The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1890-11-12
AN ALLIANCE ADDRESS
BY PRESIDENT POLK TO THE FARM
ERs OF THE SOUTH.

ERS OF THE SOUTH.
Thousands Made Glad by Listening to the
Farmers Great Headlight-The Power
and Glory of This Great Country Rests
with the Farmers.
ATLANTA, Oct. 3l.-Co!. l.. l.. Polk,
president of the National Farmers
Alliance, who has been travelling and
speaking for the last four weeks. ar
rived in this city to be in attendance
at Piedmont exposition during Alli-
ance days. The colonel is slightly in
disposed. and, therefore, was unable to
make an extec ded argument; but he is
so well known in this southern country
that the people are thoroughly salts
fed with his short speech. Being in
troduced, he said:
Ladies, Fellow-Countrymen and
Brother Alliancemen: l profoundly
regret to say that after continuous
travelling and speaking for four weeks
| am utterly incapacitated to meet the
demands imposed upon me through
your generous kindness and cordi-
ality. I have come, nevertheless. in
obedience to that call to which I have
never yet turned deaf ear, the call of
the farmers of the country, to speak to
the good people of Georgia about the
farmer. 1thas been my good fortune
within the past few weeks to traverse
many portions of this great country of
ours. AS | rolled across her rich and
Well-tilled plains, as l beheld the rich
haryests of wheat and corn and other
agricultural wealth, as I pondered
upon our vast network Of over 10000
miles OF railway, as l thought of our
magnificent rivers, those splendid ar
teries OF our inland commercial life,
and gazed with delighted eyes upon
the beautiful and eyer-changing pano-
rama of scenery presented to my inter-
ested gaze. and saw the smoke of many
factories rolling over the house-tops of
prosperous cities, thought within n.y.
self that this was a great country
and a great people, and that the
progress thus far made was but
a stepping stone to higher and
broader and grander achievements yet
to be wrought in the fullness of time
by the magnificent courage and splen-
did energy OF the American manhood
of the future. And it is to the great
middle class. the yeomanry of the
country, that the country must yet look
for its salvation. These men are the
hope of our future, and in their quiet
and peaceful homes, where simple and
honest manhood and womanhood are
cultivated and nurtured, will be reared
tie future stay of the republic, the
statesmen and patriots and warriors,
if need be, whose lives and fortunes,
whose blood and courage will he deyot-
ed to the welfare CT the land they loves
SO well. For it is in these quiet coun-
try homes that the chief hope Of the
future OF republic rests; for without
these modest yeomanry all progress
would be impossible and civilization
itself would be arrested and paraiyzed.
Our civilization itself would perish,
and all commerce cease, and Jay Gould
himself, with all his millions, could not
buy his breakfast if the farmer were no
longer living, active factor in our So
cial and commercial life. Yes, whe1I
look into the honest face of these grand
yeomanry which, by its hard labor and
perpetual diligence, clothes and feeds
the world, | forget the magnifcence Of
our cities, forget our splendid railway
system, and am forced in my heart to
exclaim that of all the power and
strength and glory of this great coun
try the larger portion Of it rests in the
hands and hearts of the farmers Of
America.
l regret, my friends, that l cannot
make you speech today. lam really
here at a serious risk to my health.
But | cannot refrain from adding that
| have just returned from the great
and bring to you, brethren
of the Alliance here ''the glad tidings
of great Joy" This mighty upheayal,
which has interested the mass of the
southern people, has crossed the border,
andyour brothers of the west and north
west are with you heart and soul-iu
one accord with you in all your aims
and purposes, and they realize now that
the warts over, and that the blue will
join with the gray in demanding com
mon justice for both, for they realize
now at last that your interests are their
interests, your aims their aims, your
objects their objects, and that what is
good for the farmer who wore the gray
is the very thing to benefit the farmer
who wore the blue. Prolonged cheer
ing.]
thank God from the bottom of my
heart that the great American people,
those who illustrated their manhood in
the face of a bloody death on one field
after another, men who had the man
hood to stand or fall by what they con-
ceived to be the right; | thank God that
these men have gotten Eowso far away
from the echoes to the rife and the can
non that they can embrace each other
as brethren at last, and recognize the
great fact that this country is, and shall
be, one country that this people is, and
shall forever be, one people. Applau
| am commissioned by our breth
of the northwest to convey to you 81
message that they feel as you do, $SzS
like you, no longer proposed to be
trolled and governed by designing
selfish demagogues. Loud cheeriI
Our great organization, wish t6s
for the benefit of outsiders, extends Il
jurisdiction over thirty-tive of the statd
of this Union, in twenty-nine of WhictxE
we have perfected state organizations,
and number in all over 2,5OO, 600 of the
best bone and Drawn and courage and
intellect of American manhood.
My friends, | wish to make this re-
mark, and impress it well upon you: In
the great struggle whichis hourly COM
ing nearer to us, all the questions will not
be whether one or another political par
ty shall have the supremacy, but Wheth-
er American manhood shall govern
America whether the people shallreign
and make their own laws, or whether
the dollar shall govern and become SUI
preme and sovereign in the republic.
That is the great issue. We must
meet it; we must face it; we can't avoid
it. 1t is coming nearer every day, and
-he solution Of this great question de-
oends largely upon the effort. OF that
5reat body OF Americans embraced by