Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-08-25
AN EARNEST APPEAL.
To the Women of the United State.

AN 6AhN69I AfF1AA
To the Women of the United States-
THE first concern of all good government
is the virtue and sobriety of the people and
the purity of the home The Republican
party cordially sympathizes with all wise and
well directed efforts for the promotion of
temperance and morality"
REPUBLICAN PLATFORM, 1888.
Responding heartily 10 these noble senti-
ments. and to other enunciations of political
truth concerning social, economic, and moral
questions contained in the comprehensive
declarations of the
NATIONAL REPu BLIcAS PLATFORM,
adopted by the recent convention at Chicago,
We send greeting to the women of the United
States and ask them to make utterance of
their devotion to home and country by giving
active support TO the Republican party in the
pending campaign. We who send you this
call, do not claim pre-eminent devotion TO
home and country. We know that every
whore in our land are patriotic women; they
love the flag; they waved if in holiday splen-
dor under the blue sky of national prospeTi-
ty; they revered it when its brightness was
dimmed by the smoke of war. 1t is precious
as the blood of kindred, sacred as the shroud
of beloved dead To all who believe that the
flag is worth all it costs-to all loyal women
this address comes.
The Republican party is not sectional
it is national party. In its counsels are
wounded veterans of the Union army, and
soldiers of the late Confederacy, and en-
franchised slaves; the party knows no east,
no west, no north, no south. Eastern cul-
har rod a
Conservative -radicalism as contiguous and
continuous as is the Continental railway sys-
TEN which the Republican policy of internal
improvements made possible.
Across the Bloody Chasm'-a part of our
heroic past-are the clasped hands of grow
ing industries, sensitive and responsive with
nerves of trade, steam and smoke and fame
from furnace factory and mill are the cloud
by day and the fire by night, renewedly at
testing Republican principles, and guiding
the country out from the wilderness of sec
tionalism into the promised land of perfect
ly restored nationalism.
In the ranks of the Republican party are
found many citizens of foreign birth.
In America they are Americans; they do
not forget the mother country nor the father
land, but here they are loyal to the stars and
stripes their loyalty was tested even to the
shedding of blood in war; with whatever
makes for good citizenship they are welcome
in the party their rights under the flag com
mand respect.
The achievements of this great party have
made luminous this country's history. Under
Gods blessing it rescued the imperilled
| nation, saved the Government our fathers
gave US, and maintained the institutions
which assure to American women the exal-
ted position they now enjoy. The Republi-
can party has always been the party of pro-
| lection; protection to the citizen, protection
to the negro, protection TO the ballot box,
protection to the wage-earner, protection to
the wage payer, and now in line with past
professions and performances it declares for
protection for the home" Can American
women fail to respond!
This party is not squad of unskilled
unframed recruits, reckless to attempt, and
helpless to secure political defence; it is not
troop of detached soldiery out on picket
duty; it is
THE REGULAR ARMY OF AMERICAN PRoG-
it was raised from the firesides of the people ;
It's ranks are kept full by the farm, the shop,
the school, the mill; it is sworn to
champion at the command of the sovereign
people-"W Whatsoever things are pure, what
soever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report, in Government
American women, this is the party to whose
service we call you. What position will
you take and hold during the month of the
coming campaign? Do you realize the moral
side, the heart-sid of the economic ques
tons which are being discussed in the cam
paign? Do you remember that when labor
is degraded, woman is degraded. The shop
girl, the factory operative, the sewing wom-
an, indeed every working woman whether
she toll in home, or shop or school, is inter-
ested in the maintenance of American stan
dard of values in labor, and its return to the
home. In November next, twelve million
of voters will go to the polls and determine
who shall receive the highest honor in the
gift of the American people. Is this any
thing to you? Does it make any difference to
you who this man is, and for what set of
principles he stands?
Would not the choice of >
BENJAMIN HARRISON AND LEVI p. MORTON,
as chief executives of this great nation. tend
to establish a popular standard of private
morals and public service which any mother
might present to the ASPIRATION of her son?
Do not their lives illustrate that purity in
personal character is consOnant with the
highest worldly success? That the dealings
in the heart of trade, the court of justice,
the legislative chamber, or the camp of war
need never cause a blush in the home? Is it
not vital to the Nations life that these truths
be emphasized in characters of the peoples
chief representatives.
Young women of the land have you no
debt to pay to that established order of
OBJ ,,xv,li
Do you realize that Republican Institutions
are the material organism through which
this spirit of civilization breathes? Will
you not in thankful appreciation of the in
heritance into which you have entered pledge
humble fealty to the Republican party,
whose standard bearer wears the white flow
er of a blameless life? Beyond the imme-
date demands of the present campaign lies
the broad field of political ethics women
are equally concerned with men in the seed
town and the harvest gathered there.
KEEPERS OF THE NATIoN's HOMES,
educators of the Nations children, sharers
in its industries, and guardians of its shrines,
will you not also give your best brain and
heart to a study of the principles of gov
eminent and their application in practical
politics? This giving shall not impoverish.
and homes of American women.
The State is not less divine institution
than is the family where your throne is the
church where you and your children worship
God and study His laws. Under our system
of Government the State is that great temple
which the people are forever building and
rebuilding. If they build well the structure
shall endure and safely protect our sacred
interests from vandals without and from trait
ors within. If they build recklessly or
wickedly, the structure shattered and des-
troyed will fall about our heads. and we, de-
fenceless, shall vainly seek the foundations
where our homes were, where our affairs
stood.
Let US, therefore. in this, as in every rela-
ton of life, do what we can. Enlarged op-
portunities impose commensurate obligations.
The united influence of Republican women
will conserve moral power in society, utilize
dormant political forces for the public good,
and aid in
THE dominance OF REPUBLIcAS Panel
We ,harafora offey for vour conSidara