The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1903-10-21


that first infected Cain, the slayer of
his brother? By what methods Of rea-
soning known to logic had any man
the right to contemplate the posi- Dill
ty of verdeict of guilty IN this trial
at Lexington.
You NAV answer that the case was
extremely aggravated. You may an
swer that its circumstances gave 1t
place in the galleries of horror unique
in isolation. You may marvel that the
element of cowardioe that stained 1t
did not arouse repulsion even in the
minds to whom the blood brings no
shudder. But from every city Of the
dead through the lengths and borders
of our State there are graves to bear
despairing witness that
Murder is not Crime
It is true. and it is hopeful sign,
that the acquittal of this man in Lex
ington has demanded higher price
from the accessories to it than has
commonly been paid. It has not been
frequent that men have been driven
to turn their backs on honorable pasts
and spit upon the memories of thelr
chosen political associates. Not often
has it been found necessary to accuse
the silent dead and try him upon an
exparte showing for every syllable that
he wrote or spoke Not even in South
Carolina has it been the custom to
summon the names of the living po-
liticians to war against the sleeping
victim. No, not in the saddened
pages of our States history has such
farce been recorded on the title page
of justice. They have accused the dead
editor of the high crime of opposing
Senator Tillman. They have rung in
the insinuation that he was not the
political champion Of ex-Gov. Evans.
To jury including five mill hands
they have denounced Mr.. Gonzales as
their enemy and traducer-this Con
zales, who, following the dictates Of
his conscience, deliberately earned the
antagonism of the mill owners Of
South Carolina in championing what
he conceived to be the interests Of the
operatives. Oh, what irony Of fate that
smooth -tongued lawyers should have
convinced mill-hand jury that the
man on trial had slain their enemy
that same Gonzales whose last great
political struggle sprang from SYM
pathy for their little children, strug--
gle whose motive those who opposed
him honored! On a thousand charges
they tried N. G. Gonzales, they went
into his grave to dishonor it and they
gloated in their work.
Here in Lexington the crawling
things of earth have gathered to testi
fy. not for Tillman, but against Con
zales. do not say that all the wit
nesses were forsworn, not by any
means, but that perjury houted it's
shame before the blanched face Of de-
cency as never before even in the
criminal courts of South Carolina is
only the literal statement of gaunt
fact. Men on whose faces long prac-
tice had written the name of Liar
trooped to the stand. From the filth
and slums of towns and cities, from
the haunts of vice where depravity
sits enthroned, they came to swear
that the slain editor had sought their
companionship, accepted their society
and even adopted their loathsome YER
nacular. No weapon has been left IN
used for the assassination of the dead
mans good name, and in the sign of
perjury victory has been wrested from
justice.
/ am indulging in no extravagant
rhetoric. For II days l have sat in
Lexington court house and seen what
I now denounce as farce, with the
knowledge always clear before me that
the men who stood for decency and
Justice had every card stacked against
them. Because he defed them I have
seen Duncan Bellinger bounded as
no lawyer was ever bounded in
South Carolina court, and I have seen
them one by one stink away from
him. Day by day, new methods of
appeal to base passions and prejudices
were brought into play. The defense
opened its case on the morning Of
September % with the request that
the newspapers and particularly the
Columbia State be excluded from the
hands of the jury. On the morning
of the 14th of October it closed its
case by denouncing an editorial of
that date in the Columbia State!
This was but one of a thousand in
cidents of brazen effrotery and stult-
iication that disgraced the trial. Le-
gal ethics! Duty to clients. If they
have been illustrated in this trial, God
help the legal profession.
My mission in this matter has end
ed. l have been here working for this
newspaper during the trial primarily to
speak to the people of South Carolina,
the great jury, for the protection of
the memory of my dead friend. In
cidentally l have been called upon to
write what has been unpleasant.
Gonzales set the newspaper men of
South Carolina an example. He
taught US that to follow duty in
speaking the unreserved truth carried
with it peril even Unto death. The
record and result of the trial teach US
that the objects for which he SO will
ingly gave up his life have not been
achieved. More than once in the
course OF his speech to the jury, Mr..
Johnstone, one lawyer who did not
gloat in the abandonment of all pro-
prieties nor seem to enjoy the features
of the nasty spectacle about him, ex-
pressed the hope that with the trial
its bitter memories might vanish.