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1911.
:
ADDRESS OF J. M. DICKINSON BEFORE THE
SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONGRESS AT
ATLANTA, THE EVENING OF MARCH 10,
,
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
The Constitution of the Southern Commercial Congress sets forth
that one of its objects is to “promote the improvement of educational
and other conditions which tend to develop the material resources and
happiness of the residents of the South.” The official “explanation”
of the Congress states that one of its purposes is “To sweep out of the
mind of the world all elements of misunderstanding regarding the
South, its prospects, its people and its opportunities.” In the letter of
the Governors of the Southern States inviting the President to attend,
it is stated that this great gathering of Southern men is called “for the
purpose of devising ways and means for the upbuilding of these States,
the development of their resources, and the encouragement of all that
will advance civilization within our borders.”
You want to cooperate for progress by our own people and to attract
from without desirable population and capital.
In asking me to speak upon “The Enforcement of Law in the
South,” I assume that the management regarded that the subject has a
direct bearing upon the objects sought to be accomplished by this con-
vention. Otherwise, such a discussion might be regarded as irrelevant
and possibly offensive. In a similar Congress in Great Britain it would
never occur to any one to put such a topic on the program, for every
one knows that the law is there enforced without fear or favor. While
the proposition cannot be so broadly and emphatically stated in respect
of any of our sister Northern States, yet it is quite certain that in a
representative gathering there for general development, time would
hardly be accorded to such a question. Why then should it find a place -
on this occasion? The Committee who arranged it knew, as every
| informed person knows, that the South is, through a widespread though
not general lawlessness and the non-enforcement of law, suffering . . "
injury—direct at home, and indirect, on account of its reputation,





may be removed.
abroad. Reputation, like a shadow, is exaggerated in proportion to
distance. But as there can be no shadow without a substance, so there
can be no continuous, persistent reputation without some basis. Here
we have to deal with both; with the facts, that we may, if we can,
reform them for our own good, and with their reflex action abroad
that they may not be erroneously interpreted, and that old impressions
Progress and the protection of persons and property under the law
are correlative terms. There can be no general and steady economic
development where there is a general non-enforcement of the law. . .
The tremendous and steady strides made generally in the South for
successive decades, in education, commerce, manttfactures, mines, bank
capital, railroads, agriculture, indeed in all that indicates steady
progress, demonstrate that the people of the South, taken generally, are
peaceable and law-abiding. The increase in taxable property in twenty
years has been over seven billions of dollars. The great accumulation
of property by the negroes, the most helpless politically and socially of
all her people, so widely heralded as evidence of the industry, thrift and
progress of the race, shows a general stable security under the law.
Therefore we may confidently proclaim this exponent of the general
fact that the South is a land of law and order. And this we must be
diligent to do, for the South has suffered, is suffering, and for a long
time until prejudice is removed, will suffer from a general reputation
partly just in its origin, but largely unjust, and acquired under abnormal
conditions.
These conditions were produced by war. The demoralization from
all wars is great; that of a civil war is greatest. Civil war of long
duration, fought in the country of the party suffering defeat, always
brings an Iliad of woes. This, followed by not only the freeing of ser-
vile millions of a different race, many hardly emerged from and all with . . . .
an atavistic tendency to barbarism, but their elevation to political citi-
zenship exploited by partisan hatred for lawless gain and revenge, and
the degradation of the former master from the place of power to that
of a helpless and insulted observer of his own spoliation, and all enacted
under a military rule supplanting the civil courts, inoculates the body
politic with so much of evil as to make regeneration almost hopeless.
| Such a condition would be fatal to any but a strong and sound people.
Mere courage would never bring them to a brighter day. To survive,
recuperate and flourish under such adversity requires in a large measure iſ
all the qualities that are necessary to make a people great. Bravery,
patience, endurance, energy, hope, justice, self-denial, loyalty to friends,
love of family, love of country, and a belief in the essential principles of
republican government, were compounded in such a wonderful way in
the men and women of the South that they, by a self-sacrifice and forti-
tude never surpassed, saved a civilization which will redound to the
strength and glory of our entire country.


t.
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ºr
In time they will be accorded the honor which they merit from the º º
gratitude of a nation. It is no wonder that a state of lawlessness pre-
vailed and that it projected its baleful influences far into the future. . .
-*
The wonder is that law could so soon be again enthroned and that out
of such a chaos the foundations for peace and prosperity could in so
short a time be re-established. Four years of civil war with the whole
country an armed camp, destruction everywhere, and every man,
woman and child familiar with death and all of its fearful associations,
were fruitful of those qualities which dispose a people to self-reliance
in righting their wrongs and vindicating their rights, when the law as
administered by aliens was a mockery of justice and an instrument of
oppression. The most aggravating condition of all was the conflict of
races, stimulated by miscreants who came in like a devouring pest,
usurped every place of power and exhausted devilish ingenuity in
breeding discord between the emancipated slaves and impoverished
whites. It is no wonder that the negroes under such leadership and
environments acted badly. The wonder now is that they did not do
worse. Happily much that was done has been forgotten, and it would
serve no good purpose to revive in detail those bitter memories. Prob-
ably no other race emerging from slavery under like conditions would
have done so well. Other races in their revenge, urged by such coun-
selors, might have gone to greater excesses. But there was a deter-
mined resistance, unsurpassed in its courage and endurance by what the
South had shown on the field of battle. I well remember that for years
it was necessary to bear arms for personal security. One disorder bred
another. Out of general lawlessness and incapacity of the courts as
administered to cope with crime, came the Ku Klux Klan, the most
orderly and patriotic band acting outside of the law that ever existed,
But it was formally disbanded by its own leaders who saw that not-
withstanding the positive good effect, it served as a cloak for criminal
imitators, and that crime must be suppressed and society must be pro-
tected by the law, thus teaching by example based on experience in a
way that may at all times be studied with profit. A new crime developed
in the South. Before and during the war assaults by negroes upon white
women were practically unknown. I lived in Columbus, Mississippi,
which is near the rich prairie beſt where there were large plantations
with many slaves. It was never taken during the war. Consequently
many negroes from other sections were sent there by their owners.
There were large government works and supply depots located there
and the labor was done mainly by negroes. When no troops were in the
vicinity there were but few able bodied white men present, generally only
old men, boys and invalid soldiers. Speaking from memory, I would
say that there were ten negro men to one white man in the town and the
country around. There was never, that I can recall to memory, an
outbreak nor concerted lawlessness, nor an attack on a white woman in
that vicinity throughout the whole war. The war brought many



changes and this crime became a terror to the whole country. It has
done more to evoke lawlessness in the South than all other causes .
. . combined. There would have been, without this, for a long time Inuch
personal violence growing out of the hot temper of the people and the .
development by war of their fighting proclivities. But this would have
subsided with greater rapidity than it has done if that one crime as a
breeder of crime had not afflicted us. I say a breeder of crimes, for there .
is no such hot-bed for the propagation of crime as a mob. If our people
would only appreciate this, they would notwithstanding the horror and
passion aroused in them, entrust the punishment of this the worst of
crimes to the orderly administration of the law. I said, “this the worst
of crimes,” but that is wrong. The worst of crimes is a mob. I do not
mean so far as the victim is concerned. I have no pity for him. It is
the crime against Society. In avenging one great wrong it makes a mass
of criminals. The effect does not end with that one act. It is a virus of
lawlessness that inevitably in greater or less degree infects the nature
of all who participate. There never was a mob which usurped the func-
tion of the law and inflicted death but that the act in manifold forms was
followed by an aftermath of other infractions of the law. Every man
who in a mob helps to kill is in law and morals the same as if he alone
had killed, and he cannot free himself of this consciousness. No man
ever took or helped to take human life by violence, in passion and
revenge, who was the same moral being thereafter, cherishing the same
reverence for the law. Men who carry with them the conviction of
having committed such a crime do not respect the law which they have
dethroned and welcome accessions to their ranks. They like to see the
standard of society lowered to their level. The worst of all is that
thoughtless youth are swept into the maelstrom of mob violence. There
are at all times in all communities those who are keen to see the law
overthrown and riot in the license that follows, and who are ever ready
to encourage it. You will recall how quickly lawlessness of every kind
spread in Cincinnati when the court house was burned. There are
always enemies of society who are ready to set the spark to any inflam-
mable condition, and to stimulate the impressionable and excitable
members of the community to violence. The deeds of mobs not only
demoralize and predispose great numbers to other acts of lawlessness,
but are exploited abroad with evil effects. They furnish the oppor-
tunity for injurious falsification. Frequently the accounts state that the
most respectable people in the community were the principal actors.
While mob-law began to usurp sway under the tremendous pressure of
excitement of such assaults in communities trained to self-reliance
during the war and under post bellum conditions, when negroes were
pampered and encouraged and courts were ineffective, it extended over
other fields of jurisprudence and embraced almost every offense, some
of them most trivial, within its jurisdiction, a clear proof of my state-
ment that mobs are hot-beds for breeding lawlessness. Forty-nine

lynchings were reported in the Southern States last year, forty-three . . . .
of which were of negroes. Of these eighteen were for crimes other
than assaults upon white women. This indicates the extent to which
mob law has extended beyond the original grounds which in the minds
of many condoned its exercise. " . .
On the first of this month in every city in America and doubtless
in many abroad it was published that in a large city of the South,
because a picture show exclusively for negroes was opened, a mob
gathered, the building was wrecked, the occupants scattered and more
than a thousand men and boys had full possession of a section of the
city and began a systematic hunt for negroes, sweeping through the
principal thoroughfares, invading every place where negroes might be
found and beating those who unfortunately were discovered. The
account may have been exaggerated, but if it were half true it is a fear-
ful proof of the demoralization that has come from a tolerance of mob
law. - - . . . . . . . . .
If mobs stopped the recurrence of any particular crime we might • ,
for such a consummation calmly contemplate the sufferings of the
victim and even count contentedly up against the gain, the certain
injury to the body politic on account of the moral lesion to the actors
and the evil consequences that certainly follow. But the remedy has
been tried too often without effect for any one to believe that mobocracy
will stop crime. It has been tried long enough to make us willing to
rely entirely on the courts, which all civilized countries have agreed
upon as the best preventive of crime. If the courts work badly any-
where it is possible to reform them. It is impossible to regulate lawless
volunteers. If courts are inadequate it is our fault. We hear much
demagogic talk about restoring government to the people. The people
have all the powers of government and if they will only discharge their
political duties honestly and vigilantly, beginning at the initial stages
and sacrificing the time necessary therefor, they can have, and always
could have had, just such government as they want. The main trouble
is that they try to make machinery of government that will operate
without their care and think that by legislation they can achieve good
* administration with the minimum of personal supervision, being blind
to the experience of ages that if they design the best that human wisdom
can find and yet abdicate the constant performance of their political
duties, the professional politicians and bosses will get in possession and
manage any machinery so as to defeat good government.
There never was a time in any Southern State in the last thirty
years that a negro could not be speedily and adequately punished for . . . . . .
any offence, for the white people controlled absolutely the administra-
tion of the law. It does not help us to point out race prejudice and
acts of violence to negroes in the North. No respectable public senti-
ment justifies such violence there. If the communities there suffer on
account of it, we are not thereby helped. If it is a good thing for us to


have mob law, then by all means encourage, amplify and perpetuate it.
... Make it a recognized institution and regulate its functions by referen-
dum or some other device to take the sense of the people in its adminis-
tration. If it hurts us, then do not sustain it by pointing to the bad
example of others, thus indirectly defending it.
In my judgment, conditions have improved and are steadily improv-
ing, partly on account of our general progress and a more pronounced
and vigorous condemnation from men and papers of influence and
character who appreciate the magnitude of the evil, and partly because
the more enlightened negroes have taken a wiser and more determiner;
attitude toward the lawless of their own race. A people set apart under
unfavorable or hard conditions peculiar to them cling together in com:
mon sympathy. This is as old as human history. What better illus-
tration could there be than the solidarity of the Southern people. The
negroes naturally cling to each other, closer perhaps than even we appre-
ciate. Doubtless they often felt that they were wronged, and we know
full well that this was often true. They even sympathized with their
criminals and protected them. Other people of superior race in exile'
or in misfortune have done the same thing. This action on the part
of the negroes no doubt stimulated the frequency of shocking crimes,
The negroes of superior intelligence and sound judgment have taken a
wider view. They see that their people to prosper must have peace
and protection and that the whole race has suffered for its cºlá;inal
members. The tide has set the other way. Their influence is it.
felt as a preventive. With frank discussion and co-operation between
whites and blacks this heinous crime can almost be eliminated. The
mob should be eliminated any way. With the constant reduction toward
the disappearing point, of that cause in which it found its justification,
it should speedily become a thing of the past, for certainly we cannot
succumb to mob law for the punishment of all grave offences committed
by negroes. If we go before the civilized world upholding such a pro-
position we will be condemned. We cannot defy with impunity the
general judgment of enlightened nations. That was the rock on which
slavery went down. . . . . " -
In reality we have only one question of law and order which differ-
entiate the South from the other States, and that arises from having so
many millions of two races so distinct in every way and especially in
previous condition, living together with theoretically the same political
and civil rights, and this will always involve constant friction and grave
possibilities. I formerly thought that there is no possible solution of the
negro question, but I have come to believe that there is a solution in the
far future by the voluntary removal of the mass of the younger members
of the race to a desirable country provided by the United States, where
they can under favorable conditions establish a society and govern-
ment of their own, affording all the possibilities of citizenship. This
can never be without the co-operation of the entire country and without



the keen desire of the negroes themselves. When they grow in wealth
and education and still find themselves confined in their aspirations
by insurmountable barriers which bar their social and political progress
and deny them the opportunities of citizenship open to all others, an
ambition to free themselves from such º may, if sustained by
a liberal governmental policy, lead to suchº movement. Now the time
has not come to seriously consider it. Neither they nor the labor condi-
tions of the South are ready. If it ever comes with force it will be from
the negroes themselves. But whether or not it shall ever come, I am and
always have been for giving the negro the same protection for persons ...
and property under the law that we give the white man and in doing
everything in our power to make them valuable and contented citizens.
This is the general fixed policy of the South and it should not be
departed from. We can gain no advantage and can only suffer injury .
- §
by permitting any large part of our people to remain ignorant, abnor-
mally susceptible to diseases, or impressed with the belief that they will
be discriminated against in the administration of the law.
- . Night-riding in the tobacco regions is another form of mob rule
which had its inception in an effort to right wrong and which has
resulted in greater self-inflicted wrongs to the commonwealth. Noth-
ing producing merely a monetary loss could be more exasperating than
the tightening coils drawn about the tobacco producers by the unlawful
combination of the Tobacco Trust. There was a well founded grievance
- \of the most aggravating nature against which the struggle of the
individual, however frantic, was vain. The law gave no relief that
was prompt and adequate. They saw themselves as effectively robbed
as if they had been compelled to stand and deliver at the muzzle of the
highwayman's pistol. So far as the agressor alone was concerned, any
measure of defense would have commanded sympathetic approval. As
always comes when the passions of such movements reach hightide, the
counsels of the conservative were displaced by bold, aggressive and . . . .
reckless leadership, and their own fellow citizens and neighbors were 4
deprived of the dearest rights of freemen, despoiled of their property -
and killed, and even women were mercilessly whipped. Let any
one who doubts read the record in the address made by the
Governor of Kentucky before the American Bar Association in Detroit
in 1909. Look to the last census reports and see how those sections of
the country suffered. I mention this phase of lawlessness, not because it
is likely to be a continuing evil. It is local and does not affect the
South generally. Like the white cap rule in Mississippi, it will be
cured by its own excesses. I refer to it more as corroborative of the
proposition that mob rule persisted in always goes beyond the specific
aggravating cause and invariably results in widespread demoralization.
One of the chief sources of trouble is the exaggerated accounts
: sent out to the world and the treatment of events which are local in
their effects as characteristic of the entire South. These are great
\

8
wrongs, and steps should be taken to correct them. Much can be done
to correct this abuse at its source by public sentiment profoundly
aroused and effectively directed, to have the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth reported, by exercising a direct influence in
the interest of truth and justice upon those who furnish news of the
world. The problem of correcting falsehood once disseminated and
unjust generalization made from it is more difficult, but by educating
the world to justly estimate us much can be accomplished.
If a great assembly of representative men like this from all parts
of the South, come together to advance its welfare, believe that pros-
perity and progress in the arts, sciences, commerce, education, social
ethics and all that tends toward a higher and happier civilization will be
materially promoted by the just enforcement of the law and reputation
abroad for protecting persons and property by the due process of law,
they can operate powerfully upon our people to bring about conditions
which are right in themselves and which will gain for us the confidence
and esteem of those outsiders whose judgment we respect. If this
occasion is not going to spend itself in speechmaking, felicitations and
glorious prophecies, if it is going to be followed up by earnest and
effective action, then make as a prominent feature of the propaganda
you are going to urge upon the attention of the Southern people the
necessity for establishing as a foundation of their plans a reverence for
and an impartial enforcement of the law. - - . . . .


UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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