Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-09-22
PRESIDENT POLK TALKS.
He Denies Some Charges Made About His X,
marks and Treatment in the West

He Denies Some Charges Made About His Re-
marks and Treatment in the West
President Polk of the National Farmers Al
lance has just returned from his western trip
and was found this morning in his Office by a
STAR reporter.
To the inquiry to what foundation there
was for the report in the press that he was
threatened with violence while in Wichita,
Hans, by the old soldiers. he said: There was
no foundation for it whatever. never was
treated more kindly or courteously than by
the people Of Kansas and especially by the old
soldiers during my whole trip. l was
peculiarly gratifed At my reception
by the good people of Wichita and the
large number of old soldiers present spoke
to an immense crowd in the opera house and
was never honored by more marked attention
anywhere. At the request of some old soldier
friends referred to the charge that had mis-
treated Union prisoners during the war. Ny
language. as reported by the Wichita Beacon.
was this i am charged with mistreating Union
prisoners during the war and l want to say
that in its conception, in its utterance and in
Its spirit 1t isa malicious, premeditated and base
lie and dare the man who said SO to stand up
IN this audience and repeat it. / never cap
tured but one Union prisoner in my life and if
he were here tonight he would bear testimony
to the fact that treated him as if he we're my
brother
HIS POSITION DURING THE WAR.
II never held a higher commission than
third lieutenant during the war. / never was
in command of any prisoner or prison-indeed,
never was inside of a confederate prison. To
show the manifest unfairness and determined
purpose of the partisan press to misrepresent
me, II Is fact that certain southern
papers published this lying dispatch containing
the statement that was brigadier general in
charge OF the confederate prison at Salisbury
when they knew that l had neve- held the
commission Of brigadier general and were in
excusably ignorant if they did not know that
had never had charge of the prison. felt as
safe in the streets of Wichita as L would in the
streets of Raleigh. and naught but lavish kind
ness and courtesy greeted me on all hands.
This outrageous falsehood was not only a
SANDER on myself. but on the good people of
Wichita and the old soldiers as WELL and was
gotten up for the double purpose OF damaging
the alliance and of perpetuating sectional
prejudice"
OTHER CHARGES DENIED.
As to dispatches charging that he apologized
III his speeches for having gone into the confed-
crate service and spoke approvingly of strike
among the cotton pickers of the south, Col.
Polk said
1T is absolutely and unaualifiedlv false in
every particular. l uttered no sentiment in
Kansas or elsewhere which by any forced con-
struction could have been contorted into any
such expression. 1t is lie out of whole
cloth. l have never uttered sentiment in
a northern state that l would not willingly
repeat in any southern state. As to the strike
OF the cotton pickers. had heard nothing
abont 1t until my return to this Office. The
public will soon learn through the frantic eff
forts OF these politicians how utterly unreliable
these sensational charges are. 1t will be re-
membered that late as the month of July
Gen. Weaver and Congressman Simpson went
through the state of Georgia on a canvassing
tour; they were received with the utmost kind
ness and cordiality, and yet they had not reached
their respective homes before it was heralded
to the world that their lives were seriously
threatened by the old rebels, and that actually
they had to make their escape in the night
time or they would have been mobbed. Slander
and Misrepresentation count for naught
against reason and truth. As in the past,
shall continue to stand firmly and faithfully by
the alliance cause and its principles and will
not be deferred from what conceive to be my
duty by such attacks.