Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-07-30
The Lynehines in the North.

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but more of them have been in the
North and in several notable instances
they have been accompanied by mob
violence and brutality almost beyond
belief 1t will surprise most readers,
no doubt. to be told that the number of
llynchings, this year, is not above the
first seven months of 1903 there have
lbeen SO lynchings reported in the pa
lpers. For the whole of 1902 there We're
96: in 1901 there were 1876; in 1900, 115;
lin 1899. 167; in 1898, 1877; in 1897, 16G;
lin 1886, 131; in 1895, 1911; in 1894, 1874,
and in 1898, decade ago, there were
200 for the year. Thus the decrease in
Ilynching in recent years has been very
marked, but the unusual public feeling
laroused on the subject at the present
time is due to the unhappy fact that of
this years lynchings no fewer than
nine have been in northern states,-
counting Missouri as in the north
Year have been the average in the
North.
Illinois has been the chief offender,
as four of the lynchings have been in
that state and in each case there was
mob violence that was particularly
shocking in it's barbarity. Read these
| loto Of icb ri
of the mob in Danville, Illinois. a city
labout the size of Augusta: after get
ting more battering rams, it took the
mob about half an hour to wreck the
city prison. The negro was found in a
safe. He was pulled form the safe,
struck with sledges, knocked down.
rope was placed around his neck and
the lifeless body was dragged three
blocks through the streets to the scene
of the shooting. An effort was made
Ito hang the body to a telegraph pole,
but the rope broke. The mob, which
by this time numbered five thousand,
burned it, While Mayfields body was
burning several men fired bullets into
: the flames. The ears were chopped off
and the feet which protruded from the
flames, We're hacked to pieces
And here is the comment of a man
named Tillman of South Carolina whom
l4l ,;e.e- in IaJ wi o1
States Senate: 1.-THE Danvile and
the Belleville lynchings in Illinois and
the trouble in Evansville, Ind and SIM
lar affairs in other northern states all
go to show that the people of the North
are studying the race question. Let
: the good work go on and the beauties
OF the fifteenth amendment will contin-
" ue tC be manifest in the world. That
seems to be the only practicable way
until the amendment to the consttu-
ton granting the negroes suffrage has
; been repealed. We have shot them
I and hanged them and burned them in
South Carolina until they almost know
u their proper place now"
However grotesque end pitiful the
: point of view of Senator Tillman, it is
not denied. that the increase of lynch
J. law9essness in. the. North has reached
Z. alarming ana appalling proportions.
The lynching Question and the race
:ntriot question are no longer sectional is
sues. The blot is national, and every
good citizen in the country, whatever
!, his color Or party. must deplore it with
i, all his heart. Justice Brewers declar-
q alton that 'lynching is murder put the
- matter in it's proper light. The only
{, way to check the lynching evil is tC
regard lynching as murder and to treat
= lynchers promptly, and with no fear or
favor, as murderers, Governor Durbin
of Indiana took exactly the right stand
;. and the sheriff at Danville who stood
;. by his oath with a shot gun and defend
. ed his prisoner against the mob till his
=, ammunition was exhausted, and two
-, men had been killed and score wound
, Gu, ulu Il uuly WHICH every oliiCtI SUOttiu
E perform in such a crisis.
8 The mob which starts to lynch a man
=, is not to be stopped by the assurance
that the man will BE punished by the
law in due course of time. The only
= argument which it IS capable of un-
, Outstanding is the stream from the
hose, the billy and the bullet There
is no need Of more laws against lynch
ers. All that is needed is for governor
sheriffs and local officers, to be true
to their oaths and to use the sharpest
and sternest measures against lynching
mobs. 1t seems pity to sacrifice life,
but the law is greater than life and the
name of our country must be cleared of
the foul stain. A few men shot down
in a mob will save many lives else
where as the story of that affair is read
Io,l 80 1oSco, ro,,opabarad lynch