The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-20
FAITH, LOVE AND HOPE
 AT COUNTRY MEETINGS

room, and to avoid perjury there | sohuld be no such trials. It is cer-
 tainiy better to let ninety and nine
 innocent" and just persons avoid tne | temptation to perjury than punish one I man who has held a nfgger 8 little over time. So in impeachment cases. In actions against one for the pur- chase of votes it is likely the fact can I only be proved by the high toned citi- ! zen that got the money.
 In trade of that kind, of course | the buyer and seller are about equal I in unblemished character. and no pru- 1 dent man would like to have eitheE as a witness against him in a trial. think such a fellow Is like the horse l trader--there is every reason for him to tell the truth for, even then, no one will believe him. For the life Of me. can't tell how even the highest tribunal can arrive at the truth of the matter when vote buyer testi- fies one way and the vote seller testi- fies the other way. believe the judge can avoid a great deal of 'vexation of spirit by the old playground test of wet or dry" Moreover. if the courts tolerate a beginning of this business of impeachment for vote buying 1t $
 going to be somewhat after the order
 of Freedoms battle" Of course, the
 man who breaks the law to get Into
 office will likely be the most con-
 scientious in enforcing law. That's log
 ic and, in very many places, it's public
 opinion, Besides it's the very essence
 of patriotic refinement, prevalent and
 on the rampage to buy and sell votes. Perhaps all the technicalities of plead
 ing will be invoked to shield one whose
 only offense was a little breach of q
 law that restraints the sovereign citi-
 zen of the personal liberty of selling
 his birthrieht. Why some of the very
 best citizens, whose genealogy ex-
 tends beyond thas of the Daughters of
 the Revolution and would go beyond
 Adam with a half chance, felt it to be
 their duty to get little money be-
 fore the regular credit opening" for cotton chopping and church purposes.
 They had votes and the candidate had
 money-what more natural than nu- tual accommodation? I don't hear Of any social ostracisms because of vote
 buying and selling. If anybody has been turned out of the church" for getting a little money for a vote. I haven't heard of 1t. If any pulpit an- athemas against this pure practice, in- herited. perhaps, from the internal niggers, they escaped me. So, l con- clude, there is no social. moral or re- ligious wrong in buying and selling votes. There is hardly any political
 wrong in it. unless some accursed Populist or Republican is guilty. The | law against 1t is wrong, evidently 1 wrong. Any law that hedges the citi- zen against his inalienable right to degrade himself and sell his suffrage l to one altogether his equal in degrada- | tion is bound to be wrong. It seems | to me the courts should be equal to I the emergency and in some way, evade I such an unrighteous law and let de- graded citizenship have an equally positively degraded office holder. have told you how Captain McGill deserted. He was gone for months. A court mar tial was ordered and ready for him
 when he could be caught. He wasn't
 caught. He came in bringing half a
 company of recruits. It was a plain
 case of desertion. but the court martial
 instead of punishing him for the crime
 of desertion commended him for his
 zeal in the Confederate cause. only | tell this at this time to indicate to l whom it may concern that any Demo-
 cratic candidate who turned loose" his i money for votes can be commended for
 his zeal in the Populist clamor for .
 more equitable distribution of the cur
 repcy of the country.
 | whenever case or impeachment Tor
 vote buying unfortunately gets on the
 docket or record there should be an or
 der of dismissal upon the ground of
 probability of lying"
 l T didn't go to the Confederate re-
 union. I hope the veterans had some
 kindly remembrance for General Long
 street. He was once much beloved by l the Army of North Virginia I have
 heard that he did great things along
 in the early sixties. In fact, in those
 days, he was thought to be almost as
 great a commander as some zubalterns, J. Culpepper.