The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1888-02-05
The Cause al, Coke.

dinercnt points inIexss there is among
the previous political adherents Of
Senator Coke some e,disaffccti That
such dIsatieCtion is widespread aud a
deep seated as the exchanges received
at this Office now Indicate, had by not
at fret been supposed. If the press
ofTcXas voices the sentiment OF Texas,
or hat Of any considerable portion Of
Texas, then the political horizon of
senator Coke Is not Gear of clouds
and those of thro atening nature.
From every part Of the stste there arc
muttcrings of a coming storm.
The cau.e, or Al at the occasion Of
this mutiuy, is the silence of Sen
e'or Coke during the discussion of
tue prohibition question last year
when raised as tate issue In he
local option coute-t here in MClcnnan
county, Senator Coke had made the
issue "A party iight. CO.. Mills came
over from Navarro to make solid
front with him against q common foe,
and Gcn. Ross attacked prohibition
a. undcmOcrntic at LOreuH. 10 this
li2ht Senator Coke was the Telamo-
nian Ajax. He declared that prohibi-
ion was the most insidiOus and dal
gerous question ever sprung in the
state; thnt 1T would soon be a national
Issue; and that 1t must now and
hcref, ter be met fairly and square
ly by the democracy. la the local
option election prohibition was there
fore overwhelmingly defeated. For
81 me expressions used in the heat
of the canvass the clerical elC-
ment of the defeated prohibilionists
were especially incensed at Senator
Coke.
In the fullness of time and
in response to petitions that had been
accumulating in Austin for years, the
legislature at last ordered an election
to determine the sense OF the people
upon the question of state prohibi-
ton. The cohorts & thered. Carroll
mustered in the solid phalanXes of
prohibition. Clark sent the henct-
man around with the blaziug cross Of
lire. Mills again rallied the clans.
Ross numbered from the stump.
Where, where was EoIcrcb then
one blast upon his bugle horn
Wcrc.worth thousand men
Senator Coke had been insidiously
attacked al Galveston by means of
the twelfth plank. That plank had
been slyly inserted by the prohibition
element, and lad been allowed to
stand, partly from the idea that local
option cCuId not be rained to mean
state prohibition, and partly as u
political sop to tle prohibition Ger
berus. 1t was not Senator Coke'S
ii ght at Galveston; he wOs, theref ore
not present, aud he certainly did not
expect to be wounded in tie house of
his friends. Senator Coke considered
that the twelfth plank was a gag for
him, and according ly he remained
silcAt during the prohibition cam
pagn last year In this we consider
| that the Senator made q mistake; but
there is no reason why it should be a
fatal one. Coke has served Texas
faithfully and long. His record has
been one singularly full of patriotism
anu singulary free from error. One
misstep should not ruin a political
life, any more than one swallow
should make a summer. The prohibl-
ito nists, especisly the clergy, have
forgiven the Senslor for his ponder
Gus blows in the Local option cam
paigp the -prohlbitioni-t shorld
d.sEly equal generosity in net for
getting his ,tsl8art services in TIE
same fight. L,tus vi, therefore, as
democrats, strike bands ard unite
efforts to plant the unanimous Sen
ator more lirn y than ever in the seat
which his l.a1ning and ability have
SO long grlced
------------------------
a A.