The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-05-26
BLOW At LYNCH|NC
U. S. Supreme Court Puts
Sheriff In Contempt.
FOR FAILING TO PROTECT NEGRO
First Instance on Record In Which
Highest Federal Court Takes
Such Action-Five Other
Men Also to Suffer.
FOR FAILING TO PROTECT NEGRO

Washington. May 25.-Sheriff Shipp. |
Deputy Sheriff Gibson and four other
residents of Hamilton county, Tenn,
were declared guilty Of contempt of
the supreme court of the United States
IN combining in conspiracy to lynch
a negro named Johnson, sentenced to
death for criminal assault Oh a woman.
Johnson was iynchcd after he had
been granted an appeal by the su-
prcme court.
Sentence will be passed upon the six
men next Tuesday week, when for the
first time the supreme court of the
United States will undertake to mete
out punishment for the crime of con-
tempt of the court itself.
On the night following the granting
of the appeal Johnson was taken out
of the Jail in Chattanooga by mob
and lynched. There was no resistance
on the part of the jail authorities.
The case is regarded as Of excep-
tional interest because it is practically
the first time that the highest court in
the United States has ever undertaken
to assert its dignity or to resent acts
or words rejecting upon it.
In the cases of Sheriff Shipp and
Deputy Gibson the court declares that
there may be contempt in failure of
officers of the law to prevent a crime
in contempt of the court and in talk
ing cognizance of an offense at so
great a distance the court for the first
time asserts its right to compel the
proper respect for and treatment of its
verdicts in all parts of tile Union. $500
Reviewing the proceedings, the chief
justice pointed out that even before
the case was brought to the supreme
court there had been many threats of
lynching because of the serious charac-
ter of the negroes otfense. Continuing.
he said of the proceedings on the night
Of the lynching:
"The assertions that mob violence
was not expected and that there was
no occasion for providing more than
/ the usual guard of one man for the
Jail in Chattanooga are quite unreal
SOnable and inconsistent with state
mcnts made by Sheriff Shipp and his
deputies that they were looking for n
mob on the next day"
The chief justice pointed out that
The Jail had been left entirely un-
guarded and in charge OF Deputy Glib
son when every prccaution to guard
the prisoner should have been taken.
The chief justice quoted literally
from an interview given out by Shipp
some days after the lynching, in which
Shipp said he did not "attempt to
hurt any of the mob and in which he
charged the supreme court with the
responsibility for the lynching, be-
cause of it's Interference in the case.
Commenting on this utterance, the
chief justice said:
He evidently resented the neces-
sary order of this court as an alien in
trusion and declared that the court
! was responsible for the lynching. Ac'
cording to him. the people of Hamil-
ton county were willing to let the law
take its course until it became known
that the case would not probably be
disposed of for four or five years by
the supreme court of the United
States
"'But.' he added. the people would
not submit to this. and l do not won
der at it, In other words, his view
was that because this court. in the
discharge of it's duty entered the order
which it did that therefore the people
Of Hamilton county would not submit
to its mandate. and hence the cour
became responsible for the mob.
"He took the view expressed by sew
} eral members of the mob before thu
lynching, when they said, referring t.
the supreme court, that they had M
business interfering with our business
: at all
= His reference to the people wa
reelection and had been told that hi
= saving the prisoner from the first at
tempt to mob him would cost him hi
: place, and he had answered that h
4 wished the mob had got him before h
a did.
= at is absurd to contend that officer
of the law who have been through tn
= experiences these defendants hat
u passed through did not know that
y lynching would be attempted.
| "Shipps failure to make the slight
y est preparation to resist the mob, tn
absence of all of the deputies, excep
Gibson, from the jail during the mob
= proceeding, occupying a period @
J | Soma hnurS In tha on rIu aUaninO. th