The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-06-05
HON. THOS {. WATSON'S SPEECH
DELIVERED AT DEGIVR's OPERA
HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA,
MAY 10TH. 1904.

"PPA0"OSO' AGu 4G Qdu SuOSlQGQ, ne
spoke as follows:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN thank
you for the warmth of your welcome,
| and am glad to believe that the time
draws rapidly near when there is no
considerable audience that can be col
Iected In which there will not be many
good friends of mine, and good friends
OF the cause I represent
Fellowcitizens, l congratulate you
and my party upon the fact that angry
passions Of 1892 have subsidized; that
prejudice is dying away, and that
throughout all the ranks of Georgia life,
there is an inclination to exchange
ideas; to listen to argument; to hear
facts to the grand end that we may
have better government. (Applause.)
l do not for one moment question
your sincerity or your honesty. I
sometimes find it very difficult to drum
up much respect for your judgment
(Applause.) You ought not doubt our
sincerity or our honesty, and the ques-
tion as to whether you will admire our
judgment, depends upon the candor
with which you will listen, and the
frankness with which you will enter
into deliberation on the subject Ap
plause and cries of that's so.)
have an abiding faith that if you
are right am going to go down; but
that if am right you are going to go
down. (Applause) And if you are
right, want to go down. Continued
applause) If I'M right, you ought to
want to know it. If am wrong, l
want to know it; convince me of it,
and will shed these principles in a
moment. (Applause and cries of ''That's
the way to talk.'D l yield to no man
in my love for the commonwealth. l
yield to no man in my admiration for
our institutions. yield to no man in
my pride of race; but balieve that no
question can be settled unless we take
God into it. (Applause) 1 believe
that no question can be permanently
settled until it is settled right. (Ap-
pIause and cries of Good, good.')
Build your house upon the sands and
it is at the mercy of the storm. Build
it upon the eternal rocks and it will be
there when Cab. iel blows his horn.
Great applause and cries Of "Hurrah
for Wat5On.D
The pathway Of the reformer has
never been a pathway of flowers.
(Cries of "right.'D Ever and always
it has been a rock road; ever and
always the crown of the reformer has
been a crown of thorns; ever and always
his feelings were outraged, his motives
misconstrued; his life endangered, his
peace disturbed; and nothing but the
courage of right ever has maintained
reformer in making battle against
wrong. Continued applause.)
speak to night in the capitol city of
my State; speaking to elegant, refined
and educated ladies, speaking to ele-
CANT, cultivated gentlemen; speaking
to representatives Of the best blood, the
best brain, the best character that the
State of Georgia affords, and [ call
them to witness that the rights which
they enjoy to night-civil liberty, re-
ligious liberty, political liberty, each
of them have been sustained with the
blood of the men who died to give them
to us. (Applause)
How many in this audience will re-
member the day when the poor man
unable to pay his debt was treated as
a criminal; was incarcerated between
the four walls Of a cOmfOrtless prison
and this party having been adjudged
criminal on account of poverty, crime
there was no hope for him except to be
left writhing within the prison walls
until his life ended and he had paid the
penalty of poverty with his life. How
did that cease9 Brave men said it was
wrong: humane men said it was
shame; reformers, Those who combat
evil. those who take the battle axe OF
right and strike to day, and strike TO-
morrow, and strike always until the
chains of wrong are broken, struck this
evil until this imprisonment for debt
was ended and poverty no longer MADE
a crime.
It has not been sovery long ago since
it was a capital crime even to shoot
ssMv Lords birds" 1t was not long
ago since it cost your life to shoot "the
Dukes rabbits" 1t was not so long ago
since it was a crime to go about solicit
ing for the hungry stomach by begging
bread. It has not been 80 long ago
since a man in prison might be tried
eo,nd not guilty and