Dr. Thompson's great speech : a large and representative gathering of Populists of Sampson and adjoining counties at Clinton, N.C., Aug. 19, 1898, to hear the opening of the Populist campaign

              Carolina State Library
Ral sigK
DR. THOMPSON'S GREAT SPEECH
A Large and Representative Gathering of Populists of Sampson and
Adjoining Counties at Clinton, N. C, Aug, 19, 1898, to Hear the
OPENING OF THE POPULIST CAMPAIGN.
Dr. Thompson Tears the Mask of Hypoc-risy
From the Gold and Monopoly
Ciowd Which is now io Control cf the
D naocratic Organization.—Be Proves
Ths-ir Insincerity to the Cause oi Finan-cial
aud Corporation "Reforms —The
PcpnJists of Sampson Enthusiastic—No
Backsliding to the Democratic Partr.
Ladies and Fellow Citizens:—It
has been almost two years since I at-tempted
to make a speech, and circum-stances
which I could not control, for
many months past, have prevented my
giving that attention to political mat-ters,
which I might otherwise have
given; and recently I have not had
to 9 time to spare from my official du-ties
to devote to the preparation of a
political speech. I had hoped to enter
the campaign sometime after the first
of September. I had hoped that by
that time I should find opportunity for
such preparation as the cause ought to
have had. "Wren I was written to to
speak to you on this occasion, I replied
th^t it was not probable that I couid
come. Afterwards I was written to
that I ffiust come, fov the. reason that
I had been billed to come; and it was
evident that I must come or somebody
in the county of Sampson, and that a
mighty good Populist, and possibly a
number of mighty good Populists,
would be accused of having misrepre-sented
me. I thought then that I
would come and that Senator Butler
woaltt be here, and that he himself
would do the greater part of the speak-ing.
It so turned out that it was im-possible
for Senator Butler to be here.
He had an invitation to speak m Tex-as,
Colorado and Utah, where his ser-vices
as national chairman of the Peo-ple's
party were urgently demanded.
For that reason he is not here, an;* I
am here—kind of "boss dog of the bone
yard" in the speaking line, whether I
am prepared to speak or no*". Now if
I can make my enemies on the other
side feel as uncomfortable about the
speech after it ia made as I feel before-hand,
I shall be abundantly satisfied,
and I know that some of you will be
as wed satisfied as I am.
In 1892 the People's party of the
State of North Carolina had its birth.
I need not recount the conditions
which called into existence the or-ganization
in this State. Men who had
been educated in the Farmer's Alli-ance;
who.had studied political ques-tions,
and learned that the tariff' was
not the sole cause of all the troubles
and oppressions of this land, rose up
and said in that year of grace, that we
will no longer bow down to Grover
Cleveland, the stuffed prophet of the
state of New York. You know how it
was said by the then chairman of the
Democratic State Executive Commit-tee
(who is also the present chairman)
that if you could not swallow Grover
Cleveland, then you were not a Dem-ocrat
aud you could not enter a Demo-cratic
primary or convention. Men
who had seriously studied great eco-nomic
questions, men who felt that
gold and monopoly were robbing them