The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1884-02-14
SUBMIT IT TO THE PEOPLE.
SPEECH OF Mr.. HoUsToN ON THE
CoRINTH LIQUOR BILL.

CoRINTH LIQUOR BILL.
Jackson Ledger.
A bill was introduced in the House
Wednesday to prohibit the sale of
liquors within FIVE miles of Corinth.
Mr.. Houston, of Monroe, offered an
amendment to the bill to submit the
question to the people of Alcorn
county, within the district where
prohibition was sought by the bill
and spoke to it. He presented pc
tition signed by over 1,lOO citizens
of Alcorn county, together with the
request that he should represent their
interests in the Legislature. He sta
ted that his action in this matter was
not as a member from Monroe, butas
member Of the Legislature of Misssis-
sippi, claiming that this was a court
adjudging upon the rights and prop
critics Of the citizens of the State, and
as such citizens they were entitled to
be represented by themselves or coun-
sci, defining himself upon the ques
ton before the House as being tenn
perate as in all other matters.
He deprecated the tendency of the
present Legislature, for having such
extreme views upon many questions
that threaten the unity of the Demo
cratic party. He was no extremist
and would support no extreme meas
ures, and claimed that the agrarian
spirit manifested by the action of that
body in taking from the people their
right to be heard at the ballot box
was undemocratic and unwise. Al
ready capital has been arrayed against
the party, and not satisfied with that
these extremists now seek 10 arr Y
those who have their means invested
in the liquor traffic against the party
of progress, that you might win a
man back to you whom you had per-
sonally injured or wronged, but to
take by fraud or force the means
man has to make a living for him
self and family, no amount of persua-
sion can make him your friend. That
continuation of this systematic pl n
of arraying capital and whiskey
against the Democratic party was its
destruction, and he predicted that
with its continuation, members who
sat there now, were seeing their last
Democratic Legislature for the next
years. Mississippi would not lag be
hind in the great race in progressive
movements. The people of Alcorn
asked only that they be allowed to
vote on the subject, and not throttled
by Legislature that did not repre-
sent their views; that the gentlemen
who advocated this measure and were
opposed to his amendment, claimed
that there were $50 voters in said
prescribed district, and of these they
had signatures of 6l6 of them, and
the signatures certified to by the
Chancery Clerk. If their petitions
were all right, why fear the issue be-
fore the sovereign people of Alcorn?
Why make face at the counter-pe-
tition? Such action ofrefusal smacked
of something wrong trying to be per-
petrated before this House.
He claimed that the action of the
anti-whislly men was depicting the
treasury OF its school fund. He wantd
to educate the youth of the country
in this lay the salvation of young
men. He preferred nation filled
with smart men who drank, in prefer
ence to uneducated ignoramuses; for
drunken man with sense and
education you can get sober and
make useful, but fool without ed
ucatiOu you never can learn any
sense. Take by your laws the school
fund away, and you will find ignor-
ance greater evil to contend with
than the drunkness of the present
day. He advised the Legislature to
keep in the middle of the stream; trim
their sails so as to catch the popular
breeze of right and justice even from
the lowliest citizen in the State.
Have the people grown better than
in other days of our republic? No.
Were the present gen"aton of men in
this Republican Government more
savage than the red men, who led his
captive out and gave him chance for
his life by running the gauntlet? and
you refuse the poor privilege to the
people of Alcorn gauntlet of the bal
lot box. Then for an hour he drove
home his arguments, and begged and
demanded the preservation of the old
Democratic party, by leaving to the
people their liberties for which their
grandsires fought untramelled. He
called halt to these extreme
measures offered and throttled
through the Legislature in the name
of progress, education and future
generations.
$50