Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-10-22

was met at the depot by committe
composed of Mayor M H. Duncan
Hon. Neal Brown, NJ. C. Ewing, F. p
Regner and Louis Marchetti. Th
party at once made tour of the city il
MIR. Browns touring car and then pro
ceeded to the Bells hotel, where Mr.
Tillman received callers until the tim,
of his lecture.
He was little late in getting started
but informed his audience, numbering
some five hundred people, that he would
speak until after ten o'clock, but it wa
nearly eleven before he concluded. HI,
was introduced by F. P. Regner, on be
half If the Knights of Columbus, undel
whose auspices he spoke.
Though the senator is sixty years o
age, he appears to be much younger
He is powerfully built, smooth shaver
and there is suggestion of strength
and personal power in his movement!
and facial expression In early you'll
he lost his left eye and this left its MARI
upon the expression of his countenanct
which is trifle uncanny.
We wish to say at the outset that the
senator delivered one of his character
istic addresses and the people of Wau
sau who heard him got just what they
might expect.
We believe that the senator tells the
truth as he sees it, and he is perhaps q
better judge of the character of the
negro than most of us northern people
who have had little opportunity Of
studying the black man. But in pre-.
senting his views, Tillman allows his
feelings to get the better of him and at
times resorts to vitriolic passages,
vituperation and abuse, which to, a
calmer minded person appear uncalled
for and ridiculous. He is honest and
fearless-two characteristics of the
southerner.
He prefaced his remarks by saying
that he is not an orthodox lecturer and
never made speech until he was
thirty y-eight years of age. He also
stated that he has no set, written or
memorized address, but speaks of
handed. He had been criticised and
abused by the press so often that it is a
pleasure for him, he said, to appear be-
fore an audience like the one of Satur-
day evening and let people see what
kind of an animal he is.
He said he had been out on the Paci-
iic coast recently and visited Balling-
ham where Japanese riots occurerd. So
far as he could learn, he said, it was not
a case of hatred for the race alone, but
rather 3 hatred springing up from COM
merciai conditions. The brown man,
he said, is recognized all over the
world as possessed of genius, brains and
ability. But the race problem in the
South is far different and more diff
cult one of solution than the one the
Pacific states and British Columbia
have on their hands.
The speaker said that with the cleo
ton of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, upon a
platform promising the determination
of slavery, and the control of the govern
ment by northern people, southerners
saw that the hope of controlling their
own affairs was waning. They there
fore, (Tillman's own state leading) de-
cided to secede from the union He
made light of John Browns raid on
Harper's Ferry and attempted to make
it appear that the North provoked and
commenced the war, when it is mat
ter of history that the first gun of the
war was fired by southerners upon Ft.
Sumpter in Ben's own state. He dwelt
at some length upon the war, the events
leading up to it and the times follow
ing. He spoke of Lincoln in praise
worthy terms and stated that when the
assassin's bullet was fired which let out
the life blood of the president, the South
lost its best friend. In discussing the
war it developed that southerners do
not like the name, war of rebellion, in
designating that strife, but prefer it to
be called the war between the states
The southern people were not rebels,
he said. He was glad, he said, that
slavery was over with and most south
ern people will admit it was a wrong.
He then told of reconstruction times
as the people of the South viewed the
carpet bag government, and of two race
riots in which he participated. Fol
eight years the people Of South Caro-
lima lived under the regime of carpet
bag governors and corn field negroes
assisted and abetted by both northern
and southern scalawags. How the peo
pie of the state lived and bore thi:
government does not at this time seen
possible. AT times he felt like leaving
the state, but looking on the graves o.
his forefathers, he decided different
At last the white people set their brain!
in action and decided that if they
couldn't outnumber the blacks, they
could outvote them. The opportunity
came in the election of 1876 Their,
were s., 600 white votes in the state tha
year and $1,000 black. Every whit,
voter was instructed to vote at his owl
polling place and then ride to another
and keep riding all day long. The re
suit was that the negro government wa
routed and the carpet baggers "dus
out" Prior to that time nearly ev,,r,
state Office was filed by negro, "An,
to cap the climax he said "a vacanc,
on the supreme bench was filed by tn,
appointment of big buck nigger a
black as your coat"
The people we're desperate. The,
had to do something and have n,
apology to offer. They simply regarde,
the fourteenth and fifteenth amend
ments as null and void. They neve
succeeded in getting any of the carpe
baggers into prison, though they shoul
have been there, for they pillaged tn
state out of millions of dollars. The