Prentiss, in reply, said: "My fellow-citizens, you have heard the
charge against my morals, sagely, and, I had almost said, soberly made
by the gentleman, the Democratic nominee for the chief executive office
of this State: had I said this, it would have been what the lawyers
term a misnomer. It would be impossible for him to do or say anything
soberly, for he has been drunk ten years; not yesterday, or last week,
in a frolic, or, socially, with the good fellows, his friends, at the
genial and generous board--but at home, and by himself and demijohn;
not upon the rich wines of the Rhine or the Rhone, the Saone or the
Guadalquivir; not with high-spirited or high-witted men, whose souls,
when mellowed with glorious wine, leap from their lips sublimated in
words swollen with wit, or thought brilliant and dazzling as the blood
of the grape inspiring them--no; but by himself: selfish and apart from
witty men, or ennobling spirits, in the secret seclusion of a dirty
little back-room, and on corn-whiskey!--these only, communing in
affectionate brotherhood, the son of Virginia and the spirits of old
Kentucky! Why, fellow--citizens, as the Governor of the State, he
refused to sign the gallon-law until he had tested, by experiment, that
a gallon would do him all day!
"Now I will admit, fellow-citizens, that sometimes, when in the
enjoyment of social communion with gentlemen, I am made merry with
these, and the rich wines of glorious France.
Pages:
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730