The Washington bee., 1906-12-29
CONSTITUTIONAL SPEAKS.
Telegram to President.

1 ''- ~-0''' teOHOFe NOOSttttty 1. res
ideHf Of the United States. Washing
/ ton, d. c.
he Pennsylvania Division of the
Constitution League respectfully pro-
tests against your super-heated denun-
citation of the colored troopers in re
cent message to Congress without one
iota OF evidence against a single man
among them. We also enter emphatic
protest against the unwarranted charge
that he colored peopel are especially
given 10 shielding criminals of their
race. The colored people have never
banded together in any community Ell
ther North or South, to shield a Grim
inal.
We respectfully call your attention to
the fact that white men of the South
have formed secret oath-bound organ
izations for the especial purpose of
murder and assassination and to de-
StrOy the constitutional rights and lib
critics of American citizens; that these
murderous organizations have been op-
Grating under different guiseS for forty
years, and that they have assassinated
probably forty thousand American CItI-
zens who were charged with no offense
| except that of voting the Republican
ticket; that these secret. oath-bound or
| ganizations cover every State IN the
| South and embrace white men OF every
grade OF society-not even the clergy
being omitted; that the white people of
! the South generally rallied TO the sup
port OF these murdeTous organizations
and shielded their memories from de
lection and punishment; that these muir
/ derouS organizations are carrying on
| their work even unto the present and
that the wholesale diSfranchisement
the jin-crowism and the lynchings and
burnings in the South are all part of
their plan of campaign 10 subjugate a
people and destroy their civil and po-
Etical rights: that these secret clans
hesitate not to assasinate United States
Government officials and band together
to shield and protect each other and
are supported by the white people. and
they have very recently seized and
Ilynchcd d prisoner who was in the
lcustody of the Supreme Court OF the
United States. and while the lynchers
we're in Washington, answering the
charge of contempt before the Supreme
Court of the United States, the nation
was shocked by the fact that the Pres
Iident received and honored the lynch
ers at the White House, These lynch
ers and in fact all the hundreds OF
lvnching bands have shielded and pro-
Itected each other, fully endorsed and
supported by the white people OF the
lSouth
{ An eminent American statesman de
clare, with reference to these secret
oath-bound- murder'ous orgaulzat'onI,
that with them Murder was an occupa-
ton and perjury a pastime- As a
matter Of fact then no people has shield
ed more criminals and covered up more
crimes than the white people Of the
South. And in the South the blood Of
more innocent men and women slam
bv brutal red-handcd white clans, cries
from the ground unto the vengeance OF
God than in all the other parts OF the
country taken together.
! We further would especially beseech
A modicum of your indulgent sympathy
for the colored womanhood OF the
South. 1t Is a fact that about five
hundred colored women in the South
many of them girls of tender years, are
outraged and destroyed by white men
where one white woman Is outraged
bv a colored man. These five hundred
coIored women and girls are absolutely
without redress. They are entitled to
consideration A gentleman of nation
Al character has recently stated through
| the public press that, while it Is true
thar Negro has occasionally outraged
a white woman it should not be tor
gotten that the white men Of the South
have raped race
/ We would respectfully state further
that the Constitution League has no
sympathy for criminals OF any class
whether white or colored; but It he
Teves in the axiom Of square deal
for all men. and that the condemnation
and punishment Of a man without proof
Of guilt or due process OF Ia" Is 'ne
essence of lynch law.
Yours very respectfully,
Vim. A. Sinclair,
President