Newspaper Page Text
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Now, that thing has been spread
Among you colored people to in
fluence vou against me. In answer
to that, I will hand this to Major
Black, (suiting the action to the
word,) and if he has a charge to
make against me in connection with
that I will give you an explanation
chat will open your eyes the balance
Qf the year. (Great cheering and
persistant efforts to drown the speak
er’s voice.)
Now, I said at the opening of the
speech, (The Democrats in the au
dience began to writhe beneath the
lash, and a renewal of the scenes
when Mr. Watson got on the table,
took place.)
What a pity it is that the Demo
mocrats from Augusta and Savan
nah did not come in a refrigerator.
(Laughter.) They seem to have
gotten suddenly very hot beneath
the collar. (Renewed laughter.).
Now, I say that every position I
take to-day is the logical outcome of
the position I took in the past. I
have here all the reports of all the
speeches, I then delivered from the
Augusta Chronicle, the Atlanta Con
stitution, the Macon Telegraph, the
Savannah News—
(Like a clap of thunder in a clear
sky the supports at the rear end of
the platioim gave way, pitching
some backwards, but fortunately, no
body was injured. Mr. Watson
mounted the table, with smiles for
his friends and defiance to his foes.
An effort was made to clear the
back part of the platform, allowing
no one- but the speakers, the time
keepers and reporters to remain, but
the crow d was so dense that the
project had to be abandoned, not
from any disposition to be unruly,
but the weight from the outside was
too great for the inside. Quiet be
ing restored, although the platform
was in a very shakey condition, Mr.
Watson proceeded again.)
Mr. Watson. Fellow citizens, I
hope that in all the coming contests
between the People’s party and the
D- mocratic party, the People’s party
will come out victorious, but there is
one thing that I especially desire to
see them outdo the Democratic
party in this series of contests, and
that is in good behavior. (Cries of;
“Yes! |Yes!”)
At this point the platform came
to the ground with a crash, and
there was a general shaking up.
Evidently the better side of human
nature asserted itself, and there was
general satisfaction that no person
was hurt.
Mr. Watson. (Mounting the table
which from now on was the speak
er’s stand for both gentlemen.) Now
I say here as I said at —
(L could not hear the name of the
town, on account of the confusion,)
that I can speak from any platform
that any other man can, referring to
the wooden platform on which I
stood, but, Mr. Hook, I did not say
that I could stand on any platform,
and it -was most cruel and unjust to
report me as saying that.
A voice. “That’s right, . shoot
him again.”
Mr. Watson. Oh, no, he’s too
nice amm to shoot. But, I will
return to the subject.
1 say again, that every position I
now occupy is the legitimate outcome
of my past. As I was about to say
awhile ago in the past; I will sub
mit them to Mr. Black, and if he
does not rind in those speeches the
very same arguments, if he does not
find that I was fighting the very
same abuses, and using the
very same argument that I am using
to-day, I will bow my head and re
tire from the canvas before the sun
goes down.
A voice. “That is right.”
Mr. Watson. Now listen to the
boys. I have only a few minutes
remaining, and it is exceedingly dif
ficult to address this crowd. [Read
ing]
Hon. J. C. C. Elack,
Dear Sir:—Will you agree with me
that the People's Party shall have a rep
resentative on the Board of Managers
at the State and Federal elections at
every polling presinct in this Congres
sional District? Will you co-operate
with me actively and in good faith to
see that this agreement is carried into
effect? . Respectfully,
- Thomas E. Watson.
A voice. Hurrah for Harrison.
Mr. Watson. If that is the sort of
medicine you take, why take it, but
take it on the outside.
Now, here is another three ques
tion addressed to Mr. Black. They
are fair questions. I put it to every
fair, candid man, whether they are
not fair questions, and whether he
should not answer them promptly
and fully.
1. Do you admit the existence of un
usual Buffering among the people result
ing from vicious legislation?
2 If so, specify the legislation from
which that suffering results?
3. What remedies do you propose?
Let him come squarely up to the
string and answer theae three ques
tions. [Handing the letters to Mr.
Black.]
Now, let me hurry on. I want
to strike an evil much more vicious
then the tariff, which I claim to
be vicious—so vicious that I am a
free trader, and voted for every par
ticle of free trade that I could get a
chance to vote for, even when it
came to taking the tariff off wool,
and keeping a high tariff on the
manufactured article, which favored
the manufacturer. I had only the
chance to vote on the one, and would
vote for bfith if I could.
A voice. You know you did do it.
Tou do not know what you are
talking about. I know they say that
I do not read bills, but I find out
what, is in them all the same. I re
peat that assertion, and challenge its
refutation.
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1892.
Now, further, I say that while I
am opposed to a high tariff, and want
to substitute an income tax to raise
the money necessary for carrying on
the government instead of raising it
on the hats, on the clothing, the
household and kitchen furniture, and
other necessaries of the people, it is
not the fundamental evil from which
we suffer. Now let me illustrate.
an illustration that illustrates.
Take this country, and suppose that
it is an island, like Cumberland island;
suppose that there were one hundred
and one persons living on that island ;
suppose that there were in circulation
one hundred thousand dollars; sup
pose that fifty thousand dollars of
that was in gold, and that one man
had it; suppose that the other fifty
thousand dollars was in paper, and
the other hundred people had it.
Mr. Watson turned to the chair
man and said : I cannot proceed with
such confusion. There are men over
there [indicating] who are evidently
determined to keep the people from
hearing me.
The Chairman. Gentlemen, Mr.
Watson cannot proceed unless there
is more order in the audience.
Cries of: Order, order.
Mr. Watson. If you but keep or
der, I can be heard by every man in
this assembly.
I just said, suppose that those hun
dred men had the paper money; sup
pose that they raised cotton, or wheat,
or corn, to the extent of 1100,000;
then what? Would not that paper
money and gold buy it all, exchang
ing the products for the paper and
the gold ?
Cries of “Os course it would.”
Now, fellow-citizens, if that is a
logical illustration, what then ? Sup
pose that these one hundred
people, instead of producing one
hundred thousand dollars’ worth of
produce, they made one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars’ worth, then
who would get that $150,000 worth?
Why, the men that had the SIOO,OOO.
That is, they would get the extra $50,-
000 worth of produce by the simple
power of money. That is the effect
of contraction. Can you all see that ?
Cries of : “Yes, yes,” and a voice
on the outskirts: Where are you at ?
Mr. Watson. The democrats know
when they are going to get hurt in
these discussions, and get a» far off
as possible.
A voice on the stand: “Here’s one
that’s close enough; hurrah for Gro
ver Cleveland.” This was followed
by cheering on both sides.
Mr. Watson. If there is anything
that makes a democrat squeal in this
campaign, it is the financial question.
Let me come back to that illustra
tion, which is so plain that anybody
can see it—anybody can understand
it—that is what I want, and that is
what these democrats do not want.
Suppose that those men on tha tim
agmary island made $200,000 worth
of goods, and there is no more money
to buy the goods, won’t that same
sl’oo,ooo buy the $200,000 worth of
goods ?
Cries of: “Yes, yes,” and derisive
rejoinders from the democrats.
Mr. Watson. Then what? It
takes just as much money for you to
get your necessaries and pay your
taxes, while the man that has the
money would swindle you out of one
out of every two bales of cotton you
raise ; one out of every two bushels
of corn, or wheat, or anything else.
That is not all. (Angry cries from
the democrats, and angry expostula
tions from the people.) I know it
hurts you, boys, but you have got to
stand it. (Applause from his friends,
who seem to be more than holding
their own.) I have only seven min
utes remaining ; let me conclude.
A voice : “ Where are you at?”
One of Mr. Watson’s friends on the
stand: “Don’t notice the fool, Mr.
Watson ; he’s only trying to irritate
you.”
Mr. Watson. Suppose, now, that
the man that had the $50,000 worth
of gold, by some hocus- pocus in the
creating of the law, gets that $50,-
000 worth of paper burned up-—gets
it destroyed—and those people con
tinue to make $200,000 worth of corn
and cotton and wheat, what then ?
Will not that man with the $50,000
in gold get every bit of the $200,000
worth of produce ?
Cries of “ Stick it to ’em! you’ve
got ’em on the run! Good bye Jim,’’
and “Good bye Tom.”
Mr. Watson. That is our financial
system of to-day; that is what they
have done; they take two bales of
cotton where they only took one.
Cries of “That’s right; hit ’em,
and hit ’em to hurt. We see it.”
Mr. Watson. They take two bush
els of corn where they only took one;
they take two bushels of wheat where
they only took one; they give you
one day’s wages for every two days’
work to buy the necessaries of life,
and when you get it it will not buy
any more. (Great cheering, which
drowned out opposition, if there was
any.)
We have $346,000,000 of green
backs remaining in circulation Sup
pose that a man was running for of
fice and declared it to be his policy
to burn up that $346,000,000 of green
backs, which the bankers cannot cor
ner ; which do not cost the people a
cent; which circulates among the pso
ple and buys all the necessaries of life;
which the bankers want destroyed
and national bank notes substituted
in place of—national bank notes on
which you would have to pay exorb
itant interest, —would you support*
such a man ?
Cries of “No! No! No!” and de
rision from the opposite side.
Mr. Watson. ‘ I wonder if my
friend, Mr. Black, knows that in sup-
porting Mr. Cleveland he is support
ing a man who, as late as 1888.
A voice. “Hurrih for Cleveland.”
Mr. Watson. You say “hurrah for
Cleveland.” I wonder if you will
hurrah for the recommendation of
Mr. Cleveland’s which I am now
going to call to my friend’s attention.
I say, I wonder if he knows that he
is supporting a man who, as late as
1888, said, through his Secretary of
the Treasury, that all the balance of
the greenbacks should be burned,
just as all the others had been burned,
and in place of that cheap money of
the people which the bankers could
not corner, that we should have
national bank notes in their place.
A voice. That’s what he said.
Another voice. He never said it.
Mr. Watson. I will repeat that
proposition, and I challenge any re
sponsible intelligent man to refute it.
As late as 1888, Mr. Cleveland
said, through his Secretary of the
Treasury, that all the greenbacks
should be burned, and national bank
notes take their place. .If that policy
is carried out, if the people are to
be sold out to the money power, they
may as well hold up their hands and
let their masters chain them in eternal
servitude.
A voice. Just like Peek wanted
to chain them.
Mr. Watson’s friend’s on the stand.
Do not mind that fool.
Mr. Watson. What do we want
to do ? We want to strike down
that moneyed monopoly—that mon
eyed king—in the illustration given
you, that is getting your produce at
half price and robbing you of half
your labor; we want to unshackle
your limbs and give every free man
a fair share of the benefits of the na
tional currency.
“ Who saves his country, saves all
things, and all things saved will bless
him; who lets his country die, lets
all things die, and all things dying
curse him.”
Have I succeeded in this campaign ?
Who are the men who will curse
me ?
A voice. It won’t be the republi
cans.
Mr. Watson (without heeding the
interruption). The national bank
ers, who are robbing the poor white
and black alike, : will call down male
dictions on my head. Let them do
it! The monopolists, who are con
trolling the price of money and the
price of produce, robbing the far
mers, the merchants and the wage
workers all alike, will call down
curses on my head. The million
aires, who pay no taxes on their
princely incomes wrung from a
plundered people, will call down
curses on my head. So be it. But,
fellow-citizens, if I receive the curses
of these, where will I ba blessed?
In every humble cabin of every farm
in the State of Georgia.
Cries of, “Yes! Yes! [God bless
you.”
Mr. Watson (continuing). In
every field of industry-—where white
and bluck laborers till the land,
w here men work at the bench or on
the highway and are to have ®a due
reward for their toil—my name will
be blessed. Where the poor women
of this land, God bless them, humbly
pray for the success of our princi
ples of “equal rights to all and spe
cial privileges to none,” will my
name be blessed. I will cheerfully
take the blessings of God’s suffering
poor, and the curses of the arrogant
oppressor, and Major Black can have
the blessings-Of the banker and the
monopolist.
[Tire impassioned tone of the ora
tor, the fierce earnestness with which
he hurled the poisoned chalice from
his lips, and the power which shone
in his face thrilled his audience
into the most perfect silence during
the delivery of the foregoing splen
did piece of word painting. It .was
the lull, however, preceding the
storm. A wild burst of applause
swept over the audience and for the
time being you could not believe,
hardly, that it was so evenly divided.
The bow of the master played on the
chords of sympathetic hearts, and
even enemies bowed their heads in
silence and admiration—if not ap
proval.]
Mr. Watson. I find my country,
the beautiful South which I love so
dearly, bound down to a system
which has beggared her people,
stripped her farmers of their birth
rights and mined her happy homes ;
I would, if I could raise the mort
gage from every home; I would, if
I could, elevate all from the sloiigh
of despond to dry land; I would, if
I could, elevate all to a higher scale
in the progress of humanity; I
would, if I could, break the chain of
financial servitude and cast it from
her limbs. Oh, my fellow-citizens !
My work by the day, my work by
the week, my work by the year, has
been toilfully, cheerfully and faith
fully spent that her people might
understand these great questions iu
which their welfare is so much
wrapped up. I say here to-day that
if we can incorporate into law the
fundamental principles of our plat
form that no cursas can come to us
from the people; no injury can re
sult to the rich, for there is enough
for all; and our banners will go for
ward to victory, which means the
best thing for every home and fire
side in this dearly loved South of
ours. [Great cheering and hand
shaking among the friends of Mr.
Watson.]
Mr. Watson took his seat amid
deafening applause, and Mr. Black
mounted the stand. He was re
ceived with long continued cheers,
which lasted fully ten minutes, with
cries of “Hurrah for Black! Listen
to the grand gentleman!” inter
spersed with shouts for Wason.
MR. BLACK’S SPEECH.
My Fellow-Citizens —lt is im
possible for me to proceed unless
you restore order. It is difficult to
speak under these circumstances, at
the best. It is impossible for me to
.discharge the duty of the hour with
any satisfaction unless the most ab
solute quiet is restored.
Before I proceed with what I pur
pose to say, I shall answer those
questions that have been propounded
to me by Mr. Watson :
“Do you admit the existence of
unusual suffering among the people,
resulting from vicious legislation ?”
I do admit the existence of suf
fering, resuiting from vicious legisla
tion, but I dare to stand here in the
face of these thousands of people
and say that I believe that this suf
fering is exaggerated. [Great cheer
ing, and a cry, “Hurrah for Wat
son !”] Now, I have no objection to
Mr. Watson’s friends applauding,
but please wait for the right time.
A voice. Why didn’t y our people
wait when Mr. Watson was speak
ing?
Mr. Black. The only time that I
called Mr. Watson’s name while I
was in the campaign before he came
from Congress was in the county of
Greene, when I told* my friends if
his duty called him before them, to
give him as patient and respectful an
audience as they gave me. [A voice,
“You did say it; I heard you.”]
I know no reason why we ought to
be afraid to hear him. No man
ought to be condemned unheard.
Every man is entitled to a fair, pa
tient, impartial and just investiga
tion of his public conduct; with his
private conduct we have no con
cern.
Voices. That’s right! Hurrah
for Watson! and great cheering.
[A great deal of confusion occurred
at this juncture; shouting for Black
and shouting for Watson; Black’s
followers evidently shouted down.]
Mr. Black. [ln a defiant attitude.]
I have stood before more people
many a time, with guns in their
hands, and was not scared worth a
. cent. [Great cheering.]
i lam trying to answer the ques
tions propounded to me by Mr. Wat
son ; do you want to hear the answer?
[Cries of “Yes ! Yes ! Yes!”]
Mr. Black. Well, if Dlr. Watson’s
friends will keep quiet I will try to
answer them.
A voice. Ask your friends not to
applaud and Mr. Watson’s friends
will be quiet.
Mr. Black. I ask my democratic
friends to kindly give me their atten
tion ; Mr. Watson has also requested
that his friends should be quiet.
Certainly our mutual friends ought
to have respect enough for us both
to be quiet.
A voice. That is right.
Mr. Black. Now, to answer bis
second question: “If so, specify th '
legislation from which that sufferi
results ?”
I specify as principally the legisla
tion from which that suffering results,
the iniquitous tariff. [A voice: That
is right.] And who is the expo
nent of opposition to that iniquit
ous tariff, but Grover Cleveland?
(Wild cheering) And which one
of all the political platforms has
been the most pronounced and
methodical against the tariff ? The
democratic.
[Voices: No; the Third Party
platform; the People’s Party plat
form. Another voice: Keep your
mouth shut.]
Mr. Black: He said he is a free
trader. lam not. You are bound
to raise money by taxation, but how
do you want to raise money ? To
set the machine to work and stamp it.
That is your plan (turning around
facing Mr. Watson.) And if your
plan was carried out you would have
money until it was plentiful as the
autumnal leaves of the forest, and
about as worthless. [Great cheering
and counter-cheering.] There is no
class of our population that is more
interested in a sound currency than
the great laboring classes of our coun
try ; but while your platform asks
for fifty dollars per capita, your
scheme to purchase the railroads
would run up to one hundred and
thirty eight dollars per capita; and
when you had purchased the railroads,
and purchased all the land that be
longs to the aliens of the country,
the mathematician, I was about to
say, has not yet been born who could
tell where you would carry it. [Great
cheering.] But that is a diversion.
“What remedies do you propose ?”
I propose the old democratic remedy
to confine the expenses of the govern
ment to an honest, economical admin
istration ; and the taxes to be levied
only for that purpose; and those
taxes to be put upon luxuries and
not upon the necessaries of life.
[Voices. “Hear how a Kentucky
gentleman can answer them,” and
great cheering]
Mr. Black. Listen, you farmers !-
You Georgia farmers, listen ! lam
not a farmer ‘ but I do not think it
is exceeding the bounds of propriety
if I propose to speak to the farmers
of Georgia. I propose another
remedy, and that is, your own remedy;
that is one that you would select;
one that you put in formal, solemn
declaration by your last legislature.
Was not your last legislature a farm
ers’ legislature ? Was not your last
legislature an Alliance legislature?
Did you not control everything, and
sweep everything two years ago ?
Now listen! You said: “Whereas
the statute of the United States,
levying a tax of ten per cent on
State Banks of issue”—which was
an Act in the interest of National
Banks, giving the latter a monopoly
in the currency which injures you,
and injures me, and injures all the
people in this country, in that said
banks by an exhorbitant tax, are
prohibited from doing business and
prevented from issuing currency.
[Great confusion ensued at this point,
and the speaker was interrupted for
several minutes, both sides, seemingly
trying to obtain the ascendancy, but
fortunately, good nature prevailed.]
Mr. Black. Listen; what did you
farmers say, which your leader has
stated everywhere ? That many of
the evils from which you suffered
was the result of the national bank
ing system. In passing I will say
that no man can show, from the re
cord, that the democratic party is
responsible for that system. [Great
cheering.] Listen. Here is what
you farmers said; that the sources of
all your evils brought forth from this
great Pandora’s box that has been
painted and held up before our vis
ion, with all the disasters it has
brought—what do you do? Formally
and solemnly, by this resolution—a
resolution not passed by lawyers; a
resolution not passed by merchants ;
a resolution not passed by men from
the cities ; not passed by men of any
profession, but by the honest farmers
of Georgia; and what did they say?
They said that “We want the repeal
of the ten per cent tax on state
banks.” Here is the record. No
man will deny it; and the democrat! c
pirty of the first convention held in
the State, controlled by farmers, put
that in its platform. [A voice:
“.Hurrah for the brave soldier from
Kentucky!” Applause.]
Mr. Black: And I say here that
the People’s Party leaders here to
day are opposed to that plank put in
the platform by the farmers of Geor
gia. [A voice; “No, sir; we aint.”]
Yes you are; your party leader is
opposed to it; he ridicules and scouts
it; he calls them wild cat banks, in
the very face of the demands of the
farmers of Georgia who passed this
resolution—who passed it, and not
only passed it, but called upon him,
as one of the members, to see that
Congress repealed that law. (Turning
to Mr. Watson) What do you say to
that?
Mr. Watson. I have answered
those questions. You answer some
of mine.
Mr. Black. Now, I proceed to say
what I intended to say before those
questions were propounded.
A voice. Hurrah for Watson !
A voice on the stand. Pay no
attention to him, Major; it is the
empty wagon that makes the loudest
rattle.
Mr. Black. I think I have at least
this advantage over my competitor.
I appear before you today, not
familiar to you as he is, (cheering)
but a comparative stranger by face
to most of you; but I appear without
any explanations to make. The
gentleman has referred to the abuse
and slander that have been heaped
upon him. He does me justice to
say that I have had no part in that
abuse; and well he may, for he knows
me well enough to be aware that I
would not buy a seat in the Congress
of the LTnited States at the expense
of justice to any man or to any party.
(Great cheering.) I have nothing to
say with reference to him except as
to his public record, and he himself
has introduced that into this first
joint discussion, and to the discussion
of that record I now invite your
calm and impartial attention.
A voice. Don’t do it; he has got
the sway-back.
Mr. Black. What is the spectacle
before you to-day ? It is the spec
tacle of a citizen seeking your suf
frages and asking to be elected as
your representative, and as a reason
why you should vote for him he de
nounces the very party that put him
in power and whose commission he
holds. [Great applause.]
My friend rather challenged me, I
think, to make certain charges
against him, to make certain issues.
Now, I say, I do not propose to be
side-tracked in any such way as that.
[Great applause.] In 1888 he was
a Cleveland elector who went over
this State, and he asked the people
of this State to vote for Cleveland.
If Cleveland had done every act for
which he condemns him, it was al
ready done then, for since that time
he has not been in power. [Great
cheering.] He says he has that
record [turning to Mr. Watson.] Os
course I have not time to look up all
these papers just now, but I have a
part of it myself—all that I have
been able to find. By that record—l
have only his speech reported in a
Savannah paper—he went there as
a guest of the Young Men’s Demo
cratic club. He spoke of the tariff
as one of the leading and controlling
issues of the day, but still he did say
that heretofore the difference be
tween the two parties had been so
little that a Republican might step
on a Democratic platform without
getting a splinter in his toe, but that
it was different now; we have got a
leader and an issue, and the issue is
the tariff and the leader is Cleve
land. [Great applause.] Mark you,
the very same Grover Cleveland—
there never was but one in the
United States—the same Grover
Cleveland. [Great cheers.]
What more did he say ? Here is
the record of his speech. Here
is what he says of Cleveland. He
says he is “a lion-hearted man who
strikes at every abuse;” who has
“vetoed unworthy appropriations.”
He referred to Cleveland’s pension
record—it was a glorious record, for
this great country of ours has never
furnished a sublimer exhibition of
moral courage than Cleveland’s veto
of the dependent pension bill. He
applauded Cleveland for that very
thing. He stands up to-day and tells
you that he repeats everything he
said in his Thomson speech. In his
Thompson speech he arraigned
Cleveland for his record on pensions.
I say that I stand here to defend the
Democratic party from every un
truthful charge that he can make
against it. I* can do it, and Ido it
by successfully impeaching the wit
ness. [Great applause.] The Demo
cratic party needs very little defense
at my hands or anybody else s.
What did it do between the time he
took its commission and the time he
left its ranks. Its record on national
banks, the currency, on everything
and anything, was maae up more
than four years ago, and I think I
would hesitate long before I would
go before the honest people of the
country and denounce as vile and
corrupt and unworthy of public con
fidence a party while I hold the
commission of that party in my
hand. [Great cheers.] .
Listen, my third party friends. It
there is anything that has happened
that the Democratic party is respon
sible for, you were a part of it and
must bear your share of the respon
sibility. - . J u
Oh, my friends, my friends; he
might make out of every Democrat
a devil, and out of every Democratic
follower a devil, but he would only
be blackening to that extent his own
political record and the political
record of his own political asso
ciates.
A voice. Hurrrah for Watson!
Counter hurrah and cheers for
Black.
In that Savannah speech of his,
according to the report I have here,
he delivered an eloquent peroration.
He predicted under Cleveland’s ad
ministration a new era of prosperity
for the Southern country of ours.
He said that under Cleveland’s ad
ministration prosperity would lie in
the pathway of the South, and she
would go forth like Miriam with a
shout of victory on her lips. He
closed his career as elector by saying
that it had been “a labor of love. *
A voice. Hurrah for the man up
a tree. [Laughter.] They have him
treed over yonder. [Renewed laugh
ter.] x
Mr. Black. Now listen. Two years
ago he was nominated for Congress
by the Harlem convention. He was
nominated as the representative of
the democrats on the Ocala platform.
I admit that.
I do not care what anybody else,
says, if I know the truth I am here to
stick to it. (Applause.) There is
no reason why I should fear it, and
if I did fear it, and it hurt me to the
death, I should hold on to it stiff.
(Great cheers.) ~
He was nominated representing the
demands of the Ocala platform. Here
let me tell you to-day that he does
not stand on the Ocala platform.
You go home to-night, you honest
farmers, and take the Ocala platform
and put it on your table and take the
Omaha platform and lay them side
by side and then if you do not tell
me there is a difference I will be wil
ling to yield this contest. Another
thing, he represented the demands of
the Ocala platform inside the demo
cratic party.
A voice. That’s so; he cannot de
ny it.
Another voice. Watson has a bet
ter party than that now.
Mr. Black. Well, maybe he has;
but he was nominated by a conven
tion called by the authority of the
Democratic party, representing the
democracy of this district, and he
did stand on the Ocala demands, but
this was one wing of the Democratic
party, I ask you, I ask him, by what
authority he turned upon the other
wing of the party which put him in
power.
A voice. Talk to him, Major.
Mr. Black. Here, fellow-citizens,
if I had the time and the occasion
would admit, I would like to go over
this record, step by step. He pro
claimed everywhere that he was a
Democrat. He said iu private, if I
am not misinformed, that he was as
good a Democrat as anybody.
A voice. He was for Jeffersonian
democracy.
Mr. Black. Yes, you say Jefffer
sonian when you do not know the
ABC of Democracy. You say
Jeffersonian Democracy when yotl
represent the party that is entirely
at war with every conception that
Jefferson ever had of this govern
ment. That tune—the time we are
talking about—you were a Cleveland
Democrat. Now what are you? As
my friend over here has said, I sup
pose you are a Weaver Democrat.
A voice. A Horace Greeley Dem
ocrat.
Another voice. A Western Dem
ocrat. fCheers, jeers and laughter.)
Mr. Black (directing his remarks
to a certain part of the crowd). You
referred to Horace Greeley. When
the Democratic party adopted the
platform of the liberal Republican
party and voted for Horace Greeley,
what was its attitude ? He had been
an extreme partisan; he had been
against the South; but when the
war was over, like a true manly man,
he laid down his hatred and went on
the bond of Jefferson Davis.
A voice. Hurrah for Horace
Greeley (and cheers.)
Mr. Black. If there is a man hers
to-day who can suppress a natural
uprising of gratitude to Horace
Greeley that he helped your vicarious
ottering from the prisons of the
country, he ought to hang his head
and leave this honorable presence.
Horace Greeley ran on a platform
that demanded amnesty, that de
manded pardon for your fathers and
yourselves who had been in the war,
and he stood by the liberties and de
fended these States. He r was dowg