The Savannah morning news., 1904-08-17
THE BULLOCH COUNTY LYNCHING.

| The BULLOCH COUNTY LfNCHING.
1t is profoundly to be regretted that
the law was not permitted TO take it's
! course in the case of the munderers of
the Hodges family. We are sure that
| the better sentiment of Bulloch county
was against lynching the murderers;
not that there was a feeling that the
| punishment that might be inflicted
upon them would be too severe, be-
| cause their crime was so terrible and
brutal that no punishment could be too
| severe, but because of the desire that
! the law should be respected and that
the fair fame of the county shouldn't
be blotted by a lawless deed of horror
having the appearance of the approval
/ of the community.
We can understand why the feeling
against the prisoners was intensely bit
ter The crime they had committed,
and of which they were convicted, was
one of the worst ever known in the
| state. In the darkness of the night an
| entire family, consisting of a man, his
| wife and three children, people of high
standing in their community, had been
murdered and their bodies burned with
their home, but it was certain the
! criminals would be put to death as a
| punishment for their crime. They had
| been sentenced and the day on which
they were to be hung had been fixed.
There was no possibility that they
would escape.
What then was the incentive to the
| lynching? Was it vengeance? The
feeling of the lynchers against the
criminals could not have been as in
tense as was that Of the brother of the
murdered man, and he begged that
| respect for the law be maintained to
the end.
Was it thought an example so terri
BILE should be made that in future no
such crime would be committed? Did
fathers, husbands and brothers feel
that their own safety and that of their
families and homes demanded that the
murderers should perish at the stake
rather than on the gallows? There
may have been such feeling, and yet
a legal execution would have been as
great, il not a greater, deterrent of
crime. Death on the gallows is awe
inspiring and is as terrifying particu-
larly to negroes, as death by fire.
II punishment was aimed at, then
the mental agony the condemned men
would have suffered between the day
on which they We're sentenced and that
fixed for their execution would have
been far greater than that which they
suffered in the short time between the
applying of the torch and their loss of
consciousness.
Perhaps if the lynchers were asked
their motive for interfering with the
law, most of them would say the con-
demned men had committed a horrible
crime for which they ought to be made
to suffer as severely as possible, and
as quickly as possible after their guilt
was established. A few might say
they wanted hand in INJECTING the
punishment.
That 1t would have been better for
Bulloch county, for the people of that
county and for the state if the law had
been respected, there can be no doubt.
The effort that was made to check the
lynching spirit was earnest and per-
sistent That spirit manifested itself
Immediately after the discovery of the
crime, but was successfully discour-
aged by leading men of the county. 1t
got beyond their control as soon as
the doomed men were sentenced.
In future, the delay of the courts
will not be an argument in favor of
lynching. In the Bulloch county case
the court acted with commendable and
satisfying promptness, but a lynching
be stopped except by dominant pub
lie sentiment against them.