Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1902-04-02

up as representative OF MS people,
his character becomes most legiti-
mately subject for public considera-
tion and it is the duty of the press
to contribute to true understand
ing of it.
James H. Tillman, nephew of his
uncle, is not only Lieutenant Gov
ernor of South Carolina and by vir-
tue of that office president of the
Senate, but he is an avowed candi-
date for Governor of the State. His
character as man is therefore q
matter of public concern. Still more
so is his character as an officer. The
life of one man only stands to-day
between ahim and the Governorship
of South Carolina. He seeks sue
cession. to that Office through the
suffrages of South Carolina Demo-
Gratis. His nomination would be popu-
larly construed, however wrongly, as
an endorsement of his character by
that element of the people of this
State who represent the intelligence,
the property, the integrity of South
Carolina. 1t is their business, as it
should be their pleasure, to know
what manner of man he is.
Should he persist in his purpose
to seek the endorsement of the
Democratic party of South Carolina
for the Governorship there will be,
we are sure, a series of revelations
concerning his fitness for that dis
tinguished position. For the present
we confine ourselves to one incident
revealing his character. 1t is an
incident not only pertinent to the
future, but to the present, not only
to his personal character, but to his
official character, not only to his fit
ness for the Governorship, but to his
fitness for the Lieutenant Governor
ship. The evidence is formally and
in detail presented in the news COL
umns of The State to-day. In this
place we shall merely sum it up.
Lieutenant Governor James III.
Tillman had dispute with members
of the Senate over the question
whether he was right in ruling cer-
tain parliamentary motion to be not
debatable. The question was re-
ferred to the committee on rules,
who reported unanimously that it
was debatable, and the Senate unani-
mously adopted the report. Lieu
tenant Governor Tillman thereupon
spread upon the journal of the Sen
ate statement beginning and end
ing with sneers at the parliamen-
tary knowledge of the committee and
containing distinct affirmation that
since making his ruling he had in
quired of "the two highest parlia-
mentarians of this country" concern
ing its correctness and had learned
with qualification that it was sssus-
tanned by them" At the same time
he informed the press that during
that day he had telegraphed to the
President of the United States
Senate and to the Speaker of the
House of Representatives stating the
question and that "both men sus-
tained his ruling"
Suspecting that he had not stated
the question fairly, we wrote to these
officers and obtained from one of
them q copy of his inquiry and from
both copies of their replies. AS we
had surmised, Lieutenant Governor
Tillman misrepresented to them the
Issue between himself and the SEN
ate. He did not tell Senator Frye
or Speaker Henderson that the ques-
tion was of the construction of the
rules of the Senate of South Caro-
lima, bat asked them if the motion
was dobatable "under Jefferson's
Manual" His obvious purpose was
to deceive the Senate by securing
judgment favorable to himself on
another point than that actually at
issue. But even in this he failed.
The replies of these "two highest
parliamentarians of this country''
showed that Jefferson's Manual did
not sustain him, and that both
Houses of Congress had long held
debatable the motion to indefinitely
postpone.
We were prepared, as we have
said, to learn that he had misstated
the question to Senator Frye and
Speaker Henderson; but we were
not prepared, well as we knew "Jim"
Tillman, for the revelation made in
the letters of these officers--the
revelation that with their kilograms
before him, fatty antagoniging bic
ruling, he wrote and spread upon