Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-01-25
First Burning of Negro at Stake
on Record Took Place
in New York.

Washington, Jan.
alive Fred H. Dominick of South
Carolina declares the opinion that le-
gal restrictions against lynching in
South Carolina have had nothing to
do with a decrease in lynching which,
during recent years, has obtained in
South Carolina.
He was proceeding in a speech in
the house of representatives against
the Dyer anti-lynching bill. He said:
"In this debate, a great deal has been
said about the South Carolina law. l
am glad that finally there has been
somebody, especially on the Repub-
lican side, who could say something
|good for South Carolina. We are
proud of our state.
.South Carolina has a section in
its constitution regarding %lynching, it
was put in our constitution in 1895.
Lynchings took place in South Caro-
lima before the passage of that law,
and lynchings have taken place slnce.
/ have no doubt that if certain condi-
lions and circumstances arise in the
future, there will possibly be other
lynchings. And there would be other
|lynchings in Ohio Dr. Minnesota, or
lony other state.
The law of South Carolina pro-
vides that in the event of a lynchnig
the family of the person lynched may
bring suit against the county in
which the lynching occurred and re-
cover $4,000. 1 think possibly three
cases have been brought since the en-
actment of the law. Two of them
went to the supreme court, which sus-
tanned the constitutionality of the
law.
But I want to tell you something,
my friends. My honest Judgment
and it is the judgment of everybody
else, 1 believes that that provision
in the constitution has no more to do
in preventing lynching than if it was
not there. If a mob aroused to frenzy
by a heinous crime apprehends the
culprit of the deed, it will never stop
to consider whether the county will
be subject to a fine of $4,000 or $10,-
900 or S1,O0O,0O0.
"You can never stop %lynching by
legislation. We have not succeeded IN
South Carolina. Enlightened public
opinion is responsible for the success
that we have scored"
MI. Dominick, as a member OF the
judiciary committee, was permitted
to make n of the principal speech
es against the Dyer bill. His discus
sion involved the constitutional fea-
lures, almost exclusively He was
generously applauded at the conclu-
sion of his address.
Representative Stevenson of South
ICarolina in his speech against the
bill. declared, to the surprise of the
Republican personnel of the house
that burning negroes did not origi-
nate with lynchers but with the laws
of the states of the Northeast. He re-
ferred to the record of a court "hold-
en- for the tryal of negro and Indian
slaves at the City hall of the City
of New York." April Is, 1712.
The decision of the court in a GER
tain case was thus pronounced: "The
defendt Tom being brought to the
Barr & having nothing to say for
himself why judgment of death
should NOT pass agt him according the
verdict &c. 1t is considered by the
Court that he be carreyed from hence
to the place from when he came and
from thence to the place of execu-
Ition and thence to be burned with a
Slow fire that he may continue in tor
ment for eight or ten hours and con-
tinue burning in said fire until he be
dead an dconsume dto ashes"
The Ease was styled: Dom Regina
v. Tom the negro man, slave of Mich
| olas ROOSEVELT, ]. D.