Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-09-11

dcspoilers' hand South Carolina and
returned her to you and gave you a
white mans government. This man
and others who followed hard by are
cotton mill presidents to-day.
The man, who, while in foreign
country, seeking to restore his shat
tered health, in the hour of blood
and cyclone, when the electric flash
announced the sad news to him, hast
ened to the city which loved and
honorcd him, to distribute the chari-
! ties of two continents TO suffering
humanity, is cotton mill president.
The man, who at the foot hills of the
Blue Ridge, fclled dense forest and
brought the soil into the highest
state of cultivation was one of the
first men III the State to declare for
the rights of the farmer, when they
thought they were being trampled
under foot, is to-day tho president Of
a cotton mill within a few miles of
the forest he subdued, and where, as
a farmer, he passed his young man
hood in honest toll. The man who
in te-bellum days came to your
country from a northern cline, as a
youth cast his fortune with Spartan
burg and plighted his love to his
adopted country, forsook it not in
her darkest days Of war and adver-
sity, and aside from building up one
of the largest mill properties in the
State, erected monument to young
womanhood which will be rs endur-
ing as time itself-Converse College.
This man was mill president up to
his death. But why enumcrate fur
ther ? The mill presidents of this
State were called from honorable vo-
cations, and some from the humblest
walks of life. The cotton mills of
this State have invaded the ranks of
all classes-the store, the workshop,
the counting room, the bar, the
doctors home, the school room and
the farm for their presidents. And
one is now about to convert Clemson
college into a vcritablc textile school.
These arc the men who stand ar
raigncd before you this day by a
member of this aggregation of Office
seekers, who, at Union, constituted
themselves prosecutor, judge and
jury, and, upon their own imaginary
testimony, rendered verdict against
the cotton mill presidents for viola
tion of almost every crime in the
decalogue. Though learned in law,
they did not open. their grand high
tribunal with the usual ceremonies
of Circuit Court, namely: "Pris-
oncr, look upon the juror; juror,
look upon the prisoner. What say
est thou? Guilty or not guilty ?"
But the right of appeal is vouch-
safcd to every man in this country,
i and this right | now exercise in be-
half of the mill presidents, and ap-
peal to the people and answer, "Not
guilty" Are these men traitors,
tyrants Of dishonest men for
base purposes Political agents of
Northern capitalists, who have been
furnished money with which to build
cotton mills for the purpose of coerc-
ing frecborn white men and turning
them over to the Republican party,
as has been charged?
| deny the accusation and brand it
as false and an insult, not only to the
mill presidents, but to the people
who have trusted and confded in
them. They are true to the land
that gave them birth they are true
TO the people Who have honorcd them
with seats in the councils Of State and
nation ; true to the people who have
entrusted to their care and manage
ment their money true to their
neigiltors true to their workers and
CO. workers and true to themselves.
Their motto is ''Ho thine own self
be true and it must follow as the
night the day, thou canst not then
be false to any man."
The accusers say the principles