The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-10-22
A Country Letter.


zeal than reason, are attacking not only
the articles, but the person of Fabius,
The article of one, particularly, impressed
me as a justification of the evident
reasoning of Fabius, that the Church,
once intrusted with the control of pub
lie political affairs, would ultimately
promulgate autos dd fe and burn all men
at the stake who did not at once accede
to its doctrines, and bow down submis.
sively to its commands. And one read
ing the TRADE signed Gambrell, must
see at once that violent defamation is
not reason, and the doctrine of prohibit
ton, politically considered, should rath-
er be consigned to the reasonable many
Of the people, than to the unreasonable
enthusiasts of the church. The Gam
brell doctrine is well illustrated in
i Deut. xxi, VS.. 1920, except he has not,
so far as we know, yet taken the glut-
| tons in hand.
To quote the bible, however, to sus-
tain arguments for or against prohibit
ton as now considered, is simply sublime
nonsense. Excess in the use, that is,
the abuse, and not the use, is the thing
condemned not only by the moral law
but by reason and discretion; and fol-
lowing this just condemnation, the
seemingly unjust result is, that the sins
| of the father shall be visited upon the
children. The grape is as much the
gracious gift of God to man as the
grain of the fields; it is the abuse of
the gift that the moral law denounces,
and that alone. Hence the prohibition
of the bible is the prohibition of in
temperance in the strictest sense of that
term. A prohibition as admirable now
as it was three thousand years ago, and
always will be. Upon this hypothesis,
and in its hygienic relation, it would
be as reasonable land just about as con-
stitutionaD to advocate a tax of ten
cents per pound upon all pork imported
into this State, whether in its aristo-
cratic style of breakfast bacon or other
wise, or the absolute prohibition of its
importation and sale, as to advocate the
extreme doctrine of what we now call
prohibition, Our enthusiasts cry out
appalled, that liquor kills its $4,000 a
year in this country. 1t may be so;
but the gluttony of the Middle States
and the South in their excessive nse OF
pork kills as many. And as between
the wine-bibber and the hog-blubber, the
advocates of the prohibition of pork
could quote the bible against the un.
clean thing with some sense and reason.
Therefore, if the police power of the
State must be called in to save the PEG
pie. from the disease of drunkenness.
let us, by all means, include the more
terrible and fatal one-the dyspepsia of
the hog.
Fabius seems also to have raised a
very furious outcry, because he charged
the advocates of. prohibition as leading,
or tending to lead, the dominant party
of the State into radicalism. II it not |
so2 What is the history of all paternal |
government; all political action, which |
seeks to turn over to the State the uni |
versal regulation of the common affairs |
of the people? The advocacy and en-
forcement of all sumptuary laws is rad |
icalism. The Nihilist is the sublime |
radical. The French Communist, the
followers of Henry George, and the Irish
Land League occupy lower rungs of the
radical ladder; while even the sympa-
thisers of land nationalizatio in England
upon the most equable terms pride
themselves upon being radicals. Prohi-
bition in Maine, Kansas and Iowa is
American radicalism par excellence, and
has tailed its forces from both the great
political parties, but mostly from those
who were radicals aforetime, while, in
ZACH of these States, Constitutional De-
nocracy opposed it in its inception and
till does, and as long as it is true to its
name and just principles, will 50 cont1n-
lie to do.
The abolitionists of Maine were at
he same time prohibitionists. 1t was |
necessarily 50, for they were Radicals.
'olitical reformers, agitators calling into !
.ower the forces OF government against
be domestic institutions of the people. {
ladicals enacted the Blue laws Of Con- '
ectieut; and it viii always be radical 6
nm when party calls in the power of :
be State to control either the domestic
abits Of the people IN the affairs Of
very day life, or to deny that 'sthe first \
ecessity of social life Is the elearness b
national conscience in enforcing the a
w, that he should keep who has Justly '
armed. The largest liberty of a reIigi-
Us and cultured people, restrained
lone by just laws of universal accep-
alton, will sooner lead them to che 9
mes when the golden rule shall govern Z
u men, than all the Radical efforts of a !
aternal government, interfering in the
daiIs Of social life and driving her peo
le into what her vain enthusiasts fond =
! dream as political reforms. Laws. :.
oWeYer, for the regulation Of the man. :. !.
facture end sale Of anything liable Is :,
ecOme pernicious, can always be sus- =
lined and justified; while the advocacy
the moral prohibition Of the use II =
r0ng drink and drunkeness- man b
Iaeture and sale; and the support Of h
VS. % punish the one, and in some D,
ut to control the other, is the duty 81 "
religious and intelligent people. il
Society organization in its moral and b,
tone, sanitatiop, sobriety and p
herr wise being governmental science
experimental, and IS therefore proores. s,
Ees and while Il has ia the nature 81
strainInR the use and abuse Of strons / II
INK made great adYancemenf il the IL
st and + ssill advancing It Is certainly u
It Jet ready for this new feudalitv ~ Il
ohih1tlQns for u e historIcailv urf,re d
g arunkeuueza and the use 81 sfrosss q
ink i = great and growing eviIIs = n
. :: ~ these political rsforrners. s.
bile y Is TOO true that the average tenn s.
rance speaker i only preaching tie :,
IetElne e lmbeeiiitE, Ia rapressn fin6 3 .
G euxrQunQ1n9z the temni fson. a tfIS 8
3 Al md khe man IS nothing
kHIl,o ANUS.