The Russellville Democrat., 1890-07-10
The Dover Barbecue.

' V VI v = was gotten up and managed by the
 Farmers Alliance and was grand
 success. Between 5000 and 1000
 people were present A large pro
 cession, numbering 500 or more, pa raded the streets about ten o'clock,
 after which they repaired to the bar becue grounds, large and beauti- ful grove few hundred yards east
 Of town. The procession was led by
 the Dover string band, followed by
 the Dover sunday school, the mason
 lc fraternity, the Alliance, Blakely's g 1 immense wagon drawn by seven yokes of oxen containing the New
 Hope sunday school, and citizens Tn
 wagons and carriages.
 The marshals for the day were J. c. Bonds on the part of the alliance,
 D. c. Brown for the sabbath schools, and D. R. Grant in behalf of the the masonic fraternity.
 At I0:30 Marshal Bonds from the speakers stand called the assembly to order and announced the pro l gramme.
 1 After the rendition of musical SC
 lections by the choir, led by Mss Joe Hughes who presided at the organ, and prayer by Rev. k. D. Landers, the Rev. Dr. c. L. Kirkscey, the orator of the day was introduced and delivered an address on behalf of the Farmers Alliance. His ad- dress consumed over an hour Tn its delivery and owing to it's length we are unable to give more than synopsis of 1t:
 | He said 43 years of his 5I years had been spent with farmers. When boy he had worked with them on the farm. Had been with them years In civil war, often on gory battlefields where dangers came thick and fast. He had professionally gone behind the curtains of the privacies of life. from the carpet ed mansions of the city to the little log cabin of the mountain. He had been with them in every path and condition of life, from the giving In marriage to l deaths chamber, and he could say of l truth that they were the truest friends, l hibQCSb iatuCtos biDCCiCsb HuSOduds3 bravest soldiers and the most self sac rificing patriots of any and all classes of people. The first agricultural socie- " was formed in South Egypt on the 1 Nile. It was the nucleus of the first civil government. Farmers Tn the old l ages had been the heralds of civil goy- ernment and progress. They had been the founders, builders, supporters and renovators of every civil government that proved a blessing to the people. 1 He then referred to the republic of Rome and pointed to the fact that when she threw off Royalty and established 1 the Republic all the beneficent measures were secured through the ef- l forts of the Plebian order, which order was composed of farmers and laborers, and by whose cooperative building and support Rome stood 300 years le wonder, power and admiration of the world, and would to-day be standing | the center of power and the greatest blessing of all the governments of the earth had it not been for the ayarice and craze of the masses to be rich. He said that in all ages money power had controlled all governments and sorely oppressed the laborers when'not organ iZed against by laborers. He said tue Republic of America was born farm ers' alliance; first, to protect them 1 against the Indians, secondly, to throw off the oppression of Royalty and with 1t all monopoly. For 70 years it was a solid, compact township, county, state and national alliance of the people. All of her officers were elected from, by and for the people. He said at the close of the war billions of dollars were | ... Al oTs . A. tl. mostly in the hands of a few. These 1 few not only allied themselves to- gether, but with the money powers of Europe, and have used their money for extending their political influence un- til they have dictated and controlled the financial policy of the government, calling in and retiring by bonding, stealing the dollar of our dadies by sus- pending the coinage of silver, loaning bonds to banks, and bank-trusts issuing money to both government and peoples l They have formed trusts on bread, meat, sugar, coffee, clothing, bagging, ties, and on and on until the laborer has to pay tribute on every article nec- essary to life to the patrician million aires of this government. He then said the Farmers Alliance (whose speaker he was) was founded on truth, justice and equity. That the principal points in it's obligations were: be true to yourself, to your family, to your God, to your country, to the order and ever speak the truth. He said they were not going to secede and form a new party, but fight It out Tn the Union and unite the union. He said there
 were but two political parties and In the nature of the case there could be but two. When more than two exist ed there was nothing but confusion and no definate results could be obtain ed. They were willing for the disabled union soldiers to be pensioned and
 would be glad if the people of the South could devise some means for talk ing care of her disabled soldiers, for we believe that they were honest in their convictions. We would have the
 war with all it's horrors buried with the dead issues of the past together
 with the false promises and allegations
 with which have been forged the siren songs to Hull us from action against the power of the millionaire officers of the government, till we begin to see the forging of the chains of slavery. AL
 ready one-half of the happy homes from
 Maine to the Gulf of Mexico, and from
 ocean to ocean are under mortgage.
 The interest of the working class north
 and south would have been united but for the minions of the monopolies and
 trust companies who have used every
 device to play on the preJudices and
 passions lie felt satisfied farmers would never be brought to know the
 truth by partizan speakers or partizan
 papers, their bitter, sarcastic denunci- ations only made bitterness more bitter and widened the breach. He then read the Alliance plan for educating the masses. The following committees
 would bring the truth for the satisfac-
 ton of all
 1st. On acreage. Its duty to ascer- tain the yield. cost of production t gathering, marketing and how much : each farm yields oyer and above the l amount necessary to keep up the farm. 2d. On finance. Its duty to find how e many farms are mortgaged in the juris- | 4