Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TILLMAN'S SPEECH ? DELIVERED IN UNITED STATES SENATE MONDAY ? SEES NATIONS DECAY Senior Senator Scores Woman Suffrage?Says Country Needs <?ood Mothers More Than Purifiers of Polities'?Touches on Divorce Evil and Cnminctti-Diggs Case. For the first time siiioe the illness which almost caused his death, Senator Tillman Monday delivered a real speech in the Senate in open session. There was a good attendance on the floor and in the galleries. Tho subject of the speech and vigorous manner in its delivery (although the Senator read from tho manuscript which he had previously dictated) interested tho audience greatly and constituted a welcome diversion from the tedium of tho tariff debate. Comment in Washington was that the speech sounded exactly liko tlie Tillman of old. i While Senator Tillman was explaining South Carolina's attitude towards divorce in contrast witli that ] of her neighbors, Senator Overman, < of North Carolina, interrupted to ex- 1 plain that the previous looseness of the divorco law in his State has been corrected. Senator Bacon undertook to make a statement with reference to Ceorgia, whereupon Senator Tillman down, remarking that he would let Mr. Bacon make tho speech. This sarcasm had its effect in checking interruption and Senator Tillman resumed tho thread of his fiery discourse, which was in full as follows: Mr. President: A few days ago 1 asked permission of the Senate to insert in the Record and to have printed as a public document an article entitled "Tho Mission oft Woman," by Dr. Alfred Tavlor Bledsoe. When the Record appeared the next morning it wns found that tho article in Question contained what many Senator thought was an unkind and unjust reference to Northern women. 1 had not read tho entire articlo before submitting it to the Senate. I had read only tint first part, and was struck by tho force of the historical references quoted in it as to the cause of the decay and fall of Rome. I felt that tho article was very opportune just at this time, and that was why I wanted it given circulation in the Record and printed as a public document. On discovering the attitude of my brother Senators toward it, which 1 can readily see was natural, if not justifiable, I promptly joined them in requesting that it be expunged from the Record. I wished to avoid even the appearance of . harboring mean thought or unchari, table sentiments toward the women i of the North. Some of the very fin, est women I have ever known were ( Northern women and good women, j thank God, aro not confined to any f section of our great country. They are to be found everywhere in the t United States, an<* they will he the ^ greatest factors in saving our civilia zation from degeneration and derj struction. ^ The expunging of the article from a the Record did not prevent its reachc ing every part of the United States, g for the copies containing it had been ^ mailed before the action of the Senn ate ordering it to be expunged and a countermanding the order for it to ff he printed as a public document had s, been takon. , , Comments more or less vitriolic, and some of them wholly unjust and unfair, have come to me through the Uj mail. I have been astounded to see how much ignorance has been shown. Some of the most scholarly c*v Northern magazines and periodicals, like the Independent, whose editors ... ought to be ashamed of their ignor . ance, discuss "Tho Mission of Woman" as though It had just appeared, ' Instead of having been published forty odd years ago. I havjp received a number of requests for copies of tin ?"pjie Mission of .Woman"; and I am wa sorry that (he Senate refused to have y it printed as a public document, because tho action of tho Senate oxpungJng it from the permanent Re^ cord only attracted attention to it cu< more and caused people to be curious > to see what had stirred up all the row in Washington. t Further Kvplaiiatioii. St * I have investigated the matter fully, and feel that in justice both to er I>r. Bledsoe and to myself I ought to make a further statement, lie was a profound scholar, a courteous gentleman and a Clodly man; and I feel ? that it is duo his memory to explain fully how the article came to be writ* ten, and under what circumstances ii was given publicity. Dr. Bledsoe died in 1 877. So nothing that has 'au< been, or will be, said about "Tin *ha Mission of Woman" hero or else left -where, will affect him in the slight est. He has gone, "somewhere pas the sunset and tho night," to a lam Ii where wordly praises can not pleas< ton nor worldly censures wound or crush Nov But I want to clear his memory am guil his name from any suspicion of sec cord tional narrowness of any kind, ant that above all of narrowness and bigotr: towards the women of any part o our common country. A chief tenet of the school in which ho was reared was chivalrous respect and reverence for women; and to him a good woman, wherever ai*d under whatever circumstances sho might live, was a superior being, a sort of divinity whose high and holy purpose on earth was to boar, to rear and to j mould man into the image of his Maker. In sadness, not in anger, he saw, or thought he saw, Northern women surrendering their divinity and high privileges for mere human rights, and as an honest man, true to the training he had received from his own mother and to the ideals which that training had engendered, he kindly, but firmly, spoke his sentiments. The article first appeared in print in 1871, in tho October number of the Southern Review, one of the the broadeet and most scholarly periodicals of its day. It was the lineal descendant of the once famous DeBow's Review. Prom 1846 until the close of the civil war this later magaazine was a leading exponent of the hopes and aspirations of tho South; and when it, mortally wounded, as it were, by the collapse and fall of the Southern Confederacy, suspended publication shortly after tho end of the war. the Southern Review was founded to take its place. Dr. Bledsoe was (%o8en editor of the new periodical, and it was his review of the then new published "History of Morals," by Rooky, which led him to write "The Mission of Woman". Tho last chapter of Rooky's history is a very brilliant and profound exposition of the condition, social rights and political privileges of women in all ages. The criticism us it appeared in the Southern Review had been reprinted in pamphlet form by some admirer of Dr. Bledsoe; and Senator Johnson, of Alabama, (now, alas! gone from us to his long resting place,) and had come into possesion of a copy. He showed it to mo and asked mo to have it printed as a public document. 1 glanced through it hurriedly and was so forcibly impressed by the author's apt application of Becky's facts to the question of woman suffrage, divorce, and materialism, now so apparent everywhere, that I asked to have it printed in tho Record as well as a public document; for I thought it. could not be given too wide publicity because the country needs educating along these lines more than any other just at this time. Day of the Carpetbagger. But Becky's History was only the occasion of "The Mission of Woman", Tho real reason for its being written was undoubtedly the deplorable condition of Southern politics at that time. As Senators will remember, the reconstruction of the South was completed in 1868. Universal suffrage had been decreed by Con gross, and men wltli Federal uniforms on their backs and rifles in their hands marshalled the newly freed blacks to the polls, and directed how they should cast their ballots. Thus, under the leadership of Thad Stevens and others, the North-] ern fanatics sowed the seed, and by 1871 the harvest of evils began to ripen. The South, prostrate and bleeding at every pore, her past a hopeless memory of better times, her present a slough of despond, and her future a hideous nightmare?the South, I say, was literally wallowing in violence, corruption, honesty and political debauchery. It was pitiful. The great South, "than which no fairer land hath fired a poet's lay," was become a loathsome region, full of hideous sights and sounds and tilings unholy. Negroes, very few of whom could real or write, and some of them not three generations removed from the jungles of Africa, controlled our Legislatures, while white scoundrels and thieves from the North ruled the negroes and robbed our people through them. Many of the magistrates and judges were negroes. The States colleges and universities of the South, maintained by taxation, were controlled by trustees elected by the negro Legislatures. Carpet baggers, scalawags, and negroes were among these trustees, and Dr. Dledsoo and other Southerners like him were ready to cry out: "Icabod, thy glory has departed forever." At the thought of women anywhere, especially of the South, entering this monstrous and filthy arena, Dr. Bledsoe's chivalrous, sensitive spirit recoiled with horror, lie pointed to the women of the Nortb not for what they were, but for what they might become, and would become, and would become if they per sisted in their determination to aban don the sphere in which God hat i placed them, lie lifted the kindlj i finger of warning; ho drew the i Knigntiy sword or protection; ho die not level the brutal pike of censure I and condemnation. His scholarly i mind appreciated the cause of the - rottenness of Imperial Homo, and be L lieving that history repeats itself, h< i trembled for his country. I knov i from experience how hard it is fa i old men to adopt new notions, te - accept new ieleals. Visions are fo - young men; old men must "droan t dreams", and cling to their traeli 1 tions. They dislike to be rudel; 3 awakened, and are ever holding bacl . against innovations and changes. Tin 1 world moves forwards, ever forward - l>ocause the young men will seek t< 1 progress. It Is the Ideal civilization o 7 condition in society when the tw< f forces are equalized, and the younj and progressive visionaries are counselle 1 and directed and held back by the wisdom of their seniors. Old men see the world rushing along P< ll-mell. helter-skelter, going to the devil, so to speak, we mourn in spirit. "The old order ehangeth, yielding place to the now," and the transitions are so startling that they hurt us cruelly. TaekleK Suffrage Issue. I am 1 ?.'d to make a few remarks on woman suffrage, although it is a dangerous topic to handle just at this time. I flatter myself, however, that my well-known reverence for good women will shield me from being misunderstood. The idea is fast hecoming a practical issue, and Senators will realize the importance of our obtaining as much accurate information in regard to it as the nature of the subject will permit. Much valuo data could bo obtained In States where the experiment is now being tried. Vital statistics should by all means bo gathered in those States where woman suffrage already obtains. We ought to have records made of the birth rate, death rate, divorces and other things affecting the every-day social life of the people, which would in a hundred years, say, show us whethor female suffrage has affected these tilings injuriously or not. In Home, when - the manner and customs with regard to women began to change and they were given more privileges than they had ever enjoyed before, divorces were so largely increased that free love became the rule?the birth rate correspondingly decreased, at Lecky's History shows. Now it is a beautiful dream that female suffrage will purify politics*, because our Ideals of women are so I h I eli nnd wo rocnnl tliom or* .iKar*-, lutely as tho sources of goodness and purity, that we can not conceive of their not elevating and helping anything they touch. Hut tho vital and important thing for us to consider is the effect on women themselves. We had better endure tho evils of corruption in politics and debauchery in our government rather than bring about a condition which will mar the beauty and dim the luster of the glorious womanhood with which we have become accustomed all of our lives. We can hottor afford to have degraded and corrupt politics than degraded and bad women. To have both in ever-increasing degree, as was in case in Home, would make the world so unspeakably horrible, as well as so corrupt, that good men and women both would disappear from the faco of tho earth, and civilization would ho blotted out like it was in the dark ages after the fall of Rome. Indeed, I am so thoroughly a convert to the belief that "you can not touch pitch without being del filed," that 1 shudder to think of the consequences to the womanhood of America should stiffrago become universal taking in both sexes and all races. Yet. the experiment is going to he tried, I fear. Tho ltallot a Privilege. I know the tho demand for suffrage on the part of women is growing too fast for old fogies liko me to stop it, except possibly in the South and New England, where conservatism is more strongly intrenched man anywnere else in this country. I believe religiously that whatever tho women ask for tho men will give them, even though it ho to their ultimate injury; and tho country will have to teat and ho tested along these lines in apito of all tho theories and ideals which have governed us heretofore. Fortunately the United States Supremo Court has declared that casting the ballot is a privilege?not a right?and that tho States alone can confer this right on its citizens. Neither tho suffragettes nor the suffragettors?as Representative lieflin calls their masculine sympathizers?ever consider or seem to pay and regard to the effect of politics on women; hut I sincerely believe that the usefulness and goodness of woman vary inversely as the extent of her participation in politics. 1 believe she will improve politics, but, ultimately, politics will destroy hoi as we know her and love her; and when our good women are no longei to be found, and wo have lost the breed, tho doom of the Republic it near. It may be contended that in forma . 1 tlon such as I have described wouk r bo partial and fragmentary, and thai any conclusions based on it would 4 therefore, contain a largo factor o , uncertainty. That may or may no be true. But there Is at l<*ast on< subject about which mathematically exact knowledge can be obtained The number of divorces granted in i 1 Stato with woman suffrage and tin r birth rate may be compared with tin 3 number in the same Stato befor I equal suffrage was adopted, and tin ^ relation between the two phenomoni j inferred. 3 I thank God that my lot was cas - in ft State where there is no sucl ?. thing as divorce. To get married ii / South Carolina is the easiest thlnj r imaginable. To get "unmarried" i ) impossible. "Once married, alway r married," is the rule. Literally an i exactly wo believe that "for better o - for worse, in poverty and in wealtti y in sickness and in health, till deatl c do them part," they twain are one. a It is true that, if life together be , conies unbearable, a man and wif 3 may separate and live apart; bu r even then the bonds that bind ther jlare only stretched, not legally broh ? en. In South Carolina we tie a mat j rimonal knot that baffles alike the skill of legal logic, tho dexterity of sophistry, tho nimble lingers of a falso expediency and the brute strength of a statute. Tho knot we tie holds faster than the fabled "Clordian Knot" of antiquity. Ingenuity can not unfasten nor force destroy it. Tho skeleton fingers of death alone can loose it. Not tho South Carolina Way. Wo in South Carolina do not believe in the modern idea so prevalent in this day and time of permitting a man to marry a woman in her youth and beauty, and then, when her neck begins to grow skinny and shrunken, her face sallow and splotched, and her eyes dim, to search out among his women acquaintances some young and buxom girl who suits his lustful eyes better and straightway set to work systematically to treat his old wife so that she, in self-defence and to maintain her self-respect, seeks a divorce to get rid of him. There have been glaring cases of this kind of world-wide notoriety wherever the divorce evil nourishes. When we contrast this type of man and woman with the glorious picture drawn by Burns, theso men who have souls are bound to recoil from the one type and bow down and worship the other. Best you have forgotten the verses 1 will recite them for you: "John Anderson, my jo, John, When wo were first acquent, Your locks were like the raven, Your bonie brow was brent; But now your brow is held, John, Your locks are like the snaw, But blessings on your frosty pow, John Anderson, my jo. "John Anderson, my jo, John, We clamb the hill thogither, And monie a cantie day, John, We've had wi'ane anither; Now we maun totter down, John, And hand in hand we'll go, And sleep thegither at the foot, John Anderson, my io!" This soiiR, one of Robert Burns' host, is the very npothesis of married life among the virtuous and good people of the world. In thinking about the widespread, unprogressive character of the divorce evil, like all thoughtful men, I have been led to consider the cause of it and the great demoralization which has followed it. The law of sexuality is the most powerful law in nature, and it is the wise provision of the good God who created us with it to compel reproduction, the perpetuation of the race. Whever the marringo bond is regarded as a sacred one, women are usually virtuous, and virtuous women always make virtuous men, just as good mothers raise up brave and noble sons. As long as Rome had women of the type of Virginia and Lucretia, the Romans conquered all their neighbors and all other nations in Europe. When the women grew to bo loose in thoir virtue., and lost, it altogether in many eases, and the women to bo of the type of Nero's mother, who commited incest with her own son, as the historians tell us, Rome rapidly decayed and ceased to be mistress of the world. Therefore, it can be safely claimed that civilization itself is dependent on good women, and by good women I do not mean only amiable women; I mean virtuous women. This State Unique. The divorce evil does not directly affect South Carolina; but our State is the only one that does not permit divorce in some form. North Carolina and Georgia, States on our borders, both grant them, and on increasingly trivial grounds, if report bo true. My State is a lonely isle i surrounded on all sides by a turbid Hood of raging, maddened waters; and lest we too be submerged, 1 would see the waters subside and the i dry land appear, and under the blesss ed rays of God's moral sunshine ' would behold once again over our whole country the fruits and flowers of domestic peace, love and affection , confidence, joy and contentment. I beg Senators' pardon for havinp I (HffPAflSOd T'llt f?a T uioo i. ? . W14V 14M X n ?o ^VMii Ull IL say, statistics on the number of di5 vorces granted in Stat^p where wo* men bave tbe vote would be very valuable. It would enable us to see the - connection between woman suffrage 1 and family life. It appears to me t that the relation .between "votes foi , women" and divorce, if not one o f cause and effect, is at least one ol t mutual acceleration. I am no pessi 3 mist; but I am enough of a scientist j to accept the truth wherever I fln< . it, bo it pleasant or unpleasant, am i I have read historv to no nnmnM \ q it lias not taught nio that the purit: e and stability of the family has in al e ago boon tho surest bulwark of tin r State. It. has evor been that whoi a tho marriage relation became insc cure, and women quitted their owi t sphere to enter that of man, the do Ij cay and fall of States followed. S< n often has this happened that I mils K believe that' the one sot of events i g tho result of tho other. I have, there s fore, sounded this feeble note o worning. As Hannibal gazed mourn r fully on the bloody head of his broth ! or, Hasdruhal, and prophetically ex ^ claimed, "Carthage, I see thy fate,1 so T, looking at tho growing craze o woman suffrage and the rapid in e in number of divorces granted in thi ^ country, sadly think, if I do not sa> n "America, thy race is almost run tin less something is done to check th headlong speed." The demoralization and consequent degradation, which has been produced by the divorce evil, are illustrated by the notorious DiggsCaminettl afTair in California. The ease with which divorces are obtained in Reno led to that place being selected as the 0110 to carry the two respectable girls from Sacramento, and the promise to marry these women after divorces were obtained no doubt had much to do with overcoming their scruples. Such a tragedy in domestic life could not happen at all in South Carolina. It could not happen anywhere in the South, even in thoso States where divorces are obtained, and I say it in no boasting spirit. Northern View of Vs. We have bad women in South Carolina and through the South. Hut the habits of our people and their customs, inherited from our forefathers, .all make it dangerous to "monkey with men's womenkind". Some Northern people call us barbarians because we shoot the seducer and lynch the rapist. If the California men had our customs, Oiggs and Caniinetti would not bo alive now, because they would have been shot like dogs, and the fathers of the girls tlioy have ruined would be acquitted almost without the jury leaving the box. The unwritten law, as it lias been called, is the best law to protect woman's virtue that I ever heard of, though there have been abuses of it and men at times have gone scot-free who ought to have been punished. The nioro I think about the Diggs-Caminetti case, the more outraged I grow at the state of morals and society which not only permits such crimen against civilization, but encourages them.. 1 am too much of a savage myself to think upon such things with calmness and equanimity. However, this case is now being tried, and, perhaps, I ought not to comment on it. Hut 1 am speaking as I do, not for the purpose of influencing the Jury, or public opinion for or against the men who are indicted. 1 am only using the case to illustrate the argument I am making on the demoralizing effects of woman suffrage and easy divorces. Among our very rich people in j America degeneration and bestiality have gone so far that swapping wives is a common practice. Family life is no longer what it ought to be, and the watering places and hotel resorts in the mountains afford opportunities for getting acquainted with other men's wives and other women's husbands. Taist. takes the place of love, with the result that divorce is soon arranged and the swap is perfected under the forms of law. The women are just as bad as the men and divorce their husbands on any slight nretext. if tliev come nrross n mnn they like better, who makes love to them. A most, disgraceful and mortifying fact which every American must blush for is to see how the American , millionaires are buying their daughters titled husbands. Some count, baron, or lord, no matter how much of a debauchee and scoundrel he may be, is looked up by the rich father and purchased in the open market jugt as he would purchase a horse or a stallion. The women submit to legal prostitution for a time. Then the titled debauchee, whose relatives have sneered at the plebian wife all along, are relieved of her presence. A divorce follows and the unnatural alliance between money and scoundrelism is ended. Oh! the shame of it, but that is the way modern society is progressing. God save the mark! To me such people seem to be going straight to hell, and I am no , stickler for religion. I only abhor from the bottom of my soul the degredation and rottenness now becoming too common in society. Wai ns Against Weakness. The danger, if danger there be, in ' giving women the ballot at all is in' creased by the cowardice of public ! men everywhere. Politicians the . world ovor have always had a keen eye to see which way they think the ; people are going; and it seems to me i that the men politicians are trying - to make peace with the women poli tieians and get on their good side while it is fair weather. I noticed in > Saturday's paper that the headlines ; threatened diro consequences here? after to any public man who dared - oppose the demand for woman suff frage now. I am afraid some of the f weak-kneed men will he influenced - In their attitude on this momentous t subject by this fear. No man, who is 1 a man worth standing in shoe leath1 or, will be influenced by any such f motive, and only cowards will yield ir their eonvlc.Hona A?rl untn 1 women the ballot unless they believe * honestly that It Is for the l>ost intori ests of the women and of the coun try. The history of the world is full i of "crazes", or what they now call - obsessions. The crusades are an illustration of what I mean. t Peter, tho Hermit, a fanatical 8 monk who was very eloquent, arous ed the religious fervor of the Chrisf tians in Western Europo to such a pitch that hundreds of thousands enlisted for the Holy War against the - Infidels. No doubt this fervor waf necessary to prevent tho Crescent f from supplanting the Cross. It waf - like two storms coming from oppose site directions and meeting. The r- Saracens overran Egypt and North em Africa, and crossed the Strait ol y Gibraltar into Spain. They crossed Spain and invaded France, and were v; only beaten back by Charles Martel, who defeated them at the battle ot the tours. It was six centuries before the Moors were expelled from the Spanish Peninsula and compelled to return to Africa. Later when the Turks had conquered Constantinople tho followers of the Crescent overran Southeastern Europe up to tho walls of Vienna, where the rising tide of Mohammedanism was only stopped by John Sobieski. The recent war in the Balkans has wrested almost all of that peninsula from the Turks, but here was so little Christianity, patriotism and sense among the allied nationalities that racial and religious prejudice and hatreds brought on a patricidal strife among themselves. Children's Lives Sacrificed. In one of tho crusades the children were crazed by the priests and tens of thousands of them gathered and began to march towards the East. What they could do after they got there never seemed to enter their minds at all. They were simply lunatics frenzied with the religious idea. First and last, historians toll us that upwards of one million, ouc hundred thousand people perished. The pitiful story is told that five shiploads of these children who start! ed for Palestine were sold into slavery to the infidels by their so-called Christian leaders. The rest of the children died from exposuro and starvation. It may not he worth whilo to recall these things, and I only mention them for the purpose of directing attention to the dangerous forceswhich are being set in motion by those who are preaching and agitating for woman's rights. I am aware that in reciting all these horrid and cruel things I am chargeable with making a jeremnid or lament of the decay of our civilization. To others there may be no appearance of decay at all. I may be blinded or giving way to vain imaginings, but it seems to me very real, and I speak my thought frankly and bluntly as I have always done, having been taught by my mother long ago to always tell the truth or to try to, and to shun everything like hypocricy and double-dealing. "Of all man's possessions unspeakably most sacret .are his symbols,'" and his highest earthly symbol is woman. She is his goddess of innocence and purity, and if ever she steps down or man removes her from her high place at our altars, then Ood iitiv' mercy upon us; lor tne golden bowl of purity will be broken, and the silver cbord of chastity will be loosed, and the sound of mourning will be heard in the streets, and the rule of chaos and old night will have come. I pray Clod my foreboding evil prophecies maw never come true. 1 would depart when my time shall come with much more confidence in the future of my country if I could believe that the women of our great land would always remain as pure and high as the majority of then) now are. ? BRUTE KILLS WIFE. t ? Who Was on Her Knees Pleading for Mercy. While on her knees pleading pitifully for her life, Mrs. Ethel Denson. of Key West, was shot to death on the streets of Tampa, Fla., on Thursday by her husband, Bennio Denson. Two negroes, who claim to be eyewitnesses to the tragedy, were afraid to interfere. Denson, who followed his wife from Key West several weeks ago. discovered her working in a restaurant on Franklin street. It is said that he threatened to kill her if she di*d not return with him. When Mrs. Denson started homo her husband was waiting just outside the door, and started after her. She outran him three blocks, but fell on her knees exhausted nonann .. ,,v...own i unuuu lip, and without a word, fired two shots, cither of which would have been fatal, physicians say. Denson has not. been capture. ? ? Negro Kills Georgia Man. J. C. Marohmon, a farmer, was shot and killed at Greenville, Ga., Wednesday by Palter Brewster, a negro, whom Marchman was bringing to Greenville for trial on a trivial charge. (Brewster jumped from Marchmon's buggy, rushed into a negro's house by the roadside and procured a shotgun. He chased Marchmon around the house for several minutes finally killing him. Train Hits Auto. Karl P. Taylor was killed near Newton, N. C.. Wednonrlnv ? j ? nun a 1 train hit his automobile, in which ho I had attempted to got across the I track. Mr. Taylor was coming homo I from Blowing Rock in a small car. I Witnesses say that ho was not racing, I but had curtains and windshield up. I He was struck and hurled thirty feet I upon a pile of crossties and had his I skull crushed. ,1 Kills Wife at Breakfast. I Frantic because he had heard unII founded reports reflecting on his .1 wife's character, John Marshall Wod Inesday morning flred Ave bullets Into .[her body as tbey sat at the breakfast r I tablo in their home at Martin's Ferry, II across the Ohio River from Wheeling, W. Va.