John Sharp Williams to JC Hemphill
Title
John Sharp Williams to JC Hemphill
Creator
Williams, John Sharp, 1854-1932
Identifier
WWP16612
Date
1927 February 24
Description
John Sharp Williams is upset about the outcome of an Alfalfa Club campaign.
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
COPY.
Dear Major:—
One thing of hope and faith in the Alfalfa Party campaign has been forgotten-the name of the substitute candidate-Moses. It ought to bring to our standard all Hebrews and the lost tribes of Israel. True he has not thus far led anybody out of the wilderness, but he has been “trying all the time”, which proves that hitherto unrepentant Republicans are, as archaeologists-(I among them) have long suspected, the “lost tribes”, “lost” certainly, whether “of Israel” or not.
Perhaps next to Nevada, New Hampshire is the chief argricultural State. Sincerity compels me to confess that it is I who ought to have been the “one man cabinet”, but I can understand why I was not chosen; there was fear that I might have been“the whole thing” and Moses merely a “White House spokesman”. My enemies may have urged this and Moses may have been affected by an “ inferiority complex”, which, with Elliott will not even be drended. The conduct of Key Pittman is past reprobation and has been equalled in recalcitrancy by nothing nsince Peter’s denials raced with the crowing of the cock and won.
I am not “doing”, nor “thinking”, nor “wishing”; I am smoking and reading and watching things grow; lilacs, grandchildren, spring-chickens and “gyarden” truck, and the belated moral sense of the colored population and the anti-Volstead rebellion.
Key Pittman is disgusting, Moses is a forlorn hope and Elliott a refuge for weakness, but great is Agriculture and Alfalfa is its prophet.
God reigns and I am in the background; a Cabinet change may save us, or Smith and McAdoo and Coolidge may turn to Moses, as something not worth being jealous or envious of-a face-saver.
To you I look as the last hope of the Republic except me, now that the ghost of Jack Daniels, the author of “Old Lincoln County” has “gone marching on”.
With hope some, faith less and charity much needed,
Yours,Humiliatedly and Pessimistically,
John Sharp Williams
Dear Major:—
One thing of hope and faith in the Alfalfa Party campaign has been forgotten-the name of the substitute candidate-Moses. It ought to bring to our standard all Hebrews and the lost tribes of Israel. True he has not thus far led anybody out of the wilderness, but he has been “trying all the time”, which proves that hitherto unrepentant Republicans are, as archaeologists-(I among them) have long suspected, the “lost tribes”, “lost” certainly, whether “of Israel” or not.
Perhaps next to Nevada, New Hampshire is the chief argricultural State. Sincerity compels me to confess that it is I who ought to have been the “one man cabinet”, but I can understand why I was not chosen; there was fear that I might have been“the whole thing” and Moses merely a “White House spokesman”. My enemies may have urged this and Moses may have been affected by an “ inferiority complex”, which, with Elliott will not even be drended. The conduct of Key Pittman is past reprobation and has been equalled in recalcitrancy by nothing nsince Peter’s denials raced with the crowing of the cock and won.
I am not “doing”, nor “thinking”, nor “wishing”; I am smoking and reading and watching things grow; lilacs, grandchildren, spring-chickens and “gyarden” truck, and the belated moral sense of the colored population and the anti-Volstead rebellion.
Key Pittman is disgusting, Moses is a forlorn hope and Elliott a refuge for weakness, but great is Agriculture and Alfalfa is its prophet.
God reigns and I am in the background; a Cabinet change may save us, or Smith and McAdoo and Coolidge may turn to Moses, as something not worth being jealous or envious of-a face-saver.
To you I look as the last hope of the Republic except me, now that the ghost of Jack Daniels, the author of “Old Lincoln County” has “gone marching on”.
With hope some, faith less and charity much needed,
Yours,Humiliatedly and Pessimistically,
John Sharp Williams
Original Format
Letter
To
Hemphill, J. C. (James Calvin), 1850-1927
Files
Collection
Citation
Williams, John Sharp, 1854-1932, “John Sharp Williams to JC Hemphill,” 1927 February 24, WWP16612, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.