The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1901-12-13

punished according to law. But they chose
The relatives of that murdered boy, unable
to invok the laws avenging arm themselves
resolve upon awful crime following the
example of the white murderers; resolve upon
IL and commit it. They murder the parents
OF the leader of the band who had shown them
how easily a murder might be committed;
Immediately lynching mob Is formed; ana
they are not going to be over particular, not
at all squeamish, as to who they lynch! Ano
| lynch they do-a helpless old woman ara a
Young girl not known, as far a. the authentic
ports show, TO have had anything Whatever
A nd lynch they d0-after the Governors VS.
| 1t and plea for law and order-a Negro man,
not known to have had anything to do with
| the murder and described in the press report
as .one of the most trusted negroes In the
count, :" nobody in Carrollton, 1t seem had
heard ANY charge whispered against him OF
completely in the horri le crime-but the
mob is at work-and an order comes to Car
rollton for his coffin! His crime seems to have
! been that he was servant OF the aged peo-
Pile Ind occu pied a cabin zoo yards from their
residence He. of c. urse, sh2uld have pre-.
| vented the murder OF his employers. even IL
| be was quietly in his bed asleep and had no
/ dream that murder threatened theml
| And while the mob Is engaged in the delecu-
able rampage of butchery the actual perpe-
! traitors of the bloody deed escape. The ring
| leaders of the mob knew that they were put.
ii Z TO death the only witnesses who could
| help them to a knowledge of the murderers at
| large the number OF them and possibly their
whereabouts; yet the lynchlng orgy goes on :
Z
moved so much by the desire to serve JUS ice
! in a rude and barbarous way, as by the utter
Kill @lot o. niggers," because a whit man
4 and woman had been murdered py NEGROES! I!
| Far be it from me to extenuate Tor one mo,
ment the shocking death which compassed
| the death of those aged people IN Carroil
county. The perpetrators OF IL should nave
been legally run d WIN. Legally indicted, Legal
| Iy tried legally convicted. and legally hang
ed. just a. quickly as possible But there wa
nothing la this crime. let us cle1rly under
| taud, characteristic of one race tather than
| another; there was nothing In il characterl,-
tic of the Negro rather than OF the wh To
man.
Surely we have not forgotten that In Wash
ington county, few weeks ago, an Innocent,
gray haired old man was murdered In his
sleep by white men; and another man muir
ruInnred- simply rumored-that he had threat
ened to kill some one of the brave citizens of
the neighborhood of Erwin! Aud let me say
this: Get up a party OF your friends: go with
them to the home OF some white boy. and
shoot him to death: give his re atives no re-
dress at law: and then ask yourself. IL you
would not deem IL necessary to guard the
member of your family from the vengeance
of that murdered boy relatives;
The Negro, then. Is not lynched because be
is addicted to crimes that are characteristic
of him as a Negro; not lynched. because the
hands of white men are clean OF deeds that
Is the Negro lynched in Mississippi because
when he has committed a crime it Is hard to
Mississippi d % court. M before a Mississippi judge
and Mississippi jury, composed for the most
prrt IL not altogether, of Mississippi white
gro accused OF crime and send him to the
farm. the penitenttary. or the gallows! Why.
to think the Thought even humoropsly, were
Do we lynch Negroes or sanction the lynch
ing of them in Mississippi. lest they should
Negroize our politics and our Government;
lest they should forge to the front ahea1 OF
L fe.d hv N wa lynrh them In
order TO keen them down and backwardf d.
We lynch them because we fear them? II that
peated boast of race superiority, Our oft-ut-
tered conviction that the white man. by vir-
tue of the natrral. Inherent superiority OF
his Intellect and chart, ter, is des ined to lead
aud rule. and the black man, by reason of
the natural inferiority of his intellect and
character To follow ana server The politician
wanting votes in solid blocks may afford To
play upou the emotions OF the dull and
thouGhtless with the bugaboo OF Negro dom
ination; but can the thinking white men OF
Mississippi In this day afford to confess to
themselves even that they are afraid of Ne
gro domination? Can they afford TO acknowl-
One more question. and then am done ask
ing for u solution OF this problem, IL problem
! 1t be. Are Negroes lynched in Mississippi
! lest, IL they were dealt with when criminal as
| citizens Of the State, In accordance with the
. laws that white men make and enforce, they
people before the law. gradually. by slow de.
, grees, push on TO something like equality with
I white people in the ways and by the ways OF
; society? Are they lynched In order TO keel
solid and sound the mortar between the
r stones that build the barrier wall against
social ea9palityi a Nay nay, & nay This wi
: er In mobs to Lynch niggers'' are doing more
l right here in this town. In the year 1901, ar,
I doing more, doubtless. In every other town o.
D Mississippi, unmolested, to batter down thi,
3 barrier wall against social equality than ha.
r ever been done by the Negroes in all thei
history as American citizensi / need not bt
3 more explicit; v u know what l mean; ant
. IL possibly you do not, need only say, Keel
/; them open night or day and you viii know.
For none OF the reasons suggested Is the
{ Negro lynched In Mississippi. He is lyHch-t
r an alien to the people who lynch him. and b,
{. reason of the Jaw, as respected and admins
tered, they are powerless t, app al .
o the law for projection. Replace the Negro In
0 Mississippi by any other race OF aliens. MAKE
Q them also underlings. and as certain as tn
4 sun shines. tney would be lynched just as tn
Y And this means that the same essentia
. spirit is dominant in MissisSippi-in Missis
J siupi of the twentieth ca, tu-y-that wa
K d 'minant In Europe in the Dark Ages-tha
: ruled in France more than hvs hundre'
e years ago when pious Louis cancelled = thir,
e Of the claims held by Jews against Frenchme
d for the benef, of his soul; that ruled at Yer
o dun. where the Jews. mad with agony, hud
= died togeth-r in a tower OF refuge. hurle
y down their children to the rowling mob. hop
u Ing thus. vainiy. 10 ,atiate their greed fo
5 Jewish hbloDd!-essentially tn sa ne spiri
I y -
e every jew in who'll f ench pr ,vInces, an
), dug that trench at Chi on. and rai>ed tina
and women were burned together; burne
}. because, fundamentally, they were nc
e Frenchmen by religion. not Frenchmsn b.
Is racei
o Alas. alas! that we shonld do such boastin
l of our civilization putting to shame the cen
furies gone; such poasting of our prwres
It lightened laws such boasting, while we har
back to the dark age TO ropy its standard
Is and methods; such boasting, and we are nc
: yet enlightened enough to abstain frol
+ trampl ng under bloody feet the law W
'e b ast OF; not yet mast RS sufficiently OF tn
passions that fasten the fangs OF one brIte
n the throat of another not his kind; that "
st are unable to treat with simple justice,
G, deal with. even according to the forms of la
70 the members of an alien and weaker rae
ir who dwell among us by our own will, surf
Is as much as their own!
1t Can the lynching OF Negroes be stopped
l. just as soon as the people Of Mississippi eiet
N q Legislature decent enough to want to ste
te 1t. We have elected a decent Governor, an
re TAX n in this matter OF Negro-lynching,
er the face of his veuomous detractOrsi W
20 have elected decent Governors now let tf
er people of Mississippi elect decent Legisls
ture aud the lynching demon will be boun
D. within Its hell-den.
" Elect a Legislature with manhood enong q
,e with moral backbone enough, to pass a Ia
~ simply imposing big money fine upon ar
~ county In which lynching occurs; an
~ lynchings, doubt not. would be of rare q
y. currence even In our counties that civ liz
ot tian has most Sighted. Probe the pocket
II the lyncher and you viii speedily get at h
- con cieuce.
or Elect Legislature with derency enoul
IN to want TO STRIP lynching, manifested in u
passing of "A law vacatlng the sherlff's onlc
lll and making the sheriff forever ineligible
e. any office of any kind who surrendered
", could reasO ably be expected OF him, to pr
:" vent anybody charged with crime fro