The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1901-05-02
Thursday, May 2. 1901.
McLAURIN'S SPEECH.


Identical enterprise, whose domestic duty
it is to spin and to weave as was wont to
be done by the good house wife OF yore'
under the approving eye of Jefferson and
of Jackson, who mayhaps caught the
lesson of her shuttle and sleigh, to weave
the lasting fabric of Democracy. He
comes to make speech in Charlotte to
Democrats, whose Democracy the public
press has not up to this time presumed
to question.
Since the Senator voted for the ratifl-
cation of the late treaty with Spain and
later for measure known as the ship
ping subsidy bill, his Democracy has con-
stantly been called into question by many
newspapers in this State and absolutely
denied by others. At Charlotte he en-
rbraced the opportunity, which was the
first accorded him, to meet the allegations
of his accusers. Many of his constituents,
being taught thus by partisan press, ex-
pected him to formally renounce MS al
legiance to the Democratic party, but
instead he announced loyalty and not de-
sertion. We have examined that speech,
and we find his offence is greater deyo-
ton to the interests of his country andto
8 his nations honor, as he saw it, than to
the caucus edicts of Senatorial oligarchy.
If McLaurin has been loyal to the best
interests of his country, and if to main
tain this loyalty it was necessary for him
to part council temporarily with his col
leagues, had We not better examine into
his contention for ourselves before we
accept as just this wholesale abuse and
this unceremonious reading the Senator
out of the party.
It a matter of history that some of
our mostsillustrious statesmen have dlf-
fered with their party on the most I'M
portant party questions, and, like Nc
Laurin, they were reviled at the time for
their imputed inidelity and desertlon
and accused of being controlled by mer-
cenary motives. These verdicts were
generally rendered impulsively and IN
prejudice. In the appeal court OF slow
and cautious time many of these foul
judgments have been ordered Cancelled
of record, but not until the victim had
died or had been forced from the sphere
of his influence. Senator Calhoun con-
fesses to have often differed with his
party, and that too when his party was
strongest. We believe that he was sus-
tainel at the head of political thought by
that kind of confidence that clings to a
friend through evil as well as good re-
port" yet, today, there is no division
among US regarding his patriotism and
his great wisdom, and We do admit that
his independence was by no means the
least element of his greatness. Samuel
J. Randall was likewise abused for his
independence in opposing his party on a
very vital issue, but he lived to become
the idol of the national Democracy with
out having surrendered his honest con-
yictions. Why not permit McLaurln to
think and why not permit him to act:
We boast of independence; it is the vaunt-
ed tree in the center of our political
garden. Let US rake the soil OF all the
tyranny that accumulates where grows
this tree and it will mature a great
strength. If we would condemn him,
let Us find the reason for such condemna-
ton in the logical operation of his policy
and not in the naked, harsh and un-
proven declarations that he is disloyal.
The southern people are beginning to
think for themselves, tightening tritie
the mental burden of our overworked
politicians, and the more they think the
less inclined they are to further sacrifice
the material interests of the South to
follow blindly any political phantom,
even if Senatorial caucus has succeeded
in pressing the Democratic branding
iron against it.
Our people are Democrats by necessity,
and happily the necessity is the choice,
but they propose to exercise this choice
with some freedom. Many Democrats
are growing to feel that it is not neces-
sary for them now to be forced to request
the chairman of the State Democratic
executive committee to name what watch
of the night they may be permitted to
turn the bulldog loose in the barnyard;
they propose to settle many little matters
like this, and a few possibly of more
importance, and they propose to be
Democrats while they do these things
and they propose to be Democrats after
wards, too.
So it is we'll to notify party experts
that it is not enough to simply assert that
McLaurin voted for the Spanish treaty
after sudden change of mind, and ex-
pect on this testimony to convict him OF
Republicanism. Many Democrats voted
for it. We understand that Mr.. Bryan
advised it, and he was afterwards the
unanimous choice of those who opposed
it, for the Presidency of the United
States. 1t is not enough to vehemently
assert that the shipping subsidy bill Is
"Republican grab" and then to drop
the subject, feeling that all the people are
convinced, and that they with one accord
will vote the man Republican who de-
clares with much reason that 1t will
benefit the people who labor on the farm
and in the factory; because the people
know that Democrats voted large sub
sides to transcontinental railroads in the
way of land and government security,
and that in the counties Of our own
State, by the advice of leading politicians,
the Democrats voted subsidies in the way
of county bonds to railroads. And that
both the national parties agree on the
Ill