Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-10-02
Fractional Coanty Politics.

counties between the adherents and
the opponents Captain T'illman III
their Soandidacy for county offices il
unwise, unoalled for and wholly
without justification. No matter
sg!:c he's b5ces most instrumental iii
bringing about this division, it has
already been productive Of incalcu-
liable harm. In many counties It il
impossible for. any one who is not an
adherent Of Captain Tillman to OBJ
tain an office, no matter how insig.
n~ifioant and unimportant it may be.
TO obtain even tho office of coroner
one must have been from the be-
ginning and still be a member of the
present dominent faction of the
Democratic party in this State. The
tendency is to place more stress on
this one so.called qualification than
on real, genuine merit and fitness for
office.
a second class man who has been
q noisy supporter of Captain Till
man would, in many counties, DO
elected to office over the best Anti
who could be brought out against
him. This criticism will apply
with equal force TO those ffow ooun-
ties where the Straishtc:ts are
largely in the majority, There a
Tillmanite would probably be as
insignificant and powerless as a
Straightout in the birthplace of Till
manism.
There is no logic nor sense in any
such condition of affairs in this
State. Both factions claim to be
Democrats and both claim to be
honest, patriotic and loyal citizens
of the State. Both claim that tho
"greatest good to the greatest num-
Der" is their supremcst aim. Yet,
take two mon and pit them against
each other in a primary election,
one an inferior character but a men,
Der of tho faction which happens to
be the strongest in his county, and
tho other one of the leading men of
his county, but q representative of
tho minority. The man on the
"big side" will win nine times out
of ten, not because he is the better
man for the place, but because in
these times men are inclined to vote
for their "sidc", without much re-
gard for the merits of the individual
candidates.
Being a Tillmanite or Anti Till
mantle does not entitle q man to
any mor consideration than his in
dividual personal worth can procure
for him. Yet there are scores of
candidates in this State who will be
elected to Office on no other issue
than that of Tillmanism, when if
that issue could, &c blotted out they
would be forever buried beneath a
mountain of ballots.
No one will admit that he would
support an inferior man on "his
side" IN preference &c . Better oIio
Oh the "other side" The trouble is
the words "good" and "bad," when
used in speaking of candida es, arc
relative terms. We use the adject-
i've "good" always to describe the
candidates who think, or pretend
to think, just as we do, while "bad''
is used to describe all who dare to
entertain opinions different from the
ones we hold.
The legitimate inference is that in
politics people are all either fools or
knaves, the first, if they think all
the brains and honor and virtue arc
arrayed on their side, and the last, If
they do not believe that, but vote for
men simply because they belong to
the same political faction.
What reason is there in carrying
this fractional fight into the scramble
for the small county Offices? Is it
desired to divide the people ulti-
mately and forever into two separate
and distinct factions2 That will
surely be the end if the majority
persist in disqualifying a man fo1
Office for no other reason than that
he differs from them as to who
would be the best man for Governor,
It is just a right and sensible to sa;y
that Captain Tillman should not be
Governor of South Carolina If he
prefers David Il. Hill to Grover
Cleveland for President, as it is to
say that Fill Jones shall not DO coroc
nor in some little county away off in
one corner in South Carolina be-
cause he prefers Colonel Earle to
Captain Tillman for Governor. The
two oases are very nearly parallel
nd xl,oro 4, s,,ok no s,,n1 .aaoo. o~l