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heart of every honest, truth seeking man. Why did not these leaders tell us that four years ago? I believe that my distinguished competitor stated somewhere that 1 did not know these things. Well, it seems that he did not know’ them four years ago, and he has found out a great deal in a very short time. While it is true that he is a very young man he was in a very high station—as high as the Democratic party could elevate him by putting him on the electoral ticket of the Democratic party. Now I was surprised wdien he commenc ed to talk about the public domain and said that they had given away the patrimony of the people to mono polists. lie said that they had given away the land purchased by the taxes and the blood of the people to railroad monopolies of the country. Does he not know that one of rea sons urged why the people of Geor gia should support |Grover Cleve land was that he had restored over one hundred millions of public lands to the people. That w r as in the very platform on which he was run as an elector. Voices. Glory, glory, glory. Hit him again. [Cheers.] Mr. Black. Now look on this pic ture and then on that. Four years ago he stood in the city of Savan nah as the guest of the young men’s Democratic club. He made a very eloquent speech, as he always does. He spoke for democracy, for this very Democracy which he now tells you is unworthy of your confidence and support. He spoke for your candidate and told his hearers that he had restored millions of acres to the people, of the public domain forfeited by the great railroad cor porations. He closed that Savan nah speech with a beautiful perora tion, as he always does, telling the people what? Not that this was a Hobson’s choice; not that there was do party but the Democratic party, but telling the people that it was a labor of love, and amidst the acclaims of his young friends he betook him self to a banquet where, I suppose, he mingled his convivial spirit and speech with the young men’s Demo cratic club of the city of Savannah. [The following coloquy took place between the speaker and Mr. Wat son in a low tone.] Mr. Watson. That is a mistake, Major. Mr. Black. Wnat happened?! will correct it. Mr. Watson There was no ban quet. Mr. Black. I wrote to Mr. Lester ibout it, and got his reply. Mr. Watson. Mr. Lester is mis taken. There was no banquet. Mr. Black. [To the audience.] I take pleasure in stating that Mr. Watson assures me there was no banquet, and so far as the banquet goes 1 was mistaken. I took my in formation of the meeting from the public prints, of the time. That you will say, however, is immaterial. It makes no difference one way or the other. Thu point is that he was a Democrat then. He held the same (lag in his hand that my friends have placed in mine now. A voice. There was nothing else In sight. Mr. Black. Ah, ray friend, there was something else in sight. You are mistaken. There was another political party with your financial plank, and almost every other plank substantial ly identical with the one you have to-day. You were not forced to fight the Democratic party, my friends—my misguided friends. You do not kuow how it grieved my heart when my competitor used language that, I was so sorry to hear in the form of a charge that our honored representatives and Sena tois had shown a disposition to rob the people of the United States. Mr. Watson. Let me put you right, Major. What I said was that if this statement -was true, then they wanted to pay that claim twice. Many voices. That is true, that is true. That is exactly ■what you said. Voices on the outskirts of the crowd. It ain’t true. Mr. Black. Never mind, never mind, my friends. We have most excellent order and temper to-day, and I hope that nothing will trans pire to mar the occasion. I hope, too, that my friends will not go away with the justified impression that Mr. Watson has more control over his friends than I have over mine. He has made a request of his friends to keep order, and I must say that they observed it. The questions they asked, and the en thusiasm they displayed were legiti mate and respectful. Now I ask you, my friends, to respect me. Let me say this about this picture which he has introduced in almost all of these debates. Ido not know this old colored man. I never saw him but once in my life, but I think that a look at the picture would im press the people that he is an honest man. The claim that he had against the government, and that Congress paid, may be only part of the claim. It may be that he went back to the next Congress to have it opened up again. But, inasmuch as my com petitor has made it a feature of this campaign, I want to ask men if you do not think it just and right that they should give him a re spectful hearing, and consider his claim a second time? Now this is a digression. Much has been said, not only here, but everywhere that we had these dis cus sioi.i; about the Augusta ring, and the Atlanta ring, and that I am the candidate of these rings. 1 say here PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1892. and now, that I am the candidate of as many good farmers in the Tenth Congressional District as he is. [Cheers from the Augusta crowd.] I say here that I am the candidate of as many good women in the Tenth Congressional District as he is. [Re newed cheering from the same crowd.] He says in one of his speeches that if he was stricken that thanksgiving would go up from the bankers, the monopolists, and the oppressors of the poor, and if he is successful that pioans of praise will go up from the humble hovels of the land. He enjoys this advantage over me, that he is personally known to a great many of the people before whom we come for these discussions. I am personally unknown to them, but I say it here, and I repeat it as often as it is to necessary without entering into detail or parading my virtues, that I call upon a life of twenty-five years in the city of Au gusta, and I ask you to talk to any man, white or black, rich or poor, if lam not entitled to the credit of as much interest in, and sympathy for the poor as any other man. A voice. Hurrah for Black. Mr. Black. Please do not do that my friend. Applaud at the right time. (Laughter.) I will tell you this. Now listen to me. I will tell you this. As I look into your honest faces, as I have no interest subserve, except as best in me lies to promote your in terests —to promote the interests of every man in the tenth Congressional District, I assure you that I did not seek this nomination, and every man who know’s the facts in the case, know’s that I tried to get my party to nominate a farmer. A voice. That is right. (Laughter.) Mr. Biack. Let me tell you this, my friends, as I stand here to-day and look into your honest faces, I sympathise with every fibre of my nature, w’ith every burden that bears upon your backs, with every sorrow that comes into our homes; but I would scorn the highest honor that could be conferred upon me if I had to earn it by arraying class against class, farmers against professional men, laborers against capitalists, locality against locality, the country against the cities and towns. It looks a little singular to me that when I come into the country the suggestion should be made that I cannot know anything of the wants of the farmer, and am not competent to represent them, but my competitor does know their want. On the other hand he goes into the city of Augusta and claims to be the best friend the day laborer has. (Cheering for both Black and Wat son.) Now it is a fact that I do not live in the country, and I do not be lieve that he lives in the country. I live in the city of Augusta and he lives in the town of Thomson. But living in the town or the city neither qualifies nor disqualifies a man to re present the tenth congressional dis trict. I say this, that any man who wants to go to Congress ought to go as the representative of all the peo ple of the tenth congressional dis trict. (Cheers for both.) Now, listen. Listen to these two platforms, I have got them before me ; let us see what they say. Here is where I am at. A voice. You are in the soup. Mr. Watson. (Addressing the voice.) Ish, ish, don’t say that, my friend. The voice. Mr. Watson, that slip ped out. I don’t mean a bit of harm. Mr. Black. Four years ago he was bitter in denunciation of the tariff, and says that he is bitter to day. He has bitterly declared in favor of free trade, when your own platform is not in favor of free trade. He denounces the tariff and says that such and such per cent is wrong, that a tariff of such another less per cent is also wrong. Are we to aban don all practical wisdoms. He says to abolish the tariff, I am for free trade. His own platform does not say it. Now listen to this platform on that question. It says : (Reads.) That the revenue derived from the graduated income should be applied to the reduction of the burdens of taxation now resting upon the domestic industries of this country. He turned with an air of triumph and asked me how I was going to raise the money to support the gov ernment if I reduced the tariff. He says that he will abolish the tariff altogether, and then support the government by a graduated income tax, when his own platform appro priates the receipts of the income tax, not to defray the expenses of ths government, but to relieve the domestic industries of the country. The Democratic party has been held up before the people of this country as the friends of trusts, and as the friend of monopolies. I say that there is not a chapter in its history that will sustain that indictment. I am talking about it now as a party. The Democratic party, as a great political party, has been the invet erate and relentless enemy of trusts and monopolies, and the man to-day who stands as the most illustrious representative of that opposition has been held up to the scorn of the peo ple as the ally of Wall street and the enemy of the masses of the people, when every man who will look upon the record aud give a fair verdict knows that there is not power enough in the country, not money enough in Wall street, to swerve him ole iota from his honest convictions. Here is something in the preamble about which I would like to have my friend tell this people. Let him give you his interpretation of these words : Believing that the forces of reform this day organized will never cease until every wrong is righted and equal rights mid equ u privileges securely established fir tv. ry man rnd woman of this CJiintrj. To me, that looks like a declara tion in favor of woman’s suffrage, a political heresy which I hope heaven in its mercy will save this country from. (Cheering.) Now, listen. He asked me at Crawfordsville if I would not acknowledge that there was unusual suffering in the country, caused by vicious legislation, and to what legislation I attributed it. I stated that I did acknowledge that there was depression in the country, but that I believed it to be exag gerated. I think, my friends, that it is exaggerated by the preamble to this platform. I belieVe that the agricultural interest is depressed; that the railroad interest is de pressed; that the mercantile interest is depressed; that the laboring in terest is depressed to-day; but I do say that the depression is exag gerated in this preamble, -which says that the people are on the verge of political and moral ruin. Now listen. You may not receive -what I am go ing to say w’ith favor to-day. I know that there are hundreds of you going away from here with the impression that I am not friendly to your inter ests, but listen. There are evils in this country that no political party can ever relieve you from. Now, which do you think is the best friend to you, that man that tells you that, or the man who under a mistaken conception of the functions of the government holds out hopes that can never be realized ? I say that there is legislation that ought never to have been enacted; but I here and now dare assert, and the truth of history will sustain me in it, that the legislation to which you owe all your ills is the infamous tariff—a tariff that levies taxes on the black man and the white man ; on every vessel that he uses; on every hat he wears; on every pair of shoes he puts on his feet; on every coat he puts on his back; and I say here and now that I am a better friend of the poor man, and will go further towards re moving the iniquities of this infa mous system, than he. Why, fellow-citizens, he says that the people have not been informed. That is true to a great extent. The people have not been informed upon many of these great questions. But let me tell you that the people have been misinformed upon a great many things. A voice. They have been reading the Chronicle. (Sarcastic laughter.) Mr. Black (ignoring the rejoinder). If I had the time I could take them up. You have been told over and over again—it has been told this people by their public speakers—that the per capita circulation of this country is less than five dollars per head, when there stands the report of the Secretary of the Treasury which shows that the circulation of the currency is greater than ever it was in the history of the country. You have been told that the per capita circulation is less than five dollars when it is admitted in Mr. Watson’s own book, and in one of his communications to the People’s Party Paper, that there are in cir culation three hundred and forty-six million of greenbacks. Now let any school boy divide 346 by 62 and he will know that the per capita circu lation is more than five dollars. And yet that statement has gone into all the homes in this district where it was subscribed for, and into many where it was not subscribed for, and which I do not now criticise. You have been told another thing, that the Democratic party took sixty millions of dollars and gave it to the bondholders. I deny that. I stand here to vindicate the Democratic party from that charge. What are the facts of the case ? The facts are that under the Republican tariff— Mr. Watson (producing a volume). Major, as I am in conclusion, allow me to call your attention to— Mr. Black. I do not say that I can— (A spontaneous laugh rippled over the entire audience by the hasty re treat, supplemented with the remark of a gentleman who was standing near the corner of the platform; “Ah ha, Tom was about to draw the book on him.”) Mr. Black. Now, my friends, you do not know what you are laughing at. A voice. We will show you in November. Mr. Black. Now that shows you how you may be misled. You are getting up a great hurrah over an imaginary victory, and I assume that that is something like the victory you will achieve in November. A voice. He is rattled. (Laugh ter.) Mr. Black. Now, he laughs best who laughs last. I venture to say that there is not one of you that can tell what you were laughing at. Now, is there? Voices. Yes ; because you got in the sixty million hole. (Prolonged laughter.) Mr. Black. Now, here is a wise man. (Sarcastic laughter.) Mr. Matson. (Waving his hand to insure quiet). Boys, that is enough. Leave him to me. Mr. Black. I say that the charge that the Democratic party gave sixty millions of the money of the people to the bondholders cannot be sus tained by the record. I was about to concede, when you thought you had me in a hole, and I am always willing to concede the truth in every thing, that there had been a large surplus in the treasury, put there by the iniquitous tariff system, which the Democratic party is striking such vigorous blows, and there were out standing obligations and under Cleve land’s administration that amount of money was appropriated to pay off il these outstanding obligations, and that the final reports show, in round numbers, thirty-three million dollars saved to the honest people of the United States. • (Great cheering.) Now you have not got so much to laugh at, have you ? Voices. No, no, no. (Renewed cheering.) Mr. Black. We have you in a corner now, have we not ? A voice. Are you speaking about the sixty million corner ? Mr. Black. No ; the thirty-three million corner. [There was a renewal of merri ment all around at this sally, Mr. Watson’s friends being largely in the majority, getting the best of the badinage.] Mr. Watson. My friends, leave him to me. I have got fifteen min utes to scalp him, and it will not re quire half the time. (Laughter.) Mr. Black. Suppose that a man had an outstanding obligation on which he -was paying interest, and he had plenty of money lying in bank drawing no interest, would it not be the part of prudence to take out the money and pay off the debt, thus stopping the interest? Now, he cites Andrew Jackson and his methods for our guidance, and asks why we did not give it to the people of the country. My answer to that is that the are changed. Here is a large surplus that was not accumulated under Dem ocratic methods. Mr. Cleveland, all through his administrative career, has made the most earnest protests against a surplus in the treasury, and said that it is a temptation for reck less appropriations. Now, I appeal to every man who is a student of po litical history whether Mr. Cleveland did not make his fight for the presi dency, and throw away his almost certainty of success because he would not stifle his convictions about this iniquitous system, and yet he is held up to you as a man who has entered into an unholy alliance with Wall street, and with trusts, and with mo nopolies. Now, my friends, in lieu of Cleveland, who has brought back the unstained banner of Democracy which he carried four years ago, my friend, who went before the people and told them that Mr. Cleveland was a lion-hearted man, a bold man, a man who had the courage to strike at every wrong; a man who had the courage to veto reckless expenditures, to veto unjust pension bills—that man, I say, came back with the ban ner entrusted to him trailing in the ! dust, and the blood-red sword of an enemy in his hand, and asks you to vote for—whom ? Why, for General James B. Weaver. That is the stand ard he has unfurled and asks you to fight under. Voices. Hurrah for Black; hur rah for Watson ; hurrah for Weaver. Mr. Black. Now listen to this; he admits that the tariff is iniquitous. He admits that it is so bad that it ought to be cut up root and branch. I say that it is impracticable ; you must have money to pay the expen ses of the Government. He says to pay the expenses out of the income tax ; his own platform says that the income tax shall not be appropriated to the expenses of the Government but to relieve the domestic industries of the country. I say we must be practical; that we cannot get rid of all the tariff. We cannot have a per fect political party, do not claim that the Democratic party is perfect. I do not claim that it has not made mistakes; that it has not been incon sistent. I acknowledge that the Dem ocratic party, like individuals, may not live up to its professions. No political party ever has done it. No political party ever will until God in his infinite wisdom shall send his Son to redeem this world and make us all perfect. Voices. Right, right, right. Mr. Black. Why, fellow-citikens, you talk about divisions and dissen sions among us. My competitor will admit that one of the ablest men that his party has stood on the floor of the House of Reprasentatives and made a speech against the sub-treas ury bill. And speaking about the Alliance, -where is your Alliance to day ? Voices. Gone where the wood bine twineth. Other voices. It is all right. We’ll show you where it is in No vember. Another voice. Livingston has got it. (Some hisses at the name of Livingston.) Mr* Black. I ask where is your Alliance to-day—l mean as an active, combative organization, able to ac complish the great purposes laid down in its platform, the principles and purposes of which Cleveland himself approved? A voice. Why did not you ap prove them? (Laughter.) Mr. Black (ignoring the question.) Not as a political organization, but as an organization, which in its fun damental principles, exclusive of politics, said that no man should be proscribed for his political or relig ious affiliations. Now, I say this, that if your Alliance lives until No vember— Many voices. You will find out in November whether it lives or not. Mr. Black. You need not fool yourself with the idea that your party owns the Alliance in the Tenth Congressional district. [Here followed a duel of voices between the Augusta crowd and the farmers as to whether the Alliance was for Mr. Watson or Mr. Black. The only question was as to which were the most competent witnesses — which had the better means of know ing. The weight of evidence was certainly on Mr. Watson’s side.] Mr. Black. All over this district, in McDuffie county, in Hancock county, in Taliaferro county, in Lin coln county— A voice from the Lincoln county band wagon. Old Lincoln is here for Watson, you bet. Mr. Black [continuing.] Some of the best Alhancemen—some of the most prominent farmers in the Alli ance—are standing side by side with me, with this Democratic banner in my hands. Now, when anybody suggests the idea that I am not the friend of the farmers I ask the ques tion, where is your Alliance ? If it is not dead, it is almost dead. A voice. We know you want it dead, Major, but you cannot kill it. Mr. Black. Now, I appeal to your sober intelligence ; I ask your calm, impartial j udgment; I ask you to be honest with yourselves, who killed the Alliance ? Voices. Livingston I Livingston! Livingston! (From the Augusta contingent. Harrah for Livingston ! ’Rah! ’Rah! Rah!) Other voices. You and Living ston can’t kill it! It ain’t dead! We will show you and him in November! Mr. Black. Yon will remember that I told you awhile ago that there is not any one who did as well as he ought to do. There is not a man in this assemblage who can stand up and look God in the face and put his hand on his heart and say, “I have done just as I ought to have done.” And let me tell you, you will never get a political party to do it. If you expect to get a political party of which every member is wise, every member is just, every member is consistent, and makes no mistakes, you are deceiving yourself with a delusion and a snare. Now, I want to call your attention to the Demo cratic platform. We denounce the Republican system of protection as a fraud. We declare it to be a funda mental principle of the Democratic party that the Federal government has no power to collect tariff duties, except for the purpose of revenue only. We demand that the collec tion of such taxes shall be limited to the necessities of the government economicallly administered. Now, I invite any fair man to take these two platforms home to-night and say which is the most methodi cal, the most consistent, the most effective against this iniquitous tariff, which Mr. Watson admits is an enormous wrong put upon the peo ple of this country. The Demo cratic party from its earliest history has been the party of low tariff. I do not mean that it has always spoken in the same language, but I do say that all through its history it has spoken against high tariff with emphasis, and the candidate of that party is the man who stands before the country as the most illustrious exponent of tariff refoam. (Great cheering.) You talk about the tariff as an iniquitous tariff. I say that if it was practicable to cut it out, root and branch, that I would put the knife down as deep as any one, but it is not practicable. We must have money to run the government. One of our great troubles is the extrava gance of the government. I would join hands with any party, Peoples’ party or any other, to check this growing evil. I do not approve of the appropriation of twenty thousand dollars to bury a senator, but that was done by a Republican Senate. If such a thing was done in the Democratic House I would condemn it as quick as I would the Senate. I say that the way to cure these evils is inside and not outside the Demo cratic party. Now look here. Do you know what I think is one of the greatest impositions put upon us in this coun try, and especially in the South ? It is these pensions. And I am here as a candid man to acknowledge that the Democratic party is not faultless in this, but I do say that the record of the Democratic party is better than the record of the People’s par ty. lam talking of this party now as we see it in its platform, and not what some individual representatives say. Don’t you know that this pen sion roil has gone up t'o $150,000,000 a year; and they tell you that it is going to $200,000,000? He may point to the Democratic party and say with truth, perhaps, that it was more liberal than the Republican party. But I say that it is a ques tion environed with embarrassments; and I say furthermore that the far mers in the field ; that the laborer on the public works ; that the mechanic at his bench, and all the oppressed, tax-ridden people, have a thousand times more hope for relief through Mr. Cleveland than they have through James B. Weaver. One of them went before the people of this country having vetoed a pension bill that saved the toilers of the country millions of dollars. The other goes before the country with an indis puted reqprd of having introduced into three different Congresses a bill to anpropriate three hundred millions of dollars to pay pensions. Now, you honest farmers, you hon est laborers, you want to put down this iniquitous tax on everything you eat and wear. You want to remove these burdens from the back of an overburdened country, do you not? How are you going to do it ? If I believed that the measures they pro pose could be enacted into laws, and serve the purpose for which they are intended, no man would more cheer fully join in the work than I. Ido not tie myself to any party; but that time, let me tell you, will never come. You may hug the hope to your bosom, but it is a delusion and a snare. The time will never come, I repeat, when you can get money from the govern* ment at 2 per cent upon the agricul tural products of the country. (Cheer ing from the Hancock and Augusta brigades.) Now, my friends, we have heard a great deal about the sub-treasury, and a great many of the people of the country have an idea that the sub-treasury is going to bring them relief; that the govern ment is going to issue them money on the sub-treasury plan at 2 per cent. Now, it is very difficult for me to understand how any man who stops to consult his reason and judg ment can entertain such an idea as that this government is going to deal them out money at 2 per cent. Why, 1 doubt very much if the government could float its own indebtedness at 2 per cnnt. The idea that the gov ernment is going to issue money, es tablish warehouses, and lend that money out on corn, wheat and cot ton storedin those warehouses at 2 por cent, when it cannot float its own indebtedness at 2 per cent, is too chimerical to receive a serious thought from any ordinary business man. Now look me straight in the eye. I do not mean to impeach any man, but look me straight in the eye. The farmer or the laborer, the white man or the black man who goes home and builds on the hope that the govern ment is going to let him have money at 2 per cent, is just as certain to wake up to disappointment as that God’s sunshine will light up the east ern hills to-morrow morning. (Ap plause.) That is something you can never realize. A voice. • The liquor men realize it. Mr. Black. The liquor men do not realize it. Where is the man that says the liquor men realize it. I say they do not. Mr. Watson, I say it, and if you do not know it, I will show it to you. Mr. Black. I say that the govern nment lots them store their liquor, but that is not the sub-treasury, plan, and I say moreover that I am ready to joinhands with any one in striking downthat liquor law. A voice. You did not do it in prohibition times. Another voice. He promised to do better. Mr. Black. Ido not suppose that you know how to do better. Here these men are bringing in matters that has nothing to do with the mat ter, but I will tell them and every person in the Tenth Congressional District that I am not ashamed of my vote on that or any other ques tion. [Applause.] I say that I dare on that question, as on every other question, to follow my convic tions. I will say further that I do not shrink from cqmparison on any moral question with any other man. A Hancock man. Hit him hard, hit him hard. A farmer. [ln a sneering tone.] Oh, isn’t that awful?] Mr. Black. That has got nothing to do with this issue, and I am sorry that it was injected into it. Mr. Wat son insists that the government lets the whisky men have money on their whisky.® Mr. Watson. Here is the law if you want to see it. Mr. Black. I have seen the law ; I have read the law. I say in the first place that it levies a tax on the manufacture of three or four times the value of the whisky. Mr. Watson. That gives them a protection to the extent of three or four times the value of the whisky. (Loud laughter.) Mr. Black. Now, boys, you laugh ed too soon again. You have not profited by your own experience. I say that the government does show some sort of favor, but the govern ment does not lend money to the whisky men on the sub-treasury plan. A voice. On a sub-treasury plan, (Laughter.) Mr. Black. No, nor on a sub treasury plan. These whisky man ufacturers build their own warehouses and the government levies this enor mous tax upon them and impounds their goods until * their tax is paid. But suppose that it is wrong, suppose that it is iniquitous, suppose that it is deserving the condemnation of every honest man, what is the way to re medy it ? Why, to repeal the law. If this government has passed one or two laws in the interest of one class, is that a reason that it should pass another law in the interest of another class? What was the slogan of the Ocala platform ? It is not in the Omaha platform. I wish that I had ‘time to put these two platforms side by side and show you what was in the Ocala platform that is not in the Omaha platform. To show you that the great principle on wnich you formulated your platform at Ocala has been abandoned. It was good doctrine, in essence, the Democratic doctrine of “equal rights to all men, special privileges none.” (Cheering.) Now wait; if you found a system of legislation that gives special favors to one class, how do you keep faith with the Ocala platform by saying because the government has ed favors to one class it shall remedy the wrong byj giving favors to another. I say no. Strike down the favors to all classes, and I stand here to-day as a better friend and ex ponent of the doctrines of the Ocala platform than any man that advo cates the sub-treasury plan. Voices. Hurrah for Weaver hurrah for Watson. Mr. Black. Why, my friends, have you lost your reason ? ‘ Are you go ing to let madness control you ? Voices. Not a bit of it. We know where we are at, and where you are at. [continued cn sixth page. J 3