The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-03-01

to L. d, Childs, but he has not palo any aLten-
tnre TO press the matter by employing good
lawyer If need be, TO search among an tn9 9
old rubbish for the Black papers, thlnk !
can get good case and save tne Stase LEE s1Ia tpa
Civil war the northern men IN congress are
disposed to be generous towards the south and
we ought to strike while the iron Is hot.
The money % has been owing for nearly cen.
tury. and In spite of earnest efforts made by
the agents employed by Gov. hampton, ana
the promise OF Is per cent In case OF success,
which would then have amounted 10 over
SEQ, 600, not one cent has ever been recovered.
Yet the very same evidence, II not better, ex.
listed then as does now. You have no word OF OF
censure for Gov. Hampton, why. appointed
agents and attorneys In 1879 TO look after this
matter, and promised them 10 per cent. Oh tne
amount you have no ,uced wofu od cen tbe
resolution in the house Of representatives
YOU have no word of censure for the mouse OF
representatives that passes the resolution
Senators who supported the resolutions. but
you reserve all your batteries for rae, because
u 1 had the audacity to differ from you IN my
views upon this matter and 70 accuse you
upon the floor Of the senate OF not knowing
what you were talking about: You may
think that the people OF South Carolina are
set of fools, but you will wake up some DAY
and find yourself sadly mistaken. l.,
AS to my having any personal lnterest 10
| this matter 1t is absolutely ABSURD. 1 nave no
money to 60 to Washington and push thls
matter through, however much mlgns ae.
sire to do so. have no pull on, or 1nnuence
with. either Gov. Ellerbe or Attorney Gene
raj Bellinger. 1 never met Gov. Elleroe but
once in my life, and that was nearly year
ago. when called IN M a's sn oess IStsryieW With
him lasting about one mi mute on business
matter. I never had the pleasure OF meeting
Attorney General Belinger until since tne
a-o1 ami
suppose 1 exchanged fifty words with him
during the whole session, and have the very
slightest acquaintance with him. "a.
The State, being 80 reaoy 20 SCI, Uus s,ecs aus
ton deal), is prone to distrust the motives OF
other men. lam fully aware that am oeal.
ing with an unscrupulous foe, and one VINO
will use the privileges of having the last say
to the fullest advantage, but conscious OF the
rectitude OF my conduct ana havlng maae
full statement of my connection Win tne en-
tire affair, shall now leave an impartial pub
~ Feb: eI Si %, 1888. VIM. N. Graydon.
; The Retoinder.
A standing notice In The State debars "de.
famat tory" .communicatlons, out we piant
i partly because his official conduct is 10 ques.
ton and partly because we do not OBJECT 70
his proving himself pettifogger. what ne
his attack is quite clear: he seeks to divert
attention from the only questions which are
OF shysters-"when, you have bad defense
abuse the prosecutors" We refuse TO be
thrown off the track.
Senator Graydon protests that ne naa no
"personal interest" In pushing the commits.
sion Job. Absurd" he says. He accuses
), The State OF "distrusting the motives OF
other men," He refers to its "insinuations or
charges and Islander and misrepresenta.
Al Inh
"So;h SGo; pro protest ST too MUCH We have made no
charge of personal interest" on his part; we
have made no iusuation. II the senator has
heard corrupt motives attributed to him di.
rectly or indirectly, be has not heard them
i from The State. We nave been scrupulously
careful not to put into print anything which
"personal Interest" In the commission. We
have attacked the Job ITSELF not the senator's
motives IN pushing It,.
because it would give anything up to $50, sou
(Senator Graydon's figures) OF the States
4 money to somebody with an official pulp
for work which would have to be done or
i duplicated by our congress delegation. That
we were right In our opposition to 1t, that
y the expenditure would have been needless
and wrong, both the senate and the house
learn ing the facts OF the case. The senate by
, q vote OF 27 to 7 and the house by acclama-
ton knocked out the senator from Abbeville,
together with all need for further argument
on the merits OF the scheme.
i We had mo word OF censure for Senator
/ Hampton" for employing agents 20 years ago.
| because we were lighting against an enact.
ment in 1899, not reviewing enactments OF
1875; because at that time the agents did have
to make up the case while now 1t Is already
made up and ready for congressional action
because In 1878, on account of sectional feel.
have been Infinitely harder than it can be
now. We did not editorially name others
who supported the scheme because they did
not attack US by name, as Senator Graydon
they did not make statements which involy.
ed a very interesting issue OF veracity be.
tween State senator and United States sena-
tor; which W we desired SiIe to 6,,1 haye solved;
letter. We wanted to settle the discrepancy
between what Senator Tillman wired The
State and what Senator Graydon said he had
written someIody y d IN b,s ths We
Graydon bad refused to let our senate report.
er See the letter which he read TO the senate,
and the latter was unable TO get the exact
wording of it. Senator Graydon now charges
that with our "usual unfairn ess' we did not
state that he refused to show the letter be-
cause 1t was mot written to him" Had we
constrained to point out, as we do now, that
Senator Graydon had read to the senate q
letter he regarded as too private to show TO
one man. He read 1t then and he prints it
ethics with himself.
The letter Is In print at last. II appears
from II that on January Ath Senator Tiliman
suggested that his unnamed correspondent
"get the legislature to press the matter by
among all the old rubbish for the Black
papers" On February Goth be teIegraphed
The State: u protest against employing an
attorney as absolutely useless. Five hum
dred dollars woald be ample com mpensation to
look up the facts and prepare the case so we
could get legislative action here. No attor-
ney can do anything but that; the South Cas-
olina delegation can do all that is possible il
furnished with the facts and papers, namely,
get congress to authorize an adjustment OF
| the accounts"
! We are not over+fond OF Ben Tillman. as is
tolerably we'll known, but We deduce these
CONCLUSIONS from the testimony before us :
Senator Tillman proposed the employment
Of an attorney for one specific purpose-to
"search among the rubbish for the Black
papers, of 1858. He said afterwards that $500
would be ample compensation. The man or
who got up the legislative resolution built on
this slender nd ioundatiGn scheme to give
cost 10 the State Of as much as S525O (Mr.
Graydon's figures) Senator Tlllnan, pro
posed 70 do the legislative work himself, yet
authors OF the bill acted as If we had no sen.
ators or representatives In Washington to
attend to the States business. And in the
face OF the letter Senator Graydon told the
senate that the resolution he was pushing
"only carri ed out the recommendation made
by Senator Tillman," that IT was ''drawn at
the instance OF Senator Tillman," and that
he had expressed desire that such q step
as the resolution contemplated be made"
| We have brought out the docum en- tary evil
dence, and on reading and analyzng Il the
public can Fee what Justification there was
for using Senator Tillman's name to put
through this job-and also discern perhaps,
the real reason why Senator Graydon is in.
censed against The State.
Senator Graydon charges that The State Is
"ready TO sell out Its .friends-as witness It's
late ante-primary-election deal" AS local
option was the only friend we had involved
L., hot Auh Ia hor m