Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-10-20
PATRIOTISM AND PARTY.

of prob ibition in this country. In her
address to the Rock River Conference on
Wednesday evening she spoke of the war
meetings in which students, theological
and secular, crowded to the altsrs to sign
the muster roll. When Bishop Simpson
in those times spoke and prayed for Abra
ham Lincoln and the great party led by
him no one blamed the Bishop because
he introduced partisan politics into the
pulpit. Then it was, she said, that the
color line separated two great camps of
voters; now, sooner than we think, it
will be the liquor line. Continuing, Miss
Willard said
We are passing on into the cloud of battle.
Those of US who survive will emerge from it
shoulder to shoulder, driven into solid ranks by
the presence OF the enemy Ny heart aches over
the alienation of old comrades but the Vicks-
burg, the Gettysburg, AMI, best of all, the Ap-
pomattox OF the future will make us one again
Politicians talk of the tariff, but that is the
chameleon among issues, changing its color ac-
oOrdlng to the SelfintereSt of changing sections
They talk of the Southern question but that i 8
the dead lion among issues, in whose skeleton
the white ribbon women have found their honey
comb of sisterly cooperation. They talk about
the labor question; but that is the elephant
among issues not yet grown to full size, and
dangerous except when led about by its wise
keeper, Terence V. Powderly. Methodists talk
instead about the prohibition of the liquor traffic.
that earthquake among issues, whose solemn
and portentous roar only the deaf Or dead can
fail TO hear. It is shaking down whatever is
shakable; 1t will break up all that is breakable
in this Republic and upon the ruins cf the out
worn past we will rear, by His grace, the glo-
rious temples of Christ's kingdom come.
Had Miss Willard studied the tariff
question as thoroughly as she has the
prohibition question, or had she given to
the Southern question one-tenth of as
much attention as she has given to pro-
hibition she would Dever have been be-
trayed into making such reckless asser-
tons. Judging her by this extract, Miss
Willard is inferentially in favor of putting
prohibition before the consideration of
government or country. Thete are those
who were teetotalers and practical tenn
perance advocates when Miss Willard
was schoolgirl who believe that country
and government in the mind of patriot
must come first, and that any questions
of morals or religion or politics must take
secondary place
If DANCE threatened the Union as it did
in 1861, the men who would enter the
army. who would be ready to make sacri-
fees, would come from all ranks of life,
from all religious beliefs. from Prohibi-
| tionists, from moderate drinkers, from
drunkards, it may be, from freethinkers,
from Methodists, from Roman Catholics,
from every grade and rank and state ana
station in life, and no questions would be
asked. This threadbare reference to an
al hot tGoc 4
break of the war and the situation now
in reference to prohibition or any other
question is not only absurd, but It is un-
just. 1t is belittleing the idea of patriot
ism, and it is subordinating love of
country, which takes in all that can make
up the glory of the country, to one idea
on which people differ. The ministers of
the Methodist Church in 1861 did noble
work, but it SO happens that many of the
men who were the most earnest in their
patriotism al that time, and the most
ready to make sacrifices, do not agree
with Miss Willard in making prohibition
party question.
No party with single issue ever has
succeeded or even can succeed in this
country, because parties are the instru-
ments through which people govern, and
they are built up on ideas that make
combination and union possible. In this
country no man can be forced into
party. The party must invite the sup
port of the citizen or it does not get it.
That party governs which advocates prin-
ciples acceptable to the majority, and so
long as government in this country is a
matter of principle, and SO long as the
constitution and laws are subject to mod,
ification the question of party will be i'm
portant, because it is a question of gov
ernment. The question of reconstruction
some years ago, of fixing the status of the
freedmen. of building up American man
ufactures and protecting American labor,
the question of the dominance of a Ma
tional idea or Of State rights idea, the
fixing of the status of the laborer, the en-
conragement of public Improvements
looking to the development of the interior
regions of the country, the question of
building up commercial navy and of
the Improvement of the waterways, the
question of encouraging the settlement of
new districts through homestead and pre-.
emption laws are all party questions.
Men are interested in them because CT
their adoption or rejection depends the
character of the National Government.
The citizen is interested in the perma-
nency and prosperity of the Nation. If