Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-09-17
The I|PEEnldcE PEOPLE
OF Cincinnati IndOrSc
E..e Republican Plat
form and Ticket.
Sensible View Of the Situation.

lie SOulih4ttee Oi lltctH dppOlulcO
ly the Temperance Mass-Meeting o
August q, at Pixies Opera-h0use oi
Cincinnati met and adopted series ol
resolutions as follows:
Resolved, That we, AS Committee
approve OF the action taken by the Re
puhlican State Convention recently
held in Columbus upon the temperance
question.
Resolved, That we recommend to the
temperance vuters of Ohio to unite with
us in sustaining this action, in the con-
test at the polls; and that to this end,
we prepar short address to our tenn
perance friends throughout the State,
to be signed by the Committee.
In C, rrying out this purpose we most
respectfully declare, as our deliberate
Judgment, that the temperance resolu-
ton embraced in the platform of the
Republican party is all, in the present
juncture of affairs, that we can reaSona-
fly ask any political party in Ohio to
proclaim. 1t is in these words:
"Resolved, That rhe restraint of in
Temperance and its causes to the full
extent of the legislative, judicial and
police powers of the State, and the for
feiture of public trust for intoxication,
are demanded by the moral and ma
terial welfare of society and the State"
If all that the terms Of this resolution
may be fairly understood to mean
shall be put in force and faithfully car
ried out by the several branches of the
| Government which are mentioned,
and if the Republican as a body
! throughout the State shall exert their
power to its fullest extent in this be-
half, and if the friends of temperance
shall unite in hearty cooperation, we
do not see why, under this resolution,
all that our State and municipal author
tiles can do to suppress intemperance
may Lot be done. 1t is believed that
this is the first instance of one of the
great political parties of the State plant
ing itself squarely upon a temperance
platform. Viewed in this light, it is a
greatly advanced step, and shows the
! influence of the movements which
| have been made within the last few
months. If the whole body of the
| friends of Temperance in the State
could agree to stand together on this
] ground, there is no doubt but they
could carry the State by a large major
| ity.
We have full confidence that we in
dicate the position of the friends of
Temperate throughout the State, in so
far as they have spmpathized with the
"WOman's Movement" when we say
that they will, without dissenting
voice, sustain this action, and use their
utmost indeavors to insure the success
of the party which has anOpted it.
We appeal to our Temperance friends
who have honestly differed from us on
the license question. AS that is no
longer living issue before the people
of Ohio, why can we not all unite on
his now common Temperance ground
and work together in harmony?
We also appeal to our Temperance
friends in the Democratic party. Some
will he recognized as old Democrats
who sign this address. We ask others
if theress at the present time any prin-
ciole embraced in the platform of eth
er party, as distinguished from the 9TH
er, more important to the moral, sOci-
al, material or political Iell-being of
the State of Ohio than that declared in
the above resolution of the Republican
party? For ourselves, those of us who
as Republicans are free to declare-and
we know of many Temperance Repub-
licans who take the same ground-.that
if the position of the two parties of the
State were exactly reversed on this
question, we should unhesitatingly
give 10 our adhesion to the Democratic
party.
We finally appeal to our Temperance
friends, who are organized into a polit.
ical party called the "PrOhibition Par
ty. No third party, organized on the
simple basis of temperance, has been
able to carry any State in the Union at
the polls. In Massachusetts and other
Eastern States the friends of temper
ance have achieved all their success
through one or the other of the previ-
ously existing political parties. Can
we hope to do any better in Ohio than
the friends of temperance have done in
New England, where they have been
battling for the cause at the ballOt-bOx
much longer than we have? At the
time when the prohibition Party"
was formed several years since neither
of the great political parties of the
State took decided temperance ground.
Both usually ignored the subject. But
within the last few months the whole
position has been changed. Public
sentiment has so risen on temperance
that both parties have spoken. The
liquor interest has plank in the D9m-
Ocratic, as the temperance interest has
in the Republican platform. Can tenn
perance men hesitate which party to
support, when inevitably one or the
other must triumph at the polls?
We may, with propriety, state for
the information of all concerned, that
it was the deliberate purpose of the
friends of temperance in this city to
join in a distinct political organization,
had not one or the other of the political
parties, of the State placed itself,
through its Convention, on temperance
ground. In that case we should have
eXhorted all the friends of temperance
to unite in distinct organization with |
the same earnestness that we now ex-
hort them to uuite with us in sustain
Ing that party which has adopted our |
principals.
To all our friends in the various tenn
perance organizations throughout the |
State, we say that our motives would |
be wholly misconstructed, and we |
wonld be judged harshly, if any per-
sons should suppose that we here as
sune to dictate TO any voter the liue of |
his duty. We regard ourselves only as
equals addressing our equals. We
have thought that as the earnest friends |
of temperance, living in a city where
the hardest ba tie for our cause has to |
De fought, and feeling the necessity for
early union and energetic action, we
might properly speak a friendly word
to our brethren in other parts of the
State; and all we ask of them is to re-
ceive our suggestions in the same
friendly spirit in which they are given.
G w ROWLAND, SAMUEL WELLS,
SMITH SPIMMEL, JOHN SIMPKINSON,
III w BROWN, VIM. GLENN,
ABNER Il FRAZER, II l. STANTON
A | HOBBS, PHILIP HINKLE,