Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE STRUGGLE OF'76. dar son Address Delivered at Red Shirt Reunton atanc tO ! Anderson, August 25th, by Senator B. R. not Tillman. !?e Ladies and Fellow Ckizens : , da i It is needless for me to say that it affords me great pei pleasure to meet the good people of Anderson County face tr> f-irp nnrn morp. Twelve months a?0 if anyone had asked tha me if I ever expected again to make speeches in South eig Carolina I would have answered, "No." My condition niz was such at that time that I had little hope of ever be- ed ing able to undergo the mental labor and strain of public nui speaking or even attempting it in the senate. i5ut tne nin good God seems to have some more work for me to do, go< and my health has so far improved that I have been able of to sit-in the senate nine hours a day for two months and dez watch Aldrich run things, and becoming tired of seeing Th him turn the crank to run the machine while I was only hin a cog in the wheel I secured a pair for my vote and have tali been out in Ohio for a month preaching to those people ed the gospel of white supremacy according to Tillman. "C I received invitations to address meetings in six or ma eight other counties besides this and arranged a schedule which gave me four speeches last week and two this. - My der old enemies have been raising Cain because I am able to tioi mmp tn vnn and vou want to hear me. Certain editors mo " J * resent these invitations being sent and are also disgruntled use because I have accepted then:. One would suppose that the after nineteen years of honorable and acceptable service per to South Carolina these men would have the decency to anc let me alone and stop, but this gang of whippersnappers par continues to bark at my heels. Looking Backward. as j J L S0U I want to sav, my friends, that since I received the i invitation to attend this meeting my memory has been very busy and my biain has been acting like fire that has burned down. When you stir the embers they suddenly flare up . into a blaze. If I were to tell you all the things that have ... , sou come to mind about the period which we are here assembled to celebrate I have no doubt I could interest vou uncra til sundown. But I am somewhat fatigued and you are ^ hungry, so I will only discuss the aspect of things at this ^ time in connection with some of the most important events . is c with which I was associated in 1876. Then, too, I have to go over to the "dark corner" of Greenville this after. . as 1 noon. I am to speak tomorrow at Lickville. Of course r nar I know that the "dark corner" of Greenville County is up ^ near the mountains where they have the reputation of ^ raising the devil and distilling corn liquor, while I shall wr speak in the lower part of the county which is benighted . according to my enemies because they do not rase anything ^ there but Tillmanites. It is a very prosperous and progressive community, all the same. this I consider this one of the most important meetings which has ever assembled in South Carolina, for the reason that we are today confronted by a condition which may ca^ beccme very dangerous. We are apprcaching a period , of history when another crisis will come in our affairs. It ^ut seems that Divine Providence alway takes care of South j)a, Carolna when conditions require it. For instance in the nrn dark day of 1780 just before the surrender of Charleston t^e with the only patriot army then in the state, and before maj the British had completed their lines around the city, Sfat Francis Marion, then a major in Moultrie's regiment, was gry invited to an entertainment at the quarters of a brother ^ officer. On reaching the scene he found that drinking and but gambling were the main objects of those in attendance, by When he seizecUWs hat and sought to retire some gentle- Cor men got between -him and the stairway and insisted that he should not leave thVm._ Being: highly religious in his habits of life and thought; after insisting that he must go and the exit being blocked he walked to the window which ? woi was on the second floor and sprang out on the ground. ^e] rThe distance was so great that it caused a very serious ^ c sprain to one of his ankles; and when General Lee, know- ^ ing the scarcity of provisious, ordered that all non-combat- ^ ^ ants and men unfitted for active duty should leave the city ^ Marion crossed the Cooper river along with others and made his way to his home in the direction of the Santee acti river. After the fall of the city, which was surrendered on account of the lack of provisions, there was no organized ^ body of patriots left in the state and Camden and Ninety- V Six were soon occupied by the enemy. Marion called a . mnAim/v rvt?tr?/>ir\o 1 r?-* /\( f V? n Am CA/*fiAn o UlCCLliJg Ui Lite pilJl^ipai UiCii ui l 11 v_ va^Ltiii 3lv,uvii, auiuu^ soui them Colonel Peter Horry and Major Lacy, and after long . discussion of the apparent hopelessness of the cause, he with a small number of patriots joined each other in pledgthe ing their lives to a continuation of the struggle as long as lcLSt there was a British soldier left in the state. If he had not sprained his ankle he would have surrendered with Moultrie . and the others, and who can tell what would have been m the result upon the fortunes of the war? Moultrie's parole o v e kept him inactive the remainder of the war. Marion's band of liberty and together with other similar troops under Sumter and Pickens led to Kings Mountain and Cow- bes pens and made Yorktown possible. can as c Commercial Democracy. any Now we all know that President Taft is coming to of South Carolina and other southern states to see what he woi can do toward breaking up the solid south. I know the app president's purpose is not bad and I give him credit for hirr wanting to do what he thinks is right, but he in a measure yea seems to have placed himself under the influence of some I y-vf 4 Urt Acf onrl nmcf nncrrnniilAnc: nnlitinonc in thicl Ul LUC DI11C? UCOl ailVJ liiv/Ji uijovi upuu/u.> ^vmiviuuu in I I1L, .... country, whose purpose it is to mobilize the negroes and me; bring them back into our politics. It is a most fortunate ^n( circumstance that the younger generation of Carolinians sar who know nothing except from hearsay about the horrors wo and dangers through which we passed during reconstruction pr( should have their attention called to it at this particular san time. Under the lead of those editors who were many of js hem in l;neebretchcs when we were it the throes of the I ^ ' . ^ r,;. r r-,.^. construction era, the rising generation, has been taught t we have no race problem and that there is no possible lger from the negroes now; and many young men and ne old ones need to be told of the tyrannies, oppressions 1 robberies to which the white people of the state had submit because of the bad government put in power by ;hern bayonets using ignorant negro votes. It is, theree, a good thing to have some of the actors in those nes appear here and remind you, as has been done by Ige Aldrich and Governor Sheppard, of the suffering and iger through which we passed in that dark and gloomy iod of the state's history. I make the assertion from my own personal knowledge it if it had not been for the death of William McKinley, ht years ago, the efforts of John L. McLaurin to orga e a "commercial democratic party " would have succeedto a dangerous degree, You would have seen a large nber of the white people of South Carolina fall in beid him and go off after that Trojan Horse. I know many id men who had their grips packed to take up the line march and the scheme only fell through because of the .lu -r -i") :j ? l vf r_ii j u.. : i."? nil ui rxcsiucui iyicimiucy iuuuwcu uy me nivintiiun ui eodore Roosevelt to Booker Washington to dine with 1. Many of those men who are in control of our capiIstic enterprises, cotton mills, banks, etc., were preparto fall in behind McLaurin, not as republicans, but as ommercial Democrats." But what difference does it ke about a name if the movement divides the whites? Our only salvation in South Carolina has been the nocratic primary which permits absolute liberty of aci and the rule of the majority in our politics, and any vement which will tempt one faction of white men to the negroes against another faction will bring about result so much desired by Mr. Taft. He wants "inde idence of action" by two political parties in the south 1 a commercial democratic party or a Taft democratic ty will answer his purpose equally well. I want to say to you that President Taft has not been Ejenerous as even McKinley was in dealing with the th in the matter of census supervisorships. He made peech in Atlanta last year in which he said he would impose federal office holders on our people who were loxious to them. According to the newspapers these )ortant places in the census are to be divided in the th between the democrats and republicans, and the tement has been made ' .it the South Carolina aemots will have only three places while republicans will fill other four. McKinley gave all of these positions in southern states to democrats exclusively. Mr. Taft m the lookout for weak-kneed democrats who want a so bad that they are willing to announce themselves republicans. Some people in South Carolina whose nes you would be surprised to know, have written in last five months asking me to indorse them to Presiit Taft. About the first thing after his inauguration I >te President Taft to get his intention as to how he ;nded to fill places in the south. He replied that he ited to appoint republicans for all positions where it ; possible to find them. When I wrote my constituents > they replied that they were Taft republicans. In it does a Taft republican differ from an aich republican? The News and Courier has been advoing the organization of a Taft democratic party, may be that Deacon Hemphill is "playing' possum," when I remember that the News and Courier under wson was the leading exponent of the proposed com mise with Chamberlain in 1876 which was defeated in State Convention by the narrow margin of seventeen jority, and that that same paper did not support the :e democratic ticket in 1890 and has never given Mr. an anything but Joab stabs, I cannot help but be on lookout for teachery in that quarter. In 1876 nothing the war cry of a straight out white man's fight raised Butler, Gary and George Tillman in the State ivention saved the day. Beware of Tal't. I do not like to inject anything personal here and I lid not attack the motive of any man or newspaper if re were not good grounds for it. When Mr. Taft comes south Carolina to spread molasses and give hungry :e-seekers an excuse for deserting the democratic party, will doubtless tell us why it is good that the solid south uld be broken up, and will depict the glories of our eninto the the national field as a factor in influencing the on of the United States government. But if the solid th is a bad thing why is not the solid north where the ,'er lies a worse thing? We have only three democratic ators from the north and the republican machine has A A 1 A ____ A. X A _ ! Li _ / 1 L y-one to our tnirty-one senators, iweniy-eigni 01 mern therners. This condition has brought about the exceedy dangerous and degrading one-man power exemplified he senate in the person of Aldrich, and in the house in person of Cannon. These influences were so potent, spring that twenty-three democrats, so-called, were id willing to cooperate with the Cannon organization he house to defeat the efforts of the independent re>licans to join with Champ Clark and his democrats to rthrow the Reed rules. Mr. Taft is doubtless sincere in believing that it is t for the south to have a respectable white republinnr?v Kut i-Kt\cciV?i 1 itv nf rpvival r?f tViP nptrrn kcuv> l,"?- r-""""; - * ? -?> i factor in our politics cannot but give uneasiness to man in the lower counties who remembers the days 1876. While we are listening to the president's sweet rds and congratulating ourselves on his friendliness and )arent purpose to be just, let us not forget to watch 1 and remember our trials and dangers thirty-three rc n crr\ "bv' Suppose he should secure the support of twenty-five >usand or even ten thousand good respectable white n for a nucleus of his new organization. Do you not dw that under the constitution of 1895 it is only necesv to be able to read and write or pay taxes on $300 rth of property to be able toivote, and it is altogether Dbable that at this time there are thirty or forty thoud negroes in this state who are eligible to register? It well known to anyone who has taken the trouble to ????m^aemma^m^mtimm^tmm^jgaggg^ 'read that there are more negro children attending the ' public schools of South Carolina than whites now and this : has been so any time in these thirty-three years, for the simple reason that there are more of them. The last census gives our white population as . 540,781 while the negroes have r7S 1,788, a clear majority of blacks over whites of 241,007. The negro boys have been going to school ever since 1895, or just fourteen years. The negroes who registered then numbered 1,400. If they are J not ready now, it will not be long before they will be ready to register. If you imagine that the negro question is settled as some of the young editors of papers in this state tell us, then you had better ask your friends to go I get out a writ of lunacy at once. Nothing but besotted 'ignorance on the part of these would-be leaders can excuse j their belittling the dangers of the race problem. With the exception of the counties in the Piedmont extending eastward to Chesterfield and including Horry, Anderson and Union all the other counties have negro majorities. The general proportion is two to one, but Beafort's ten to one, A - 4.1 i. _ _ r r* i i__i. r* 4. 1 "D ? 1. ~ anu in uie cuuuucb 01 v^nariesiori, ueuigcLuwiz ctiiu dcikcley it is from three to seven to one. The idea of a com'pulsory eduuction law to hurry <up the crisis which will come when the negroes who can vote outnumber the whites can but be considered criminal. These editors say "Tillman is wild" and that he has been doing a great deal of injury to the state and the south and that he does not represent the best thought and feeling of South Carolina. God have mercy! If I do not represent the best sentiment!! What He Says Up Xorth. All that I have ever said to northern audiences in the senate or elsewhere is that the creator made the Cauca sian ot better clay than he made any colored people. 1 have told them "we shot them, (the negroes) we stuffed ballot boxes, and did all that was necessary to maintain our hold on the government and that with the negro majoritv in at lpnst tvvn srmthprn Qtafpc thprp ivn? not nnwpr *v mmm " ~ ww?.ww. * r ~ enough between Cape Cod and California to make us again submit to negro rule, I spoke thus on the floor of thesenate. Did I misrepresent southern feeling or sentiment when I uttered those words? I misrepresented the feeling of the News and Courier and State, no doubt, for both of those papers have a negro-loving record. I have told the northern people that they do not know anything about the negro, that they would not submit to negro rule if they lived among us and that they only proclaimed their belief that the negro is the equal of the white man for political purposes. I have said, "you no not believe he is your equal, you only think he is our equal. If you would not allow them to govern you, 'you will never have the pleasure of seeing them govern us any more. It is one of the things in my life of which I am proudest that when I went to Washington as your representative and found that the democrats were not saying anything about the republicans and their pretended love for the negro, and those republicians were running over us rough shod in dishing out federal appointments to negro es in the south, that single handed and alone, I began to discuss the question without fear or favor. Then after I had stayed there several years I made a speech on the race problem which occupied two days. I discussed it in all of its phases from the standpoint of ethnology, history, geography, sociology and presented .its industrial and political phases. I rubbed it in and not a republican senator ever dared or thought it worth while to attempt a word in reply. This was followed by two subsequent speeches. One of these was in reply to Spooner of Wisconsin who had taken me to task on account of my advocacy of lynch law. If my answer did not satisfy him, he at least did not attempt to reply. Any person who has not seen a copy of this speech can get it by sending me his name and address on a postal. The Crum Affair. When Dr. trum's name was sent to tne senaie ior the position of collector of the port at Charleston seven years ago I held him up for three years and would not allow him to be confirmed until finally I agreed with Senator Spooner to get a report from the judiciary committee on the matter of a "constructive recess." When it came it was the unanimous opinion of the judiciary committee, republicans and democrats alike, that there was no such thing contemplated by our constitution and that Roosevelt had usurped authority in appointing Crum as he did bej tween 12 o'clock and 12 o'clock of the same day. That was a victory. Last December Crum's term expired. Roosevelt sent his name in again. That republican senate had come to hate Roosevelt as much or more than I did. I I went around and notified many of the democrats that I jproposed to fight Crum's nomination and it was hung up in the committee until in February when President Taft telegraphed Senators Frye and Aldrich that he wanted Crum out of the way. I received notice from Mr. Frye that the nomination would be pressed. The rule in the senate is that when there is business before the senate somebody must talk or we must vote. I could only get one democrat, Mr. McLaurin, of Mississippi, to agree to help me filibuster. They said I would almost surely fail and I was unwise to fight under such desperate conditions. The matter of his confirmation came up and under the rules it went over until the next day. iNext morning we went into executive session upon convening. It was universally felt among my friends in the senate both republicans and democrats that it was dangerous for me to undertake to make a speech, dreading lest the strain in the then condition of my health might produce either a stroke of apoplexy or paralysis. Hut I thought I could! not die in a better cause; and I would infinitely prefer [to foil rlr>nt\ unnn the floor of the senate discharging my duty} ? | than to linger and suffer as I have known people to do. I So the debate was opened by my reading the protests of all the commercial bodies of Charleston, and then presenting the constitutional relation between senators and the president in making appointments. I was interrupted by my friends among the republican senators who sought to enter the debate to give me relief. Senator McLaurin and one or two other democrats came into the discussion. So that the first day after a five hours session we had hardly opened up the question. The next day Senator Frye promptly called it up again. I was feeling splendidly and I spoke about three hours. I related to a full senate the whole story of my - - - relations with Roosevelt, the McLaurin incident, the withdrawal of the invitation to dinner, and the president's cowardly treachery to Senator Bailey and myself in the matter of the rate bill. The debate was continued between the republicans and democrats, all senators realizing by this time that the great race problem was a problem indeed and one worthy of most serious consideration by all. Many democrats by by this time realizing the vital nature of the question were anxious to participate. So there was no lack of speaking, and after a six hours session we were no nearer a vote than when we began. A notable speech was made by O. M. I Money which greatly impressed the Republicans. The third day I spoke only two and one half hours. Taking Taft's speech in Atlanta for a text, and reading it paragraph by paragraph, I commented on it at length. My allies on both sides of the chamber by this time, the republicans asking questions and one or another democrat answering, were all working harmoniously towards a very protracted debate. At the end of the third day's session it became evident to Senator Frye that "settling the Crum case" was not a very easy job. There is no record of any of the speeches made in this debate because stenographers are not admitted in executive session, so much valuable information on this allimportant question is lost. On the fourth day Senator Frye gave up the fight, being pressed by the republican leaders to get out of the way of big appropriation bills. After some inquiry as to the intention of men to make speeches and learning that six or seven democrats were anxious to be heard he withdrew Crum's name and the struggle over the last negro appointee of Roosevelt was over. Mr. Taft has promised us that we will have no such appointments during his administration. One of my strongest points and one which I emphasized with the greatest vigor was the inquiry as to why South Carolina should be subjected to the mortification of having the last dose of -rcu.iJ: iiegiu uiuuc-iiuiuiu?. Crum's defeat was accomplished by a persistent determination to debate the whole race problem, the exclusion of the Chinse, the threatening attitude of the Cal-. ifornians against the Japanese and Hindoos, the canting hypocrisy of the government's attitude towards the Filipinos, who are Malays, and the cruelty and wrongs which have marked the white man's treatment of the Indians. When the republican attitude towards all these was brought out and the inconsiste, / and hypocrisy of the whole black republican program was discussed at length by more than one speaker, it was easy to see that the republican senators were weakened and more than willing to stop the debate. Northern Sentiment Changing. Mv lectures in the north delivered during the last seven or eight years to hundreds of thousands of their most intelligent people have necessarily aided greatly in the change of feeling and sentiment which is apparent there. I have been asked frequently why more southerners do not come among them and tell them about this great question and its dangerous aspects. There are thousands of communities up there in which there is not a single negro and they are wholly ignorant and indifferent on the subject, but when the facts are presented they grow intensely interested. Scores of times I have had men who wear the G. A. R. button crowd around me after a speech and express their appraval of my utterances. The issue is one which will not down and which the south cannot afford to let rest and as long as I lwe and my health holds out I expect to continue to agitate it and press for its solution along the only possible line by the repeal of the 15th amendment thus permitting each state to regulate its suffrage according to its conditions. We will never have any guarantee of continued good government in South Carolina until we can limit the suffrage to white :..?i koon Ar\n& in thp .9onth African confedera I11CII JU31 clD uao *>4 tion. Sir Arthur Balfour's recent declaration that the admission of inferior colored races to participation in government would destroy civilization itself is as true of the South as it is of South Africa. The negro-loving papers of the South, the News and ? " ? * - - ^? nni _ p Courier, The State, The Charlotte UDserver, i ne oavannah News, and others, may protest and abuse me as much as they like, but I expect to continue to disscuss the race problem as long as my health and strength permits. The Meeting Today. We have met here today to celebrate the victory of 1876, the triumph of the whites over the blacks, of civilization and progress over barbarism and the forces which were undermining the very foundations of our commonwealth. fho PipHmnnt section of the state having rkb ID IkUUiai Uiv. * a white majority suffered least during that terrible period and has profited most by the restoration of good government. When I first came to Anderson in 1886 it was a straggling village with muddy streets which gave no sign of the progressive and beautiful city which now greets my eyes. This is the condition throughout the entire upper section of the state. Wherever you find whites in large numbers industry and thrift are in evidence on every hand. As we move towards the coast the lack of these grows more and more apparent, due entirely to the difference in the population. The more negroes the least progress. Anderson never had negro domination in its true sense. You old men know little or nothing about the horrors to which the middle and lower counties were subjected. ?i n xi hltp maioritv and have it still and you 1 Ull tUWUVU IICIU CI J ^ ought to thank God that this is so and strain every nerve to increase the number of good white people who shall make South Carolina their home and develop her resources. To be continued.