The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-05-17
TrME.WoRN ANp IpIoTIo.
Senator Tillman's Absurd RetOrt to
Those Who Kissed Him in Michi-

Senator Itt1mahs Absurd dsEOEE %
Those Who Kissed Him in Michi-
gan.
Rochester Democrat: The other
night Senator Tlllman, of South Caro-
lima, iectured at Ann Arbor, Mich, by
invitation of the good government
league. In the course of his address he
referred to colored students in a man
ner that circumstances made especially
offensive. tactless, and gratultously in
sultlrg to a portion of his audience. He
was Kissed for 1t as he deserved to be.
The kissing elected from Senator
Tlnmnn the following truly brilliant,
original and novel retort; when that
man who Missed gets ready to give his
daughter In marriage to a negro and
proves by his actions and not by his
Kisses that he means business, / viii
apologize, and not before" We are IN
formed by the teicgrapheG report of
the Incident that "the applause which
greeted this retort was tremendous
and there was no more Kissing during
the evening"
The story furnishes a conspicuous IL
lustratlon Of the well-known but cur
iouB superiority of stupid shop-worn
fallacies over sound arguments as In
struments for convincing human rea-
son and sllencing an opponent in de-
bate.
In the days when slavery was live
Issue In this country and sidewalk ar
guments, bar-room debates, and hotel
corridor contentious between anti-slav-
cry men and pro-slavery men were ev-
ery-hour incidents. every such argu-
ment, debate or contention was brought
to close with the 'argumentum ad
hominem," triumphantiy launched By
the pro-slavery man, "would you like
your daughter to marry negro?" And
that settled 1t. The listening crowd Of
presumably reasonable human beings
hailed the pro-slavary debater as the
victor, and nothing that the anti-slav-
cry man might say could relieve him
from the stigma Of having got the
worst Of It,"
AS rule he had nothing to say.
Knowing that he would not like to have
his daughter marry negro, even he
was apt to feel that all ground for
argument was cut from under his feet.
or course It is quite unnecessary to say
that the fact that the anti-slavery
man didn't want his daughter to marry
a negro never had anything to do with
the case and that no man concerned in
the discussion, as participant or listen
er, could, IL It were to save his life,
have pointed out what he supposed to
be the logical connections between that
fact and the point under discussion. But
that made no difference. The utterly
stupid and senseless fallacy always
carried conviction with II.
Years have passed. Negro slavery Is
dead as door nail. All reasonable ar
guments for and against negro slavery
are dead with 1t. But the silly, stupid.
senseless old fallacy is, 1t appears, as
much alive and as Irresistibly convinc-
ing as ever. Would you like your
daughter to marry a negro?" You
would not. Then there Is no possible
objection to negro slavery. Would
you like your daughter to marry ne
gro?" You would not. Then there is
no possible objection to any stupid,
senseless, brutal, insolent lie 1 choose
to tell about negroes.
Truly that was n brilliant and con-
vincing retort of Senator TIllman's at
Ann Arbor And what thoughtful,
reasonable and logical-minded audience
1t must have been that accepted this
castanean stupidity as a crushing argu-
ment, and tremendously applauded 1t
as a gem OF repartee.