Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-08-02


power, holding the reins Of the National
Government. If slavery and treason and
rebellion will not kill party, what have
you, gentlemen, that Is more effeotual?
Applause.
Bat you say the Republican Party is
doomed, also. The Grand Old Party
must go It ma. done gloTioqs things;
its record Is without faint of treasou it
saved the country;it broke forever The
bonds of the slave; it restored the Union;
it brought back peace and prosperity 60
our distracted nation; il is the party Of
Lincoln and Sumner and Grant and Gar
field. Apolause. Do you think that il
Tickednsss could rot kill the Democratic
Party, virtue will mako the Republican
Party an easy preys Applause
Row TIE OLD PARTIES WILL PROTECT THEM
SELVES.
You expect to succeed Oy detaching
the better elem aut from these old parties
and attaching it to your own. You must
wreck and rob these old parties, so to
speak, ID order to equip yorr own. You
go TO the Democratic Party ia the South
and say: Your Snip il a rascally old hulk;
oursis new, albeit very tiny craft.
Go TO; we will batter your man-of-war to
pieces, and then we will take of the pieces
and make our own vessel strong and On
during. You assume that it will never
occur % the veterans who man the old
ship to protect themselves from the at
tacks of your little canoe. II does not
seem to occur to You that the Republican
Party in the North may be wise enough
and strong enough to circumyent your
r,in nd OF awly1 A,.4a
not seem to occur to you that both of
these old parties must be credited at
least with the instinct of self-preserva-
ton. And is it not perfectly plain that,
possessing this instinct. which belongs to
everything that has life, both the old
parties will know how to protect them.
selves when the danger becomes mani
festY Let me illustrate. We will take
the State of New York. Here the two
ole parties are nearly evenly divided, and
il requires no very large change of votes
to give the victory to either party. In
the Republican Party there is a very
large temperance element, which is grow.
ing more and more pronounced every
year and more stenuous in its demands
for proper temp erance legislation. Let
us suppose that the Republican Party
chooses to ignore or resist these demands.
Your party would probably grow, gentle
men; and the growth of your party
would be at the expense of the Republi
can Party, and that party would find, by
and by, that its campaigns were well nigh
hopeless, and it would see that it was the
temperance detection that was crlppling
it.
The liquor interests being safely hous-
cd in the Democratic Party II would under
stand that its return to power could only
be effected by taking strong temperance
ground. When it did that, rs it surely
would, whore would your party beY Gone
like a Whit of smoke in clear Novem
Der air. Applause. SO it will be in
other States. The pressure of the tenn
perance element from within the Republi-
can Party in the North and from within the
Democratic Party in the South is a resist
less pressure, and instead of coming to
you, "a you imagine this element will Sc
cure what it wants where it as. How can
you reasonably expect that it will be 9th
erwiseY The Temperance movement was
not born with your organization. There
was Prohibition in force before you
named yodr first presidential candidate
and all the recent magnificent advance in
temperance legislation was not only due
to your influence it was, in some cases
despite your influence. What reasonable
pros pect have You that you will come into
political power by fighting and destroying
the old partIesH Not the slightest. APP
plause.
THE ABOLITION Party NOT A PRECEDENT.
But you say you have strong hope
grounded in the history of political anti
slavery; and hat az slavery was abolished
by a special party, growing out of the
little Liberty Party of 1910 to the mighty
Republican Party of 1860, so Prohibition
will triumph by your party. Bot unfor-
tunately for you, the analogy breaks down
at the critical points. Neither OF the two
political parties of those days was willing
TO do anything 10 oppose or restrict
slavery. In no State did either the Wing
or the Democratic Party make any at
tempt TO abolish slavery. The relation
OF the old parties to Prohibition is as
different as possible. There is hardly
State, North or South, in which the one
or the other of the old parties has not
adopted restrictive or prohibitory legls
lation. They are giving us such legisla
ton constantly. What the old anti-slav
cry heroes wanted was restriction or
abolition, not party triumph. You are
not satisfied to get Prohibition; you want
your partisan organization and the
triumph of your party.
raF PROHIBITION PARTY DIVIDES AND ANTAG-
oSIzEs rHE FRIENDS OF TEMPERANCE.
la the second place, you make your
own success impossible by dividing aud
autagonizipg the friends of Temperau ce.
II Ia Just as bad generslship in politics
as in war 70 divide and distract your own
forces. Your movement creates three
distinct camps, while there is only one of
the enemy. There are Republican Prohi-
bitionists, democratic ProhibitioDists aid
Prohibition Prohibitionlsts. And, gentle
men OF these three divisions of Prohibi
tionIsts, yours Is the smallest, most aecid
eddy. This is easily demonstrated. In Mas
sachusetts the total vote in cities and
towns against license was, in 1886, about
100000. The Third Party vote for Gov
ernor thes year was only 1921. The
vote for Prohibition in Michigan last
,.acr ,-.,s 1 ~ 600 IA x,,ta Tor IN, Third