The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-03-22
STILL AT 1T.

question, there has come again the of the
almost daily southern lynching. The offender this
time was found in the of white woman. 1t
may have been that burglary was his intent or, it
may have been still baser motive. We not
here to defend crime, far from it. We believe in
the speedy punishment of all ofenses through the
medium of the law. The negro in this instance
was duly arrested and bound over to await the &C
ton of the grand jury He was conveniently lodg-
ed where he would be handy for the mob and at
night he duly lynched according to the approx
ed southern custom. In our opinion there are but
two possible excuses for lynching. First, where
the crime is SO heinous that the passion of revenge
lis aroused beyond control; and secoud, where there
is reasonable ground to believe that the courts will
not deal Justly with the outraged community, but
will be more lenient than the demands. In
the SOUTH the latter Of these reasons does exist
when applied to negro. There is question in
the mind of any sane man, but that the negro will
not get the best of it before southern court The
ljuries are always composed of Whites the oath of
negro is considered good and his testimony will
not stand for moment against that of white
in southern court There danger in this
case and there is in in the south of mis-
carriage of justice in favor of the black offender.
In this and in the majority of cases through
out the south there is no occasion for such uncon
trolled fury would inspire mob. There GER
ttanly no occasion for such tremendous fury
the case of the colored woman, who was suspected
of keeping money which twas supposed she found.
The barbarities of the Chinese against strange
n and alien people, whom they felt to be trying to
lsubvert their customs and to over turn their gov
ernment were not half SO bad the atrocities
committed almost daily by the white people Of the
south without rebuke.
We sent warships and troops to China. We de-
Imanded an eye for eye and tooth for tooth
LOT the ignorant Chinese, who had thus laid ruthless
hands upon American citizens, but we have neither
ships, men, money to protect American
citizens in the south. We are to blame. If the
north stood like rock against such inquities they
could not continue. If half as Jealous
about the protection of citizens as are about
the protection of pocketbooks; if cared
half much for the wrongs committed upon the
helpless blacks, do about the vain hope OF
splitting the vote of the solid south, these crimes
against law and order and humanity would cease.
The Maryland legislature has passed law to dis
franchise illiterate voters We believe in universal
suffrage, but should have no great quarrel with
Maryland were it not for the fact, that it is &C
knowledged that in this border state. but little
or effort has been made to educate the negro
and that any attempt to educate them extern
sive scale, would meet with opposition. The egis-
lave enactments of these various states is the dir
ect out-growth of the cowardlce Of the republican
party in dealing with this issue The last congress
had opportunity to enact such legislation as
hove do " tba;p Of
ern state to allow free and untrammeed ballot,
but the effort was laughed at The .'good fellows
from the south said it would not do at ALL They
held up the hope that if the whites only left
to do as they pleased with the negro, there was a
possibility that they might give consideration to
republican principles, and thus the matter was
laughed out of court Man is responsible for his
acts in direct ratio with his enlightenment. The
north is enlightened, it abhors slavery and injustice,
it knows better than pursue the course it has and
therefore its burden of responsibility the greater
1t is of avail to cry that do not do such
things ourselves. We knew these things exist, we
have the power to force their discontnuance and
we allow them go on The old history OF
cowardy compromise for financial or political adj
vantage is being repeated and we greatly fear tina,
other events will repeat themselves also. This
continent is not large enough for two such widely
opposed civilizations as those of the north anC
south. ''Something has got to give" 1t canno
go forever. The country cannot exist half slave
half free, any better today than 1t could in the time
of Lincoln. If it is true every appearance III
dicates that the negro is gradually being reduced
| to the same level he occupied before the war, thel
the north has the conditions to confront with