The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-11-26
MUST ERSKINE GO DOWN ?
REMARKS ON A REMARKABLE PRoDUC-
TION.
Are our Vested Rights 10 be Taken
Away From Us :--.Is our Gust Her.
itage to be Deliberately ApprOpri.
ated by Others?

ated by Others:
The editorial in the last issue Of the Associ-
ate Reformed Presbyterian by J. 7. c., is a
most remarkable document.
First. All the hallowed associations OF an
opportune birth and successful career are
put in the balance and weighed against mag
nificent buildings and gifts of gold.
The vested rights of the citizen and the
churchman are 10 be thrown down and tram
Piled under foot because Of more glittcring
offers.
The prayers of those who christened the
college, and the money OF those who erected
the buildings are TO be scoffed at and to be set
" ali, forsooth, because of that manmon where
thought
"Were downward bent. admlrlng more
The richest OF heavens pavement-trodden
Than ought divine or holy"
And, those Of us Tho protest against being
brazenly cheated out our vested rights and
our Just heritage. are charged with being ac-
tuated by "purely personal preferences aud
We will be excused from remarking upon
the sacrelige to be found at the opening and
closing of his article. 1t would be useless for
us to enlarge on the act which charges us
with "selfish purposes" when we only pro-
test against his gobbling up and taking away
of our goods to crafty his own ambition, and
which, if effected. must result in Il schism in
the church, and bring about heart-burnings
would last for generation.
Mr.. Chalmers, with q great flourish OF
trumpets, goes on 10 cite alleged reasons for
making the college Rock Hill institution,
which reasons are as inapplicable as they are
ludcous.
The fact is, they are so foreign to a proper
consideration Of the subject that they seem
mercy draft on public crcdulity and pre-
the friends Of the college.
At best. they are nothing more nor less
than q sialple preteXt, or an ill-devised eX-
cuse behind which the enemies of Due West
and those who may be envious OF the fair
fame o the present faculty Of the college may
retire and seek to shield themselves in the ef-
fort TO divert attention from the real motives
which prompt this warfare against Erskinc
College and It's professors.
Erskine College Is avowedly and acknowl.
edgedIy a church institution.
Then why shear II Of It's churchly robes, to
take 1t up and set it down in The midst of an
area where there are neither churches nor
colleges?
It is the oldest chartered denominational
college in the State.
Since its establishment other institutions
have grown up around II, and each has been
attended with more or less success, and Meth.
er has ipjuiously effect ed the other.
But, suppose that we had too many colleges.
Must ErSkine, the oldest Of them all, pick up
her belongings and 60 out into the old fields
or woods-from her favored surroundings
and seek, ut its present advanced age. new
friends in q town which boasts that no college
has yet dared to locate within siXty.eight
miles Of it?-a place, where other colleges,
for reasons unknown to US, have heretofore
avoided.
An argument like this can have no other
the management of ErSkine is unsatIs-
factory. and the ability employed In its lacul-
~ Is below the standard of the other colleges.
mers i'll conceals the idea that he himself
thinks he might be more able and competent
President of the Rock Hill college.
When we recall u few facts, the thought
comes invoutarily that this whole agitation
Is not SO much for the good OF the church as
for the elevation Of the agii ators, or
TO places of honor in the college faculty.
DR.. Grier is at the head of the Associate Re-
formed church.
AS reasons for saying This:
|. He is the editor OF the church paper,
from whose very door the people would not
allow their paper to he removed to another
the publication office, should be enormously
printed thereon.
2. He is at the head of the Institution, which
Mr.. Chalmers now seeks TO remove.
g. He Is entrenchcd In the hearts Of Associate
Reformed Presbyterians everywhere. His
eminent pieiy, his great zeal for church and
college work, as we'll as his power 10 com
mnnd the love and confidence of all people,
Justly place him at the head of the church.
This we believe 10 be true statement us re-
CARDS DR.. Grier.
DO you admit the fact?
Ifso, then you must perforce admit another
fact.
No man ever stood pre-emnentiy distin-
guished among his fellows, who escaped the
envy, the jealcusly. and the hatred OF anb!-
tious men, whose ability and sincerely OF Pnl..
pose failed to elevate them 10 the standard OF
MIN whom they compliment by hating.
The aims and purposes ofa truly great man
are effective because they commend them
selves 10 the great body Of the people.
is another
wire. pulling and the arts of the politician for
what they lack in solid merit. Snch people
often succeed temporarily because their plans
and real motives are discovered only when
it is too lete to avert, it may be. calamity.
To convince the reader hat this whole agi.
tation for the removal Of ErSkine College has
but two purposes, we think IT. Will be only
necessary 10 mention few circumstances.
The proposed plan which should result in
the removal OF Erskine College, and the elec-
ton of Il new Faculty, was commenced some
two or three years ago.
President Grier was so strongly en-.
trenched in the hearts Of the people that
nothing but an indircction could displace
him.
TO do by art what could not be done by an
open purpose. an apparently innocen
the board Of trustees. 1t was necessary to do
this In order to accomplish the two-fold OBJ
ject: The removal of the college, and the
dismissal OF the faculty, with the pos
sibility Of throwing their mantles on the
shoulders of the agitators.
To further aid this deep laid plan and ef-
feet this evil purpose--ol which synod, as
body, had never dreamed-it was pror osed to
reduce the board from thirty odd to fifteen
members. The old and true friends In many
instances were thrust aside, and new men
chosen, some Of whom now propose to deS-
ecrate the temple on entering whose halls
they should remove their shoes.
The old trustees being put out, q strong
point was gained.
Besides putting in new and perhaps ambi-
tious trustees, the college was not only weak
ened by the entrenchment OF new enemies.
attack, because of the wounds which had
been SO lately and so unjustly inflicted upon
lis best and truest friends.
The next step toward the destruction OF
Erskine College was the removal OF the church
newspaper from It's home and birth place
from the midst Of its friends and well-wish =
ers-to distant town which, like Rock Hi
had not even q church organization.
TO prevent the too deep Woundiug OF The
people, IL was, we believe, still dated at Due
West, though neither its editor, nor its type,
nor Its printers were.there.
The removal OF the paper to such a town
was on par with the proposed removal Of
the college, which would sever the tenderest
relations while exhibiting utter and absolute
disregard OF the vested rights Of the people
who gave money to its erection.
Batffed and beaten in the attempt to carry
away the newspaper, Mr. Chalmers and q man
with very large advertisement and what we
conceive TO be Il very small college. together
with u few others, after working their scheme
Until publicity was necessary, the editorial
In last weeks Presby terian was pub
lished.
II that editorial fairly presents the views
or the malcOntentS, the proposition