The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-28

excitement. ] saw men at whose feet / sat
when boy, and heard from their lips
wisdom concerning the value of good habits
formed in early life. menswho have always given
greater emphasis to the idea of governing your
self than to the idea of being governed Hav
ing been appointed on the committee of confer
ence, to visit the other convention, and during
my short stay in that convention, | inn
pressed that while there was very
great apprehension that the eonven-
tion might be captured at any moment
there was, nevertheless, a manifest determine
tion to hold the fort But / very soon feltsat
home in the convention, and, had / not been
tabled so promptly should have asked, as
question of privilege, theopportunity of making
my bow to many old friends and fellow-soldiers
with whom had stood on many holly contested
fields saw in that convention old weather.
beaten crusaders, who stood hour after hour
amid pelting storms and hooting mobs, singing:
Rock Of Ages cleft for me;
Let me hide myself IN Theen'
saw the honored representatives of
that, the grandest and most effective
temperance organization on the continent, whose
banner bearing the inscription Sod, Home, and
Naive LAND will be ultimately planted on the
battlefield of this Nation finals victory over the
rum power-The Womans Christian Temperance
Union. saw faces on which the tooth of
slander had left its mark of grief and agony, all
for the sake of the cause and said we are one
this separation to dayis but ripple on the sur
race OF the mighty current that bears this
united and undivided stream of
pubic sentiment on toward the goai OF
constitutional prohibition. On the one hand, /
observed the excessive life of this great reform
that can never go backwards; a life eager for the
fray and the sound of batt1e. On the other,
that conservatism and caution that shall ever
prove check on the rashness and impetuosity
OF the more radical and inexperienced, so that,
despite the mistakes and bunders of its friends,
and the combined hostility of its foes prohIbi-
ton will live. and grow, and conquer
Reforms are evolved by the correlative forces
OF education and religion. Reforms move
slowly because their formative forces are silent
and persuasive In time they mold public
sentiment. reconstruct the social Fabric and are
incorporated into the platforms of great polit-
lcal parties, and are ultimately crystallzed into
law, and the constitutional provisions of govern
ment This is the path Of progress blazed out
IN this country by the anti-slavery reform, and
to-day the great temperance reform is marching
ing on this wellworn path to victory.
The results are inevitable. Christianity and
education are the wheels of this movement.
These wheels were not made to be reversed, and
can not be reversed. The time will come when
the present position of the schools and churches
on this temperance question will call to its sup
port some great party or organization, that
shall put this noble reform. by the side Of free
dom and equal suffrage into the organic law Of
the Nation. But we are not there to-day and,
In my Judgment it is unwise to transfer this
great moral reform to the arena of politics.
Confessedly party politics is corrupt so corrupt
that It's an open question, in my mind,
as to whether the temperance re-
form can purify politics, or politics
will degrade and pollute the temperance reform.
am inclined to the opinion that there is great
work to do in the direction Of reforming politics
before we can safely trust prohibition as a party
issue in its bonds. l am quite certain thatswe
can, at this time, exert wider and more salu-
tary influence by the agencies of the schools, and
churches, and temperance organizations, than we
can by the agency Of any political party, even
though it should be called . Prohibition party