Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1911-04-14

delivered on any occasion by any
one unless it was characterized by
originality, sincerity, logic, free
dom from the "trail of the ser
pent," and gave to it's hearers food
for thought. Measured by either
standard, the ex-governOr's speech
cannot be regarded as great.
1t was grandilOquent without be-
ing argumentative.
1t was better designed to catch
the unthinking than to please the
thoughtful, and some of his at
tempts at wit and derision were
tame and fiat.
His discussion of the race prob
lem was a frantic appeal to preju
dice without being instructive. 1t
doubtless possessed an interest to
those 'EwhO listened with credulity
to the whispers of fancy and pur-
sue with eagerness the phantOms
of hope" but it gave no comfort
and no information to intelligent
persons who view things as they
are and not as they ought to be.
The country, North and South,
is just entering upon an era of
good feeling in which sectional
jealousies and the passions and
hatred engendered by the Civil
War are gradually passing away.
1t therefore is not OppOrtune for
Mississippi at this time to engage
in the foolhardy proposition ex-
Governor Vardaman advocates as
to the repeal of the fifteenth amend
ment. 1t is well for us to remem-
Der that cat no time since the war
has there been greater need in all
of us that profitable wisdom which
distinguishes the things which
ought to be done, and can be done,
from the things which cannot be
done, and therefore ought not to
be attempted. 1t should be
borne in mind that that PROPOSE
tiOn is as true now as it was on
the day it came fresh from the elo-
quent lips of the great lawyer
whose thought it was.
The repeal of the 18th amend
ment to the Z. S. Constitution, the
plan for the solution Of the negro
question offered by the speaker is,
at this time, Utopian and un-
wholesome impractical and un-
sound, and the claim Maj. Varda-
man makes would be simply sim
pering folly were it not the PERM
ciOus pretence of an aspiring dem
agOgue who would scuttle the Ship
Of State rather than fOrego his am
bilious dream and consent to see
it's helm pass to the hands of q
mariner who believes in nObLeSe
ObiQe and subOrdinates personal
comfort and personal glory to duty
in the service Of his country.
Replying to the specific charges
brought against him by AleXan
der and others he made answer by
entering a general denial and by
denOuncing his accusers, to whom
he unsDaringly alludes as ''unpar
donable liars" or "infamous liars
and slanderers, as though denial
and denunciatiOn establish innO-
cence and are e''cOnfirmatiOns strong
as proofs of Holy Writ" He does
not refute any charge Of malfeas
ance or improper official or pOliti
cal conduct brought against him
by either the people, the press or
rival candidates. He furnishes
no evidence Of his being persis-
tently and grievOusly lied about
as he claims and complains, except
his own statement to that effect.
To establish his innocence and to
put his accusers in the attitude of
bearing false witness against him
he brings no attestatiOn save his
own unsupported statements, which
are confused, contradictory, absO
lutely unreliable and unbelievable
by any sane man who honestly
seeks the truth and will be salts
fed to accept nothing else.
His diSingenuOusneSs in his eff
forts to conceal and withhold the
facts from the people in cOnnec
ton with "pass number S64" and
his misrepresentation and mis-
statements, demagOgishly made to
deceive aud miSlead the public as
to it, render him unworthy to
stand or speak for Mississippi's
honor in any forum where truth,
political acumen, intellectual re-
source and courage are rated as
valuable.
The sin of riding on that pass
issued to him and others by the G..
< S. /. r. +. CO.-was not the
worst feature of the case, although
that was inIplain violation of the
law. But that is not nearly so in