Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/375

Rh The law-abiding citizens everywhere have always tried to prevent lynching. Leading citizens in every State have, from the inception of the crime, done all they could, by pen and speech, to hinder and check it. Every leading paper in the South, in fact I will say the press generally, has done its duty to stop it. Governors have exercised all their power, and have often prevented it. In South Carolina legislation disfranchises an officer who even appears to play into the hands of a mob, and debars him from office. It renders the county liable in damages to the amount of $2,000 to go to the family of the lynched person. It is more frequent now that culprits are lodged in jail to await the slow process of law. Officers are doing their duty in protecting criminals and getting them beyond the reach of lynchers. Public sentiment is growing stronger and stronger in condemnation of the act. Whites and blacks alike are now working more together to root out the crime of rape, and have offenders tried as other criminals. Bishop W. J. Gaines, a colored man of the Methodist African church, says: "I am as emphatic in my condemnation of the lawless and godless crime of lynching as Bishop Turner can be, but he is entirely too radical. The best element of the white people is opposed to lynching as much as are the negroes. The governors and peace officers of the Southern States are doing all they can to bring about a proper condition of affairs. The best remedy for our evils is education and Christianity. The crimes for which lynching is the punishment are committed by the most ignorant of our race. It will take time to educate them." This is what he says in reply to Bishop Turner of the same race, who would have the negroes arm themselves and virtually inaugurate neighborhood war, and which some vile negroes would construe as a protection for those who committed rape, and which would result in the greatest calamity to the blacks if started. It is fortunate that so good an adviser is to be found as Bishop Gaines. I remark that