The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1903-08-13
VIEWS ON LYNCHING
President Sends Ills Congratulations
TO Governor Durbin
AN UTTERANCE BY THE EXECUTIVE
n. Rooteyeit Holds That Lynchlng
For Any Crime Is Subversive of All
Law and Hust Be Suppressed.

[ne puDllCatlOn or which was autnOr-
lied, President Roosevelt commends
Governor Durbin, OF Indiana, for the
attitude he assumed recently respect
ing lynching. The President also en-
braces the opportunity to express his
own views on lynching and mob vio-
lence 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 frequently in
duces resort to Iynching shall be
applied swiftly and surely, but by due
process of the courts, so that it may
be demonstrated that the law is ade-
quate to deal with crime by freeing
it from every vestige of technicality
and delay" President Roosevelt's let
ter in full to Governor Durbin fol-
lows:
"Oyster Bay, August 6, 1903.
Governor Durbin: Permit me to
thank you as an American citizen for
the admirable way in which you have
vindicated the majesty of the law by
your recent action in reference to
lynching. l feel, my dear sir, that you
have made all men your debtors who
believe as all Of the far-seeing men
must, that the well-being, indeed, the
very existence of the republic, de-
pends upon that spirit of orderly liber-
txy,, fho 1ox h iot
patible with mob violence as with any
form Of despotism Of course mob
violence is simply one form of an
ways has been, the handmaiden and
fCrerunner of tyranny.
Il feel that you have not only re-
f1ected honor upon the State which
for it's good fortune has you as its
Chief Executive, but upon the whole
nation. 1t is incumbent 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 matter il one
of vital concern to us oil.
'All thoughtful men must feel the
gravest alarm over the growth Of
lyEching in this country and especi-
ally over the peculiarly hideOuS
forms SO often taken by mob violence
when colOfed men are the victims,
on 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 has been guilty of a
crime horrible beyond description, a
crime so horrible that as far as he
himself is concerned he has for
feited the right to any kind of SYM
pathy whatsoever. The feeling of all
good citizens that such hideOus
crime shall not be hideously punish
ed by mob violence is due not in the
least to sympathy for the criminal,
but to lively sense Of the train of
dreadful consequences which follow
the course taken by the mob in exact
ing inhuman vengeance for an in
human wrong. In such cases, more
over, 1T is we'll to remember that the
criminal not merely sins against hui
manity in inexplicable and unpar-
donable fashion, but sins particularly
against his own race, and does them
a wrong far greater than any white
man can possibly do to them. There
fore, in such cases the cOlOred people
throughout the land should in every
possible way show their belief that
they, more than all others in the COM
munity, are Mortified at the commits
sion of such a crime and are pc
culiarly concerned in taking every
possible measure to prevent its re-
currence and to bring the criminal to
immediate justice. The slightest lack
of vigor either in denunciation Of the
crime or in bringing the criminal to
justice is itself objectionable.
Moreover, every effort should be
made under the law to expedite the
proceedings of justice in the case of
such an awful crime. But 1t cannot
be necessary, in order to accomplish
this, to deprive any citizen of those
fundamental rights to be heard in his
own defense, which are SO dear to us
all and which lie at the root of our
liberty. 1t certainly ought to be possi-
Bile by the proper administration of
the laws to secure swift vengeance
upon the criminal, and the best and
immediate efforts of all legislators,
judges and citizens Should be ad-
dressed to securing such reforms in
our legal procedure as to leave no
vestige of excuse for those misguided
men who undertake to reap venge-
ance through violent methods.
Men who have been guilty of a
crime like rape or murder should be
visited with swift and certain pun
ishment and the just effort made by
the courts to protect them in their
rights should under no circumstances
be perverted into permitting any mere
technicality to avert or delay their
punishment. The substantial rights Of
the prisoner to a fair trial Of course
| must be guaranteed. as you have sc
justly insisted that they should be
but. subject to this guarantee-the
law must work swiftly and surely, and
all agents Of the law should realize
the wrong they do when they permit
justice to be delayed or thwarted fol
technical or insufficient reasons. We
| must show that the law is adequate
to deal with crime by freeing it from
every vestige of technicality and de
| lay.
But the fullest recognition of ths
| horror of the crime and the most com.
| plete lack of sympathy with the crimi-
| nal cannot, in the least diminish oll
| horror at the way in which it has be-
| come customary to avenge these
| crimes and at the consequences tha
are already proceeding therefrom. L
| is. of course, inevitable that where
| rengeance is taken by mob it shoult