The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-06-02

forces. In 1890 he was elected 10 The
Legislature. The general assembly
was composed almost entirely OF new
men and contained Senator Irby, ex
Governor Evans, Justice Gary, Judge
Gary and many other men who have
sircs become prominent in State ano
national affairs. In very few days
Mr.. McLaurin made speech that de-
veloped the fact that be was one ol
the coming factors in South Carollns
politics. At the second term Of the
legislature Attorney General Pope
was elected associate justice of the
State supreme court and Ernest Gary,
Congressman Wilson, D. A. Town
send and Mr.. McLaurin were candi
dates for attorney General to succeed
Justice Pope. McLsurin had an easy J
victory, being elected On the third bal
lot. He plunged at ouce into the sea
of litigation. The Coosaw case was
pending, involving large sum and
the bank ard railroad tox cases that
have since become so noted, finally
ending in the supreme court OF the
United States. All of these casa were
of the utmost importance to the State.
His record as attorney general Was
good .oo,o
During the campaign of 1892 Gov
ernor Tillman was opposed by ex-Gov'
ernor John G. Sheppard. The main
fight upon Tillman was made by Col.
| Younans, who was candidate for
secretary OF state. He was very elo'
quent, fluent and forcible speaker.
There vere personal differences be:
tween Youmaps and Tillman, and
Tillman refused to debate or recognize
him in the campaign at all,
which threw the fight, so
far as Youmans was concerned, upon
McLaurin. Rarely has such debate
ever taken place in any campaign IN
this State. 1t was of such character
as to excite the keenest public interest,
vet the two men came out of it the
best of friends personally. The result
created such a wave of public favor
for Mr.. McLalrin that when Mr..
Stackhodse died in June, 1892, moth
| ing could prevent the people of Mr..
McLaurin's district from electing him
to Congress in November following.
He was seated when the Fifty.sec
ond congress convened in 1892, in
the month of December. Mr.. Nc
Lauriu's first utterances upon the floor
drew great attention to him all over
country. 1t was his remarkable eulogy
on his deceased predecessor. 1t was
unusual and drew many comments
from the press. He went back to give
sketch of the history of slavery IN
the south, showing lis influence in the
form alton of the character OF the men
of his State. Then he proceeded to
connect it with this new Reform
movement with which Mr.. Stackhouse
had had so much to do in launching.
He came to congress about the time
that Bailey, Bryan, Sibley and others
of equal note made their entrance upon
the congressional stage and immedl'
ately began to attract attention to him.
self as debater. His first fight was
on the repeal of the purchasing clause
of the Sherman act. His speech was
one of the very first attacks upon Gro
yer Cleveland's policy. 1t was sarcas-
tic and pungent and claimed wide
spread attention both at home and in
the country at large. Then, during
the panic of 1898, when because OF
the scarcity of money the banks had
to form clearing house association
and issue certificates in order to move
the cotton crop, Mr.. McLaurin was
the very first man in either branch of
congress to see the point and propose
remedy. He got some of the certlh-
Gates and went before the banking
and currency committee with pro.
position to issue $125, 100000 OF
United States notes, which were to be
deposited with the banks to take the
place of these certificates. He showed
that the law prohibited the retirement
of these notes below $S46, 900, 600, and
that as matter of fact they had been
retired far below this amount. He
made strong fight against the imposi'
ton of the 10 per cent. tax that the
treasury department proposed to place
upon these certificates. This speech
was very extensively printed in the
papers of the west and south.
Mr.. McLaurin also took promin-
ent part in the debates to repeal the
10 per cent. tax on State banks. He
made a number of other speeches on
the financial question, all OF which
have attracted attention. In the Or
ganization of the Fifty-fourth con-
eress, Speaker Reed placed Mr.. Nc
Lauin upon the ways and means COM
mittee. Since that time he has de.
voted himself to the study of the tariff
question. In a speech delivered on
March %, last, he attracted the atten.
ton of the whole country with his
speech upon the Dingley bill. He
boldly proclaimed the doctrine that if
a policy of protection was to OBTAIN
that the south should have her share
that all or nothing should be protected
He offered an amendment in the COM
mittee room asking for duty of q
cents upon all cotton imported into
the United States. He was vigorous
ly attacked on the floor from all quar-
ters, but met every assault with that
tact and GOODNESS and fully sustained
his reputation as a debater. Then
there was his last speech advertising
Columbia and the south in way as
to attract the notice of the entire coun-
try. Mr.. McLaurin has been elected
thrice in his district.
One of his admirers yesterday had
this to say about him: ''He is very
broad man in politics. During a fac.
tional fight there was no man that
fought harder, but as soon as the battle