The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1891-09-18
A POLITICAL PARTY.
President Polk Says the Alliance
will Break the Solid South.

President Polk Says the Alliance
Will Break the Solid South.
TOPEKA, KAN, Sept. 12.-[Special.l
President Polk, OF the National ALI
ance, is attending the Congressional
Alliance held under the auspices OF
the Kansas State AlIiacne. lie has
made addresses at Clay Centre,
Holton and Topeka. While the
meetings have not been as large as
last wear many Alliance voters have
turned out to hear the man whom
'ViIletts described as being the
"purest, wisest aud greatest states
man in the United States" Presi-
dent Folks opening has been devoted
principally to himself. After giving
his boyhoOd history he reached the
war period. He stated that he did
not go into the rebellion from choice;
he upheld the union until the wave
Of secession swept over the South,
when he, as many others, were forced
To shoulder muskets. He had been
offered command of company but
refused it, as acceptance
WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSTRUED
into Endorsement of the cause whose
arms he carried. He afterwards ac-
cepted the office he held because by
doing so he could Indirectly aid those
who were fighting for the preserva-
tion OF the Union, and in u degree
mitigate the sufferlngs of those who
like himself had been forced to bear
arms against their country.
While not speaking directly about
the contemplated strike OF the cotton
pickers in the South, he said: 1.-THE
oppressed agricultural labOrers should
and will demand the right of naming
a RAn Infn
and until their demands are acceded
TO let every field in the lands contain
only the rOtted products, North and
South. You here are fortunate In be-
ing your own labOrers, but the
PLUToCRATs OF OTHER STATES
must be compelled to acknowledge
the God-given rights of labOrers
whether they be white or black.
Some OF our brethren have ALREADY
made their demands aud they will be
granted or entire regions will con-
contain only families ruined by their
own greed" The remaining portion
of this speech is devoted to financial
questions.
In an interview to-day Col Polk
stated that the Alliance movement
was gaining thousands of converts
throughout the South daily, and the
EEtdb Ildob VI liahhOlo hhN
laboring men had deserted the Demo
cratic party AMI were standing
squarely on the Ocala platform. 81
believe the third party will sweep
every State in the South in 1892.
The old bosses down there have tried
to bulIdose and force the people to
take their Democratic medicine but
without result. Within the past six
months L could have had any office
in the gift of the Democratic party,
hut 1 would not sell my principles
for pOttage."
1.-The ''bloody shirt" twill be
wrapped around the old sectional agi-
tators and they will be buried too
deep for resurrection. The South
and West will join in this movement.
The negroes and their social questions
relegated and Mason and DiXOu's line
will be lifted and turned half way
around, and then the East with the
Clevelands, the Blaines, the Sher-
mans, the Hills, the Germans aud the
Quays will all combine under the
Wall street banner ana fight the great
peoples movement, but they will go
down in defeat -
Twill the Alliance conference al
Washington in February declare for
IL third party?"
II can't say, but there will be a
third party. It might have been pre-
vented four months ago, but now it is
too late. Our people in the South
have been abused, villiiied and
eneered at by the Democratic bosses |
and Democratic press and Will stand
it no longer. The negro domination |
cry won't prevent break of the solid |
Democracy; we will
TAKE CARE OF THE NEGRO
and see that they are allowed to vote. |
They are largely in this movement |
and will be an important factor in the
next year"
"How about the pesion question ?"
I'The Alliance has nothing to say
about the pensiOning of soldiers who
fought for the Union. When we
were defeated we accepted the result
aa final and acquiesced. We should
never raise our voices against the
legitimate pension of Union soldiers.
1t is the result of warfare and we eau
shake hands with Northern brothers
who wore the blue and feel that they
are receiving justice from a Govern
ment they helped to protect. The
question is q lone party plat
form and all the Alliance asks Is that
it be not abused
Warming up on the war Issues, he
said there is no disposition on his part
TO claim the title of General and
Colonel, which had been given to
him. He had never held y higher
rank than third Lieutenant. He was
offered command OF a company and
refused it and only accepted the office
he held when it was forced upon him.
He had always treated Union prison
ars well and only wished he could
bring witnesses to testify to the facts,
and the story of his shooting prisoners
at Gettysburg was not true. He
WOULD NOT BE INTIMIDATED
and kept out of Kansas. They had
threatened to cut his throat in the
south, but it was not the soldiers of
that section who abused him. 1t was
the man who had never smelled gun
and no matter what happened
he intended to tell the truth. He
served notice on the old politicians
hat the farmers had gone into poll
tics to stay and that they intended to
tear the, old parties to pieces. The
South was like the North, he said, as
far AS the interest of the sections was
1--WE in the South" he
said, "have not gone SO far as you in
a partisan direction. Our time has
not come, but when 1t does for the
Soath to rally themselves with the
PEOPLES banner you Northern people
will have to get out of the way or
they will run over you"
A Fatal Mistake.
Physicans make no more fatal mis-
- Than w hon thew inform nQtianfS