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and her virtue, regardless of what may be the consequences. I was quoted in a campaign speech to have said, "To hell with the Constitution." Seventy-five thousand white men of my State endorsed it as I said it, and here is the way I used it-I said, "If the Constitution of my State causes my State to blush and allows her women to be forsaken, then I say, to hell with the Constitution." We stand alone in this divorce proposition, and we are proud of it, and have no apology to make.

GOVERNOR MANN'S RESOLUTION.

Governor Mann: I offer as a substitute to Governor O'Neal's resolution, the following:

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Governors' Conference in session at Richmond, Va., December 6, 1912, that the whole power of the several States should be used whenever necessary to protect persons accused of crime of every kind against the violence of mobs, and to provide for speedy, orderly and impartial trials by Courts of competent jurisdiction to the end that the laws for the protection of life and property be duly enforced and respected by all the people.

IN RE MANN RESOLUTION.

Governor Blease: Mr. Chairman, I hold in my hand four communications which I have received this morning, threatening my life. One has just been handed me, addressed to me, in care of Governor Mann

Governor Mann: I don't know anything about it.

Governor Blease: It is a private letter and there is no reflection upon you, Governor Mann. Mr. Chairman, I am not expressing the views of any gentleman in this conference, but my own. The newspaper headlines have done me a great injustice. I said in my speech in this conference on Thursday that I would never order out a military company with instructions to shoot down their neighbors and their friends in the defense of certain people. I care not to repeat the language now; but I said it then and meant it, and mean it now; because I would never order a military company of my State, or a regiment of my State, of which I am the Commander-in-Chief, to do that which I wou'd not do myself. If that be treason to the Constitution of South Carolina, in the words of the great Virginian, "make the most of it." The headlines in some of the papers stated that I said Jack Johnson would have been lynched in South Carolina. I made no such statement. I said that under the laws of South Caro

lina that condition could not have arisen, because we did not allow intermarriage of the races, and if a ceremony of that kind had been performed both the man and the woman would have been locked up; but I predicated it further upon this statement: I said that it depended upon the locality of South Carolina where that marriage took place whether it would have been kept within the legal bounds, and I repeat it now.

Now, as to your resolution, that absolutely gives me no concern. On the 21st of January, 1913, I will be sworn in for a second term as Governor of South Carolina. If God Almighty spares my health and strength, on the 4th day of March, 1915 (if He should will it), I will represent South Carolina in the greatest council of this nation, the United States Senate, and your resolution can't keep me from it. Why? Because, Mr. President, I have never believed (with all due respect to some gentlemen, one of whom was my choice for President of the United States--and I think we would have made a wise selection if we had chosen Judson Harmon, of Ohio)-yet I have never been one of the Southern States' representatives who believed in apologizing to the North for any views I held; I have never done it, and I never expect to do it. That is my position, gentlemen, as much as I think of a good many of you personally, and whether you pass that resolution or not is a matter of indifference to me. Some of you who may vote for it will be resting in the shades of private life when the Governor of South Carolina is still enjoying the plaudits of his constituency. Now, Mr. President, what does your resolution mean? Not speaking of myself at all. Far be it from that. But your resolution is intruding upon a province of this conference upon which we have no right to intrude. I thank the Governor of Arkansas; I thank the Governor of my sister State, North Carolina, (although we can't exchange the usual courtesies, because he is a prohibitionist)-I thank them for their kind words. I see that they are right. But when a man has stood, as I have, in the face of a united press, against the corporations, with all their moneyed interests, against the Chief Justice of my State, and with all of it, defended myself and my position and won the approval of the white men and the white women of my State, I don't care what you, as a Governors' Conference, or anybody else, think about it. If there be one thing I have credit for, thank God, it is for being plain-spoken, and, thank God, I hope, honest. I conceal nothing. If you, Mr. Chairman, or any gentleman, will get up and ask me any question in regard to any matter, I will answer it; but the Governor of North

Carolina struck it strong and answered the criticism positively when he says that the Constitution of your State, nor mine, ever reached the point that it is prohibitive of you to defend the virtue of the women of your State, and in answering the question of the Governor from Wyoming, when it is said some ladies left the hall (to which I have no objection)-when that question was answered, I said, "Yes, Governor, and possibly you heard of me when I said, "To hell with the Constitution;'" that was accredited to me in my campaign. I said it in the capital of South Carolina in the presence of thousands, and I said it when I was asked by my opponent the very question that the Governor of Wyoming asked me yesterday, and when my opponent hurled in my teeth the statement that I had sworn to obey the Constitution of South Carolina, my reply to him was then as expressed by the Governor of North Carolina in his little talk. My reply to the Governor of Wyoming and my reply to the American nation today is what I said then-it is not necessary to repeat it. Now, what do you hope to accomplish by your resolution? Why, Mr. President, I will have it engrossed and will take it with me on the stump in South Carolina and I will show what the Governors' Conference (composed of the Governors from many of the States of the Union), passed as a resolution. I will take pleasure in taking it and showing it to them and asking what their opinion is, and ask South Carolina, "Do you endorse those who don't know the conditions in South Carolina, or endorse your Governor?" And I say, again, when some of you will be resting in the shades of private life, the white women of South Carolina will be kneeling at their bedsides with their arms around their little twelve and fourteen-year-old daughters, praying that they may be relieved from the necessity of a mob, and will in the prayer, when they wind it up, pray God to bless the man who stands ready to defend them; and, like they did on the 27th of August, as their husbands leave for the farms, the factory, the machine shops and their other occupations, will reach up and kiss them and say, "Don't forget to vote for Blease, because he protects the white women of South Carolina!"

Pass the resolution! I would not give that for it (the speaker at this point snapped his fingers).

I would not apologize for a word I have said if you were going to expel me from your conference. South Carolina once took a position almost alone. The other States later came to it, and today every

Southern man loves old Richmond and loves Richmond's history and Richmond's people because of the record that Richmond and Virginia's people made in that great contest.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I only arose for the purpose of correcting possibly the headlines which were printed in the newspapers; not particularly to speak upon the resolution, because I care nothing for it. But, gentlemen, you hold such views as you please; do as you please; act as you please; send out to the world what you please; but let it be still understood that I concur in the views of the Governor from Idaho, whose remaks, along with the other two Governors that I have mentioned, were particularly applicable to this occasion. But if a maudlin sentiment dictates to you the theory that your conference is responsible for what I said-not that you approve of it--but you are taking notice of it, and thereby admit that you have to go on record to show to the world that you don't approve of what the Governor of South Carlina said-go ahead with your resolution. Then when the Governor of Wisconsin reaches home his constituents will say, "We are glad you took the stand you did against the views expressed by the Governor of South Carolina." And when the Governor of Wyoming gets home, his people will say, "We are proud to know that you did not endorse that South Carolinian in his ideas about lynch law." And when the Governor from Connecticut arrives at home-distinguished and learned, the equal of any, if not possibly the superior--he will be greeted with the words, "We are mighty proud you went on record as not approving the awful lawlessness expressed by that dreadful Governor of South Carolina."

Why, you are making yourselves ridiculous in the eyes of all people, if you stop and think.

And now, Mr. President, in conclusion, allow me to say, that whatever may be your resolution, if I have said one word that would cause any woman in Virginia—and I say Virginia because she stands up at the very topmost pinnacle in the virtue and purity of her womanhood (applause)—if I have said one word that would cause them to blush with shame; if I have said one word that would cause one of them the slightest embarrassment, I apologize to them—I say I apologize to you, I beg your pardon. (Applause.)

But, I assure you, women of Virginia, I assure you, Governors, that whenever in South Carolina a negro brute lays his hand upon a white woman, the sooner his dead body is placed six feet under

ground the better for the virtue and womanhood of the Southern States and of South Carolina.

Received as information.

PETITION PRESENTED.

Mr. CARLISLE presented a petition of the following tenor, signed by 687 workers in Clifton Cotton Mills:

To the Legislature of South Carolina.

Honorable Sirs: We, the undersigned workers in the Clifton Cotton Mills, Clifton, S. C., earnestly petition that the present law permitting children between the ages of 12 and 14 to work in textile mills, be not interfered with.

TIME FIXED.

Mr. LAWSON moved that when the Senate adjourns it stand adjourned to meet tomorrow at 11 a. m., which motion was adopted.

ADJOURNMENT.

At 1:30 p. m., the Senate, on motion of Mr. LAWSON, adjourned.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1913.

The Senate assembled 11 a. m., the hour to which it stood adjourned, and was called to order by the PRESIDENT.

The roll was called, and, a quorum answering to their names, the PRESIDENT announced the Senate ready to proceed to business. The proceedings were opened with prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. W. S. Stokes.

The Clerk proceeded to read the Journal of yesterday, whereupon, on motion of Mr. STRAIT, the further reading of the Journal was dispensed with.

The PRESIDENT called for Petitions, Memorials, Presentments of Grand Juries and such like papers.

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS.

The following Bills and Resolutions were introduced:

S. 9. Mr. CARLISLE: A Bill to make an appropriation to the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, and to provide for scholarships in said college.

Read the first time and referred to the Committee on Finance.

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