The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-08-20
Prohibition In Georgia,


,he counties, by voting in each county I'M
Ter local option provisions, and are now
seeking to make local option cover the
counties that have not yet acted. Up to
this time tile prohibition issue has been
kept out of politics. Now, finding their
delayed in the Legislature,
they threaten, though Mr.. Northern dis
tinctly does MOTTO carry the issue into pol
itics. With this threat, they challenge
public attention and demand prompt and
decisive action from the Legislature. y
After deprecating the introduction of
the question Of prohibition into politics,
for fear it might ruin and defeat the
Democratic party, the Constitution says :
1.-THE prohibitionistso of Georgia have done
noble work. They have won and deserved
the admiration of the country. The go-
ry of their work and the good that has
come from it, are simply unspeakable.-
They have driven liquor out of more than
hundred counties and have plucked from
the burning towns and villages that were
almost consumed.
The aggressive relation Of the prohib
tionists towards the two political parties
of that State arises from the failure of tie
Legislature to enact a general local option
| law. The same stubborn blindness distin
guished the last Virginia Legislature
Sixty thousand voters petitioned for the
passage of local option law, but instead
of giving the petition that respectful
consideration due the subject and those
who presented it, the whole matter was
ridiculed, and. we may say, every person
who had signed the petition insulted. We
commented on the unseemly and discour-
| teous action of the Legislature at the
time, and warned the members, that they
were trifing with a question that came
very near to the hearts and homes of the
people of the State-that there was a
strong undercurrent of feeling moving the
masses, and that if it did not find an out
let in some such law as the petition asked,
it would manifest itself in another way.
Our warning was unheeded-the sincere
and earnest spirit in which the petition
treated the question was ridiculed, and the
boast made that the party that touched
local option was doomed-that the liquor
association of the State was strong
enough to crush out all opposition and it
would do so.
The question is now up for the consid-
Grafton of the people. 1t will be pressed
upon them, as we understand. While we
do not agree with the plan proposed by the
Prohibitionists and think with our Geor-
gia contemporary that the cause will be in
jured by thrusting it into the political
arena, there are those who think different
ly. and mean to act out what they think.
They are entitled to respect in the conclu-
sion they have reached, whether others
!, agree with them or not. We did not be-
lieve in the st. John movement in New
, York, but our Democratic friends did, in
asmuch as it could not hurt them. They
think now about the prohibition move
ment in Georgia and Virginia just as we
thought of asimilar demonstration in New
!, York, and for the reason that it viii hurt
the Democratic party. No more sacred
and patriotic work could be performed
than to crush that party wherever it may
be found, but we do not believe the cause
of temperance will be promoted by mixing
it up with politics. We think about it
here what we thought about it in New
York. But WEI are not directing its move
Iment and our individual opinion can be
taken for what it is worth.
While on this subject we will refer to a
matter that ought to be of the deepest
concern to every citizen who prizes liberty
of conscience and conviction. Two weeks
ago a card was pub lished in the VIRGIN
IAN signed by several highly respected
citizens and business men of Staunton,
looking to a Temperance Convention.
Among the signers was one dry goods
merchant. No sooner was the paper cir
culated, than threats of s.boycotting" were
uttered, and during that week three Oh
four Democratic partizans approached
him, as we are informed, with the
threat that his business would be
ruined if he persisted in a movement
that might hart the Democratic party
It is not necessary to publish names al
g this time. But we wish to emphasize oul
adherence of such spirit of intolerance
s and to warn the gentlemen who have SC
far forgotten what is due to the liberty Of
Y the citizen-his conscience and conviction
. as to affront him with menace that il
he manifest concern about question
: that duplicates the whole social organism
! that reaches to the tenderest and dearest re
lations of life-that touches every rami
t fication of society-his business will bt
8 made to suffer and his establishment be
'sboycotted, - that they have taken steI
too far. We know party restraint and
= discipline are strong, but there is point
where even these potent factors in party
matters lose their force from the sheer i'm
pudenceand insolence of their assertion ,and
will cause a revolt fearful in its indig
nation and relentless in it's revenge. This
community and this county and this
State are not yet fastened down under ths
heel of the whiskey power. There art
vitality and manhood and womanhood
enough left. we trust, to call a halt to
) such insufferable insolence, and it will
be done. Mark the prediction. The
idea is monstrous that a man cannot have
and express an opinion on a question o.
such momentous import and far-reaching
influence as Temperance, without being
threatened in his business and war nee
from doing what his conscience tells hin
{ he ought to do. This is presumed to be a
d free country-our fundamental law teaches
that one citizen has as many rights as an
. other-that he is entitled to be respected
Q in the exercise of those rights. The bal
r lot is the peaceful method provided by
law for the citizen to express his approval
e or disapprcval of legislation proposed OF
i in operation, affecting the general wei
I fare and toning the body polite. Has
. it come to this, that on question so Sc
/, riously relating to social order, health and
purity in government, the economy of the
9 State. the welfare Of the citizen, and the
future of the rising generation-the very
hoino and ovietanon of cnointv and thf