Thomas Heslin

"I believe the punishment ought to be left to the officers of the law, and the law ought to be executed promptly and impartially. Lynching is savage and barbarous, especially when it assumes the inhuman and sickening form of burning at the stake. The remedy is worse than the disease. As it hardly ever, if ever, happens that a Catholic negro is involved in these outrages, I believe the best remedy of all would be to bring the negro under the rule and influence of the Catholic Church."