Mexico weekly ledger., 1886-07-15
Submission not II Party Issue.

men snOulu Sulue tue parry Ill III Vi
its councils.
Submission not II Party Issue.
To the Editor of the Ledger.
For the benefit of the many Dem
ocrats who will meet in the many
school districts on next Saturday l
desire to present some reflections on
the prohibition question, which has
been unfortunately and needlessly
injected into the race for Representa-
tive by one of the candidates for that
office. In his card Col. Clay uses
the following language:
"And with a view of guaging the
sentiment of the party in the county
on the question of the submission
of prohibition / shall, if nominated.
ask the instructions of the convention,
fresh from the people, and if elected
will obey them
In tho first place the letter from
the gentlemen of Martinsburg inquir- |
ing of the candidates for that office |
as to their attitude on the submission |
question did not in any way call for
an answer from any of the candidates
which would put the responsibility Of
the solution of hal question in the
hands of the Democrats of this coun-
ty. The candidate who thus under
takes to place the solution of the
question on the Democratic party of
the county shifts the answer which
he should have made himself, and
which was q question asked by indi-
viduals Of one individual, all of the
same party, on to the party and thus
undertakes to bind the hands of the
Democratic party on a question which
is not nor should be a party issue. 1t
is a well known fact that there are pro-
hibltion Democrats and anti-prohibi-
ton Democrats in the county that
it is one of the absorbing questions
of the day, and whichever way the
party in convention may instruct the
candidate nominated such i~nstruc-
tons will be calculated to produce
contention within the ranks of the
party and most likely division. The
Democratic party of this state has
for twenty-five years been battling
this very question out of the party
and keeping it out, and the grand
successes of the party of the state
are largely due to the fact that
prohibition has eve been allowed
for an instant to produce discord
within the ranks. To bring it in now
in this county would be at variance
with the Democracy of the state, un-
necessary, exceedingly unfortunate
and undemocratic. Besides the Dem
ocrats do not want to place them
selves on record on any question
without an intelligent discussion OF
the matter under consideration, and
should not, and prohibition has not
had the slightest attention by the
people in this canvass 1t was inject
ed into the canvass by a man in order
to avoid the responsibility of a direct
answer, and should be as uncere.
moniOusly kicked out of the deliber.
atoms of the party as it was unwist
aud demagogical to undertake to drag
it In. Do the Democrats of Audrair
, want it published to the world thai
they have, at variance with the wis,
; men of the party in this state, Sc
2 themselves up as prohibitionists o.
anti-prohibitionists? Is it to 90 GU
to our fellow Democrats of this stat,
that the Democrats of Audrain hay,
taken it upon themselves to settle tn,
question of prohibition and gone bacl
upon what has been the teaching o
its leaders and principles of the part,
during the whole of its glorious ex
: istence? 1t is not a party question
and to touch 1t as such will only de
, file the party, and has no more bust
. ness within the sacred precincts o
r the party than politics has within tn
church. A prominent Democratic
= leader on this self-same question il
the St. Louis Republican of last weel
says i've his own signature, 9Th,
church as the church refuses to pro
nounce either for or against any pc
litical party; SO I hold that tn
g Democratic party as a party ough
y not to pronounce either for or agains
prohibition" Fellow Democrats, d
!, not touch it. To do so is not Demo
O cratic but is just what the Republican
o party of this state wants you to dc
The military maxim, Never do wha
the enemy wants you to do is a
-, true in politics as in war. The con
. stitution guarantees tbs right Of petl
tion and the right to be heard O,
petition, and by petition, where tn
people hate a chance regardless o
party lines to assert themselves OF
I non-party questions is the only wa,
to reach the submission question.
. ask every true Democrat in thi
county to see that this breeder o
diseord and disturbance be kept on
Il of the deliberations of the party O.
e next Saturday and next Monday.
III TRuE DEaocRAcY.