Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-03-18
LYNcHINe NORTH AND SOUTH.
Mississippi Congressman Talks From
the Shoulder.

In the house Of representatives last
Wednesday during the discussion OF
the postoffice appropriation bill, Mr.
Spight, Of Mississippi, discussed the
negro question. He said he desired
to vindicate the south from the charge
of barbarism. In the south, he SAID,
the negro had been denied the right
to vote and to hold office,but not the
right to work for an honest living,
as had been done in the northern
states.
I'VE sometimes kill them for out
rageous crimes" he said, but never
because they want to work. AS
for lynchings, he said, that sometimes
they have unnecessarily occurred In
the south. He referred to the Will
mington, Del, lynching last year, and
to the subsequent attacks on the ne
gro settlement. This never occurred
in the SOUTH" he said. When the
guilty wretch has paid the penalty OF
his awful crime that is the end of 1t,
he continued; the mob is satisfied and
does not wreak indiscriminate ven
geance upon the innocent because they
belong to the same race as the crlml-
nal" He said that, unlike the people
of the north, the people Of the south
don't go out with a torch In one hand
and a gun in the other, and, pointing
the gun at defenceless women and
children, shoot them as they flee 1ol
their lives" He said this had occur
red in New York city in 1900, and ne
referred to a number Of lynchings
which had occurred in the north, In.
Guiding those at Danville, ILL.,, anc
Springfield, O., and said such race
prejudice finds no place in our hearts,.
Mr.. Spight continued: $50 far as
nnnnCnd moi
violence as a general proposition.
do not think that lynchings for any
other crime than the nameless one
against women ought ever to occur
In all others the courts of the countr!
are ample and generally, with us, swifI
to punish.
| But in the one class of crimes So
brutal and destructive Of all that 1"
dear to an enlightened people. no ont
with a spark Of manhood in him car
doubt that instant death to the perpe"
traitor should follow upon the ascer-
tainment Of the facts. The poor suf"
fering woman. who has been the vic
tim of the devilish lust of a brute
white or black, should not be COMPEL
ed to appear in court and repeat be-
fore a jury the horrible details of the
outrage"
Mr.. Spight recited that the burning
at the stake of such brutes' was no,
confined to the south, but had occur.
red in the north as we'll. Mr.. Spighi
spoke of the attempt of certain white
persons to put the negro on socia
equality with themselves. and, refer
ring to the occasion when Booker
Washington dined at the White House
with President Roosevelt, said thai
this one incident has done more to In.
flame the passions of the negro ano
give him a perverted idea of his i'm
portance and his near approach to So
cial equity than anything that has
been done for the last ten years." He
said Booker Washington had sat dowr
to dinner with the president, "as
graciously as if he had been the gov
ernor of New York" He was. he con:
tinued. sorry that Mr.. Washington die
not have more sense and Self-respecl
than to accept the invitation. 1t woulc
have been infinitely to his credit hac
he declined. THE more the negroes
are put on a social equality" he Wig
orously asserted, "the more danger.
Gus becomes their position and the
surer death by violence will overtake
them sooner or later"
| Mr.. Spight referred to the arrest lr
| Indianola. Miss, OF white agents OF
| Cincinnati picture company. who were
selling to the negroes indecent pic.
lures. In his opinion the agents shoulc
have been lynched.