The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-10-07
AN APPEAL TO SOUTHERN HONESTY.

South Should not Sote i"f
silver.
From the Baltimore Manufacturers Record0
Among the Southern men VINO nave
made homes in New York Col. w; Il.
Trenholm, formerly of South Carolina,
who came into prominence as Control
ler of the Currency in Mr.. Cleveland's
first Administration, occupies to-day
probably the leading position as a
financier. 1t has been said Of him
that, while he brought his head to
New York, he left his heart down in
Dixie. It happened that I caught Col.
Trenholm in his office on Saturday
afternoon, when the neighborhood of
Wall street at this time of year is like
q deserted village, and he talked to me
as he would have talked to any other
Southern man seeking his advice-like
a friend and brother.
"Though the parting Of the ways
has been reached" said Col. Tren-
holm, land the time is at hand when
duty demands that the South shall
turn from the supporters Of free silver,
vet those who are reviling this people
"a people who instincts are right,
whose sense of honor is high, whose
honesty of purpose is unimpeachable
seem to have forgotten, if they ever
knew, how it came about that an al
lance with the friends of silver was
primarily condition of Southern re-
presentation in Congress, and how
afterward allegiance to the friends OF
silver was demanded by the prompt
lngs alike of gratitude, loyalty ana
good faith.
Until they can be brought to see
this question in its true inwardness or
to realize the situation in its new as
pect, it is not to be expected that our
people, taught from infancy to stand
by their friends, will without good
reason do anything that is made to ap-
pear to them like an abandonmen mt of
those through whose aid they obtained
representation in the National Govern
ment, and by whom, later on, they
were rescued from what they believed
would result in 8 subversion of their
local governments.
"NoW, let these historical facts be
borne in mind. That they have been
largely ignored by the advocates Of
sound money has been one of the over
sights of this campaign. There is no
way of reaching q high-minded,
chivalrous people but by frankness
and candor. Their attitude must be
considered from their point of view.
And their point of view has been one
of gratitude and loyalty to those who
proved friends in need. But any peo-
ple whose characteristics are thus noble
may be relied upon to do right in the
critical hour, no matter how trying the
ordeal. The man who is capable of
gratitude, and whose sense of honor is
keenest, is always the man who, when
he sees his duty, is surest to do It at
any cost. Honorable men do not de-
sert their allies until that course is de-
manded by principle.
"For the silver mine owners to ap-
peal to the gratitude of this honest
people in order to induce them to per-
petrate a fraud upon all the people-to
work an irreparable wrong by demand
ing the misuse of way of escape pro-
vided in an hour of peril-is simply
monstrous. For the people of the
South to hesitate when asked to be-
come parties to crime would be to do
violence to those traditions, instincts
and characteristics and to the princi-
Piles which have been their prOudest
heritage. Therefore it is the duty of
every man who can command their at
tention, or who enjoys their confidence,
to make clear to this people just what
is being asked of them-just what lies
under the surface of this issue. 1t
should be pointed out how the laud-
able promptings of noble people are
being worked upon for what is neither
right nor wise, for what is neither
honorable nor expedient. These are
things that the politicians viii! not tell
the people if, indeed, they know or
realize them.
"The editor of the paper with which
you are connected, the Manufacturers
Record, has written an able pamphlet,
showing in convincing way that the
Act '73' had nothing whatever to do
with the existing general depression,
and showing that free silver cannot
benefit the .Southere people. But ]
am not appealing to expediency.. /
am not going to put the duty of the
South on the basis of mere self-interest.
II could, by going into the merits of
the financial question, show to the
satisfaction Of any man willing to be
convinced that our finacial troubles
began with the Act of Congress stop
ping the retirement of greenbacks, and
how the locking up of all the silver
that the Bland-Allison Act and the
Sherman Act provided for the pur-
chase of has been worse ia its effects
upon the general prosperity than
would have been the locking up Of
S600,000,0O0 worth of wheat and cot
ton, on falling market, instead of eX-
porting it and getting the proceeds in
money and credit. But I only have
time to say on that score that it is my
belief and my conviction, after study
ing this question diligently for years,
that it would be an irreparable
blunder, financially, for the South to
vote for free silver.
"As I have stated, that is not the
phase of the question uppermost in my
mind. am asking such of my fellow
countrymen as I am able to get in
touch with to rise to & higher point of
view; to look into this question as men
of principle and as patriots, and not as
partisans. A Southern man may in
this terrible ordeal even vote for Nc
Kinley and still maintain untarnished
his sacred honor; but I believe the
timeIwill come when no Southern man
will feel that he has maintained his
honor untarnished, and his patriotism
unsullied, and the honesty of his pur-
poses unimpeachable, if, with a
knowledge of the merits of this finan-
cial question, and of what the Chicago
platform really means, he shall have
cast his vote for Bryan"