The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-09-04
STATEMENT FROM
SENATOR TILLMAN
He Denies That He Was Ever
Disloyal to the Majority of Dem
oCratS

- Senator Tillman was prevented frC
I'M speaking AT Spartanburg on account
&c. the accident to his eye, and he fulni,
nd ed the following statement to q
,re newspapers which he had intended
incorporate in his speech:
nd There has been more or less sire
ad uous effort made in various quarters
Id cast imputations on my Dcmocrat
VS. and to charge that L have been di
loyal to the organization in the pas
o? Senator McLaurin's supporters seek
ly defend his own troachcry to the part
r. by making these charges, while on tll
Is other hand some of my Old political o,
il poncnts who have never been able [
j. give me any credit for anything tha
c was worthy or good, have Joined i
o this accusation, and | therefore fc,
|. that ii is nothing but right that shoul
Il let the younger generation of voter
d who know nothing of the facts, hea
n the plain truth SO they may know how
[ much crcdcncc to give to thes,
charges.
, l made my entrance into the politi
5 cal arena at Bcnnettsville in 80, purcl,
| by accident. The agitation begun there
, and followed up IN the News and
Courier in a series of letters and adj
dresses in advocacy of a farmers col.
le9e took a political turn in SO In
the Democratic State convention of
that year | had large following, but
we were beaten by those in possession
OF the machine, Qhc ring, | called
them), and was among the first to
move that the nomination for Cover
nor be made unanimous, and to pledge
my support to the successful candidate.
Continuing the agitation which broad
encd into Il demand for general rcfor-
| nation OF the State government and
the abolition of various abuses-wc
were again beaten in 'SS by very
narrow margin because Attorney Cen
cral Earle, our candidate, refused to
allow the use of his name after the
balloting begun, and again moved to
make the nominations unanimous, thus
showing my loyalty t. the party in
State affairs.
In 1890 | was put forward as the
nominee of the March convention to
run as candidate for the nomination
Tor Governor i'll the regular Democratic
convention, and the system of Joint
discussion was inaue uratcd. | was |,
eCc,cd in the Demo
cratic primary, and although there was
bolt and effort TO elect an indcpen-
dent candidate was chosen Governor
in November following by Il large ma
jority. The Alliance had been or
ganiZcd in 'S9, and was very potent ,
factor in the success of The Reform
movement, but there was a very power
iul political current flowing before the ,
Alliance was born. In '0l | discover
ed that Ben Terrell, the lecturer of the
National Alliance, was Systematically |
gong from county to county sowing
the seed Of third partyism and preach
ing the doctrine of "yOting for Betsy
and the baby" rather than the Demo-
cratic party or any other party. This .
led to my challenging Mr.. Terrell to IA
JOINT discussion on the sub-trcasury
and other Issues upon which he was
basing his propaganda, and the debate
was held before the State Alliance in
this city. ] pointed out in the debate
the danger of the white people of Son.,I
Carolina risking any division as long
gro majority, and insisted that nothing
should be done of political cha acactcr
odtside of the Democratic ranks until
we had held constitutional convcn-
tion and taken steps to safeguard white
supremacy.
l demanded and secured pledge in
that meeting to make the fight against |
Clevclandism and the other undemo-
cratic policies that were bein. urged by |
the New York wing Of the party inside |
of the Democratic ranks, and there are |
hundreds of witnesses to the fact. The |
result was in '02, Notwithstanding the
Alliance was III absolute control Of the |
politica, affairs of the State and there |
was an overwhelming sentiment in op.
position to the Democratic party tencts
as they were then promulgated by
Cleveland and his crowd, there was no
effort made To organize Populist
party except in two counties even after
Cleveland had received the nomination
at Chicago. Our State convention had
denounced him as ga prostitute of
Wall street" and declared that he was
not Democrat, but when he received
the nomination | returned from Chca-
go and counscled acquicscence in the
result, and ! make bold to assert that
but for my influence and the influence
of the men allied with me the State
would have gone to the Populsts that
year by an overwhelming vote. AS it
was, South Carolina was the only
Southern State where Populism did not
make bitter fight against the regular
Democracy. | spoke very bitterly of
Clcveland's policy and proclaimed my
desire for union between the South
ern and Western farmers and declared
was ready to lead a revolt against
the Democratic party as then led and
leave it if need be whenever saw any
where to go, and made all ision to (" a
light in the West " as IL signal
In the meantime | set myself zeal
ously TO work to secure a constitu-
tiOnal convention 80 ns to take steps to
disfrancbise as many of the colorcd
people as we could under the 18th and
10Th amendments. During the period
from % TO '0G there was bitter and
constant agitation in .his and other
States against Clcyeand's pOlIcv. and