Wichita eagle., 1890-02-19

herewith win provide you with the de-
tailed report, as well as that of the open
ing gun Of our campaign, the great mass
meeting on January 60, at which 2, 200
people filled every inch of standing room
and over 700 could not gain admittance.
4 This local league is the starter" and
now town and county leagues will fol-
low rapidly and as soon as practicable
state league. The kilograms OF
support from other towns read
at the mass meeting were signed by the
best and most influential temperance cit
izens, including clergymen, though as
before said most of the latter are on the
side of oppression and bigotry.
We intend to hold meetings in every
school district in Vermont from now
until September, and to put the issue
fairly, candidly and temperately before
the people, putting principle and the
fair fame of Vermont above party and
political hucksters and tricksters, be-
lieving that in so doing we shall in truth
confer the greatest blessing upon the
party.
In state where this iniquitous sys-
tenn of prohibition has become deep
rooted by an existence of thirty-eight
| years with never an occasion to enter a
contest for its further life; where the
present and the younger generation
| know no other law, where very few peo-
pie have any even fairly definite con-
ception of wnat high license and local
option mean: where exist religious intol-
erance, mossback prejudlces and dis
position to cling tenaciously TO estab-
| lished customs and policies of long
standing: where the Republican party is
so much in the majority that thousands
| of Democrats don't take the trouble to
vote; where live many today who would
like to enforce the old ''blue laws not
yet removed from the statute books;
where clergymen seriously declaim
against the proclamation of Memorial
Day by small boys playing base bali;
and, finally, where the moral sentiment
and tone of the whole community has
been lowered and the very manhood and
| independence of our young men have
been undermined and sapped by the
thirty-eight years of morally degrading
| influence of prohibition. In such state
there are obstacles to be overcome by
! those brave and fearless men who would
! free the grand old Green Mountain state
! from the Infamous fetters of fanaticism
| that have held her body, her mind, her
soul, her resources, her liberty, in a bond
age that during its nearly forty years
duration has become the most tyrannl-
cal, the most oppressive and the most
foul that the civilized world can show
upon the darkest page OF the last fifty
years.
Nevertheless. Vermont is waking up.
Her morality is as sound as the marble
and granite in her enduring hills, if only
the virgin deposit can be reached
through the superficial covering of blind
fanaticism. The manhood, the intelli-
gence, the cleverness, the love of liberty,
the spirit or independence and the en-
ergy and enterprise of the sturdy men Of
Vermont are second to none OF those Of
any state in the union; but they have
been repressed, cramped and terrorized
by the monster of fanaticism, and have
lain dormant waiting for the bugle call
of great reform, and now the first gray
streaks Of dawn are seen that fOretell the
coming of a new day of moral and ma
terial progress, the sun of which shall
never set while the welfare and the
honor of Vermont are dear to her people.
l shall have clippings from past
issues of the Herald sent you, as
possibly they may aid you in some way;
and we shall be glad TO open an ex-
change with any newspapers in your
state that may be interested In watching
the course of our movements in Yer
mont.
Personally, shall be very glad in any
way in my power to aid you, and l am
sorry that an extreme pressure upon my
time renders it impossible now to write
fhnrnhtf,1I nd
statement than this letter penned in the
greatest haste. For years | have been
deeply interested in this great cause. [
have been through the fight once in
Massachusetts, where l was born and
Hampshire, | have studied the
workings of prohibition on the ground
in Maine and in Rhode Island; and l am
so intensely enthusiastic in my advocacy
of high license and local option and so
determined III my opposition to prohibl-
ton that I will fight it with all my
ability and strength while they last, un-
less | shall be convinced that | am in er-
ror. in which case l will contend as vigor-
ously on the other side. | am in the
fight, and so are all our friends, not in
the interest of the liquor traffic, not be-
cause we WdUt W I'll Ilh anu
more free, but lighting for a principle,
contersiing for justice, freedom and
right, earnestly desiring to promote tenn
perance. to make rum less free than it is
here now, to drive out three-quarters of
the sellers, to place the traffic
in the hands of responsible and reputable
men and under stringent regulation, re-
striction and control. to raise the moral
tone of the community and TO advance
the moral and material progress of Yer
mont.
Oh, if the good people of your fair
state were only where we could tell them
what we know of prohibition after IS
years of trial with every condition in its
favor, believe they would rise like one
man and forever throw off its unholy
yoke.
Heaven grant that they may see the
right through the clear vision of reason,
tolerance and honesty, and that your
great state. hand III hand with Vermont,
may turn her face toward the morning,
and with firm step emerge from the
darkness of intolerance, injustice, op-
preston and fanaticism into the eternal
sunlight OF freedom, temperance, public
morality and good government.
With the heartiest good wishes, l am
Yours very truly,
IL. /. DILLENBACK,
Managing editor Rutland Herald