The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1913-01-24

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 let
ters' he would have the people be-
lieve but letters which ought to have
been secret as far as the public was
concerned and as far as Blease him
self was concerned.
But / am not concerned about the
Blease conspiracy with his friends as
much as l am about clearing myself
of the charge of hypocrisy, and of
writing secret letters for the purpose
of stabbing him in the back.
The charges of hypocrisy can best
be answered by pointing to my pub
lie and private life. If there is any
vice in human beings that l despise,
it is hypocrisy and double-dealing.
1t is, next to cowardice, the most
deSplcable of human traits.
Governor Blease stresses the point
of secret letters, and, with great cum
ming, picks out sentences from pri-
vate letters which l had written to
my friends, or men who represented
themselves as my friends, to prove
that l was not frank. He stresses the
fact that Mr.. Sims was not his friend
and is delighted to find l had writ
Iattar tn
ite. do not believe many people in
South Carolina will accept his theory
that l am hypocrite and double
dealer because, in writing personal
letters and marking them "confiden-
tial," / explained to these men who
were Blease's friends and who claim
ed to be my friends what my real
opinions were. Because l said
would be "hands off" did not mean,
nor is it reasonable to claim that il
meant, would be dumb.
Bird. 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
order to fire the hearts of his fol-
lowers. The people of South Carolina
well understand the relations between
the Gonzales brothers and the Till
mans. The feud is of long standing
and all well informed people know
what provocation the Tillmans have
had and with what relentless ener-
gy and with what ability the Con-
zales brothers have prosecuted their
side of it. l do not wish to stir the
embers of this feud anew, and I
have no such purpose in calling at
Governor Blease knows that he did
not believe, when he wrote his
dodger last August, that l had en-
tered into any conspiracy whatever
with w. E. Gonzales. 1 have been
told that the Gonzales brothers vot-
ed for me in the primary last August.
Whether this is so or not, do not
know and do not care. But I know
that l never say Pat MCGOWAN or
read Gonzales private kilograms to
him which some of Blease's friends
stole off the wires; and if 1 had it
would not have influenced me at all.
Right here, 1 will ask Governor
Blease to answer point blank, how
grams to MCGOWAN He is such a
stickler for the forms of honesty in
others, will he honor bright tell us
who stole them?
l know and assert on my honor
that | alone wrote the Ferguson let
ter and that no one else had any
thing to do with it,. or anything else
/ have written or signed.
The following statement has just
been handed me by Mr.. A. M. Car
penter, of Anderson, South Caolina,
telling how the Ferguson letter came
to be given out and how the state
ment accompanied it was made up
for the press:
Carpenters Statement.
About o'clock in the afternoon of
August %, 1912, l met Senator and
Mrs. Tillman at the North entrance
to the Capitol building. They had
started for home, and had stop6ed
and were talking to Mr.. j. M. Baker,
one of the officers of the Senate. SEN
ator Tillman stopped me and said
he wanted to ask my advice. He
stated that at the beginning of the
gubernatorial campaign in South Car
Olina he had declared he would take
no part in it, and had tried to follow
that course, but that during the two
or three weeks just previous he had
received a number of letters from
people in the State whom he thought
to be his friends, asking his opinion
of Jones and Blease, and that he had
replied to these letter frankly, that
In each case ne had made 1T plain
to his correspondent that he was
writing in confidence, but he had
found that in some cases his conf
dence had been betrayed, that the let
ters were being misrepresented, and
that he had been placed in the posi-
tion of doing secretly things he was
afraid to do openly. He said he had
been placed in a false position before
his friends and his enemies, and that
he felt that he ought to give out a
newspaper statement explaining his
position fully. Mrs. Tillman said she