Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat Jr. (October 2, 1922February 23, 1996) was an American judge, law professor, and state representative in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Missis ...

, notable for his 1952 speech on the floor of the

Mississippi state legislature The Mississippi Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and the upper Mississippi State Senate, with 52 me ...

concerning

whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden cask ...

. Reportedly the speech took Sweat two and a half months to write.Clarion Ledger
, "On June 3, Soggy's speech will come to life" 25 May 2003 The speech is renowned for the grand rhetorical terms in which it seems to come down firmly and decisively on both sides of the question. The speech gave rise to the phrase if-by-whiskey, used to illustrate such equivocation in argument.

Career

Sweat was elected to the House in 1947, at the age of 24. He served only one five-year term, at the end of which he delivered his speech.''The Clarion Ledger'', Saturday, February 24, 1996, Jackson, MS, p. 3 col B He subsequently pursued his career in law. Judge Sweat was the founder of the Mississippi Judicial College of the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

Law Center.Mississippi Judicial College
Web Page The writer

John Grisham John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the Ame ...

worked as his assistant as a law student in 1980. According to

William Safire William Lewis Safire (; Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009Safire, William (1986). ''Take My Word for It: More on Language.'' Times Books. . p. 185.) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He w ...

, Sweat's nickname was derived from the phrase "sorghum top", a reference to the way in which his hair resembled a

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

tassel. He died in 1996 in

Alcorn County, Mississippi Alcorn County is a county located in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,057. Its county seat is Corinth. The county is named in honor of Governor James L. Alcorn. The Cori ...

after a long battle with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...

The "whiskey speech"

The "whiskey speech", delivered on Friday, April 4, 1952, concerned the question of the prohibition of alcoholic liquor, a law that was still in force in Mississippi at the time the speech was delivered. Sweat later recalled, "When I finished the first half of the speech, there was a tremendous burst of applause. The second half of the speech, after the close of which, the wets all applauded. The drys were as unhappy with the second part of the speech as the wets were with the first half".

References

External links

*Safire, William (1997) Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. . Page 876. Members of the Mississippi House of Representatives 1922 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American politicians {{Mississippi-politician-stub