The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-04-22
HOT SHOT FOR PREACHERS.
The Rev. John G. Williams Joins the
Scrlmmage.

To tile Editor of the NewS and Cou'
ri;er: I claim a place on your roll OF
honor" with Brethren Whitman and
Bomar, as another preacher that
breaches against lynching. I read
every word of Nh. Whitman's sermon
in the Meus and Courier, and, like an
oid-time Methodist: said amen to it.
It is true 1 have not. devoted a whole
sermon to the lynching business, for
the reason that I a~m'preaching against
lynching and all other forms Of law
lessness all the time, as lawlessness is
the order of the day and lynching sim.
ply one Of it's o%utgrowths. Like a
faithful old chanticleer, for a great
many years I have been Growing loud
and long, trying to wake up our peo-
pie to fight the sins and wickedness
that are destroying US. You will re-
member that some months ago in an
article on the Bamberg Cotton Mill,
and on the Bamberg ''brain mills" !
touched on South Cardinals "crime
mills" and put the responsibility for
the lively business that they were
doing upon the crime-condoning and
crime-approving public sentiment, to
a very great extent, of the people of
the country. That the comparative
" few men that did the ly nching were
not any more criminal Than a.e those
who annrove and encourage lynchings;
that the wickedness of a community,
like an atmosphere overcharged with
electricity, frequently gathers itself
up into a few bad men, that do the
terrible deeds, just like the subtle
difused electricity in a thunder storm
gathers itself up into angry thunder
bolts that strike down man and beast
and tear into splinters the giants of
the forest. It is not enough for the
pulpit to thunder out when some
great, great wickedness is committed,
it ought to be laundering out its de.
nunciations all the time against all
kinds of wickedness and crimes, of
which there are many more, and that
are hurting the country worse than
lynching.
The whiskey traffic in the once Ii
ccnsed bar rooms, in the blind tigers
and in the present revenue dispensary
system is a greater curse and blight On
South Carolina to-day than lyuching
is. There are horrors in whiskey-
/ selling aud whiskey-drinking that out
horror Broxton's Bridges horror, bad
as that was. The State of South Car
DINA selling whiskey for revenue, the
blood-mouey of her people, is a worse
horror than that, and q more lawless
thing, and a greater disgrace to the
State. I have it on u%ndoubted au-
thority that, when Governor Tillman
was appealed to to allow a wealthy
club to run a sort Of bar room just for
it's own members, he said that the only
trouble he saw about their request
was that the damned preachers"
would make such a bowling over it.
But he need not to have been so hard
on the preachers, for I am afraid that
if the preachers of all denominations
in the State should come together and
one of the Governors hand primaries
be taken in that large congregation of
several thousand preachers the right
hands hal would go up signifyiDg that
they had been faithful in preaching
against this great sin Of the agc-the
destroyer Of the country and of souls,
the fruitful mother of crime-would
be a small minority. You are right,
Mr.. Editor of the Meps and Courier,
to get after preachers for not speak,
ing out against lynching from their
pulpits, and I hope before you are
done with them you'll raise a big
blister on every preacher in the State
from whose pulpit there comes no bat
tie cry against the "accursed thing
of whiskey, and no shout Of encour-
agement to those that are faint but
still pursuing"
Glad I am that our Saul, the News
and Courier, with its great influence
and power for good, is now among the
prophets, and I hope that it will give
the prophets no rest until they proph-
esy faithfully and boldly aud the
things that are for the good and peace
and prosperity Of our dear old State.
We welcome you among US, Brother
Mews and Courier, and we assure you
that you will have the warm support
and thanks Of all the good women in
South Carolina in your fight for law,
order and morality. Make the preach
ers preach against lynching and don't
forget to make them preach against
whiskey. That's the "wild boar Of
the forest" that destroying the vine.
yard of South Carolina, whose depre.
d%ations are going on every day and
hour, causing murder, lyncking, pov-
erty, suffering and woes innumerable
whereas occasional lyuching is hardly
more in comparison than rabbits which
get into to the orchard and bark and
kill a few fruit trees. Well never
stop lynchipg until we lynch the
old lyncher, whiskey, who lynches
home, churches, purity, happiness:
souls, country and everything that is
good and stands in its way.
And now since you are after the
preachers, Mr.. Editor, I sincerely
hope you'll give them a regular In
diana broadside-I mean the war ship
for not preaching to the people,
more than they do, their duty to vote
for none but men Of integrity and high
moral character to fill the Offices Of
the country, and especially the high
Offices of power and influence. 1t is a
piece of wickedness and a crime against
the country to honor bad men-drunk'
ards, blasphemers, gamblers, motto
%riously immoral and profane men, by
putting them up in the public offices.
and this wickedness is one of South
Cardinals "woes' to-day. 1t was one
of Gods charges against Israel of old.
that they honored bad men. His enc
mics, by putting them in exalted pla'
ces. In the Book of Malachi, the
last of the Prophets, God says "Yea
they that work wickedness are set up
men that were pre-eminent fol
wickedness and corrupters of the peo'
pie. A bad man in high Office is like
a rotten old pine tree afre, that the
higher the fire climbs the more dan
gerous it is, because the further il
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