Consider Mississippi’s rich history in the art and craft of storytelling. Certain names emerge. There are literary legends such Faulkner, Welty and Williams but also contemporary authors like John Grisham, Natasah Trethewey and Donna Tarrtt.

Yet the most memorable passage ever written by a Mississippian may come from a one-term Mississippi Congressman from Corinth, whose name seems like that of a fictional character, in a speech made before the Mississippi Legislature in 1952.

David Crews is inclined to believe that, and if anyone should know it’s Crews, whose Mississippi Book of Quotations (2016) captured hundreds of famous/memorable quotes from Mississippians, past and present.

The former federal official turned documentary filmmaker instantly recognized the speech given by Noah Spurgeon “Soggy” Sweat Jr. (1922-1996) as a subject suitable for a documentary film.

Even as Crews was working on other documentaries, including the critically-acclaimed “William Winter: The Toughest Job,” the idea was never far from his mind.

The “If By Whiskey You Mean” speech is a masterpiece of imagery, wit and satire that has become synonymous for the double-speak and hypocrisy that has littered the political landscape through the ages and is now considered as its own entry in the list of logical fallacies (the if-by-whiskey fallacy).

“When I leave Mississippi, most people have never heard of it,” Crews said. “When I show it to them, they are in awe of it. Here in Mississippi, people who know it just think of it as a piece of humor. But it’s deeper, more textured than that. More and more, I began to think that this was an idea that could be explored in a documentary film.”

Over the past year, Crews has retrieved material from previous interviews and conducted new interviews with more than 20 people, enough to produce a three-minute trailer for the documentary, whose working title is “When You Say Whiskey: Soggy Sweat, Storytelling & The Whiskey Speech.”

By quality and content, the documentary has the feel of one of those superb “American Experience” documentaries featured on PBS. Crews’ documentary on William Winter was aired nationwide on PBS, and “Whiskey” seems almost guaranteed to enjoy that kind of exposure, provided Crews can get the funding for the independent film to complete it.

Anyone interested in providing funding for the film can send a tax-deductible donation to The Overby Center, 555 Grove Loop, Suite 247, University, MS 38677.

Sweat’s speech came at a time when Mississippi was still a “dry state,’’ even though Prohibition had ended almost 20 years earlier with the passage of the 21st Amendment. It was illegal, but Mississippians sold it, drank it and taxed it, even elected a statewide officials to collect the taxes. One of those officials was William Winter, who turned out to be Mississippi’s last state tax collector.

The absurd hypocrisy of outlawing whiskey while collecting taxes on the sales of it was not lost on the 29-year-old Sweat, whose 315-word masterpiece, with equal eloquence exposed the vices, then extolled the virtues of whiskey, essentially taking both sides of the argument while concluding, with great comedic effect, “This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.”

Over the years, Sweat’s speech was appropriated by many, most often without attribution. Zell Miller, who served as U.S. senator from Georgia, recorded the speech on the B side of a 45 record. Another politician repeated the speech during an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” again without attribution, although Sweat had the speech copyrighted. The speech was such a sensation that the following night Carson told his audience the name of the real author to avoid copyright complications.

A common misperception of Sweat is that of a typical rural Southern politician, a back-slapping good ol’ boy.

In reality, Crews said Sweat was intelligent, well-educated, well-traveled and progressive in his thinking, having studied at The Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris and working in The Hague before returning to his home state. After serving in the legislature, Sweat devoted his career to law as a district attorney, judge and founder of the Mississippi Judicial College of the University of Mississippi Law Center, where Grisham served as Sweat’s assistant as a law school student.

As a judge, he played a key role in overturning a Mississippi law that prohibited women from serving on juries. He achieved this by dismissing indictments against women on the grounds that they were not afforded a Constitutional right of having a jury of their peers. As other judges followed suit, the Mississippi Legislature moved quickly to pass legislation allowing women to serve on juries in 1966.

Crews’ documentary includes excerpts from an earlier interview with Winter, Sweat’s law school classmate and fellow legislator. Winter died in 2020.

“What a stroke of luck it was that Governor Winter shared his memories of Sweat during those interviews,” Crews said. “He was a treasure-trove of information.”

How memorable was the speech? It was recited during the 100th anniversary celebration of The State Capitol in 2010, 58 years after Sweat rose from the well to address his fellow legislators: “You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, this is how I feel about whiskey…”

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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