The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-22
Should Man Be Removed From Office for Telling the Truthp
New York Sun.


 Until further advised we decline to be-
 ,leve the statement that the removal of
 MT. Henderson M. Somerville from the
 post of General Appraiser is contemplated
 not because he Is accused or suspected
 Of malfeasance in office, for his official
 reputation Is spotless. and not because
 he belongs to the Democratic party, for
 under the law constituting the Board of
 general Appraisers, his successor in office
 could not be Republican-but because
 President Roosevelt disapproves of an
 article contributed by him to the Octo.
 per number of The North American Re-
 Cop-operating Causes of Negro Lynch
 ing and, in our judgment, Mir. Somer-
 Vile Is better qualified to discuss it than
 would be the President himself, for the
 following reasons. He is native of Vir.
 ginia, and graduate of the University
 of Alabama, in which institution he occu-
 pied the chair of professor of constitu-
 tional common and statute law from
 1875 until 1880. when he was elevated to
 the bench of the Alabama Supreme Court
 Let us see what there Is in the article
 penned by such man that could justify
 ms wr removal aH . from office by the President
 would disptute the statements of fact
 that lie at the basis of Judge Somerville's
 article: art s:, We refer to such statements as
 which most of the lynchings of colored
 men occur in the South Is the forcible vio-
 lation of white women by negroes, or an
 attempt to perpetrate this diabolical of- fence. Secondly, no such crime was per.
 petrated during the era of slavery, or
 even during the civil war. when the white
 women of the cotton States were left comparatively unprotected. Thirdly, the crime has become almost extinct in Mis-
 sissippi and the black belt of Alabama
 since the negro vote has been eliminated Tn those States as political factor
 Fourthly, the localities where the heinous crime occurs are almost always those in
 which the negro holds the balance of po-
 litical power. or where his unsurpassed
 vote is eagerly counted and ardently SO
 licited as of value in doubtful contests hetween political parties. It cannot be for
 the formulation of these statements of fact that Judge Somerville's removal from office would be contemplated by any fair
 minded man.
 Neither is it possible that the President
 can desire to punish Judge Somerville for
 denouncing the motives and results of the
 Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
 of the Federal Constitution, for these
 have been publicly deprecated by Elihu
 Root, Secretary of War. Judge Somer-
 vile says of the impoverished whitesl of
 the South that they felt that the whole
 sale enfranchisement of the ignorant and servile negro by the enactment of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments had been accomplished by partisan poll ticians a vindictive act of punishment for attempted secession" He goes on to express the conviction that the drastic relief sought by certain Southern States
 in the recent introduction of educational and property qualifications for the suf-
 frage will be vindicated by impartial his- torians in the future. as an attempt to rescue Southern civilization from the lapse into barbarism and ruin threatened by mistaken political policy. These are
 the views of many Republicans, as well as of many Democrats. and the aVowal of them would not justify Mir. Roosevelt
 in removing Judge Somerville from of fee.
 It seems to us, further, that the Presi-
 dent should regard. not with disapproval but with interest, Judge SomerVille's in dcation of what he believes to be a CO.,
 operating cause of negro lynching in the Soith a consideration, namely. that is
 often overlooked, but which probably acts
 upon the feelings of white men with a good deal of power. We refer to the or
 deal through which a modest and virtu- ous woman must pass in being subjected
 to examination and cross s-examination as witness on the stand, When detailing the incidents attending the crime. It would
 be better. no doubt, in such cases, to clear
 the court room of all persons except the presiding judge, the jurors, the witnesses and members of the bar; but custom has never sanctioned such "Onrse in the | Southern States. Judge SCmerVille speaks rom observation and experience when he dclares that, in scores of cases the desire to spare the victim this ordeal is the chief motive of mobs violent action. What. then. can be the ground on which MT. Roosevelt is said to deem the article III l ne NOrth American heNleW so OD1eC- tionable as to call for the writer's sum mary removal from office? We can find
 1t only in a para graph where Judge Som | cTville says that the Presidents attitude | toward the negro has retarded the solu- | ton of the problem which confronts l American statesmanship. We are also | told that the appointment of the negro ] Crum as Collector Of Customs at the Port | of Charleston and other acts of the kind | have produced great excitement in the
 South, and have reopened the sores caus ] cd by race prejudices which were adu 1 ally being allaye To MT. Rooscvrlt's
 attitude toward the negro is directly at 1 tributed the lamentable reaction in Mis- 1 s!ssippi. a reaction personitied in the | Democratic nominee for Governor, who l openly advocates the discouragement If | negro education. Now Mir. Roosevelt 1 mast know that Judge Somerville is stat | ing fact; and that the negro policy of l the administration has had precisely the l effect ascribed to 1t.
 If Judge Somerville is removed for | stating a notorious fact, how can Mr l Roosevelt obey the law which requires
 him to appoint Democrat to the vacant | place? We doubt if there is Democrat l in the United States who approves Of M. l Rooscvelts negro policy.