The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-11-23
The pardon of BULGE and May, State

The pardon of BULGE and May, State
whiskey c~onstables, convicted OF man
slaughter by a ~Spartanburg Jury has
excited considerable newspaper com
mont. This is not surprising. Tho
law requires Of the Governor, in case
OF u pardon, to render to the General
Assembly the reasons for the exercise
OF this %pardoning powor. 1t is not sur
prising because Of late years, the Gov
ernor seems to have forgotten this pro-
vision of the law, and simultaneous
with the exercise of this power, there
appears in the great dailies, a state
ment of justification intended for the
mighty reading public. This noces-
sarily raises a presumption that an ar
gument is wanted to bolster up the
Governor. The public with u normal
healthy administration would be con-
tent to abide the executive determine
tion Inc sustain the executive. In the
case Of BULGE and May until recently
there was an appeal pending and the
final judgment Of the Court had not
passed, whom the Governor anticipated
Its determination. 1t was too hasty
and comment Is necessarily the result,
1t appears further that these consta-
bleR, who slaughtered Sims, of Spar
tanburg, were foreigners to that
county, imported into that county, and
the petition upon which His En-
cellency acted was largely based upon
the recommendation of people "way
down" in Aiken who had known the
convicts and assumed that they must
be innocent. Those foreigners could
not have known the evidence upon
which the verdict of thanksgiving by
twelve sworn Jurors was based. Again,
the petition for pardon was not re-
ferred as is customary, lit may be
more honored in the breach than in the
o~bservance) to the trial Judge and
the prosecuting Solicitor, and as it is
a custom OF long observance the roa-
son for the course is left for surmise.-
But the Governor had his reasons: they
were sufficient for him: and there
must be an end to the matter. There
were people who shed tears over the
dead body Of Caezar and q cyncical
Casca observed that, they would have
done NJ less, II he had slain their
mothers. The State is engaged in
selling whiskey; the State has made q
great battle to have q monopoly of the
business; the State relies upon the
constables to secure hat monopoly;
the State arms the constables with
deadlest weapons to kill; the State also
says-"thou shalt do no MURDER. and
so when the State through its officers
does this thing Of murder the State
cannot send its Attorney General and.
Solicitor into the suicidal Office of
swinging its own agents. ANY one
can SEQ the States predicamcEt. The
conclusion of the matter mast he that
the constables must go free. Nobody
can logically blame the Governor. He
must be relieved Of the awkward pre-
dicament in which we have placed
him, or we must submit to the
thanksgiving Of Sims by the pardoned
%convicts, and the shooting down Of
Turner by Ncwbold We have made
murder n necessity We must unmakc
the law which makes it a necessity
AS we are impressed, Gov. Ellcrbc
when he entered upon his administra-
tion was doubtful Of the wisdom OF the
dispensary law, or opposed to the law.
1t has given his administration much
terrible NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. though it
has been. 1t was an experiment from
its inception. Let us ~rctracc Il
steps. Surely, VIC are not wiser than
all the rest Of the States to say nothing
of mankind. Let the law be rcpca'cd:
let the constitution be amended, adj
herring to the best features of the sys-
tenn. A high license, prohibiting open
bars a. night, with other restrictions,
Is the line OF remedy. Prohibition is
impracticahie and would require doz-
ems OF paid spies in every county. A
system OF spies cannot exist without II
division OF the spoils and this Is not
desirable. Mon paying high license
would break up b ind tigers and all
illicitJtrafic.
~
They now have it, as reliable spccu-
lation that Capt. w. G. MCGOWAN, of
Abbeville, Col. O. l.. Schumpert, Of
Newberry and Senator Archer, of
Spartanburg, will enter the lists in the
next football hustle for the Governor
ship. Gov. Ellerbe will likely be there
#x*
Three probable candidates are now
mentioned for Judge OF the Charleston
circuit to be filed this winter. Four
r discussed in connection with
the Congressional representative: