It pains me to be misunderstood by those whose good opinion I respect, and upon reading your trenchant article in the September number of the Review of Reviews the impulse was strong to write to you.
When you take your stand for honester government and for juster laws in New York, as you have so courageously done, your motives must be the same as mine—for you do not need the money your office gives you. I can understand, instinctively, what you feel—what your motives are. You merely obey a law of your nature which puts you into mortal combat with what you think is wrong. You fight because your own sense of self-respect and self-loyalty compels you to fight. Is not this so?
If in Georgia and throughout the South we have conditions as intolerable as those that surround you in New York, can you not realize why I make war upon them?
Tammany itself has grown great because mistaken leaders of the southern Democracy catered to its Kellys and Crokers and feared to defy them.
The first “roast” I ever got from the Democratic press of this State followed a speech I had made denouncing Tammany, and denouncing the craven leaders who obeyed Tammany.
It is astonishing how one honest man may honestly misjudge another.
My creed does not lead me to dislike the men who run a bank, a factory, a railroad or a foundry. I do not hate a man for owning a bond, and having a bank account, or having cash loaned at interest.
Upon the other hand, I think each should make all the profit in business he fairly can; but I do believe that the banks should not exercise the sovereign power of issuing money, and I do believe that all special privileges granted, and all exemption from taxation, work infinite harm. I do believe that the wealth of the Republic is practically free from federal taxation, and that the burdens of government fall upon the shoulders of those least able to bear them.
If you could spend an evening with me among my books and amid my family, I feel quite sure you would not again class me with those who make war upon the “decencies and elegancies of civilized life.” And if you could attend one of my great political meetings in Georgia, and see the good men and good women who believe in Populism, you would not continue to class them with those who vote for candidates upon the “no undershirt” platform.
In other words, if you understood me and mine your judgment of us would be different.