Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1911-04-20
Watson on Government Conditions

When such swine as those now III
charge of the government bask inso-
lently in the spoils of Office, betray
the people to the trusts, turn over the
nations property to such scoundrels as
Ballinger, Wickersham and Dickinson,
surrender the law making to such rob
bers as those who organized the Elec-
trio Power combine, the Wooden Sched-
ule, the Sugar and Tobacco trusts, the
Morgan confederation with its "dol-
lar diplomacy" the sleeping republic
leaps to it's feet to sleep no more until
we have run the rascals ont.
We do not need new system of gov
eminent. We don t need bloody rev.
olution We don't-need nasty foreign
"isms" and Gostrums. What we need
and mean to. have is. OLD FASHION
ED DEMOCRACY, with its golden
rule of Equal rights to all and spec
ial privileges to none. We had it
once and we were happy. A begger.
was something unknown. A blazing
sword suspended between the heavens
and the earth would have excited less
amazement than an American begger
in the ante bellum period would have
excited in the streets of our cities, so
testified Charles Dickens, and none
disputed his word.
Why cannot we have that kind of
government agains It was not the
product Of New England. 1t did not
rest on Plymouth Rock. 1t heralded
from Jamestown and was the direct
descendant of the Virginia Legislature
of 1919, before the Puritans ever show
ed sour faces in Massachusetts, The
old Wing ideals of England that's
what it was, the democracy of Charles
Fox, of Samuel Romilly, of Henry
yane, of Algernon Sidney, of Pym
and Hampden. From the hands of
these friends of the common people,
the torch was taken by Patrick Henry,
Dabney Carr, Richard Henry Lee,
George Mason and Thomas Jefferson
From these it came in full blaze into
the hands of Nathaniel Macon, the
Rutledges, William Fl. Crawford,
George NJ Troup, Thomas Benton,
John G. Calhoun, George McDufie
and Andrew Jackson
From these it passed onward to
Robt, J. Walker, Alexander FL, Step
hens, Robt Toombs, John Z. Morgan,
Vance and Gsorge Vest.
These heroic figures would not bend
the knee to the Baal of post bellum
and rotten politics
They resisted, but were unable to
stem, the forbid tide, They are gone,
and they have had no successors, Not
a single southern man in public life
now remembers the Southern tradi-
tions. Not one of them offers a
scheme of>constructive craftsmanship.
We bad just one who was strong
enough to fight our battles, and he has
enrolled himself under the banners of
the Pirates He flies the jolly Roger.
And the angels in heaven they who
owe tine South--must have wept when
Joseph Weldon Bailey allowed Dave
Francis to take him aboard the bucan-
Ger vessel of John D. Rockefeller.
But new spirit is alive in the
and. A breath of resurrection is
troubling the waters. From pulpit
ind pew, from lecture platform and
editorial room, from the hustings to
legislative chambers, strong messen-
gers are speeding. and these are bear
ng the glad tidings of glorious
lawn. 1t is coming 1t is Coming
Thank God, the day is breaking at
asst The night has been long and the
darkness deep. Sometimes we we're
ull of dispair 1t seemed as though |
he revel Of the evil spirits would last |
orever The public mind seemed
dull The public conscience
eemed strangely scared. The public
cart seemed strangely cold, But all
he apathy. the encouragement, the
anne submission, the cowardly inertia
5 passing away Day is breaking
nd the foul creatures of the nj ght are
linking to their holes Presently the
our hand will point toward the me-