The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1880-05-13

LAS 41Lu OF June5 lo6U, and doubtless the
grand and great General Conference of
the NJ. E. Church, TO be convened at Gin
clnnatl next month, in its wise deliveran-
ces, will preserve the glorious harmony Of
It's past history by declaring in clear and
! apt language Its fostering care for the bud
ding right Of Woman's voice to be equal
TO that Of man on all questions OF TEMPER
/ ance and education. And thus skgtching
ali around the horizon the rays Of light. as
they rapidly pass through the darkness of
the passing night, feel that while to-
DAY our tribes are encamped on this
side OF the Red Sea, td-mOrrOw "the
| waters will be divided" and We shall pass
through "On dry land" toward the prom
Ised temperance Canaan, and that on the
other side our women viii be heard sing
ing the song Of triumph, as did Miriam
and the women of old.
} THE CITIES.
2. The population Of the chief cities Of
the State, in the main, through their Rep
resentatives, proclaim that they do not de-
sire to pass through any such sea to any
such land, and declare their opposition to
all local option, OF any other kind of anti
liquor legislation, and in fact to any Iegis-
Iation at all on the subject, except It be
the regulation Of the whisky trade By tax
alton on the quantity sold as a beverage.
The exercise Of such power Of taxation BY
the city authorities was claimed in nv
letter Of December 4, 1879, to be uncOnstf-
tutiOnal and inexpedient. All the force
Of argument at my command was ex-
hausted in that letter, and by my conclu-
sions, sustained by the best legal authori-
ties in the State, and not assailed from
any respectable source, I stand fast, and
the temperance people in the main, follow
ing in the line of the argument, firmly
abide by its conclusion, and declare as
their fixed sentiment that, under the inbi-
billions of section Is of the schedule of the
Constitution Of Ohio, no municipality
can be clothed with the power to grant,
indirectly, 4 license TO sell and trade in
intoxicating liquors as a beverage under
the name Of the taxation power; but other
attorneys and judges, my equals at least,
claim otherwise, and the Supreme Court Of
Michigan, through its ablest Judges, in
32d Michigan R., PIP. 406 to 4I8, Young
blood vs.. Section, decide, that under the
following section Of the Michigan Consti-
tuition: "Sec. AZ. The Legislature shall
not pass any act authorizing the grant Of
a license for the sale Of ardent spirits and
other Intoxicating liquors" the present
liquor law Of Michigan, which authorizes
the sale Of ardent spirits and other intoxi-
eating liquors by the municipalities Of the
State on the payment Of taxes therefor, is
not the granting Of a license, and that the
provisions Of such act are not in contra
vention Of the foregoing section Of the
Constitution.
Here is high authority adverse to the
construction which the advocates Of local
option, following In the lead Of my arsu-
ment, which excludes taxation, claim
to be the constitutional law Of Ohio.
Such authority is merely quoted to test the
sincerity of the country advocates for
local option without taxation, and the city
advocates for local option with taxation.
assume that both parties are equally
honest and patriotic; and now, when the
country advocates Of local option appeal
through their grand roll Of petitions to the
Legislature for the passage Of a local op-
ton law, and are willing to test its consti-
tutionality in the courts, and its expe-
dieDcy before the people, why do not the
city advocates Of local option, with the
power Of taxation, also appeal to the
Legislature for the passage Of their bill
1t Is true we temperance advocates do not
think the Michigan decision Is good consti-
tutional law for Ohio, or that the Michi-
gan law is eXpedient. Butyou have the same
right Of test Of the policy, and who knows
what the General Assembly would do when
all the members of the cities vote as a
unit? and if then you suppos& the cities
fail in their measure, is that any reason
why they should oppose the country meas
ure2
The city members claim that the local
option law Of the temperance people
would be wholly imperative in the cities.
I suppose it Is true, yet what Of it? The
cities have free whisky now in their sacred
saloons, which nightly and daily deal out,
without comment from the press or re-
straint from the police, their deadly pois-
on, for the Inflammation Of all the vile and
base tastes and passions of the men and
women who haunt and revel in the moral
pest-hOuses so bitterly denounced BY the
press and pulpit, and certainly their privi-
lege in the enjoyment Of this boon could
not be abridged by the enforcement Of the
provisions of any local option law IN
other counties of the State, where the
population think and believe that free
whisky is a bad thing, and that by proper
laws, enforced by a strong public senti-
ment, they could restrain the evils result
ing from the sale of intoxicating liquors.
This opposition Of the cities is untenable,
on any other ground than that the con
sumers of ale, beer, wine and whisky
ought not to be diminished, lest that holy
trade in these partially cOutraband articles
be injured.
This difference of opinion is unfortu-
nate, and productive of much unnecessary
bad feeling in the State, and is to be
much regretted. However, thank God
the country viii triumph in its cOnserva-
tive policy Just as certain as Gladstone has
triumphed over BeacOnsfeld.
THE PEESTDENCY-
8. Having steadily declined all detailed
= l. IA e