The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-04-14
LAURENs S. c., April IA, 1896.

HNU LLkAO LbEylNot ~ W. ShptAf hN' wv
The ADVERTISER begs leave to take
occasion just at this moment, this iden-
tical juncture, to talk q little for the
benefit of the real stuif-old time &c
democrats and ante-war democrats
and those whose faith gees with these
old time democrats. "Jeifersonian,
Jackson and Calhoun" democracy, is
applied to SO often in these days, in
such strange company and by such
anomalous hermaphrodites, that we
are strongly suspicious of any man or
would be public man who is so handy
and fippant with these old time names.
In u view these gentry are in strange
company in these times = "familiar
Spirits" as it were, vulgarized by all
sorts and sizes to conjure with, and as
= an able contemporary suggests, "Jetfor-
Aonian" has q stupendous sound. In
~ when properly rolled over the
it has a grandilloquent over
#@ering effect calculated to sweep the
ordinary listener from off his feet and
clean out of his reckoning. In plain
terms. we would prefer that the Junior
Senator, Tillman, and the Senior Sena-
tor, Irby, should occasionally hint
what they really understand by "Jef-
%fersonian democracy-what they wan
their admiring constituency to UNDER
stand by it-so that at the constant re-
currence Of the 'Jeffersonian" slogan,
we may all guess what WI arc yelling
about and taking mighty liberties with
u hats and caps and the ground be-
meath our feet. Do they think JEFF
ferson could favor the old
wealth of Virginia going into ordinary
traffic, as the whiskey trade, in COM
petition with its citizens, concentrating
official patronage in the Governor OF
the State, with all its corrupting in
%fiuerces, and do these gentlemen class
the suggestion as in the line OF democ-
racy? Do they believe Thomas Jeffer-
son would have favored the purchase
by the Government of all the rail roads
and telegraph lines in this country at
thousands of millions to be operated by
four or five million appointees and
agents of the executive power, thus
giving to the creature and servant Of
the people more regal power than all
the Czars have exercised since the'dawn
of imperialism? Is this their idea Of
democracy? Do they think that the
author of the Declaration of %Independ-
ence would for a fraction Of q second
have countenanced the wild idea OF
piling up the corn and wheat in the
great grain growing counties Of the
woody West, erecting g]ranaries for
Its reception, and issuing government
scrip upon it's faith, charging all the
people with its redemption? Are these
and the like, without particularising
further, the measures and kind of
measures these current disciples Of
Jefferson, hold that the great Virgin
Ian favored and called in his her nom
e%nclature republican and now demon
mated democratic? So far as anybody
knows to the contrary this sort of
thing is the democracy Of the two
Senator's, as on this line they have
given utterarce Of approval for the
last four years, and If they have ad
vocated anything else, nobody has
heard the whimper of q SYLLABLE
This is what we are to understand these
gentlemen understand by democracy:
and we modestly 10 urge that if these
gentlemen are not mistaken in them
selves we ourselves have wasted a
mighty long time in acquiring wrong
notions upon an everlasting and inter-
esting question. However, VIC must do
3i lman the justice to state that he
was n public man and the one only
man in this State who mad the courage
to declare his n~on-adherence to the
sub-treasury in the Ocala business: but
in our view he can claim nodemoe attic
credit for his position, because nc
based his opposition upon its i'm
pr~acticability and absurdity and not
upon the republican, federal, ccntraliz-
ing feature Of the measure. Tillman,
Irby, nor any public man in Office Of
or from South Carolina has advocated
anything bat republican measures for
the last six years. Tillman in his late
great speech in the Senate invoked
the sanity ghost Of old Abe lincoln
and we take the liberty of initiating
his illustrious example in declaring
that the conjuring catchword "Jefrer-
sonian" may fool the tens of thou
sands but the thousands arc still not to
be FOOLED by such claptrap. Very soon
we hope to give our readers a fair
statement of what is democracy and
what 1t was In Jefferson's time. Ia the
meanwhile let every real democrat
keep steady and cool, be not in haste
to join the forces of any faction, and be
careful not to stumble into q fools para
disc.
Irby seem to think that there is
danger OF the negro in this State and
that the conservatives should hcreaf-