The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-04
party Of false charges and unfulHlled pledges.
So far their administration Is one unbroken line
of broken pledges ISAAC H. PHAREs
FOWLER, Sept. 81.
what Ifq

To the Editor Of the indianapolis Journal:
What if Napoleon's reserve had reached Water
loo in time to turn the tide of battle and Well
ington had been defeated The whole map of
Europe might not have been reconstructed, but
the war would have been greatly protracted,
with results that can not be accurately coniec-
tured. What if the French feet had not entered
York river just as Washington marched upon
Yorktown from the north and CORVALLIS had
escaped instead of surrenderingl The American
colonies might not have been defeated. but the
war would have been prolonged indefinitely.
What If the good men of the period such as
owen Lovejoy, j. P. Hale, Salmon P. Chase,
George W. Julian, Ryland 7. Brown, James H.
Cravens, Sylvester johnson, aud a thousand
more like them, who had voted the third party
ticket for a decade or more because neither of
the old parties dared to antagonize slavery, had
said to the men who met in Philadelphia in 1856
to take steps to resist the extension of slavery,
that they had sympathy with them
but on the contrary, what if they had
denounced them as hypocrites, and
platform said nothing about the sin of slavery,
or about abolishing it, but referred only to that
lower and grosser phase, the mere political
Slavery might not have been perpetuated, but it
would have gone into Kansas, Mr. Lincoln would
not have been elected in 1860, and slavery would
not have been abolished two years later. Bat
they did not do this. On the contrary, they
abandoned their party organization at once, and
became conspicuous leaders, as they deserved to,
In the great movement against the slave power.
Lovejoy and Hale and Chase and Julian, and
johnson, accepted Office under the new combina-
ton. and served long and faithfully such.
while Brown and Cravens. and Levi Coffin, and
thousands more like them, did honorable service
in lifting the Mortons and the Colfaxes, and the
Henry S. Lanes, aAd the Col. Dick Thompsons,
and the Albert g. Porters. and David P. Hoo-
ways, and men of their kind, from that lower
and mere political plane to that of the absolute
and unconditional adjustment of slavery
And now, what if the good men who, not
without cause. have formed political party in
favor of prohibition, should initiate the good
men of thirty years ago, and not only abandon
their party organization but take the front rank,
as they deserve to, in the crusade now wagng
against the saloons of the State and Nation, SO
irrevocably iDaugurated by the Republican party
by declarations of hostility much more pro-
nounced than The declarations against slavery
were when the old Abolitionists abandoned their
party organization to help the Republicans of
that period9 If these good men would enter
upon this crusade with the zeal that character
lied the Lovejoys. and Julians, and Hales of
thirty years ago and waive. for the moment.
their own ideas of what IS demanded. they would
not only carry the State as against the saloon
but would soon educate the laggards I'D to
their plane and prohibition would as certainly
follow this movement abolition followed that.
Their hostility may not prevent the ultimate
prohibition of the liquor traffic. but it must de-
lay it indefinitely. The temperance cause now
needs nothing so much as the sympathy of able
men, into whose very souls the crime of the
traffic has pierced, but many OF these are spend
ing their strength in bitter denuncations and
cruel peltings of those who are struggling up
from the false education of the ages. Encour
aged by their example mere strippings are loud
III their censures of older men whose lives have
been devoted to the temperance work, and
young women, we'll as old, pronounce them
towards and hypocrites, because they do not
turn from their accustomed adherence of the
traffic TO abusing those who do not agree with
them. What if these men and women would
cease their earnings and hostilities and initiate
the good men of thirty years agol There would
follow a consolidation of strength that would as
certainly drive the traffic to it's den as the de-
struction Of slavery followed the wiser course of
the wiser men of that period. u. L. SEE.