The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-09-04
WHAT TILLMAN SAYS
About tha chare,ss Made Against
Him.
WARNS THE MILL PEOPLE.
Defends Himself from the chargs
of Having Abandoned the
Democratic Party and Dis
cusse Olllar M alters.

says Senator Til!msn especially regret.
ted lis inability to speak at Spartan
burg, because there were several i'm
portant points upon which no desired
to define his position once and for all.
Among these was the tslk there has
been Of coercion il the cotton mills.
Bsfore lesvirg the city he gave out a
statement for publication covering
these questions. I. is as fellows:
There has been nore or less strenuous
effort nads in various quarters to cast
imputations oo my Democracy aud to
charge that have been disloyal to the
orasnizssion il the past.
Senator MoLsuric's supporter seek to
defend his oTn :-escherS to the party
By making these charges, chile On the
other hand some Of my cid political op.
| ponenss, who hsve never 5sen able to
give ns a0y credit for anything that
was Worthy OF good, hs7e Joined in this
ACQUISITION, and therefore fesl chat it
is nothing bus right that I should let
the younger generation Of voters, who
krov nothing Of the facts; hssr the
plain truth, SO they may know hcE
much credance to give to these charges.
HOW AGITATION BEGAN,
made ny en:rtranoa IN the political
arars at BapnesEsyiils in 'S5 purely By
| accident. The egitstion began thsre.
| This, followed up in the News and
Courier in a series CT letters and ad-
| dresses in advocacy Of farmers COL
lege, took political turn in '86. In
tbs Democratic State Convep'inn Of
that year l had e large follc 7i}g, bit
we we're beaten by those in posses sion
of the mschine, (the ring called them)
and was among the first to move that
the nomination for Governor be made
unanimous and 70 pledge my support to
the successful candidate. Continuing
the agitation, WHOA b.oadened into
demand for general reformation Of the
State Government and the abolition Of
7slio1s abuses-We Hers again beaten
in 80 by very narrow maIgln, because
Attorney General Esrle, our candidate,
refused to allow the use Of his name
after the ballot;ng began, and sgain
moved to make the nominations unani-
nous, thus showing my loyalty to the
party in State affairs.
In 1890 I was put forward as the
nominee OF
THE MARCH CONVENTION
to run as candidate for the nomina-
ton for Governor in the regular Demo
cratic Convention and the system of
Joint discussions was inausursted. I
was overwhelmingly elected in the
Democrtic primary, and although there
was bolt and effort to elect an inde.
pendent candidate, I was chosen Gov
ernor in November following by a laigs
majority. The Alliance had been
organized in '89 and Ess very potent
factor in the SUCCESS Of the Reform
movements but there WAS a very power
full political current flowing before the
Alliance was born. In 81 discovered
that Ben Terrell, the lecturer Of the
National Alliance, vas Systematically
going from county to county, sowing
the seed of Third. psrtyism and preach
ing the doctrine OF voting for Betsy
and the bsby," rather than the Demo
cratic party or any other party. This
led to ny challenging Mr. Terrell to 3
joint discussion on the subject Of the
sub treasury and other Issues, upon
which he was bssing his propaganda,
and the debate was held before
?Hs STATE ALLIANCE
in this city. l pointed out in the de.
bate the danger Of the white people of
South Carolina risking any division as
long as ne had such an overwhelming
negro majority, and insisted that moth.
ing should 5e done Of 8 political
character outside Of the Demooratio
ranks until re had held Constitutional
Convention and taken steps to safe:
guard white supremacy. demanded
and obtained pledge in that meeting
to make the fight agsinst C!e7eisndism
and the other undem ocratic policies
thet we're being urged By the New York
wing of the party inside Of the Demo
cratic rsnks, a1d thaSo are hundreds
of witnesses to the fact. The result was
in '92, notwithstanding the Alliance
VAS in absolute control Of the political
aEairs Of the State, snd there was an
| overwhelming sentiment IN opposition
to the Democratic psrsy teness So they
| were thea
PROMULGATED BY CLEVELAND
and his crowd, saeio Waa 20 effort made
| to organize Popoliss party exospt II
TWO ooaniies, e7en sitter Cleveland bad
received toe nomi7sa;oa as Caicsgo. o..
State Convention hsd denounced him
as "a prostitute Of Wall street" snl de-
clsred that 10 wss not Democrat, but
| VIXEN he received the nomination re-
| turned from Chicago and counselled
acQuieseenoa in the result, sad make
bold TO assert that bat for ny influence
and tie influence Of the men allied
| with lie the State would have gone to
| the PopulIsis that yesr b7 an over
vhelming vote. As it vss, South Caro-
lima was the Only Southern STATE
whose Populism cid not make g bitter
fight rgaiust the regular Democracy. l
spoke very bitterly CT Cieveland's policy
| and proclaimed my de.ire for union
| betTeea the Southern and Western
| farmers; and declared | was ready to
lead a revolt against the Democratic
party SIS then led, and leave it if need
be, whenever I saw anywhere to 90, and
made allusion to
"a LIGHT IN THE WEST"
as signal. In the meantime l set
| myself aealously to work to obtain a
constitutional Convention 30 as to take
| steps to diafIsnchise az many OF the
colored people as we could under the
l4sh and Is amendments. During the
period from 1892 to 1896 there vas bit