Judge Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat, Jr. (b. October 2, 1922; d. February 23, 1996, Alcorn County, Mississippi

Alcorn County, Mississippi

There were 14,224 households out of which 30.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.50% were married couples living together, 11.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.30% were non-families. 27.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.90% had...

) was a judge, law professor, and state representative in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

, notable for his 1952 speech

If-by-whiskey

In political discourse, if-by-whiskey is a relativist fallacy where the response to a question is contingent on the questioner's opinions and use of words with strong positive or negative connotations...

 on the floor of the Mississippi state legislature

Mississippi 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 Senate, with 52 members. Both Representatives and Senators serve four-year...

 concerning whiskey

Whisky

Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...

, which is considered a classic example of political doublespeak

Doublespeak

Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms , making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning...

. Reportedly the speech took Sweat 2½ months to write.
Judge Sweat was also the founder of the Mississippi Judicial College of the University of Mississippi

University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...

 Law Center.

The "whiskey speech":

External links

• Safire, William (1997) Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04005-4. Page 876.