The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-09-04
MEETING 1T SPlRTANBURe.
One Of the Best Conducted in This
State for a Long Time.
Audience Quiet and Orderly and
Speeches on a High Plane.
Hemphill, Henderson, tombstone, Latimer
and Evans Spoke as Candidates.

HemphiIl, Henderson, tombstone, Latimer
and Evans Spoke as Candidates.
spartanburg, August 27-The good
old county and city of Spartanburg at
the campaign meeting to-day vlndlcat-
ed their record for intelligence, con-
servatism and fair play. Looking back
over a record of ten years in political
reportorial work, recall no pubic
meeting which I have attended IN
South Carolina which was conducted
on higher plane or at which there
were better men or better arguments.
There was not sentence Of the peanut
politics which went SO far TO disgrace
the stump in South Carolina in former
years at the meeting to-day. The men
as well as measures have waxed greater.
There is more of fair play and less OF
oratorical combat and bush whacklng.
The fratricidal contests Of the early
nineties have veritably ceased from out
of the land. The conflict now waging
is on broader lines. The issues are
Federal. 4 party's principles are
being weighed in the balance. Per
scnalities have dwindled to small
account. It is the integrity Of great
and honorble statecraft against an hour
of commercial expediency. It is the
faith of the fathers of the nation
against the interested prattle OF babes
and suckIngs.
The gentlemen who spoke at Spar
tangurg Court House to-day, the IN
clemency of the weather having pre-
cluded the possibility of an open air
meeting, defined precisely the political
emergency which confronts the people
of South Carolina. They sought to
give lucid explanation of the con
trolling motives of the Democratic
party, of the innovations by which
thew conceive it to be menaced and to
explain the views which they conceive
it the duty OF our people to hold in the
premises. They spoke with a candor
which should characterize the puonc
utterances of public men worthy Of the
esteem and support OF their fellow cltl-
zens. Claiming that Senator McLaurin
had recanted the principles of the
party which he was chosen to represent
the speakers went before the people,
the source of all polite authority,
and challenging their reprobat5on OF
rebuke. Whatever divergencies OF
opinion there may exist as to the
Justice of the attitudes Of the contend
ING factions in Federal politics here to-
day. there can be little question IN
any ones opinion that the logic Of the
situation seems to rest with the advo-
Gates of old-time party fealty. These
gentlemen who addressed the citizens
of Spartanburg, and not IN years has
there been a more representative
gathering, claimed that Senator Nc
Iaurin contends that political ale
oance ceased at the State boundaries.
They declared in effect that he hac
abandoned in national affairs the
tenets of the party to which they anc
he belonged. With one exception
there was at no time descent to per-
sonal vituperation, but theg did moi
mince matters when they alleged that
the Junior Senator had forsaken the
principles he was chosen to voice, anc
that he had no sentence OF authority
for his course without first having re-
ferred the great issues which he
thought to engraft upon the Demo
cratic platform back to the peopl5
whom he represented for final arbitra-
ment.
The accuracy of their resume of tbs
situation evidently appealed to their
auditors and, catching the drift Of the
thoughts of those who heard them,
none of the speakers failed to enlarge
upon this phase of the campaign al
every practical opportunity: Those who
seemed disposed to treat Senator Nc
Laurin with the greatest Difference
had nothing better to say for him than
that, believing his party wrong, he
gave his party credit for desiring that
ne should say so. They intimated
that even then the junior Senator would
seem TO claim that it is the man, and
NOT measures, that the Democrats OF
South Carolina wish to be represented
by men. of whom he is one, and there
will. of course, be many persons to
whom this is not an unmooted ques-
ton. Ere this the men in places OF
political trust have claimed for them
selves the widest latitude in matters
of political e4pediency and party
policy. They have sought to make
It appear that it was entirely compati-
BILE for a man to be one thing as can
didate and another as an office-holder.
Some persons, of course, hold that
such a view of public responsibility
will not stand the light of dispasslon-
ate investigation. They say that
the United States Senator Is
not sent to his seat shack
led to every splinter OF his
partv's platform, but that there are
always certain fundamental provis-
ions made in that instrumnt to which
in all fairness he is bound absolutely.
To abandon them not merely to sug-
gest something new, but for principles
&haN