The People's party paper. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, August 12, 1892, Image 5

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WATSON’S WELCOME HOME. [continued from first page.] ed to go to the horse races, and did go. [Laughter.] Here is the record of Sat urday, June 29, 1892, and it shows that Congress was in session just two minutes. Absenteeism blocked the wheels.— [Laughter.] When Democratic statesmen leave their duties and put in regular attend ance at horse races it is no wonder they complain that they have no “chance.” (Great laughter and applause.] The “chance” such men as these want is the eternity of drawing salaries. [A voice, “Give him a fan.”] Mr. Watson—lt’s the Democrats who need the fanning. { Loud laughter and cheering.] Such ab senteeism paralizeseverything. The men who are present and want to work cannot work because of the absence of others. So, as we sat there with folded hands, waiting for the horse-racing statesmen, 1 whirled in and wrote a book. [Laugh ter. ] I intended that book to hurt, and it does hurt. [Laughter.] I intended to expose usages which were going on there detrimental to the people. I violated no man's confidence. [Voice, “No, you did not.”] Congress is not a private body. A man who sees abuses an 4 does not de nounce them, that they may be corrected, is not true to the best interests of the public. Now here is the paragraph which made the lion roar. [Laughter.] “The congress now sitting is one illustration. Pledged to reform they have not reformed. [A voice “that’s right.”] “Pledged to economy, they have not economized.” [Many voices, "no, no no.”] And no man denies this—“pledged to legislate, they have not legislat ed —” no man denies this—[Voices, hey cannot deny it.] “Extravagance has been the order of the day. Absenteeism was never so pronounced. Lack of purpose was never so clear. “Drunken members have reeled about the aisles.”—[Laughter and cries of “shame,” “shame.”] “Drunken speakers have debated grave issues on the Hour, and in the midst of maudlin ramblings have been heard to inquire, “Mr. Speaker, where was 1 at?” [A voice “that hurts. You’ve got ’em where the wool is short.”] Mark you, I did not say that every man who takes too much toddy is a bad man. Ido not say its an unpar donable sin for a man to talk when he is drunk. That’s the very time he wants to talk. [Laughter.] But it is a curious fact that the gravest charges I made are not denied, while the lesser ones have been so bitterly denied. Let us ee if I did not prove my case. On this liquor question I am no fanatic, but I have voted on the si le of temper ance legislation. (Voices “r ght) But the prohibition question was not involved in this depute at all. In tins particular case the question was whether it was right to keep a barroom in the capit 1 building at Washington and thus outrage the feelings of millions who believe that the marble temple dedicated by Masonic ceremonies, reared into magnificence by the taxes of all the people, should not be turned into a whisky saloon. Whether you be prohibitionist or not, I believ you w’dl condemn the running of a bar room in that building. (Cries of “that’s so.”) I do not believe it is necessary io have a bar room within 65 feet of our law makers in order to get good laws. (Applause) I hit them on a tender spot and they squealed. (Laughter.) Little Gen’l. Joe Wheeler [laugh 4gr]. I suppose some of you have of him [cries of “Yes”], was at taTfVthg our platform and put in some thing against me. I replied. The General got ashy and he went out after my scalp. [Laughter.] He lug ged the book in and quoted the sen tence about drunkenness. I was asked if I wrote it. I replied that I did write it and would stand by it. [Ap plause.] They hissed me off the floor, but they have not silenced me yet. You remember Aleck Stephens said on this very spot, that they might howl him down in Congress but they would never howl him down before the peo ple. [Cheers.] I say here and now, I take my appeal from Congress to the fairminded jury of the people. [ Cheers.] Now perhaps you would like to have the evidence? It was with the greatest difficulty that I got a copy of the offi cial record. I have not time to read at length, but will come at once to the place in the record where they say that I have been shown up as a wilful liar. Let us see what has been sworn to in the investigation. I know you wpuld like to see just what has been shown—to know how many drunken members have been making speeches op the floor of Congress. First, here is Miss Bessie Dwyer, a beautiful south ern girl from Texas, correspondent of the National Economist, sworn : Q. You have seen members address ing the house in a state of maudlin intoxication? A. Yes, sir. Q. How many? A. One. And then she goes on to say, “A great many members on the democrat ic side of the House, used their best endeavors to persuade him to take his seat without avail until he had talked just as long as he wanted to. Q. Did you see him drink anything during his remarks? A. I saw a cup on his desk; at first I thought it was bouillon some friend had sent him—l thought it was bouillon .until I noticed the press gallery, and that was suffi cient. I looked up there and saw the greatest hilarity kmong the members of the press; they were lailghing, and evidently amused, and I knew from that time on what it was. Q. Did he use the expression : “Mr. Speaker, where am I at?” A. I heard the gentleman remark, “Mr. Speaker, where am I at.” Keeling backward drunk and going toward his desk when he made it. [A voice: Roaring drunk; they are a nice set.] Now here is Mr. White, a democrat from lowa, who does not belong to the republican party, and does not belong to our party; he is a pure and undefiled democrat—a member of the party whose members are so anxious to get a chance. (Laughter.) In answer to the question he reluctantly said that he had seen one man drunk on the floor of the House. (Cries of, shame! shame!) Mr. W. H. Butler, a member of the democratic party, and a member of the House, replies to the question : Please state whether you saw any drunken members reeling about the House? And his answer is: “Must I mention any names?” and being in formed by the chairman that, “we are not mentioning namefl,” after some hesi tation he said, “I have.” Being pressed to say how many, he says, ‘ four ” [Several voices: “Name them! name them* Let us know who they are.— Good bye. Jimmie ”] Mr. Watson ; No, the names are not given;” and then he said further on in his testimony: “I think that the reason the gentleman made such a speech, was that he had drunk too mu ch liquor.” Now, I wanted to prove that the House of Representatives had kept a bar room for its own accommodation ; that they were seen laboring to keep up that bar, but the chairman ruled that out-that I must stand to the naked, absolute fact as to whether a man got on the floor of the House drunk. Well, I think that if I had the proof present ed that there was a bar-room, and they patronized that bar, it would not take as much evidence to prove that the whis key had the usual effect upon a con gressman the same as upon any other man. [Laughter.] Now, to briefly summerize my proof Mr. Butler, a Democratic Congress man, testified that he had seen four members drunk on the floor of the House. Two who were addressing the Speaker and two who were not. One of the gentlemen alluded to as address ing the House was Mr. Cobb, of Ala bama. Mr. Butler said this member called for whisky two or three times during his speech; that he considered him intoxicated and that his condition was a source of general remark. Hon. G. W. Shell, of South Carolina, had seen one member drunk on the floor, Hon B. II Clover had seen one ; so had Hon. 11. G. Turner. Mr Kilgore had seen two. Hon. John Davis had seen two —both addressing the House on dif ferent occasions when they were drunk. Hon. F. E. White had seen one case. Hon. K. Halvorson had seen two mem bers addressing the House on different occasions when they were intoxicated. He had seen one other member drunk on the floor of the House and one other ly ing dead drunk on a sofa in the cloak room. Miss Bessie Dwyer, a Southern lady of the highest character, was in the gallery at the time, and swore positively that the gentleman from Alabama was drunk ; that his conduct was a source of hilarity in the press gallery, and that the gentleman reeled and held on to the desk and called out, “Mr. Speaker, where am I at?” [Great Laughter.] Hon. John Otis swore to two cases of drunk enness—and especially to the case of the erentleman from Alabama. Hon. O. M Kem had seen two of drunkenness on the floor of the House —one of them addressing the House. Now, what does this show? It shows that a man made a speech on the floor of the House who was drunk. First, I charge a case of drun kenness during the debate on the river and harbor bill; another time when the pension bill was up, and another time when a drunken man was trying to have a dialogue with another fellow who was drunk and his own question kicked him over to the floor. If that is not the truth, I am the blackest tongued liar that ever spoke. They tried to drag a member from Alabama out, but the other five men they made no denial about. Now let me tell you about their being drunk on the floor of the House. We proved that two men were drunk on the floor of the House during the discussion of the silver bill, and that on two other occasions there was drunkenness. We made cases as to four men in all who were drunk on the floor of the House, besides the five men already spoken of and the one man who, when he was addressing the speaker, asked “where he was at.” Mr. Cobb admitted that he was drinking whisky, and his col league, Mr. Oates, admits that it was whisky he was drinking. Several members said they asked him to stop speaking, but he would not stop. Like a man when he was drunk, he spoke as long as he wanted to. Every man of our witnesses sw r ore that he was drunk. A lady swore that she was in the press gallery and he was drunk, and I say I would hate to be in his case before a jury on trial for crime, for they would have a hard time re leasing him. They put up a lot of witnesses to prove they did not see him drunk. You all know about witnesses. If a man was to stand here and pick my pocket and if my friend out there and several others saw him do it and all the rest of this large crowd said no one picked my pocket, would that evi dence destroy the evidence of the two or three who did see it? They put up men who had got part of the beef and they made a verdict accordingly. When I offered to prove to the com mittee that there was a barroom, would that have not aided in proving that there was drunkenness, for it is strange to say that whisky will get the advantage of Congressmen as well as other men? Well, now, I won't take up your time further, except in saying that the report going the round of the press stating that I said at the end of the investigation that I had made the charge of drunkenness only for politi cal effect, is not true. You who know me know I did not say it, and 1 will stand up and deny it anywhere and facing anybody. (A voice—“ Tom, you look pretty tired, won’t you have a drink? I don’t mean water. I have got some.” Cries of “Shut up! shut up! ”) Mr. Watson —My friend, you had bet ter stick to water. Now here is my final testimony. I want you to see how much I took back. I want you to look me in the face and see if there is any flinching about this. I said I wish to have it on record that on this investigation it was not my purpose to appear as a prosecu tor of the House. I did not want other witnesses. I was willing forth? testi mony to rest upo.j the evidence of the members Igo on further to state that I had no intention of being personal to the gentleman from Alabama, that it was not my purpose to bring in any in dividual, but I said I was making politi cal arraignment, not a personal arraign ment, not against persons, but political parties: and drunkenness was an abuse of the House, just as were the other cases of arraignment. Anybody who wants to b° fair can see the difference— that I made the charge not to bring in the name of an individual or any num ber of individuals, but that the bar room and its consequences was one of the causes that was hurting the people in the halls of Congress Fellow-citizens, I must hurry on. I want you colored citizens to draw near that you may hear what I have got to say, for I have something to say to you especially. [A voice, “Come up close : come Nicodemus ; glory hallelujah !”] I have been here practicing law, for both white and black, some fifteen years, and if there is a black man in all this audi ence who can say that he ever trusted me with his case and I did not attend to it with the zeal and fidelity that I did for the whitest man in the county, let him say it here and now. [Several voices, “They cannot say it; nobody will say it.”] Have I not always, when you put your cases in my hands, fought* for you as if you were the whitest man in the country? [Cries of “Yes, yes. you have.”] The first fee I ever received was from Zip Taylor, a black man ; the first five dollars I ever made was paid by big-hearted Jack Roberts, and the first work I ever did when I was in the clerk’s office was for Zip Taylor, and the records will show that I put him in pos session of a little homestead and took him in out of the weather. [A voice, “We all know that; it’s the God’s truth.”] It is a well known fact that when I ran for the Legislature in 1872, the black people supported me almost to a man. Why? Because it had sunk deep into their hearts that I tried to do right between man and man, and did not stop on account of color. [Cries from the colored, “Bless the Lord! We colored people knows that.”] You knew how I was hounded down and abused by some of the men who are now seeking your votes because I stood up at the court house and thanked you for giving me your support. [A voice : “We all know that; we doesn't forget.”] You know that I said that I could see no reason why. because a man was colored, he should not have his say so as to who was the representative from McDuffie county as well as the proudest white man in the countv. [A voice, “Go it, Tom ; good hve, Jim ”] I will ask you this question: Has there ever been a time since you supported me and helped to elect me that the poorest black man in the coun ty, if he had me representing him, would not trust me as quickly and as far as any white man in the county ? [Cheering.] On my plantation there are some black men working to-day who were my grandfather’s slaves, and the fore man on my grandfather’s farm was my foreman, and remained there in that position until the old man was too feeble to hold the hoe, —to lead the gang. Does not that speak well for the justice with which I have tried to treat your people? [A voice: “It does.”] Do you not know that every colored man living on my place feels just as secure when I pass my word for anything as if I had drawn up the bond and signed the paper? [Cries of that’s so.] One of the last cases that I tried was that of a poor, unfortunate colored man, who was supposed to have committed murder. He did not have any friends, or if he did have they did not make themselves very nu merous when he s ood face to face with the gallows; he had no money and the judge assigned me to defend him, and I went into the case with all the pow er that God Almighty gave me; be cause naturally sympathizing with the poor and the oppressed, I thought thaf if there was a* reasonable doubt it would be better for the county and for society at large, and for humanity that he should have it, and when Den nis Reese walked out of the Court House a free man it was to the astonish ment nf all the gpod people both white and colored in the county. [Cries of yes yes, we remember all a'-out that!] I defended him because I had compassion for the poor, the old, the helpless and the [A voice: “That’s so, To n, We know you 1 ”] Don't you know that I have always sympathized with the un fortunate and the poverty stricken? If ever a tnmp was turned away from my door without anything to eat, it was done wi bout my knowledge or consent or the knowledge or consent of my wife. I challenge the production of such a case. [A voice: “There ain’t none.”[ Well, I remember another case. A poor colored woman, whose name I cannot remember, was up on the cha ge of stealing and Judge Ronev in the kind ness of his heart, remitted her sen tence and told her to go home, putting her on good behavior. She had no home to go to, but she had three little children crying for bread, and you all know that I made an ap peal in her behalf and passed the plate around up here in the court house, and said to the kind-hearted people, “Let us make up some money for this poor creature” [great applause and cries of “that’s so”], and the result was that that woman went home with more money than she had, I reckon, since her freedom. [Renewed cheering.] Now, I want to say another thing to you; and what I say to you I want to say in public in the blaze of day, so that all may hear it. Ido not want to say anything to my white friends that I do not want the colored people to hear, and I do not want to say any thing to the colored people that I would hide from my white friends. Now, what I want to say is this: I pledge you my word and honor, as a man and as a representative, that if you stand up for your rights and for your manhood, if you stand shoulder to shoulder with us in this fight, you shall have fair play and fair treatment as men and as citizens, irrespective of your color. [Great cheering.] I know that it has been said that I ha-e raised a barrel of money in Augus ta to buy votes I have no money to buy votes; nor do I wish to buy the vote of any man, either white or colored, even f I could, but I make this appeal to you —I ask you this question: Is it not the most deadly insult to your col or to say that I, or anybody else can buv you jus*- as you were bought and sold on the block in slavery? [Cries of they cannot do it ] I know they far that they are not going to buy you di rect. but thev say that they are going to sugar up a 'eader or two, and that those leader*, with the sugar in their pockets, will deliver you without dividing the sugar. [Derisive laughter.] What have we done, I ask you? We have broken away from our leaders Pe can-e they have not treatei us right. Will you do it too? [Cries of “Yes, we wi 1!”] Let every man stand upon h s manhood; let every man say, “I am not a vassal;” ? et every man put his fist between the eyes of the man who tr es to buy him; when these leaders who have always b=en such good republi cans, and have always so hated the dem ocra s that they can see no good in them come around and tell you that they have discovered all at once that it is sdeh a good party, say to them as we say to ours, “we work for peace and harmony, for mutual good will, and to wipe the color line out in politics.” Stand for your rights, and let every man be a man in politics. [Voces: “Wp will, we will!”] You are doing nobly in the way of educating your children; your daughters are beginning to dress nicely and behave themselves decently, and be respected, and now wdl you tear down, in one campaign, all the virtue, morality and honesty that your schools have been trying to inculcate because your leaders have been sugared and acc» pte 1 by the lead ers of the democrat c party in the cit ie ? [A voice: “We will never do it.”] My friends, tnis campaign will decide many things, and one of the things it will decide is whether or not your peo pie and ours «an d ily meet in harmony, and work for law, and order,and morali ty, and wipe out the color line, and put every man on his citizenship irrespective of color. [Great cheering.] Mv friend, Mr. Young says that I had better quit, that lam hoarse, but I want to say one or two things more, and I have done. You have before you certain platforms and certain candidates, and I would like to show you just how much Democracy the Democratic platform contains—the good old Jeffersonian Democracy, as they love to call it. Why, my friends, there is not enough Jeffersonian timber in all the planks of the Democratic platform to make Thomas Jefferson a tooth-pick [Great applause and long contihued laughter.] That grand old father of Democracy, Thomas Jefferson, in his first inaugural, said : “Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or politi cal.” Do they give it? Do they try to remove the inequalities? The whisky men have got a sub-treasury warehouse where they can borrow your tax money to the extent of millions of dollars at five per cent, interest, while the farmers who pay the taxes are laughed to scorn when they ask to borrow on substantial collateral —wheat corn, cotton and other commodities. They simply tell us that we must have patience [A voice, “They want a chance.”] Yes, and they exercised it—you know how. [Laugh ter.] Again, Thomas Jefferson says: “The preservation of the general gov ernment, in its whole constitutional vigor, is the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad ” How do they keep that tenet of Democratic faith? They have mixed us up in the Nicaraguan Canal [a voice, “Yes, they have”], and yet the authorities did not preserve the peace at Homestead, but allowed the great corporations to hire their men to shoot down, in cold blood, the honest wage-workers who objected to work under the reductions. Jefferson advises the encouragement of agricul ture, and commerce, its handmaid. Yes, they have encouraged commerce and manufacture, but every gun is leveled at the agriculturists of the coun try. On that line, I will state that I stood on the floor of the House the day that the resolution came up to print 10, 000 copies of the force bill for the use of the campaign committee. I thought that campaign committee ought to bear that expense, as the usual number had already been printed. General Wheeler denied that, and I have been abused for that vote from one end of the country to the other, but here is the proof in the correspondence between Mr. Dockery an‘d myself : Washington, D. C., July 29, 1892. Hon. A. M. Dockery: Dear Sir: Some days ago I stated in the House that previous to the resolution of Mr. King to print 10,000 copies of the Force Bill, a resolution had already been adopted to print the usual extra numbers of that Bill. I insist that my statement is correct, and that you wq ? the member who secured the adoption of best print the usual number “ixlra copies. Please do me the kivdnessto state whether lam right. Very respectfully, Thomas E. Watson. Mr. Dockery replied as follows : Mr. Watson: Replying to yours, I beg to say th 11 secured the adoption of a resolw ion to make the usual reprint of the Force Bill — the number of such reprint being some 1700 copies. I afterwards introduced the resolution to print the additional 10,000 copies, which was also adopted by the House. It was this lat ter you objected to, Respectfully, July 29th, 1892 A. M. Dockery. In other words, what I objected to was the printing of campaign literature at the expense of the tax payers; more espe cially as I asked them to print an equal number of Thomas Jefferson’s first itiau gural. and they refused to do it. They did not want yoti to see what Thomas Jefferson’s Democracy was. (A voice : “It would not agree with them—hurrah for Watson!” —long continued applause.) I have been denounced all over this district in the most bitter terms as a traitor. Now, I have nothing to answer in the way of public abuse —I have no personalities for anyone, but I say this, that I stand today upon the very same platform you put me on at Harlem two years ago (Cries of, “that’s where you are, and that’s where we want you to stay.”] I say furthermore that if lam a traitor they have condoned my crime, and stopped themselves from taking me to task, because they have put in nomi nation Adlai Stevenson, on the demo cratic platform, and his record upon leaving the Democratic party is precisely the same as mine. (Great applause.) His record on the financial question is the same as mine. (Renewed cheering.) That was what was making them so mad in Congress. I was showing up the proof that he was elected in 1879 ; that he did not go into the democratic caucus; that he did not vote for the democratic speaker any more than I did; that he was classed as a greenbacker, and voted with General Weaver on nearly every proposition that came up in that Con gress. Now, if Ibe a traitor, what in the name of God, is the vice presidential nominee of the democratic party? (Pro longed applause.) Now, the democracy say that they are in favor of of harmonizing the sec tions; yet, they did not dare to put a Southern man upon their ticket. It was our party, the party of the people, that had the" grit, and • the honesty to take one soldier from the Union army, and another from the Con army; we were the first that had the nerve to take that siep towards ’ armonizing the sectional differences. [Great applause.] Now, I wish to allude to many things, especially to my own legislative record but I have rot the time, nor the strength to do that as I would wish to-day. I say this however that any man who as serts that I have ever voted for a meas ure that was not fair and just to the la borers of this country, white and black alike, states what is an • ■* ABSOLUTE FALSEHOOD. And I will say this, that lam going to ask my Bro. Black to a joint canva s. [Load laughter and cries of, “he won’t doit! He won’t come to time!”] lam going to see if he has any criticisms to make of my r-co d in the legislature ar.d if he does I will not only defend my own, but I will give him a nut or two to crack about his. [Cries of “good bye, Jimmie, good bye.”] Here is an address that I made on ac cepting your nomination two years aeo, at Harlem, and I leave you to compare the promises I made with my course s nee. when my term of service is well nigh over. I can afford to compare publicly what I promised to do with what 1 have endeavored to do, and no man. having the same confidence im posed in him that you have imposed in me, can afford to do less. Here is what I said : “It may be that I can accomplish nothing for your welfare. ‘lt may be that however carefull v I plant and pa tiently I cultivate, ray harvest will be a fullness of disappointments and a plen titude of barren regrets, but I can prom isa you, my comrade’, that while re sults must be with Him who rules us all, no man shall justly suspect my fi delity or question my loyal zeal . [Cries of, “no one can do it in the old tenth.”] I need not take up your time in the diecussion of public issues My platform is well known I have dis cussed it from one end of this district to the other. Giving to those who differ ed from me the cred.t of honesty, I claim like credit for myself, and now repeat my devotion to the principles upon whi h my campaign was fought, and I shall strive for their success with all the strength of my mind and soul ” What was my platform then? It was well known; it was the 'Ocala platform. [Avoice: “Hurrah for the Ocala platform and Tom Watson.”] What is my platform to-day? It is precisely the same in substance and in spirit. That is what I said then, and I repeat here to-day, [Great cheer ing.] 1 said then: “We of the south are among the politically unhappy. With a great political failure, which, like all fail- never secures the charity of judgment which success commands,] pressing “us down, we live under the ban. Our people are oppressed, our leaders slaughtered, or record distort ed, our views misrepresented, our hopes doomed in the hour of their birth, it is little wonder that stout hearts grow faint and have no strength to lift from the willows the harps which the mourning daughters of the south have hung thereon. “But there comes to me the belief that there is the stir of a new life through out the ranks of Southern life; that a new spirit is moving over the waters, and that the chaos of our fortunes which was without form and void, is taking unto itself shape, and to the listening ear of her patient patriotism there comes the blsssed words, Let there be Light. “To be one of those who shall work for of this great people; to be a comrade of those who shall rehabili tate the South, is the ambition which I most earnestly cherish. If I can, amid the wreck of the past, and the crude material of the present con struct the splendid edifice of future pros perity, it will be an achievement beside which that of conquerors fail; and if in that grand work there shall be a part born of my thought, builded by my hands, my ambition will be satisfied, and my cup filled with content ” [At this point the immense multitude gave vent to the wildest enthusiasm.”) I promised you that then, my fellow citizens, and I want to know whether I have kept my promise? [Cries of, ‘You have! Yo” have; we’ll send you to do it again.”] If there is a thing which I could have done and have left undone, let my bitterest enemy mention it; if there is a thing which I have done, that should have been left undone, let my bitterest enemy mention it, and let me be relegated to the shades of private life. [Cries of, “Never! never! never!”] Now, my friends, but little time is left me, and I want my friend, Charley Young, to listen to me. [Several voices: “We are all listening; go it Tom, Good bye, Jim, glory! glory!”] Now I am coming back to the question of the extravagance of the expenditure of your money. What is the report of the Secretary of the State? I want you to see how your money goes. The Sec retary reports that $20,000.00 of the money of you tax payees, were taken for the burial of Senator Hearst, a Cali fornia millionare. [Murmers of“disapro bation.”] Twenty thousand dollars to bury one man - the money of struggling, impoverished black and white alike —to bury one man, [and that man a million air] without the least warrant of law. But that is not all. Here is a list of a great many other expenditures with out warrant of law. Here are the items; I will not read them all, or go into them specifically.' The fitting up of a barber shop—you are shaved while paying for shaving them. (Laughter.) Fitting up a saloon; appolinaris water; alcohol. A voice : “Did they give you any of that appolinaris water, Tom?” Mr. Watson : “I presume they would give me a part of the beef if I had gone into the conspiracy.” (Many voices: “You did not do it, though. Bully for Tom; good bye, Jim.”) I must conclude, my fellow citizens, because my strength is almost ex hausted. But I want to say this to you. You all know as well as Ido that the reason why I have lingered here this evening, and talked to you until I have come so near to exhaustion, is because these principles are dear to my heart, and because they have been mis represented, and your leaders have been misrepresented. You all know that there was a combined assault made upon me by the press of the State. The Constitution says they are deter mined to kill me off forever, politically. I stand alone; there are no great news papers to fight my battles, but I am willing to trust myself to the stout hearts and willing hands of the plain people of the 10th Congressional dis trict. By a preponderance of numbers they may bear me down, but I say to you here and now that I shall carry the banner which you have placed in my hands, right straight to the front, and my last breath shall be the battle cry of the People’s Party as I hurl de fiance in the teeth of your enemies. (Great applause.) Yours is the power, and you can use it as you like; you can elect whom you resolve to elect. (Many voices: “We will use that power to elect you; we’ll send you right back to go for them fellows.”) All the trickery of the politicians; all the money of the unscrupulous monopolists; all the mis representations of the newspapers can not keep you from electing whom you please from this district. If you please to elect hflO C s ou ’ asl HCHOIH ago , y <at 8O far as hi s me do it, I will use! *ors to accom plish y< (Cries of, we will do i . all ages it lias been the drea Qg R R**' statesman to better the condi ,f his people. I believe that you*can have better laws and hap pier homes; I believe that justice ought to live in the statute book; 1 believe that ever y man will get his rights un der theUaw if he insists upon having those rights; and I believe that the time will come when justice,and right, and good government all over this land will be the king of the people, and to that king alone will we bow. (A voice : “God bless you”) Fellow citizens, the Man of Galilee said a great deal about what faith may accomplish. I have faith—an abiding faith that perhaps may move moun tains, or perhaps I may imagine that it will. I have faith that the people can accomplish their redemption, work out their salvation, and achieve good government just as surely as that God reigns and justice lives in the hearts of the people. At the conclusion of Mr. Watson’s speech, he had a narrow escape from what our Irish friends would call, “Being killed with kindness.” Be tween the physical exertion of speak ing two hours to an immense multitude, the intense heat of the weather, and the surging mass of humanity eager to shake him by the hand, he was almost prostrated; but his plucky little wife made her way to the stand and bore him off in triumph amid the acclama tions of the six thousand honest yeo manry, who had assembled to pay their tribute of respect to the fearless repre sentative of honesty and fair dealing. Lowndes County. We are having hot weather and politics are hotter, still Hon’s. J. W. Hagan and W. 11. Snead of Ber rien county gave us two day’s heat Friday near Clyattville. They met and had a joint debate with Col. W. 11. Grillin of Valdosta. Col. West was to speak, but he left the ground before his time came. Hagan of Lowndes opened, Griffin followed, Snead next, and, as it proved, last. When the vote was put it was all the crowd, which was 150 or 200, for the People and two for Democracy. Saturday Snead and Hagan went to Delmer and spoke to about 250 voters. They had no one to speak on the other side. The vote there was all for the People but eight. Some of the opposition had threaten ed., before we got there, to waylay Hon. W. 11. Snead and kill him. Threats, eggs, rocks nor knives will break up our People’s Party in the wiregrass country. If I had the time and you the space I would write more, but I have seen J, W. Hagan and Webster Bradford, who were in Quitman on the 30th ult. Both say that Col’s, Peek’s and Post’s statements are correct, and say the chaps into the knife arrange years old—not very small boys, as the Constitution of the 4th inst. said. Meet of ow town boys down here at eighteen are larger than their fathers are at fifty (in their own estimation). I hear there is a fellow going around here in Lowndes making midnight speeches about blind puppies. They say his Lame is W. W. Webb, and wants the moss-backs to send him to the Sen ate. I have not seen him as that is my time to sleep. Allianceman. Peek’s Eloquence Wins Spalding. Spalding county has been quoted far and near as one county that the People’s Party could not enter, but on Monday last Hon. W. L. Peek invaded this citadel of Democratic strength, and amidst the curses and denunciations of some of the Demo cratic fold, waded through to vic tory. The People’s Party was or ganized and the Alliance shaken up from center to circumference. Hon. Mr. Whitfield, candidate for Congress in the Sixth district, had been telegraphed for by the Demo crats and asked for a division of time. Col. Peek replied that the matter was in the hands of hi& friends—see them. An arrangement was immediately effected for the joint debate, which, took place with results above stated. Peek triumphed gloriously, and Spalding has fallen into line at last. It is due Col. Whitfield to say that he is every inch a gentleman and an orator, and also made friends by his straightforward, honorable discussion. But when Col. Peek showed the farmers their grievances and the remedy, they tumbled to the music and the victory was won. THE SOLID ALLIANCE of Georgia must rally to Col. Peek’s standard. They certainly would prefer this faithful friend to Northen and his plug-hand circus. Georgia will be safer in Peek’s hands. Spalding. NOT A REVOLT; IT IS A REVOLUTION. Tom Watson’s Book Now on hand. For sale at the Office of the Peoples Party Paper.