Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-11-14
THE DEFEAT OF BLAINE
Making the Best Of q very Bad
Matter.

THE DEFEAT OF BLAINE
Making the Best Of . vey Bad
Matter.
New York CrrY, Nov. 8, 1884.
To the Editor of tie Eagle:
The reports of the election that have been
received up to this morning indicate that
Cleveland has carried the state Of New York
by small majority, and has . majority OF
the electoral votes, yet the vote is 80 close 1t
will undoubtedly require an official count
before it can be satisfactorily decided as to
who is elected. The Republicans are feeling
very sore over the probable defeat of Blaine,
and the Democrats, of course, are highly
elated. They are firing cannon and holding
public meetings all over the country.
Blaine's defeat may be attributed to four
causes:
First-The prohibition vote cast for St
John was sufficient to defeat The prohibi-
tionists Of New York are more than three
quarters of them from the Republican party.
st. John has received about 1900 votes in
this state. If one-fourth of these votes had
been cast for Blaine, he would have been
elected. 1t is the impression Of some of the
staunchest advocates of prohibition in the
east, that St. John and his party have been
instrumental in putting the cause Of prohl-
bition back more than twenty years. The
New York Tribune of November Sth, has
the following:
"To one man, ST. John: 1t is the general
opinion that you and your friends have set
the cause of temperance back half century.
If the reflection is pleasant, you are vel
come to it."
A correspondent from jamestown, New
| York, says:
..The action of the prohibitionists, in
treacberously acting as Democrats, has
| greatly incensed Republicans, and has in
ficted incalculable damage to the temper
ance cause in this county, putting it back at
least ten years. Now only nine OF the TWEEN
ty-six towns have boards of excise favorable
TO Incense, but at the next election they will
probably show majority of the towns ioi
license as Republicans who have generally
voted the temperance ticket will now vote
against the prohibition party, the same a'
AGAINST the Democratic. The towns where
no license has been granted for twenty year,
will elect license boards next spring"
The Tribune further says:
"If the cause Of temperance were repre-
sented only by the 10000 men who have
done their utmost to elect Mr.. Cleveland tt
the presidency, one thing is certain, that
they would search long while before they
would get the aid or sympathy OF majority
in a single northern state At the best, the
behavior of those who claim to be the pecu'
liar defenders of the temperance cause hai
done that cause more harm than all thu
LIQUOR interest has been able to do in twenty
wears of controversy"
The feeling amongst the Prohibitionists IL
the Republican party is, that the placing o
Prohibition candidate in the field, has in
iured rather than benefited the Prohibition
movement, and as Blaine has been defeated
by the votes of of the Prohibitionists, they
now say they will not contribute dollar t.
aid the Prohibition cause under the leader
ship of men like st. John. They regard
such men as being very short-sighted, AND
not safe leaders in the great cause which
they are advocating.
The reason the temperance cause has beer
set back by the st. John movement, is that
it places the general government in tn
hands of the liquor party. II takes the pat
, ronage of the United States out ofthe hand
of the party that is naturally opposed to il
Again the Republican Prohibitionists CLAIM
that congress has not the power to pass al
act prohibiting the manufacture and sale o
alcoholic liquors in any state. The dutie
of congress as prescribed by the constitution
expressly defines what powers shall be dele
gated to congress, but the control of tn
liquor traffic in any Of the states is not thu
mentioned. The prohibitory law can onl,
be carried out by the different states, an
not by the general government. Will
congress can tax the liquor traffic t
raise a revenue, it cannot prohibit the man,
facture and sale of alcoholic liquors. Thi
duty devolves upon the states alone, and tn
sooner the prohibitionists find that out an
make the temperance cause one OF state or
ganization, the sooner they will succeed il
carrying out their prohibition measures.
,, Again, Mr.. james G. Blaine is an avowe
advocate of prohibition and he has don
much in the state in which he lives to al
the prohibition cause. Grover Clevelan
has long been identified with the rum inter
% ests of the country, and the platform Of tn
Democratic party at Chicago, had plan
, which denounced the efforts made to pas
E sumptuary laws.
But there were other influences over whic
! the prohibition party had no control, tina
. helped to defeat Blaine. In the first plac'
r the Delmonico dinner was an i'll advise
: movement. When we first heard that M
i Everts had sent an invitation to Blaine to a
tend public dinner at Delmonico. We sal
1 il would lessen Blaines chances of an cleo,
!, ion. The election has been so close tina
one thousand votes taken from the Demo
, Gratis and pacee in the Republican rank
would have elected Blaine. Now at I'll
: Democratic parade given the Saturday b
r fore the election, and after the Delmonic
D dinner, there were number Of banners tbs
had pictures of the Delmonico dinner head
K ed "Belshazzar's Feast" carried through II
e city and viewed by tens Of thousands. Som
of the leading monopolists Of the state, lib
Jay Gould, Sage, Dillon, Vanderbilt, Cyr.
w. Field, Huntington and others, wi,
Blaine and Everett's picture were thus para
ed through the streets. This influenced
e great many antimonopolists to vote again
= Blaine.
n Again, the speech made by the Rev. d
n Burchard at the reception given to N
y Blaine, by the ministers, at the Fifth aven'
hotel, was undoubtedly the cause Of chan
a ing more than one thousand votes fro
d Blaine to Cleveland. Many of the banne
l. carried by the Democratic paraders bore Il
. inscription, "Rum, Romanism and Rebel
o ion," the words used BY Mr.. Burc
+ ard. Don't vote for q candidate tn
y will interfere with your religion L
: doubleday thousands Of Irish Catholics wi
e had made up their minds to vote for Blain
n were induced to change their vote by ii
: unfortunate speech.
Again stalwsrt Republicans under the LEI
i of Connling undoubtedly carried mar
r, votes over to Cleveland.