The Columbus weekly dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 1902-1905, 1905-03-16
GOVERNOR VARDAMAN'S STIRRING APPEAL
To the People of Mississippi for the Enforcement of
the Law--The Idle, Vicious Negro Must Go.

Gov. Vardaman has issued the
following address to the peace
officers of the State aud good
citizens generally:
ITO the Onicers Of heCounties, Cities,
Towns and Villages in the State of
Mississippi. Charged with the En-
forcement of the Law:
Never before in the history of
this commonwealth were its
white people confronted with so
grave problem as that which
confronts them today.
The great mum Der of criminal
negroes who are drifting into the
cities and towns from the coun-
try, seeking a way TO live without
honest toll have become a peril
to the peace of the community
and a menace to the safety of the
white mans home.
In the City of Jackson, within
the very shadow of the State
Capitol, on one of the principal
streets, a few days ago, an un-
offending, chaste and honest
young white woman was brutally
ravished by a negro beast. The
atrocity of the deed, coupled by
the apparent reckless disregard
Of the probability of detection,
startles the Imagination and ev-
licences a spirit of dastardly
daring and fiendish atrocity on
the part of the perpetratOr which
is calculated to send a thrill of
horror through the hearts of
every white man and woman in
the State. 1t is more horrible
still when we contemplate the
fact that this crime was the cnl-
mination of a number of attempts
made by negroes in the City of
Jackson. within the last thirty
days.
That which bas occurred in the
City of Jackson is liable TO occur
(if it has not already occurred in
every city, town or rural neigh
borhood of the State. At one
time it was thought that there
was little danger of the com mis-
sion of such crimes in the cities
and towns with police regula-
tions, but the alarming frequency
with which it has been commit
ed IN recent years has changed
that thought. and shows that it
is just as liable to occur in the
heart of a city as in the sparsely
settled rural districts.
The stealthy manner which
characterizes the conduct of the
perpetrator of this crime re-
sembles the movement of the I'll
ger when pursuing his prey. The
presence of the fiend is never
known until the terrible deed has
been accomplished and the vic
tim left bleeding and dying with
seldom the trace of the identify
of her destroyer.
UTOPIAN DREAMS.
Forty years of freedom and
puolic education have uot fulfill
ed the Utopian dream of the ne
grophilist of the North and the
North favored vagarist of the
South. Tt has not i'm pro ed the
negro's morals, awakened within
him an intelligent love of country
or cultivated an uplifting, passion
restraining self respect He is
the barbarian still, with a thin
veneering of civilization, and the
education afforded him by the
white man 5 money over a period
of forty years seems only to have
increased his capacity for crime
Tn his educated condition his as
piration IS to rise in the world i
and otherwise manifests itself II
beastly assaults upon white wo
men.
The situation is becoming des
perate and something must bs
done.
While the average negro is in
herently immoral. the more vi