The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-09-12

When in that court room in which he
was the self-appointed juror, witness
and judge, and to which the defendant
was not admitted, bearing the seal of
our highest court, comes this verdict
Of blasphemy against the defendant? I
ask you, gentlemen, when you come to
make uD your verdict, to take in all
these facts, to review them, and if you
ind verdict of guilt in every charge,
If in the range of mercy, justice and
truth you can tighten on this one, let
| it be done.
In the fourth place, Judge Clark
charges the defendant with Venality
by asking the question, ''I wonder how
much personal gratuity he received for
this speech? 1t is hard for a man to be
patient when he sees the low and false
measures which certain men put to
him. For fifteen years in a Southern
Methodist conference, at the call of the
defendapt's name, the answer has been,
| Nothing against him. That is the
measure of his church on him. But
hear the measure of your highest judi
c1ary upon common citizen; it is that
ne is guilty of venality. 1t is true that
other men with Venality should retire
to his own closet and ask his own con-
science as to whether he has not a
price for himself.
But where is the evidence by which
he expects to sustain the accusation? :?
doubt he wishes that the defendant
would dodge it. IF the defendant is
guilty of evasien, then what must you
say about the prosecuting witness? Not
question did they hear bearing on it.
The defendant did ask witnesses: he
asked DR.. Wilson, he asked a number
Of South Carolina gentlemen, whether
| they thought that was the character
of the defendant. and every man of
them said "NO." ANY man should be
oI,1
low, and should pray kind Providence
! TO save him from measuring humanity
by 5uch low standards, and If men are
guilty oI~these things, for the good Of
humanity keep it from the public'R ears
But this Supreme Court judge, the con-
Servator-One of the nRal conservators
of moral truth and civil rectitude,
makes free to charge that crime against
the President of Trinity College, md
hadn't a word of testimony to prove is
but says, "Give me thirty days time
and 1 will get it, He got forty-three
days and never secured a word of this
promised testimony, but comes into this
court and goes around the charge with
a display of high-handed innocence.
Now, whatever else YOU may find,
gentlemen, in your review OF this mat
ter, I do not hesitate to say, you can
not find one word that ought to make
you stop a moment at this charge
In the fifth place, he charges the de-
fendant with having the reputation Of
a wire-pulling politician Of the ward
type in South Carolina. Mark the
words, gentlemen: not simply a poll
tician, not simply a wire-puller, but
wire-pulling politician Of the ward
type. Who can define the meaning of
that? 1 stand here to say that the de-
fendant doesn't know what he means
by ward politics. Providence has sent
his life from the cradle to this hour
along a different plane and along a diff
ferent pathway from the dirt of what
/ he means by ward politics. wire
pulling ward politicians" If a ward
politician is a mean man, then how
much meaner is a pulling one?
That man would Out-BeelEebub Beel-
zebub. This, gentlemen, is not the
language of a calm man, it is the Ian
guage of an enraged man; it is not the
deliberate utterance Of a man sure of
the foundation of his statements. Poor
human nature, when once turned loose
under passion, drags it's anchor and too
frequently drives it's bow into the rocks
and wrecks itself. And when men be-
come enraged, adjectiVes become cheap,
and the charging of crimes becomes
pastime.
This charge, gentlemen, refers to the
defendants South Carolina record, and
South Carolina testimony is necessary
for it's establishment. Because you as
his brethren, and the church which you
in the case, the defendant was willing
to undergo the humiliation Of walking
in the streets of the towns OF his ma
tive State and telling his friends he
had come back to ask for a vindication
before a North Carolina body Of Meth
OdiSts. You NAV think that a small
thing, but a sensitive nature, having to
harden it's face in it's young years to a
task like that is no small undertaking
to tell the men who very nearly nurSed
him that he was in search of evidence
to prove to his church in another State
that he is not a scOundrel. l say that
he was willing to undergo that humilia-
tiOn for your sake, not because he felt
that before God he needed it, but as
unhOIy hands had been laid on holy in
terests, he was determined that the
spots left by those finger touches should
be washed off and he should be
bleached.
The supreme question concerning the
charge is, Where did Judge Clark get
his original information He did not
know it personally, for he so stated in
your meeting of July 18th. Mark that,
gentlemen; he was not writing what
he personally knew, for after having
time to consider it, having been sum-
mOned before this court to prove 1t,
he was forced to say that he had no
personal knowledge of any facts to sus-
tain a charge he made. Then where
did he get it? He said that his charges
were based upon hearsay evidence
which came to him in private cOnVer-
sation and private correspondence. The
defendant wishes for the high esteem
he once had for the highest judiciary,
feeling that over and above him were
men, each of them so full of justice and
fairness that whatever injustice might
be perpetrated in the lower courts, 1T
would be more than adjudicated and
justly settled in this higher court. But
here a Supreme court judge comes to
say to you frankly that he published
grave charges on hearsay testimOny.7
So, then, Judge Clark is not the orig
inaI accuser, and, I have it IN my mind
to say, / believe it is the honest truth,
that Judge Clark has been most falsely
dealt with by some common gossip in
whom he thought he had a right to
have confidence. You can't make the de-
fendant believe, you never will do it,
though Judge Clark himself testify to
it, he will never believe that Judge
Clark, born and raised in the home
from which he comes, cultured as he
is, with the high social environments
of his life, would have made charge
like that without believing that he had
just grounds upon which to make it.
~ Inn Of