Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-06-04

and DixJu's line tbst i toncles
even by implication in lock, sick or bar-
rel. There is not tie siighteey Jete1es c.
IN il 10 county PROHIBITION, precinct pro
hibitiop, scaool-law proai2lt!9t, or any
other form CT prohjti ion excep! such as
prevsils in Kansas and Maize. + would
not in the slightest degree oppose agits-
ton for such prohibition as preV,ils near
~ 81 over Georgia, much Of Kentucky.
Mississippi, Misso uri, Arksnsss SID, IN
fact, nearly every southern state.
The marked and twice.re repeated ex
preston, Estate prohibition" in thai
ninth plank, by its double and emphatic
specification, leaves every Democrat in
TEXAS as free IS the air to sgitate snd sd-
vocate any torn OF prohibition except
estate prohibition"
To illustrate: II s desler should write
to his agent, "Don'G send me Any more
white h3rses-there is no market for
them," would 1t nor, By 81 just couftruc-
ton Of lsw or language, Imply his reati
ness to receive red, bay, roam or cl4ybank
horses? Would 1t not mean that he oo
iected not to horses but to certain
specified color, or rather absence CT
colol? Such a conclusion becomes dou-
oily inevitable when you remember the
reslly authoritative and urreyoked twelfth
plank OF the Galveston Platform. Well,
Ibis is very far from the "heart Of oak"
plank.
2 But whist about that "hnslityp"
Does 1t not at least settle "sts;e ptohloi-
tioD forever"
"Not unless you wsut 20 put most ab-
surd End undemOeratc construction OF
the word. The term Everlasting" even
in the Bible, is sometimes applied to lin
tied duration, whenever the nature and
xistence Of the OBJECT so described is
necessarily limited.
In the case 10 question, "fnality" can
not extend beyond two years. After two
years another convention fresh from the
people passes the resolutions
The bones Of Jefferson would rattle in
their coffin il any one convention should
try TO bird the Democratic conscience
for all future time.
Hear HIM on such absurd & Alities:
"N1 society can make perpetual consti-
tution, or wen perpetual law" Letter
10 JSmes Madison, page LOG, Jeferson's
Works.
8 But il Is authoritative and binding
even for TWO years?
SGLLSl n.y. upOu ~ Lue Ill
dividuals who voted for it. Fiom the
simple fact that the Fort Worth conven.
tion had no more jurisdiction over the
question than the man in the moon.
They ad no authority to touch prohibit
ton In any form except in lis nsticnal
and federal relations. They might nsv .
lawfully and with proprieIy discussed
In the territories, or in the
District Of Columbia, or in relation to the |
army and navy, and interstate COM |
merce, and instructed their delegates to |
he nationsl convention Sc
cordingly. But state prohibi-
ton, never. From dictation 10
the national conventions OF politics3
parties core arning purely state police |
matters it is short and easy step to
national dictstion in the federal Congress i
to free and SOY reign states about their
own peculiar f.irs. In word, the de-
;isions Of a national political convention
lre paramount On all federal mettegs or
policies, but upon stste sfflirs the state
convention is the supreme authority.
The man who does not accept this as
rue states rights Democracy is already,
It heart, disciple of Alexander Hamilton
When the Dallas convention meets, its
ltterancas will be binding upon sll
Dem lcrats in Ttx4s for two I
ears, unless they do like some
mt prohibitionists last summer, snsp
heir fpgers a. the platform and de-
Iounce It.
But since they would resolve upon |
his question, what II your judgment
hould have been uttered2
1t is idle and immaterisl TO say now.
,et, If one, however insignificant, may
peak without treason, who has loved the
arty long and served it we'll in the ranks,
With no possible hope or desire for pro-
notion, would say this: I
At Fort Worth, absolute silence on
tate prohibition. l
At Dallas, no test OF fellowship on I
to pro or anti, who believed l
d Democracy, voted for Democracy and c
elped Democracy against all other c
Official parties whs:ever.
But Iesvipg out questions of con- 6
truction and authority, what in your !
i gment will be the practical effects OF :
lie Fort Worth platform? {
AS to this l hope l an mistaken, but .
~ Judgment is that 1t will hurt prohibit i
on in all it's forms far more than the heart :
,-oak plank could have done. Against :
lat plank the moral sense Of the people :
ould have revolted. Agsins. this ninth =
lsnk, which l have considered in its .
lost creditable form and according TO
lost charitable construction, there is ,
radically no defense. 1t confuses men. .
has no clesrness. Il Is Of doubtful
Il means everything or +,
othlng according TO the standpoint Of
oservation. So much for its theory. 7
ut in its practical bearing, tendencies q
nd result it surrenders the field to whisky
ON shore to shore, so far as Democracy v
concerned.
Because the men who voted for it are
lie great leaders in Democracy, they, at
sst, sre bound by it, they in all proba-
lity will constitute the Dallas coLven-
on, and ss 8 great part Of them are as
rants for office, having once tsk IN tire
it;sI eten-uE.ciIis descepsus ayerpi ~