The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-12

though they do not represent the sen timents of the bone and sinew of the | country, more and more drive him apart from the white race
 Instinct of Race Pride.
 ''The instinct of race pride which ob- jeets to mingling the blood of the races is implanted in our bosoms by the fin- ger of the Almighty himself, to preserve the purity of the race. It Is a divine gift. It is almost sacrilege to liken it 10 prejudice. It has nothing in common With the meanness and cowardice which would deny fellow being those com | mon and inalienable rights which the creator gave all men, or oppress or out | rage a man because he is humble and helpless, or born of a different race The two feelings are so different and | as far apart as virtue and vice. It is infamous to confound the one with the | other.
 Yet day after day. the passions of the minimizing and ignorant have been stirr- ed by reckless agitators who argue that the purity of the white race can be maintained and defended only beating 1 down the benign rule that justice should | be administered without respect to per- sons and that laws which We one rule alike for rich and poor favorite at l court and countryman at blow are not l bulwarks of our defense and that their enforcement is a menace to the integri- 1 ty of the white race. No wonder then with the difficulties which naturally sur round the subject that under the influ- ence of these long continued and com bined assaults, volume of race bitter ness has been put in motion which has drowned the law in some communities.
 Appalled, by Recollection.
 What good man is not appalled, when he recalls that in one intelligent com munity in our state two juries success slVely, composed of white men, could be found to condemn a law abiding negro to death, because to protect his sleeping family from midnight intrusion. against an attempt at lawless entrance. he de- tended his home by taking the life of a white man? The shame of such a crime is not wiped out because two hon orabe judges indignantly set aside the
 verdict, and thus prevented a judicial
 murder.
 ''It is not astonishing to find a grand jury in that same community promptly releasing members of a mop who mur-
 dered a negro in the custody of officers
 of the law although a conscientious judge
 on the full hearing of the facts had de-
 nied bail, and in spite of the earnest ad-
 juration of another judge to the grand
 jury to do its duty In another eommun-
 ity after a gambling quarrel between
 negroes and whites. which resulted in the
 injury of a white man. the black offender
 was promptly put into the village prison ''The white mob murdered him there, Fl and firing the jail to burn his body,
 destroyed the larger part of the village l Yet neither law nor public sentiment in } that community Is strong enough to in- dict the offenders and bring them tc justice. In the capital of the state a few years since. a negro was taken from { the officers of the law. and murdered by } a mob with the connvance of the police ; force. In another instance there, prls- oner was taken from the deputy sheriff , and murdered. Many of the offenders , were known; but no grand jury could ) be induced to return a true bill The world knows what has been done here.
 Bulk Not Lawless.
 "This does not mean that the bulk of the people in those communities are law l less. These communities contain hun ; dreds of courageous, noble and lawabid- ing men. Yet, they have not been out spoken. They have not opposed stern front to lawlessness. They stood still ! because they hoped that like occurrences would not again take place. Their { forbearance and silence fed the spirit of mob law until the mb has become strong CT than the law In most of those commun- ities. The practical result Is that the vicious minority that have established In those communities, the rule. that the , l law of Alabama shall not be enforced