The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-09-23
POLK PUTS IN A DENIAL.
He AGAIN DENIES THE STORY THAT
EE WASH DANGER.

Never Better Treated in His Life Than
by the People Of Wichita-He Claims
That he Was Never Higher in Rank
il thu Confederate Army Than a
Third Lieutenant.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22.-President Polk
of the farmers alliance has returned from
bis western trip and was to-day inter-
viewed by Star reporter. To an inquiry
as TO what foundation there was for the re-
port in the press that he was threatened
with violence while in Wichita, Ken. by
old soldiers, he said: There was no
foundation for it whatever. l never was
treated more kindly or courteously than by
the people of Kansas, and especially by the
old soldiers during my whole trip. I was
peculiarly gratified at nv reception by the
good people Of Wichita and the
large numbers of old soldiers
present. l spoke to an immense
crowd in the opera house and was never
honored by more marked attention any
where. At the request OF some old soldier
friends referred to the charge that had
mistreated union prisoners during the war.
WHAT HE SAID.
MY language, as reported by the
Wichita Beacon, was this: i am charged
with mistreating union prisoners during
the war, and want to say its spirit is
malicious, Dremeditated and base lie, and
| dare the man who said so to stand
up in this audience and repeat 1t.
never captured but one union prisoner in
my life, aud if he were here to night he
would bear testimony to the tact that L
treated him as if he were my brother.
ONLY A THIRD LIEUTENANT
II never held higher commission than
third lieutenant during the war. never
was in command Of any prisoner or prison
indeed, never was inside a confederate
prison To show the manifest unfairness
and determined purpose of the partisan
press to misrepresent me, it is
fact that certain southern papers
published this lying dispatch containing the
statement that was a brigadier general in
charge of a confederate prison at Salisbury,
when they knew that ! had never held a
commission of brlgadier general and were
inexcusaby ignorant If tney did not know
that never had charge OF prison.
NOT IN DANGER.
81 felt as safe in the streets of Wichita as
| would in the streets of Raleigh, aud
naught Lut lavish kindness and courtesy
greeted me on all hands. This outrageous
falsehood was not only Sian Ter on myself,
but on the good people Of Wichita and the
old soldiers as well, and was
gotten up for the double purpose of
sectional prejudice"
AS to the dispatches charging that he
apologized in his speeches for having gone
into toe confederate service and spoke ap-
provingly Of strike among the cotton
pickers of the south, President
Polk said; 1T is absolutely
and unqualifedly false in every
particular. | uttered no sentiment in Kan
sas or elsewhere which by any forced con-
struction could have been contorted into
any such an expression. II is lie out of
the whole cloth. l have never uttered
sentiment in northern state that would
not willingly repeat in any southern state.
THE COTTON PICKEIs.
"As to the strike Of the cotton pickers l
had heard nothing about it until my return
to this office. The public will soon learn
through the frantic efforts of these poll
ticians how utterly unreliable these sensa-
tiopal charges are. 1t will be remembered
that as late as the month of
gresham Simpson went through the
They were received with the utmost kind
ness and cordially. and yet they had not
reached their respective homes before it
was heralded to the world that their lives
were seriously threatened by old rebels,
and that actually they had to
make their escape in the night
time or they would have been mobbed.
Slauder and misrepresentation count for
naught against reason and truth. Al in
the past, shall continue to stand firmly and
faithfully by the alliance cause and it's
principles and will not be deferred from
what conceive to be my duty by such at
tacks"