The freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1886-18??, 1888-08-22
HAIL TO THE CHIEF.
GEN. CLINTON B. FISK ACCEPTS THE
LEADERSHIP OF OUR PARTY.

4 Document Worthy of the Soldier-States-
n1an-Reform the State-The First Con-
Germ of Good Government-Prohibi
by the Prohibition Party-Labor's Ally.
Hon. John P. st. John, Chairman:
MY DEAR SIR-With grateful sense
of the honor conferred upon me by the
Prohibition party, at it's late national con-
Xentien, and with equal appreciation of
the responsibilities involved therein,
accept the nomination which I did not
seek and which l earnestly desired should
pass me by, and with Gods help will bear
our standard of Prohibition as best can
through this presidential campaign. And
thus formally responding to the formal
notification received at your hands, it is
st. and proper that l add some further
Words
Within few years the temperance re-
form has altogether changed front. - In
the great conflict which has been, and is
yet waging, temperance forces no longer
face human appetite and habit alone; they
oppose legislation, law, the purpose of
political parties, the policy of state and
nation. What law creates, law alone
ca1 kill The creature of law, the
Saloon, the liquor traffic, can die only at
Jaw uduu VI ulS llduQ VI law cASCQGOT.
Conceived in avaricious iniquity, born OF
sinful legislative wedlock, the licensed
saloon the legalized liquor traffic bastard
child of a civilization protesting purity
and virtue, must be strangled by the civ
ilization which begot it, or that civiliza-
ton must go forever branded with the
scarlet letter of its shame.
It is not enough that we reform the in
diridual; we must reform the state. The
policy of great commonwealth, of
whole people, must be remade, and put
in harmony with sound economic princi-
pies, the true cooperation of industrial
effort, the essential conditions of national
prosperity and genuine brotherhood of
man.
So broad demand as this can be met
in but one way. 1t has been well said:
"a political reform can become fact in
government only through q political party
that administers government" A reform
SO vast as this we advocate, involving
such radical changes in state and national
policy, is utterly dependent for it's agita-
ton and consummation upon some party
agent or force. To give it success, to
make it indeed and indisputably fact,
that party force or agent must be in full
accord with the REFORM and must have
ment apart from those clements and in
fuences alien to the reform. No party
which is made public administrator by
the enemies of temperance, or which
owes the election of its candidates to
saloon influences, can ever establish pro-
hilton as binding fact in government
anywhere.
The national Democratic party in its
platform utterS no word in condemnation
of the greatest foe to the republic,
the liquor traffic. That party having
steadfastly, in its utterances at ma
tional conventions, maintained it's allie
glance to the American saloon, it was no
disappointment to any one that at st.
Louis, in 1888, it reaffirlned it's old posi-
ton on this, the greatest question now
being debated among men.
1t was with great reluctance that l &C
copied these conclusions and came to ad
NIT the imperative need of q new party,
while yet the party of my old choice, the
national Republican party, maintained its
organization. had followed with pride
and patriotic love that party's flag, while
above it foated the starry banner for
which so many brave patriots fell. had
seen that party establish as fact in gov
eminent one political reform dear to me
from bOyhood, a boon to millions in bond
age and glory to us all. A long long
time l waited against conviction and the
logic of political event, hoping that my
old party would take up this old reform
with changed front and new conditions,
and make it also the fact so many mil
lions craved and for which they pleaded
before men and God. 1t cost me the sac
ritice of cherished associations, when four
years ago | enrolled myself in the ranks
of party Prohibitionists, under the flag of
Prohibition, bleached snowy white by the
tears of smitten women and children
through generations of sorrow and want.
have seen no hour of regret. Every
day since then has shown yet more clearly
the logic of my course and the inevitable
truth of my conclusions. In Michigan, in
Texas, in Tennessee and Oregon, so called
non-partisan efforts to establish Prohibi-
ton have failed, through partisan neces-
sity, born of liquor elements in old party
composition. In Iowa, Rhode Island and
Maine, the laws have been shamelessly
defied for like reason. The entire trend
of things, these last four years, has
proved hopeless the broader range of pro-
hibition effect through non partisan
means, and equally futile, as a final CON
summation, the narrower methods of local
option and high license; while from the
supreme court itself has come, with
startling emphasis, declaration so ma
tionalizing this reform that it can never
be made of local or state limitation again