Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-08-08
THE REPUBLICAN, PARTY GOOD
ENOUGH FOR THE REV. JOHN
HOGARTH LOZlER.

The writer of the following letter is
one of the leading and most influential
Methodist preachers in Iowa, He pos
sesses brilliant army record, and to his
untinng zeal and unremitting efforts is
Iowa largely indebted for the present pro,
hibitory law now in force in that state.
MT. VERNON, Iowa, July7, 1883.
Editor of the Iowa State Register.
"Why don't you join the third partye
l thought you were prohibitionistw ex.
exclaimed q Jealous young Methodist
brother to me the other day. Let me
answer my ardent young friend and
others like HIM. Like yourself, have
supposed I was prohibitionist I sus-
pect was one before you was born. No
saloon keeper where I have lived for the
last thirty years has doubted 1t. No
enemy of the saloon who lived in my
community ever questioned it. 1 have
run the whole gauntlet of stones. knives,
pistols. threatened hangings, drownings.
burnings, with the usual tar, feather and
rail accompaniments. For six years I
fought with the beasts of that modern
Ephesus where the martyr Haddock fell.
The Republicans of Iowa gave US proh,bi-
ton, and the saloonists and whisky men
all over the state repudiated that party
for giving us a chance to vote against the
saloons. The result was an Overwhelm-
ing majority for prohibition, followed by
the enactment of the best. and in the
main the best enforced, prohibitory law
on this planet, and today the Republican
party is the Prohibition party of Iowa.
Instead of the Prohibltionists of Iowa
now stultifying themselves by going
back on the party that has done so much
for our cause, we are hoping and beliey-
ing that the "s0ber second thought. of
our brethren in other states will lead
them to do as we have done. We did not
fight" the Republican party, as these
modern third party politicians are doing.
We pressed the claims of our homes and
our hearts upon the Republicans, and
fought only the saloons, so that when we
were able to command the attention of
the party. 1t had not been made our
enemy by our abuse and vllli6cation.
Not so these modern third party Evange-
lists. Their chief "organ," having a
copperhead editor of confederate pro-
clivities, spews out more venomous
screed against the Republican party than
it shows toward the saloons, the devil and
the democratic party altogether! That
which makes copperheads and traiters
hate the Republican party should and
will make loyal citizens good Republi
cans. Ponder we'll before casting vote
where it will surely strengthen and per-
petuate the power of the party that is the
ally of both the rebel and the saloon
keeper! Furthermore, I might as we'll
say here that when the third party nomi-
mated ex-rebel General Brooks for Vice.
President, It "reckoned without its host"
or rather it reckoned itself out of a
'hest" of votes that it otherwise might
have secured. Men may prate as they
like about *treviying old animesities, :"
and about forgiveness" and all that. I
can and will forgive any exrebel who re.
pents of his treason, but that does not
compel me to vote for him for an etfice
that no ex-traitor ought ever to fill.
Another thing: The Democratic party
are already laying plans and raising
money to help 'boom" the third party
ticket in all the doubtful states, This
suggestive fact has leaked out from their
highest councils. The saloons and whisky
rings will "come down" handsomely to
aid this boom, because if IT. is only big
enough, the Democratic party with Its
saloons and hoodlums will rule the coun-
try four years longer. When the devil
wants a thing bad, don't want it at ALL
Harrison and Morton are men whose
names and political, moral and religious
characters, and whose unpopularlty with
the saloons, all conspire to afford to
thoughtful men the surest guarantee of
the safety of the cause of temperance in
their hands. The Boutelle resolution
commits the Republican party to active
hostility to the saloon curse. The organs
of the whisky rings so interpret it, and
are rallying their cohorts against that
party. This is our day of great oppor-
tunity. Let the Prohibitionists of other
states be as wise in their generation as
the Prohibitionlsts in Iowa, and the rec
ord Of the Republican party of Iowa will
speedily become the record of that party
throughout the nation. But if the Third
Party shall defeat the Republicans, and
continue the dominion of Democracy, let
me say to the mad leaders of that move
ment, Think not with thyself that thou
shalt escape" Think not to make your
selves other than the laughing stock of
those triumphant hoodlums, Think not,
as some party wreckers so fondly hope,
that the Republican party will then fall
to pieces, and it's members will gravitate
naturally to those who are abusing them
like nicknOcketS Think mt that tho