Noah S. “Soggy” Sweat Jr.

Although Prohibition was nationally repealed in 1933, there were states that held on to it much longer. 1952, Mississippi was one of those states and had been the first to adopt it in 1908 and the first to ratify the national amendment in 1918. The debate in 1952 was on to keep or repeal it, and a 29-year-old state legislator, Noah S. “Soggy” Sweat Jr. (1922-1996), had the idea of how to approach this contentious issue as he was reaching the end of his five-year term in the state House. He delivered the following speech before the Mississippi State Legislature on April 4, 1952:

“My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, this is how I feel about whiskey:

If when you say whiskey you mean the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise” (Marquez).

He managed to simultaneously please and antagonize both sides of the issue. Sweat recounted that it had taken him two months to write the brief speech, and it has since been legendary in Mississippi politics as well as of the United States. This speech gave rise to the logical fallacy, “If-by-Whiskey”, which is defined by Logically Fallacious as:

“A response to a question that is contingent on the questioner’s opinions and makes use of words with strong connotations.  This fallacy appears to support both sides of an issue — a tactic common in politics.”

After his stint in the state legislature, Sweat served as district attorney for two terms, and from 1966 to 1974 he was a circuit judge. The position, incidentally, that won in 1952 was continuing Prohibition; Mississippi was the final state to repeal it, doing so in 1966!

References

If-By-Whiskey. Logically Fallacious.

Retrieved from

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/If-By-Whiskey

Marquez, S. (2026, May 7). Noah “Soggy” Sweat’s “The Whiskey Speech” to be presented at Two Mississippi Museums. Magnolia Tribune.

Retrieved from

Noah “Soggy” Sweat’s “The Whiskey Speech” to be presented at Two Mississippi Museums