Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-08-12
An Instructive Parallel.


The Prohibitionists are fond of com
pairing themselves with the early Adolf
tionists. If their cause appears weak IN
the popular support given to 1t at the
polls they console themselves by the
thought that it is not weaker than the
cause of Abolition at one time appeared
to be, and they look forward to as glori>
GUS a triumph over the liquor traffic as
the latter movement achieved over sla-
very. The movements are in fact not
devoid of a certain parallelism that is
instructive.
The early Abolitionists were indeed
an uncompromising set of men, who re-
viled halfway measures. Did the Con-
stitution protect the domestic institu-
tions of the States from interference by
the Federal Government? Well, then,
the Constitution was "a league with
hell and a covenant with death" Those
who are sufficiently polite to avoid such
direct attack on an instrument revered
by the people contended that in exercise
of the power to regulate interstate COM
merce, the National Government could
put an end to all movement of slave
property across the State lines, and thus
isolate and prescribe "the peculiar insti+
tuition" even in the slave States. 1t was
nothing to them that such measures
were preposterous from a legislative
standpoint and hopelessly opposed to
the tendencies of popular sentiment.
They were contending for great princi-
pie, and they repudiated such a recogni
tion of slavery as was implied in COM
promise measures ofthe sort with which
Henry Clay's career was identified.
They put these principles into effect
most conspicueusly in 1914, when the
question of the annexation of Texas was
uppermost in National politics. The
Whig party as whole was opposed to
annexation, although its candidate, Clay,
was forced by local political necessities
to trim in regard to the issue. On the
other hand, Polk, the Democratic nomi-
nee. was pledged to it. AS between the
two parties the Wings were best entitled
to the support of the opponents of sla>
very extension. The Abolitionists, how
ever, were zealots for principle, and they
scorued the Whig trimmers and compro-
misers. They ran James G. Birney on
a straight-out Abolition platform, and
drew off enough votes from Clay in
Western New York to give the State to
the Democracy and its Electoral vote
elected Polk and defeated Clay. No
event in our political history was sol
pregnant of tremendous consequences.
The immediate result was the annexa
tion of Texas, the Mexican war and the
acquisition of vast area of territory in
the Southwest, to extend the area If
slavery. The slavery interest thus
strengthened was emboldened to repeal
the Missouri compromise, and extend its
grasp to all the Territories whether
North or South. From a circumscribed
domain which the growth of the Nation
was rapidly reducing to so weak mi
nority in political representation that it
would have eventually been totally una
BILE to oppose the forces tending toward
emancipation, the slavery question was
made so strong that it was able to rend
the Union and subject the Nation to
foIr years of civil war.
During the eight years that the Abo >
lition party existed it played into the
hands of the Shareholders, just as the
Prohibitionists to-day indirectly promote
unrestricted liquor traffic. The success
full contest against the slavery power
was made by men who aimed at practi
cal results. The Republican party pro-
posed the halfway measure of conlining
slavery to its existing limits and prohib-
iting its extension into the Territories,
and it triumphed on that issue. The
Abolition movement made no real pro-
greSs until 1t bad come down from Its
high horse of principle and was willing
to support practicable measures Of re-
strictiOn.
The Prohibition party occupies about
the same attitude to-day toward the
temperance question that the early Abo-
laienists did toward slavery. Their im>
practical zeal will probably delay the ap-
plication of common sense methods to
the liquor traffic, and the moral enthusi-
asm that properly directed would stead
lily advance the cause of temperance will
be wasted in futile agitation or expend
ed in nugatory enactments, meanwhile
preventing the application of practical
checks and restrictions to the liquer
traffic.-Pitts. Com. Gazette.