The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1903-07-10
The Great Problem That
May Soon Confront the
American People.
Something for the Just and
Thoughtful to Con-
template.

and the more recent attempt of a
mob at Evansville, Indiana, to cap
ture a dozen negro prisoners from
the Sheriff, and lynch them, and the
shooting down of over thirty of the
mob by the militia; coupled with
other recent incidents of a like ma
ture but of not so fiendish character
at other places in the country; should
arouse the deepest apprehension in
the minds of all good citizens.
Mob law is cowardly. Mob law is
brutal and imbruting. Mob law is
cruel, Mob law is merciless. Mob
law is anarchy, Mob law is saw
ageryl
Yet we find in our best communi-
ties all these things encouraged, and
whole communities frenzied, till they
are worse than the beasts of the
Jungle enraged by the smell of blood.
In the pioneer days of our country,
the whites called the Indians saw
ages, because they used the scalping
knife, and sometimes burned their
captives at the stake. Yet what
tribe of American Indians ever gloat-
ed over the bones of their burned
captives, or carried around chunks
of flesh as souvenirs of the horrible
holocaust that had been perpetra-
ted?
The crime of the brutal negro raw
Usher, great and horrible as it was,
was less in the eyes of justice than
was this incarnation of brutality,
savagery, and fendishness shown at
Wilmington; and which has been
witnessed in other States, North and
South.
1t is no wonder, that men talk
about a race war, as if the 60. 600, ,0Ot
whites were about to set upon the
Is, ,OOO. 900 blacks in the country. and
murder, and butcher, and burn them,
for the crimes that a few of their
number have perpertated.
What a spectacle for the Russian
prosecutors of the Jews to looh
upon, What spectacle for enlight
ened America to exhibit to the
world,
1t is time for the intelligent and
merciful and lawabiding, and right
eous citizens of America to call :
halt. The action of the militia a
Evansville was just ard righteous
Mob law must be stamped out at al
hazards, Nothirs can come of it bu
injustice, cruelty, brutality and an
archy, 1t never made any communi
J ty better; it never served to lesser
J crime, Its history Is, that it lead
men to give way to unbridled license
. and this fosters just such crimes, a
its promoters, try to punish. 1t ex
cites and turns loose the baser pas
sions of men, and fosters the crime
that society looks upon with sue
horror, What could more demor
alize community than the bruta
burning to death of a human being
!, while crowds jeered at his piteou
!, cries for mercy? What could b
more embruting than the exhibitio
of pieces of his smoking flesh as rel
lies? Men do not do such things til
| they become maniaCs, and are inca
, pable of rational, reasonable actor
: These things must be stopped b
| the strong hand of the law-to pr.
/ tect the colored men, to protect on
5 youth from growing up with sayag
D instincts, to preserve society frol
}. lawlessness, to promote laS, ordel
e Justice and righteousness, and
= save us from the wrath Of righ
eous God.
The colored people as a class al
mot lawless, cruel, nor regardless {
the rights of others. They have bee
= oppressed and trampled upon, an
are at this day denied an equ;
:, chance in the race for life, and al
shut out from many trades and occr
= pations and are handicapped by pr
judice, ignorance, and injustice
many communities. Yet they ha,
; shown themselves patient, not pr
moters of strikes, of happy dispo:
ton, and good citizens, where the
> are not debauched by the white mar
;. saloon.
Yet they are prosecuted for Il
crimes of the worst of their rae
and a race war is threatened, as Il
t. only solution of the troubles tn;
1t they have no power to prevent, al
If which they deplore more than Il
r white man can.
I'd 1t is time that the noble men w
lie stand in every community for ju
lie tice, and right, and law and orde
ID to speak out, and forbid these he
it rors and command this talk of ra
In war to cease.
I'd These gouldish, fiendish exhi
in tions of inhuman brutality are n
e. the work of good citizens, and th
lg must cease. These mobs in lar
r. measure are made up of the vicio
st and depraved, and the lawless. Th
ul must not be permitted to impe
n the rights of the innocent, defy t
ut law, nor threaten the best iuterei
or of society. Better shoot down eve
e. mob that shows its horrid head, tn
ry have law defied, justice outrag
he and the innocent left to their fiendi
er mercy.