The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-08-29
RIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1902.
lie WAYNE COUNTY I,NCHING.

brute who assaulted Mrs. Smith in
Wayne county, had one the way that
the perpetrators Of such crimes gener-
ally go when captured AS we said e
few days ago,-all lynchings are VIC.
lat.ons of the law, but who d censurt
the men who brought just punishment
ON this fiend? Had the law been al.
lowed to take it's course he would sure
Iy nave been convicted and executed
That being the case, some say, why
should his executioners have taken the
law into their own hands? Let these
questioners call to mind the fact that a
trial in the court house would nave
necessitated that poor woman being
made awitness, and detailing before a
party OF men the horrible occurrence
That thought alone was sufficient in
the opinion of the men who killed the
negro to justify the action, and who
can blame them.
What is to be lone to check the fire.
quency Of his crime at the south?
Trial and execution by law will not do
it. Lynching has no effect. The fear
OF neither is powerful enough 10 stay
the hand of this class % brutes. Every
one of them commits his offense KNOW
ing that he has forfeited his life and
that he will die q horrible death just
rs soon as captured. Still these offenses
are rapidly increasing.
The object of the law in executing
the perpetrators of certain crimes is
two-fold-to put the offender out of the
world because he is a menace to society
and as a warning to others who might
be tempted to commit a like crime.
criminal assault on white won:en by ne
groes, generally followed by swift exc
cution at the hands Of an Infatuated
crowd of men, shows tia this last aim
of the law in making this crime a CAPT.
tai one fails of it's purpose. The fear
of death is not sufficient to stop these
brutes. What then is 10 be done? How
is this crime to be checked? These are
questions of vital consequence to thous-
=ands of heads of families throughout
the south, especially in the rural dis
Ttricts where the farmer so often has
to leave wife or daughter unprotected
in the lonely farm house while he is
absent in the field or the market town.
Something must be done. The people
cannot and will not stand this state of
affairs
There are wv things which tead to
5porooca tbic orina- Ono iS tho ipdiffer-
ence shown by the negroes generally
when a crime of this kind is committed.
There is not among them the horror of
it that there should be. There is no
universal p~ervasion among them of the
feeling hat it is d crime which should
not be committed and that they will
not tolerate it among their race. Were
1t otherwise fewer negroes would be
tempted to commit it. They would be,
to an extent, educated against it. The
other reason is that with a great many
people, especially negroes, the lynching
of the rapist is more denounced than
the fendish deed which led thereto.
The horror Of the crime IS lost sight of
or diminished in co1demning the act of
lynch law
This is a hideous problem that we
have presented to us and n hard to
solve, but solved it must be.
In cases Of this sort the members
OF the ~coroner's jury generally con-
fine themselves to declaring that
the deceased came to his death
at the hands of persons unknown
to the jury. This is the only
which the jury commended the
action of the lynchers. These jurors
over their signatures anu acting unde
oath declared that the men who took
the life of his negro brute were iusti-
led in their act, and no man possessing
a spark of manhood can condemn
them for their finding. To lynch a man
is a very serious thing to do, but what
man who has a wife, a daughter or a
sister can think Of her and say the men
who avenged the crime against this
poor woman should be censured for
their conduct. The declaration of this
coroner's jury was a Straightforward
and concise statement Of the views Of
representative men Of the citizens Of
Wayne county that every nan who
commits this crime shall have melted
out to him justice in its swiftest and
most appalling form. 1t is a formal
recognition by the public that in all
such cases OF criminal assault the as
sailant shall be shot down On sight;
that the men Of this state are deter
mined, if they can not at all times pro-
tect the females OF thei- families, they
will at least .summarily punish with
the most sewers penalty known to the
law an assault upon them.
The Best Prescription for Malar1al.