SLATON Turns out you married a jackass, Miss Sally.
SALLY Is that supposed to be news to me?
SLATON All those fine plans. Senator and Mrs. Slaton. Maybe President and Mrs. Slaton. Looks like I’m fixin’ to lose us all that.
SALLY Well I’ll tell you what. I’d a whole lot rather be wife to a fine ex-governor than first lady to a chicken.
SLATON Is that so?
SALLY Yes it is.
SLATON I think you’re as big a jackass as I am.
SALLY We’d really better go.
SLATON Yes ma’am.
SLATON I have an announcement to make: Leo Frank is no longer a prisoner in the Fulton Tower. At five o’clock this morning, he was removed to another prison location, which will not be disclosed at this time.
WATSON Will you walk with your head held high?
SLATON Two thousand years ago, another governor washed his hands and turned a Jew over to a mob. Ever since then, that governor’s name has been a curse.
WATSON Or move aside when they’re passion’ you by?
SLATON If today another Jew went to his grave because I failed to do my duty, I would all my life find his blood on my hands.
WATSON Will you run when the fires are fanned?
SLATON I have reviewed all the evidence in the case of the State of Georgia against Leo Frank, and I have decided to commute his sentence from the death penalty to imprisonment for life.
WATSON And where will you stand when the flood comes?
SLATON All I wish now is that the people of Georgia withhold judgment until they have given calm and careful consideration to the statement I have prepared on the case.
WATSON Will you ride by the side of God or will you hide in the soil and the sod? Will you fight for the soul of your land? Well, where will you stand when the flood comes? Where will you stand when the flood comes?
SLATON (simultaneously) I am sure that my action has been the right one, the just one and the one all patriotic Georgians will agree with. Of course I care for the public approbation, but should I have failed to commute Frank I would have been guilty, as I see it, of murder.
CRAIG Care to comment, Mr. Dorsey?
DORSEY I was not a part of the Governor’s decision, Mr. Watson. I’m as surprised as you are.
WATSON & ENSEMBLE Will you beg for the Jew’s reward or walk with us at the side of the lord? Put your soul in the devil’s hand? Well, where will you stand when the flood comes?
SLATON (simultaneously) I can plow and hoe and live in obscurity if necessary, but I could not afford not to commute him. And I believe the people will realize that…
WATSON Where will you stand?
SLATON This was my only course.
WATSON Where will you stand?
SLATON A plain case of duty as I saw it.
WATSON & ENSEMBLE Where will you stand?
DORSEY With you, Mr. Watson. I’ll be proud to stand with you.
WATSON God bless the next Governor of Georgia!
DORSEY Yes, I see through the fog and dust, so let the mob do whatever they must. Slaton jumps at the Jew’s command –
DORSEY & WATSON Well, where will you stand when the flood comes?
WATSON Where will you stand?
DORSEY & WATSON Where will you stand?
ALL See the blood as a city grieves! See the stain that the Jew-money leaves! Traitors won’t keep the mobs at bay! Someone’s gonna pay when the flood comes!
WATSON & DORSEY Mary, Mary, the angel child – still your name and your soul are defiled. Thank God you can’t hear the things they say –
DORSEY But someone’s gonna pay!
DORSEY & WATSON Someone’s gonna pay!
ALL Someone’s gonna pay! Georgia, home of the strong and sure, fight like hell for the land of the pure! Teach the traitor to run away!
Georgia, home of the strong and sure, fight like hell for the land of the pure! Teach the traitor to run away!
Georgia, home of the strong and sure, fight like hell for the land of the pure! Teach the traitor to run away! Someone’s gotta pay! Someone’s gotta pay! Someone’s gotta pay! Someone’s gotta pay!
DORSEY & WATSON Someone’s gotta pay when the flood comes!