The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-04-18
1.-The Dispensary Law, or its En-
forcemenr, Unprecedented
ly Odious."
Harper's " eekly.

~
Harper's Weekly.
The state of things that has for some
days existed in South Carolina amounts
to an impeachment Of the power of the
community to govern itself. 1t may be
said that the performances Of Governor
Waite in Colorado justify as serious
doubts about that ommonw wealth as
the performances of Governor Tillman
in South Carolina. There is. however,
a distinct difference. Governor Waite,
whatever his intentions may have been,
did not succeed 10 bringing Colorado so
near a civil war and to anarchy as
Governor Tillman has brought South
Carolina in the pane of the Law. In no
other Americac community has it ever
been made so evident that the people
were opposed to the law which, in theory,
was Of their vi making. and we're
prepared to resist the enforcement Of it,
ever to the shedding of blood. How
ever much the Governor may have
transcribed his legal powers since the
disturbance began. it seems clear that
the beginning of it was his attempt to
enforce provisions Of the State dispen-
sary law that were odious. The claim
he made for the State constabulsry Of a
light to search private houses in quest
Of liquor seems to have been perfectly
warranted by the law under which be
was acting. The people simply would
not submit to the law.
Qualification" Of unpopular laws is
by no mean a novelty in South Caro-
lima. 1t is over sixty years since a con-
certed attempt was made, aud came
near succeeding, to induce the State to
take that course with respect to a statute
Of the United States. Times have
greatly changed. The representatives
Of the nulli6ers of 1882, however. are
according to Governor Tillman, the
nullifers of 1894 only now it is a
question Of uullifyiog not a Federal but
a State law. In a speech at Columbia
the Governor has declared that the
trouble has come from 1.-the bar.room
element" backed up by ''the old oil
garchy." The Govesno., indeed, rep
resents and personi6es the triumph Of
the new democracy over the old oil
garcby. One Of the representatives Of
the old oligarchy was Senator Wade
Hampton, who vas uuseated by o rep
resentAtive of the Farmers Alliance.
Another is Senator Butler, whose
seat is in peril from the same source.
The old oligarchy> not only represented
but comprised the wealth and standing
aud education of the State. The new
Democracy now in. control is composed
of the poor whites. 1t is "tbe resi-
dunn that has for all these generations
been kept under, kept poor, and kept
ignorant, and now it is having its
revenge by acting according to its kind.
Being ignorant, it takes up with crude,
absurd crotchets Of economy Of finance
and of local legislation. 1t tries to
impose these crotchets upon the country
at large. and has succeeded in imposing
them upon itself.
Perhaps the failure of the State dis
pensary Law in South Carolina has been
no more marked than the failure of pro-
hibitory laws in every State in which
they are not sustained by public opiu-
ion. But the law itself, or the manne
of its enforcement, has in South Caro-
been uoprecedentedly odious. What is
to be said, from the point of view Of a
practical legislator, of a law the enforce
ment Of which, according to the exc
cutive charged with enforcing it,
requires not only an invasion of private
dwellings, but empowers the inquisitors
to slay whoever r~esists them without
being called to account ; requires the
calling out of the whole armed force of
the State to put down resistance ; and
requires the Governor to paralyze bust
ness by ticking control of the railroads
aud the telegraph, and permits DO
account of bis own doings but such as
be sanctions to 90 forth to the world
1t is not to be expected that the peo-
pie Of any civilized community will &C.