Watson became perhaps the first native white Southerner of political importance to heed the Negro as an individual. He advocated political union between the races to achieve the economic reforms which he saw as the salvation of agrarian life.

Watson represented the growing mass of poor farmers in the South and Midwest at a time when their economic and political status was rapidly slipping in the wake of urbanization and industrialization. He lashed out at the growing influence of cities and corporations in America, harkening back to a Jeffersonian ideal of a republic of independent yeomen.

Watson’s early populism was an appeal to the oppressed of both races against the common foe of corporate domination. That appeal came to grief in the rising tide of racism at the end of the century, and by 1906 Watson was in the forefront of those sponsoring state legislation to ensure white supremacy.

The addition of the race factor made the Populist-Democratic fight that much more intense. Democrats appealed that any union or condescension to the blacks would encourage social integration and pictured themselves as the champions of white supremacy.

Watson's campaign for reelection in 1892 saw the Georgia Democratic Party send most of its leaders of prominence into the 10th District to oppose Watson and enormous funds were funneled into the area to defeat him. Further, the district was gerrymandered to exclude two former counties and to add Hancock and Wilkinson to the District.

The farcical election was marked by violence, open vote fraud, repeat voting and mass voting of hired Negroes to the extent that Watson's opponent gained a slim majority only by his enormous vote in Augusta, where the total vote was almost twice that of the maximum of number of legal voters.

Retired from office by the fraudulent election, Watson nevertheless soon organized a state-wide campaign on behalf of his Populist Party.

He then attempted to regain his Congressional seat in the 1894 elections, after a vigorous and intense campaign. His opponent only carried two counties in the District, but again massive vote fraud marred the election.

Of a possible maximum poll of 11,240 in Richmond County, Watson's opponent received a majority of 13,780.

Watson returned to the political hustings in 1904, nominated by the Populist Party Convention as its Presidential nomination. Watson alone of the presidential candidates took to the stump and made a series of noteworthy speeches ranging from Massachusetts to California, picking up the support of William Randolph Hearst, Clarence Darrow and Judge Samuel Seabury, among other notables, although finally garnering only 117,000 protest votes.

Shortly thereafter, Watson turned his interest back towards state politics. After lengthy negotiations, he formed an alliance with Hoke Smith and succeeding in delivering the still massive Populist vote in the state for Smith's candidacy, whereby he was overwhelmingly elected to the Governorship in 1906. The only sour note of this triumph was the extensive vote buying in McDuffie County which threw the county into James M. Smith's total (one of only three he carried), giving birth to the famous telegram, "All is lost, save honor and McDuffie, and McDuffie is coming damn high."

Hoke Smith's victorious campaign had been based on a series of reform pledges including fiscal reform, regulation of railroads, prohibition of the sale and manufacture of liquor and proposals to disenfranchise the Negro.

Watson like every other liberal and reformer in the South, had by this time concluded that the only hope for reform candidates being elected was to eliminate the Negro from politics, enabling the white majority to have elections without the old abuses of Negro intimidation, vote buying, and repeat voting.

Watson began a crusade against the Roman Catholic Church, which he denounced as a menace to American civil liberties and political freedom. In the ensuing years until his death, Watson spent thousands of his personal funds in publishing and distributing seemingly endless streams of publications and editorials denouncing the Church's activities. 

A free thinker of Deistic bent himself, Watson did not advocate a particular religion nor attack individual adherence to any other. Rather, he fought the influence and activity of the Vatican in the American political and government areas and denounced what he believed to be internal abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. Both clerics and lay Catholics flayed Watson in print and in speech as the furious debate continued and charges and counter charges of a wide variety were exchanged.

Eugene Talmadge:

Eugene Talmadge was elected governor of Georgia four times: 1932, 1934,1940 and 1946.

The farmers loved him and the city people considered him an ignorant rube. But he had the gift of oratory and his campaign speeches were brilliant as he attacked big government, big cities and any attempt to grant civil rights to black people.

He wore long-sleeved white shirts and red suspenders and this became a fashion for his followers. Talmadge would end every one of his speeches the same way:

"You got three friends in this here world - and I want you to know it," the governor would roar.
"You got Sears Roebuck Company, and I want you to know it."
"That's right, Gene," the crowd would roar in answer.
"You got God almighty - and I want you to know it."
"That's right, Gene."
"And you got Eugene Herman Talmadge of Sugar Hill, Georgia, and I want you to know it."

Although Ole Gene came from an aristocratic family in the small Middle Georgia town of McRae he knew there weren't enough aristocrats in all of Georgia to elect a county dogcatcher. So, early on in his political career he began addressing the needs and desires of the rural voters of the state.

When he went around the state making "stump" speeches, he took a real stump - a section of a huge oak tree (about two feet long and well over three feet in diameter). It would be set in place in the very middle of the crowd, for Ole Gene to mount just before launching into his tirades against Franklin Roosevelt and his "New Deal" politics.

Eugene Talmadge was elected Governor of Georgia for the fourth time in November 1946. The problem arose when Ole Gene died before he had been inaugurated Governor. 

Knowing that Gene Talmadge was not well going into the November general election, some of Talmadge's followers had undertaken a write-in campaign for Gene's son, Herman Talmadge. 

The reason for the write-in campaign was due to a provision which stated that the Georgia General Assembly would elect a Governor from the next two candidates, "then in life" if the winner of the general election died before taking office. Since no Republican candidate was present, the Talmadgites reasoned that young "Hummon" would become Governor should Gene die.

Before 1945, this ploy would have been constitutional since Georgia had no Lieutenant Governor before this time, but the 1945 Georgia Constitution created the office of Lieutenant Governor to succeed Governors should they die while in office. In 1946, M.E. Thompson, an anti-Talmdage, was elected Georgia's first Lieutenant Governor. With the presence of Lieutenant Governor-elect Thompson, the attempt of the Talmadge camp's write-in effort seemed to be dubious given the new constitution.

Simultaneously, the outgoing Governor, Ellis Arnall, who was also an anti-Talmadge refused to relinquish the office of Governor until the Georgia Supreme Court heard the case and made its decision concerning this crisis.

The General Assembly, which was overwhelmingly in support of the Talmadge forces, moved to disregard the new Constitution, and the solons decided that M.E. Thompson was not the Governor since neither Thompson nor Talmadge had been sworn in when Ole Gene met his demise. 

In an attempt to thwart the Talmadge forces, the Thompson camp began serving drinks laced with knockout drops to pro-Talmadge legislators.  After the unconscious legislators were revived, the General Assembly moved to choose the next Governor from the next two candidates receiving votes.  It was quickly discovered, however, that young "Hummon" had actually placed third among write-in votes.  The Talmadge forces in the General Assembly quickly pressed for an adjournment to regroup.

Finally, the day was saved when it was discovered that a set of ballots from Telfair County, Talmadge's home county, had gone "uncounted" when the election took place in November 1946. The ballots were rushed to Atlanta to be counted.  Upon the arrival of the Telfair ballots,the write-in ballots placed Herman Talmadge into the top two of candidates receiving votes behind his late father.  It was later discovered that all of the Telfair ballots were written in the same handwriting.  The voters had also cast their ballots in alphabetical order, and some of the voters resided in local Telfair County cemeteries.

The major radio networks sent their war correspondents to cover this riveting story in Atlanta. There was a real concern about possible violence in the chaos at the Capitol.  The National Guard supported the Talmadge camp. When the National Guard had left during WWII, the State Guard was formed to be the National Guard's temporary replacement. However, the State Guard had not been disbanded by 1946,and it supported Arnall. There was a fear that these two armies might start fighting with each other over this issue. 

The younger Talmadge was then sworn in at 2 A.M. on 15 January 1947 as Governor of Georgia. However, the outgoing Governor, Ellis Arnall refused to relinquish the office of Governor stating that Herman Talmadge was a "pretender" to the Governorship. 

Talmadge left the Governor's office and told the adjutant general, Marvin Griffin, to see to it that Ellis Arnall got back safely to his home in Newnan, about 40 miles south of Atlanta. Griffin was then instructed to change the locks on the doors of the Governor's office at which point Talmadge would take control. Talmadge's orders were followed, and he took control of the Governor's office later that morning.

Arnall returned to the Capitol late on the morning of 15 January to the Governor's office.  When he tried to go into the Governor's office, he was told that he could wait to see Governor Talmadge just like any other citizen. 

Fuming at the turn of events, Arnall took control of the information booth at the front door of the Capitol building. From here, Arnall would continue to claim that he was still Governor.  When a pro-Talmadge legislator dropped a firecracker into the information booth, Arnall then moved to his nearby law office, although rumors circulated that Arnall had commandeered the men's bathroom as his office. Arnall would continue his claim to be Governor for 3 more days until he "resigned" the office in favor of M.E. Thompson.

Lieutenant Governor Thompson then claimed to be the acting Governor. Some of the other state department heads began to choose sides between Talmadge and Thompson. The attorney general refused to bond Talmadge's choice for state revenue commissioner, and the state treasurer refused to honor any spending requests from Talmadge. Not knowing which man was the legitimate Governor, the secretary of state even began sitting on and sleeping with the state seal which was needed by the Governor to make certain documents legal. 

In March 1947, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned two lower court rulings and decided that M.E. Thompson was the Acting Governor.  

The Court ruled that the General Assembly should have declared Eugene Talmadge the Governor-elect although he had been dead for three weeks by the time the legislature met. At that point, M.E. Thompson should have been sworn in as Acting Governor because the declared Governor-elect was dead. To the surprise of some, Talmadge abided by the Court ruling and gave up the Governorship to Thompson.  However, Talmadge would have the last laugh.  In 1948, Talmadge decisively defeated Thompson in the special election to decide the remainder of the term.