The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-11

enport, charged with the murder of Colonel Davenport. Suspicion was strong as to their guilt We have heard rumors that lynch law had been inflicted upon both the Redmans since their arrest that they both were hung q845, October 25, ibid, xix, 115.)
 Yet outrages the most terrible succeed each other rapidly Men are lynched and stabbed and shot. with as little compunc- ton as you would feel in splitting at a goose! The other class were then either lynched and warned to leaveSthe county in so many days or else shot if they persisted in remain ing! Q845, American Rev, i, 1H. 122) l expressed my horror at these trans actions, observing that Florida, If in so rude and barbarous a state, ought not to have been admitted into the union. My companions agreed to this. but said they believed the man had fair play on his trial and added: If you were a set tier there and had no other law to de- fend you. you would be glad of the pro- lection of Judge Lynch" QS46. Sir c. Lyell, "Second Visit to the Unit ed States" il, 32)
 The system of "regulators" and their ever concomitant opponents. the mod erators," will not do and as soon as two regularly organized parties are found to exist 1t Is the part of every wise man. who has due regard for his life and peace to move, at any sacrifice. QS50, American Rev. xii d62.)
 From this evidence and from other ma terial in my possession 1t appears that the original term was 'Lynch's law" that this was soon shortened to Lynch Cor lynch) law" and then to lynch" that originally lynch law was a whipping | .NthA lynch law originally obtained only in the border settlements, where the adminstra- ton of justice either was or was sup posed to be uncertain: that In the early days Of lynch law innocent persons were sometimes punished, ana suits for dam ages were by no means unknown that about 1880, writers regarded the practice | as on the wane and likely soon to dis appear altogether; that before about 1885 the victims of lynch law were generally whites occasionally Indians. but never negroes; that soon after 1880 q revival of | lynch law took place, due to the anti slavery agitation and the practice spread throughout the country; that between 1880 and 1S40 the term lynch underwent change in meaning, and Ito lynch" ac- quired the sense of to put to death; that during the same period negroes were first lynched; that about 1885 we first hear of
 
 lynchng has been confined largely but by no means wholly. to negroes in the south and west.
 It further appears that there is direct historical connection between the killing of a negro in a highly civilized community in 1902 and the whipping of a white man along the frontiers In 1877. Step by step, the illegal whippings of 1877 have led to the illegal ournings alive | of 1902. In short the more civilized the country has become, the more brutal | has been the punishment meted out under i lynch law.
 It will be observed that in some of the extracts cited above there Is mention of | lynchers under the name of regulators. Now. the words regulating" "regula- | tion and regulator were first employ- ed in this country. SO far as I am aware. at the time when the so-called 'regula- tors came into existence in the back set dement's of the Carolinas in 176s It has been asserted that lynch law derived it's name from Lynchs Creek, S. C., because at that place the practice of lynching began. This derivation of the term has yet to be proved, but there were at that period instances of lynch law, in it's ori- ginal meaning of a whipping, and that the 'reguators'' held a meeting at Lynch's Creek.