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Hon. Benjamin Franklin Long 
 
 JUDGE OF THE SUPERIOR COURTS 
 OF NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 i Published Opinions on Two Important Cases: § 
 
 | State vs. Southern Railway Co., et al j 
 1 State vs. George Hall 
 
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 Together With an Introductory Letter to his Son 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY JEROME STOCKARD 
 
Raleigh; N". C, December 25, 1912. 
 Mr. Mackendrie E. Long, 
 
 Amsterdam, Holland. 
 
 Dear. Sir : It happened I was near at hand and had 
 opportunity to note specially the trial of two important 
 cases by your father, both of which attracted national 
 attention. 
 
 The pursuit of your studies has detained you from home 
 so long I can understand how you may not have been able 
 always to keep fully informed as to the march of events in 
 your native State, even though your father's labors may, at 
 times, have been connected with these events. I'm quite 
 sure the perusal of this little pamphlet will furnish you in- 
 formation you have not fully possessed before. 
 
 Your father has performed certainly two distinct services 
 for the State and country, either of which should and will 
 render his name rememberable. One of these is his decision 
 in the Rate War Case, which led to a compromise of passen- 
 ger rates between the South Atlantic States and the railroads, 
 1907 and 1908. The other is his judgment in the Lynching 
 Case, 1906, when he placed lynching under ban by sentenc- 
 ing to the penitentiary for fifteen years a white man, a mem- 
 ber of a mob, for his part in the notable lynching of several 
 negroes in Rowan County. 
 
 A significant fact related to the latter case is, there has not 
 been a lynching in ISTorth Carolina since that trial ; and, in 
 connection with the former case, there are several facts 
 worthy of note. 
 
 Layman though you may be, it may be a matter of his- 
 torical interest to you to know that, so far as I'm advised, 
 there never was but one opinion of a Judge of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States that resulted promptly in an 
 amendment to the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 On February 18, 1793, James Iredell delivered his 
 famous dissenting opinion in the case of Chisholm Exrs. v. 
 Georgia, 2 Dallas, 419 (United States Supreme Court Re- 
 
 
ports). The majority opinion held that "a State could be 
 made a party defendant in the Supreme Court of the United 
 States at the suit of a private citizen of another State for 
 debt," 
 
 Carson, in his "History of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States/' says : "Iredell alone dissented in an opin- 
 ion of which it has been truly declared that it enunciates 
 either directly or by implication all the leading principles 
 of what has become known as State's Rights Doctrine, and 
 which, as a mere legal argument, was far superior in close- 
 ness of reasoning to Wilson's or Jay's."* 
 
 Two days after the opinion was delivered, the Eleventh 
 Amendment to the Constitution was proposed in Congress, 
 and formally acted upon by that body December, 1793, and 
 declared adopted by the several States, January 8, 1798. 
 
 While your father was giving interpretation to a plain 
 criminal statute and enforcing it, in the rate case — inci- 
 dentally — the action of the Federal Judge to interfere re- 
 quired his interpretation of this Eleventh Amendment — 
 109 years after its ratification. 
 
 His own adopted county of Iredell was named after Judge 
 Iredell. Isn't it a strange coincidence that a lawyer (country 
 lawyer at that) from Iredell was called upon in a crisis to 
 give interpretation to this creature of the fundamental law, 
 born of the brain of Judge Iredell (a country lawyer) dis- 
 covered and put on the Supreme Court bench in 1792 by 
 Washington ? 
 
 I present in this pamphlet only a few opinions selected 
 from a. large number of leading journals of the country, 
 which, I hope, may prove an acceptable holiday tribute ; 
 while, at the same time, it will preserve to you and his kin- 
 dred a record of which I, as one of the latter, am proud. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Henry Jerome Stockard. 
 
 * Carson's Hist. Sup. Court U. S., Vol. 1, pp. 170-177. 
 
The Rate War Case, 1907 
 
 (Raleigh News and Observer, August 1907. ) 
 
 Iii July it was the privilege of Judge Long to be called 
 upon to serve his State at a moment when there was need of 
 a man who had the firmness to meet the call of a crisis and 
 the poise to hold the straight course of his office and its re- 
 sponsibilities without wavering on the one hand or forget- 
 ting himself in passion on the other. In the face of a notori- 
 ous violation of the law he did not hesitate either on account 
 of the prominence of the criminal or the power of the Court 
 with which it was allied to demand of the grand jury that it 
 bring its indictments for crime. Surrounded by zealous men 
 of the people applauding his course, he sank whatever feeling 
 of a partisan he may have had to the end of the orderly and 
 legal determination of the question at issue. Without con- 
 sultation, without suggestion, without feeling, without any 
 motive except to hold the scales of justice evenly, he delivered 
 his now famous charge to the grand jury, touching upon the 
 criminal section of the rate law. The charge of Judge Long 
 was read in every neighborhood in North Carolina, and the 
 substance of it was read and discussed in every State in the 
 Union. With calmness, with deliberation, with every proper 
 consideration to the accused the cases were heard in Wake 
 court. That charge by Judge Long and his subsequent firm 
 and able discharge of a high duty with calmness in a time 
 of much public excitement will always live in Xorth Caro- 
 lina. It was noticed that Xorth Carolina, as a sovereign 
 State, would proceed with the administration of its crim- 
 inal law without being influenced in the least by injunctions 
 or threats from any quarter, judicial or otherwise. From 
 the day he delivered the charge until the hour when he fixed 
 the fine upon the Southern Railway and its agent, and 
 thereby upheld the dignity of the courts of North Carolina, 
 Judge Long showed the highest judicial qualities and in all 
 the days of tense/feeling was as deliberate and judicial and 
 fair as in the trial of the most trifling criminal case that 
 
came before his court. It is sucb judges and sucb prompt 
 execution of tbe criminal law that are needed to give public 
 confidence and honor to tbe judiciary. His quiet resolve to 
 enforce tbe law against a powerful railroad just as be would 
 enforce it against tbe bumblest violator of tbe law gave fresb 
 faith and trust in tbe judicial department of our State gov- 
 ernment. His rulings will stand approved by tbe test of 
 time. 
 
 After tbe Wake County grand jury bad found tbe indict- 
 ments, tbe solicitor, burdened with a beavy docket, requested 
 counsel to assist in the prosecution. Upon application 
 through Judge Long for counsel, Governor Glenn employed 
 ex-Governor Aycock and Speaker Justice as general counsel 
 to prosecute in Wake or elsewhere and to advise with him in 
 all matters growing out of the litigation, and Mr. S. G. 
 Ryan to assist in the Wake cases. 
 
 ( Philadelphia Record, September 1, 1907.) 
 
 No legal controversy of recent years has aroused such gen- 
 eral interest as that regarding the rights of States and the 
 constitutional limits of the powers of the Federal Judiciary, 
 which is now on in North Carolina. * * * 
 
 ( Col. F. A. Olds in Philadelphia Record, September 7, 1907.) 
 
 * * * Nobody bad ever construed the rate law in 
 North Carolina or passed upon it. Judge Pritchard, on 
 June 29, found he could not declare it invalid upon the facts 
 before him, but he undertook to suspend it. When this was 
 done it fell to the lot of Judge Benjamin Franklin Long, then 
 holding the Superior Court in the county of Wake, of which 
 Raleigh is the county seat, to take up the Legislative act 
 fixing the rate at 2% cents, and also to take up Judge Pritch- 
 ard's order on tbe eighth of July, and to say what these 
 things all meant and whether North Carolina in one of its 
 own Courts had a right to enforce its own laws, as enacted 
 by its own Legislature, and as directed by its own supreme 
 lawmaking power, and further, whether a Federal Judge had 
 
the jurisdiction to do what Judge Pritchard had done, and 
 whether Judge Pritehard's order suspended the North Caro- 
 lina law. 
 
 The rulings of Judge Long are, of course, well known. 
 They put the machinery of the North Carolina criminal laws 
 in motion. If the trial had failed the law would not now be 
 in force. If Judge Long's ruling would and could take the 
 case direct and straight to a verdict and judgment without 
 clash between the State and Federal Courts then the battle 
 in the State Court was won. The remainder was for the 
 Supreme Court to pass upon. 
 
 From July 8th to the 15th of that month Judge Long, so 
 far as the officers of the State were concerned, was supported 
 by Solicitor Armistead Jones alone. Public opinion, due 
 deliberation, and the justice of the thing, one or all, brought 
 to the aid of Judge Long on the 15th of July ex-Governor 
 Charles B. Aycock and Speaker Edward J. Justice, of the 
 Lower House of the Legislature, to aid Solicitor Jones. A 
 new statute authorized the Governor to appoint counsel to 
 aid the Solicitor and the Governor took this step. This was, 
 in fact, all he could do, unless a Judge had informed him 
 that the process of a State Court was not being obeyed, had 
 set out that the civil law was not powerful enough and had 
 asked for troops. But there was really no danger of a call 
 for troops being made. When Judge Long pronounced judg- 
 ment on the Southern Railway he gave it the option to obey 
 the law, pending the appeal to the Supreme Court and to 
 take a nominal fine ; that is, to put the rate law into effect at 
 once and let the matter go before the higher Courts in the 
 quiet and regular way, and thus! fully test the question 
 whether Judge Long was right or wrong in his ruling. 
 
 It is a matter of fact that while Governor Glenn was con- 
 sidering what was to be done, and getting ready to deliver his 
 attack upon the railroad, Judge Long acted, and that act was 
 one of the most momentous in all the State's history. The 
 Governor, therefore, though head of the State, became a 
 
6 
 
 follower of the Judge in action, and very properly so, and 
 this shows that the Judge not only acted without direction, 
 but upon his own motion and force. 
 
 The public sentiment of North Carolina,, and that without 
 regard to politics, is behind Judge Long. 
 
 (From Governor Glenn's letter to the public, July 29, 1907.) 
 
 * * * On the 8th of July, 1907, the Hon. B. F. Long, 
 one of the ablest and most conscientious judges in the State, 
 of his own motion, hastened action by boldly and ably charg- 
 ing the grand jury of Wake County, that it was its duty to 
 immediately indict the railroads for violating the rate law. 
 
 (Press Dispatch, August 4, 1907.) 
 
 * * * The stubborn resistance in North Carolina, be- 
 gun in the county of Wake, was as patriotic and as far-reach- 
 ing as the Mecklenburg Declaration of 1775. If the public 
 had not supported Judge Long neither North Carolina nor 
 Virginia would have been able to enforce their laws. 
 
 (Judge R. W. Winston in South Atlantic Quarterly, October, 1907.) 
 
 * * * During the month of July, Wake Criminal 
 Court convened in Raleigh, Judge Long presiding. In ad- 
 dressing the grand jury Judge Long, as is the North Carolina 
 custom, delivered a charge reminding the jury of its duties 
 towards the State and the people thereof, and directing them 
 very particularly to inquire whether the railroads of the 
 State were violating the criminal law in selling tickets at a 
 higher rate than that provided by the statute, to wit: 2/4 
 cents a mile. In consequence of this charge Southern Rail- 
 way Ticket Agent Green was indicted for selling a ticket in 
 Raleigh at a rate exceeding 2/4 cents. * * * Trial 
 Judge Long held that the act was constitutional ; that the 
 Criminal Court of Wake County had jurisdiction; that the 
 act was self-executing; that it stood alone and was not to be 
 taken in connection with other railroad legislation enacted 
 
at former sessiuiis of the legislature. The trial judge like- 
 wise held that the act did not impinge upon the Fourteenth 
 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The 
 jury found both the ticket agent and the Southern Railway 
 guilty of a misdemeanor in selling a ticket at a higher rate 
 than 2/4 cents. The agent, promising not to sell tickets 
 again, was not punished, and the same temis were offered to 
 the Southern Railway if it would obey the act of 1907. The 
 Southern Railway refused to desist from violating the act 
 and was fined by the court the sum of $30,000. From this 
 judgment an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of 
 !North Carolina, where it will be argued during the present 
 month. 
 
 It is interestino; to note that while Ticket Agent Green 
 
 was in custody of the sheriff of Wake County, i. e., during his 
 
 trial, the Southern Railway applied to Judge Pritchard for 
 
 a writ of habeas corpus asking his discharge on the ground 
 
 that he was protected by the injunctive order theretofore 
 
 granted by the Circuit Court. There is no doubt that the 
 
 ticket agent would have been taken from the Wake County 
 
 sheriff by a United States marshal and set at liberty by 
 
 Judge Pritchard, who went from his home in Asheville to 
 
 the Criminal Court in Raleigh, but for a coup oV etat of the 
 
 Wake Criminal Court. Judge Long released the ticket agent 
 
 from the sheriff and took him in his own custody. 
 ******* 
 
 The writ of habeas corpus was not executed. * * * 
 
 (Baltimore Sun, December 5, 1907.) 
 
 The right of the State to enforce its criminal laws without 
 interference by the national government or its courts is un- 
 compromisingly upheld by the Xorth Carolina Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 In other words, the Federal courts, it is declared, have no 
 power to interfere by injunction with the operations of the 
 State courts in the administration and enforcement of the 
 State laws. 
 
8 
 
 The bill now pending in the Federal court to restrain the 
 State officials from enforcing the rate law is pronounced to 
 be undoubtedly an action against the State itself, and, there- 
 fore, not to be maintained, under the Eleventh Amendment 
 to the Federal Constitution. 
 
 On the other hand, the indictment and criminal proceed- 
 ings against the Southern Railway are dismissed, the court 
 affirming that the rate law, while providing for indictment of 
 the officers and agents of a corporation, does not contemplate 
 the indictment of the corporation itself, preferring to en- 
 force obedience by means of penalties, to be sued for by the 
 individual aggrieved. 
 
 The Legislature did not, it is pointed out, intend to inflict 
 double punishment on the corporation, and a corporation 
 can not be an accessory to the act of its own agent. 
 
 The issue is expected to be fought out in the United States 
 Supreme Court. 
 
 (Washington correspondence to the New York World.) 
 
 Washington, D. C, July 23. — President Roosevelt has 
 been given the most severe shock of his political career by 
 the action of Circuit Judge Jeter C. Pritchard in granting a 
 writ of habeas corpus to employees of the Southern Railway, 
 convicted of violating the State laws of North Carolina. 
 Nothing more unfortunate and regrettable could have hap- 
 pened to the president at this time. Administration lieu- 
 tenants here privately admit that the president has been hung 
 up by the ears through the procedure of Judge Pritchard. 
 
 Neither President Roosevelt nor high department of jus- 
 tice officials desired Judge Pritchard to issue his writ of 
 habeas corpus. Expert legal authorities declare that he has 
 no jurisdiction in the matter at issue. It is believed here 
 that Judge Pritchard was led away by political motives or 
 misconceived ideas of duty and committed a grievous blun- 
 der, which threatens to entail serious difficulties upon the 
 administration. 
 
 Officials in the Department of Justice hold that the case in 
 North Carolina was purely a question for the State courts 
 
9 
 
 to determine, and that Judge Pritchard, when appealed to 
 by the Southern Railway should have refused to act. 
 
 They say the road had ample redress ; that it could have 
 obtained a stay of execution and taken an appeal to the Com- 
 mon Pleas Court, and from that to the State Supreme Court. 
 From that tribunal an appeal could have been taken to the 
 United States Supreme Court. These officials say that the 
 action of Judge Pritchard establishes the first precedent of 
 record in which Federal courts have interfered in a purely 
 State matter. They refer to the recent course pursued by a 
 Federal judge in Nebraska, when a similar action was 
 brought before him, who refused to assume jurisdiction and 
 said it was a question for appeal to the various State courts. 
 They expected Judge Pritchard to follow the same course. 
 
 It is frankly admitted that President Roosevelt would like 
 the Federal government to exercise control over interstate 
 railroads without reference to State laws, but he is convinced 
 that this can not be done without further legislation by Con- 
 gress. This question was raised and discussed when J. Pier- 
 pont Morgan, Charles S. Mellen, A. B. Stickney, B. F. 
 Yoakum, and other leading railroad magnates conferred with 
 the president, each being told that further legislation by Con- 
 gress was desired to increase the jurisdiction of the govern- 
 ment over transportation companies. Each of these men 
 urged the president to make a definite statement in a speech 
 or otherwise, thereby averting panicky conditions and pre- 
 venting depreciation in the value of railroad securities. 
 
 The president finally yielded to this persuasion, and in a 
 speech took the Knox idea that the line between interstate 
 and intrastate commerce is so delicate that great care must 
 be exercised in determining it. He expressed the opinion 
 that the Federal government should have full control and 
 that legislation to that end should be enacted. Inferentially, 
 he admitted that the government could not interfere with a 
 purely State affair in which railroads are concerned. He de- 
 cided to take no railroad stand until the necessary laws were 
 enacted by Congress. 
 
10 
 
 It is precisely because of this attitude that the president 
 is so shocked at the stand taken by Judge Pritchard. When 
 the situation became acute in North Carolina the president 
 grew apprehensive and uneasy. He requested Attorney Gen- 
 eral Bonaparte to avert .the threatened clash between the 
 Federal and State courts. Assistant Attorney General Ed- 
 ward T. Sanford was then taking his vacation in North Caro- 
 lina. He was ordered by Mr. Bonaparte to see the officials 
 of the Southern Bail way and induce them to secure a stay of 
 execution and take successive appeals through the various 
 State courts until their case would be brought to the United 
 States Supreme Court, where it was promised expedition 
 should it be requested by the Department of Justice. He 
 was not instructed to see Judge Pritchard, as such a course 
 might be construed as interference by the executive with the 
 judiciary. 
 
 (Raleigh News and Observer, January 6, 1912.) 
 
 Hon. Benjamin Franklin Long of Iredell, long Superior 
 Court Judge, announces that his name will not be presented 
 for nomination as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. 
 He is one of the ablest and most useful of our Superior Court 
 judges, and in every time of crisis gave evidence of courage 
 and fidelity, as well as of marked ability. The judges re- 
 gard it as a promotion to be taken from the Superior Court 
 to the Supreme Court bench, but there is no comparison in 
 the good that can be done in the two positions. A Supreme 
 Court judge holds an exalted and responsible position, but 
 the Superior Court judge holds a position equally as exalted 
 with tenfold more opportunity for usefulness. The truth 
 is that the Superior Court judge holds the biggest office in 
 the State for its effect upon the people. When he goes to 
 hold court, the county gathers to hear his charge to the 
 grand jury. The right sort of judge by his charges, his sen- 
 tences, his wise upholding of law, is the only great official 
 who directly touches the lives of the masses. It is to the 
 credit of those judicial officers that most of them appreciate 
 
11 
 
 the door to usefulness, enter it, and are the agencies of edu- 
 cation and law enforcement. 
 
 Judge Long has made a. great Superior Court judge, and 
 while his friends will be disappointed that they can not vote 
 for him for a place on the Supreme Court bench they must 
 recognize that his position is one in which he can exert a 
 wider influence for good than in any other official position in 
 the State. 
 
 It has been the duty of Judge Long to preside at two trials 
 that have become celebrated in the annals of Xorth Caro- 
 lina — the trial of the Southern Railway agent in Wake 
 County who, by instructions of the president of the South- 
 ern Railway, violated the rate law of the State, and the Shem- 
 well case, where the defendant held up a Southern Railway 
 train by drawing a pistol on the railroad conductor. In both 
 cases Judge Long held the scales of justice even and imposed 
 just but not severe sentences. His action in the case in 
 Wake County was of national interest and importance. The 
 General Assembly had passed a law. The Southern Railway 
 defied it and went into a federal court where it obtained an 
 injunction against the State law. It was a time of deep 
 feeling. Would Xorth Carolina abdicate ? Would its 
 courts lie down and permit the solemn acts of its legislature 
 to be flouted ? Would the judge presiding at Wake court 
 be ignorant of the effect of no action, or would he measure 
 up to the highest duty any Superior Court Judge has been 
 called upon to perform in a generation ? These were the 
 questions uppermost in the public mind, debated by the peo- 
 ple and discussed by the press. Judge Benjamin Franklin 
 Long was the Superior Court judge. He kept his own coun- 
 sel and the only thing known was that after investigating 
 the law he would obey his oath of office. When the day 
 came, he measured up to the high duty of a judicial officer. 
 He wanted no parade, no rigorous punishment, no persecu- 
 tion, but he would not tolerate any defiance of the laws of 
 Xorth Carolina by corporation or individual. He saved the 
 day and when the attempt was made to defy the process of 
 
12 
 
 the courts Governor Glenn, with the same courageous sense 
 of duty as characterized Judge Long, saw to it that the laws 
 of North Carolina were respected by the defendant corpora- 
 tion and all its officers and employees. That incident is one 
 that should not be forgotten, and never will patriotic North 
 Carolinians cease to be thankful that at that crisis Benjamin 
 Franklin Long was presiding over Wake Superior Court and 
 Robert Brodnax Glenn was the chief executive of North 
 Carolina, and that these brave men truly expounded and 
 truly enforced the laws of North Carolina. If the biggest 
 corporation doing business in the State had been permitited 
 then to defy the plain law of North Carolina, who would 
 have had any respect for North Carolina laws ? That cour- 
 ageous judge and courageous governor taught the world the 
 lesson that North Carolina laws were to be obeyed. 
 
 (Salisbury Post, January 7, 1912.) 
 
 That was a manly statement in Judge B. F. Long's card 
 in the Statesville Landmark, announcing that he would not 
 be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Associate 
 Justice of the Supreme Court. He gave as his reason that 
 Judges Hoke and Brown were serving their first terms, and 
 he did not desire to create dissension in the party by enter- 
 ing the race. He also gave another reason: He did not 
 feel like devoting his time to a campaign which he feels is 
 needed in the discharge of his present duties. 
 
13 
 
 The Lynching Case, 1906 
 
 (Charlotte Observer, August 8, 1906.) 
 
 "God Almighty reigns and the law is still supreme," is a 
 strong sentence from Judge Long to the crowd in Rowan 
 County court-house yesterday morning. If either of these 
 propositions is open to doubt, then we are adrift without 
 chart or compass. "This court will not adjourn," he added, 
 "until this matter is investigated." Here is a man and a 
 judge. Mobs may rage around him but they will not cause 
 him to lose his iron nerve nor disturb his imperturbable self- 
 control. If there be a law through which these lynchers can 
 be reached, and he have but half cooperation in the execution 
 of his purpose to bring them to justice, he will smite at least 
 some of the guilty with a mailed hand. 
 
 (Indianapolis Star, August 12, 1906.) 
 
 It will be impossible to exaggerate or overestimate the tre- 
 mendous service rendered to his State and to his race by 
 Judge B. F. Long of Statesville, 1ST. C, who has just sen- 
 tenced a white lyncher to fifteen years in the penitentiary 
 for his part in the recent murderous riot near Charlotte. 
 Upon the perpetration of that outrage Judge Long, together 
 with a few other high minded and courageous spirits of the 
 State, bestirred themselves to purge the fair name of North 
 Carolina from the disgrace that had fallen upon it. At the 
 time of the lynching they protested vehemently and persist- 
 ently against the purpose of the mob, and now their public 
 spirit and patriotism have achieved the signal triumph of the 
 first conviction in the State for lynching negroes. This brave 
 and upright judge and all who have cooperated with hirn 
 have rendered their fellow citizens and the cause of self- 
 government everywhere a service which is worthy the best 
 traditions of Carolinian chivalry and statesmanship. The 
 virile brains and exalted sentiment that lie firmly imbedded 
 in the historic Southern character can hardly fail to be 
 moved by this splendid example in wise and brave adminis- 
 tration of the law. 
 
14 
 
 (Philadelphia Public Ledger, August 12, 1906.) 
 
 By a single act, made possible by a just and fearless judge, 
 North Carolina has scored a signal triumph. It has placed 
 lynch law under the ban and sent an exemplar of this type of 
 anarchy to prison for a term of fifteen years. The matter 
 was carried through with speed, but with the utmost deco- 
 rum. The lynching occurred at Salisbury on Monday night 
 of last week. On Friday of the same week the leader of the 
 mob heard his sentence, after due trial, the jury being out 
 thirty-five minutes. 
 
 Such a result, it will be admitted, comes to the country as 
 a surprise. It is not in consonance with the general notion 
 as to North Carolina sentiment. The victims of the lynch- 
 ers were negroes and the mob was made up of white men. 
 There was no doubt as to the guilt of the victims, yet there 
 was no excuse for lynching them, as they were in jail and 
 the formal trial would have ended their careers without dis- 
 gracing a commonwealth by the manner of the climax. 
 
 The spirit of the homicidal mob is always the spirit of the 
 criminal. Its clamor for justice is the voice of a senseless 
 passion for violence, as well as for vengeance, which it is 
 not the right either of individuals or of collections of indi- 
 viduals to inflict. In keeping with this theory was the cir- 
 cumstance that the man just condemned for the part he took 
 was an ex-convict, a citizen without standing, himself a bur- 
 den to the community wherein he essayed the role of moral 
 censor. The elimination of him and his kind will be a dis- 
 tict uplift. 
 
 Judge Long is entitled to the gratitude of the State. A 
 few more such men on the bench, backed by courageous 
 officials, and lynching would become a thing of the past. He 
 assumed the attitude that he knew to be right, and that the 
 world approves, but that has been frowned upon by thug and 
 ruffian until to assume it and maintain it was deemed well- 
 nigh impossible. 
 
15 
 
 (Southwestern Presbyterian, New Orleans, August 15, 1906.) 
 
 Judge B. F. Long, of North Carolina, a man for whose 
 character, ability, and love of justice we have from personal 
 acquaintance and experience the most profound admiration, 
 has done much towards putting down the lawlessness of 
 lynching by his efforts in connection with the serious out- 
 break in Salisbury last week. The first conviction and pen- 
 alty of the kind ever secured and imposed in the State were 
 brought about through his vigor and impartiality. All honor 
 to the upright judge. 
 
 (Savannah News, August 12, 1906.) 
 
 Hall is the first man in North Carolina convicted of lynch- 
 ing, and he was convicted of lynching negroes. It is a safe 
 proposition that there will be little, if any, more interference 
 with the course of the law in Rowan County, or even in 
 North Carolina. A judge has been found there with suffi- 
 cient backbone to enforce the law against lynchers, and other 
 judges will follow his example, if the necessity for doing so 
 should arise, but it is doubtful if it will arise. It wasn't 
 thought possible to find a jury that would convict for lynch- 
 ing, but sentiment is changing. There has been a conviction, 
 and there will be no more lynching as long as the belief pre- 
 vails that lynchers will be punished. 
 
 (Raleigh News and Observer, August 12, 1906.) 
 
 The conviction and sentence of George Hall, at Salisbury, 
 for conspiring to break into the jail for the purpose of 
 lynching the negroes charged with having committed the 
 Lyerly murders, is of momentous importance, not only to the 
 State, but to the entire South. 
 
 It will serve notice to the country at large that the South 
 is not given over to lawlessness ; that there is still power in 
 the courts to punish for the crime which is the supreme con- 
 
16 
 
 tempt of their authority; and that there is a public senti- 
 ment remaining among the people which will aid the officers 
 of the law in protecting the name of the State from the dis- 
 grace of mob violence. * * * The court has so far 
 justified its existence. If only the people shall hold up its 
 hands to the end, no matter what the duty involves, the 
 cause of justice and civilization will have won another 
 notable triumph. 
 
Photomount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 Gaylord Bros. 
 
 Makers 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 PAT. JAN 21, 1908 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF N.C « CHAPS. HILL 
 
 00042093607 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION