The Appeal., 1916-12-16

New York, Nov. Ex-Governor Rich
ard I. Manning, of South Carolina, as
result of the recent lynching of An
thony Crawford, at Abbeville, has
taken stand which promises to clear
the name of his State of the stigma
which attached to it during the admin
istration of his predecessor, the motor
lous Cole Blease. Governor Manning,
in a statement given out to the press
on the day before election, says:
II was out of the State when the
Abbeville lynching occurred AS soon
as l learned of it called Solicitor R.
A. Cooper and Sheriff R. M. Burts of
,Abbeville to the office and called on
Coroner F. w. r. Nance of Abbeville
County to comply with the law and fur
nish me with copy of the testimony
taken at the coroner's inquest. I found
that the coroner held an inquest, but
took no testimony. .-.
Solicitor Cooper and Sheriff Burts
came to my Office and requested them
to secure the names of all parties con-
nected with this affair, those who
took part in the whipping, in the TAX
ing of the Negro from the Jail, in the
lynching, and all those who were at
the meeting reported to have been
held on the following Monday. have
requested Solicitor Cooper and Sher-
if Burts to make a complete investi-
cation of the whole matter and get
the names of all parties concerned
and to swear out warrants and arrest
them. ..t~ 49,. 49,.
II intend to do everything in my
power to uphold the law and let the
offenders know that such acts will not
be tolerated, and that those guilty of
violating the law must suffer for it,
have requested Solicitor Cooper as the
States representative and Sheriff
Burts as the highest peace officer in
the county, to leave no stone unturned
in order to vindicate the law and all
the powers OF the governors office
are at their disposal in bringing the
guilty ones to Justice"
The lynching referred to occurred
on October 81 in one of South Caro-
lina's most beautiful and progressive
cities. Anthony Crawford, the victim,
was Negro fifty-one years old worth
over $4,000. He got into a row with
a white storekeeper named Barksdale
over the price of cottonseed. 1t is re-
ported that Mr. Barksdale called him
liar and Crawford cursed him
.roundly in return, whereupon clerk
ran out to give Crawford a. beating
with an ak handle. He was saved
from this by policeman who ar
rested Crawford and took him to the
municipal building, but when they let
him out on bail crowd Of men took
after him again intent on furnishing
him for daring to curse white man.
"The day a white man hits me is
the day die," Anthony Crawford once
said to a friend. When he saw the
crowd coming after him, he went
down in the boiler room of the gin,
picked up four-pound hammer, and
waited. The first man who came at
him, Mckinney Cam, received blow
in the head which fractured his skull,
but someone hurled a stone which
knocked out Crawford before he reach
ed anyone else. While he was down,
they knitted him in the back and
kicked him until they thought they
had finished him, when they permitted
he sheriff to arrest the unconscious
Crawford on condition that he would
not take his prisoner out of town until
they knew whether Cam would live or
lie.
Cam wasn't hurt as badly as they
'hought, but nevertheless a mob went
back to the jail at four o'clock that af-
'ernoon, took their keys and guns
oway from the sheriff and jailor,
dragged Crawford through the streets
IF the Negro quarter with rope
around his neck, hung his mutilated
body to a pine tree at the entrance
to the fair grounds, and expended a
couple of hundred rounds of ammu-
milton at It.
On Monday a meeting was called
in the Abbeville courthouse at which
it was decided to order the sixteen
sons and daughters of Crawford and
their families to abandon their $20, 900
home and get out of the State by Nov
ember Is. After the meeting this
mob proceeded to close up all the
Negro shops in Abbeville.
The Columbia State, in powerful