Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1884-11-15
THE GERMANS IN MISSOURI AND
PROHIBITION.

The In%telligencer has the friendliest o.
feeling for the Germans of Missouri
1t is perfectly aware that they repre-
sent Il country which has a literature
distinction in all the arts, profount
theses upon all the sciences, and thee
logical research as deep and thorough
as that of any country upon the face o
the earth. The writer has persona
reasons for particularly kind feel
ings toward Germans. Upon all these
points we could easily elaborate, bn
that our doing SO might be regarded a
flattery intended to soften the force o
what we said last week upon the sub
iect of the Germans of Missouri anC
the question of prohibition. We dc
not desire to do that. We wish to give
no %offense, but we are counting nc
favor. There is no election pending
and demagogical fa~nfaronade as tt
what we shall endeavor calmly anC
fairly to advance can accomplish moth
ing. We have made no threats; we
make none now ; we have only a few
earnest words to say; they do not a
all apply to those Germans who vote
the democratic ticket; these are the sail
that may yet save their fellow-country'
men from Inconvenience, to say the
least.
The election of Grover Cleveland
means the death of the republican party
as a great national political organiza'
ton. For years it has only existed by
grace of the bloody shirt and the in
tluence of the public plumber. Its
latest tissue" has been the false CRY
that the democratic party meant free
trade. No one knows better than the
republican leaders that when the dem
ocratic party assumes the reigns OF
government it will not try to pay the
rebel wal debt; to pension rebel soldi-
ers; to ostracize Union soldiers; to en-
slave the negro; to abrogate the tariff;
or to unsettle the finances Of the coun-
try. Yet these things they have
made their dupes believe would happen
upon the accession to power OF the
democratic party.
The rebel war debt will not be paid.
Rebel soldiers will not be pensioned.
Union soldiers will not be ostracized.
The negro will not be enslaved.
Free trade will not be inaugurated,
as it has never been advocated by the
democratic party.
The financial affairs of the country
will be as ably managed as they ever
were, and much more SO in the inter-
ests of the masses as contradistinguish-
ed from the interests of the monopo-
lists.
1t will not take long to prove all
these things; and then the republican
party will resemble Othello when bereft
of his occupation. Its false-pretenses
will be exposed. The country will be
found to be safe without its aid, and
Illinois, and Michigan, and Wisconsin,
Iowa, and Ohio, and California, and
Nevada, which have only hung to it
this time by slender threads will fall
away from it never more to return.
Then what?
Mark Il words! Remember them.
Then from one ocean to the other the
republican party will advance the only
issue it can ever raise again-the issue
of prohibition. AS sure as fate; as
sure as death. that is the next great con-
test. Then the republican party, as in
Maine, Massachusetts, in years gone by,
as in Iowa and as in Kansas, hand in
hand with the pharisaical Burchards
and Blaines and Shermans and BOWS
will raise their pious hands against
"Rum, Romanism and Rebellion"
The Germans are a sober, industri-
GUS race. They are by no means drunk
ards. They are rarely, hardly ever dis
turbers of the peace, but they have
their habits aud their customs; they
love their personal liberty; they come
to this country largely for that.
To whom will they turn when this
hour of trial comes? And come it will
as certain as that sun follows sun and
season follows season.
Their only hope will be in the demo-
cratic party; and yet i'll Missouri they
are not satisfied merely to oppose it by
their votes, but they denounce it as
illiterate-opposed to education; as in
alliance with neutrality-suspicious. with
common criminals; as putting up for
governor 4 bushwhacker and robber
in fine, if there is a crime in'the decal-
ogue which they have not in this can
vass laid at the door of the democracy
we do not know what it is.
AS a matter of news we tell them,
that at last they have raised among
democrats a spirit of resentment, and
that many of these say they feel dis
posed to give them a dose of prohibi-
ton, after the Maine pattern. This
is not our sentiment; we are I'M
alterably opposed to prohibition
but it is the sentiment of many of the
men Ill Missouri who have been in
suited by the libelous and slanderous
canvass that has been made against
them this year, led by Il set of poIitica
f%reebooters who did all in their power
to blacken the reputation of Missouri
to carry out their selfish ends.
If we failed to tell the fact as it ex-
lists we should be remiss as journalists
This winter the brewers organiza.
tons of Missouri will appear before
the democratic legislature praying tina
no prohibitory amendment be submit.
ted to the people.
Because Of the fact that it is a prill.
ciple ofdelnocracy to oppose sumptuarl
legislation, to oppose all interference
with the personal liberty of the citizen
the democratic legislature, as it La
done in the past, will refuse to submi
the amendment; and the snivelliu!
hypocrites who have taught the negro i
dark lantern meetings to believe tina
democratic success would mean hi
re-cnslavement,al all over the state, led b,
the Globe-D Democrat, will throw II,
their hands in holy horror and speal
OF the democratic party with contempt