“ 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. ”

“ Not a man in Chattanooga stands better as a man and a citizen than he does. There is not a particle of evidence to the contrary. He has lived an honored and respected citizen of that city since 1874; has held honorable official positions before the one that he now holds, and yet, as an old man, he is adjudged guilty of a contempt of this court, and liable to serve a disgraceful imprisonment because, as is insisted in this record, he did not do as much towards resisting a lawless mob as this court says he ought to have done. ”

“ It is absurd to contend that officers of the law who have been through the experiences these defendants had passed through two months prior to the actual lynching did not know that a lynching probably would be attempted on the 19th. Under the facts shown, when the sheriff and his deputies assert that they expected a mob on the 20th, they practically concede the allegation of the information that they were informed and had every reason to believe that an attempt would be made on the evening of the 19th or early on the morning of the 20th. ”

“ Thus, from the 11th to the 19th of March, from the time that Johnson was brought back from Knoxville to Chattanooga, after Judge Clark, the United States judge, had denied his petition for habeas corpus,-the city was entirely tranquil, and nothing was done which would have caused any man, even the most circumspect and prudent, to believe that any violence was intended. During the time from the 11th to the 19th of March, there had been no extra guards at the jail because of these facts. No demonstration had been made against the jail, and no threats made against the prisoner that anybody heard. ”

“ It is true, the sheriff might possibly have drawn his gun and fired at the masked men as he came into the jail and succeeded in killing one and perhaps more of the members of the mob, but it is absolutely true that it would have done no good even then, because, with such odds against him, his struggles could have resulted only in his being actually overwhelmed and possibly killed, while the negro would not have been saved. ”

“ Then, again, this is not a question as to whether possibly the sheriff might have done more than he did. Some men, under such circumstances, might perhaps have earlier attempted to draw their guns, and would possibly only have ceased resistance with their lives. But when one is really overpowered, superior force makes efforts at resistance futile, if not foolish. ”

“ All this time there was not an offer from a single man to aid the sheriff when they saw him seized, nor did any of them spread any alarm or ask for any outside aid, and the sheriff says he did not ask for it because he knew it would be useless to make any such appeal to the persons there, and that everyone there knew the situation, and the overwhelming numbers of the crowd surrounding the premises and in the jail. ”

“ The crime for which Johnson was convicted was perpetrated on a white schoolgirl on the 23d of January, 1906, and on the 25th of that month Johnson was arrested near Chattanooga and charged with the crime. After being arrested he was taken by the sheriff, by order of the state criminal court, to the jail at Nashville, where he was kept until the day of his trial, February 6. The sheriff was active and intelligent in his efforts to preserve the safety of the negro. ”

“ If the officers expected a mob at all, as they say that they did, they cannot shield themselves behind the statement that they expected it on the 20th, the day that had been appointed for Johnson to die, and did not expect it the night before. But no orders had been given and nothing had been done up to half-past 8 o'clock on the night of the 19th to protect Johnson from the mob which was, according to their present statements, expected the next day. ”

“ That night no one was on duty except the jailer, which is the usual guard at our jail, as well as in other counties.
"In my opinion the act of the Supreme Court of the United States in not allowing the case to remain in our courts was the most unfortunate thing in the history of Tennessee. I was determined that the case should be put in the hands of the law, as it was. The jury that tried the negro Johnson was as good as ever sat in a jury box. ”

“ No mob, however, appeared, and nothing was attempted. The judge who presided at the trial of the negro, after his conviction, told the sheriff that the prisoner would be entirely safe at Chattanooga. After the trial the excitement decreased very greatly and seemed to disappear entirely. Of this fact there is no contradiction in the evidence. On the 3d of March a petition for a writ of habeas corpus was filed in the United States circuit court for the northern division of the eastern district of Tennessee on the part of Johnson. ”

“ The men who took hold of him had no firearms.
At first he was put in a bath room, and then was released and stood around near the corridor door, where the mob was at work, with three or four unarmed men around him. He made no effort to get away or use force in opposing the mob. He did not attempt to use his pistol or call for help. After the corridor had been broken in, either Shipp or defendant Gibson told the mob which cell Johnson was in. When the mob left the jail with Johnson, Shipp did not follow or make any effort to rescue Johnson or get others to help rescue him. ”

“ That assistance in suppressing the mob might have been easily obtained if effort had been made is shown by the testimony of the chairman of the board of safety, who testifies that, at the time of the first lynching, in going four or five blocks to the jail, he gathered about 16 men to help put down the mob. ”

“ 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 19th, 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. ”

“ He was one man against, at the very least, ten or fifteen or more resolute men, armed and assembled for the purpose of getting this negro, and surrounded by a still larger crowd in the jail yard, and there is not the slightest evidence that they were unarmed. ”

“ He was also a fraternal delegate from the Pastors' Union to the Central Labor League, composed of delegates from every labor organization in the city, and, as a member of the Pastors' Union, he co-operated with the Central Labor League as a fraternal delegate. ”