The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1904-12-07
hobs DIvERTvoTES
him Sharp Williams Tells
| Nh Democrats Lost Out
yNHCHING PRIME CAUSE
~, Of democratic Minority In
,...s speaks in spartanburg.
a.,sr+s to Affair Which o.
cured in Statesboro, Ga.

IN compliance with a promise ma0e
,.., months ago, Hon. John Sharp
,,av.ms delivered vigorous and tell
address to the people of Spartan
80 c., Friday in which he dis
sas the causes that operated for
semocratic defeat in the recent ma
,on.I election, and political and in
.,tria, conditions as they affect the
south today
u, referred at length to the recent
ncbtng at Statesboro, Ga, where
.io5 and convicted prisoners were Ia
,or from the court house and the
o,ord of state militia and burned, de-
Caring that the use of this argument
resulted in the loss Of nearly half
million popular votes to the democrat
E ic side,
uo attributed democratic defeat to
three main circumstances: First, the
uco of unlimited trust funds by the
republican party, the Overwhelming
personal popularity Of Theodore
Roosevelt and the specious arguments
dressed home by the republican ora
TORS that democracy was unsafe and
had resulted in financial disaster
when triumphant. He ridiculed the
weakened brethren and paraphrased
the solemn observation Of Mark
Twain, declaring that the reports Of
democracys death had been grossly
exaggerated.
Mr.. Williams spoke In part as fol-
lows:
We have just undergone an over
wheming defeat. l make no excuse
for saying I'VE" to this audience. AS
for myself, am a democrat If dwelt
in Vermont or New Hampshire, in
Michigan or California. Thomas JEFF
ferson has been the Gamalisl at
whose feet l have sat This, however,
is not true of all the white men in
our section who belong to the demo
cratic party. Some would le republi'
cans, some populists and some social
lists, save for the fact that they are
white men and that the democratic
party has necessarily become for them
The party Of the white mans civillza-
ton, owing to the fact that its great
opponent has always sought and work
ed for the AfriCanizatioA of the south.
The white men Of the south did not
come into the democratic party for
the purpose of raising a race issue.
The republican party created that is
sue, chose its race and deliberately set
Itself up as the black mans party in
the south. 1t did it, feeling selfishly
assured that it was then the strongest
position politically, anticipating that
white men would divide in their po-
Iltical allegiance and that the ignorant
negroes could be held solidly to the
republican faith, because the poor
darkey never understood and does not
understand now anything about the
question of an industrial or fiscal char
acter which divide the two parties.
A great deal lately has been said
ABOUT the solid south" These same
people said nothing about a solid ne
gro SoMh, created by them and vir-
'ually maintained by them down to
1878. The republican party, having
ueiberately and of a set purpose
lraWn the race line, having made a
old Tor the negro vote as pre-eminent-
" the negro party, now accused us OF
race prejudice because we were
Lorced-compelled, whether we would
Dr MOTTO accept the alignment which
IL drew. What they call race prejudice
you know and l know to be race
The white men of the
south will hardly split up in their
votes until the negroes first do.