Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1912-12-20
From Calhoun to Blease

1t is not so very strange that the
State which has of old made the
rattlesnake its emblem, with the
motto, "Dont' tread on me-; whose
most honored statesman was John c.
CoulhOun, eXpoundcr of nullicaiition,
as Webster was of the Constitution
the State which was the first to break
away from the Union; which has
since kept the man with the pitchfork
in the United States Senate, should
choose Blease for Governor, and then,
when it had tried, tested and approved
him by reelection, should choose him
as Senator to take the seat once held
by Coulhoun. When he joins Tillman
in that honorable company, no State
will be able to boast equal distinction
of lurid glory.
Hitherto Governor Blease's fame
has been confined chiefly to his own
commonwealth, where he is known
and ad mired. There he has freely
made his views known about the
nullity of law, the dealaztion of
brave murder and the waste of
education, and for it all they will
have him Senator; but the meeting
of the Governors at Richmond has
given him wide field of display, and
he has used it to the utmost. His
battle-cry, "To hell with the Consti-
tution,' has resounded from the two
Portlands to New Orleans and Key
West, and every newspaper has given
its readers his defiance of law and his
approval of the lynching habit. if
only the lynchers will make sure that
they get the right man. There amid
the Governors he stood alone, with
sublime effrontery, and boosted that
the people of his State supported him
in his abjuration equally of the Com
stitution and of his oath to see that
the laws are obeyed. One after
another Southern Governor protested
and condemned him, but he stood
proudly, backed by his own citizens,
and what cared he for the rebukes of
others? This was his defiant answer
when asked whether he had not taken
oath to uphold the laws and Constitu-
tion of his State and protect negroes
as well as white men:
81 Will answer that question. and
l hope the newspaper men will get it
right, for in my campaign in outh
Carolina they found TINT am a
fighter-and cold-blooded fighter.
When the Constitution steps between
me and the defense of the white
women of my State / will resign my
commission and tear it up and throw
it to the breeZes | have heretofore
said ito hell with the Constitution = -
1t is matter for great satisfaction
that Governor Blease found no sup
porter from the South or from the
North. He was repudiated by ALL
The Governors of Alabama and
Florida presented sharp resolution
condemning him, and the Governor of
Virginia another declaring for the
universal reign of law and against
lynching, and it was past with but
four negatives. and those only because
they believed that absolute freedom
OF expression should be allowed. No
one will suspect that Governor Bald
win, of Connecticut, has any sympathy
with mob law, altho' we think he
was too sensitive about free speech:
for the resolution only Indirectly re-
buked the Governor of South Carolina
But Governor Blease has won
national distinction nearly equal to
that of Senator Tillman. We
recommend him equally as lecturer
at chautauquas and in Northern
churches. IL would not be strange if
he should add his name to the Eng
lish language. Indeed. people already
begin to remark that there are
"bleasers" in other States and last
week we gave record of one from
Texas, who bleases as stoutly. if not
as coursely, as he of South Carolina.
Coatesvlle, in Pennsylvania, has "A
townful of bleasers, who rule the
courts. But heaven save the country
from the whole noisy and noisome.
crazy, blowzy bleasy. clustering rout
of them.-The New York Independent