Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1909-04-09
SOUNDS WARNING TO THE
NEGROES.

| Powhatan, Virginia, March 25.-
Sentence of death was pronounced
on Joe and Ishman Taylor, Lewis
Jenkins, John Brown and his son.
VIM. Brown condemned for the mur-
der OF Walter G. Johnson in the home
of Mrs. Mary E. Skipwith, "South.
east" on the night OF Feb. II, this
morning by Judge Geo. j. Hundley,
i ! one OF the most powerful statements,
according to lawyers here, ever de-
livered in a courtroom.
'Joe and Isham Taylor, Lewis Jen
kins, John and VIM. Brown" he
said, 81 condemn you, in accordance
to law, TO die on the 30th of April, and
may God Almighty have mercy on
your souls" Judge Hundley's state
ment follows
"If you were the only ones affected
by the result of this trial | might send
you to your doom in silence, for it is
painful to think or speak of, but when
| reflect that the murder must have
been planned with the knowledge of
many of your own race, that no one
Of them lifted finger to prevent it,
and that none of them after its COM
mission aided in the effort to discover
and punish the perpetrators, | would
b, false to my convictions of duty If
| failed to utter some words of warn
ing to your people.
"The savages who once roamed over
this land never planned a massacre
with more cold-blooded generalization
or executed it with more heartless
cruelty.
"You were not strangers to the man
or to the helpless old woman you
mur Tered, but you lived almost at
their door and fed upon their bounty.
"You came to their door in the night
time, and with the voice and language
of friends you called the man to the
door ald shot him down. Drained the
good old lady with an axe, dragged
her body down the steps like the car
cass of slaughtered beast and burned
them up in their own dwelling, in all
likelihood whilst still alive.
POSITIVE OF GUILT.
81 have not the shadow of a doubt
of your guilt. You we're not convicted
on uncorroborated testimony of ac-
completes.
"In all my experience | have never
known so complete a web or network
Of circumstances woven around the ac-
cused, completely corroborating tie
testimony OF your coupled accom-
plices.
Indeed, to contemplate it is to be
convinced of the overruling arm of
an Almighty power controlling the
destinies.
'The most discouraging and shock
ing feature of it is that so many Of
you in the same neighborhood could
be induced to engage in it; that it
could be conducted with such profound
secrecy and is regarded by your peo-
pie with sucn Indifference.
"Viewed in that light, it assumes
dark and sinister aspect, marks an
epoch in the history of your race and
furnishes sad commentary on the
long and patient struggle OF good men
to find way by which two distinct
diverse and alien peoples may dwell
together in peace, under the same in
stitutions and laws, with equal oppor-
tunities and privileges.
"It is proper that your people should
know and realize the fact that the pro-
tectipg arm of the law has been thrown
around you from the beginning to the
end OF your trial; that two white law
yers, living in this county, have, at
the request of the court, without fee or
reward, bravely and ably defended
you in the face of adverse criticism
from thoughtless people.
DEADLY BLOW TO RACE.
1.-THE Judge who presides has sat
here with letter from the Governor in
his pocket warning him of probable
riot and lawlessness, and promising
TO support the law officers with all the
power OF the Commonwealth, il neces-
sary, to project you, but with full con-
fidence in the law-abiding character OF
this people, and, If need be, in the
civil power, your officers have de-
clined to call on the military arm OF
the State.
"Let it be remembered by your peo-
pie, too, that under circumstances far
less exasperating occurring in the
Northern States, whole settlements of
your people have been driven from
their homes, their houses burned, and
men, women and children hunted like
wild beasts, whilst here you, after
such crime as have described, have
had every right under the law that
yol could claim freely accorded yor,
and your families and your people
still dwell here and will continue to
dwell here in peace and security.
"Now the sentence of the law about
to be pronounced upon you, which must
send you to the death chair. is just
punishment for most atrocious
crime.
''I trust the people OF your race will
see and realize that, under all the
circumstances, Ia doing what you did
do on that fatal night, you struck an
even deadlier blow at their well-being,
the evil effects OF which. fear, will be
felt for long years to come.
"If in the face of light and knowl-
edge they shall fail to reslize tho Inn