The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-06
WILL NOT PRESIDE
vARDAMAN RIssUsEs CHAIRMAN
 SHIP OF CONVENTION.
Writes . Letter In Which He Makes Known He Position and Severie- ly Criticize the Acts or
 the President.

| Memnhia Tenn. Dec 5.-The Com l mericai- Appeal tomorrow will pub fish a letter received from Jack son, Miss, in whi :n Govcrnoe, Vsroa- man declines to hc permanent chaT-
 man of the Boil W."vil Convention at
 Shreveport. The letter was given o,tt today by the governors secretary. It follows in part:
 Jackson. Miss. Dec. 5. 1904 Hon. J. c. Paugh, Chairman Executive Committee, National Cotr n Com vention, Shreveport. La My dear sir--On my return to Jack son list evening I was shown a nu'noer Of clippings from two or three news papers published at Shreveport. La.. protesting in the most scurrI'us terms against the proposition to have me serve as permanent chairman of the National Cotton Convention to be held Tn that city on the 12 and 15 instant. As you are aware that the invita-
 tions to serve as chairman came to me unsolicited you can doubtless tinaAfne my great surprise at this editorial out burst.
 I think 1t best for me to decline the honor and to leave the convention free to name its presiding officer whomso- ever 1t may see fit
 The question of the chairmanship be- ! noticing in this connection a rapidly growing tendency with our people, which I fear may soon become char acteristic, and which to me Is more to be depiored than the boil weevil or any other enemy to our material tn- terest. It Is the disposition to surren- der the imperial right of free born white American citizen to express his honest thoughts-the disposition to bar ter their manhood and sell their inde- pendence for a mess of pottage of ma terial prosperity or political place.
 One of the strong CD arguments made by an editor of your city against permitting Governor vardaman to serve as chairman of the convention.' was based upon the fact that Cover nor Vardaman has incurred the dis pleasure of the present President of the United States. who would regard a courtesy to Governor Vardaman as a discourtesy to him. and for which dis courtesy to him would with "dee-light' punish all the cotton growers of the South by withholding Federal aid from their effort to stamp out the boil wee vii or head it off from its devastating march to the North Pole
 hope the President of the United States Is not such a man as conduct of that character would stamp him. But I am not sure of 1t. You can no more tell by what Mir. Theodore Roose- welt says today what he will do to- morrow than you can tell the charac- ter of the person buried beneath the stone by the epitaph engraved on the stone.
 The people of the South are indeed in a deplorabie condition If. in the life of this republic. 1t has come to pass that in order to enjoy the privileges of citizenship and exercise their rights under the constitution. they must kiss the hand that smites them. must ap- plaud the tongue that maligns them and glorify the contemptible creature who would break down their institu- tions dishonor the traditions which distinguish their civilization. and in either ignorance or malice. place their affairs on a par with the disor9anized and discredited republic of Hayti.
 In the performance of the functions of his ofiee as President, standing as the embodiment of the majesty and power of the laws of this great re- public. I, as citizen thereof, am as loyal to Theodore Roosevelt as any man who lives beneath the stars and stripes. But for the little individual who has seen fit to malign Jefferson Davis. and with brutal discourtesy re- fused to correct a falsehood written about him. after MT. Davis had called hts attention to 1t; who has insulted the Southern people, violated the law for the purpose of humiliating the South and Mississippi particularly, have no more respect for him, though he be President, than I had for this same little individual when he was pursuing his most becoming avocation breaking bronchos on a western ranch.