Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-09-06

Jus pOWoT Ol INC Legislature, u6u0L Inc
present Constitution, renders the adop-
tion of that clause Of the amendment no
longer practical necessity If the dsci
sion be permitted TO stand.
There is, however, practical neces-
sity existing and imperious, and which,
IN view of the possibility that neither
amendment be adopted, should guide
aud control our political action. A sue
eeeding Legislature can repeal the Scott
law; a succeeding court can reverse the
decision of its predecessor. 1t is pOssi-
BILE to revolutioniZe the sentiment of
both the Legislature and court at the
ensuing election. Should aa event SO
unfortunate result, and the repeal or re-
versal ensue, absolute free trade in in
toXicants is the consequence, without
the means Of enforcing compensation in
any part for public evils, costs and sx-
penses the traffic entails on the thrifty,
frugal. order-loVing, tax-paying portion
of society, to say nething Of its unre-
strained power over individual and do
msstic happiness. Is it wise, then, to
lose sight of this possibility, and in the
enthusiasm of zeal to grasp perfection,
let slip forever, it may be, the partial
good already attained?
You have no doubt observed that in
his speech on the 18th August, at Zoar,
Judge Hoadly, announcing his youthful
TEN psrance zeal and his subsequent con-
viction in favor of legislative control,
endeavors to force partisan issue on
the amendments and the principle of
| liquor traffic taxation. In his vehe-
msnce he makes unconditional opposi
4 N.N
| term of Democratic communion. vocif-
erCusly proclaiming that he wants the
vote of no citizen favoring either. In
support of this new article and test of
faith, be proclaims that the Democratic
creed and platform are founded on prin-
| ciples eternal and uHchanging, funda-
mental among which is the personal lib
erty to traffic in intOxicants, any re-
straint or burdsning of which is sump-
tuary legislation, within the meaning of
and as condemned by the Democratic
platform; that the Scott law and the
prohibitory amendment are in the strict
est sense samptuary iAfringements Oh
the personal liberty of the citizen ,as aInst
which the Democratic platform COM
mands him and the leEiOns of the faith
full to raise their voices and the swsrd
of Allah. The heated prOnupciamsnts
is the more remarkable from the fact
the same creed, platform and test Of
faith, demand the license of the traffic,
a rigorous, severe, irOn-handsd license, ,as
the Judge expressed it at Hamilton,
whereby some shall be favored and 9TH
ers excluded, and all subject to suryeil-
ance, control and forfeiture of privilege,
which, if restraint be sumptuary, is
sumptuary legislation pronounced, pal
pable and fragrant, and all this embo-
died in and issuing out of, one and the
same creed of principles, eternal and
unchanging. The demand of those who
dictate this creed but dare not openly
proclaim it, is what it was in the con
vention of 1874, that legislative power
to license the traffic and nothing else,
shall be engrafted upon the Constitution,
giving to it the irrevocable immunity
and protection of organic law, without
the power of legislative disturbance. Lii
cense or nothing, is the shibboleth thus
inscribed on the banner of Democracy.
On the other hand. the shibboleth in
scribed on the banner of the third par
ty, Prohibitionists, is. prohibition or
nothing. With vehemence only sur
passed by that of Judge Hoadly and
the resolutions of the associated
liquor dealers, they denouncs the Scott
law as u league With death and cove
nant with hell, copartnership of the
State with the liquor dealers in blood
money" extracted by them from their
victims For two hundred dollars you
may mznuft cture all the drunkards you
plsase. is the promise and effect of the
Scott low" says Judge Hoadly. "For
two hundred dollars you may manufac-
turc all the drunkards you please, is the
promise and effect of the Scott law" re-
repeats the third party, Prehibitionists.
They strike hands in demanding its re-
peal with all Its consequences. The
judges implacabk hostility is especial
ly directed against the McConnellsvile
clause of the law which snacts that mu-
aicipal corporatians shall have power
TO regulate, restrain and prohibit ale,
beer and porter houses or shops; and
places Of notorious or habitual resort
for tippling sr fntsmperancs. He for
gets that this is but a re-enactment, VEL
batim, of former statute, originally en-
acted by tbs same Democratic LegiSla-
Iature, of eternal aud unchangiug prin-
clples, which elected Allen G. Thurman
TO the United States Senate. (66 vol.
o. L.. page ISl, sub sec. of sec. l99)
His patriotic objection, urged at Zoar,
against the law, is that it drives from |
the traffic the crippled soldier and the
soldiers widow who is dependent on it |
for support but is too poor TO pay the
tax. y nation of fifty millions, saved |
by the sacrifices and csmented by the |
blood of patriotism, that would show |
itself so shamslessly lost TO the senti-
ment of gratitude as, by neglect, to drive
its MANNED heroes for support inte beg
CARING the wives, vagabondizing the |
children and brutalizing the moral sense |
of their surviving comrades would de
serve and ought To se eternally damned.
What, then, shall be said Of political |
party which processes to feed on princi
Pile and blossom only with virtues whose
statesmen, boasting their patriotism,
seek power In order to perpetuate the
dependence Of these MANNED
heroes for subsistence on traffic in
which they SHALL enjoy the glorious per-
sonal liberty OF destroying more of their
than they destroyed of the
enemy in batilel Contemplate the spec
tacle, u soldier Of the Union in mad
house, his wife in the alms-house, his
in sqaallor and ragsl But what
are these, ia the eyes of q JeffersoHian
Democracy, TO that personal liberty of
his MANNED comrade to derive support
from the sad necessity Of his depend
sncc on traffic which reduced them TO
this? Yet such are the methods and
position of Jetfersonian Democracy.
the people with the phantom
n constitutional license which II knows
TO he constitutional impossibility. 1t
says to the liquor dealer. elevate me to
power and the Scott law shall be striek- !
IN down, the traffic relieved from the
bdrden of taxation. and you enjoy again
the personal liberty of manufacturing
Ill the drunkards you please for moth