The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-26
FAIR DISCUSSION OF LYNCHING
IN THE SOUTH.

There is too often wanting fair con-
sideration of all phases of lynching on
the part of the Northern press when the
usual crime is followed by lynching. In
the South there is as strong sentiment
by many people against lynch law as in
any Northern State. In North Carolina
the Governor of the State has done more
to suppress it than any Chief Magistrate
in America.
The most fair, just and intelligent dis
cussion of lynching that has appeared in
any Northern paper was the leading edi-
torial in the Brooklyn Eagle one day
last week. 1t is evidently from the pen
of Hon. st. Clair McKelway, the able and
broad minded dean of New York journal
ism, and was called forth by the recent
article by ex-senator VIM. E. Chandler.
In view of its timely interest it is as
follows:
William E. Chandler has a letter in
the Sun today on Southern Lynching,
and the repression of the negro vote
follow the same crime of which South
ern lynchings are the punishment There
are more of those crimes, and, therefore,
there are more lynchings IN the south
than elsewhere, for known reasons Oh
population and race conditions. Ihere
are no defenses of lynching anywhere,
but condemnation of them everywhere,
with a growing spirit to punish those
who resort to them. They are no more
related to politics than is larceny or
arson or any other heinous crime. Mr..
Chambers effort to make political use
of deplorable occurrences is due to i'm
pishness, not to ignorance, for he makes
no such use of such instances. for the
same offense in New York, Indiana,
Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, Montana,
Oregon. Pennsylvania and other States,
where they have occurred in recent
months.
Beyond question, the incidents to some
Southern lynchings have raised them
from summary punishment to barbarism
and give unto the enemies of the South
a point with considerable effect on few
Northern minds. There is no defense in
the South of lynchings, per Sc, though
there are extenuating explanations OF
them There is no Defense of course,
nor can be, anywhere, of the horrible in
cidents to lynchings there. But what
cannot be defended can sometimes be ac
counted for, in part, by the ferocious
temporary insanity of the participants
in the lynchings, and, in part, by the
manifest purpose to make the punish
ment of the crime so terrible, in the
cases of its perpetrators, as to terrorize
and appall others of their race who
might be tempted to initiate them All
the inferior races-and about all OF them
are Oriental in their origin-have
horror and a terror which are absolute
touching the destruction or disintegra-
ton of their bodies, before burial A
mere apprehension of a post-mortem
examination has an effect upon the
Imagination of an uneducated negro that
cannot be overstated. The English in
India blew Sepoy 1ends into pieces by
tying them across the muzzles of can
non. The apprehension of like punish
ment brought the Sepoy rebellion to
close Disintegration OF the body des-
troyed in their minds their chance of
existence in the world to come. When
criminals Of the sort lynched in the South
are visibly disintegrated, as an incident
to the deaths inflicted upon them, the
same terror is inspired among those of
their race in whom animalism is at
maximum Psychological causes could
be studied with profit by those who would
examine these events to their. founda-
lions.
'Mr. Chandler further claims there are
ten million negroes in the South, that
- al 20 ynfo
that practically all of them are debarred
from voting, and that if they all could
vote, they would all vote the Republican
ticket His moderation is less apparent
than his fondness for round numbers.
His political conclusion suggests conf
dence rather than accuracy, and carries
in it more than he might indorse. His
argument that every negro would be
Republican, would convince an opponent
who followed his line that every white
man would be a Democrat in the South.
This would reduce his case to a question
of race versus race. History would do
the rest for him, and the rest would be
too much for his satisfaction. Whenever
the white race. as a unit or solid. has
been confronted by the black, as unit
or a solid the white has gone to tho
front and the black has gone to the
wall. Constitutions and laws in first
analysis are language. only. They are
not self-enforcing. Put in conflict with
natural laws and with the invariable
course of events they come to naught
and always will.
But the case is made no better by an
examination of It in particular There
is no evidence that every Southern ne
gro is or would be Republican. Many
Southern negroes, when they did vote,
regarded the ballot as commodity which
they had for sale, and which other men
could buy That was not due to de-
pravity, but to an absolutely undeveloped
moral sense. A man does no wrong, I'M
less he means to do wrong, and knows
that what he proposes to do s wrong
knowledge or intent of wrong was want
ing in the cases of the negroes referred
to. That made money. and not mind,
the factor in such negro voting. And
of Southern governments in negro hands
the record of absurdity, vulgarity and
rapacity was intolerable. Their control
was first prevented by violence and then
by devices in both of which the white
race, by brains and organization, ex-
ceeded the negroes. Under the necessity