The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1913-01-29
MAD AS HORNETS
Tillman's Reply to Gov Blease
Stirs S. C. Senate.

Tillman's Reply to Gov Blease
Stirs S. C. Senate.
DOES ABnEY BOSS LEGISLATURE?
For the First Time in His Political
Career Senator TiIIman is Placed
on the Defensive. Is the Star OF
TiIlmanism on the Wane?
Columbia, s. Gu. 8. Senator B. R.
Tillman, in his message to the South
Carolina Senate replying to the attack
of Governor Blease on him, stirred up
q hornets nest. He branded the gov.
ernor of 8. O., demsgogue since the
early annals of RoGe. and charged
that Col. Abney was running the 8. Y.
Senate.
This latter attack brought forth a
storm of denunciation and protest
from the Senate. Senator Carlisle
thought neither of the messages should
be printed; Senator McLaurin did not
think the Senate had the constitutional
right to refuse publication to the gov
ernor's message; Senator Nicholson
suggested that if Governor Blease's
message be allowed to remain in the
Journal, in simply justice that of U. S.
Senator Tillman should also. Finally
the matter of purging the Journal Of
the messages or letting them stay was
postponed until Thursdays meeting.
After thanking the Sc. senate for
their courtesy in awaiting his reply to
the governors attack. Senator Till
man. in his reply says: "Cati;ine among
the Romans, and Aaron Burr among
the Americans, are the only other men
T have ever read of who were equal to
Blease in bamboozling the people".
He is a postmaster j. the arts of a
demagogue
The following extracts from the Till
man message, which is very long
one, bear directly on the charges made
by Governor Blease against Senator
Tillman. They are taken from various
parts of the message:
He knows full we'll that when the
angry passions of the masses are
aroused, they lose their reason. He
desires to come to the senate. as he
boasted he would do at Richmond in
December last, and feels 1t obligatory
on him to aggravate conditions in
South Carolina as much as possible.
Whether this is the right way or not
will be shown by the results of the
next senatorial primary. II the South
Carolina newspapers do not help him
by abuse and misrepresentation, he
will never get there,
Right here I desire to call attention
to the evidence going to show that
Governor Blease and certain friends
of his we're in conspiracy the friends
to write me pretending to be my
friends, draw me out as to my attitude
towards him, aud then show him the
letters. Otherwise, how did he come
into possession of so many Of my letters
marked personal and confdential"?
/ have the original letters at Tren
ton to show that perhaps one hundred
men wrote me along the same lines.
These letters came think and fast and
my ans Hers were always marked
PERSONAL It is very evident that
Blease has seen many of my letters
which were marked personal and the
recipient asked not to show them to
anyone. Thus it can be seen whether
they were secret Or not. Some of those
correspondents who were Blease's
friends hastened to show them or to
send him copies. They were in no
way the "secret letters he would
have the people believe, b1t letters
which ought to have been secret as
far as the public was concerned and
as far as Blease himself was concerned.
But I am not concerned about the
BIease conspiracy with his friends as
much as I am about clearing myself
of the charge Of writing secret letters
for the purpose of stabbing him in
the back.
The charge of hypocrisy can best
be answered by pointing to my public
and private life. IT there is any vice
in human beings that despise, it is
hypocrisy and double-dealing. 1t is
next to cowardice, the most despicable
of human traits.
Sd. The conspiracy with W. E.
Gonzales is not conceivable or believ-
able by anyone except a man, who in
his desperation, made that charge in
a.1o,+ +.> 6ro tho l,nortc of biS fol-