The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-07-09
DUTY OF SOUTHERN
LAWYERS TOWARD
NEGRO QUESTION
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opinion upon this subject. has been
marked and important.
The wrong done to the victim Is not
the only nor perhaps the greatest evil.
In the parliament of the worlds opin-
ion. as well as by our own laws, the
killing of person charged with crime
by an assembled mob without the form
or substance of a trial, is simply MUIR
der. nothing less.
Injury TO Moral Sense of Community.
1t inflicts a lasting injury upon the
moral sense of the community in which
1t occurs. The members assume that
they are the avengers OF outraged wo-
manhood, or of the sanctity of life, or
property. Many of them believe, and
not without cause. that while they are
not acting strictly according to law,
they have the tacit approval of the
community behind them. Boys and
the shrieking and dazed wretch is put
to the torture or death. In a re-
cent instance in an adjoining State, to
which have already alluded, a girl of
10 was induced or permitted to adjust
the moose, and to lead the horse from
beneath the victim, leaving him hang
inc She was led to imbrue her hands
in blood-in order to save her from the
ordeal of appearing as a witness!
The minds or consciences of the spec
tators or participants receive a moral
wrench the effects of which may en-
dure for n generation.
But why continue? All these facts
are so self-evident, so trite and so
thoroughly admitted, that it seems pue-
rile to recount them. But the lynchings
go on, and no concerted effort is made
TO stop them. Everyone condemns. the
newspapers denounce, but no grand
jury 1ndicts and no man Is held to an
swer.
1t is true that there Is no legal du-
ties resting upon lawyers which does
not rest upon every law-abiding citi-
zen, but l believe that owing to the
position of lawyers in the community,
they have an added moral responsible
lty. Every lawyer has taken an oath
10 support thes constitution of the
United states, and of his State, and
this obligation was never intended to
be meaningless formula, nor to have
been thoroughly discharged by passive
acquiescence.
The fundamental principles of civil
liberty, nourished upon English soil,
crystalized in Magma Charta incorpor-
eral constitutions. can never be lightly
disregarded. You have sworn to up
hold the provision that no man shall
be accused. arrested or detained except
in cases ascertained by law and accord
ing to the forms which the same has
prescribed; that no man shall be de-
prived of his life liberty or property.
but by due process of law.
Though it is a problem whose solu-
ton may battle the most untiring, yet
believe that the obligation to combat
inns grave disease rests with an espe-
cial force upon lawyers.
Public opinion is at the root of all
observance OF law. and statutes II un-
supported by 1t, are without force and
powerless. And public sentiment, as
Spencer points out, is nothing but the
sum of the minds and consciences of
me people. We can make unceasing
EFFORTS to educate the public conscience
When an occasion arises lawyers are
not generally found wanting
senator Simmons of North
recently pleaded successfully with an
angry mob to spare the life OF his ia
Tiers murderer. and to leave him to
the law.
Lawyers can uphold the efforts Of
State officers to BRING to trial those
who have defed the law
Suggests a Remedy.
Convictions may be difficult to
obtain for the present put grand
ments. One serious effort to convict a
person charged with lynching, even il
1t should fall as 1t almost surely
would. would have a greater deterrent
effect than a hundred addresses and
sermons.
So far as legislation is concerned. we