ever heard in any court room, and the mute appeal of twenty-seven orphans
for justice touched the stoutest hearts. Only two weeks prior to the
session, Gov. Jones of Alabama, in his last message to the retiring state
legislature, cited the fact that in the two years just past, nine colored
men had been taken from the legal authorities by lynching mobs and
butchered in cold blood--and not one of these victims was even charged
with an assault upon womanhood.

It was thought that this great organization, in face of these facts, would
not hesitate to place itself on record in a resolution of protest against
this awful brutality towards colored people. Miss Willard gave assurance
that such a resolution would be adopted, and that assurance was relied on.
The record of the session shows in what good faith that assurance was
kept. After recommending an expression against Lynch Law, the President
attacked the antilynching movement, deliberately misrepresenting my
position, and in her annual address, charging me with a statement I never
made.

Further than that, when the committee on resolutions reported their work,
not a word was said against lynching. In the interest of the cause I
smothered the resentment. I felt because of the unwarranted and unjust
attack of the President, and labored with members to secure an expression
of some kind, tending to abate the awful slaughter of my race. A
resolution against lynching was introduced by Mrs. Fessenden and read, and
then that great Christian body, which in its resolutions had expressed
itself in opposition to the social amusement of card playing, athletic
sports and promiscuous dancing; had protested against the licensing of
saloons, inveighed against tobacco, pledged its allegiance to the
Prohibition party, and thanked the Populist party in Kansas, the
Republican party in California and the Democratic party in the South,