looking to the eX tension of the time for the payment of taxes were introduced
 Governor Ellerbe, in his message, took occasion to refer to a matter now very much in the public mind, the subject of lynching He says in the outset:
 Increasing Disposition
 During the last several years there has been apparently an increasing disposition among lis to attempt the fighting of real or supposed wrongs by the law-breaking prac-
 tiee of lynchingp He says it means the abolition of the regular order of justice, and . this is the first step in the destruction of
 social order.
 Concluding, he says the remedy suggests itself. "See to 1t as conservators of the peace eof the state, as makers of it's laws, as the guardians of it's sacred honor, that it's laws are so enacted and so administered that conviction and punishment shall fol- low crimes with the certainty that links effect to cause. Perhaps it is necessary in mere protection of society and vlndlcation of justice that a stop be put to those legal bubbles, those astute technicalities, that vice-encourag ging dilatoriness in the admin | istration of justice, which tends not so
 much to the protection of individual rights h, a,,;aa ,ier Of l ciety and to utter loss of confidence in the stability and even in the possibility of gov | ernment.
 Forfeiture of Office "That an officer charged with the duty l of holding and protecting a prisoner should | suffer him to be seized and snatched from | the hands of the representative of the
 states power and sovereignty should con | stitute forfeiture in itself of his office, fol i it is confession of indisposition or of in- | ability to perform the high duty committed | to him. Such officers will never correct | lawlessness, for they are either in sym l pathy with it or they afraid of it. | "As additional measure of restraint, it | would be well and I recommend that any
 county in which the crime of lynching is 1 committed, shall be liable to the heirs of | the victim of the lynchers in the sum Of l $5 GOO, and that men who shall be convicted
 of participation in lynching shall be de | prived of the right to vote or hold office | in this state."
 l He dealt with the ever interesting subject l of the dispensary in extenso. He recom- l mends the submission of the question oi 1 dispensaries or prohibition to the people foI
 a popular vote and letting each county de-
 eide on which it will adopt High license l as a factor in the vote is omittetd though
 it was generally expected. The laws delay 1 is vigorously handled in what he says about | the courts of the state.