The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-13
DELIVERED INTO THE HANDS of
THE ENEMY.

To the Editor of the Globe:
Your correspondent offers, in making
this communication, as his excuse, the
deep and intense interest manifested by
the colored people of st. Paul in the
case of Harry Summers, now under ar
rest in this city charged with being a
fugitive from justice by the authorities
of the state of Tennessee, as well as the
unjust and @unwarranted aspersion upon
our sense of moral discrimination which
is cast by the editorial of the st. Paul
Pioneer Press in it's issue of Saturday,
Oct. II, 1901, entitled AN Unpleasant
Duty
In said editorial it is made to appear
to the good people of this state that the
colored people have made a great ado
and hustle over condition of affairs in
Tennessee that is purely imaginary, and
that we ought to be ashamed of our
selves to have exhibited our sympathy
for the alleged murderer.
+ We are much surprised and panied to
know that such a position is taken by
the st. Paul Pioneer Press, when the
known facts and the past bloody record
of the state of Tennessee fully justify
our people in their assumption that Sum-
mers will be given short shrift if he
ever reaches that state. 1T Is an assump-
ton made by men in all phases and cir
cumStanceS of life, that state of affairs
once shown to exist, still obtains, unless
the contrary appears. In the first place,
many Of US who fear for Summers, are
former citizens of Tennessee, and our
experience alone of the summary meth
DDS of dealing in that unhappy state with
negroes accused of crime, especially in
remote localities like Bolivar, Harde-
man county, lead US to believe, with a
conviction amounting to moral GER
tainty, that this man will be Illegally
punished. Some of us have seen with our
own eyes negro men and women mobbed
and brutally beaten in that state, killed
and otherwise ill-treated solely because
in some way or other they had managed
to come in opposition to some white per-
Il
stand idly by, aye. even partici-
pate in the evil deeds. We don't say
these things because we wish to ca
lumnlate our native state, but because
believe that Summers, who is accused
of splitting a white mans head open with
an ak, will be allowed a chance to eS-
cape by way of the courts of law. Oh,
no. The spirit of the old law, THAT ne
gro who struck a white man should be
punished with DEATH still survives, and
an1mates the descendants of it's authors.
The lynchfng of negroes is not common
in Tennessee, says your apologist for the
governors decision. My Godi What con-
stitutes his idea of common? Eight
one of them woman ffor theft)! One
hundred and sixty-nine in the past six
teen years! I refer you to the statistics
kept by the Chicago Tribune, and pub
lished in it's issue dated Sept. l, 1901.
have only to turn to the pages of the
Pioneer Press of the last two weeks to
cite cases of brutal and unproveked mob
violence upon unarmed and defenseless
blacks, and nothing done about it. Yet
Tennessee is an honorable state, and
model in this respect for all the old
slave-holding states.
In the case of Summers it is said that
the officers of the court and responsible
authorities have joined in the assurance
that Summers will not be lynched, but
will have a fair and impartial trial. What
do you expect? Will they confess their
inability or their unwillingneSS to give
this man, for whom they are SO anxious,
a fair and impartial trial?S But assur-
ance? Yes, assurance and nerve, but
no insurance; no pledges do they Offer
hurried petition, gotten UP. in a, harum-
Scarum sort of a way. And why do they
send petition to our governor? Why
do they not assume that Van SAINT would
shown that they have taken or will take
any precautions against the lynching of
Summers? None; but they will excuse
themselves on the ground of ,oyerwhelm-
ing force, as is usual.
1t is said that there have been no
mobs in Hardeman county Sheriff Sam
merS says different He alleges that
some time ago he was compelled to lay
out in the swamps of HardemaR county
with two negro prisoners, IN hiding from
the mob, and that one of the negroes
died from the expoSure-and this before
our governor. AS to the disposition to
lynch the murderer of William Lewark,
how can it be said that there was no
manifestation of the sort when men were
at that very time securing the country
in search of the suspect. He was not
llynched because he was not caught. In
so far as time is concerned, excitement,
ETC., 1t is well known that the appetite is
only whetted by It's hunger, and that
some Of the most barbaric of lynchings
have taken place long after the commits
sion of the alleged crimes. 1t is the