The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-11
President Says Lynchings are
a Menace to Republic.
HE PRAISES GOV. DURBIN
Machinery Of Justice, Mr.. Roosevelt Says,
Should Move Swiftly to
Avepge Assault
and Murder.
(By the Associated Press.l


oyster Bay N. Y, August 9.-In a let
ter. the publication of which was author
lied today, President Roosevelt commends
Governor Durbin, of Indiana, for the at
ttude he assumed recently respecting
llnching. The President also embrces the
opportunity to express his own views in
reference to lynching and mob violence
generally, pointing out that mob violence
IS merely one form of anarchy, and that
anarchy is the forerunner of tyranny
The President vigorously urges that the
penalty for that crime which most ire
duently induces a resort to lynching shall
lie applied swiftly and surely, but by due
process of the courts, so that it may be
demonstrated that the law is adequate
TO deal with crime by freeing it from
every vestige of technicality and delay
President Roosevet's letter in flll to
Governor Durbin, follows:
Oyster Bay, N. Y, August 6.
MY Dear Governor Durbin: Permit
me to thank you as an American citizen
for the admirable way in which you have
vlndlcated the majesty of the law by your
recent action in reference to lynching !,
feel my dear sir, that you have made all
men your debtors who believe, as all far
seeing men must, that the well beng,
indeed, the very existence, of the republic
depends upon that spirit of orderly liberty
under the law which is as incompatible
with mob violence as with any form of
despotism. Of course. mob violence is
simply one form of anarchy; and anarchy
IS now. as it always has been. the hand.
maiden and forerunner of tyranny.
HONOR FOR THE NATION.
II feel that you have not only reflected
honor upon the State which for its good
fortune has you as. its chief executive
but upon the whole nation. 1t is incum-
bent upon every man throughout this
country not only to hold up your hands
in the course You have been following.
but to show his realization that the mat
ter is one of vital concern to us all.
'All thoughtful men must feel the
gravest alarm over the growth of lynch
ing in this country, and especially over
the peculiarly hideous forms so often
taken by mob violence when colored men
are the victims which occasions the
mob seems to lay most weight not on the
crime but on the color of the criminal
In a certain proportion of these cases the
man lynched Mas been guilty of a crime
horrible beyond description-a crime so
horrible that as far as he himself is con
cerned he has forfeited the right to any
kind of sympathy whatsoever The feel
ing of all good citizens that such a hide
Gus crime shall not be hdeously punished
by mob violence is due not in the least
to sympathy for the criminal, but to
very lively sense of the train of dreadful
consequences which follow the course
taken by the mob in exacting human ven
geance for an inhuman wrong. In such
eases. moreover. it is well to remember
that the criminal not merely sins against
humanity in inexplicable and objectionable
fashion, but sins particularly against his
own race, and does them wrong Ear
greater than any white man can possibly
do them. Therefore, in such cases the
colored people throughout the land should
in every possible way show their belief