News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-08-28

AIS AND PUBLIC ISSUES.
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, who
spoke at the temperance camp meet
ing last week, writes the following
letter, in which she sets forth her rea.
sons why the temperance people
should stand by the Republican party
All who heard Mrs. Livermore last
week know that she is a woman o.
excellent Judgment, and would not
give expression to what she did not
honestly believe:
l wish to repeat and emphasize the adj
vice given by Mrs. Stanton and Miss An
thony in their circular letter to the mem
bers of the National Woman Suffrage
Association-"Stand by the Republican
Party" Although women do not vote
at Presidential elections, they exert q
large political influence. which cannot be
measured. but which is potent, felt and
recognized. In no recent presidential
campaign has there been a more impera.
tive need of woman's throwing her en-.
tire moral force on the right side than in
the present instance.
I regret that the national prohibition
party at the convention in Pittsburg
showed itself unequal to the situation
1t failed to give to its most powerful al
lies the recognition which was their due
Women had worked for it, and what po-
sition it had achieved was largely due to
their efforts. But it seemed to be will
ling to use the National Woman's Chris
tian Union, organized in forty States and
Territories, with more than one hundred
and fifty thousand members. only as a
stepping stone, to help it climb into ma
tional prominence. For IN its platform
it made prohibition of the liquor traffic
a national question, demanding for it a
national amendment to the constitution.
But woman suffrage, through which
alone prohibition can be obtained, it ref
egated to the various States for settle
ment. This is putting the cart before the
horse with a vengeance. for as Mrs.
Stanton truly declares, prohibition can
not secure woman suffrage. But woman
suffrage is the only power through which
prohibition can be secured"
All temperance women can continue to
work for their great cause through the
moral agencies at their service. Through
the church and Sunday school. through
platform speeches and the temperance edu
cation of children, through the dlssemi-
nation of temperance literature and pub
lie meetings they have accomplished
much during the last ten years. These
agencies of work and influence are still
in their possession. In the mean time
the national prohibition party may learn
that its woman workers are self support
ing, and may come to recognize as of ma
tional Importance not only prohibition
but the question of woman's legal equal
ity with man.
But there is another reason why wo-
men, this year, should "stand for the Re-
publican party" Women are not more
the victims of mans drunkenness than
of his consuming lust. A liquor seller
is not a greater foe to the happiness OF
woman. or of the community, than is an
habitual libertine. Drunkenness and Ii
centiousness are twin evils, and the de-
bauchee is usually addicted to both vices.
When, therefore, great political par
ty dominates a man for the chief magiS-
tracy of the nation who is charged with
the gravest and most henious sins against
woman. they should not be dumb wit
nesses of this insulting and demoraliZing
act. When, in addition, some of our
noblest men, at whose feet we have sat
for ethical teaching and religious inspi-
ration. after informing US that the par
amount issue of this campaign is moral
rather than POLITICAL" and that the
whole question hinges OH tile moral char
acter of the presidential candidate-then
proceed to advocate the claims of this
libidinous man to the presidency, it is
the duty of all women who stand for So
cial purity to protest earnestly and per-
sistently.
The treatment of the grave charges
against Gov. Cleveland by some of the
most respectable journals of the day is
as amazing as it is reprehensible. These
charges are tacitly admitted, but it is de-
clared that they do not render him unfit
for the high office to- which lie is nomi-
mated. 1.-The chastity or unchastity of
public men of national repute, and NOM
mated for office before the people of the
whole country, is not a proper subject
for discussion" we are told. And that
"a man may be private reprobate and
yet be paragon of public excellence"
In the presence of our young sons shall
we silently assent to this debased public
sentiment which the press has revealed
to us during the last few weeks?
Let us remember that there is no sex
i'll guilt. Those vices which men most
condemn in women. and for which they
relegate them to obscurity, and subject
them to ostraclsm, are not to be con-
doned by women when men are guilty Of
them. Social impurity taints the whole
being, and untones and depraves the in
tellectual character, as all of us know
who have worked among the fallen Of
our own sex. After twelve years of ser.
vice on board of directors of a Magda,
len asylum there is left in my mind an
abiding conviction that no vice so dam.
ages, not only the physical and moral
but the mental nature, as that of licen,
tiousness.
If Gov. Cleveland be the immoral mar
he IS represented, and there has been nc
responsible denial of the charge, which
was in current circulation long before he
was nominated for the presidency, he is
wholly unfit to be the standard bearer OF
the American people. A man whose
debar character would him from decent
society should not be installed in the
White House as the host of the nation
and the dispenser of its Inequalities
Could respectable women be expected to
attend the receptions of such Presi
dent?
DldiuG VI OON. SIcNc'
land will be elected to the Presidency.
There is no chance for Gov. St. John,
immaculate as he is in all respects. Were
an habitual drunkard nominated for the
Presidency women would work to pre-.
vent his election by all fair and honest
means. The elevation to the chief magis-
tracy of an habitual unchasUe man
would be an equal calamity. Shall not
all women exert their influence to hinder
so unfortunate a consummation? And
the surest way to do this is to Stand By
the Republican party" Its candidates
for President and Vice President are
able men, whose long years of public
service have entitled them to the recog-
milton they have received. They are
neither drunkards nor libertines, and
their relations with women are so noble
that they will be accompanied to the ma
tiOnal capital by wives and women
friends of rare intelligence, high culture
and unquestioned moral worth.
MARY A. LIVERMORE.
Melrose, Mass, Aug. z, 1884.
A Z a rnoofiprr HoT1 nv Tho DoDpe1,I