The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-11-12
LAURENs. $. O., Nov. 70. 1895.
The Democratic slump.

The Democratic Slump.
Last Tuesdays elections are very
stun1S & to the democratic organiza
LIONS 1t will have a hard time 20 gel
steady on its legs for the battle royal
OF 1915. There has been division in the
democratic ranks all around and no.
body will be surprised IL many shed
tears over last Tuesdays catastrophe.
We are to blame. There should be nc
division in a party's policy or ranks
Its platform should be SO plain and
simple that one might run and read,
and understand. Then, those who stand
with one foot on and the other off, could
be shirked aside aud there could be
neither doubling nor dividing. We
have had a fair opportunity. The ex-
piring democratic congress did the
business and 80 the party is expiring
and In Its last throes. Cleaveland and
Wilson with the other cabinet officers
are about all that is left of the party.
Nobody knows who is who, or what is
what. To come nearer home: there is
no knowing If Tillman is with Marion
Butler and the North Carolina popu-
list, republican negro aggregation or
not; there fs no guessing where Liv-
: ingston, OF Georgia, Bacon their newly
elected Senator, and the politicians of
Alabama, Mississippi aud Texas are
at" h country can't understand us
and the country repudiates us. So the
dose at our nose looks fearfully like
-four more years" of Bonnie Harri-
son, John Sherman and perhaps worse.
We still feel that our great leaders
here in South Carolina, ought by their
vehement %eloquence, and herculean
logic to have convinced and carried
~ahour0untry. 1t appears now that we
Nth Regin in time to sympathize
mSe present array of Federal Of
fee hofQers. The next Congress being
overwhelmingly republican our only
hope is in their shocking the country
this winter and spring with crimes
and blunders. Unfortunately it is the
democratic party that can be relied on
for blunders.
*x*
In tho Convention.
In the passages between delegate
Barker of Charleston, and delegate
Bellinger, of Barnwell, those who read
the debate will sympathise with Mr..
Bellinger. Sympathy is one of the
noble emotions of the human breast.
We can only regret that Mr.. Bellinger
will have time and occasion to regret,
that in his argument, he did not have
Charleston in mind. If he had not,
then his argument had no point-he
was apparently slashing the u%nsubstan-
tial air. He could not have had
Orangeburg or Barnwell in view. It
Is unfortunate that the ~dispensary red
nag was injected into any debate
Nevertheless, it appears that you can't
keep p~artizanship out of a body over
whelmingly partizan. There will and
must be microbes as statesmen-this is
b era of microbes. A craftsmanship,
or want Of craftsmanship, that inaugu-
rates centralism, monopoly and sump-
tuary laws, as the policy of the State,
has already stabbed liberty tt death
and 1t cannot live. When the curse
has come home to our children, so
graphically portrayed by Barker;
in their madness they reflect up
on tie rights their fathers enjoyed,
the revulsion may come, and the god
dess be restored to her pedestal, and
set up pure and fair, in all our groves
and high places.
The country will applaud Maj. Bar
ker for his noble utterance, and extend
the heartiest sympathy to the other
gentleman in the regrets which he
must needs experience.
x*x
In every litter there is usually a
weakling, sometimes called O runt:
these when nursing are usually showed
aside and rarely attain hearty, full
Stature. OF the one hundred and sixty
members of the convention about thirty
were elected as half-bred conservatives
or mugwumps and about ten as thor
oughbred conservatives. Up to this
time these dozen have been caioled
with the idea that q constitution, fair
TO all the white people of the State at
least, would be framed, and with pa
triotic zeal they have labored until this
"hAA " iblEF IN llDerdl Or
ganic instrument. The report of the
committee on suffrage provided that
the board OF three supervisors of regis
tration should consist of two of one par
ty and the third Of the opposing party in
the preceding State general elections.
These were considered to be reform
ers and conservatives. On the night of
the 4th a motion was made to kill this
provision and it was carried with a
hip, hip, hurrah, Tillman, B. r., vot-
ing "no," but his negative was SO mild
hammered, as to amount to an afiirma-
tive sanction. Tillman could have held
up the victims head a little and admin
istered q mild toddy or slight tonic in
the form OF a few vigorous sentences
with the usual scowl, but he left the
PROSTATE form to die, without even a
gentle laying on OF hands or tenderly
closing It's eyes,. Verify. "what fools