Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1914-01-07

Of certain types since 1856 and will
continue to whip them until the stat
uteS under which corporal punish
ment is inflicted shall be repealed.
Congress cannot, and certainly will
not, interfere in the exercise of pro-
per authority under the law, and as
the whipping post is an integral part
of the criminal law of Delaware
every law officer must consent to its
use regardless of any personal views
he may have in the matter. Hysteri-
cal women, weak men, bullies, cranks
and blackguards in all parts Of the
country have written to me demand
ing that | set aside the law and pro-
hibit whippings for crime in Della
ware. These good souls give no heed
to the fact that the whippings are
quite as legal in Delaware as impris-
onment. Their demands amour. 70
anarchy. so far as law enforcement
goes. They cry, "Down with the
law" without knowing whereof they
speak.
want every criminal every
sharper and every moral leper to
know that if he comes to Delaware
and violates the law he will not only
serve a long term in our none too
comfortable jails, but that he will be
whipped in public on his bare back
before he enters his cell. | wish this
fact could be spread to the uttermost
corners of the country.
Delaware wants no undesirable
citizen. This State offers nothing
but the whip and workhouse for the
gunmen, white slavers, panders,
highwaymen and common thieves
which speople the underworld OF some
of our larger cities and who seem to
get a certain amount Of applause for
their more daring performances from
the same type Of people who demand
that shall set aside a fundamental
law of my State and defy the DEGREES
of our High Court.
Delaware houses one-half Of her
population in the city Of Whining
ton. All the rest of the State is
strictly rural. Our people are Of the
soil. They are typical farmers
plain, wholesome, God-fearing people
who obey the law and who punish
crime with severity. We have nei-
ther the means nor the machinery
with which to patrol our rural dis
tricts with armed officers. 1t follows,
then, that we must have laws carry
ing severe penalties and rigidly en-
force them.
Half the people in Delaware south
of Wilmington never lock their doors
at night, window fasteners are un-
common, and thought Of burglars is
totally absent from the minds of our
people. Once in long while some
half drunken loon will enter a house
at night. When he is not kicked out
as mere intruder he is locked up,
tried, convicted and whipped accord
ing to law, and then locked up long
enough to think it over himself and
to deter all others rom a like
offense.
Those who crticise the whipping
post adversely overlook the fact that
Delaware is the broad highway be-
tween four chief American cities.
Our unthinking critics include
those who do not know that time or
the loss Of time means nothing at all
to very large proportion of our
population. A day, or week, or
month, more or less, costs a low
grade negro nothing at all in proper
mnity or in money. The native ne
groes OF Delaware know their places
and make no trouble. They are far
above the average in habits and in
Intelligence, but we have floating
negro population which is definitely
bad, and we must safeguard our peo-
pie, white and black, against those
who come from all parts OF the
. Shore country to the canneries, work
few weeks or months and then
pass on, only to give place to ano-
ther lot just as bad, or even worse.
The negro with city habits is a
; worse proposition than the farm
trained hand, who is usually law
abiding and useful. Delaware can
! handle her own negroes with little
or no force, but the passing throng of
bad men needs attention, and they
file by with eyes front on the W ip-
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