The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-22

| of the power Of anybody at any time ~
ever prove who the guilty men were, and
mete out adequate punishment TO them.
| Referring to another subject OF crit
icism Mr.. Tillman continued:
| 1T was adroit for the senator to shit
| the minds of his auditors and the readers
/ of the record from the Presidents out
| rageous discrimination against the black
soldiers and favoring the white ones to
| my own utterances and attitude towards
the negro rapists, and the shrewdness and
dishonesty of the argument, and the In
| decency of the attack was emphasized
when the senator from Wisconsin pro-
ceeded to quote from a former speech of
mine in this body in which 1 said: We
shot them; We killed them, and we will do
it again..
No One Dared Reply.
| Now what about those words of mine
| We shot them, ETC. In what connection
did 1 utter them. If l mistake not the
senator from Wisconsin was In this cham
Der when 1 used that language. There
were present a large number of leading
republicans. l challenged each and every
| man here to show wherein the people of
/ South Carolina were not justified and no
] one dared reply
Not a word about Iynching The con-
tinued. And my attitude towards it. A
! great deal has been said In the news
/ papers north and south about my respon-
sibility in connection with this matter.
My position has been purposely misrepre-
scented and the senator from Wisconsin
has assumed to himself the right to ar
raign me In this body, and to pass judg
ment of condemnation in most biting and
vindictive phrase"
| Have l ever advocated lynch law at
any time or at any place? I answer on
my honor, never. have justified it for
one crime and one only, and I have con-
sistently and persistently maintained that
attitude for the last fourteen years. AS
governor of South Carolina I proclaimed
that, although 1 had taken the oath of
office to support the law and enforce it, L
would lead a mob to lynch any man, black
or white, who had ravished any woman,
black or white This Is my attitude calmly
and deliberately taken, and justified by
my conscience in the sight of God.
MIR. President, the senator from Wis
consin speaks of 1ynching bees AS far
as lynching for rape is concerned, the
word is a misnomer. When stern and
| sadfaced white men put to death a Great
! ure in human form who has defowered
! a white woman, there Is nothing of the
bee about 1t. There is more of the feel
Ing of participating as mourner at a
| funeral. They have avenged the great
est wrong, the blacklist crime in all the
! category of crimes, and they have done
/ II not so much as act of retribution
in behalf OF the victim, as warning
as to what any man may expect who
shall repeat the offense. They are look
ing to the protection of their loved ones.
Erects Law Into Deity.
1.-THE senator from Wisconsin pirates
about the law. He erects the law into
a deity which must be worshiped re-
4 CARELESS of justice. He has studied law
Ii. I'll l1- fTrt.
i ated with the bigotry which ignores the
fundamental principle In this government,
/ law is nothing more than the willing
] OF the people, There are written laws
and unwritten laws and the unwritten
/ laws are always the very embodiment
of savage Justice. The senator from
/ Wisconsin is incapable of understand
ing conditions in the south o. else he
/ has lost those natural impulses which
for centuries have been the jewel of
+ the race to which we belong. That trim
4 ity of words the noblest and hottest in
our language. womanhood, wifehood,
i motherhood, have Saxon origin And
man who speaks with lightness or flip
pancy or discusses cold bloodedly
matter so vital as the purity and chastity
of womanhood, is a disgrace to his own
mother and unworthy the love of good
wife.
TT is idle to reason about it; it is
idle to preach about 1t. Our brains reel
under the staggering blow and hot blood
surges to the heart. Civilization peels
off us and any and all of us who are
men, and we revert to the original saw
age type whose impulses under any and
all such circumstances have always been
to kill kill, KILL.
"I do not know what the senator from
Wisconsin would do under these cir
/ cumstances, neither do l care have
three daughters; so help me God | had
! rather find the one of them killed by
| tiger or by bear and gather up their
| bones and bury them, conscious that
she had died in the purity of her maiden
| hood, than have her crawl to me and
| tell me the horrid story that she had
lost the Jewel of her womanhood, or
rather had been robbed of it by black
| fiend The wild beast would only obey
! the instinct of nature and We would hunt
him down and kill him just as soon as
! possible. What shall we do with man
who has outbruted the brute and COM
'mtted an act which is more cruel than
death? Try him. Drag the victim into
court for she alone furnish legal
! evidence and make her testify to the
fearful ordeal through which she has
passed, undergoing a second crucifixion7
Scorn Such Creatures.
THAT is what the senator from Wis
consin says he would do, and he is well
come to all of the honor he can get out
! of 1t. Our rule is to make the woman
witness prosecutor, Judge and jury. L
| have known Judge Lynchs court to sit
| for week while suspect after suspect
| had been run down and arrested, and IN
1 every instance they were brought into
| the presence of the victim and when she
| said that is not the man he was set
1 free, but when she declared the guilty
wretch, 1t was enough. and until the
white men of the south shall change their
natures and become degenerate, 1t Will
continue to be enough. The senators
! from Wisconsin and Colorado may rave;
the newspapers may howl, but men who
were reared by virtuous mothers and
who revere womanly virtue as the most
| priceless Jewel of their civilization, will
do as we oil the south have done.
ION this question l take back nothing
and apologize for nothing. | spurn and
scorn the charlatanry and cant, the by
pocrisy and cowardice. the insolence and
effrontery of all such creatures"
Concluding with the explanation of his
! position on the Brownsville affair MI.
I Tillman said:
| II find myself on this question for the
first time since | have been a member
of this body holding different Views and
taking a different position to my demo-
| cratic colleagues. | have no fault to
find with them, nor do | criticise their
action. No one understands the attitude
| of the south on the negro question better
than | do, especially IN regard to negro
soldiers They were quartered In 1865 and
1866 In nearly every southern common
wealth, and were guilty of some most
horrible acts of oppression and cruelty.