Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-09-02

the principles and platform of the two
parties; then why do they not crumble
and as kindred drops be mingled into
one?
That they do exist, Notwithstanding
their platforms coincide. shows te-
nacity of life whose origin and root the
Prohibition orators have not studied or
recognized. Man himself, his brain is
composed of two lobes which act and
react on each other, and among all na-
tons where thought is free there will
be two parties whose difference may be
undefinable but well recognized. Hence
from its accepted character we natur-
ally suppose the Prohibition party will
draw most of its votes from the Repub-
lican party, and the Knights of Labor
party if separately organized, will draw
most of its votes from the Democratic
party.
And notwithstanding there is a Pro-
hibition law in Iowa, a constitutional
prohibition in Kansas, and the papers
tell us that New Hampshire has taken
the same stand, yet In neither of these
states has either of the normal parties
been swallowed up by Prohibition
party, and Notwithstanding all this cant
concerning the identity of these parties,
every intelligent person instinctively
recognizes their distinctive tendencies;
and it is only because the Prohibition
party knows that the larger body of
temperate, orderly citizens is found in
the Republican party, that its destruc-
ton is advocated with cold blooded
malignity in order that the new party
may be recruited from its broken ranks.
In the Southern States where Prohibit
ton is necessity (for the negroes who
do all the work must be kept sober), no
distinctive Prohibition party has been
formed. In fact, in Copiah County,
Mississippi, where recently ten or u
dozen negroes we're shot down in a
court of Justice, and where the CHS
holm family were massacred, the Ku-
klux clans have substituted the Prohibi-
ton banner for the black flag, and from
the tone of their papers one would sup
pose they are organizing down there to
avenge the death of Haddock. by a
raid into Iowa and make a wholesale
slaughter of the Democratic "swine
that swill down the slops of the saloon
there. But no temperance excitement
in the Southern States has imperiled
the existence of any political party
there. There is death head and
cross-bones painted on every ballot box
and the Republican dares not approach
it.
In Ohio some three or four years ago
when the question of Prohibition was
left to the popular vote, It came very
near being carried by a majority. To
the Prohibitionists it appeared like des-
peration and folly for the Republicans
to attempt 10 rally their forces again to
defeat the Democrats when the Prohibi-
ton ticket was also in the field. That
party claimed as its own the hundred
thousand votes that had before favored
its purposes.
A year or two ago the Republicans
nominated Mr.. Foraker, who openly adj
vocated the license system, and he was
triumphantly elected to the assonish-
ment and disgust of the third party
which, like the Russian bear, was wait
ing for the 'sick man" to die.
Now all these instances ought to con-
vince the Prohibitionists that they can
not exterminate either of the existing
parties. And why not. since the Wing
party was broken up by the Republican
party?
The Republican party was arrayed
against an institution that existed by
force of positive law enacted by legis-
lative bodies, requiring as all laws do,
the physical force of the whole people
to sustain them. The submission of
the negro to the yoke was forced, he
strove to break it. AS soon as these
laws were repealed and the force that
held him down was broken, he was free
to work out his own destiny. The work
was done. Not so with a Prohibition
law; after its passage the work and
struggle just begins. The itigations,
the confiscations, tho worrying search
of the officers of the law after conceal
ed jugs and demijohns, and secret con-
claves and Bachanalan orgies Under
the pale light of the moon, then comes
the rub that tries mems souls.
Besides, Mr.. Lincoln in 1860 was not
elected on an exclusively abolition plat
form. 1t required the abolition of
slavery wherein the United States had
exclusive jurisdiction. and prohibited it
in the territories, and more than this,
it embraced all other public measures
naturally growing out of sense of
justice and of the mighty effort of the
nation to rid itself of a despotism that
threatened the existence of civil liberty.
1t recommended homestead laws, pro-
lection, internal improvements and
looked toward a grand future. Com
pare such a document with the meager
| platform of the Prohibition party, and
we see that the suppression of intem-
perance has no logical connection with
any of the political principles which
divide the Republican and Democratic
parties and naturally arise in the adj
miniStration of the government The
members of a party are bound together
by chain, not by a single link. The
Democrats must have something more
than whisky. their antagonist by what
ever name. must have something more
than cold water.
Prohibition is police measure and
that is the whole of it in a political
1 point of view The law cannot restore
the depraved appetite to its normal
condition The temptation to the in
diligence must be and can only be