Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-04-24
TILLMAN And McLAURIN.
Senior Senator Indulges In
Bitter Abuse.
JUNIOR RETURNS FITTING ANSWER.
A Controversy That Is Presumably
Based Upon McLaurin's Charlotte
Speech-Loses Sight of Issues and
Follows the Line of Personal Ep-
ffhofo

Based Upon McLaurin's Charlotte
Speech-Loses Sight of Issues and
Follows the Line of Personal Ep-
ithets.
Senator Tillman, on last Friday
night, gave out the following inter-
view about Senator McLaurin's Char
lotte speech.
1T Is contradictory, full of para
doxes and seems intended to pave the
way for the senator's passage into the
Republican camp. 1t may excite sur
prise outside Of the state; but the only
thing which astonishes us here Is his
continued effort to pose as Democrat.
Democracy has a broad or general
meaning and special or local mean
ing as applied to one Of the great ma
tional parties. My colleague says:
My definition Of Democracy Is liberty
for man formulated into a theory of
government; 1t means mans inaliena-
BILE ownership Of himself. It means
free thought and free speech This is
not the definition given in any die
tionary, nor Is 1t the definition given
by Jefferson, and 1t is only intended
to justify the senator's desertion of his
party, his treachery to its principles
and his betrayal Of the people Of South
Carolina who have trusted him. The
Kansas City platform Is the only en-
bodiment Of Democratic principles that
can now berecognized, and no man can
be considered a Democrat who ignores
the principles and policies laid down
in that platform and persistently votes
with the Republican administration in
both its foreign and domestic policies.
Senator McLaurin iterates and re-
iterates the charge that the new De-
mocracy' is sectional party, and then
truthfully claims that the south which
in the last campaign was alone Demo-
cratic, is the American end Of Amer
ca Strange that because Of this fact
and our veneration and love for the
principles upon which our government
rests that this broad American states
man and new born Democrat Of
hitherto unknown type, should coun-
sci our people to accept conditions as
they are and make the most Of them
Senator McLaurin declared in '9S
that Mckinley should be renominated
by acclamation,' and II his speech
means anything, 1t means that the
Democratic party ought to surrender
all Of its traditions which he claims
are long since dead become an echo
to the Republican party, endorse its
foreign policy as we'll as its domestic
policy, ship-subsidy, large standing
army any everything, and subside alb
solutely as a Democratic party.
"If the administration party is right,
what need is there for a political fac
tor. I have never believed that my
colleague would dare face the people of
South Carolina in any political cam
paign again, knowing what I do about
him; but as he indicates his purpose to
still masquerade as a Democrat, and
while attacking me covertly as one of
the leaders Of the so-called new De-
mocracy 1t Is his purpose to lead our
people into the Republican camp, duty
compels me to speak out and tell GER
tain things.
mr. McLaurin made In the senate,
January, 1899, a speech which was as
ultra and as pronounced in It's denun-
citation of the acquisition Of the Phil
ippines and portrayed the many dan
gers which threatened our country in
consequence as any ever delivered in
that body. UP to Saturday night be-
fore we voted on the treaty with Spain
on Monday, February 7, 1899, he re-
peatedly told me and other senator's
he was bitterly opposed to the ratifi-
cation and would not vote for it. Be-
tween adjournment Saturday evening
and the vote on Monday, the mantle OF
broad American craftsmanship de-
scended upon him, and few minutes
before the senate went into executive
session to consider the treaty and take
vote as agreed, he gave halting
and lame explanation Of his intended
change Of front. His vote secured the
ratification, because on the first roll
CALL Mr.. Jones, Of Nevada, who had
also told us he would vote against the
treaty, passed when his name was
called, and I feel certain II McLaurin
had stood by his party and by himself,
Mr.. Jones would not at the end have
voted for the ratification.
Conscious as he was that his vote
was the governing factor in the train
Of momentous consequences so far
reaching and terrible and involving
the war of subjugation in the Philip
pines, the expenditure Of hundreds OF
millions Of dollars, the loss Of thou
sands of lives and other dire results
which a man can foresee, it is natu-
raj for Senator MsLaurin to make
desperate effort to vindicate the pres
idents policy in his own action. The
declaration of independence. Of course,
and an abandonment Of dead tradf-
ton IS the policy Of man who be-
haves as he has done.
"Such a man has no conscience OF
principles. The. eloquent speech which
he delivered in the senate was largely
stolen from a sermon delivered by the
Rev. DR.. Henry Van Dyke on Thanks
giving day, November 1898, in the
Brick Church of New York city, two
months before Senator McLaurin de-
livered it in the senate.
II have not only had to blush be-
cause McLaurin had deserted his par
ty in a great crisis under suspicious