Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-07-23
EMERSON ETHERIDGE ON PROHI-
BITION.

The following letter was read from
Hon. Emerson Etheridge before the
Prohibition convention at Nashville:
DRESDEN, July 10, 1SS2.-S. E.
Lloyd, J. W. Wescott, D. Taylor and
others Gentlemen: As I cannot GO
with you to Nashville, tonight, and
cannot see you all Il mean all the
delegates from the county, l venture
to make to you the following sug-
gestions, knowing you will give them
such consideration as they intrinsic
ally merit:
Unless MIR. Russell, now a can
didate for Governor, is willing to
admit and defend the logical conclu-
sions of the platform upon which he
proposes to stand, I think the Pro-
hibition convention, which meets to-
morrow, should hesitate long and
deliberate well before making an-
other nomination for Governor.
He is so generally admitted to be
truthful, honorable, intelligent and
brave, that l confidently assume he
will boldly proclaim all his convic-
tions upon the subject of prohibi-
ton; and as he, and the convention
which nominated him, have expressed
themselves as infexibly opposed to
the repeal of the ''four-mile law,
because of it's beneficial influences.
| have no doubt whatever he is will :
ing, if elected Governor, to use all
legitimate, personal and official in
fuence to place the whole State un>
der the protection of law equally
potential in excluding the liquor
traffic and closing the saloons. He
cannot do otherwise and maintain
his self,respect. No sensible man
will avow himself as willing to in
hibit the sale of whisky within four
miles of an incorporated academy
and refuse the same or similar pro-
lection to the humble school-house,
which is the sole educational resort
of the poor. Nor can he
be willing to protect these academies
and school houses situated III the
/ country from the degrading infu-
ences and disgusting examples of
| the dram-seller and his drunken
patrons. and at the same time avow
himself as ready to see the small
villages, towns and cities of the
State continue to be cursed by this
/ leviathan of evil solely because they
are Incorporated MIR. Fussell will
not, cannot do any such thing. He
who avows himself as in favor of the
So called ''four-mile law" is already
declared Prohibitionist. He who
makes such an avowal solely and un>
derstandingly has enlisted for the
war;" he has cut down the bridges
behind him, and henceforth he need
hope for nothing but a complete tri-
umph or total overthrow. A cause
so just, right and necessary as pro-
hibition, total prohibition, admits of
no temporizing or compromise; and
all those who may enlist in its serv>
ice in Tennessee, during 1882, I
doubt not have enrolled their names
and joined the ranks to stay. Some
causes are too sacred for apostacy,
and prohibition is one of them. l
am therefore, in favor of giving Mr..
Russell lair trial, I believe he will
shoulder the responsibility like the
man his friends represent him to be.
He cannot do otherwise. And when
he shall have avowed his true con-
nection upon the liquor traffic, and
they prove to be such as we have a
right to expect, then the army of
prohibition will, for the first time, be
organized in Tennessee; and it will
stay. More than all these, it will
triumph The victory will be over>
whelming; and unless the school,
masters and Christian ministers be-
come extinct, or the art of printing
be lost, the blessings of our triumph
will endure forever. Very truly
yours, EN-. ETHERIDGE.