The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1922-09-07
ANSWER TO
MR.. McCLENDON
MR. HODGES DEPLORES STAND
TAKEN BY MINISTER IN
FAVOR OF BLEASE.

The following letter is sent to Inc
County Record from Cades, S. c.,
with a request that we publish same.
The letter was written by c. P.
Hodges in reply to a statement by
the Rev. Baxter McLendon and origin
ally published in the Pee Dee Advo-
gate at Bennettsville, S. c. The let
ter follows:
Brownsville, S. c., July 29th, 1922
Editor Pee Dee Advocate: In Prov
CRIBS IA and ~ are these words:
There is way which seemeth right
r1to man, but the end thereof is
tie way of death" l noticed in your
paper of last week that the Rev. Bax-
ter McLendon las come out in de-
fense of ex-Gov. Blease's pardoning
record and were it not that Rev. nc
Lendon is a minister of the gospel, l
would have nothing to say about it
whatsoever; but I will not allow his
unreasonable defense of Blease's par
don record to 60 unchallenged.
Mr.. McLendon, why did you neg
het to review that in four years that
Gov Blease pardoned over seventeen
hundred convicts, among them were
the vilest of murders, house-burners,
rayishers of women, thieves, thugs,
and cut-throats? This, ! consider as
being the darkest page ever written
In South Carolina history and was
the greatest crime that could have
been committed against the moral
hfn of the young men and women
and boys and girls that will take gen
esstions to eradicate. Rev. McLen-
don, as a minister of the gospel, you
hive gone up and down this country
preaching to sinners of the wrath of
a just God and a judgment to come
and that the church of God is found
ed on obedience to his law, and that
God never made a law without pro-
nding a penalty, and that the basis
Of Gods mercy, forgiveness and only
hope of salvation is repentance and
the new birth and my Bible teaches
no other way. Now, in the mercy Of
God, he has provided a hell for the
damned that his saints might live with
him in everlasting glory. Poor
Dives found this out when in hell
he lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus
in Abraham's bosom, and when Abra-
ham, told Dives that there was a
great gulf between them and that it
was impossible to send Lazarus to
even administer drop of water.
Imerely mention the above to show
you the fxedness of Gods law. His
word declares that the way of the
transgressor is hard; that be sure
your sins will find you out, so I ask,
how can ten thousand petitions and
pardons by ten thousand governors
remedy the condition of the criminal !?
As God has provided a he'll for the
rebellious sinner; so civilized society
has provided laws, courts, jails, pen
tentiaries and chain gangs that it
may protect itself against destruction
from the criminal element, that is
20 mixed up in human society that
il is impossible to eradicate it and
am Mortified at the position you take,
being a minister of the gospel. There
is NO. temporizing or compromising
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
with the sinner or criminal against
God. His punishment is sure and 1
warn you not to preach a gospel that
palliates sin for a moment. The IN
exorable laws of God against crime
is one thing, and Blease politics is
another, and thank God you can't mix
them up; but as minister of the
gospel you can so confuse the ignorant
mind and the criminal heart, that
God alone can measure the destruc-
tion to the criminal or criminal in
clined in the earth.
Rev. Baxter McLendon, answer me
this as in the sight of God. If you
know we would have Cole Blease
for governor of South Carolina for
forty years, the same kind of Blease
that we had for the four years that
he was governor (indeed not men
ton that kind of governor we had;
you know more about that than do
rs you were on the inside) would
you voluntarily remain in South Car
lima? Would you be willing for your
son to pattern after him? Would
you be willing to take Blease's par
doning record with all Of it's at
sediments and assignments and go
INTO the judgment with it to face the
Great God of all the world? You
fully understand that a minister of
the gospel has got to preach the same
Kind of gospel to himself that he
breaches to others. You will no doubt