Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-07-17
BHbO's AcquittGI.

nero are three tnnR which ac VO O"NN"'"
me, yea, four which ! know not.
The way of an eagle in the air, the way OF a serpent
on a rock, the way of a ship In the midst OF the sea- and
the way Of a man with q maid"
Thus Solomon declared himself, when In the zenith OF
his glory and fame and power as the Wise Man.
Had he lived in this day and generation, and had
his home in poor old Mississippi, now she Is engaged IN
a a with political mountebanks and constituencies
sharpers, and reduced to playing her white chips ne,
doubtless, would have included in the things ne knew
not, the way of a petit jury"
The verdict of a~cquittal rendered yesterday afternoon
in the Bnb0 case is a distinct surprise to many people
and to Others a source Of much qualification. But 10
one familiar with conditions, and who has observed re-
cent political doines and noted the trend OF events IN
this State, it should not be a matter for establishment
That partisanship has usurped the place Of patriot
ism and permits vice to triumph over virtue in Mississ-
ippi. is a proposition today so plain that the mere
statement Of it ought to make it clear to the commonest
understanding.
Before the advent of Vardamanism and of its legiti-
mate offspring, Bilboism, of which our present LieutGov
is the high-priest. when, If ever, was it possible for such
~atrocious moral turpitude to be attempted, and permitted
I'd 20 unwhipped of justice, as was the case in the recent
offer to the Chief Magistrate Of Mississippi by those Gel.
tain persons who made themselves notorious, if not in.
famous, when shamelessly c~onfessing to the State Sen
ate the truth of the disreputabe and dishonorabt
charge the Governor of the State brought against then
And what was the result?
Utterly ignoring self-respecting pride, State honor
and official integrity, the senate ANONYMOUSLY put tn,
stamp of its approval upon unhallowed traffic in legis-
lation, and condoned the infamy of it, by withdrawing
the i~nstigators, the perpetrators, and the proposed bene
fciary Of it.
Think Of Mississippis past! Think of her Davis, La
mar, George, Walthall! OF her Sims, Percy, Stone and
Street And then think of her presented her Bilto
Donald, Hobbs, McBeath!
70. what a fall was there, my countrymen "a fall
from honor glory, renown, to degradation uncomfortable
and disgrace unspeakable.y Y -
To think of how the former swayed souls and won
converts to good government by rectitude of purpose,
courage and the persuasive power of truth, and of how
the latter controlled legislation and strangled civic vr-
tue by the cohesive power of graft and political scoun-
drelism isenough to cause Mississippians, who are alive
to State pride, to hang their harps upon the willows and
sigh in sorrow, as did the Jews, when by the rivers of
Babylon, they remembered Zion and wept"
What will the end beY
God alone knows. Never before in the history of
the State have Mississippians been put to such shame.
No; not even in the days of old when Franklin E.
Pfummer. the embodiment of demaeosish impudence
and audacious speech and manners, standing upon his
own platform of "Plummer for the people, and the peo-
pie for Plummer" became the political dictator of what
then was East Mississippi, automatically determining
who should be candidates for Congress, for Governor
and for State offices.
Plummer is the prototype of Vardaman and Bilbo.
His strength was, as is theirs now, in ribaldry, auda-
city, criticism. fault-fnding. However, his sins in the
end overlook him. His popularity soon passed. He
lost his seat in congress, was defeated for the u. S. Sen
ate. His denunciations of those by whom he was op
posed as "swelled heads" and "bloated bondholders
ceased to please his hearers and he fell from his hieh
estate to the level of a ~eroveling worm. The historian
writes of him:
He was no longer a lion whose roar had fright
ened the stockholders in their dens, but a house
cat purring about their slippered feet
He died in %Obscurity, without friends and without
money.
Those who knew him in his decade as a defunct
politician and a sOt, lurking in mean places with low
associates Gust as Bilbo does can have no con-
q; cepton of the power once exerted."
He was a living exemplar Of the saying "Cheatin
never thrives" for long at a time.
But low as Pummer sank, while posing as the pet
pies choice, he never rode upon a pass and then denie
it..
If he ever accepted a bride, as Bilbo did, he nevt
got cold feet and peached upon the fellow from whol
he got the money.
Oh, no. AS low as he sank in the scale of humanit
as, ~brazenly as he practiced deceit, and as fragrant
were his sins and his d~uplicity- history does not reci
that he ever. while representing his people in the leei
lature, performed the part of a spy and informer.
1t does not tell that he ever descended to that d
Sree of turpitude, perfdy and infamy. as did BIbo ar