The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-06-17
accountable to the laws of the land, and
placed under the ban of an enlightened
and yirtuOus public opinion -
The Citadel of Intemperance,
BY REV. ]. W. HARMON, NJ. D.

I
The Constitution of the United States is
1 the great citadel of the Whisky King, be-
cause it gives sanction 10 the manufac-
/ ture, importation, transportation and
expectation of intoxicating liquors.
! This National Constitution is the
| Gibraltar Of defence, behind which the
manufacturers and importers, and the
/ FIVE hundred and seventy thousand ven
[ defs entIench themselves, under certain
| conditions; and therefore the prohibitory
movement cannot achieve permanent
success. Until the constitutions of the
| several States, and the constitution of
| the United States at Washington, are
amended, giving the power to the people
| to prohibit, and abolish the indiscrimi-
nate manufacture, transportation and
/ sale of Intoxicating liquors, we shall be
called upon to do our work over and
| over again as generation succeeds gener-
alton.
The constitutional endorsement of the
| States, and the protection of the national
constitution, must be annulled, if we
ever expect to have a fair field of con-
test with this monstrons inquity, whose
| black and bloody record admits of no
hyperbole in language, and presents no
parallel in the progress of its desolating
march through the world.
1t seems almost incredible that great
men, legislators, members of the church,
and some ministers of the gospel, should,
after skirmishing with the outposts of
this monstrous iniquity for fifty years
and with small arms, in the way of
moral suasion, local option and personal
I 4 IL
| the same work, over and over again,
under different changes of adminlstra-
ton; instead of concentrating all the
temperance forces in one united national
party, and storming all the State and
national citadels that endorse the traffic.
What a spectacle good men, moral
men, legislators, judges, lawyers, doctors,
churdh members, and many ministers of
the gospel, standing upon the banks of
the alcoholic river of death, as it flows
through these States, cOnsenting TO the
yearly destruction of sixty thousand
souls, out of the three million of drunk
ards manufactured every year, by the
| drinking usage and the one hundred and
thirty thousand licensed grog shops
| because they cannot agree upon the
exact method and measures of effectually
abolishing the manufacture and traffic
in alcoholic poisons.
Shades of the murdered millions, and
inundated dead What hallucination
and mental crankiness is this, that dis
arms the common sense of our common
humanity.
We have voted the traffic out of
towns, cities and States, but all the
while left the kingly power of whisky
enthroned in the Constitution of indi-
vidual States, only to return and vex US
under the political changes of parties
and opinions.
And then again, we are met by the
cast iron power of both the old national
parties, threatening to ruin any set of men
who will execute prohibitory laws in the
several States.
| The whisky manufacturers, the beer
manufacturers, and the distillers dictate
to the members of Congress, and they
bow their necks to the whisky king.
The crack of the whisky lash makes
them turn pale, and like towards they
surrender their moral manhood
| No wonder that great men with great
hearts, and enlarged minds and sym
| pathies have organized the National
| Prohibition Party, and have marched
upon the political field of battle. There
must be national prohibitory party, in
| the very nature and fitness of things, to
execute national prohibitOry laws.
The insane cry that ought long since
to have been bored for the simrles, has
lost its force; 'don't mix temperance
with politics." but have readily, year
after year, consented to have whisky
and fraud and slander mixed with poll
tics. 1t has turned on the stomach!