The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-09-05
THE CASE OF MONROE ROGERS.

Sy1ol " klQIA-
roe Rogers. the negro incendiary from
Durham. who mad taken refuge fron,
Justice d the wing of New England
prejudice against the people of the
1t is no credit to the governor
OF Massachusetts that he at this late
day decides this man charged with the
J crime OF burning the residence of
a citizen Of another state shall b re-
turned to that state for trial The case
has been pending before him for weeks.
de pretended to believe that the negro
could not get Justice in the courts Of
this slate: that he would be lynched.
Courteous letters from Governor Ay-
cock and others of our state officials
were written to Governor Crane and
other state officers of Massachusetts,,
explaining and giving assurances that
Rogers. if returned to this state, would
be protected in every one OF his rights
and would be given a fair trial. Still
the governor nesitated. being in
fiuenced by h most outrageous state
ments and vilest ISLANDERS against the
white people of u state, made by GER
tain negroes and even white men of
standing, who di6 know better, or, if
they did not, should be ashamed to ad-
NIT their ignorance. Governor Crane
for a long time weighed these mems
statements against the solemn pledges
of Governor AyCock and other state
officials.
One of the white men who took up
the III Of the negro was Colonel
Norman P. Hallowell, who commanded
a Massachusetts regiment during the
civil war and who for many years has
been president of one of the national
banks of Boston. This man IN his APP
peal for the negro declared that in the
south ninety-nine out of every hundred
white men would not hesitate to lynch
a negro on almost any pretense. Rev.
w. H. Scott, of Woburn, was also a
special pleader for the negro. He made
the statement hat there had been one
hundred ~lynchings of negroes in Will
mington alone.
This preacher, whom from his lam
guage We judge to be a negro, made
the following statement which we
quote from the Boston Herald.
THE Rev. w. II. Scott. of Woburn,
first called. He said he had lived
in North Carolina and knew that a fair
trial for a negro accused of n crime
was impossible. In the south there was
one law for the whites and another for
the negroes.
81 would rather be shot running
away from an officer in sachusetts
than take the word of Governor Ay-
cock, promising me a fair trial and go
to that state to be tried said Mr..
Scott. The same is true Of any gov
ernor in the south. There is no chance
for the negro. / am a ~Southerner my
self and 1 know the south. 1 have some
of the best blood of Virginia in my
veins.
Don't SEN our brother to the
south, for he Will surely be lynched,
gentlemen. More than 100 negroes have
been lynched in Wilmington, N. c.,
alone. We wan. to obey the law of
Massachusetts and have tried to. We
respect them. What we van is fair
play for Monroe Rogers, and we hope
to get it from Massachusetts,
Mr.. Scott closed with a eulogy of
MASSACHUSETTS, ~ SpohC VI SoIoIlC
Robert G. Shaw and his being buried
with the colored soldiers of his regi-
ment-"
During Colonel Hallowelrs appeal for
refusal to honor the requiSition the
attorney general of the state asked
Suppose Massachusetts refused to
grant requisition papers in the case of
Rogers would there not be a danger
that this state would be looked upon as
a place of refuge for criminals all over
the SOUTH" To this the colonel re-
piled that he would take the chance.
And right here we find the real reason
for Governor Crane at last determin-
ing to send Rogers back to this state
for trial. The action of Governor
Davis, of Arkansas, of recent date in
attaching the condition to the pardon
of a negro that he would thereafter
make his home in Boston and the gen
eral expression throughout the south,
regarding this Rogers case n a SINH
lar one from South Carolina in which
Governor Crane was hesitating as to
honoring the 1equisition, that if
massachusetts wanted 10 DecOIIl0 the
penal colony for the negro criminals
of the southern states the latter would
be glad to accommodate her, had more
weight in influencing the final action
of the authorities of that state than
any regard for law or the usual cour-
tesies between officials of different
states.
One Of the advocates of Rogers
cause a the boldness to admit that
lynchings occurred at the north, but
his opinion was that this crime had
spread to the northern states from the
south. He referred to the tarring and
feathering of a man almost at their
own doors a shor while previous and
alleged that was what they have been
doing at the south for years"
The whole proceeding "a an cut
| rage and a Islander pom the white peo-
pie of our state and an insult to our
state officials.