| Show WATSONS LETTER of acceptance is made public by mr watson himself who publishes it in his paper A scourer 1 of the plutocracy ana all opposed to his ideas of governing a country atlanta ga sov II 11 thomas watsons letter accepting the vice dennial nomination 0 the peopled 8 party has at last been given to the public it a as aas written on oct 14 laet to senator butler chairman of the notification fi committee and manager ol 01 the populist campaign it was suppressed by senator butler during the campaign or reasons that are obvious from a perusal of its contents the document would make seven columns in a newspaper mr watson publishes the letter in full in his official organ the peoples Fait Paper which comes out tomorrow below are some extracts lion marion butler chairman ex officio for notification committee dear sirs your letter giving me formal notice of my nomination by the peoples party tor the office of vice president has been received it is solely because of my promise to do so that I 1 accept the nomination the unusual conditions confronting us must be excuse tor submitting to the public a fair statement of the facts touching bis remarkable campaign in order tha all unprejudiced minds may reach just conclusions As the time for beginning the presidential campaign of 1896 approached the democratic party found itself in a dying condition and it resorted to a desperate remedy to save itself from dissolution I 1 publicly renounced the republican policies cies which it has already enacted into law and espoused abo Po creed which it had bitterly assailed having closed the doors ol 01 die minta to silver and having sustained mr cleveland in his refusal to allow the coined having condoned his issue of bonds in violation of law baving acquiesced in his contract policy of de etroy ipg the greenbacks green backs having helped to feed the trusts by the passage of the witson gorman jones tariff bill the democratic party realized that it had lost the respect the confidence and the patience of to anticipate the triumph of populism by a public confession of political guilt an earnest assertion of change of heart and a devout acceptance of populist principles and a modern demand that the peoples party should vacate its quarters and surrender its political posses flimns A very staggering piece of political impudence was this it wag not a minority of the democratic party which murdered silver in 1893 it was a ma that did it a majority in the a majority in the senate and e the men who committed the deed can not now promise more solemnly to undo their work than they promised in 1892 itoda it during the dreary years of 1892 93 94 and when and democrats alike were falling over each other in the effort to be arst at wall streets leet and lowest in the dost ol 01 political self abasement to the trusts the banks the railroads the bondholders bond holders and the gold specula tore the peopled parta was the one champion of the people it stood fearlessly against the hungry hordes of class legislation it proclaimed con its undying antagonism to wall street and its policies it held aloft the asame creed banner of a rights and called for patriots to rise and defend the reou olic since the bugle note of the house woke the bieh jande and the fiery crois sped from mountain to glen and from glen to ham aft there has been no each spontaneous outburst of jocular as marked tho growth of the peoples party one creed one purpose one hope one inspiration moved us all and had we put temptation aside and nom urinated a et raight populist ticket at st louia one man from the west and one from the south we would have swept this land from aea to aea at chicago the democratic managers having adopted the leading populist principals nominated for the first place on the ticket a Tand yate who in dorsee bose princ ir watson recites the in the populist convention at st louis between the bryan populists and the middle of the road men he proceeds asked to allow the use of my all the differences u existed in the convention and consented upon that express condition there ie no doubt that among the bolera ol 01 the democratic party south and west there was an earnest desie desi e that the populists should be met hall way they wished tor union among the advocates of silver and they felt that union could not accomplished by demanding adv abject surrender at the hands of the populists lists the leaders of the democratic party however having secured populist endorsement indorsement indor pf mr bryan by direct vote in convention determined ta secure it for mr and forthie purpose they leave reported to the policy of fusion instead of meeting the populists halt dav ane democratic managers have dema that we furn ishall the patriot iem which I 1 lie occasion required and chev not only refute to macco any concessions ces at all but they treat with public enault the party whose votes feces u to democratic by listening to the overtures of democratic managers our party has been torn into lac eions our leadrie deceived and ensnared and the cause we represented permanently endangered it not lost the abor ot many beare is swept away and the hopes of thousands of people i are gone with it The Democratic manageri mana gere mot only claim the populist vote tor mr bibryan who ie our nominee but they claim it also for mr se all who is not our nominee and who was overwhelmingly rejected when offered to the st louis convention we are nowa told that we must not say anything mr sewall we buet not explain to the people wherein he is an objectionable candidate and we must not mention the fact that he is ft national banker a bondholder a railroad magnate a corporation millionaire an to organized labor a beneficiary of trusts a seeker niter subsidies of the marine and a protectionist of the mckinley va vardey these things must be kept from the people I 1 am told why eo the voters a right to know for whom they are voting both kansas and colorado are populist states and yet the populist nominees are not to receive a single electoral vote in either state the democratic ticket bryan and sewall will receive them all jn kansas the people have been soothed by the assurance that the sewall electors would vote for watson provided watson got more voies elsewhere than sewall got thus the populists in kansas and colorado have been dis franchised woree than that they have been delivered to a fusion where none of their votes count for the populist ticket they must vote for kiwall and thus violate kneir principles in north carolina where fusion had been arranged with the on the state and county ticket and with the democrats on the national ticket mr sewall gets a majority of the electors north carolina ie supposed ato be a populist state upon that idea she allowed ninety five votes in our national convention the fact that in north carolina we have now conceded a majority of the electors to mr sewall would indicate that our vote in north carolina has undergone a disastrous shrinkage since our national convention adjourned or that the national ticket has been used for mercantile purposes senator a reform party has no right to exist if it has no valid complaint to make populists cannot denounce the eina of the two old and yet po into political with them the moment we make treaty the war must cease and when we cease our war upon the two old parties we have no longer any excuse for living whenever right compromises with wrong it ie the right which suffers the democratic managers to recent a strange piece of impertinence the fact that the populists dared to nominate a ticket differing at tue rear end from theirs coming to them with two million they were begging for and piteously needing I 1 can say with a perfect as aurance of telling the unqualified truth that my arrival on the field of battle lias not been welcomed aa heartily as blucher was received by wellington at v waterloo ater loo they want reinforcements but they dont want to lead them they need bluchers but they draw ahe line at blucher this is hardly fair either to blucher or hia troops nor is it the beet way to defeat napoleon for this attitude on the part ot the democratic mana gersI believe that you senator are largely you no me you publicly abated that I 1 would not be notified of my nomination you went into the fusion policy over my written protest wilh all the zeal of a man who wanted to elect the democratic ticket in this I 1 think you were wrong As chairman of the populist committee the party certainly expected you to do all you could to eeck the populist ticket had you demanded mr dewalla Se walla withdrawal from the ticket he would have 1 been withdrawn I 1 have a letter of yours mahich ou detate cratic committee expected expect rd you to make the demand but you did not make it from abo perversity of temper arith chih democratic managers have refused to the right thing by the liste it would beem that they prefer McKinle yiem to anything which might beem 0 o be a partly populist triumph their double purpose is to couple election with the complete destruction 0 the peopled Peo party they mean to elect both bryan and sewall both or neither u cannot endure the thought thai the victory ahall be shared by The yaro willing to use the nominee as a lever to move a vote but not as an ally who bad any they are bound to reaped the st loma compromise ticket conid have been insisted 1 upon for two reasons first because mr bryan cannot be otherwise elected second the triumph of silver ba otherwise assured it is hardly necessary for n to and that I 1 heartily indorse the platform form upon which I 1 was nominated ih speech alv editorial in pamphlets I 1 g for several caare every iesue populism raised and my position on them ie HO well known that I 1 need go into no discussion af populist the position taken in this letter will be bitterly assailed would that pathway of daiv were always carpeted earp eted with flowers it rarely i by making and the bereit party I 1 represent a mere footman iov democratic politicians to wipe their feet upon I 1 could win much from that quarter but if I 1 were now lacking ih the loyalty which was expected 1 of me when chloeen I 1 would grieve themen who have honored me trusted me defended me and loved mo in this reform to which I 1 have devoted eight of the best years of my life I 1 have lost much bat toy own self respect baa not been lost nor the respect of those principle I 1 represented and whose battles 1 have fought I 1 did not seek this nomination nos desire it had I 1 naked ike nomination of tha peopled Peo party and gone to st louie to claim it no of the democratic emissaries could have kept it from me it was out 02 a heartfelt desire to help unite all the reform forces and at the bame time to save my party and its principles from wreck abat I 1 agreed to accept second place on the ticket I 1 shod ready to join bands with mr bryain and to aid him in harmonizing liste and silver democrats and uniting south and to the end that we might achieve victory against mckinley and McKinley ism fusion with bryan meant no of principle fusion with sewall does no on more profoundly than I 1 do that the democratic so shaped the campaign that the south had again been told that must grovel in the dust and let an eastern plutocrat put his toot upon her neck nor does one regret than I 1 do that the democratic managers in shaping their fusion deals have considered those populists only who were getting loaves and fishes they have lost sight of the great army of the privates whose honest hearts and sincero souls form the strength of the reinforcements mr bryan needs these populists of the rank and file have the spirit of crusaders and they would die for a principle far more quickly than they would sell these men will not vote for sewall nor for sewall electors it senators jones and german really wish to defeat mckinley let them lose no time in realizing this truth yours ac THOMAS E WATSON georgia oct remember the christian endeavor social at presbyterian church wednesday evening |
