Buchanan County bulletin and guardian. (Independence, Iowa) 1866-1869, 1867-03-26
Address Of Sen ator Yates.

temperance meeting held on Sunday
evening, February II, 1867, in the
Hall Of Representatives.
| LADIES AND GENTLEMEN 1t was
not my intention TO address You at all
until this afternoon, and feel the
need Of more preparation before
speaking to so large an audience as
this. The reason why / did not pro-
pose to address this asscmbaly was
because, having SO rescntly associated
myself with the Congressional TEN
perance Association, did not like to
make pirade of myself before the
public. Men sometimes sign pledges,
and break them but, Mr.. President.
have signed for good, [applause. !
and have made my covenant with
God that | will keep mine. But /
felt it were better to prove first that /
was well established in my new po-
sition before Iattempted to express
my sentiments, on this question in that
earnest and enthusiastic manner, in
which / always address my fellow
citizens in behalf of any cause which
has the conviction of my judgement
and the approval Of my heart.
Some two months ago your dis
tinguished chairman, the able and
eloquent Senator from Massachusetts.
in his kindness. in the goodness Of
his heart, came to me with petition
numerously signed by members of
Congress, and said: Governor. |
want you to sign call for temper
ance meeting" "Wi,h all my heart" {"
said I. ! signed it. But the temper
ancc meeting did not come of. be-
came impatient. l went to the hon
orable Senator and told him l was
tired Of waiting: could not he furn-
ish me pledge! He said he could
tomorrow. The next day he furn-
ished me with printed pledge of the
Congressional Temperance Society.
put it in my pocket, took it home.
took it to my room, read it carefully,
and, after one look to God and one
home, signed the pledge, raised
myself to my full height and I was
FREE.-(Great applause.) If l refer
to myself in the remarks Ihave made.
and which l intend to make, l assure
you it is not from egotism, for take
no peculiar pride myself in having
been addicated to the use Of ardent
spirits. But there is another reason
why / feel permitted 10 refer to my
self, and that is, because while have
considered that l was only moder-
ate drinker it has been published all
over the land that l was drunkard.
Fellow citizens, there was some
truth in this, and there was vast
deal Of error in it. too. was addi-
cted to drinking occasionally as stim-
ulant, as / supposed. to strengthen my
nerves, laughter) and as a heightener
of social joys. But. Mr.. Chairman,
differently from other men, l had a
most unfortunate difficulty with my
self, and that was. / had a wonder
full facility. whenever ! drank. Of let
ting everybody know it.-Laughter.)
My sprees were not frequent, but
they were long and they were loud
Naughter.) The grand prairies of
Illinois did not furnish area enough
for one Of my forward movements
Naughter.) That was not only the
case. but whatever | have done for
the last seynteen years-whether l
had to make speech to political
meeting; whether I spoke against
the Nebraska bill upon the floor of
this house: whether, as Governor, l
wrote a message, or published proc.
lamation, or pororgned a secession
Legislature, (great applause.) the uni
versial charge Of the opposite party
was that all these acts were done un-
der the influence of whiskey. Laugh
ter.) Now fellow citizens. | have
concluded to put stop to this mat
ter. The editors and reporters of
newspapers are an honorable class of
gentlemen whom | respect; but l
want those libelous scribblers, who
have made so many misrepresentation
as to my course of conduct. to under
stand that from this time hencefor-
ward their vocation in that respect is
gone, Laughter and applause, and
that they may now publish their Gbels
until the hand that writes them shall
fall withered and palsied, but never
intend that they shall have any licen-
Sc or authority to publish me rs a
drunkard again, even if | have to
abstain, as l will abstain, from the
mildest glass of claret that ever the
fair hand Of the fairest lady in this
land should present me. Applause.
There is the evil Of the thing
this misrepresentation, this liability
to Misrepresentation. Why, sir.
after l had made these speeches,
some sharp article Of abuse would be
published in the paper, and some
Friendly Indian +" of mine laugh
ter) would mark around it with black
lines. and send it to me for my Chris
tian contemplation aud supreme de-
light. Laughter. | will stop it. 1
have promised God l have promised
my country, have promised that
proud Commonwealth which. for
twenty-five consecutive years. has
honered me with all her public po-
sitions. in the Legislature. as Cover
nor. as member Of Both Houses Of
Congress; l have promised all who
love me. and l have promised Kate
and the children-[loud applause i
that I will never touch, taste or han
die the unclean thing, applause. land.
by the blessing of God and my own
unfaltering resolution, l intend to
fight it out on this line to the last day
in the evening Of my life. Zap
plause.I lfall you. gentlemen, would
do the same thing. you would lose
nothing in mind, body or estate.
(Applause.)
Fellow citizens: II may seem
strange. but ! would, as l feel now,
as soon drink fire from hell as whisky,
for it is he'll and damnation too. It
Al n ~ \ AZ