Litchfield enquirer., 1879-08-14
ARGUMENT FROM THE NATURE OF THE CASE.

But the convictions which supply me with unalterable courage and unfagging enthusia m in the Home Protection work are not based upon any proof have yet given. No argu- ment is impregnable unless founded on the na ture of things
 The deepest instincts and the dearest inter- ests of those who have the power to enact a law must be enlisted for it's enforcement be- fore it will achieve success For instance, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is going to enforced by the bal lots of colored men who once were slaves just so long as those men retain their reason and their color. By parity of reasoning, if you can enlist in favor of local option or prohi- bition law the dearest interests of class ill the community which in all the ages of wine and beer and brandy drinking has not developed Gas a class) the appetite for them, nor formed the habit of their use, you will have something trustworthy on which to base your law. We temperance people have looked over at the rum power very much as the soldiers of lsreal did at Goliath of Gath. We have said: "He has upon his side two of the most deeply root ed instincts of human nature-in the dealer the appetite for gain, and in the drinker the appetite for stimulants- we have nothing adequate to match against this frightful pair. !"
 But locking deeper, we perceive that, as God has provided in Nature an antidote for every poison, and in the Kingdom of his Grace a compensation for every loss so in human society he has ordained against King Alcohol, that worst foe of the social state, an enemy beneath whose blows he is to bite the dust. Take the instinct of self-protection (and there is none more deeply seated.) What will be it's action in woman when the question comes up of licensing the sale of stimulant which nerves with dangerous strength the arm al- ready so much stronger than her own, and which at the same time so craZes the brain God meant to guide that manly arm that 1t strikes down the wife man loves and the little children for whom when sober he would die? Dependent for the support of herself and little ones and for the maintenance of her home, upon the strength which alcohol mas ters and the skill it renders futile, will the wife and mother cast her vote to open or to close the ,rum-shop door over against that home?
 Then there is a second instinct, so much higher and more sacred that would not speak of it to near the first. It is as deep, but how high it reaches uptoward Heaven the instinct of mothers love, wife's devotion, sister s faihfulness, daughters loyalty Friends, this love of women's hearts was given for pur- poses of wilder blessing to poor humanity than some of us have dreamed. Before this cen tury shall end the rays of love which shine out from woman's heart shall no longer be divergent but through that magic lens, that powerful sun glass which we term the ballot, they shall converge their power, and burn and blaze on the saloon, till it shrivels up and in lurid vapors curls away like mist under the hot gaze of sunshine. Ere long our brothers, hedged about by temptations, even as we are by safeguards. shall thus match force with force ' shall set over against the dealers ava rice ear timid instinct of self-protcction, and matchthe drinkers love of liquor by our love of him. When this is done you will have doomed the rum power in America, even as your doomed the slave power when you gave the ballot to the slave.
 BJEoToNs-woMAN's INFLUENCE.
 ''But women should content themselves with educating public sentiment" says one. Nay, we can shorten the process for we have the sentiment all educated and stored away, ready for use in brain and heart. Only give us the opportunity to turn it to account where in the least time it can achieve the most! ''No; but she could train her son to vote alright" " suggests another. But if she could go along with him, and thus make one vote two, should we have superfiuous majority in struggle intense as this one is to be? And then how unequal is her combat for the right to train her boy! Enter wonder saloon. See them gather ed around their fiery or their foamy cups, ac- cording to the predominance in their veins of Celtic or of Teuton blood. What are they talking of, those soverign citizens? The etimes have changed. It is no longer tariff or no tariff, resumption of specie payments or even the behavior of our Southern brethren that oc- cupies their thought. No. Home questions have come elbowing their way to the front. The child in the midst is also in the market place, and they are bidding; for him there, the politicians of the saloon. So skillfully will they make out the slate, SO vigorously turn the crank of the machine, that measures dear to them will triumph and measures dear to the fond mother heart will fail. Give her, at least, fair chance to offset by her ballot the machinations which imperil her son.
 WOMEN CANNOT FIGHT.
 'But women cannot fight" you say, ''and for every ballot cast we must tally with bay onet" Pray tell us when the law was pro- mulgated that we must analyze the vote at an election, and throw out the ballots'of all men aged and decrepit, halt and blind Do not let the colossal example of Judge David Davis so fill our field of vision that we cannot per- ceive brain, and not bulk, to be the rational basis of citizenship. Avoirdupois counts greatly among the Zulus; but is considera- tion far less weighty with the Americans than it was before the Geneva Arbitration. I ven- ture the prediction that this Republic will prove herself the greatest fighter of the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries but her bull. lets will be molded into printers type, her war will be war of words, and underneath the white storm of mems and women's ballots her enemies-state rights. the saloon and the com find their Ouly shroI16
 f'+!t s'woMAN's s RIGHT"
 Of the right of women to the ballot I shall say nothing. All persons of intelligence, whose preiudlces have not become indurated beyond the power of logic's sledge-hammer to break them, are convinced already. For the rest there is no cure save one-the death cure which comes or soon or late and will open more eyes than it closes Of the Republics right to womans ballot might say much. g, WOMEN DO NOT WISH TO voTE
 ''But women do not want to vote" This is the last ditch of the conservatives. The evo- .lution of temperance sentiment among women hitherto conservative refutes this argument i; yet confess there are many who do not yet perceive their duty. But Jacks beanstalk furnishes only tame illustration of growth of women in this direction in the years since the Crusade. Of this swift growth have already furnished abundant proof. It is in my iudg- ment, the most solid basis of gratitude on this national anniversary.
 During past years the brave women who pioneered the equal suffrage movement, and whose perceptions of justice were keen as a Damascus blade, took for their rallying cry : Taxation without representation is tyranny" But the average woman, who has nothing to be taxed, declines to go forth to battle on that issue Since the Crusade, plain. practical temperance people have begun appealing to this same average woman, saying, a'With your vote we can close the saloons that tempt your boys to ruin" and behold they have transfixed with the arrow of conviction that mothers heart, and she is ready for the fray Not rights but duties not her need alone, but that of her children and her country; not the woman, but the ''human" question is stir ring women's heart and breaking down her prejudice to-day. She begins to perceive the divine fact that civilization, in proportion as it becomes Christianized, will make increasing demands upon creation's gentler half; that the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are voted up or voted down upon