Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-02-04

the convention, vote for a constitu-
tional convention and not one white
man, rich or poor. ignorant or learn
ed, would be disfranchised. The
promise was made the people. the
Tillmanites voted for and called a
constitutional convention. The con-
vention assembled and practically
disfranchised the very men who vot-
ed for and thereby made possible this
convention. Therefore, I say that TILL
man and his friends in that conven-
ton were not true to those men, his
followers, who. trusting him, called
the convention 10 their own undoing.
In 1851 South Carolina called her
sons, the high and the low, the rich
and the poor, to defend her against
an invading foe. They responded, bled
and died for South Carolina. The end
came in defeat. The blood of her sons
was compensated in destroyed homes,
poverty hunger, want and years of
toll. Military government followed by
reconstruction and the negro-scalla-
wag government Of years Of robbery
and plunder. Then 1876 came. The
masses-now them asses"-rallied
and hurled from power the infidel
Chamberlain and his minions Of
scallawag and carpet-bag thieves in
the state.
And this was done in the face Of
the advice of the News and Courier
and the leading politicians Of the
state The white man ruled again, but
only after the blood, votes and sup
mort Of the great masses of the peo-
pie of the state. The masses-"them
asses" nowhere great, grand and
glorious-glorious in war and peace
but, alas, the colonels, the brigadier
lc Or state
forgot the people. Next 1890 came.
The people hurled from power the
bosses. Plain Farmer Ben Tillman
was made governor. He, too, forgets
the same people who made possible
his elevation. I expected no better Of
Senator Tillman. The masses have
never trusted the News and Courier
as their guide and their friend. They
have trusted Tillman. The great
masses feel, believe, that J. P. K.
Rrvan and the school Of public men
In South Carolina in the constitution
al convention were not their friends.
.hem. but thew are disappointed In
their champion, Senator B. r. TILL
man, in this matter Of the suffrage
laws Of this state and the lien law.
I doubt very much If the talented
editor Of the News and Courier, with
out studying the laws or the consti-
tuition, can himself tell what or who
's a uralifed voter in South Carolina
In 1875 up to 1895 the slogan was
follow your leader and fear no dan
ger" The people have followed their
leader to their own undoing. They
cannot vote in any legal election, and
soon will be deprived of their votes In
the primary election by rules which
NKrtfh
thus be disfranchised I'm those cleo
tions as they now are in legal elec-
tions.
All this devilish hellishness Is to be
followed by the repeal Of the agricul-
tural lien law, with doubled efforts
being made to prevent the poor from
giving a mortgage on his crop, his
personal property or otherwise. Any
thing to reduce the tenant class to
common vassalage. A shame, dis
grace to Tillman and all who attempt
It,
have seen the hillsides of Vir-
ginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania
run red with the blood Of thousands
of South Carolina's noblest sons in
the name Of liberty. In the name Of
liberty did I say-no, I will correct 1t
and put It in the name Of slavery. |
must feel that my own life's blood
was poured out freely in cause
that I thought was honorable and for
the liberties Of my people, but change
that foolish sentiment and say for the
enslavement Of my people. God save
these people, sons Of Confederate
soldiers, from the grating greed
II landed aristocracy whose re-
morseless conscience hears not the
cry Of the weak and the helpless,
nd phinao
double lined hooks Of barbed
steel dip into the liberties and the
meat and bread Of the people Of
South Carolina.
May be I am the goose as you and
Senator Tillman may say. Be 1t so
If you so think. 1t would have been
better to have continued as In 1873,
1880 and on with our hands In the
Nallot box taking out the negro bal
lots than hypocritically to have rob-
bed white men of their ballots, and
then of their liberties, as in the ef-
fort to make vassals of white men
now going on in South Carolina. Turn
1t as you may twist 1t as you can, the
son Of the Confederate soldier, whose
fathers bones bleach upon Virginia
hilsides. and whose blood enrich hun
dreds Of battlefelds, stand helpless
and in poverty ignorant and despised
because his father, killed, manned
and unable, could not educate that
son. For those sons of the poor Con-
federate I say curse the name Of lib
erty to them, and blight the hypocrit-
ical cant that praises their fathers
patriotism and yet damns them and
their posterity to slavery by cruelty
oppressive laws. Respectfully,
James Norton.
Columbia, January 80.