Evening star., 1896-11-12
WATSON'S LETTER.
1t Fills Seven Columns of His


1t Fills Seven Columns of His
Paper.
An Atlanta dispatch says of the publi-
cation of Watson's letter of acceptance:
The letter of acceptance written by Tom
Watson, accepting the populist nomina ton
for Vice President, made public to-
day. Seven columns of Watson's peoples
party paper are devoted to it, The letter
is supplemented by four columns CT advice
to populists to "sit steady in the boat and
hold their party together" The editorial
tone of the paper is one of fulfilled proph-
ecy. Watson declares that the failure of
the populists to support Bryan in the close
states brought about Mckinley's election
He goes into a long review Of the circum-
stances leading to his nomination at St.
Louis, and accepts the vice presidential
nomination because l said / would" He
declares that if the ST. Louis populist con-
vention had nominated a straight populst
ticket 1t would have been elected. It
would, he said, have driven the Hills and
Germans where they belong-in the repub-
lican ranks-and the Bryans and Blands
would have joined with the populists. He
complains bitterly of the treatment he has
received at the hands of the populist lead
ers, and addresses himself particularly to
Senator Butler in this way:
Senator, reformer has no right to ex-
ist if il has no valid complaint to make.
Populists cannot denounce the sins of the
two old Parties and yet go into political CO.
partnership with them. The moment we
make a treaty the war must cease. And
when we cease our war upon the whole
parties we have no longer any excuse for
living. Whenever right compromises wrong
it is the right which suffers. The demo-
cratic managers seem to resent as q
strange piece of impertinence the fact that
the populists dared to nominate ticket
differing at the rear end from theirs. Com
ing to them with the 2,OOO,WO voters they
hapDinp mr. nil c1Ny I
can say with perfect assurance of tell
ing the unqualified truth that my arrival
on the field Of battle was not welcomed as
heartily as Blucher was received by We'll
forcements, but they do not want me to
lead them. They need Blucher's troops,
but they draw the line at Blucher. That is
hardly fair either to Blucher or his troops,
nor is it the best way to defeat Napoleon.
For this attitude upon the part of the
democratic managers l believe that you,
Senator, are largely responsible. You made
no effort to have me recognized. You pub
licly stated that / would not be notified of
my nomination. You went into the fusion
policy, over my written protest, with all
the zeal of man who wanted to elect the
democratic ticket In this l think you
were wrong. AS chairman of the populst
committee the party certainly expected
you to do all you could to elect the popu-
list ticket.
Had YOU demanded Mr.. Sewalrs with
drawal from the ticket he would have been
withdrawn. l have a letter of yours i'm
which you state that the democratic COM
mittee expected you to make the demand,
but that you did not make it, From the
perversity of temper with which the demo-
cratic managers have refused to do the
right thing by the populists. 1t would seem
that they prefer Mckinleyism to anything
which might seem to be partly populist
triumph. Their subtle purpose is to couple
the Bryan election with the complete de-
struction of the populist party.
The position taken in this letter will be