Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-06-10
A Probibftionist speaks riis Mind.
To kbe EdifOr of fbe DisDdfch.

In the Dispatch OF Juno Sd there is
an article copied from the Washington
Post, in which find the following Ian
guage 1: "Tho Democratic party has
never given any encouragement to the
Prohibition brethren, but has been an
open, honest opponent" In the same
issue the editor OF the Dispatch, in an
editorial concerning the Prohibitionists,
asks the significant question: "Will the
st. Louis Convention or the Chicago
Convention make q deliverance upon
this question ?" His answer to the
above question is that "the former will
probably put forth a general condemna-
ton Of sumptuary laws. / wish to
call attention first to the quotation
taken from the article in the Post. The
writer of that article declares that the
Democratic party has always been an
open, honest opponent OF prohibition,
Now / ask when did the Democratic
party, as a party in convention assem-
bled, ever openly and honestly oppose
prohibition =? 1t has had something to
say in opposition to what they are
pleased TO call sumptuary laws" but
when. ask, did ever it put itself upon
record as being opposed to the great
movement moral issue involved in the
prohibition movement of the present
day? To do so would TO sound its own
death-knell. The editor Of the Dispatch
in the aforementioned editorial
says that the national Democratic party
now assembled in convention "will pro-
baby put forth general condemnation
of sumptuary laws" Mark the emphasis
in the above quotation wa proba-
big put forth general condemnation OF
Sumptuary lars" Would that be openly
and honestly opposing prohibition? No,
indeed, Mr. Editor, the Democratic par
ty, nor any other party, is going to dig
its own grave by putting itself upon re-
cord as being opposed to the Prohibition
party. There is too much policy and
good sense assembled in st. Louis just
now to be guilty of any such folly as
that. 1t would be death to the party
sure. do not think they will even put
plank in their platform expressing their
opposition to what they term "sumptu-
any laws" TO 60 even that far would
cause the party to loose some votes 1T
otherwise would get. | do not know
how the question stands in the North,
but l can safely claim that the great body
of the Democratic party in the South are
in favor OF the prohibition of the liquor
traffic through State and national consti-
tutional amendments. lnproof OF THIS L
call attention to the fact that in all the
local-option and prohibition contests the
opponents of the whiskey business have
drawn their votes from the Democratic
party, while the whiskey men have relied
mainly upon the Republican voters to
defeat the efforts OF the Prohibitionists.
Take, for instance, the local-option con-
test in Richmond two years ago which
OF the political parties furnished the
great bulk of the local option vote Did
not the Democratic furnish the votes,
while the larger number of the Repub-
lican party allied itself with the saloon
men, and thus defeated local option
there ? Was it not so in Lynchburg and
other places? Where did the votes that
carried Atlanta for prohibition two years
ago come from. if not from the ranks Of
the Democratic party? To whom are
all those sections OF our sunny South that
have been delivered from the curse OF the
aloonindebted if MOTTO Democratic votes?
1t is a well-known fact that nearly every
white minister of the Gospel in the
South, every editor of the religious press,
and nearly all the professors in the diff
ferent institutions of learning in the
South, belong to the Democratic party.
and vet nearly all of these are in favor of
prohibition in some form or other. Are
not Senators Colquitt, Reagan, and
others members of the Democratic
party q? and do they not give "encour-
agement to tho prohibition brethren ?
Take the negro problem from the poll
tics Of this country and the Prohibition
lists would, like a cyclone, sweep every
State from Maryland to the Gulf and
from Missouri to the Rio Grande. If,
as certain writers claim, the Democratic
party of this country is allied to the sa-
looms. the Socialists, and the Anarchists
of the land, then it were time that the
respectable part OF the party were
leaving for some other fold. AS Demo-
crat am opposed to this talk about the
Democratic party opposing the great
moral reforms of the day. ID.
SMrHF1ELD, VA, June 6,1S88.