appeal here. See Section 766, Revised Statutes of the United States.

"JAMES H. MCKENNEY,

"Clerk Supreme Court, U. S."

This was received by the telegraph office at Chattanooga about 3.30 on the same afternoon and delivered between 4 and 5 o'clock on that afternoon.

About 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the nineteenth Judge McReynolds told Sheriff Shipp that the Supreme Court had granted a stay in the Johnson case, and that thereafter Johnson was a Federal prisoner.

Between 2 and 4 of the afternoon of March 19 the following telegram was received by Judge Clark, and by his secretary communicated to Sheriff Shipp, at the jail, about 5 o'clock that afternoon, with a copy of the statute therein referred to:

แ

'Washington, D. C., March 19, 1906. "Hon. C. D. Clark, United States Court, Chattanooga, Tenn. "Court has just allowed appeal in Johnson's case, and ordered all further proceedings against him delayed and custody retained pending appeal here. It will be well to call attention of state officers immediately to Section 766 of Revised Statutes. "JOHN M. HARLAN."

The statute referred to reads (including the proviso added March 3, 1893):

"Pending the proceedings on appeal in the cases mentioned in the three preceding sections and until final judgment therein, and after final judgment of discharge, any proceedings against the person imprisoned or confined or restrained of his liberty, in any State court, or by or under the authority of any State, for any matter so heard and determined, or in process of being heard and determined, under such writ of habeas corpus, shall be deemed null and void.

"Provided, That no such appeal shall be had or allowed after

six months from the date of the judgment or order complained of."

Shipp understood that thereupon Johnson was held as a Federal prisoner.

There was published and circulated in Chattanooga, in the evening paper published in that city, on March 19, about 4 o'clock, an account of said action of the Supreme Court, under the headlines, "An Appeal is Allowed. Ed Johnson Will Not Hang To-morrow." This reads, in part:

"The gallows in the Hamilton County jail has again been disappointed in the case of Ed Johnson, convicted by the state courts of rape and sentenced to death. The hanging will not take place to-morrow morning, as scheduled."

The news of the action of the court was also posted on a newspaper bulletin.

After hearing of the stay Shipp says that he made no effort and gave no orders to have deputies or others guard the jail, but left the night jailer, defendant Gibson, there alone.

The county jail at Chattanooga, in which Johnson was confined on the nineteenth, consisted of four stories, two above ground and two below ground. Entrance to the jail was on the third floor, counting from the bottom. In the front part of the building, on this third floor, was an office section. An iron door led from this section into the jail proper; that is, the protected part of the building, where the prisoners were kept. Johnson was confined on the top floor. To reach him from outside the jail it was necessary to go through the offices, through the iron door between the offices and the jail proper, up a flight of stairs, through a steel-barred door, right behind which was a circular door consisting of heavy steel bars several inches apart, which revolved so as to make a passage. Passing through this circular door one came into a corridor around which were cells having iron doors which could be locked. It was in one of these cells that Johnson was confined.

The jail was located in a populous neighborhood and there were houses around it.

In the evening of the nineteenth a white male prisoner was removed from the upper floor of the county jail in Chattanooga, leaving only Johnson and a white woman on that floor. This same man had been removed in the same way at the time of the first attempt to lynch Johnson.

About half-past 8 or 9 that night a number of men entered the jail and went directly and without resistance to the door leading to Johnson's corridor. There is a conflict of evidence as to whether the door leading from the offices to the jail proper was locked during the evening, but if it was locked when the mob came it was easily broken down.

Gibson was the only officer there at the time, and he was on the top floor with Johnson.

Keys were obtained from him without resistance, but, as the lock on the door leading to the corridor where Johnson's cell was located had been broken by a member of the mob, the keys would not work.

The mob, with sledge and ax, then began to break the bolts on the corridor door.

About twelve men were actively engaged in breaking down the door and in all subsequent events of the lynching. Some of these men were masked.

A crowd of spectators began to gather around the jail soon after the mob reached it, and continued to gather in and around the jail until Johnson was taken out. This crowd was variously estimated from a few to 150 or more.

It took over an hour to break the bolts on the corridor door. Two men then went through the circular door and in a few minutes brought Johnson out with his arms tied with a rope. When Johnson was thus brought out, the dozen men or so composing the mob grabbed him.

This mob took Johnson from the jail to the county bridge over the Tennessee River, which was about six blocks from the jail.

Johnson was taken from the jail a little after 10 o'clock.

From the foregoing it is apparent that there was no inter

ference or attempted interference of any consequence with the mob before it left the jail, and there was none after it left. The crowd which had gathered around the jail followed the mob down to the bridge.

When the bridge was reached the mob took Johnson a little beyond an arc light, put a rope around his neck, threw it over a beam, and swung him up.

At the bridge the mob actively engaged in lynching Johnson were close to him and separated by a space from the crowd of spectators.

The first time Johnson was swung up, the rope broke or slipped and he fell. He was swung up a second time and shot. After some shots were fired, Johnson again fell, and while lying on the ground was again shot. It was about ten minutes after the mob had reached the bridge until Johnson was killed:

It is apparent that a dangerous portion of the community was seized with the awful thirst for blood which only killing can quench, and that considerations of law and order were swept away in the overwhelming flood. The mob was, however, willing at the first attempt to accept prompt administration of the death penalty adjudged at a trial conducted according to judicial forms, in lieu of execution by lawless violence, but delay by appeal, or writ of error, or habeas corpus was not to be tolerated.

Under then existing statutory provisions appeals might be taken to this court from final decisions of the Circuit Courts in habeas corpus in cases, among others, where the applicant for the writ is alleged to be restrained of his liberty in violation of the Constitution or of some law or treaty of the United States, and if the restraint was by any state court, or by or under the authority of any State, further proceedings could not be had against him pending the appeal. Rev. Stat., §§ 763, 764, 766; Act of March 3, 1885, c. 353, 23 Stat. 437.

In this instance an appeal was granted by this court, and proceedings specifically ordered to be stayed. The persons who hung and shot this man were so impatient for his blood

that they utterly disregarded the act of Congress as well as the order of this court.

As heretofore stated, the defendants to the information remaining to be dealt with on the facts are Shipp, Galloway, Gibson, Nolan, Williams, Justice, Padgett, Mayse and Ward. Of these, Shipp was the sheriff and Galloway and Gibson two of his deputies. The others are charged with active participation in the lynching. It is contended that the lynching was not expected to occur on the nineteenth, and the evidence of the United States District Judge, and some clergymen and others was given to the effect that they had no such anticipation. The event showed that they were wrong, and it is plain the danger might be very great and yet remain unperceived by the adherents of order and peace.

It will be remembered that the crime was committed on January 23, and Johnson was arrested January 25. That night a mob attacked the jail in which he was supposed to be and ascertained that he was not there. Johnson was kept in Nashville from that day until his trial commenced, February 6. On his conviction, February 9, he was taken away from Chattanooga and kept away until March 11, the day after his petition for habeas corpus was denied.

It must be admitted that intense feeling against Johnson existed from the time of the commission of the crime until after his conviction, and that this feeling frequently manifested itself, although Johnson was not in Chattanooga from the time of his arrest until his trial began. The intensity of this feeling and the great apprehension of the officers of mob violence is shown in the testimony of defendants' own witnesses, describing the precautions and secrecy exercised by them in the way they took Johnson in and out of Chattanooga, as well as by the fact that they kept him away from Chattanooga from the day of his arrest until March 11, two days before the time set for his execution, with the exception of the three days he was there attending his trial. Undoubtedly the public believed that Johnson would be executed on March 13,