Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-04-27
Mosls issue squarely.

John Sharp Williams has, in a sin.
gle short and impromptu speech, laid
bare the scheme of the Republican
politicians to bring forward the race
question in the closing days Of this
session in the hope that thereby they
might once more utilize the bloody
shirt to hide from the voters of the
country the graver issues of the COM
ing campaign. First, Mr.. Gillett, OF
Massachusetts, came to the front
with the usual New England speech
in criticism of the South. Then came
Scott, of Kansas, and Bartholdt, OF
Missouri, all Of them evidently speak.
ing in accordance with a prearranged
plan to stir up the old issues agains,
the South. Mr.. Williams at no other
time has demonstrated his ability as
leader more clearly than in the
prompt and decisive way he accepted
the challenge and in his manner ot
doing it.
1t is enc of Mr.. Williams's ambi.
tions that his leadership will resul,
in bringing the people of the North
to fairer understanding of condi.
tions at the South. He is no apologist
nor does he indulge in any of the
wild and reckless outbursts which
have too often characterized the
speeches of some Southern men. He
meets the issue fairly and squarely
and presents the side of the South ir
a way calculated to appeal to all fail
and right thinking men everywhere
Following up some of the state.
ments of Mr.. Gillett, Mr.. Scott and
Mr.. Barth oldt-the later of whom
had charged that Thomas Jefferson
ate witha negro-Mr. Williams said
"There are just two things that the
Republican party cannot do. One OF
them is to defleot the country in this
our Lords year of grace, 1904, from
the consideration of real issues, from
the revision and conservative and
business like reduction Of the tariff
from the consideration of reciprocity
from the consideration of trust evils
and from all the other live issues that
you havego to meet us with. There
is one other thing that the Republican
party cannot do, and it might just as
well understand that now as any
other time. There is one thing that
the entire world cannot do.
cit cannot make the South consent
to regard social equality as a thing
to be desired, and it cannot make
the South consent-and l am speak.
ing now simply az a Southerner-it
cannot make the South consent tc
the proposition that the rights OF
the negro consist in giving him power
to govern the white man of the
South. 1t is absolutely false that his
rights are not recognized at the south
much more abundantly than any.
where else-his God-given, inaliena.
BILE, born rights, the right to earn bis
living in the sweat of his brow, the
right tn an equel opportunity indus.
trially upon the surface of this earth
the right to fair trial when he is tried
before the courts of the country, the
right to equal administration of the
laws when his property rights are as.
sailed.
''There is no right anywhere for
man to vote. 1t is statutory privi.
lege conferred upon the individual in
the interest of society, and no man
who is not competent to exercise that
statutory privilege wisely ought tc
be armed with it, because it ceases
then to be shelter for his own pro
lection and becomes a sword for the
destruction of everybody else. The
gentleman from Massachusetts, COM
ing from a long line Of aristocratic
ancestors, seems to share the reason
which perhaps has led the other
gentleman who has faced the world
under the same circumstances, who
now sits in the White House, and
brought them to the same conclusion
and that conclusion, if | was going
to express it, would be this: Negro
association and negro lunching anC
negro dining cannot hurt a 'Gillett
it cannot hurt a 'Roosevelt.'
ooSihb ~ ~ IChb 1tQO
"What [ am dwelling upon as the
second thing that the Republican
party cannot do is this: They can
not persuade Southern white mer
that it isnot good thing, that it il
not a wise thing, that it is not 6
humane thing, to perpetuate in the
South the white mans civilization
and to perpetuate the two things
upon which it is founded-the white
mans code of ethics and the sanctit,
of the white mans family life, both
peculiar to him alone of all races
Aud, further, whether you know i,
or not, we know that political equality
we learned it from years Of ex-
perience when the man who got the
negro vote in the South was the man
who ate with negroes, who slept with
negroes, and who married negroes
that political equality leads to social
equality; and whether you know il