The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-11-23

| 1nCenQarlSm.
| Unless this purchase and sale OF suffrage
shall cease the American Government will
expire, and you might as well be getting
| ready the monument for another dead Ma
tion and let my text inscribe upon it these
words, "Alas alas. for Babylon. that Rraat
city, that mighty city, for in one hour Is
thy Judgment comet My friends, If you
have not noticed that political bribery is
one Of the CHASTITY crimes OF this day, you
have not kept your eyes open.
Another evil threatening the destructi on
| of American institutions is the solidifying
| of the sections against each other. A solid
north. A solid South. II this goes on we
shall after while have solid East against
a solid West; we shall have solid Middle
| States against solid Northern States: we
| shall have solid New York against
solid Pennsylvania, and solid Ohio against
a solid Kentucky. 1t is twenty-seven
Presidential election the old antagonism is
aroused. When Garfield died and all the
States gathered around his casket in sym.
pathy and in tears, and as hearty kilograms
Of confidence came from New Orleans and
Charleston as from Boston and Chicago, l
said to myself, "I think sectionalism is
dead" But, alas. no! The difficulty will
never be ended until each State OF the Ma
tion is split up into two or three great po
itical parties.
This country cannot exist unless it exists
az one body the National Capital, the
heart sendin = out through all the ar teries OF
! COMMUNICATION warmth and life to the very
extrennities. This Nation cannot exist un-
less It exists as one family, and you might
as we'll have solid brothers against solid
sisters, and a solid bread tray against
solid cradle, and solid nursery against
solid dining room. and you might as well
have solid ears against solid eyes, and SOHO
head against solid foot. What is the inter-
est of Georgia is the interest Of Massachu-
setts: what is the interest OF New York is
the interest OF South Carolina. Does the
Ohio River change its politics when it gets
below Louisvilles tits not possible for these
sectional antagon;sms to continue for
great many years with permanent COM
pound fracture.
Another evil threatening the destruction
OF public morals.
What killed Babylon Of my texts What
killed Phoenicia? What killed Rome? Their
own depravity, and the fraud. and the
drunkenness and the lechery which have
DESTROYED other Nations will destroy ours
unless q nerciful Col prevent. To show
you the low state OF public morals have
to call your attention to the fact that many
men nominated for Offices in different
States at different times are entirely unnt
for the positions for which they have been
nominated.
They have no more qualification for them
than a wolf has qualification to be professor
Of pastoral theology in flock OF sheep, or
blind mole has quail iacaton to lecture class
of eagles on optics or than vulture mas
qualification to chaperon dove. The mere
pronunciation Of some OF their names makes
q demand for carbolic acid and fumigataonI
OF Ch,-icfio, cUiIi follow right under
the political standards.
Ihave to tell you what you know already,
that American politics have sunken to such
q low depth that there is nothing be-
meath. What we gee in some directions we
see in nearly all directions. The pecula-
ton and the knavery hurled to the sur
face by the explosion OF banks and busi-
ness firms are only specimens OF great 20
topaxis and Strombolis OF wickedness that
boil and roar and surge beneath, but have
not regurgitated to the surface. When the
heaven descended Democratic Party enacted
the Tweed rascality 1t seemed to eclipse
everything. but after awhile the heaven
descended Republican Party outwitted pam
demonium with the star route infamy.
My friends, we have in this country people
who say the marriage institution amounts
to nothing. They scof at IT. We have
people walking in polite parlors in our day
who are not good enough to be scavengers
in Sodoml went over to San Francisco ten
or fifteen years ago-that beautiful city.
that queen Of the Pacific. May the blessing
of God come down upon her great churches
and her noble men and womenl When got
into the city Of San Francisco the Mayor OF
the city and the President OF the Board OF
Health called on me and insisted that go
and see the Chinese quarter, no doubt 80
that on nv return to the Atlantic coast l
might tell what dreadful people the Chinese
are.
But on the last night Of my stay in San
their Great opera house, I said, "Would you
like me to tell you just what think, plainly
and honsstlyr' They said, Yes yes.
yes" said, DO you think you
can stand it ell" They said, Yes yes..
the curse of San Francisco is not your
Chinese quarter, but your millionaire iber-
tinesT
And two Of them sat right before me
Felix and Drusilla. Aud 30 it is in all the
cities. Inever swear, but when I see man
go unwhipped Of justice, laughing over his
shame and calling his damnable deeds gal.
lantry and peccadillo. I am tempted to hurl
red hot anathema and 20 conclude that II,
according to some peoples theology, there is
no hell, there ought to bel
There is enou n out and out licentiousness
in American cities to-day to bring down
upon them the wrath Of that God who, on
the oath Of August 20, buried Herculaneum
and Pompeii so deep in asles that the eight
cen hundred and thirteen Subsequent years
have not been able to complete exhumation.
There are in some Of the American cities to-
day whole blocks Of houses which the au-
thorities know to be infamous. and vet by
purchase they are silenced by hush money,
so that such places are as much under the
defense Of government as public libraries
and asylums OF mercy.
These ulcers on the body pclitic bleed and
pangrene away the life Of the Nation. and
public authority in many OF the cities looks
the other way, You cannot cure such
wounds as these with q silken bandage
You will have to cure them by putting
deep in the lancet of moral surgery, and
burning them out with the caustic Of holy
wrath. and with most decisive amputation
cutting of the scabrous and putrefying
denominations. As the Romans ware after
the Celts and as the Normans were after
the Britons, SC there are evils after this
Nation which will attend its obsequies un.
less we first attend theirs.
Superstition tells of q marine reptile, the
cephaloptera which embodied and crushed a
ship Of war; but it is no superstition when I
tell you that the history of many of the
dead Nations proclaims to us the fact that
our ship of state is in danger of being
crushed by the cephaloptera OF National de-
| pravity. Where is the Hercules to slay this
| hydra. Is it not time to speak by pen, by
| tongue, by ballot box, by the rolling of the
| prison door, by hangman's halter, by earn
| est prayer, by Sinaitic detonation?