The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-03-12
BILL ARP ON THE FIGHT.
He Is Not Disguised With Tillman for
Scrapping in the Senate.

Scrapping in the Senate.
I was Illuminating about the fight.
1t is common property and everybody
has the right to talk about it. Till
man did wrong in jumping over three
desks to strike McLaurin. About one
desk was the limit Of propriety.
Three desks gives man time to cool
and that makes it against the law to
fight. AS to the time and place, that
is of no consequence now. There was
a time in the days Of Webster and
Calhoun and Tom Benton and Henry
Clay when the United States Senate
was as sacred almost as a church, but
now large majority Of it's members
get their places by conduct Infinitely
more disgraceful than fighting. Brib-
cry and corruption have got so COM
mon that a man can't get there with
out using big pile of money and max
ing a lot of promises. OF course, do
not include our southern senators, for
they haven't got the money. If we
had some millionaires in Georgia, Clay
and Bacon wCul6 have to step down
and out. And l am not so disgusted
with Tillman for fighting in the SEN
ate chamber. He had reason to be-
lieve that his partner had received
promises, and I reckon he had. He
certainly had great expectations or be
would not have Topped over to the
Republicans Sd suddenly Politicians
have to be paid for their votes. Till
man is true man, but he is not a
great and good man. l admire him
for some traits in his character. He
cannot be bribed or intilnidated. He
dares to say what he believes and he
uses his pitchfork with impunity. He
is impetuouS an6 combatiye, but he is
sincere and everybody admires Sir
cere man. Sincere is one of the
strongest and best words in our Ian
guage. 1t literally means unsealed-
without waX-for in the olden times
letters were sealed with wax, but if it
contained no secrets it was not sealed
at all, for wax cost money. Tillman
is a bold, defiant, stubborn man, but he
is not great. A great man like Webster
or Calhoun would have said to Nc
Laurin: well, sir, If I am a liar l
deserve the epithet. Ill am not, then
you deserve it, but I shall not stoop to
give it." I wish we were all that
great. This thing of resenting the
charge Of lying with a blow is a
strange perversion Of propriety. 3
man may gain his ends by cheating,
swinding, over-reaching hypocrisy,
bribery OF concealing the truth, but
you must not call him liar.
He may break all the command
ments, but don't call him a liar,
though that is not in the Decalogue.
All that I regret about the fight is
that Spooner did not call Tillman a
liar and get n1auled for it before Nc
Laurin came In. I want somebody to
whip Spooner. He was the teaser that
brought on the fight and was delight
ed that it occurred between the two
Carolina senators. With his party it
is no crime to shoot down ten thous-
and Filipinos, who refuse to give up
their country, but it shocks them aW-
fully to have a little fracaS in the SEN
ate chamber.
Well, there are some great men and
there are many good men, but great
ness and goodness are rarely combined.
Addison says it takes both to make a
man complete, Such, for example, as
Washington and Robert E, Lee. Job
says great men are not always wise
and he might have added most of
them are mean, selfish, heartleSs and
ambitious. Lord Bacon, for instance,
who took brides while on the bench,
and Cromwell and Napoleon. Web
ster was a very great man and long
has been my ideal Of greatness. He
was called the Godlike, sometimes his
human nature overcame him. And so
with Henry Clay and Bob Toombs.
The great weakness of the people is idol
airy. Partisan or sectional or religious
idolatry. Every man who climbs up
where the people can see him is either
a saint or sinner, according to our
politics, our section, our creed. One
idolizes the character of Lincoln or Of
Grant, another holds both OF them in
contempt. I suppose that three
fourths of the northern people pay
homage to the memory Of old John
Brown for what they call his good in
tentions, and every northern history
and encyclopedia apologies for him,
and even so good a man as Mckinley
excused himself for not attending the
reinterment Of his bones, on the
ground that the pressure Of official
duties would not permit him to leave
Washington. Most northern men
still denounce John c. Calhoun as the
author Of secession and Justify Sher-
man in burning Columbia. Here in
Georgia this idolatry is already taking
shape in our silly hurrahs for our can
didate for governor. But, as usual,
the loudeSt shouterS have axes TO
grind and are diligently engaged in
setting traps to catch the people. But
this is the shadowy side of politics and
I won't ruminate any further about
it. BILL ARP,
In Atlanta Constitution.