The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1885-08-15

potism and not free government.
Self-government Is the shibbeleth OF
free government, aud no government
is, Just, or right, or free, that docs
not stand on the consent of the gov
erned alone. The invasion of this
right has filed the world with suffer-
ing and allliction in all ages OF which
we have any historic account Steph-
en- is balled the FIRST martyr, aud he
was put TO death because u vast ma
jority of the people of India had de
termined on matter pertaining to
him alone--that he was wrong and
they were right, and they being in the
majority had the power and slew him
because he would not believe and -act
in q matter pertaining to himself
alone, as they would have him, AID all
the martyrs who have died since are
but pieces of the same pattern. II n
majority of the people have the right
to say a man shall not drink whisky,
they have the right to say he shall not
he a Baptist, Methodist, u Presbyte-
rian, or Catholir, aud the majorities
have exercised that right in other
lands. know that large number
of our best people favor prohibition,
but that does not prove that IL is
right. Saul of 1arsus and the best
people of India drove the early chris
tians to the deserts, prosecuted and
drove them to strange cites, arrested,
imprisoned and stoned them to death,
and they thought they were doing
God service The pope who compelled
Gallileo to recant his opinions about
the revolution of the earth, did IL TO
sustain the truths of the bible. Phil
lip ii of Spain, when he was setting
the Netherlands on fire, was support
ing religion aud the holy church.
When Queen Mary was saturating the
soil of Great Bratain in the blood of
her wretched subjecs, she thought she
was doing God service too, and from
st. Paul in India down to st. John in
Kansas, they are trying to do good in
an impossible. way. They are all try
ing to advance public morality, but
morality does not go over the back or
down the throat, but through the
mind and heart and conciencc, and
the high state of our civilization and
morality to-day is tho product Of a
free mind, Il free conciencc aud free
man. The steam engine, the power
loom, the cotton-gin, the sewing ma
chine, and all the improvements that
have sprung from the individual mind
of man, that have increased the pro-
ductye power of labor, and consc-
quently have satisfied more wants
and have brought more comfort to
the homes and more happiness to the
bosoms of the people, have done more
to build up public morality than all
the prohibitions Of all the govern
mcnts in the world"
'Is there any material difference
between local option, Us it is called,
aud straight prohibition, pure :and
simplep
no, When u mans liberty is TAX
en- from him by his ncighbors i'll his
precinct he has fewer masters. When
the county takes it from him he has
more masters. When the state takes
il from him, still more. When the
United States takes it from him he is
the slave of sixty millions, instead OF
few humane cd. But his condition is
unaltered. He is u slave to that eN-
tent. lie has no liberty to do as he
wishes with himself about that"
"Do you think it is the duty of the
democratic party TO combat prohl-
bitionN
II do. If the democratic party can
not defend the liberty of the citizen
il has no mission on earth. 1t first
sprung into existence as the avowed
defender of the rights and liberties OF
the person, and before this invasion
rides into triumph it will find Itself
confronted on every hill aud vale in
the land by the united hosts of democ-
racy, and it will be buried so deep
that the trump of the arch-ahgcl will
never awaken it from its long re-
pose.