The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-09-01
LAME AND HALIING JUSTICE
NERVES THE LYNCHER'S ARM
R0oseveIt's Criminal Blunders i'm Thrustinp Forward
the Southern Negro Has intensified the
Antagonisn Between the Races.

-Igsestiou, profound moralizings,
s..aI blindness, and oblique deliver
...- "cus-ing' punishment by moDs,
..f. .guorIng multiplying crimes, en-
..uf.-Iug Iapca and murders, and pardon
.l criminals. Long ago the Southern
..,.-, denounced rapes, regretted the ne
" at mob vengeance, and stated again
..4 again that the only way to put a
Liam ta rapcs by loW-doWn whites, devils
,..rrlte. OF both colors, and negro brutcs.
r.5 The rapes, and the end to %lynchings
..- the great, damning, Internal crime of
,.fa. would cease and at once. Let the
..grt I~uiIeXibly, invariably punish crime
I'D. the extent of the laws, let trials by
#ure, be prompt, and let good men and
t4.e only be placed III the jury box.
ruf.I this IS done there will be but little
cessation to rapes and murders, but Oh the
,utrary they viii increase with time. /
,,a- very much impressed with what my
GOOD and honored friend, Chief Justice
Clark. OF our Supreme Court, lately wrote
,u one OF his opinions. He stated that
rFrrhlng~ were increasing, and he held
that there was nothing more subversiye
ot good government than Iynchings." He
mentioned that in fourteen years in North
Carolina more men had been lynchcd than
had been hanged by the courts-a pain
tui shameful, degrading statement to the
courts as well as to our alleged c~iviliza-
lou. In two years eight persons have
been Iynched III this State, three of
whom were lynched for rape. Five per-
sons only. in fourteen years in a great
State had been hanged by the courts.
This j. most fatal to the safety of human
If. ia law and order and common cpuCe
How can it be otherwise with such juries
as now try criminals, with soft hearted
udgcs presiding. with a Chief Executive,
however able and high in character, un-
able to resist the appeals of m~ultitudinous
court officials and tens of thousands of
-igncrs in behalf of crime and criminal
c~onyicts. Mr.. Justice Clark says that in
the past twelve years there has been a
doubling of murders in North Carolina,
and still in fourteen years but five hang
iugS for all offenses, rape included. Who
can expect any reform or any safety to
pure, true women and human life gener-
ally? chief Justice Clark says that man
slaughter has increased four-fold and other
crimes 10 per cent." Horrible, most ex-
ccrabl1. l quote: 'In II trial for any
capital offense, apart from other reasons,
'Ht IACNA1 vi Ai'A INoNi ApNN W ioit ~
of itself renders a conviction for murder
in the first degree almost an impOssibihty
Gn North Carolina) except in cases of
sheer poisoning or lying in wait, if the
prisoner is able to obtain able and skill
full counsel"
The legislatures somehow have played
havoc with divorce laws-throwing down
the fence in behalf of lust and meanness,
.r1 4A, 1n l 1In of CDb1n1rnl- I'M
derers and rapists. A rascal on trial fol
life or outrage upon a good woman has
tUcnty-three peremptory challenges, and
the State, standing as prosecutor and ion
the protection of helpless, defenceless wo
man and for human safety and life itself
has but four challenges. Barbaric truly
and highly sympathetic with the bad anC
the devilish. Read this from the very
able and conscientious Chief Justice:
Our statute law says murder shall bt
punished with death. In practice, in thu
State and some others, the punishment il
ordinarily a fine paid by the accused t
his counsel as a fee. and a far heavie
fine paid by the ~law-abiding people for tn
costs Of ,hc useless trial" A Northern
law journal, considering the very gray
things said by Chief Justice Clark, say
wisely anu truly tudG lnc GIdNllldl "bO
ton Of capital punishment in commun
lies where popular sentiment regards l
as essential to repress crime is one caus
which fosters lynchlngs.'' l make on
more quotation from the Chief Justice O
North Carolina, ever watchful, candid an
true, He says it is useless to denounc
lynrhIngs, by statute or otherwise, III an
locality where men in any considerabl
H.,
by the fear OF lynching can grave crime
be prevented, and that the fear of pun
i>hmcnt by law is too vague and indetir
tie to deter men from the commission c
capital offcnses. The ever increasing It'd
Oh crime should be repressed in an ordcrl
and legal way, by the administration G
the law by the courts, and resort to an,
other mode is evil, and evil only"
y venerable lady who is as well Dor
as any woman in the United States-wlt
"~ many eminent ancestry and as man
hIn-men Of the highest possible America
itHk-a lady who has been q member {
lAe church Tor quite fifty years, once sal
J' me IN reading of some OF the horrit
canning crimes and outrages pcrpetrate
upon white women Of character, that tn
biuies lynched deserved their fate richly
ia / was indignant and sympathcti
enough to indOrse her view. There Is nc
Il nam IN North Carolina unless insensibl
'' crime Of the most awful magnitude
"hL without the ordinary feelings an
"7Aho'd OF his race, who would not hay
n 'I91e lynched if his own pure, faithtl
"'e, or his dear sister, or the sweet, low
u laughter OF his home, just budded int
eN'..@us Womanhood. had been assaulte
NY villain, cruelty beaten and then mu
1eie1. The greatest of all writer's lie
'M7 Tor man to think of:
" nat Heaven do not their visible splrl
''"' quickly down to tame these VI
offcnses,
Twill come.
humanity must p~erforce prey on itsel
'Dhe monsters OF The deep"
'1.'F government, pure and more I
,''e courts, a sOunder and sancr law
'''h Jurles, safer, iuster, wiser Grimm