The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1914-07-23
SCORES GOVERNORS
PARDON RECORD,
COLUMBIA EDITOR SHOWS DIS
CREPANCY BETWEEN BLEASE'S
PREACHING AND PRACTICS.


to connect it up with a credible mo-
tive. Of course. in matter OF such
extraordinary moment there must
be sufficient motive of some sort,
either good or bad. Justice, OF
course, would account for a small
percentage of the Governors par
dons, Communications and paroles.
Mercy would take in even a larger
percentage. But neither justice nor
mercy nor both combined reasonably
account for turning all the convicts
out of the State penitentiary, which
is declared to be the Governors pol
icy, and is certainly his substantial
practice up to date. 1t is true that
Governor Blease himself claimed in
his pardon message to the General
Assembly in 1912, at the end of his
first year in the Executive office,
when he took the greatest delight"
in reporting t..at he had ''pardoned,
paroled and commuted al7 people, !"
that he was actuated by the quality
of mercy" and he preached a SER
mon of which any exhorter might
have been proud, from the text,
The Mercy to Others Show, that
Mercy Show to Me'-a plea which
he repeated again in his pardon mes
sages of 1913 and 1914 when he re-
ported in still greater volume his
acts of clemency But it is impossi-
bic to seriously reconcile this state
ment, which includes and refers to
numbers of pardoned or paroled ne
gro rapists-along with murderers,
firebugs, burglars and others with
the fact that only the other day ne
offered reward for an alleged ne
gro rapist who had not yet been
convicted, ,and specified in the adver-
tisement that the reward would be
paid for the negro dead or alive, the
only condition being that piece of
him be preserved sufficient for the
purposes of Identification. What Gu
rious and magic alchemy can it be
that is inherent in the stones of the
penitentiary walls to change ne
gro rapist into fitting subject of
mercy and Of freedom when the ac-
cused negro rapist outside, who may
even be innocent, is not granted the
privilege even to make a plea for
his life?
Again, we. can conceive of mo-
1--WE for turning out by pardon, pa
role or otherwise the white convicts
to the number. of three hundred and
more. But what Of the nine hundred
negro convicts? These have no votes,
and they have, no influence or ipfiu-
entail friends of themselves that
could make it of interest to turn
them out on their own account. And
the preposterous feature of tits that
Governor Blease does not love the
negro-that he is "nigger-hater,"
in fact. if we judge from his talk on
the stump and elsewhere, on every
possible occasion. And, yet, he would
have US believe that when he is
touched on bis merciful side by the
pitiful plight of these poor brethren
in black, that he cannot forbear to
open wide their prison doors and bid
them go forth-to give to each and
every one of them, as he eloquently
expressed it, the opportunity to
make a good citizen for your State,
and, above all, the opportunity to
save the soul which God has given
you" But what of the alleged rap
ist outside, uncaught and unconvict-
ed? Has he no soul to save like the
other, and why not?
Our logic and reason, therefore,
bid US reject Governor Blease's d.
vine plea of mercy" and yet, we
contend. there must be motive for
his wholesale prison-deliveries. If
not mercy. what is it? He tells US
himself in his pardon message of
1913 that Il do expect reward not
only here, but hereafter" for show
ing mercy to his fellow men. and he
declared, in fact, that he firmly be-
lieved that my pardon record had
more to do with causing my re-elec-
tion than any other one thing"
How true this may be we can only
speculate. Governor Blease piously
attributed this effect in which he
firmly believed to the divine in
terposition of Providence, but while
we freely give him credit for know
ing what helps or hurts him politi-
eal)y, we trust we do not write our
selves down so irreligious as to be
utterly lost when we confess that we
are of that skeptical class who OBJ
serve from practical experience that
the rain falls on the just and the un-
just alike-Who are convinced that
II