Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-07-16
Is National Prohibition Practicable?

essary, an amendment to the consti-
tuition to give to the general govern
ment the control of liquor selling in
the several states of the Union.
If this theory is correct it ought to
be adopted and carried out by the re-
publican party; but if it is incorrect,
it ought to be abandoned by the pro-
hibition party. If it is false and
seductive theory, its falsity ought to
be exposed; but if true it should be
conscientiously supported. AT pres
ent each state has exclusive and SUI
preme control within its own terrific
ry, and no constitutional power can
interfere. This supreme control is
secured by amendment 10 of the con-
stitution, that the powers not delegat-
ed to the United States
are reserved to the states respective
ly, OF to the people" 1t is utterly
Impossible to make prohibition ma
tional without amending the consti-
tution. The republican party has
been severely criticised because no
national convention has ever adopted
plank making temperance nation =
al issue. Those critics who did not
know that the constitution took away
all that power from the government,
did it through ignorance, and those
who did know it did it through dis
honesty but whether it was the re-
suit of ignorance or dishonesty, it
was rank injustice to blame the par
ty for not doing what the constitution
made it impossible to do. Should
the constitution, then, be changed? !?
This question is broader than the pro-
hibition party has ever dreamed, and
involves the cornerstone of the gov
ernment itself and the one great re-
suit of the war of the Revolution.
The cause of the Revolution was
the constant interference of the Brit
ish government with the private, per-
sonal and municipal rights of the peo-
pie of the colonies, and all the twen-
ty-seven indictments against George
Ill. in the Declaration of Independ-
ence are for this injustice alone. The
principle achieved by the Revolution
airy War may be summed up in few
words: "No interference by the gen.
eral government with the personal,
municipal and social rights of the
people of the several states,' and
this principal was wrought into every
thread and fibre of the new govern
ment. The republic could have no
stability unless the powers of the
general government and the powers
of state were defined and separated
by line so sharp that a clashing of
authorities would be impossible.
In this division of power the state
has been so fully vested with the ex-
elusive care of municipal affairs that
the legislative, judicial and executive
powers of the government combined
can not constitutionally interfere in
a Massachusetts, town meeting in the
functions of one of its officers, or in
the abridgement or enforcement of a
single municipal law. Annihilate the
line of separation and you annihilate
the republic.
John c. Calhoun taught the doc
trine of notification, that is, that a
state could nullify and make void an
act of congress. This blossomed into
the doctrine of state rights, or that
states had a right to break up the
Union by secession, and it bore fruit
ON the bloody battlefelds of the Re-
bellion, and almost cost the nation
It's life, 1t was no more dangerous
for the states to encroach upon the
general government than it would be
for the general government to inter-
fere with the municipal rights of
states. Transfer one municipal right
from the state to the nation and you
sweep away the line, create confusion
and clashing of authorities, and sur
render the only principle settled by
the Revolutionary war. If the gen
eral government may interfere in the
matter of liquor selling
then it may do so in the assaults
that follow, and in the murders that
result, and in other assaults and in
other murders and in other crimes,
until the municipal rights of the peo-
pie are as hopelessly in the hands of
ihe general governments the munic-
pal rights of the colonists were in
,he iron hands of George III.
mdIH6 Cdu UOG uUQeTStdDQ lu6 Llu-
nicipal needs of the towns of Texas,
lor Oregon those of Florida, and the
general government can know as lit
lie of the municipal affairs in distant
states as George LII. knew of those
IF the colonists.
1t is not simply an amendment to
'he constitution that the prohibition
party asks, but surrender of the
foundation stone of the republic,
which guarantees to every state ex-
elusive jurisdiction over its own local
md municipal affairs, and protects
'hem from interference by outside
parties, whether state, national or
king.
But if such ain amendment were de-
'irable, it will not be contented that
of both houses of congress
ire prohibitionists or would vote to
submit prohibitory amendment.
The only other way to submit such
IN amendment is by getting vote I