The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-05-18
(CharlOtte PRESBYTERIAN Standard.

Charlotte Presbyterian Standard.)
The horrible crimes that have been
perpetrated with increasing frequency
throughout the South. eliminating in
Sam Hollis deed of murder and lust,
and the swift and terrible vengeance
that has been meted out the crimi-
nails, also eliminating in the torture
of Sam Holt by mutilation and fire.
are symptoms. A correct diagnosis
uses the symptoms to determine the
disease. Hence the exhortations to
the negro to abstain from crime and
to the white people to refrain from
lawless and cruel punishment is the
treatment of the symptom instead OF
the disease, the remedy of quackery.
What do the facts of the case show?
What do reason and experience teach?
Let us not be afraid to look the trou
BILE fairly in the face.
Lynchings are increasing with
startling frequency. The crime for
which mob law was originally the PEN
atty is not the only one thus punished.
Murder, arson, and even less crimes
are considered sufficient excuse for
the organization of a mob and the
hanging of the criminal. But lynch
ing itself is crime against society
that destroys respect for law and
probably increases the number of the
crimes for which it is the penalty,
through the publicity that the un-
usal punishment gives to the crime.
Here, then, is a state of things that
all will admit to be deplorable in the
extreme, and for which, as long as
the symptom is treated as the disease,
there is no remedy. The law is
powerless. 1t is impossible to indict
a community. You can't secure
the conviction of mob which has
punished crime, by jury trial. And
so evident has this become, that
lynching is undertaken in broad day
light, without the pretense of dis
guise, and sometimes in the heart of
a populous city. 1t is almost as hope
less to appeal to the reason and con-
science of the people, because mob
| violence is species of insanity, where
both reason and conscience are thrown
to the winds. All that can be said
against lynch law is admitted in
advance by people who are neither
unintelligent nor cruel, nor lawness.
| But all that is admitted is forgotten
| when the crime touches ones own
| neighborhood or hearthstonc.
Itis certain also that the crime of
| outrage is fearfully on the increase.
DR.. E. E. Hoss states that there were
| three hundred cases in the Southern
States in three months. Some were
reported in the press. There were
many that were not reported. But
for this crime lynch law would be
speedily stamped out. Wherever the
attempt is made to Justify the resort
to mob law, this crime is the justiti-
cation. Southern chivalry is pro-
verbal. 1t is the inheritance of CEN
turies. Since the days of Tacitus the
Germanic people have been noted for
the respect they have shown to their
women and demanded for them from
others. 1t has had hundred illus
trations in English history. 1t was
one of the irresistible causes of the
French Revolution. And every one
who notes the decadence of that feel
ing towards women in other parts of
the world must make an exception Of
the Southern States. 1t is race
instinct whose intensity can be felt
but not calculated. And to this is
added-where other races are con-
cerned-a passionate desire for the
purity of the blood.
Given these factors of the problem
it is idle to deny that the revolving
1 ~ l. II. I IL
at the stake could have been per-
formed by any community in the
South, the most civilized and en-
lightened, under the provocatiOn of
the fiendish crime, the details of which
have been handed about by word of
mouth because they were imprint
able.
| We do not justify lynching. 1t is
a crime against society. 1t is gross
injustice to the prisoner that has
yielded himself to the protection of
the law for a fair trial. 1t is an in
suit to Him to whom vengeance be-
longeth. 1t brutalizes and degrades
the participants. All this and much
more may be said. The fact remains
that whenever negro brute is found
guilty Of that crime against white
woman, lynching will take place
unless the law is quicker to execute
than the mob to punish. And when
the crime is sufficiently aggravating
to make the Constitutional provision
against "cruel and unjust punish
ments' seem un ust, the mob will
wreak its vengeance in it's own cruel
way.
The inquiry turns then perforce to
the crime itself. How may that
crime be abolished2 What is its
motive?
1t was unknown during the period
of slavery, including the war. in which
the South robbed the cradle and the
grave to fill her armies, and the wO.
men were defenceless at home save
, for the protection of the slaves. II
will be remembered to the negro.
lasting honor that during all thai
, time of decentralization not once
, were his black hands stained will
, crime.
Some influence has been brought tt
bear upon him then in the generation
, since the war. The freedom tha
was won for him before he was pre-
pared for it has made the race licen-
tious as it never was and never coult
have been in slavery. To this it,
alarming mortality is the best wit
ness. But the evil is even deepe
than that. The negro is still bar
barian. Civilization is the growtl
of centuries. And those who hav,
studied the question are convince'
, that the crime for which the negr.