Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-25
CHAPTER x.
ANOTHER DECLARATION OF INDIE
PENDENCE.


Almost every problem of national life
had been illumined and made more hope
full By the searchlight of war save one
the irrepressible conflict between the
African and the Anglo Saxon in the de-
velopment of our civilization. The glare
of war only made the blackness of this
question the more apparent.
While the well-drilled negro regulars,
led by white officers acquitted themselves
with honor at Santiago, the negro volun-
teers were the source of riot and disorder
wherever they appeared. From the first,
1t was seen by thoughtful men that the
negro was an impossibility in the new
born unity Of national life. When the
Anglo-SaXon race was united into one
homogeneous mass in the fire Of this
crisis, the negro ceased that moment to
be a ward of the nation.
A negro regiment had been in camp at
Independence during the war and was
still there awaiting orders to be mustered
out. Its presence had infiamed the pas
sions of both races to the danger point of
riot again and again. The negro who was
editing their paper at independence had
gone to the length of the utmost license
IN seeking to influence race antagonism.
When the regiment of which the Ham
bright company was a member was mus
tered out at Independence, CASTOR was in
vited to deliver the address of welcome
home to the soldiers, and a crowd of five
thousand people were present, one-half
of whom were negroes.
While CASTOR was speaking I'm the
square, a negro trooper passing along the
street refused TO give an inch of the side
walk to a young lady and her escort who
met him. He ran into the girl, jostling
her roughly, and the young white man
knocked him down instantly and beat him
to death. The widest passions of the
negro regiment were reused. Mcleod
was among them that. day seeking to in
crease his popularity and influence in
the coming election, and he at once de-
nounced CASTOR as the cause of the as
sault, and urged the leaders in secret to
retaliate by putting a bullet through his
heart
The white regiment had been mustered
out and their guns in most cases had
been retained by the men. The negro
troops were to be mustered out the next
day.
Late in the afternoon CASTOR had receiv-
ed information that a plan was on foot
to kill him that night, when a negro mob
would batter down his door on the pre-
tense of searching for the man who had
assaulted the trooper. The colonel Of the
regiment just disbanded heard it. and
that night his men bivouacked in the
yard of the hotel and slept on their guns
A little alter u o'clock a mob of five
hundred negroes attempted to force their
way into the hotel. They met regiment
of bayonets, broke. and fled in wild con-
fusion.
1his event was the last straw that broke
the .camers back. In the morning paper
q blazing notice in display capitals COW
cred the first page, calling mass meet
ing of white citizens at noon in indie
pendence hall.
The little city of Independence was one
Of the oldest in the nation 1t boasted the
first declaration of independence from
Great Britain Cntedating a year the Phil
adelphia document. The people had never
rested tamely under tyranny nor accept
ell insult.
The Mcleod negro-farmer legislature
had remcdeled the ancient charter of the
city, and under the new instrument a
combination of negroes and criminal
whites had taken possession of every Of
fee.
One half of these office holders were in
competent and insolent negroes. The
chief of police was an ignoramus in
league with criminals and their mayor,
white demagogue elected by pandering to
the lowest passions of a negro constitu-
ency.
Burglary and highway robbery were
almost daily occurrences. The two larg-
est stores in the city and four residences
had been burned within month Appeal
to the police became a farce, and it was
necessary to hire and arm a force of pri
vate guards to patrol the city at night.
When arrests were made, the servile au-
thorities promptly released the criminals.
Negro insolence reached a height that
made it impossible for ladies to walk the
streets without an armed escort, and
white children were waylaid and beaten
on their way to the public schools.
The incendiary organ of the negroes, a
newspaper that had been noted Sor its
virulent spirit of race hatred, had pub
ished an editorial defaming the virtue of
the white women of the community.
At IL O'Clock the quaint old hall, built
in Revolutionary days 10 seat five hun
dred people, was packed with a crowd of
eight hundred stern-visaged men standing
so thick it was impossible to pass through
them and thousands were massed outside
around the building.
CASTOR, whose ancestors had been lead
ers in the great Revolution, was called to
the chair The speech making was brief.
fiery, and to the point.
Within one hour they unanimously
adopted this resplution:
Resolved, that we issue a second Dec