The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-10-13
L DISPATCHES.
What Some of the Leading Papers Have
to Say About the Malicious Re-
ports Sent Out Recent
ly--President Polk
Defended.

act upon the pigmies who make it.
This is an age of inquiry and reason,
when political causes are determined
upon their merits and not upon the
frailties, real or fancied, of the men
who are engaged in promoting them.
To raise a cry of coward against a man
in these days is a confession of con-
scious weakness .-LincOLn Herald.
Saturdays State Journal boasts that
L. /. Polk came near receiving a coat
of tar and feathers at Wichita, Kan.
1t further states that it will not be safe
for calamity hOwlers" to go about
the country. The Constitution guaran-
tees the freedom of speech in this
country and the people will come e
seeing that it is observed. We want
to see the Republican thieves and cut
threats that have the temerity to lay
hands on Col. Polk.-Tecumseh Re
publican.
Rev. DR.. William S. Lacey, the dis
tinguished pastor of the Second Pres
byterian Church of Norfolk, Va, al
old friend and classmate, publishes the
following letter: Il know Col. Polk
we'll. We were fellow students at col
lege and in some of the same classes.
His age is nearer fifty-six than thirty
six. He is certainly past fifty. He
was q soldier in the Confederate ser
vice, a lieutenant in one of the regi-
ments of the North Carolina State
troops. My impression is that he at
tanned no higher rank than that of
lieutenant and that his title of colonel
is a post-bellum honor. Whatever
view may be taken of Colonel Folks
political affiliations he is a gentleman
and a Christian"
The following telegram from the
editor Of the Kansas COmmOner at
Wichita proves that the "tar-and-
feather" story started in that city is a
base falsehOOd:
WICHITA. KAN, Sept. 1.-THE state
ment concerning an attempt to tar and
feather Colonel Polk is UNANIMOUSLY
false without a shadow of truth. A
minister of the gospel could not have
been nor C~OurteOusly received.
B. E. KIES.
Tho other part of this infamous libel
about Folks treatment Of Union sol
diers, is also without the shadow of
truth. 1t is an old campaign lie, first
told last fall, and absolutely disproved.
The Weekly Republic.
Only last week President L. L. Polk
visited Kansas. and the statement Is
puT l. ONC4 IN COI4I1O1 lIlCb LN
boosted of being conscripted into the
"rebel" army, and also endorsed the
cOtton-pickers' strike. The telegraphed
report of Col. Folks address is a tissue
of lies from beginning to end.
Now, every man we'll knows that
Col. Polk is not a fool, and no one but
a natural born idiot would have given
utterance to such sentiments as are
charged against him. 1t would have
not only blasted his political prospects,
but ruined him socially among his own
people. -SOuthern Alliance Farmer.
A dispatch was sent from Wichita
saying that Col. Polk came near being
egged by an angry mob of eX-UniOn
soldiers while making a speech there.
Here is how he was egged. He said in
his speech: How many old soldiers
here are in favor of the union and fell
lowship of North and South, discard
ing past prejudices?" Hands went UP
by the score and a look at the faces of
those veterans showed they meant it.
Alliance ReUieoc, KiOna, Kansas.
Col. Polk is a man of gracious and
genial manners and full Of the milk of
human kindness. The Alliance is for
tunate that it has for it's chief officer
an honest, capable and upright man.
liz IlCS USSI IO1OCu W GCiAS duULlOIlUN
in trying times and under circum-
stances where few men would have
held their own. No enemy Of the AL
lance has attacked Col. POik's honesty.
Those who know him best, those who
have been Intimately thrown with
him not only believe him to be a good
and true man, but they love him for
kindly, sweet nature. Alliance leaders
may make mistakes, may be carried
away by ambition or by selfish pur
poses but we believe that the President
of the National Alliance is an earnest.
good man.-Tbe ALjGncemGn.
kilograms from prominent parties
at Wichita say there was no fOunda-
ton for it, as Mr.. Polk was kindly and
courteously treated there, and had
heard nothing of it until he arrived at
Kansas City where he read the dis
patch in the daily paper. Torch of
Liberty.
Several stories have recently ap-
peared in the daily papers alleging
that Col. L L. Polk treated Federal
prisoners shamefully during the war,
and that consequently some Kansas ex-
soldiers were about to give him a coat
of tar and feathers. We have not the
least doubt but that they are purely
bloOdy-shirt Observation-Disclosures
Educator.
We have known Col. L. L. Polk for
more than eight years and a kindlier,
gentler and truer man never lived. 1t
would be a direct violation of his gen
erous and sympathetic nature to wan
tonly injure any human being. He
would not deliberately hurt a dumb
brute. Col. Polk was never a Briga-
der General, He never was in com
mand of Salisbury prison.-Farmers'
Voice.
We have shown that President Polk
never ranked higher than lieutenant