Minnesota's Disgrace.

Minnesota’s Disgrace.

The disgraceful carnal assault on a female and the disgraceful execution of mob vengeance on three men at Duluth, Minnesota, has been told so generally in the daily papers everywhere that no detailed account needs to be made by THE APPEAL.
But with the rest of the fair-minded papers and people we wish to add our condemnation of the crime of assault as perpetrated and also the murderous spirit of the mob. We cannot find words to express our utter horror of either of both, but will allow the sentiments expressed by others, with which we are in hearty accord, to in a measure do that for us.

The St. Paul Daily News said:

“That the three men were charged with the vilest of crimes is no justification for lynch law.” Had they been guilty there is no doubt that proof, conviction and punishment would have followed swiftly–BUT–under due process of law.
“Now it behooves the authorities to apply this same process to the men responsible for the affair. Ring leaders were recognized and should be called to account as speedily and thoroughly as possible.”

The St. Paul Dispatch said:

“Conceding the provocation of lynch parties, nothing can be said on the other hand in extenuation of their acts. They, too, in the heat of their passion, have become not reasoning men but mad beasts. The mock trial held in the Duluth jail is indicative of their state of mind and feeling. Nobody but mad men would make such a farcical pretense of organized justice.

The Chicago Daily News said:

“Whether the men hanged were guilty the mob, of course, did not know, although it conducted what it chose to call a trial and turned three of its captives back to the police. But the mob sought not justice so much as it sought vengeance, as all mobs do, and taking three lives made a satisfying score.”

The Chicago Evening Post said:

“A mock trial was held in the station; three of six Negroes were condemned to death, and sentence was executed on the city’s streets over the protest of a Catholic priest, who alone seems to have had the courage to speak for law and order and human decency.
“This is a crime of a northern state, as black and ugly as any that has brought the south into disrepute. The Duluth authorities stand condemned in the eyes of the nation. They cannot escape condemnation by the plea that an attempt at effective resistance–an attempt involving the use of firearms–would have resulted in blood shed. Blood should have been shed before the mob was permitted to trample law and justice under foot, before possibly innocent men were surrendered to a summary and undiscriminating vengeance.”

The Chicago Journal said:

“In scores of cases, innocence of the victims is probable, though proof is lacking. Passing that point, there is an argument which ought to appeal to the dullest and most prejudiced mind.
“Lynching does not pay. Its chief alleged object in assault cases is to give protection to white women. White women are incomparably safer among the black populations of Bermuda, Barbadoes and Jamaica, where lynching is unknown, than in some of our own states where Negro suspects are sacrificed to mob fury every year. The second alleged object is to spare the victim of an assault the shame of public acknowledgment. Why not spare her the shame of the assault, as the islands mentioned actually do?”
But why go further as the sentiments expressed are held by all fair minded people.
Governor J. A. A. Burnquist, who by the way is president of the St. Paul Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has given orders for a thorough investigation from every angle, of the horrible disgraceful affair and we will await further report.