Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1903 — TILLMAN GOES FREE. [ARTICLE]

TILLMAN GOES FREE.

Acquitted by Jury of (bo Crime of Ktlllaat Editor Ooaubi. James H. Tillman, who nlno months afo alow N. C i. Gontalea, adltor of tha State, on tho street at Colombia, S. 0* will receive no punishment for his deed. After long deliberation, In which there was danger that tho twelve men would tail to agree, a verdict of not guilty was announced, and the former Lieutenant Governor and nephew of the pitchfork Senator was released amid a demonstration of approval by his friends. Counsel for the defense moved the defendant’s discharge from the sheriff’s custody. NO objections being made by the State, the court entered, the order. So defendant shook hands with the Ige and members of the jury and left the court room accompanied by his Mends and counsel. The jury was out twenty-four hours. The cause of the shooting was that during the previous primary election Gonzalez bitterly opposed Tillman in his race for Governor. The trouble between the men first grew out of the fight between Senator Tillman and Senator McLaurin on the floor of the Senate. Major Mtcnh Jenkins, who had served with' Roosevelt's Rough Riders in Cuba, was to have been presented with a sword by the people of South Carolina, and the presentation was to have been made by President Roosevelt When the President withdrew his invitation to a State dinner in Washington, which he had sent to Senator Tillman, Lieut Gov. Tillman withdrew the invitation to the President to present the sword. Gonzalez Jook up the matter Tu his paper and denounced Lieut Gov. Tillman. He repeated the denunciation* made on many occasions and dared Mr. Tillman to deny them. Tillman once challenged Gonzales t» a duel, but was ignored. Gonzales was a member of a famous fighting family, being the son of Ambrose Jose Gonzales, who, with Narcisso Lopes, began the struggle for Cuban independence in 1848.