New-York tribune., 1903-01-17
7TLLu4yIsu ONCE MORE.

The pitchfork has been temporarily laid aside
for the assassin's bullet Lieutenant Governor
Tillman true to the ruffian traditions of his
house has made cowardly attack upon Mr..
Gonzales the Editor of The Columbia State,
a newspaper which had thwarted his ambition.
His father it is said was murderer who spent
a long term in Jail. His uncle is the Senator
who some months ago distinguished himself by
brutaIly assaulting a colleague on the floor OF
the Senate He himself is the person who at
that time offered insult TO the President of the
United States because the President, recognlz-
ing the Senates suspension OF his uncle, cor
rected his official dinner list accordingly. y
perhaps successful attempt to murder an un~
armed citizen in the public street is the natural
elimination of TiIlmanism as it has for years
been 1arading itself before a humiliated South
Carolina and a nauseated national public.
The latest victim of TiIlmanism was the editor
of one OF the most respectable newspapers of
the South paper which for dignity and devo-
ton 10 it's conception of public interest would
be a credit 10 any community THE Columbia
State" was a conservative Democratic paper
which consistently opposed the radical, swash'
buckling politics of the Tillmans. and in the
recent political campaign told unpleasant truths
about the Lieutenant Governor. who was a
candidate for Governor, which that official
could only meet by threats of violence and
challenge 10 n duel which Mr.. Gonzales treated
as q civilized man should. Mr. Gonzales had
shown his bravery as soldier, but he had no
sympatby with the notions Of honor and cour-
age paraded 10 the dscre6it Of the South by
persons of the Tilluaan class. Unable TO drag
him into fight, Tillnan after the affair has
seemingly blown over comes upon him and
without warning shoots him in cowardly fash
ion.
We are glad that the threats TO lynch I'LL
man were not carried out If his victim dies
he ought 10 be legally hanged as murderer, all
the more so because of the high Office he has
disgraced. England has set an admirable ex-
ample in this matter. 4 century ago. in the
time OF the greatest political corruption and
abuse of privilege, a peer who committed muir
der or forgery was as impartially hanged as a
plougbman. OF course if he had been lynched
there would be no call TO waste sympathy on
him. He was one of the negro batting, mob
encouraging leaders who have fostered the
spirit of lawlessness in the Southern States, and
it would have been poetic justice for him to
reap what he had sown. An impressive lesson
in respect for law is furnished by self-restraint
Oh the part of the friends of the man who has
fallen a martyr TO free press in South Caro-
lima which the Bill of Rights guarantees. 1t
ought to bring in that State and in the region
about such an awakening to the evils of law
lessness as was aroused. against the evil OF
duelling by the killing of Alexander Hamilton.
II ought to be followed by high resolves to en-
force order, punish violence and root out from
the community that spirit of barbarism which
Tillmanism has typiied; and the first step in
that regeneration should be stern prosecution
and sentence 10 Imprisonment or death, as the
event of his crime may warrant, of this guber-
material ruffian.