Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1894-05-10
In Vindication of Tillman.
BY REV. G. R. RANSOM.

Six recent weeks in Columbia stirred
my soul with dramatic interest. The
state OF Calhoun. Brooks and Hampton,
with stormy past, still faces a sea of
troubles. The fierce factioual strife,
eclpses any partisan hate OF other days
while Tillman holds his adherents with
a mighty grip. His ability none deny.
His methods many question. Only one
daily paper in the state supports him.
Most OF them have been, and are. pre-
sisteDtly abusive. His good acts are
overlooked his faults magnified
From - first, there seems to have
been spirit of revolt that should have
subsidized when the votes were counted.
II is easy to see. he has not had fair
chance. He was not an accident, but
worked for this office for years, and
went in by over thirty thousand major.
ity, As it stands. the country is against
the city, and the poor white, not the
alistocracv, is at the front.
Tiliman's name is linked with vehe-
ment notes of praise. of disfavor, ac-
cordiDg 10 the man you meet. Then
came the recent Disturbance, os .slich
the papers were full, and the danger is
of putting too much blame at his door,
In enforcing the dispensary law. he
encounters the liquor interest of his
own state and. in genera, many tenn
perance people, who will strike hands
with them to turn gun az ainst Till
mar, or hold aloof and let the contest
60 on.
The liquor elements elsewhere aid
the forces here 10 crush out the law.
Means will come in TO help overthrow
the party that enacted it at the coming
election. Everything is d01o ~ iAaAs
it odious with the people. Every search
or seizure or ARE st is made to count
for oh il IS Won til. The liquor men
know that, if succt sful here. the law
will get into other states; hence the
effort to kill it. AS to the law. its
worst feature is the alliance o. state
and the traffic. But calm, practical
men find it lessons sales and wipes out
the open saloon. There are no bar
room rows. nor half drunken crowds
on sidewalks, nor public treating; no
such rendezvous for crime. Columbia's
forty saloons are dead. Rarely a
drunken man seen. blind tigers
/. sly sellers, they say exist; but they
must be sly or trapped. If anywhere,
they are in dark holes way out of sight.
The law is defended as police regu-
lation, minimizing sales, bringing reve-
nue., offering a purer article, and its
handling by those who have no incen-
tive 10 tamper with it, or increase its
use, tends at once to eliminate greed.
re IN 70 ~ ~
it viii not get fair chance, ard its en-
forcement " ould b. difficult rask foj
less nervy hand than the governors,
The search stirs The hottest blood, officers
may not always be discreet, still, minur
the search right, every other dwelling
might be a liquor shop, and tho law a
farce. Probably, the executive is
S ronger than ever, as friendly should
ers will carry the arms now. il M eded,
which need may God forbid. Serious
is the act OF refusing obedience because
the executive is unpopular. 1t is
blow at law and government. and has
in it the old spirit that wrote the ordi-
nance of 60, with its one hundred and
seventy names affixed Give only are
living), and telegraphed it to Mr. Lin
coln after it was passed.
Tillman has many faults and wild
notions; but somehow can but think
had the old guard ceased active abuse
when he came up to the capital with
thirty thousand majority, aud not sent
almost daily the sheer to bis heart
through the press reasoning. "Ncw this
fellow is governor. let us make the best
of il until another election the gulf
to day would have been less wide. and
faciional storms would not brood 50
darby in the sky of the Palmetto
State.