The Truth About Lynching and the Negro in the South / In Which the Author Pleads That the South Be Made Safe for the White Race

by Winfield H. Collins

II. “The right of a robbed people to revolt against robbery. . . . In Edgefield, S. C., a few days ago the country was startled by a resolution adopted at a meeting of the citizens of the county, which declared that, ‘Parties black or white who may be caught in the act of firing any house in this county shall be dealt with in accordance with the precedents of Lynch law, which is a part of the unwritten law of America.’

“Edgefield people present a statement of facts which while not justifying resort to Lynch law shows a strong provocation for it. Just before the November election, the most prominent white Radical of the county is said to have advised the Negroes to burn the houses of the whites; and that this advice was not lost on them seems to be proved by the fact that thirteen citizens were burned out of their homes by incendiaries between the 7th and 19th of December. The Radicals have a large majority and they have used their power without mercy.

“No security for persons or property, for the Negroes and poor whites who act with them had a majority on every jury so that it was impossible to convict one of their number no matter how plain the evidence. And even if convicted was promptly pardoned by the infamous executive, Moses. To such an extent was this carried that Carpenter,

the Republican Judge of the circuit, announced that he would not permit the State to be put to the expense of trying criminals who were pardoned as soon as convicted. The citizens assert that Lynch law is the only remedy for the evils they endure and therefore they proclaim it. They may be wrong but they are more sinned against than sinning.”[45:17]

III. “Augusta, Ga., Aug. 23.—Several prominent Negroes connected with the troubles in the counties below have made confessions. Jake Moorman, First Lieutenant of a Negro company, testifies on oath that 19 counties were to be embraced in the insurrection. All white men and ugly white women were to be killed. Pretty white women were to be spared and the land and spoils were to be divided among the Negroes.[45:18] All who have so far confessed testify to substantially the same as Jake Moorman.”[45:19]

However, in some States,—for instance, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware,—where the Southern whites had control, order was preserved and comparative quiet prevailed, while the lynching of Negroes was sporadic, not only during this early period, but even until the present. Discord and collisions between the two races have been almost unknown.

It is doubtful if any greater mistake was made in dealing with the South after the War than in disfranchising the leading Southern whites and granting the Negro suffrage. The Negro might have been given the ballot gradually as he proved himself fitted for it without any detriment. But considering the race as a whole—it may be putting it too mild—it may be too great a compliment to the Negro,—too disparaging to the intelligence of the average white boy,—to say that the Negroes, with some exceptions, at that time were no more fit for the ballot than seven-year-old boys. Nor was it any more reasonable to expect them to act the part of men in using it, or in political affairs, than to expect it from seven-year-old boys. They were, and to a large extent are yet, a race in its childhood.

President Lincoln, however, seems to have understood better than any one else of his party what was for the best interest of both races: That

the Negroes, at least, for a while, with proper guarantees and restrictions, should be in a position of tutelage or apprenticeship to the whites. Indeed, there is little doubt that he expected the Southern States to make some such temporary arrangements, for in a proclamation, December 8, 1863, in reference to the reëstablishment of State governments by several States of the farther South, he says:

“That any provision which may be adopted by such State government, in relation to the freed people of such State which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, landless and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National Executive.”