| Show THE DREADED LYNCH LAW tim THE public mind is kept constantly stand y agitated over the horrible scenes of lynch law which are of such frequent occurrence all over i the united states and which are a blot and a disgrace 0 to any comma F anity it is also true that just about election time the republican press teems with bloodcurdling blood curdling accounts of southern outrages upon the poor colored people of that section many of which are true but a great number are exaggerated colored ut up and actually manufactured for campaign purposes we deprecate mob law as much as anyone we believe in every case the law should be permitted to take its course it is the only safe manner of dealing justice to the lawbreaker law faw breaker whenever a community becomes seized with a frenzy to resort to mob violence it at once becomes dangerous to all classes of people no one is safe from a mob the innocent are as likely likel y to be hurled into eternity as the guilty we condemn lynch law under any circumstances but we assert that it is not less wrong when perpetrated pet rated upon a white man in a 8 northern state than when it is resorted toby to by a southern community upon a negro rapist or murderer the wrong to the law and to society is the same in both cases while it may be true that they are a little more frequent in the south than in the north yet there is a natural reason for it civil war is demoralizing to any community and the south was the battleground for the late rebellion and as a consequence society there received a greater shock than in the north it is ia true also that the sudden freedom conferred upon the slaves of the south and in investing them with all the civil and legal rights of the whites while they were in an ignorant condition tended largely to toward ward inviting them to become criminals and cause them to become the objects of dislike with the law lair abiding people hence it is not tobe to be wondered at a that mobs should seek to td regulate the peace and order of if the com i ax L all I 1 communities ii to some as the taiti tick a ya show there b e 9 A t the w whole iu y efe ai K years year JW extending over almost f S F f 1 l rs t sac all t ing M y f anor of jacc r 4 alst 18 9 nam wa per us hasa lynched 0 64 C with a statement of the number for each year since 1885 this compilation shows that under president cleveland Clev elands first term of four years there were persons lynched in the united states while under president harrisons administration there were persons lynched unfortunate victims being 0 in the list in the last year of harrisons Harrison term under Clev elands present term they are decreasing especially in the south as these figures show we hail with delight any improvement in this regard As the negroes of the south become more intelligent they will become less criminal and will be more law abiding another fact we will just speak of in passing that is that a large number of cases of mob violence inflicted upon negroes in the south it was perpetrated by the negroes themselves thus showing that it is not always the result of race prejudice the old charge by the republican papers paper that the democrats are responsible for so many colored people being mobbed in the south is only a campaign cry to induce the race to hate and fear their white brethren and try to make them believe that the republican party is their only friend the figures in in the chicago tribune show that the democrats have been more vigilant in protecting the negro from mobs than the republicans |
