The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-05
8EGGING THE SOUTH'S PARDON
HUMAN NATURE THE SAME
EVERYWHERE.


The Hampshire Gazette, published at
Northampton, Mass. is an old fashioned
New England paper of the hard shell type.
1t is edited by an honest partisan, who
has not until lately dreamed that the
people of North Carolina are as good and
patriotic as the people of Massachusetts,
though if he could be induced to come
South and stay year he would write in
truth from experience what is now dawn
ing upon him from terrible object lessons.
Writing about the horrible crime and
horrible lynching in Delaware, the Ga
zette makes this honest confession:
I'VE have been mistaken. For great
many years we have believed that the
cruel and barbarous treatment of the col
ored people was confined to the Southern
States-that in the Northern section of
the Union. where there was supposed 20
be more enlightenment, more humanity,
and more respect for law, the colored man
was pretty sure to receive at least law
ful respect for his life But this belief
has been rudely shaken by recent occur
rences in several of the Western States,
where negroes have been taken from the
officers of the law by mobs and burned
at the stake, or otherwise treated in a
cruel and an uncivilized manner.
And now comes another case of burn
ing at the stake This time it occurs IN
Delaware. Delaware is not strictly
Northern State, but it is a Republican
State, has Republican Governor, two Re-
publican United States Senators, a Repub-
lican Representative in Congress, and
Republican legislature. Here at least we
had a right to look for legal fair play for
the negro; that, while not excused for his
crimes he should be exempt from the tor
lures OF the mob, and amenable only to
the law But no. The same brutality
toward him that has been so rampant IN
The South has broken out in Delaware.
Horrible as the account is, read it again
Here follows an account of the crime
as given in the Associated Press dispatch
es.l
1--WE beg pardon of the mobs in the
Southern States for believing that they
had corner on barbarity. We have done
them an injustice. They are no worse
Ethan the mobs in the Northern States
that have done just as they have dore.
HUMAN NATURE is THE SAME
EVERYWHERE, AND UNDER LIKE
| CONDITIONS 1T MANIFESTS ITSELF
/ IN THE SAME WAY, REGARDLESS OF
SECTIONAL LINES.
ct will be interesting and instructive,
TOO. to see if the Delaware authorities
take steps to punish these defiers of their
laws"
This is an honest confession that viii
be good for the soul of our Massachusetts,
brother. Mobs in the South and mobs in
the North are Just alike. There are more
lynchings in the South than in Massachu-
sets because there are more brute raplsts
IN the South. In Raleigh, with a popula-
ton of seven thousand negroes and
twelve thousand whites, there has never
been a lynching. Reason: negroes conduct
themselves Alright and white people are
law abiding. If negro rapists abounded in
Raleigh, lynchings might follow, though in
not a few places in North Carolina the
white people have repressed their righte
Gus Indignation and waited for the law
to do the hanging-the thing people
everywhere ought to do. But human ma
ture is the same everywhere, and under
like conditions it manifests itself In the
;1me way, regardless of sectional lines.
Northampton will one day be the scene of
/ lynching If there comes like conditions
that existed in Wilmington, Delaware, and
the editor Of the Gazette will be declaring
that the protection of the womanhood OF
that county is the highest law of civil
zation
Apropos to the general subject we make
room for the following trenchant edito-
rial from the Richmond News Leader.
BEGINNING OF THE END.
In the States of Indiana, Illinois and
Delaware within the last three weeks, ne
groes have been lynched; two of them
burned. The Rev. Montrose Thornton
colored preacher of Wilmington, Del,
preaching on these events in the African
Methodist Episcopal church, Of which he
is pastor, Sunday evening said:
1.-The negro is unsafe anywhere in
| this country. He is the open prey at
| all times of barbarians who know no
| restraint and will not be restrained
The white is a heather, a fiend.
monstrosity before God and is equal to