Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-09-03
The Prohibition County
Convention.

~ convention ol Deei oOH LdHul0S las
Tuesday. The business meeting wa
held in the afternoon, while speeche
were made by Mr.. Pearl of St. Johns
bury, Mr.. Penniman the ssorganizer,
Rev. Mr.. Mathews and others. Th
meeting was attended by possibl
twenty-five prohibition voters, larg
share of the active w. C.. L. e. fore
es. republicans and others, numbering
all told, possibly 100 persons. Rev
/. p. Chase presided. Committee
were appointed to canvass the au
dience and get names of such al
sympathized with the movement alst
to present nominations for a count,
ticket (see ticket under head Of
nominations In selecting towr
committees it turned out that there
were no prohibitionists present from
the towns of Greensboro, Holland.
Newport, Jay, Lowell, Morgan, Troy,
Westfeld, Westmore and Charleston.
Mr.. Pearl Of ST. Johnsbury was
present and gave his reasons for
leaving the republican party. He
had been hoping to see the repub-
licans take stringent grounds for
temperance in its party platforms,
and being disappointed had given
his adherence to the new party,
which he thought would grow large
enough ere long to grapple with the
saloon power. He stated that the
democratic party would not break
with the saloon and that the repub-
lican party could not. Considerable
time was taken to show that false
statements had been made against
the prohibition nominee for vice
president, Mr.. Brooks. Mr.. Pearl
showed, as did Mr.. Penniman, that
Mr.. Brooks was not a rebel soldier,
and also, that if he had been one
republicans should have no COM
plants to make, inasmuch as many
who had once been in the rebellion
were now in the republican ranks.
Mr.. Pearl seemed at one point to be
boasting of the fact that he was
called "crank,' while later he did
not like the application of scalewag
and fool which some applied to him.
Mr.. Pearl INDUCED quite largely in
anecdotes, and his remarks were
very we'll received.
Mr.. Penniman is pleasant and
fluent speaker; but he is frothy, ex-
travagant and boastful. Among his
statements we give few to show
his purpose, etc. He very deliber
ately said: 81 believe it would be a
great calamity to this nation to have
the republican party succeed at the
coming November election" 81 be-
lieve the democratic party is an anti
prohibition party. No democrat de-
MES it, eff the democrats succeed
next time the influence of the saloon
will be so powerful in that party as
to disgust all good men everywhere,
when they will come out of the old
parties and join the third party"
81 challenge the republican party to
show single instance where it has
declared itself prohibition party"
s'Liquor dealers are protected and
liquor drinking is on the increase"
81 believe the prohibition party will
elect a president in 1892 etc.
A long exhortation was given, and
prohibitionists were besought not to
vote for Mr.. Dillingham;, notwith-
standing all his good qualities. Mr..
Penniman produced a certificate"
on whibh were the portraits of
Fisk and Brooks with sundry pic
lures, showing the process by which
the old parties were to be crushed
to powder, while the new party
should win triumphant. The price
of the certificates was fifty cents.
Those who were present as prohi-
bitionists are earnest, conscientious
citizens, and we doubt not believe
the course they have espoused good
one, and the methods proposed wise
ones. They will bear with us if we
remind them that there was not a
single word uttered in regard to the
great work of moral reform, not a
suggestion that we are living in Yer
mont under as good a prohibition
law as can be made; no reference to
the grand work which the republican
party in this state has done and is
doing for prohibition and prohibition
laws ; no reference to the fact that
the party they hope to see defeated
is working against two enemies, the
democrats and the prohibitionists, in
trying in New York, New Jersey
and elsewhere to place on the statute
books of those states a temperance
law just as restrictive as it is
possible to enforce. In short, it may
be said that the whole tenor of the
remarks was to show that both of
the old parties were hopelessly cor
rupt, and that there is nothing what
ever to expect from them or from
the great temperance element that is
laboring, in one of them at least, to
stem the tide of intemperance.
These good people, whose heads,
turned by the third party idea, filled
with the thought that the rum evil
is great, and Jealous in the desire to
do good, have taken in so small
part of the great question that they
push forward mostly by courses and
methods that are futile and which,