The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-04-01
For TIE CLAEIoS.l
Prohibition Must not Enter into
Politics.

If Prohibition be the peculiar and
declared work of woman, il must not be
carried where her feet are forbidden to
60, and she cannot enter politics without
compromising the reyered qualities
that constitute her influence. When
she claims share in the control Of
the intricate and stormy affairs of 1.-The
Common Nation" she proclaims her
ability to Withstand, without defence
or protection, the blasts and blows of
common destiny. When her untried and
untitled step misses its steady footing on
hard and unknown grounds, the represen-
tatiUe man of the South, always gracious,
always gallant, must endure to see her
hurtle down, least his rescue become a
reproach to her equality aud self fsufi-
cheney. Nor will the true Southern wo-
man be found, who is willing to sacrifice
the high commanding pote lcy of refined
5ensibllity TO the vulgar right of suffrage
The strong minded woman who .'spurns
dependence on men" and seeks to contest
their undivided power Will simply be
multiplying forces against herself when
she gives the ballot to woman. A week
minded wife will be intimidated by her
husband; a loving, devoted wife will
know only the wishes Of her husband and
the intellectual wife who may entertain
distinct views Of her own, will respect
herself too sacredly to enact the public
spectacle of a variance with her hus-
band. Aye, the woman who is faithful
to the responsibility of the rights she
already possesses will find no time for
perilous excursions into politics.
Prohibition must not enter into poll
tics, for the inexorable reason that il is
pledged to keep out. There was no
conyenant between the two sides of
the question. There has been no viola
tion of the anti-side to justify broken
faith. 1t was a voluntary promise, and
an honorable man will esteem his word
the peer of an oath. Remove from any
cause the support of honor and it will
drift before the winds.
Prohibition cannot afford to 60 into
politics, for the great vital reason that the
South cannot afford to have the party of
white supremacy divided. The frana-
ticism that would dictate such a policy
would develop into assassination of these
curitv of the commonwealth and into sui
eide of the cherished cause of prohibition
1t would cast the reins of Government
into hands that would soon throttle every
instinct of order and of equity and
speedily reinstate the reign of terror in
our dear redeemed land, and woman, the
irmest friend of Prohibition, begs that
you will turn loose the arch-evil whisky
rather than cruelty the white sover-
eighty of the South.
Prohibition does not need to 90 into
politics 1t is a distinct, moral, self
sustaining question. Let the energies
of prohibitionists be concentrated on
Local Option, which embraces all that is
asked and required. 1t will relieve the
cause of the imputatation of coercion
consign it to the people and establish 1t
upon an enduring basis. 1t will relieve
| the consciences of members of the
church-avowed followers of the pure
and holy Jesus-of the difficult prob
| lem to whether it be right or not to
| Law distractions across the plain paths
| of righteousness, and whether or not tits
a duty to the commercial interests of the
town to attach their signatures to petit
tions licensing the worst known evil un-
der the heavens and thereby and becoming
principals in every crime committed under
the influence of whisky which has been
sold under the licence, to the petition
for which they have affixed their names.
If the loss of the fund accruing from
whisky licenses will d 7stroy the great
system of free education, there will be
evolved from the dissolution an immu-
nity from the dictates of dynamite that
will amply compensate for the bereave-
ment of the very equivocal benefit.
The law that wrests from the abundance
of the honest, energetic and industrious
man to minister to the improvidence and
ilhpecuniosity of the thriftless man, prop
agates communism, and it is a very seri-
ons auestion as to whether or not the great
free school system does not dignity
vagrancy, pauperize citizenship, blood
poison pure Democracy and become as
deadly as the Upas to that proud inde
pendence which is the mountaineering
of coaracter.
Poverty is not "the result of unequal
distribution" as Henry George ha:
come to teach America, but the
result of unequal energies and unequal
industry, and no code of human laws
will ever succeed in abolishing it In
equality as an edict of creation and
, faitnfully performs its mission alike in
mind and matter 1t belongs to the
great dynasty of antagonism which ha.
placed frogtess upou INC thloiS VI Ainic .
Be these matters as they may, prohi
bitiouists should realize that idle wrang
: ling is unworthy of the great cause the,
are toiIing to advance. Let them pray
erfully and trustingly place their cause
and His cause in Gods own hands, be
ieving that in his own wise way 1t /
decreed that it shall triumph; let then
zealously determine it shall not be drag
| ged into combinations and caucuses ant
t trades and bargains, but that it shal
: become subject of pure and perfec
trust to all christians and promoters o
the common good. DORA DUNBAR.
Hest Point, Mss, March 26, 1885.