The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1905-07-28

seen and known in their ow,
proper persons. Believing thes
10 De true reporters-in man,
cases they were not-the Norti
might properly discuss SLAYER,
IN Its working and effects, but OF
no other conditions. If the fac
only OF slavery, the holding a hu
man being at a chattel, and what
that involved, sufficed to satisfy
mems moral sense of the wrone
OF slavery, then such men miphf
act on, such convictions, and look
no further. But our present
problem, especially it's features
OF rape and lynching, is not such
a. question. The present situa.
ton, at the South is. not a theory
or theorum to be developed and
worked out by logic or reasoning.
Nor is it primarily a moral issue.
lt IS a concrete exhibition of hu-
man nature as represented bv
Two distinct races, working un-
Ger very peculiar conditions.
These conditions are a series of
facts. Hence we must get at
the facts.
Now, holding myself a ouali-
he'd witness, as well as a truth
tul one, | set forth the present
situation. | must be impeached
IN some way as a witness, or INV
testimony must stand. IF wifi
nesses equally competent and
truthful can be brought to con-
tradlct me-well, l have heard
OF none. | have the pleasure on
Rnso, tnls topic; ..r, described hMs h2,M,sas;,re a,
Daconi aule TO" hto standing on the
vantage ground of truth. truth
seen with my own eyes, tested
6y my own senses. do not pro-
Tess to be what Macaulay called
a semi-Solomon," but only a
truthful reporter and a fair reas-
oner. IT | have bias, it must be
towards my own section of orr
country.
On the subject of rapes and
lynchlngs, my testimony and
views are plain, if not correct. I
will mention here, as an aside
as ihat t01a n re RggiHHaeted He edets dester Mr. Bryce
with me as to lynching-in what
particular he does not say-and
that he has it in mind to express
himself more fully who'd time
permits.
My testimony is in brief this:
That rape of white women by
is a widely prevalent
crime and fact at the South;
that the crime arouses an abso-
lutely uncomfortable passion in
the hearts of white men, which
will infallibly result in lynching
unless prevented by superior
force; that. lynching soon goes
from the crime of rape to other
lesser crimes, till laws and courts
are discredited, and anarchy and
brute force supplant them, or
soon will do SO; that in the pres
ence of all this and even under
the terror of lynchings, the ne
gro race is everywhere, with very
slight exceptions, supine ard
practically helpless; they seem
to regard the whole matter as
white mans fight, in which they
have no practical concern or du-
ty; that not one great voice, not
one chief leader, not one great
agency, school or church, is now,
or has been, engaged in any
special effort to teach the negro
race the duty and necessity, even
on the low ground of physical
safety, of putting down the
crime in question; that when I
say putting it down, / mean no
impossibility, no new thing, but
only the old and everywhere eff
fective remedy of an aroused,
vigilant, inexorable public opin-
ion among the whole negro race
at our South.
My further testimony is that
negro public opinion among the
negro race is specially strong
and controlling over that race; /;
that it may not be enlightened
it plainly is not-but that it is
strong and effective even to a
slavish extent. No man who
knows the negro character at oul
South will dispute this. Once
arouse the fixed, clear feeling
among the negroes that this
crime must be put down, and il