Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-08-09

An open Letter TO DIR. John A. Brooks, Prohibition
Candidate for Vice President.


Facts for Third Party Men.
An open Letter to DIR. John A. Brooks, Prohibition
Candidate for Vice President.
Chicago Inter Ocean.
The Rev. ID. Il. Lucas, of this city,
prominent clergyman of the Christian
denomination, and one of the foremost
temperance workers of the State, has
addressed to Dir. John A. Brooks the
following open letter concerning the
attitude of the third party men in the
pending campaign. MIR. Lucas Is fully
warranted in speaking for Iowa temper
ance men, for he had done more TO
promote practical temperance legisla-
tion than any score of men who are
now engineering the third party move
ment:
Dies MONIES, July21.-Dr. John a.
Brooks: There appears in some of
your reported speeches some things
that appear to me to be unfair to those
Prohibitionists who do not look at this
question as you do. You have much
to say of conscious votes and "men
of conscience" and such phrases in
which you assert that the Prohibitionists
who do not agree with your wild goose
third party movement are not acting
according to their conscious convictions.
As you and | are coworkers in the same
church and acting together religiously,
it is query to me when you became
the keeper of the c0nsciences of your
brethren. You do yourself gross in
justice as well as others when you
assume any such position, for certainly
where there are five Prohibitiouists who
will not vote your ticket for every one
that will, it comes with poor grace for
one to charge the five for acting hypo-
critically in their decision. Now | have
as you well know, been Prohibitionist
all my life, and it is not saying any
thing in an egotistic sense if | say /
| have done as much for the cause of
prohibition as you have. You have
been in Missouri for many years where
the Democrat party has been in large
majority, and you have been a member
of that party, and what have you done
in that party or with your third party
to obtain prohibition? Absolutely
nothing have been in Iowa and a
member of the Republican party, and
worked in that line, and with what
result! g nave
ONE OF THE BEST PRoHIBIToRY LAWS
in Iowa that has ever been made and it
is as well enforced as any other law.
have followed no ignis fatuus of third
party practicability You have. Now,
what is the result? My state is pro-
hibtory; yours is not and yet, forsooth,
because | cannot conscientiously follow
your method that has proved failure,
and abandon my own that has proved
| a success, | am to be accounted as
lacking a conscience. Did you ever
think, my brother, that 1t is possible
YOU are mistaken, and that the beam
may be in thine own eye?
Again, we have $50, 600 Prohibit
tionists in Iowa. OF that number 49,
600 will vote for the Republican ticket
and 1000 for your third party ticket.
allow me to suggest that it is possible
that the I49 may be as wise and honest
as the one. 1t is true one may be
wiser than 149, but it is not very good
taste nor very good morals for the one
to say that he is the only honest one.
And what is true of the State of Iowa
is true the country over As | said
before, you cannot hope to poll more
| than one-fifth Of the actual vote for
your ticket. and is it not possible that
the four who refuse to vote it may be
as wise and conscientious as the one
who does? When you say they are not
you are violating one of the cardinal
principles of the religion we both
profess to Judge not thy brother
While am at this matter there are q
few other things to which wish to call
your attention. The only states in
whoch prohibition is maintained to-day
are Republican states, and yet you
make your fight against the Republican
party, and your leaders say that you
have no hope of electing your ticket,
but YOU wish to defeat the Republican
party so that the prohibition party may
take place in 1892. Very well look at
the result. You
BREAK DOWN PROHIBITION
when it is already established for you
concede that the Democratic party is
opposed to the principle. You make
enemies of all men in the Republican
party by your fight against them. and
what is the result; you keep free
whisky Democratic party in power for
/ generation at least.
But you begin to compare yourself
to the Abolition party, but you have
studied history to little advantage if
you can see anything in that. Ii the
Abolition party had continued on its
radical ground what would have been
the result? Slavery would have been
National to-day for if Abraham
Lincoln had taken bis stand on a plat
form of absolute abolition he would
have been defeated and slavery would
| have been more firmly entrenched than
ever. So, the good sense of the people
said we viii prohibit slavery in the
| Territories where we have jurisdiction
and leave the matter to the states, and
on this principle they won. So if Mr.
1 Harrison had stepped on radical pro-
hibition platform at Chicago he would
have been defeated and whisky en-
trenched for generation. But as he
is on the common ground in favor Of
local government on tie matter by the
states while adopting the general
principle of temperance in all ways, or
rather on anti-saloon ground, he viii be
| elected and the great temperance
reform will move on. Why cannot
YOU be as wise as the old Abolitionists
who supported Fremont and Lincoln
on less radical platform than they
deemed exactly right. You may
TALK OF CONSCIENCE
and all that, but conscience without
common sense is only fanaticism in q