The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-06-04
AN ADDRESS
By Jas. r. Bazemore, Delivered Before
Lewiston Alliance: No. 1896, on
April 27th, 1880.

good brethren unintentionouu
thoughtlessly becoming faint an3 ana
kneed in the great work we bo "e@h'
accomplish. | am not vonr lave 70
and unfortunately Or for me, l am not
capable OF lecturing this bodv, R HU'
with your permission, l want to nut'
few words for the say a
the order. s0hnenC OF
Let us think back only a little over
one hundred years ago, when tIa
Americans were forced to form on
alhance to protect themselves from tho
imposing tax and Stamp Act Of Graat
Britain. She got SO grand as not ~
allow u forefathers to mannfactuS"
anything. One of the LEADING Britis6
statesmen went so far as to saw the
colonlsts had no right to make 3 nail
tor a horseshoe. Now, brptbron
haven't we, the poor laboring men Of
tne country, got fully as tyrannical a
class OF people to contend with as orr
1ore1athers had in those days ? Ger.
talnly we have, and we must be more
united and fight a good fight, if we
want to succeed in conquering the
enemy. Now, how are we to proceed
to gain the victory Only by a con.
slant and secret fight, with truth at
the helm, and the secret words of the
order for u passport; and by all
means, brethren, let me beseech Won
to be faithful to the end, for we are
told in the sacred writings that its
only those who hold out faithful to
the end that shall receive the reward.
Be faithful in this great work, and +
guarantee that success will crown our
great and noble aim. Then we will
be able to shout out in tones of thun-
der, all over this broad land of ours,
the battle we'll fought, the victory
won. The Farmers Alliance has
broken down monopoly and liberty to
the workingman proclaimed. We
should eve give up this fight in de-
spair, but let minds run back to
the father of u country-George
Washington. He was an Alliance
man-not a Farmers Alliance, but
a National Alliance-and commader
of his army. Suppose, for a moment,
that the great Washington, in the
many dark hours of his warfare,
had become weak in faith and dis
couraged, and had come to that bitter
conclusion-that he was already over.
powered and could never accomplish
his great undertaking. will ask,
| where, in the name of God, where
would we be today? But no, breth.
rem, defeat never entered the breast of
our noble hero, Suppose Washington
had been so careless and weak kneed
as to have revealed all or d part Of his
plans to the enemy; why, OF course, LIE
could have never succeeded. But this
was not the case with the wise and
good Washington. He kept, sacred
as the Scriptures, all his plans as 70
when, how and where he would attack
the enemy; he only revealed his plans
to his leading men, whom he could
trust. If he had written out all his
thoughts and intentions and sent them
over to his enemy they would have
been prepared to defeat him in every
attack. But, thank Heaven, he was
too wise and too true to his country
for this.
Let us take a lesson from this noble
hero, and be more jealous and more
determined to succeed in this great
and noble work. Let us take courage
from what the Alliance has already
done and is still doing, and let us
spread the glad tidings from camp to
camp, until it spreads all over the land,
that we are determined to break down
all monopoly, trust companies and ex-
~tortioning companies of every descrlR,
ton, for we are also told in the Good
Book that no extortioner can enter
the Kingdom Of Heaven. Our cat
is a good one, let us fight on brethren
I pray to see the day come when q
poor laboring mans dollar will buy as
much of anything, anywhere, as the
millionaire's dollar, who have cheated
and defrauded the working men OF
the country out of all their hard earn
ings for nearly eighteen centuries.
God grant that u children and
grand children may never know BY
experience what crop-liens and mort
cages mean, only as they learn from.
books and their f~orefathers. When
they are told how times were up until
1859, and ask the question what
brought about these good times, let 1t
be told them, from every quarter that
the Farmers Alliance broke down
monopoly, that great curse, that did
| so much to keep our forefathers
trodden down and crushed to mother.
Now let us, as many of us as may
he fortunate enough in allthings ana
nv all to take our places IN the
Farmers Alliance, to keep the noble
work going on for generations to