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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.