The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-05-02

sress, The Democratic party of South
Carolina, with all due respect to i,
and you, has nothing to do with this
issue; nor has the Legislature Of ouI
state. If either one of these bodies
could remedy this matter, there would
be something sensible in Your view
This matter has passed out of the
cognizance Of the State. Under the
constitution, congress alone has pow
er to decide the qualifications of its
members You recognize this in the
Blease case; and at first you recog-
nized 1T in the Whaley case, because
/ have 1t from you in writing, as well
as by word Of mouth, that if my facts
were true. you would glory in taking
a hand in the matter What did you
mean by these words:
You say you are ready to prove
the facts Of bribery and corruption in
the recent primary and you say.
you will be heard in Washington
Come on to Washington, Mr.. Grace,
and l will help you in any way I can
to be heard. While am not a mem
Der Of the house, and therefore, YOU
cannot appeal to Caesar in my per-
son, am senator and have some
influence With both members of the
house and senate, and Will facilitate
to the fullest degree any exposure you
are able to make of corruption and
fraud in the recent primary in our
State. While it would bring the name
of South Carolina into dlscredit and
disgrace it, and cause every true
South Carolinian to hang his head in
shame, If 1t Is necessary to go to
that length in order to cleanse the
augean stable say let us have 1t
done and quit clustering"
That was what you wrote me nearly
three months ago The words under
scored. and particularly the word 81
WILL" in the sentence, Come on to
Washington, Mr.. Grace. and will
help you in any way can to be
heard" were UNDERSIGNED, not by the
typewriter, but by pen and ink, pre-
sumably by you; clearly manifesting
n then determination upon your part
(after reading over and rejecting up
on what you said) to help me. If my
facts are not true. Of course there
would be no washing OF dirty linen In
Washington" and / would be humil-
lated and discredited. If they are
not true, there should be no one
quicker than Mr.. Whaley to demand
an investigation, even though you are
now backing water in the matter. ]
do not recede one inch, though, from
what have said about deplorable con.
ditions within our State. My memory
Is good. 1 recall that you yourself,
last summer after the Blease election,
so-called, threw cold water upon even
the Democratic party taking steps to
investigate that election. 1t was sus-
pected, and in the light OF this corre-
spondence II can well be believed that
Your motive then was fear that your
own election would be upset along
with the whole primary; and that you
would have to run over again and
that feeling engendered against you
in the last days of that campaign
tn Al a
nearly lose, anyhow. / do not think
that South Carolina would hang her
head in shame il repetition of the
Whaley matter in either branch of
congress could be prevented by con-
gressiOnal action: and what is more
TO the point, l will not allow you to
put such words in my mouth. as you
do when you say you are asking me
to pursue q course which you admit
would cause the people of South
Carolina to hang their heads in
shame Point out to me where / said
any such thing. Instead Of hanging
her head in shame, she would be
proud or the fact that 1t was she who
helped largely to write the cOnstitu-
ton, and that by it. in the last analy-
SIS. her honor had been saved, not
lost. In the face of what l have told
you, and what l am sure you have
heard both through the press and
from responsible men in this district,
do not believe you can be sincere in
intimating that the character OF my
proof is doubtful, as you do in these
words:
Il love my State, it's honor and it's
good name; and l am not willing to-
bring either its honor or it's good
name into question upon hearsay tes
timOny or belief; nor am willing to
confess the incapacity Of the people
OF South Carolina--kceping i'm mind
their proud histOry-to rectify any
i Fts..s. xsN..