The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1908-12-08
THE OTHER SIDE IIII
OF THE CALHOUN COUNTY
CHURCH TRIAL.

Mr.. John Vaughn, Of 5amison,
Gives His version Of the Facts
in the Case.
Having published the article al
luded to by Mr.. John Vaughn, of
Jamison, we publish his version of
the trouble leading up to the trial.
as an act of Justice to him. Mr..
Vaughn's letter as we find it in the
Christian Appeal is as follows:
Editor, Christian Appeal:
Please allow me space in your val
liable paper for the other side of
that very attractive Calhoun COUNT
church trial.
The correspondent of@Fhe News
and Courier at St. Matthews said
some things I suppose he. got at
second hand as 1 am told that he
did not stay till the trial was end
ed; but what we believe to be Sec
ond hand matter we will mention
further on in this article.
The charge preferred by Rev.
J. H. Thacker against me was me-
licious SANDER, aDased on a remark
I made, to wit, The South Carolina
Conference levies an assessment on
the church every year for the pub
lication of its minutes which is pro-
rated to the different charges and
is collected the same ! az other
claims levied on the church, and,
said, believe selling the minutes
after they had been paid for by the
church was rascally business and l
have had not light on the subject t.
cause me to believe otherwise. l
only expressed an opinion about a
practice without any personalities
whatever, and it did not concern me
who the cap fit, for i have be-
lieveds it to be wrong. no matter
who did 1t.
But, it may be the time has come
if youa wish. to express an opinion
and hold membership5in the Meth
cdist church you must see the Boss
first. Now does it not fseem reas-
enable that when Rev. Thacker
heard of my remark and felt hurt
about it If he was the Christian
gentleman he claims to be, and J.,
at almost every service, when he
came to preach he would have
come to me and asked for an exp
planation? But no, he did not
GOMEZ maybe he thought that conf
ing to: an old man and a poor one
at that, might injure his dignity as
he seems to be. stuffed with that III
gredient. 5r<-i>- - 1as,'
No, he has not said one word
about that remark to me verbally
though he has talked to other mem
bers of the church as to how he was
going to do for me. He goes home
and writes to me about what he
heard, and in reply I told him what
/ had said, and he then sends q
committee to me and I told them
what T wrote to Rev. Thacker.
They asked if ] wonld retract and
/. told them no. They said trial
was necessary and never did make
an effort to see if my remark was
true or false that l knew OF. But
in our correspondence Rev. Thacker
asked If. I would not retract and
apologize and I replied If he would
show an instance where the South
Carolina Conference had authorized
him to sell the minutes l would re-
tract and apologize but he could
not show it. Then he said he would
have to defend the church.
In reply said that If those who
sell the minutes constitute fhe
church l, am sorry for the business.
My correspondence with Rev.
Thacker was in April. The commit
tees visit was the first of June and
the trial September goth, 1908, just
two DAYS before the fourth Quarterly
conference, Why? 1t may be that
it was hard to get jury as they
knew the minutes were against them
and when I introduced them in the
trial they wanted to exclude them;
and when | stated that the assess
ment was prorated this year., ReT.
Thacker arose and said not minutes,
and told him the Board of Stewards:
said there were no eliminations
made and he said they did not know
it. Now, Mr. Editor, where does
the preacher get his authority to
change the regulations of the con-
ference, whose duty is it to execute
and not break? There would be
lust as much reason in his selling
the catalogues Of Wofford College
to raise educational fund-as the min
utes to raise a fund for publishing
the minutes.
Mr.. Editor, if I am not mistaken,
the Discipline makes it the duty OF
the preacher in charge to preside
in all the church trials but in this
case it was not so. One G. w. Davis
came up to preside who said the
presiding elder appointed him to
preside in this case, and after he
had called his court to order | asked
him if he sold minutes. He sail
yes, before the conference, but not
after. So his case was more
heinous than that of those who sold