Strength of Race Prejudice - "There is a feeling
in the white man's mind that whoever of the race not his own who attempts
to defy this race instinct, and violently upset the physical line which
nature has established, does by that act take his life in hand. Death
must be his portion, whether legally or illegally matters not; and from
that decree there is no appeal. Laws may be passed, officers may be sworn
to execute the same, and officers may attempt to do their duty, but the
instances are now indeed the condemned has on this account escaped his
fate. So strong is the feeling that the sense of civic obligation falls
before it. Men who proclaim their thorough fidelity to the country and
its laws, and who know that the safety of the body politic depends upon
the observance of law, draw the line at that point, and while they will
applaud a public officer who does his whole duty in upholding the law
in any other emergency, they condemn him unsparingly if the object of
his services is the negro who has overstepped the racial bound, more especially
if, in defense of his prisoner, the lives of men of their own race are
sacrificed."
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