The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-12-28

sidered "bald-headed angel Dune as
the chief cause of his downfall. He
began to attack him in his editorial
columns.
One day Carmack poured an extra
portion of vitriol into his inh-holder,
and wrote this editorial, entitled.
! The Diplomat of Zweibund.
'To Major Duncan Brown Cooper,
who wrought the great coalition, who
achieved the harmonious confluence
of incompatible elements, who welded
the pewter handle to the wooden
spoon, who grated the dead bough
to the living tree and made it bloom
and bend with golden fruit, who made
laymates of the lamb and the leopard
and boon companions of the spider
and the fly, who made sod and vinegar
to dwell placidly in the same bottle
and who taught oil and water how
they might agree; to Major Duncan
Brown Cooper, the great diplomat of
the political Zweibund, be all honor
and glory forever"
Cooper read that editorial
saw red.
That was Sunday morning, Nov. 8,
1908.
Monday afternoon at 4:3O o'clock,
Senator Carmack, was walking on
Seventh Avenue. At Union street
Col. Cooper and his twenty-eight-year
old son, Robin, hove in sight. There
was shooting.
Carmack fell dead with one bullet
under the heart, one in the left shoul-
der, and one in the neck. Robin
Cooper was wounded in the right
shoulder. Duncan Cooper had not
fired shot, though he had drawn his
revolver from his pocket. He was un-
scathed.
There is no use trying to explain
who shot first. The point is still
argued in Tennessee.
'Carmack-the Martyr"
Nov. IA, 1918, the Coopers and
John D. Sharp, an ex-sheriff with
them at the time of the shooting, were
indicted.
In the spring of 1919 the Anti-Sa-
loon league, determined to avenge the
death of Ned Carmack, demanded
that the legislature pass the state
wide prohibition act. The legislature
did so.
All over the south and the midwest
Protestant denominations were de-
manding that the saloon be abolished
as tribute to Carmack." The North
west Methodist conference at Dallas,
Tex, passed resolutions deploring
Carmack's death, denouncing the sup
porters of liquor interests in politics
and declaring that "Carmack died a
martyr to the cause of prohibition and
civic righteousness.
Feb. %, 1909, Col. Cooper testify
ing at the trial for his life, said he
had heard Carmack using his name
many times in the late gubern 'torial
campaign and referred to the black
and white" insinuation.
March 2O,1909, the Coopers, father
and son, were found "guilty Of muir
der in the second degree and SEN
fenced to twenty years in prison."
The cases were appealed. April 13,
1910, the supreme court of the state
affirmed Duncan Cooper's case, and
reversed the sons.
Before the ink was dry on the de-
cision Gov. Patterson issued pardon
to Duncan Cooper. 1t actually reached
the office of the secretary of state be-
fore Cooper left the capitol for jail.
That was the last straw that broke
the prohibition camels back. Car
mack had been assassinated by the
Trust, and now his "red-
handed murdered" was given full
and complete pardon!
The liquor forces, bloated with
awoke to the menace
which confronted them, but it was
too late. Through the small towns and
hamlets of America for a decade had
gone the tale of the gallant Carmack
who gave his life for "the cause" Pro-
hibition and civic righteousness were
irrevocably linked. Carmack was en-
shrined.
Every state in the union had it's ad-
vocates of nationwide prohibition.
Many Of them were strong leaders.
One day they walked into the nations
the rest is history writ
len into the constitution of the United
States.