The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1900-02-14
GRIGCS DEFENDS GEORGIA,
INTERESTING FACTS
CRITICS TO r~~'9'DER'
me Lynching Problem Carried
Home to People of Other
Parts of the Country.

In two speeches last week the race
conditions and the election laws OF
Georgia were held up to the scrutiny
of congress.
The recent trade of Judge Linney,
republican of North Carolina, in which
he INDUCED III wholesale attack upon
the south for alleged Law lessness grow
ing out of election laws and election
methods, was the occasion of speeches
by Judge Griggs of the second district
and Judge Bartlett of the sixth.
Judge Griggs' address was forceful
and vigorous, and elected much ap-
plause from both sides of the house.
He SAID the representatives of other
southern states which the North CaroN
liniau had maligned were amply able
to care for themselves, and he would
speak only for Georgia. Of suppressiye
laws against the ballot he said;
$50 far as Georgia is concerned, Mr..
Chairman, we have no repressive or
suppressiye laws regarding the ballot.
We do not need them. There is man
hood suffrage in Georgia. Every man,
black or white, rich or poor, educated
or illiCerate, is entitled to vote, pro-
vided he pays 81 poll tax in the year
before he offers to vote. So far as the
law is concerned, therefore, Georgia
stands clear. We do not have the law
complained of by the gentleman; we
do not need such law, and the Georgia
legislature by an almost unanimous
vote, not over six weeks ago, declined
to pass any law of that character.
az have no criticism upon those
states which need them and have en-
acted them. They know their necessi-
ties and they have the right under the
constitution which our fathers gave US
to enact legislation in consonance with
that great instrument to protect the
civilization of their states. | have not
read the North Carolina statute COM
planned Of, but presume 1T must be
good law, as am Informed that under
its provisions the gentleman from
North Carolina (Mr. Linney) will
probably be left at home at the next
election, when he will be free to enjoy
the sweets of circuit riding among his
native hills. (Applause.) He Is more
to be pItied than blamed"
The Hose Crime,
Turning to tue lynchIng problem he
told in graphic words the story OF the
terrible crime of sam HOse-told it in
a way to carry the frightful picture
home to the heart of every man with a
wife q daughter or a sister.
"They burned that brute at the
stake" SAID he. 81 do not seek to JUS
tify that, but | do say that the man
who would condemn those people un-
qualifedly under these circumstances
has water instead Of blood to supply
his circulation. Not the llmpid water
that flows from the mountain streams,
Mr.. Chairman, but the fetid water
found in the cesspOOls of the cities.
Mr.. Chairman, can you blame those
people for that? | appeal to you, gem
tlemen-you fathers, you husbands; to
all men, white or black north or south,
east or west-do you blame those peo1
pie for that burst of human fury? God
forbid that there should be any man
on this continent who would! Thank
God there is not a man in Georgia who
does. Bring 1T home to yourselves,
gentlemen, and answer me in the light
Of truth.
"Mr. Chairman, those men were
standing for OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
civilization. They were fighting for
the purity and the virtue and the safe
ty of the southern home. We propose
to protect the women of the south. We
propose to fight for and MAINTAIN the
supremacy of the Anglo-SaxOn race
that race which gentlemen have sought
to Justify here today in shooting brown
men in tue Philippines IN the name of
civilization. The people of Georgia the