The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1912-10-11

whiskey element, and in site of ali
the crookedness and debauchery of
the antis the cause of prohibition,
which is the cause of God, was over
whelmingly successful.
And be it said, senator, to your
everlasting discredit, you who pro-
claimed your eternal subserviency to
the voice of the people, you who had
made war on the autocrats, and the
plutocrats, you, senator, of ali men,
disregarded and defeated the will of
the people as expressed at the ballot
box, their best, and only effective
vehicle of expression, and projected
the great moral institution-the
greatest source of decentralization the
State has ever known, which still
bears your name, and paternal sane
tion. Can you surely disclaim the dis
grace of such progeny, while still
claiming its sireship?
To make plain my meaning-you
not only admit the authorship, and
institution of the dispensary, together
with declarations of your qualifica-
tions, by reason of the thorough and
exhaustive study you had given the
question, but you still believe in your
disgraced offspring, and doubtless you
would now WELD your trenchant pen
in its defense, if occasion required, as
you did six years ago, when you
stumped the State for its retention,
knowing that it was reeking with
rottenness, and running the State.
1t may not be amiss, senaor, to
say, that with all the mistakes you
have made in your public career, some
of which have amounted to crimes
against society, still have very great
respect for you, because Of your sim
cerity, courage and ,undisputed intel-
lectual "acumen." So that I may
say, sincerely, my feelings are of the
very kindest nature, but in saying
this, I cannot avoid, if I would, the
facts of history, which stand out be-
fore me, that makes you responsible,
largely for the blight upon our great
State, of the dispensary, and its re-
sultant corruption. May I set forth
in summary the four greatest mis-
takes of your public career in closing.
1. The example you set in cam
paigning, of appealing to the passions
and prejudice of men, instead of ap-
pealing to their higher instincts, and
reason-which has made possible
Bleaseism, and gave him the key to
success, by the same route; rather
than the broad plane of constructive
craftsmanship. And the trouble is
not ended yet, South Carolina will
suffer for several decades yet from
the blight of Peanut Politics" until
her masses have been educated above
passion and prejudice to the broader
plane of reason and principle.
2. Your assault without discrimi-
nation, upon the press of the State,
which destroyed the confidence of the
people in newspapers, to very large
degree. Not the intelligent or edu-
Gated, ITO be sure", but the ignorant
and illiterate, who were, and are, and
always will be, the easy dupes Of de-
signing politicians, and unscrupulous
officeseekers.
This destruction of confidence in
the press, has shut up about the only
effective and available means of wide.
quick communication with the people,
and made the ignorant and illiterate,
the pitiful plastic tools of the vicious
political parasite, in every corner of
the State. True it may be, that you
were unfairly treated, maligned,
slandered-by some-the result of
your wholesome charges against the
press, so destroyed the peoples con-
fidence, that Bleaseism has been made
possible.
3. The installation of the dispen-
sary, the curse of the ages, with all
its debauching consequences, was your
third and greatest, mistake. You will
never be able to clear yourself of the
guilt of that great sin in this life, or
in the next. It will not stand the
test of time, or eternity. Neither the
laws of God nor the laws of society
can never justify it. That sin, along
with the others, must be pardoned,
not justified. God only can do that.
And He will-upon an honest repudia-
tion Of the whole thing, and not until
then.
q. The last but not the least Of your
political mistakes, was your insistence
upon the retention of the dispensary
six years ago and your presumptious
canvas Of the state to that end.
Coupled with this, was your public