The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1907-01-22

"Have I ever advocated lynch law
at any time or place? 1 answer on
my honor never I have justified il
for one crime and one only, and I
have consistently maintained that A..
titude for the last Ia years. AS gov
ernor Of South Carolina, proclaimed
that would lead mob to lynch any
man, black or white, who had rayish-
ed any woman, black or white. This
is my attitude, calmly and deliberately
taken, and justified by my conscience
in the sight of God"
He then hot1y denounced the hy-
pocrisy and cowardice of any man who
questioned his motives.
"The senator from Wisconsin prates
about the laws" said Mr.. Tillman.
HE erects the law into deity which
mus be Worship ned regard less Of jus
.
his mind has become saturated with
the bigotry which ignores the ,funda-
mental principle in this government.
Law is nothing more than the will of
the people.
''There are unwritten laws and writ
ten laws, and the unwritten laws are
talways the very embodiment of saw
age justice. The senator from Wis
consin is incapable of understanding
conditions in the south, or else he
has lost those natural impulses which
| has for centuries been the character
istics of the races. That trinity Of
/ words, the noblest and holiest in our
language, womanhood, wifehood, moth
erhood, have origin, and man who
speaks with 1ightness or flippancy or
I discusses cold-bloodedly a matter SO
vital as the purity and chastity of
woman hood is disgrace to his own
mother and unworthy Of the love of a
good wife.
| "It is idle to reason about; it is un-
reasonable to preach about it. Our
brains reel under the staggering blow
and hot blood surges to the heart. Civ
ilization peels off us and all of us who
are men and we revert to the original
savage type whose impulses under
tall such circumstances have always
been to kill, kill, kill!
81 do not know what the senator
from Wisconsin would do under these
circumstances, neither do ] care. I
have three daughters. So help me
God, would rather find any one OF
them killed by a tiger, or by bear
and gather up her bones and bury
them, conscious that she had died in
the purity of her maidenhood, than
to have her crawl to me and ell 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 obey the in
stinct of nature and we would hunt
him down and kill him just as soon
as possible.
what shall we do with a man who
i has outbruted the brute and commit
i ted an act which is more cruel than
death? Try him? Drag the victim,
into court, for she alone can furnish
legal evidence and make her testify
to the terrible ordeal through which
she has passed, undergoing a second
crucifixion? That is what the senator
from Wisconsin would do and he Is
welcome to all the honor he can gel
out Of 1t. Our rule is to make the wo
man witness, prosecutor, Judge and
jury. I have known Judge lynch's
court to sit for a week, while suspect
after suspect, had been arrested, ant
in every instance they were brough
into the presence Of the victim ant
when she said shat is not the man.
he was set free, but when she declarei
the guilty wretch, It was enough, ant
until the white men shall change
their natures and become degeneras,
2 It will continue to be enough. Th'
4 senators from Wisconsin and Colo
: RADIO may rave. the newspapers ma,
howl, hut nten who were reared b,