The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-06-29
LETTER FROM MIR. RIVEs.
Doesn't Desire Controversy With Wat
son Nor Holds Briefs for Catholics.

son, Nor HOLDS BfI0IS AcH CeeSnOAA~'''
To Editor of The Dawson News:
have received from a friend at
Brentwood a card saying: sena
Won Watson's paper showing the oath
of the Knights of Columbus. You
failed to score this time" | wish TO
say to others who probably think
that for the sake of a little cheap no.
toriety | am seeking controversy
with Watson or hold brief for the
Catholic church that l am doing
neither. In my opinion Watson's
attack on Catholicism is for the pur-
nose of reingratiating himself with
the protestant churches, from winch
his attacks on their missionary en-
terprises divorced him. He is
shreWd criminal lawyer, with all the
effrontery and sophistry that is nee
essary to this class of the legal ira
ternity in their fight before Jurles,
where there is a mOiety OF evidence
to clear and strong evidence to con-
vict. Posing as one OF the original
followers of Jeffersonian democracy
he has from the beginning of his po-
liticaI career to this good hour con-
fused Jeffersons boyish utterances
as a member of the House of Bur-
gesses in Virginia with Hamilton's
mature. deliberate and intentional
assaults on the liberties of the states,
and his whole course and contentious
have been for the Hamilton1an idea
of government as protested by the
old whig and later the republican
party from the beginning of the
struggle for independence in the
/ 8th century to date. From the state
papers of Jefferson in Washington's
cabinet where, in controversy with
Hamilton, Jefferson was in favor OF
a gold currency with silver as sub
sidiary medium and state banks
based on specie as against the Ham
iltonian idea of one central bank at
and a currency resting
on the fiat of the government. From
Madison's speeches in the constitu-
tional convention that framed the
federal constitution, from the SUI
preme court decisions that confirmed
them, though delivered by the feder-
alist Chief Justice Marshall, not once
has he quoted. His history OF France
and life of Napolon contains no new
matter, but is rehash Of the Robes
perian view of French law, which set
up the will of the mob against the
decisions of men learned in the civil
law, and of the writer of Napoleon
and His Marshals," with some COM
ments taken from contemporaneous
writers holding similar socialistic
views as Mr.. Watson. Watson is so
constituted that given a complete
circle with ninety arcs he can see
but one arc at q time-the balance
of the SO arcs are completely hid
from his view. His knowledge of
the oath of the Knights of Columbus
is of a parity with my knowledge of
the oath of Masonry, which is nil.
Some years slice it became my duty
to expose some Masons who had vio-
lated their oath and with perjured
testimony had dismissed from
lodge an innocent man, who on a
subsequent reinvestigation by the
grand lodge of the state was restor-
ed. l obtained my knowledge from
a Knights Templar, and had it con-
firmed by a member of the grand
lodge making the restoration. l was
told at the adjournment of the grand
jury: you will never sit on anoth-
er grand jury" and never have,
but don't hold Masonry as whole
responsible for my enemies belong
ing to the Masonic fraternity, but
recognize it as one of the most pow
erful agencies for good of modern
times; but not so with Mr.. Watson.
Because the Jesuits and similar soci-
cites have at times and in countries
whose people believed that the
church was the source of all,
menaced the liberties of the people
of those countries Watson affects to
believe that the Catholic church in
America and all societies connected
with the church are menacing the
liberties of the people of this coun-
try, and endangering the constitu-
tional guarantees of separation of
church and state when the whole of
it rests in his diseased imagination.
ANDREW P. RIVES.