Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-10-27
GOVERNOR ST. JOHNS REPLY
TO THE GENTLEMEN WHO
ASKED HIM TO GIVE UP
THE CONTEST.

St. John to withdraw as candidate
for the presidency, we give his an
swer that his friends may have the
advantages of what he says:
'sGENTLEMEN-In the New York |
Tribune of this date l find your names
appended 10 a request that | with
draw from the canvass as the pro-
hibition nominee for the presidency,
| together with an elaborate statement
| of reasons why, in your judgment,
| should take this course. Permit |
me to reply that | have given your
statement and request such careful
and candid consideration as, coming
from men of your high character,
they merit, and that / can neither
agree with the one nor comply with
the other. In justice to myself and
courtesy to you l must refer specifi-
cally to some of the leading reasons
which you urge. Bear with me while
I do this in the briefest possible way
FSrst.-You desire prohibition SUBJ
mitted to the people, separate from
other issues, and distinct from party
politics. 1 desired the republican
party, at its national convention, to
favor such submission the same de-
sire was expressed through petitions
by hundreds and thousands of others,
and our very modest wish was there
denied. Believing prohibition a ma
tional need to blot out national
curse, we could not ask, and the re-
publican party could not with fair
ness grant, any less. Refusing that
slightest possible recognition, the
party could not longer have the least
possible claim upon my vote; be-
cause,
Second. policy of national
prohibition has already been clearly
defined and approved by 'the great
est body of the friends of the cause
in the United States : more clearly
defined and more generally approved
by these than was a national policy
concerning slavery, when that had
common recognition as national is
sue and arrayed parties in open con-
test. This national policy may be
summed up In one phrase: National
s sovereignty over the liquor traffic to
suppress it, instead of to legalize,
e protect and perpetuate it.
Ihird.-Out of the widespread ap-
S proval which this policy had attained
and because of it came the Pittsb@Tg
convention, with its more than three
. hundred delegates, representing thir-
ty-one states, and, as l believe, more
4 representation of the great body of
e prohibitionists throughout the coun-
try than any other body ever assem-
j. bled. 1t was convention regularly
,e called, with an unusual interim FOL
temperance people to consider it an6
'e to plan for 1t. Its delegates were
'e citizens of representative character
many of whom bad recently been ac
III tive workers in, or sympathizers with
;, one or the other of the old parties
They went there, under a plain call
to nominate presidential ticket ant
h. for no other purpose, and your asser
ton that "a large part of that conven
,g ton opposed placing ticket in th
e. field has never before been made, t,
I'd my knowledge, is not justified by tn
detailed reports of proceedings print
"a ed in leading journals at the time
~ ~ and is emphatically contradicted b,
: reliable witnesses, delegates and spec
tators who sat in the convention al,
A. are familiar with all that was ther
c. done and said. On your third point
therefore, you surely have been mis-
is informed as to the facts.
e. FOurth.-I see nothing more 'con
gs fusing' in the prohibition movemen
than in any other, unless you mea
es that it is confusing the politicians
IS. Had prohibition alone been referre
en to in the platform you might hav
objected to it as 'one-idea' party
IS Woman's suffrage it relegates to th
~ ~ states, and condemning the policy c
all both the old parties with regard t
the Chinese it but speaks in the oil
,or republican spirit, the old republica
re- doctrine, which that party in its gree
on to catch the vote of the Pacific state
au now repudiates. AS to imputatior
upon the republican candidates,
a. find only such as appeal to facts, an
law that appeal you can make as wei
to They should serve every occasion
truth.
his FJth.-I believe the question
ing considered in the prohibition pla
led form were as carefully consider,
70 and as authoritatively adopted as al
that have this year been presented
wv, WV the American people, and 1 am ss
it isfied that they embody, IN a high
SITS degree and far more comprehensive
re- the well-being and prosperity of o
country than do those which ha
ing recognition in both the democra
ang and republican platforms.
leu Sieth.-'It is true,' you say, 'tf
mid the republican party declined to ma
be- prohibition an issue in its platform
The party was not asked to ma
ves prohibition an issue. For the pr
of ciple it was not requested to declar
and it was merely asked to favor subm
ray ting the question to the people.
'"ys for it to have done this, as you
sert would have been political S