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The following are the statistics furnished by Mr. Upton for the years 1904, 1905 and 1906 to date:

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The writer has taken the liberty of combining under rape in the above table Mr. Upton's figures for rape, attempted rape, murder and rape, and suspected rape.

Though about four-fifths of the lynchings of the last quarter century have occurred in the Southern States, the practice has prevailed to some extent in all sections of the Union except the New England States. Only a single case of lynching is recorded as having occurred in the New England States, that being in Connecticut in 1886. New York has had two persons lynched and New Jersey and Delaware one each. Excepting the border States of West Virginia and Maryland, North Carolina has had the smallest number of persons lynched of any State in the South. From 1882 to 1903 she had 64 persons lynched as compared with 91 each in Missouri and Virginia, the next lowest Southern States. On the whole, the results of an examination of the statistics are gratifying both as regards the decrease of lynching in recent years in the country at large, and, especially to North Carolinians, on account of the comparatively favorable showing made by their State. Recent serious outbreaks of lynching should not unduly discourage the friends of law and order, but rather stimulate them to renewed efforts to improve the conditions shown by the statistics which have been examined.

Some Thoughts on Lynching

My theme in this symposium is to suggest and urge a way to prevent lynching. The plan which I suggest below involves the passage of a law for the suppression of lynching, and, perhaps, of amendments to the Constitution in some particulars, to make the law effective. Such a law should, I think, embody three distinct features:

I. In all cases of rape, or attempted rape, the Governor should be empowered to convene as soon as possible a special term of court, to be held in an adjoining county by a judge especially designated. When the woman testifies, all persons should be excluded from the court room, except the prisoner, the legal counsel, the jury and the officers of the court. In all such cases, the only ground of appeal should be the insufficiency of the evidence. The appeal should be made at once to the Supreme Court, if in session; and, if in vacation, to any one of the judges of that court, the appeal to take precedence of all other business, and to be promptly granted or denied. If the appeal is denied, the sentence should be executed within ten days.

Why this exceptional procedure in cases of licentious assault? Simply because the crime is the one great exception in the minds of our people. This is the crime that most stirs the passions of the people, especially under the social conditions of our Southern life. Therefore, orderly civilization demands that the matter shall be quickly settled. This is the one exception, which many good people make in regard to lynching, the one crime for which they excuse lynching. Therefore, we ought to treat this crime in an exceptional way. There is a feeling in the minds of men today that the law's delay and the technicalities of its procedure let loose many a guilty man; and for fear one guilty of rape should escape in a legal trial, they say, "let us lynch him and be sure that he is punished." The people can look with composure on a man's escaping punishment for any crime but this. Therefore, we should remove all such excuses for lynching.

The denial of appeal on technical grounds in this crime is a great exception in law to meet a great exception in fact. II. Having removed every reasonable excuse for lynching, let us set our face and our law against the crime of lynching. Whenever a lynching occurs, the lynchers should be indicted by the grand jury of Wake county, and the trial removed to the capital of the State. The crime charged in the indictment should be murder, answering, as it does, to every legal definition of murder or treason being, as it is, an attempt to overthrow by violence the power of the State. The punishment should be death or confinement in the penitentiary for not less than ten years. The trial is to be held at the Capital of the State; because, first, the offense is a crime directly against the sovereignty of the State, and, secondly, the fear and sympathy of the neighborhood are thus prevented from defeating the ends of justice.

The punishment of lynching by law is absolutely necessary to its repression. It is a great crime against society; and for it a great punishment should be meted out. All honor to our Governor and to the judge and jury in Salisbury! If this part of my plan is carried out, such convictions will be surer.

III. This, the most important feature of the law, I would name, "The Responsibility of the Sheriff." Whenever a man is lynched, the office of sheriff of that county should immediately be declared vacant by the Governor, and the order given for a new election; and that sheriff should never after be eligible to that office. Four-fifths, I believe, of the lynchings are due to the inefficiency or to the negligence or to the lack of moral and physical courage in the sheriff. I am reminded of a sheriff, who, when he had lodged a man in jail for rape, went calmly off a mile away to his home for the night. The prisoner was taken out of jail that same night, and lynched. How often we read of sheriffs pleading with the mob, and, then, standing aside. We all know what one determined man, sure of the right, can do with a mob. I remember the story of General Forrest, standing in the jail over a terrified prisoner, with a knife in his hand, swearing that he would kill the leader of the mob and then be killed

himself, before the mob could get the man. The resistless (?), respectable (?) mob slunk away like the coward wild beast that it is. I read some time ago of a jailer's daughter, beating back a mob from the doors of the jail by a plentiful discharge of buckshot.

The truth is, that it is not our best citizens who lead a mob. Does any one think that that penitentiary convict, the leader of the mob in Salisbury, would have advanced on the sheriff of Rowan county, if that sheriff had stood in the door of the jail with a loaded revolver in each hand, with the determination to shoot stamped on his face? It is the duty of the sheriff to be on the watch for any sign of lynching; it is the duty of the sheriff to outwit and avoid the mob, if possible; it is the duty of the sheriff to summon to his aid a posse of determined friends; it is the duty of the sheriff, if the worst comes to the worst, to face the mob before the jail, and to slay and die, before he suffers the law to be violated and the good order of the Commonwealth to be shattered. This is his high and solemn responsibility; and he and all others ought to be made to see and feel it by the law of the land. If the sheriff and the citizens did so appreciate his responsibility lynching would soon become a memory of past days. ROBERT STRANGE,

Bishop of the Diocese of Eastern North Carolina.

Absolute obedience to constituted authority is the security of republics. Disregard for law is the peril of governments. When for any cause the people lose confidence in or respect for, the administration of law, the very foundations of society become insecure. There is no protection for life or property. The rule of the mob and the unbridled fury of a clan, take the place of courts of justice. When this obtains, that which distinguishes a high civilization is surrendered, anl all hope of a better day ruthlessly forfeited.

Many reasons have been advanced as apologies for occasional resort to mob violence. The vexatious delays in bringing offenders to final trial, the frequent and flagrant miscarriages of justice, the seeming discriminations of courts in

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