The age-herald., 1899-03-18
GOV. CANDLER ON
 THE MASSACRE
From the Atlanta Constitution.

From the Atlanta Constitution.
 Governor Candler believes that the Pal- metto affair was as eowardly as it was bloody. He condemed the action of the cit- izens who perpetrated the lawless act in no uncertain terms yesterday.
 He says the white men who did the shoot ing and the negroes who committed the crime are "a disgrace to our civilization and reproach to our state." The governor says that such outrages must cease in Georgia. He contributes the trouble to the fact that negro regiments and soldiers have been passing through the country, and the sight of them has placed in the public mind of the negro a spirit Of boldness.
 The Palmetto lynching was as deplora- ble as it was bloody and cowardIy," said the governor.
 "It was true that the town had been burned in the night time, endangering the lives of all its women and children. It is true that had offered heavy rewards for the al-~~Shension of the incendiaries, and that ,Ssese negroes had been arrested and some of them had confessed their guilt and implicated the others in the crime But it was cowardly and barbarous to slaughter them as the mob did. for they had been arrested and were in the hands of officers of the law, awaiting commitment trial The law was adequate for their pun ishment, and there was no doubt of their speedy trial and punishment if convicted have offered the largest rewards author ized by law for the apprehension and con viction of the perpetrators of the dastard- ly deed, and no pains money will be spared to bring them to justice.
 Yfra 4..
 Until recently there was no race friction in the state. The Georgia negro is not naturally vicious nor predisposed to the commission of atrocous crimes. This was demonstrated during a hundred years Of slavery. The Georgia white man is not his enemy, as he has had abundant reason to know since he became free citizen. Such outrages as this never or seldom occurred in this state till regiments or insolent, drunken negro soldiers, the scum of the dives of the cities north and south were quartered here and there in the state and in the south.
 "A mob of negro soldiers ran riot In Tampa and outraged women in broad day. light; another gang of the drunken vaga- bonds in Macon defied and tried to fire on the police. For months another regiment of these lawless vagabonds, wearing the uniform of United States soldiers, terror ized Chiekamauga and the town of Lytle, In north Georgia, to say nothing of the Griffin episode and other similar occur rences. They had to be escorted though every southern city though which they passed after they were discharged by a battalion of police to prevent their footing the stores and terrorizing the people.
 ''The Leesburg outrage, the Palmetto burning and many other similar crimes committed in Georgia by negroes during the last few months are due to the baleful influence and example of these lawless rowdies who dfsgraced the uniforms they wore This is the primary cause of all these troubles. Still;l ltLs5 does not justify the bloody and barbarous retaliation of Leesburg and Palmetto.
 '"The white men who participated in these sanguinary dramas are unjustifiable for their conduct as the negroes they lynched Both are disgrace to our civilization and reproach to our state, and all the power of the state shall be used to prevent a re- entrance of such crimes and to punish the perpetrators"