West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1884-07-09
WOMAN'S PLEA.
Miss Frances E. Willard, IN the name
Pa of the w. C. T. q. Pleads for
american Homes before the
Republican, National
Comuentton.


Through the efforts of Senator
Henry W. Blair, Of New Hamp-
shire. the National w. G. I. u.
had a hearing before the Commit
tee on Resolutions in Chicago.
Miss Willard addressed the Com
mittee as follows:
GENTLEMEN The temperance
women of America have never be-
fore asked for one moment of your
time. Thousands of them have
worked and prayed for your sue
cess in the heroic days gone by, but
up to this hour they have laid no
tax on the attention of the peoples
representatives in Presidential
Convention assembled. But tho
the position is new one, | cannot
count myself other than at
home in your presence, gentlemen,
as you represent that great party
which, on the prairies of Wiscon-
sin, my honored father helped to
build, and whose early motto rous-
ed my girlish enthusiasm "Free
soil, free speech, free labor, and free
men," But I rejoice to-day in the
sisterhood of the women's party
the Woman's Christian Temper
ance Union-where l may march
side by side with that brilliant
Southern leader, Mrs, Sallie F.
Chaplin, of South Carolina, who in
our new anti-slavery war, the
fight for new brain, IS my beloved
coadjutor.
I am here in no individual char
acter, but as the delegate represen-
tative of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union of forty-eight
States and Territories, including
the District of Columbia. Our So
ciety is the lineal descendant of
that whirlwind of the Lord known
as the "Woman's Temperance Cru
sade," of 1874, and stands not only
for total abstinence and prohibi-
ton, but for no sectarianism in re-
ligion, no sectiopalism in politics,
no sex in citizenship. We recog-
nize State rights as to the adop-
ton Of these principles, but move
forward in one grand and solid pha.
lanx-a society as well known in
Florida as it is in Oregon by the
results of the last ten years work !;
a society that has an open hand
for the Catholic as well as for the
Protestant, and for the foreign as
we'll as for the native born.
We know that in America the
great changing mill Of government,
kept in motion at enormous cost,
turns out just one product, and
that is protection for life and limb
and property. But it seems to us
women that the citadel of purity,
the palladium of liberty, the home,
our brothers have forgotten ade-
quately to protect. Therefore, l
am here to-day to speak on behalf
of millions of women, good and
true, but grieved and sorrowful, to
ask that the guarantees and safe
guards of law shall be stripped
from the saloons of my country !;
that their furnished gold shall no
more pollute our treasury, and that
the land we love may at once and
forever 60 out of partnership with
the liquor traffic.
Gentlemen, some political party
will respond to this plea from the
hearts of women ask ing for protec-
ton from a stimulant which nerves
with dangerous strength the man
ly arm that God meant to be wo-
mans shelter and protection, so
that mans cruelty becomes great
est toward those he loves best.
Some party will declare that
when our best beloved 60 forth in
to life's battle they shall not have
to take chance SO unequal in the
fight for a clear brain, nor run the
gauntlet of saloons legalized and
set along our streets. Some party
will take to heart this object les
son of"The Nations Annual Drink
Bill" shown in the chart | have
had placed before your eyes to-day,
with its nine hundred millions for
intoxicating drink, to five millions
for the spread of Christ's gospel.