The Tupelo journal., 1910-04-22
Senator Percy Throws Down Gauntlet.
Challenges Gov. Vardalnan TO run
off i'm Primary this Year.
Challenge Accepted.
PERcY's GREAT SPEECH BEFORE LEGISLATURE

ably as any ever held by a son
of Mississippi, knowing thai |
had entered this political strug-
gle through no desire to crafty
personal ambition, but | had
cast my lot in with those who
fought because they believed
that Mississippi was threatened
with a grave disaster in the
election of James K. Vardaman;
knowing that | had forbidden
those who loved me at home to
bear one cent of the expense ex-
cept the legitimate expenses
that attend prolonged stay in
the capital, thank God, no mon
| ey has to be spent on a Mlssls-
sippi legislature; knowing that
no cent Of my money, nor OF
anybody else for my benefit had
been used to influence the re-
suit, it seemed that the cup was
bitter one for me. | had come
from no race of Office seekers
| (applause) but from men who
always held honor above life,
country above self; an untarn
ished name had been handed me
by my forefathers, and it was
my pride and my prayer that un-
furnished still that name should
90 from me to those who should
bear it hereafter.
"But the indignation that
sprung from personal feelings
was swallowed up in the indig-
nation that arose in me when |
realized that the name of the
state of Mississippi was sought
to be dragged in the nsire Of
degradation for political aggran
dizement. the kilograms grew
thicker, and the air was full of
rumors Of foul deeds done, lies
and SANDERS. and worse than
that, the limitations, the sug-
| gestions, the inuendoes, the un-
fathered questions for which no
man would stand, by which it
was sought to drag down the
name of those Mississippi has
held in reverence, Anderson,
Alexander, Byrd, Kyle, Kritz
and Street, as pure and able pa
triots as the state has ever pre-
duced. Their past characters
were to be no shield to the darts
of ca'umny; nay,, how could the
living hope to 60 unscathed
when the new-filled grave af-
forded no shield to the character
Of one who has gone from you to
his reward since | last was here
with you.
when the name Of Heslip,
who but lately filled a place here
and for whom you dug a grave
the cemetery, was to be be-
smirched by the foul charge
that, because through hones'
effort, he had been able to lift {
mortgage that pressed down up
on his home. the means to do i
, with must have come into hi
|. hands from polluted sources. anC
! honest men looked into eacl
others faces and their heart
t grew heavy and the stain o
) shame mounted to their cheeks
: as they asked each other in won
, der can it be that sons of Missis
sippi have stained for politica
+ gain the name Of Mississippi?
Then came your investiga
ton, the most searching that
E legislature has e,er made, Wher
e neither time nor expense wa
{ spared. and then at the end of
e there is left standing on tn
S stage mark for the scorn an
e contempt of all honest men (aE
{ plause) only one figure a char
e acterless man, a self-confesse
i liar, a self-accused bribe takel
S and his only ally, a poor, broke
: down, shameless woman Of til
=. streets. Every reputable wit
! ness named in corroboratio
n had shrunk back afffighted as !
! from contamination by touchirl
D this moral leper. applause.
E And high above this pit;of shame
j as a star in the sky, floats th
d honor Of Mississippi, aboYe th