Newspaper Page Text
Issue
Vol 2. NO. 44.
A TERRIBLE ARRAIGNMENT.
John Temple Graves Scores
The Men “Who Control”—
A Deadly Incubus.
WILL THE PEOPLE SUBMIT?
Revolt If* Ripe and the People will Re
buke Ring Rule and Boeelein Kvery
where It Show* Itself,
Atlanta Constitution
Upon my return from the northwest
I find that public rumor connects my
name with an intention to oppose the
nominees of the state democratic con
vention upon the hustings, and to offer
as an independent candidate for con
gress in the Atlanta district.
I have neither of these intentions—
least of all, the last—but the prevalence
of this rumor justifies a word as to my
position.
From my place in the ranks, where
for twelve years I have fonnght un
selfishly and without reward, I have a
right to speak frankly to the respectful
hearing of the democracy of Georgia.
No man has questioned my sincerity in
the past, and I put behind me here the
possibility of misconstruction, when
I say that I do not desire now or in the
future, any office which the people have
in their ballots to bestow. lam wounded
in no friendship, smitten in no ambition
and steeled in no prejudice. But I am
profoundly concerned for the condition
of politics in Georgia, and seriously
apprehensive for the welfare of the party
to which I belong.
You who write know as well as I who
speak that there is discord in the ranks
of the Georgia democracy, and discontent
brewing bitterness and division. Yon
know as well as I do that this boastful
prophecy of 70,000 democratic majority
is the mere bravado of politicians who
realize the possibility of no majority at
all. and who illustrate their apprehension
by the tremendous energy now being
put forth in men and money and man
agement to perfect a campaign against
the most formidable opposi'ion that has
fronted us since the war. You know, or
you ought to know, that th 11-nnds of
veteran democrats stayed away from the
primary elections in order to hold them
selves free for the October issues, and
jou know, or you ought to know, that
thousands of these men will either absent
themselves from the polls in October, or
go there to cast a straight and fearless
ballot against the nominees of the party
to which they have been blindly true
for a generation. If you do not know
these things, you can easily verify them
by the scantiest investigation into the
sentiment of your own locality and of
the counties round about it.
Georgia is ripe today wieh the spirit
of revolt! These are bold words, but
they are the truest you have beard since
the campaign opened, and I challenge
you to refute them in fact, however
much your extreme of partizan loyalty
may lead you to deny them in boastful
and swelling platitudes.
W hat is the basis of this discontent
in the ranks of a long-united party?
It does not grow, abstractly, out of the
defeat of General Evans for governor.
With Evans politicians at work and
General Evans himself corralled on the
stump in an ex.-ess of magnanimity
toward a victorious opponent, this expla
nation will not begin to meet the situa
tion. It is not due to the diversity of
sentiment on the tariff issue. The tariff
was not not long since truthfully epito
mized by General Hancock as a local
question, and the varying views of Geor
gians for twelve years past have never
yet been precipitated in real division nor
the threat of it. Neither can it be as
cribed to the financial theories-which
beset us. In the conglomerate jumble
of platforms—state, national and con
gressional— presented by compromising
partisans and interpreted liberally and
with heroic latitude by partisan news
papers, there is satisfaction for every
separate view, and an ample basis for
joyous harmony into which even the
populist may gather in the old-fashioned
ratio of 16 to 1. But neither the bitter
ness of partisanship, nor the sins of the
tariff, nor the straddle of the financial
issue, can explain the deep discontent
that is growing in the state.
Will yon explain it? If not, I will. I
will tell you where the trouble lies. It
is in the protest of the thinking masses
against methods that are objectionable
and a drift in our politics that is dan
gerous and deadly. Let me tell you,
Constitution, that, although it may
sleep long and sluggish under the reign
of the demagogue, there is nothing in 1
God’s great universe of thought, keener
and truer and wiser and Wilder at last!
than the awakened judgment of the
people. The man or the men who dis
count this fact, discount history, reason
and common sense. And the woods of
Georgia, like the streets of your cities,
are full of men who are carrying in
patriotic hearts a protest, silent now,
but tremendous hereafter.
I am the humblest of these men, per
haps. Perhaps the weakest and mosP
unworthy. But I will voice this protest j
for them. I will speak without fear and j
without apology, in the freedom of a j
citizen, and in the most unselfish love
for the real interests of the democratic
party.
1. They believe—thousands of them
—that there is a ring formed in Georgia
—a ring of small men, of keen, shrewd,
aitive and ambitious politicians, loving
themselves first of all, and Georgia in
cidently as the mother of offices and the
disburser of spoils. They believe that
these men have secured control of the
machinery of party, and intend to
throttle the free expression of the pop
ular will. They believe that these men,
condfient in the fancied strength of their
position, and reckless of public opinion,
have met in secret conclave and parceled
out the offices of Georgia for years to
come, without consulting their masters,
the people who are expected to ratify in
slavish and truculent loyalty the edicts
of conventions which these men shrewd
ly manipulate and selfiishly “control,”
3. They believe—thousands of thefc— j
that a goodly number, if not a majority* I
of the judges and solicitors of Georgia
monstrous thought!—have wrapped their 1
splendid energies and their political
fortunes in the future of this ring, aD 1.
that tl;is highest and noblest and most 1
sacred branch of oni civic life is being;
stained by political manipulation, and 1
prostituted by the selfish scramble fori
place.
This is the protest which is rolling
in silence and gathering in m nance in
the hearts and the hands of the people.
They believe these dangers to be real
and they are rising to meet them. You
shall not doubt the truth of the asser
tion. I dare you who doubt it—whether
in personal or official state —to go with
me or send with me one who shall fair
ly gauge an fearlessly report the
sweep of this sentiment in Georgia.
And the people have a right to be
lieve this dreadful danger. If it is not
threatening, it is not their fault that
they cherish the apprehension. No
effort has ever been made to disabuse
them of this fear. Both of these mons
trous apprehensions have been estab
lished to their con vie'ions; established
in circumstantial evidence powerful
enough to seem conclusive; established
in the open and oft-repeated charges of
democratic orators and democratic
newspapers, whose fiery allegations
have never been refracted or explained;
and established finally in the silence
with which those charged with their
burden have met the serious aspersion.
For whether it be confidence in the
strength of their plans, or an insolent
contempt for the opinion of the people,
or a paradoxical regard for truth of
statement, it is an apparent justifica
tion for these charges that they have
never been met with brave considera
tion or answered with prompt and man
ly and definite denial.
And, if these things be true, there is
no extreme of action to which the hon
est protest of Georgia should not be
carried. The issue involved is greater
than parties, deeper than the tariff, and
deadlier than any theory of the curren
cy. These material things pass and
change and modify with changing par
ties, but the open sore up on the body
politic eats and cankers and destroys.
The issue of a pure judiciary towers
like a mountain peak above every other
question of the campaign. Mark you,
it will be the shibboleth of thousands in
October. I charge home the responsi
bility upon the leaders who ignore it.
This is at last a thinking and a reading
people. The last four years —the las:
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, AUGUST 30 1894.
two campaigns- -have been full of. edu
cation. And the people are thinking
freely and will vote more fearlessly
than they have ever done before. You
cannot any longer shake the red rag of
negro supremacy in the face of the
masses and make them think that life
and death and salvation depend upon
voting the democratic ticket. They are
thinking for themselves new, and erect
ing in their free minds and brave hearts
a higher standard to which men and
measures must come.
The judiciary must be kept oat of
politics. This is the mignty issue,
because it is the issue of profoundest
consequence. Tt is galling enough if
this ring exists, for free and independent
men to know that henceforth they are
mere automatons made to register the
decisions of a star chamber caucus —
mere figures to dance and vote when
these score or more of bosses pull the
strings. But this might be borne.
Governments have dispersed conspira
cies before, and the people of Georgia
have smashed more than one ring in
their glorious and eventful history.
But the entrance of the judiciary into
the selfish scramble of politics is mons
trous and unbearable. It touches the
holy of holies in the state. Think of
one who wears the sacred ermine of the
courts, and sworn to dispense impartial
justice under the law, owing his sea: to
a cabal and forced to recognize the obli
gation ! Think of justice held in any
chair of dependence or poisoned by any
coward fear of interest! Think of
these high and noble seats, glorified by
the great names of the past, prostituted
into altars of self-seeking ambition and
degraded into tribunals for compound
ing the felonies of political henchmen,
or for spiteful vengeance or political
antagonists! Better monarchy than
republican infamy like this. Better
■despotism or populism than corruption
masked in the beautiful lineaments of
law. Better a king than a prostitute
judge! Better Cseiar than Jeffrie3 !
I tell you, Constitution, that these
things are boiling in the noble veins of
Georgia. If the charges which base
them are untrue, it should b 8 made
crystal clear to the comprehension of
the people. No pompous denial, no
blatant protestation will alone suffice
for this. Frankly, fairly and explicitly
these oft-repeated charges must be met
and the truth made manifest in the
light today. If these charges are true,
there is yet time to purge the evil and
redeem the party from diaster. If the
ring is formed, if the coalition exists,
and if the judiciary is in it let the ring
be openly dissolved and let the courc
officers, over their own names, renounce
all future connection with political
huckstering in the state. This bold,
frank course is the only way—the noble
way —clear always and open to patriots
and statesmen.
As a democrat, as a lover of my pir
ty, I plead with all my heart and soul
and strength for the purification of that
i party —from the shadows which becloud
it. Nay, more! As a citizen and an
unimpeachetl representative, speaking
from my place in the ranks, I demand
this vindication before we go out to
|do battle with a strong, clean and
j formidable foe.
j There is no treason in these true
j words —at least none that I fear, either
: now or hereafter. Liberated at last
1 and finally from any desire for public
1 office, without hope or reward or fear
;of punishment, I speak them fearlessly
| for the ensential good of the party and
' above all for the glory of the state. If
the fears of the people are unfounded,
it is time to make this clear. If they
are just, there is time for public sinners
to repent and be forgiven.
Bat if these things or neither ex
plained nor denied, I swear to you that
there are thousands of Georgians who
will hold their ballots as the expression
of their political consciences, and hurl
them fearlessly in October at Che head
of this open and defiant shame.
John Temple Graves,
Joe James says that he is opposed
to personalities in this campaign. He
claims that he wants to discuss prinei
| pies, yet most of his speech is devoted
jto Tom Watson. If Joe proposes to
'discuss principles, he had just as well
get out of his party.
CHAIRMAN KIMBROUGH.
He Is Touclied up in Style—Bravado Will
Not Win.
Mr. T. H. Kimbrough, chairman, of
the Executive Committee of the 4th
Congressional district of the democratic
party has issued his proclamation, and
from the highly bombastic style, we
question if any human being on this or
any other continent, ever so fully real
ized and appreciated his importance
more forcibly than Chairman Kim
brough while penning that great and
startling production. He grows eloquent,
shall we say sublimely so? Hear him,
the friend of Hines, Thornton, Hall,Gal
lagher, Kolb & Co. He says the Popu
list nominees were once republicans.
Yes, Thornton was Solicitor General of
the Chattahoochee Circuit, when Hon.
Joseph E. Brown was Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of Georgia, and
afterwards elected by the democratic
party of Georgia to the United States
Senate. Yes, Thornton was Solicitor
General of the Chattahoochee Circuit
when Hon. Hiram Warner was associate
Justice of the Supreme Court. Yes,
Thornton was Solicitor General of the
Chattahoochee Circuit when Hon. Evan
P. Howell, the democratic editor of
The Atlanta Constitution, and at that
time the democratic nominee for repre
sentative of Fulton County, was Solici
tor General of the Atlanta circuit, and
all of them were good efficient officers
and held commissions from the same
Governor. Tnere were others who were
applicants for the Solicitor Generalship
of the Chatcahoochee Circuit at the
time Thornton was appointed, and who
have since held office under democratic
administrations. He says the Populist
nominee must be defeated by 6,999 votes.
Don't he blow ? From the past political
defeats of Mr. Chairman Kimbrough,
we sholud not think him a safe or suc
cessful leader. It seems that he is un
able to carry his county for himself in
his own party. Not a great while since
he was defeated in his own county in a
democratic primary for State Senator.
We next see him before the democratic
Congressional Convention for the 4th
congressional district, at Warm Springs
and he is defeated then, and from
the manner in which he puffs and
blows in his proclamation, one
would naturally conclude that he
was a bellowsed racer. Judging the
future by the pa3t, the conclusion is
inevitable that he will do nothing more
than he has done in the past. Blow
and puff and puff and blow. Knowing
Mr. Chairman Kimbrough as we do, we
can but ask : “Upon what meat doeth
this our Cas sar feed that he has grown
so grea*. ?”
-
Record on Silver.
The vote of the lower house in the
fifty-third congress on free silver coin
age at 16 to 1, was:
Yeas—Republicans 13, democrats 100,
populist 11.
Nays—Republicans 114, democrats
113, populist 0.
The per cent of the vote was as fol
lows:
For gold standard—Republican 91
per cent, democrats 55 per cent, popu
list 0 per cent.
For free coinage of silver at 16 to 1 —
Republicans 9 per cent, democrats 45
per cent, populist 100 per cent.
Honest reader, will you please ask
yourself what party it is that now sup
ports free silver coinage, good prices,
and good times, and what parties are
for the single gold standard, 5 cent cot
ton, 30 cent wheat, and the misery such
conditions always entail.
Hon. John Brice, of DeK-ilb cmnty,
died at his home near Inglesile Wed
nesday night of last week. H 9 was
about 87 years old. There was not a
truer or nobler man who belonged to
the rsforrn cause than Brother Brice.
He was indeed a philanthropist of the
old school, and every reformer in Geor
gia mourns his loss. No one ever knew
him but to love him, and the number of
his friends was only limited by his ac
quaintance. Thousands will honor the
name of this true man in the future.
Subscription-One Dollar Per year
A Card From Mr. Thomas.
We publish the following card from
Mr. Thomas, of Dublin, who has been
misrepresented by some one:
There has been a report current for
the past week that I said “if there was a
rope long and strong enough, I would
gladly see every People’s Party man in
the county hung at one time,” At first
1 thought best to let this malicious and
ridiculous falsehood go uunoticed, know
ing that it would have no effect upoi
the minds of the people who knew me.
But, learning that it was being circu
lated in different parts of the county, I
have decided to publicly denounce the
report as 2n unwarranted and malicious
lie. I hereby assert publicly to the
people—and especially to some good
friends I have in the populist party—
that the above report which has been
circulated, and which many of you have
heard, is a base, malicious and cowardly
lie, originated by one who, though un
known to me, I don’t hesitate to say,
is baser than the man who would set
fire to yonr house at' midnight, and
lower than the cowardly cur that sneaks
up behind to bite your heels. Further
more I will give $lO cash for the name
of the sneak, with positive proof, who
first told this falsehood. Resp’t.,
J. H. Thomas.
'The Senate’s Donation.
The senate has been almost as kind to
the whisky trust as to the sugar trust.
Estimating the present stock in the bond
ed warehouses at 200.000,000 gallons, the
increase of the tax from 90 cents to sl.-
10 a gallon, will put exactly $40,000,000
into the pockets of the whisky trust.
But the $40,000,090 is not the only gra
tuity given by the senate to the whisky
trust. The bonded period, three year,
under the existing law, is made - ght
years by the senate; that is the trust
gets five years more from the govern
ment before being obliged to pay the
tax. All this time the whisky is im
proving and the whisky trust is saving
interest. At sl.lO a gallon the interest
at 4 per-cent would bs 4 4 cents a gallon.
On 100,000.000 galloos theintetest would
be $4,400,000. Tnis sim the senate vir
tually gives to the whisky trust every
year for five years. Ia other words, be
sides making a direct donation of $40,-
000,000 to the whi-ky trust, it save3tkat
thrifty concern in five years, interest to
the amount of $32,000,000, or a donation
of $62,000,000 iu five years. In the face
of this fact we are led to doubt the oft
expressed fear of paternalism. If thi3
sort of legislatian is not paternalism of
the rankest kind there is no definition
of the term.
Twenty-Seventh S“natorial Dlstrct.
The P‘pulists met in convention at
Social Circle on the 25th inst. Was
called to order by W. D. Hayden. Hon.
W. L. Peek was elected permanent
chairman. W. C. Cailey, of Newton,
was chosen secretary. The roll of coun
ties was called. A full delegation re
sponded. A committee was selected,
consisting of one delegate from each
county, who presented the name of M.
D. Irwin to the convention, who, on mo
tion of W. C. Bailey, was unanimously
chosen by acclamation, to be the stand
ard bearer for this, the 27th District.
The following gentlemen were chose.i
for the Executive Committee:
. W. L, Peak, of Caayers, Rockdale
county.
W. C. Baily, Oxford, Newton county.
G. P. Bright well, A them, Clarke
countv.
B E. Overby, Warkinsville, Oconee
county.
J. L. Mitc'aelll, Social Circle, Walton
county.
The c-nvention adjourned for dinner
to assemble again at 2:39 o’clock to hear
a sp-ech by Col. Peek. Oa this short no
tice the hall was well nigh filled. He
made a strong and forcible spee -h, which
was well received aDd loudly applauded.
We had a message from the colored
people, through Berry Sanford, of Wal
ton, which shows they were thoroughly
iu the harness, and organizing by Dis
tricts. The whole District was found to
be in a cheering and hopeful condition.
We will furnish the nex t senator for
the twenty-seventh.
The Daily Press and People’s Party
Paper please copy, by request of conven
tion.
W. C. Bailey,
Oxford, Ga., Aug. 27th. Secretary.