The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-23
THE 'CHAINGANG SYSTEM.
From the Boston Transcript.

District Court of the Southern Dis
trict of Georgia, and now published in
pamphlet form. is a notable pronounce
ment from many points of view. 1t
shows a determination to establish
justice for the weak as well as the
strong, the black man as we'll as the
white, while incidentally it gives a pic
ture of the chaingang features, so re-
voting as to carry sudden conviction
to every sane and healthy mind that
this institution has no legitimate
place in a civilized country The
case upon which the decision was rem
dered was petition by one Henry
Jamison, a colored man, for the writ
of habeas corpus.
The circumstances as the judge
stated them upon the basis of the ev-
ldence was that the petitioner was a
generally respectable colored man be-
tween SO and so years of age, who
gained livelihood by working for
reputable families of Macon. He was
arrested on the charge of being drunk
and disorderly, Immediately convicted
on the strength of the arresting Of
ticer's testimony, and an aggregate
fine of $50 was imposed, with the alter
native penalty of seven months at hard
labor in the chaingang. Being a poor
man, it was impossible for him to pay
the fine, which in itself showed his
offense was not of serious kind. He
remained in the changing for five
days, when the writ of habeas corpus
was sued out in his behalf and he was
brought before the court over which
Judge Speer presided.
The latter's decision in general terms
was to the effect that under the Amer
lean system the changing has no
place in the jurisdiction and procedure
of public courts where trial by jury
is not a right of the accused. In sum-
moning up he made his conclusion
broader and more significant than was
simply necessary to give body to his
opinion. He recalled a plea which he
made before a jury twenty-One years
ago in a celebrated case, in which he
said: Never in the history of the
world has any considerable class of
people been debased and degraded by
force and lawlessness but that the en-
tire people suffered because of that
degradation. The white people of this
country control the government, state
and federal. They enjoy every con-
ceiVable advantage. They have SUI
periority in wealth, education social
influence, everything. A nlagnanimous
people, just people, they owe it to
themselves to be magnanimous and
just to the colored people," That, he
declares, was true then and is true
now, and he ordered absolute judg-
ment in favor of the petitioner.
In the course of his argument he
sought to establish the fact that the
chatngang service was an infamous
punishment. 1t hardly Needed the opin-
ions of the high authorities whom he
quoted to establish that point His
own description was sufficient, and was
in part, as follows:
The sufferers wear the typical strip
ed clothing of the penitentiary convict
Iron manacles are riveted upon their
legs. These can be removed only by
the use of the cold chise. The irons
on each leg are connected by chains.
The coarse stripes, thick with the dust
and Crime of long tOrrid days of a
semi-tropical summer or encrusted
with the icy mud of winter, are their
sleeping clothes, when they throw
themselves on their pallets of straw
in the common stockades at night
They wake. toll, rest, eat, and sleep,
to the never-ceasing clanking of the
manacles and chains of this involun-
tary slavery. Their progress to and
from their work is public, and from
dawn to dark, with brief interlnis-
sion, they toll on the public roads and
before the public eye. About them
as they sleep, journey and labor, watch
the convict guards armed with rifle
and shotgun. This is to at once make
escape impossible, and to make sure
the swift thudding of the picks and
the rapid flight of the shovels shall
never cease. If the guards would hes
itate to promptly kill one sentenced
for petty violations of city law should
he attempt to escape, the evidence
does not disclose the fact And the
fact more lbaleful and more ignomi-
NOUS than all, with each gang stands
the whipping boss, with the badge of
his authority. This the evidence dis
closes to be a heavy leathern strap
about two and a half or three feet
long, with solid hand grasp, and with
broad. heavy and flexible lash. From
the evidence we may judge that the
agony inflicted by this implement of
fortune is not surpassed by the Rus
sian knout, the synonym the world
around for merciless corporal punish
ment. If we may also accept the I'M
contradicted evidence of the witnesses
it is true that on the Bibb county
changing for no day is the strap
wholly Idle and not infrequenty it is
fiercely active.
The whipping boss selects the vic
Tins in his judgment deserving of
punishment, and the practice of cruel
ty develops rapidly with exercise. In
this decision Judge Speer has rem
dered a double service to society and
humanity. He has saved a man from
a penalty outrageously in excess of
his Offences and has exposed an in
stitution that the law has created and
sustains. but which is none the less