The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1899-06-01
THE TRUTH PLAINLY TOLD.
Kx-GOV. NORTHERN ON THE NEGRO

AAh chio No"sh nCC"CCl SlIC ANuCCb0-
Lynchings Are Not Defended and
Grimes are Not Extcnuatcd.
Ex-Governor William J. Northen, OF
Georgia, was invited to deliver an ad-
dress on the negro question in fremont
Temple, Boston, and in complying
with the invitation he made an elabO-
rate defence of the South in It's rela-
tiOns and duties to the negro, recalling
TO the minds Of tho Bostonians the
origin and history Of slavery in this
country, depicting in generous terms
the loyal conduct of the negroes who
were slaves during tho civil war upon
the plantations in the Southern States,
and showing very clearly the evils of
tho reconstruction period ,whcn tho
negroes were taught to vote against
the white man regardless OF what he
might have done for them in the past
This severance Of former relations led
to the commission Of brutal crimes on
the part OF the negroes, stimulated by
the hate and prejudice of their politi-
cal leaders, and In turn the whites re-
sorted to retaliation and punishment,
which resulted in lynchings for crimi-
nal assaults upon white women and
the growth OF mob law. Gov. Northen's
speech Is too long for our columns, but
we give the concluding part as en-
bodying the pith of his argument:
Let it be distinctly understood that.
personally, l am absolutely opposed to
n lou fHr all
shall not take your time here to give
fcially, | have done every thing known
to me to suppress it in my state. But
there Ia an unwritten law, not peculiar
to Georgia or the South, but dominat-
ing conditions in every State in the
union, whero the circumstances are the
same, that demands the quickest ex-
ecution, in the quickest way, of the
fend who robs d virtuous woman of
her honor to crafty his hellish diabo-
lism. Human nature Is the same
throughout the civilized world, and
not be ono whit behind Georgia, when
you make Mrs. Crawford the wife OF q
farmer In your State and Sam Holt q
brutal tiend, in human shape, neigh.
bor near her home.
repeat, again, mob law is terrible.
You know it's blood and slaughter in
your own State. Georgia can no more
suppress 1t than Massachusetts or New
York. Until Massachusetts, New
York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and other
States can control the wild fury of o
mob, let us be done with denunclations
upon Georgia, when che fails. Geor-
gia and the South ask nothing but to
be given the same consideration as
other States and other sections.
Yea need not ask me; then, If an
prove the horrible enactment that oc-
Cured within forty miles Of my home,
few weeks ago. God forbid that l
should. do you condemn the burn
ing as strongly as 1T was condemned
through the Northern press ?" an
swer mphatically-just as strongly.
"Then you approve the course taken
by the Northern press in the matters
me, If, In reply, | say that | condemn
the course Of the Northern press upon
lynchings at the South with all the
vehemence Of an offended nature. 1t
ls incendiary, unfair and cruel in the
extreme.
Now, hear mel What was the policy
OF the press at the North, with only
two exceptions, so far as know, in tho
lynching of that villainnous fiend,
Sam. HOLT, at Newman, my State !?
Great scare heads-Another negro
lynched at the South. Fiendisb bru-
tality on the part of the whites to-
ward an unfortunate and defenseless
negro. Human devils burn o colored
man within fifty miles of tho capital of
Georgia., and gloat over his tortures
like demons. Surely these people have
been remanded to barbarian and be-
come savages in civilized land.
Not ono word of sympathy for pure
and virtuous woman her honor gone /;
her husband murdered in her pre-
sence, she and her little children
dragged in the fresh, warm blood of
the dying man, and not one word said
about this doubly horribly outrage.
Surely, In all the North ia there no
sympathy except for negro? No
kindly feeling and no tender word for
the defenseless women of the South,
who carry with them o living shame,
in q living death, in life all too long
for It's miseries, II 1t last but for day.
l submit: The policy Of the press
at the north, In condemning simply the
lynchings, while they maintain an
OminOus and painful silence about the
crimes that provoke them, is ir cen.
diary In the extreme, as 1t encourages
negroes to q repetition. 1t Is worse
than cruel to the broken-hearted victim
and the community that has suffered
death In It's tenderost relations.
- The policy Is unfair, as between
lynchings at the North and lynchings
at the South, making always fish OF
one and fowl OF the other. Let us be
fair, and we will sooner be brethren.
Harper's Weekly, a paper popular
over tho country, has found preat
pleasure, from time to time, in malign
ing the South.
It Is due to say that the editor I,
beginning to see the South through
clearer glasses. In the issue of Ma,
18th, find the following "To rea5
tie story Of Sam Hollis crime, as on,
Georgia correspondent has written It
begets absolute Indifference to tina
Negroes sufferings or fate. 1t fills the
mind with horror, and makes one fee
that any means that 10 effectual to pre-
vent such crimes ,is, justified. One Tor
gets the monstrousness OF the Samn Hol
lynching,. and only:wonders whetheri
was expedient" ,,-.>
In addition to the deuupcistions n,