Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-05-29
BUTLER In REPLY.
The Ex-senator Sharply Answers Tillmans
Letter.

The Ex-senator Sharply Answers Tillman's
Letter.
Ex-senator Butler has given out to
the press the following in reply to Sen
ator Tillman's recent statement:
observe in the "modified state
ment" of B. R. Tillman, published in
The News of the 23rd instant, he lugs
nv name into his labored effort at
vindication. The statement from be-
ginning to end is more in the nature
of a "confession and avoidance" than
vindication. Expletives and SLAM
ders, his favorite weapons of contro-
versy, will not satisfy an inquisitive
public, which is getting down to a
more serious form of inquiry.
He says "when these stale ISLANDERS
about rebates under my administration
were put into circulation by the news
papers, and taken up by General But
Ter in the canvass three years ago, l
met them promptly and vigorously at
Union and elsewhere, and last winter
I Joined with Governor Evans in ask
ing that the legislature should appoint
a committee to look into the dispensa-
ry's management and set the charges
of corruption at rest forever"
This is very general, evasive and
erroneous. In the first place, the
"stale slanders" were not "taken up
by General Butler" by anything derived
from "the newspapers" Here is what
occurred at Union: had received a
communication from a gentleman in
Charleston, not a newspaper man, in
forming me that by the terms of the
whisky trust agreement, every member
of the trust was bound to pay rebate
of 7 cents gallon to all who purchased
900 gallons or upward, that is to say,
was bound under the trust agreement
to pay back cents on every gallon,
thus bought; ). that the Mill Creek Dis
tillery, of Ohio, was a member of the
trust, and therefore bound to return
this rebate that as Governor Tillman,
as chairman of the board Of control,
and understood to be the sole respon-
sible head, had purchased large guam
titles from the Mill Creek Distillery,
he ought to have received large sums
from the Mill Creek Distillery running
up into the thousands of dollars. This
is substantially the information l re-
ceived from an entirely reliable, ex'
perienced source.
This communication got into The
News and Courier and can be found
in the files of that paper of that date,
before l had an opportunity to use it
on the stump, in this way:
At meeting preceding the one at
Union, I do not now remember where,
Mr.. Kohn, the correspondent of The
News and Courier, asked me if l had
any manuscript I expected to use, l
would let him have it in advance, so
that he could make a copy at his leis.
ure and thereby save him the labor
when sending off his dispatches.
l gave him the memorandum fur
nished me as above stated, enjoining
him not to publish it until 1 had en-
braced it in some subsequent speech.
Mr.. Kohn, through inadvertence | sup
pose, forwarded it to his paper, and it
was published before 1 had an oppor-
tunity to refer to it.
Mr.. Kohn afterwards told me he had
informed Governor Tillman it had
been published without my authority.
Notwithstanding this information,
Governor Tillman having the opening
speech at Union, made this publica-
ton the text for a violent, coarse,
vulgar attack on me, stirring up the
passions of a few ruffians and black
guards in the audience, and then,
when I got up to reply, the rutfians
attempted to browbeat and howl me
down. When the excitement was at
its height and trouble seemed immi-
nent, Governor Tillman, as usual, left
the stand and sought place of safety.
In the course of his ribaldry and vitu-
peration he denied having collected
the rebates and endeavored to take
refuge from the awkward dilemma in
which he found himself by raising 9TH
er and false issues, having no relevance
to the rebate question. When l re-
piled I said, among other things, that
there were but two alternatives, either
Governor Tillman had collected the
thousands of dollars of rebates from
the Mill Creek Distillery and not ac-
counted for them, or had been guilty of
grave and censurable dereliction OF
official duty in not collecting the rebates
and turning them into the state treas
ury for the benefit of the tax payers.
No charges were made, but a sim
J pie inquiry which any taxpayer had a