Lancaster enterprise. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1891-1905, 1900-08-01
THAT "UNHOLY ALL
ANCE."
SENATOR TILLMAN FUR.
THEIR DEFINES WHATHE
MEANS THEREBY.
He Reiterates that Prohibition
lists and Blind Tigers Are
Working Together Against the
Dispensary.

The Record has received the
following letter from Senator
Tillman, with request for it's
publication:
Rev. j. o. Wilson, Colu M bia, S. O.
Dear Sir: l have your letter of
July %, asking if my speech at
Bennettsville was correctly re-
ported. i do not recollect the
exact words used at Benefits
VILE, but they are In effect true
as quoted; and inasmuch as the
district conference of the Meth.
odist church, under the leader.
ship of BishIp Duncan, has taken
the matter up, and the bishop is
reported to have mailed" my
utterance cas- a lie," while the
report of the committee on tenn
perance denounced any insinu.
alton that the effort of Christia
ministers and other citizeus to
rid the state of this gigantic evil
is sort or voluntary combina.
tion with the saloon element as a
base slander, that is itself an at
tempt to strengthen the power of
this most .damnable iniquity," /
will take the occasion offered by
your inquiry to make an an,
nouncement over my own sigma
of what l said and meant at Ben
nettsville. OF course the reporter
gave only the barest outlines.
l have no quarrel with the
ministers of any church or de-
nomination and have no purpose
to give offense to any of them.
have always borne testimony to
the high character and purity of
purpose characterizing the min
istry, but l believe they are
wrong in fighting the di,pensary
law as they do, and 1 claim the
right to say so, acknowledging at
the same time their right to free
dom of speech and freedom of
political action on this and every
other subject
men toned the attitude of the
ministers incidentally as an il
lustration of the anomalous po-
litical situation. The ministers
attack the dispensary because it
does not go far enough, and the
high. license people and the blind
tigers, whom l designated as the
"oId bar keepers" attack the dis
pensary because it goes too far.
They are thus found fighting side
by side in the campaign. There
is only one candidate in the field |
for governor opposed to the dis
pensary, Col. Hoyt, and all of
these elements are allied in his
support, and the proof Is that
Charleston In the last guberna-
torial election voted for Mr..
Featherstone and prohibition,
when it is notorious that the
whiSkey element in that city is
predominant and that the dis.
pensary law is not enforced,
mainly by reason of the lax
morals of the grand jurors, who
have failed to discharge their
oaths.
Colonel Hoyt last winter in his
paper, the Mountaineer, urged
coalition between the high license
people and the ProhibItionists in
the general assembly in order to
repeal the dlspensary law. Col.
Hoyt seeks the governors office
and of course wants votes. am
opposed to his election solely on
these grounds and called atten-
tion to the elements supporting
him. There may be no open "alli-
ance," and technically l may
have been in error In asserting
IL. but | think it permissible to
declare all the supporters Of any
one candidate "allies." and if the
Methodist minister who accused
me OF ISLANDER" will show that
they do not intend to work to the