Homicide, north and south. Being a comparative view of crime against the person in several parts of the United States

Front matter

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Preface

This book is not written in a sectional or party spirit. There is no intent upon the part of the writer to influence a political result or extol one section of our common country over another. But in a large experience in nearh' all the Southern States I have been impressed with the frequency of homicide, — averaging perhaps a homicide a day in a given State for months at a time, and that, too, where the population was but one-fifth or one-sixth as great as that of Pennsylvania or New York. And, further, that popular attention among those most interested was so little aroused by the frequency of this crime. In those States where the homicidal tendency of the population has such large development, the usual answer to suggestions that man-slaying is very frequent is something like this : " Oh, there are no more murders among us than among other people ; there are murders everywhere, always have been and always will be ;" or, " Murder is as frequent in the Northern States or in Europe as here ;" or, " There

4 PREFACE.

are more murders in New York City or Boston than in our whole State." They regret and deplore crimes of this nature, but accept them as evils that cannot be helped, evils that must be borne, and content themselves with reflections that every civilized country has a murder rate equal to, or even in excess of, that which prevails in most of the Southern States.

The object of this book is to show how very erroneous these conclusions are, and to try and arouse the governing elements in the South to a proper appreciation of the evil that afflicts society, to the end that there may be increased respect for human life and less consideration shown man-slayers in the courts.

No civilization yet attained has been equal to the entire suppression of murder. It occurs in all countries and among all people. But that it should be from four to fifteen times more frequent in the Southern States of our own country than elsewhere is calculated to arouse the latent forces of society against the continuance permanently of this condition of things.

The writer has spent the greater portion of his life in the Southern States. The friends of his youth are there. In an extended experience as a resident of one of the Southern States, and as correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial visiting them all again

PREFACE. 5

and again, he has experienced nothing but kindness. There is no malice in this book. Were the brighter sides of Southern life only dealt with, the hospitality, the generosity, the courage, and the finer and more lovable qualities of the Southern population set forth, the book to be written would be much larger than this. There is more good than evil in the South; more that is lovable than there is that is reprehensible; more cause for hope than for despondency. In this little work the writer deals with one of the greatest evils that afflict Southern society, with the belief and the hope that it can be remedied.

It is not political. Although there have been many political murders in the Southern States, yet the great majority of homicides, and the class dealt with in this book, have no more connection with politics than has petit larceny in New York.

Washington, D. C, July i, 1880.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I.— Homicide Contrasted, South and North . . 9

II. — Homicide in Ohio 21

Chapter I. Homicide Contrasted, South And North

The life of a human being is surrounded by an awful sanctity, and from time immemorial the advance of civilization has been marked not only by an increased respect for human life, but by the enacting and enforcement of adequate penalties against those who slay their fellow-men. In England, in the last four hundred and fifty years, the murder rate has decreased fully eighteen hundred per cent., calculating the relative number of homicides to population. In England and Wales, with an aggregate population of over twenty-five millions, the number of homicides returned by the coroners' juries as "wilful murders" average about two hundred and thirty-five per annum, or less than one annually to every one hundred thousand inhabitants. Of homicides of all descriptions, including infanticide, there are about three hundred and seventy-five annually.

In our own country, in all the New England States, in the agricultural regions of New York, Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio, and many portions of

Michigan and Wisconsin, the rate is not higher than in England. Among the rural population of the New England States the number of felonious homicides do not exceed a yearly average of one to every one hundred and fifty thousand population.

It is in the late slave States that the number of homicides in proportion to population is far in excess of the rate ever known in the Northern States, or in England for the past four hundred and fifty years.

Upon a close investigation of this subject it is found :

First. That the number of homicides in the Southern States is proportionately greater than in any country on earth the population of which is rated as civilized.

Second. That the number of homicides in the Southern States since the war reaches the enormous aggregate of at least forty thousand. Continuing through a generation at the same rate, the destruction of life would equal that of a great war.

There were in the States of Texas, Kentucky, and South Carolina in the year 1878 seven hundred and thirty-four homicides. During the same time there were five hundred and twenty-two persons severely wounded by shots and stabs. Estimating that fifteen per cent, of the severely and dangerously wounded afterwards died of their wounds, it swells the number of homicides in these three States in one year to an a gg re g ate of e 'g nt hundred and twelve. This is a low estimate of the fatality of wounds. Where, how-

HOMICIDE CONTRASTED, SOUTH AND NORTH. It

ever, there was no doubt of the mortal character of the wound, it was classed as a homicide.

The year 1878 was a fair one for comparison, as there were no unusual disturbances that year. Taking it as an average year, multiply by the number since the war, and it would give these three States twelve thousand one hundred and eighty homicides. If killing of human beings was equally frequent in the other Southern States, — and in many of them it is, — the aggregate since the war would reach fifty thousand. But in some of the Southern States, notably Virginia, the rate of homicide is much less than in these three States. On the other hand, the rate in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas is higher than in South Carolina and Kentucky, which would bring up the average. But in Texas the rate is undoubtedly higher than in any other Southern State of equal population, which would lower the average. Throw off ten thousand because of a higher average in Texas than in the other States, and it leaves forty thousand. After making all allowances for miscalculation and errors of average, I believe that there has been every one of forty thousand homicides in the Southern States since the war. Taking Texas, Kentucky, and South Carolina as average States, and the year 1878 as an average year, the number is fully fifty thousand.

The homicides in these three States in the year 1878 present some amazing contrasts, and bring out the differences between the Southern and the Northern civilizations in vivid colors.

In Texas during the year there were more homicides than in the ten States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota, with an aggregate population of nearly if not quite seventeen millions.

In Kentucky that year there were more homicides than in the eight States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, with an aggregate population of nearly ten millions.

In South Carolina that year there were more homicides than in the eight States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Michigan, and Minnesota, with an aggregate population of about six millions.

This shows a bad condition of things, and one that could and should be remedied. The excess of murder and manslaughter in the Southern States was not confined to the year 1878. It exists every year. But I selected that year because it is a fair, average period, and without unusual disturbances in any quarter, either political or communistic.

It may be asked, Why select Texas, Kentucky, and South Carolina for figures upon which to base an estimate ? Because in each of these States there is published one newspaper covering local affairs in the entire State with a degree of thoroughness that enables at least an approximate collection of the homicides happening in these States for a given period. In the other Southern States an examina-

HOMICIDE CONTRASTED, SOUTH AND NORTH, j,

tion of the files of from three to five of the principal newspapers would be necessary to collect accounts of all the homicides in those States for a given period, and even then the result would be doubtful. But in each of these three States named there is one newspaper which has departments of local State news, well kept up year after year, and not allowed to be greatly interfered with by " pressure of other matter." Even these papers often miss homicides, — that is, there are cases in their respective States of which no mention happens to be made in their columns, — but probably the number missed is not above ten or fifteen per cent, of the whole. In these and other Southern States, I have been unable to find any record of homicides except in newspapers. Another reason for selecting these three States is because they are widely separated, inhabited by the same general class of population as the other exslave States, and, all three taken together, can reasonably be supposed to give an approximately fair average. The population of these three States is about half a million less than that of the New England States. At the same rate of slaughter there would be in New England over nine hundred homicides annually. There has not been as many in the past eighteen years. In other words, the population of these three Southern States kill one another at a rate about eighteen hundred per cent, greater than do the population of New England. In New England it is comparatively easy to collect the number of homicides for a given period from official documents, and details of each case can be had from newspaper files. There is hardly a murder in any New England State that escapes the columns of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, and certainly from three or four leading papers all can be collected. The average in all the six New England States is about fifty annually among about four millions of population.

In the three Southern States named, allowing that a small per cent, of those dangerously wounded died of their wounds, we find over eight hundred homicides in one year. Fearful as this aggregate is, it probably falls short of the truth, taking one year with another. In a single month I have known twenty-six Kentucky homicides to be reported in the Courier-Journal, and two others not reported, making twenty-eight, or at the rate of three hundred and thirty-six per annum. Massachusetts, with a much larger population, has not so many in a year as often happens in Kentucky in thirty days. The year I selected for comparison, 1878, there were two hundred and nineteen homicides reported in Kentucky, and the number in Massachusetts was twenty, with a population about one hundred and forty thousand in excess of that of Kentucky.

In many of the Northern States it is quite easy to collect the number of homicides, either from a carefully-kept annual registration report, such as that of Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island, or from the sworn returns of clerks of courts, as in Pennsylvania, giving each year the number of indictments for murder and manslaughter in the several counties.

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The registration report of Massachusetts extends back nearly forty years, and is very complete. The number of homicides for any year can be ascertained, also the average for a number of years. The annual average in Massachusetts for twelve years is twenty-three among a population of over sixteen hundred thousand. But this will be treated of more in detail under the appropriate head.

There is so much that is lovable in the Southern character, — generosity, geniality, frankness, hospitality, loyalty to friends, and courage in the highest degree, — that it is doubly painful to see such manliness marred by these frequent and unnecessary murders. There is in the South precisely the condition of things which, in society properly organized and governed, would make murder exceedingly rare. The foreign element is very small. More than ninetyeight per cent, of the Southern population are native-born Americans. The pursuits of the people are mainly agricultural ; there are no large interests. continually clashing, as in the mining and manufacturing centres of the North. The population is relatively sparse ; there is room for all, and certainly murder should not be more frequent among an equal number of people than in the rural portions of New England. New Hampshire and Vermont resemble the Southern section in some degree in this, that the occupations of the people are largely agricultural, the foreign element comparatively small, and there are no great cities and mining and manufacturing centres with attendant clashings of classes and interests.

Murder in Kentucky, for instance, should not be more frequent than among an equal number of people in New Hampshire and Vermont. Reduced to the average rate which prevails in these States, there should not be over seven or eight homicides annually in Kentucky. There are many years when there has not been a homicide in Vermont. But averaging several years together, calculating for difference in number of people, an average of seven or eight annually in Kentucky would be a fair estimate. I mention these States because of the similarity of the general pursuits of the population, agricultural, and the absence of great cities and immense mining and manufacturing interests with the foreign population usually found in such centres. In Massachusetts, for instance, from one-third to one-half the homicides are in Suffolk County, where Boston is situated. Outside of that county the number is less than one annually to every one hundred thousand population.

But as to Kentucky and Vermont, can a rational reason be given why murder and manslaughter should be from twenty to thirty times more frequent among an equal population in one State than in the other ? Is it climate ? No climate has power over passion like this ! Is it diet ? Is it the greater consumption of intoxicating liquors in Kentucky ? Is it the virus of slavery which poisoned the foundation of society in Kentucky, while freedom builded better in Vermont ? Is life dearer to a citizen of Vermont than it is to a citizen of Kentucky ? Does he love

HOMICIDE CONTRASTED, SOUTH AND NORTH. \j

his family and his property more, and prefer to abide with them till the natural end of his days rather than risk his life in a street-fight or a " personal difficulty" with deadly weapons, the result of which may be the orphanage of his neighbor's children or his own ? Is there a higher sense of personal honor in Kentucky than in Vermont which leads to this enormous disproportion in the rate of homicide ? If so, does this superior standard of personal honor bring adequate compensation to the orphans and the widows of those slain in combat, or to society? Do the bereaved family, standing over the grave of the freshly slain, find their grief assuaged and their tears dried by the reflection that the husband and father fell in a street-fight defending his right to be called a gentleman ?

It is the "personal difficulties" with deadly weapons, street-fights, and affrays in the Southern States that swell the number of homicides out of all proportion to the number in a corresponding population elsewhere. Take the three Southern States named for the year 1878, or any other year, collect all the accounts of " personal difficulties," bar-room affrays, and street-fights with deadly weapons, and it will be learned that there are at least forty such affrays to every one that can be found in all New England among an equal population. The result is an enormous preponderance of man-slaying in the Southern States, a preponderance that has ever existed, and that will continue to exist until the tone of the population in this matter is elevated and improved. In the old State of South Carolina, with a civilization b 2* lg HOMICIDE, NORTH AND SOUTH.

dating back a century and a half, there are more than twice as many men killed annually by their fellow-men than in all the six New England States with four millions of inhabitants! Omitting the year 1876, when there was great political excitement in South Carolina, and several riots growing out of this condition, thus swelling the number of homicides far above the average number, — omitting that year, and taking the years 1877 and 1878, when there were no internal disturbances as in 1876, what do we find? We find the number of homicides in these two years almost, if not quite, equal to the average number in all the six New England States in five years ! But dropping the other New England States and comparing only with Massachusetts, of which we have authentic record of the number of homicides for many years, we find as many homicides in two years in South Carolina, with less than half the population of Massachusetts, than in the latter State in ten average years ! But these facts will be treated more in detail in another place.

There is nothing that so distinguishes the Southern civilization from the Northern as this one matter of homicide. Murder there is everywhere, but the fact that it is so very much more frequent in the Southern States than elsewhere should put the Southern people upon inquiry as to the cause and the remedy. To do this is the object of this book.

Contrast the old civilization of South Carolina with the old civilization of Massachusetts, and we find the crime of man-slaying at least twelve times more fre-

HOMICIDE CONTRASTED, SOUTH AND NORTH, IO ,

quent in the former State than in the latter,.compared to population. Contrast Michigan with Kentucky, and we find homicide at least six times more frequent in the latter than in the former State, measured by relative population. Contrast Minnesota with Texas, both comparatively new States, the one settled largely by people from the old slave States and the other by people from the old free States, and we find homicide twelve to fifteen times more frequent among an equal population in Texas than in Minnesota. Both are comparatively new States, and the contrast between them is as striking as the contrast between Massachusetts and South Carolina, two representative older States.

In Texas in the year 1878, as I have stated, there were more murders and manslaughters than that year in ten Northern States with some sixteen millions of population. If this is the way a comparatively new State starts out, what are we to expect of her with increased population and years ? Is there any reason why murder and manslaughter should be so very much more frequent in this typical State of the new Southwest than in the new and typical States of the Northwest ? But is it more strange than that murder and manslaughter should be twelve or thirteen times more frequent in the old State of South Carolina than in the old State of Massachusetts? Have we not here two civilizations? If not, why should there be this condition of things with reference to the highest of human crimes? And why should there be such striking similarity between the types of homicide in South Carolina and in Texas ? They are all of the same general pattern, mainly " personal difficulties," affrays, and street-fights with deadly weapons, as I will show in other chapters. Take accounts of say twelve "personal difficulties" with deadly weapons in Georgia or South Carolina, and contrast them with twelve "personal difficulties" in Texas, and they vary only in minute detail. They are all cut from the same cloth and the outgrowth of the same peculiar civilization.

Chapter II. Homicide In Ohio

In Ohio the system of records of homicides from coroners' inquests is very complete, and extends back many years. From these records, carefully compiled annually, we learn the number of homicides in Ohio for a series of years, and also the number in each county for a given time. An inquest on the spot at the time of the killing and the verdict made up from the testimony of those most familiar with the circumstances, would naturally be correct in the great majority of cases. In Ohio each county has a coroner, but in his absence any justice of the peace may act, and there is a justice to every district. In this way the whole field is covered, and it is next to impossible to find an instance of a homicide in Ohio without a coroner's inquest. Reports of these inquests are returned annually to the Secretary of State and published with his report. It is not difficult, therefore, to ascertain the number of homicides in Ohio for a given period. I have them for twenty years. The annual average for twenty years is 78. That these figures are approximately accurate we know by comparing them with the number of indictments and prosecutions for murder in the first and second degree and for manslaughter in all the courts, which are returned by another set of officers. I have the number of these prosecutions in Ohio for five years, beginning July I, 1 866, and ending July I, 1872, omitting 1870, which I have not been able to procure. In these five years (a fair, average period, certainly) there were 421 homicides reported in Ohio by coroners and justices of the peace acting as coroners, — a yearly average of more than 84 and less than 85. During the same time, as we learn from the record of criminal prosecutions returned by sworn officers, there were in all the courts of the State 371 indictments and prosecutions for murder and manslaughter, — a yearly average of less than 75 and more than 74. This is 10 less annually than the number of homicides returned by the coroners and justices of the peace acting as coroners. . These two sets of figures, however, prove each other, the average of ten homicides returned annually by one set of officers above the number of prosecutions returned by another set of officers being probably the average number that were accidental homicides, or so clearly justifiable that no prosecution was made. With these two sets of figures before us we can arrive at the average annual number of homicides in Ohio with a good deal of certainty. Taking a series of years together the average number is not far from 80. The effect of a commotion or disturbance like the labor and railroad " strikes" in the summer of 1877 is plainly seen in the increased number of homicides. The number returned for the year ending July 1, 1878 (covering the period of the mem-

HOMICIDE IN OHIO. 23

orable " strikes") is the largest of any year, reaching a total of 1 16. The year previous the number was 101, and the year before that there were 76.

Nearly one-sixth of all homicides in Ohio happen in Hamilton County, where the largest city, Cincinnati, is situated. The per cent, of homicides to population in this county is greater than in the State at large. On the other hand, the very lowest per cent, of homicide to population is found where those who have investigated such subjects would expect to find it, — in the agricultural counties of the Western Reserve, settled very largely, in fact almost entirely, from New England and New York. The law-abiding character of the New England population, their abhorrence of murder in all its forms, has a most striking illustration in the agricultural counties of the Western Reserve of Ohio, settled originally from New England, and to this day sometimes called " the New England corner of Ohio." Well it may be ! It has in a striking manner the New England characteristics of a very high average of intelligence and a very low average of crime. In these Western Reserve counties (excepting Cuyahoga, which has a large foreign population) the homicide rate to population is the lowest of any cluster of counties in Ohio. Could the number of homicides in the entire State be reduced to the per cent, that prevails in the counties of Ashtabula, Lorain, Portage, Summit, Geauga, Lake, and Medina, taking a series of years together, there would be less than forty annually among the three millions of Ohio population !

In these seven counties in Northern Ohio, settled so largely from New England, we find a rate of homicide that does not exceed one annually to every one hundred thousand population. Indeed, the population of these counties have adopted the law-abiding habits of the land from whence they and their fathers came, with such loyalty to precedent that we find the homicide rate among them reduced to almost exactly what it is in New England.

It has been claimed for General Garfield's Congressional district in Northern Ohio that among its people is a higher average grade of intelligence than is found in any other district of equal population ; that is, that the per cent, of illiteracy is lower. This is, no doubt, true. There is certainly much in the inspection of the criminal statistics of some of these counties which confirms it. With a high grade of general intelligence there is also a marked respect for human life, which manifests itself in a very low homicide rate, as well as a proportionate infrequency of all crime against the person. This of itself indicates a high degree of civilization. While the want of intelligence is not always the cause of crime, yet it is a fact that crime often reaches its maximum where the general grade of intelligence is lowest. There are, outside of New England and New York, no clusters of counties where the average intelligence (as indicated by the absence of illiteracy) is higher than the seven counties referred to in Northern Ohio. It is also true that there are few clusters of counties outside of New England and New York of equal

HOMICIDE IN OHIO.

population where homicide is as rare as in these counties. There are such counties, to be sure, where there are equally few homicides, but to find a number adjacent to one another would be a task of some difficulty. In this we have very strong evidence of the efficacy of intelligence in the prevention of crime, particularly of crime against the person. In three of these counties, with an aggregate population of over sixty thousand, there were but two homicides in five years. This is very near the New England average. An inspection of the returns for a number of years shows homicide to be very much more frequent in the southern counties of Ohio than in the northern. Draw a line through the State east and west, so as to divide the population equally, and a very much larger number of homicides will be found south of this line than north of it. There are more homicides, in proportion to population, in the counties bordering upon the Ohio River than in those bordering upon Lake Erie. Was the per cent, of murder to population as low all over the State as in the Western Reserve counties, taking a series of years together, the annual average in Ohio would be only about half what it is. In Indiana and Illinois we also find murder and manslaughter much more frequent, in proportion to population, in the southern than in the northern portions of these States, and from much the same causes as in Ohio. This will be referred to more in detail in another place. b 3

Chapter III. Homicide In Massachusetts

Massachusetts has a complete system of registration, giving the cause of all deaths in that Commonwealth and publishing the statistics annually with other public documents. Hers is one of the most complete systems of registration of any State, and its general correctness has been tested by forty years of experience. All marriages, births, and deaths are recorded and returned to the Capitol by sworn officers, and there compiled and published as the law directs. These vital statistics are published under the designation of registration reports, having numbers corresponding with the years of publication. From these reports the numbers of homicides in Massachusetts can be collected for any year, or series of years. Those who doubt their correctness can easily satisfy themselves. If the number of homicides for a year are reported at a certain figure, a file of daily papers, which covers the news of the State very completely, will test the matter. Every test that I have applied has shown these statistics to be correct. For instance, the number of homicides returned as having been committed in Suffolk County (Boston) for the four years ending December 31, 1878, are 48. Turning to the Report of the Board 26