The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-01-16

Tess to be Repupilcan ne mas
simply burst from the shackles of
Southern Bourbonism. So high is
his reputation that, Notwithstanding
his independent views, he has been
twice elected to Congress, and he
served on some Of the most impor-
tant committees. At the last elec-
ton he was showed under, or rath-
er counted out Not content
with defeating him, his Bourbon
enemies, with the Napoleonic idea,
followed up their victory and COM
nitted the grossest atrocities on ne
groes who had voted for Mr.. Speer.
Prosecutions were brought by Mr..
Speer-he haying been appointed
United States District Attorney
and eight ofthe ku-kluxers were con-
victed and are now languishing in
! Jail. In his own State Mr.. Speer is
still considered reputable gentle
man, and is highly esteemed by his
fellow citizens of Atlanta. But since
he has come to South Carolina he
has been subjected to TRADE OF
abuse that would be blackguardly
were it not uttered by such 'chlval-
rous' Southern gentlemen.
"All along the line the Georgia
and South Carolina papers opened
up fusilade against Mr.. Speer. The
Charleston Nars and Courier boasts
of being the leading paper in the
South. Last Thursday it had a
flaming editorial against 'Speer, the
renegade Because Mr.. Speer's
grandfather was a Union man, his
bones are dragged out. The grand
son is spoken of as Judas lscariot,
who in accepting services in the
government of his country is earn
ing his thirty pieces of silver by
packing juries to secure the convic-
ton of innocent men, who are
Southerners like himself, and to the
manor born Old Alexander Speer,
the champion of the Unionists in
South Carolina, ostracised because
he was loyal and he withdrew to
Georgia. The Charleston NepS and
Courier now screechingly demands
that Emory Speer, the renegade,
should be treated and regarded as
the renegade that he is because he
/ is the 'hireling Of the enemy of his
shame The Neos and Courier says
it could have forgiven Ben. Butter
worth for coming here to prosecute
the cases, but for a southern man to
accept retainer from the Federal
government is objectionable. As
for Speer, that patriotic sheet yells,
. In Georgia he is despised by ali re
spectacle citizens At Washington
! the Democrats had no use for him.
If there was any hope that he would
recover lost ground and rehabilitate
himself in the esteem of his country
men, that hope is past and gone.
Yet be will not be forgotten. In
South Carolina, at all events, he
will be remembered as fit for the
gallery of worthless in which Scott,
Moses, Whipper, Parker and Cordozo
have a conspicuous place. These
} never served the Republican party
more unscrupulously than Speer
: does, and it must be said in their
favor that they merely stole our
good name, and make US poor in
deed.
democratic members of the bar
] in Ohio will be surprised to learn
: that so far j. the feeling against Mr..
Speer carried that even professional
e courtesy can not bridge 1t over.
None of thaattorneys for the defense
will speak to him or recognize him,
either socially or as brother MEM
Der of the bar. When be is referred
to in addressing the court it is but as
The Governments Representative
E from Georgia That's so whitening,
but still Mr.. Speer manages to
E stand il.
! AN Englishman named Dawson
I. is the editor and chief proprietor of
q the Ne,uS and Courier He has more
: venom than the most vituperative
: native cepperhead Bourbon. IL is
j said he landed in South Carolina on
e a blockade runner during the war.
I Ofa shrewd turn of mind, he was
! friendly to the Radicals when
] Grants troopers were here, and his
; check book grew fat thereby. Even
e down to 1876 he was on the fence,
t and urged the re election of Cham,
e berlain, the Republican Governor.
s His support of Wade Hampton was
e tardily given, but when once Dawson
d had swung around he burned his
e bridges behind him. He is now the
: autocrat of Bourbonism, the King OF
e South Carolina. He is secretly cor.
o daily disliked by Democrats nearly
e as much as by Republicans. But
a there is no newspaper competition
S in South Carolina. Almost unknown
D in the North, except among journal
Is lists, the Charleston NelCS and Courjel
d is practically the only newspaper il
'i Sonth Carolina. Down there among
the palms and orange trees on tht
Ie sea coast the Car of Carolina sits en-
throned on a printing press. A dast
l. of his pen is as the crack of the bul
la whip, and the brave Carolinians sub
sr NIT with a smothered curse. No
al only has the Republican party NJ
N organ. and no chance at the slightes
10 fair treatment in the press, but by
r the despousm of Dawsonism tn
1e least independence on the part o
y Democrats VINO hunger after a bette