Theodore Hallam, perhaps the greatest orator in a state of orators, and almost the quickest-thinking man on his feet, I believe, that ever lived anywhere, having bolted the nomination of Goebel, took the stump against him. The seceding wing of the party picked on Hallam to open its fight, and chose the town of Bowling Green as a fitting place for the firing of the first gun, Bowling Green being a town where the rebellion inside the Democratic ranks was wide-spread and vehement. But Goebel had his adherents there, too.
You could fairly smell trouble cooking on that August afternoon when Hallam rose up in the jammed courthouse to begin his speech. Hardly had he started when a local leader, himself a most handy person in a rough-and-tumble argument, stood upon the seat of his chair, towering high above the heads of those about him.
“I want to ask you a question!” he demanded in a tone like the roar of one of Bashan’s bulls.
One third of the crowd yelled: “Go ahead!” The other two thirds yelled: “Throw him out!” and a few enthusiastic spirits suggested the expediency of destroying the gentleman utterly.
With a wave of his hand Hallam stilled the tumult.
“Let it be understood now and hereafter that this is to be no joint debate,” he said in his rather high-pitched voice. “My friends have arranged for the use of this building this afternoon and I intend to be the only speaker. But it is a tenet of our political faith that in a Democratic gathering no man who calls himself a Democrat shall be denied the right to be heard. If the gentleman will be content to ask his question, whatever it is, and to abide by my answer to it, I am willing that he should speak.”
“That suits me,” proclaimed the interrupter. “My question is this: Didn’t you say at the Louisville convention not four weeks ago that if the Democrats of Kentucky, in convention assembled, nominated a yaller dog for Governor, you would vote for him?”
“I did,” said Hallam calmly.
“Well, then,” whooped the heckler, eager now to press his seeming advantage, “in the face of that statement, why do you now repudiate the nominee of that convention and refuse to support him?”
For his part Hallam waited for perfect quiet and finally got it.