Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1891-05-14
THEY CONDEMN III.
VIEWS OF PROMINENT MEN
Prohibition an Umwarranfed Interference
with the Rights Of Citizens, Wrong
In Theory and Practice, Bad
~ q Temperance Measure.
THoMAs JEFFERsoN.


power; that their true office is to declare
and enforce only our natural rights and
duties, and to take none of them from
MS. No man has natural right to COM
NIT aggression on the equal rights Of an
other; and this is ali from which the law
ought TO restrain = sss cvc-;; ;ssan Is uis7
der the natural duty of contributing to
the necessities of society, and this is all
the laws ought to enforce on him and
no man having natural right to be the
Judge between himself and another, it is
his natural duty TO submit to the ump1r-
age of an impartial third. When the laws
have declared and enforced all this, they
have fulfilled their functions, and the
idea is quite unfounded that on entering
into society we give up any natural
right
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
sProhibition will work great injury to
the cause of temperance. It is a species
of intemperance within itself, for il goes
bevond the bounds of reason in that it
attempts to control mans appetite by
legislation, and i'm making crimes out of
things that are not crimes. A Prohibi-
ton law strikes blow at the very prin-
ciples on which our government was
founded. ] have always been found la
boring to protect the weaker classes from
the stronger, and / never can give my
consent to such law as You propose to
enact. Until my tongue shall be ST.
fenced in death, I will continue to fight
tor the rights of man."
HoRATIo SEYMOUR.
aI owe it to the subject and to the friends
of the measure too add the expression of
my belief, that intemperanee can not be
extirpated by prohibitory laws; they
are not consistent with sound principles
of legislation. Like DEGREES to regulate
religious creeds, or forms of worship,
they provoke resistance where they are
designed to force obedience. The effort
to suppress intemperance by unusual
and arbitrary measures proves that the
Legislature is attempting to do that
which is not within its province to enact,
or its power to enforce. Judicious legis-
lation may correct abuses in the manu-
facture, sale or use of Intoxicating
liquors; it can do no more. All expe-
rience shows that temperance, like other
virtues, are not produced by lawmakers,
but by the influence of education, NOR
atty and religion"
GEN. U. s. GRANT.
81 know from my own experience that
when was at West Point the fact that
tobacco in every form was prohibited,
and he mere possession of the weed
severely punished, made majority of
the cadets, myself included, try to ae-
HuiAC bAO s&s0AbAb vi SSAiA I've
SAMUEL J. TILDEN.
ttIt is no part OF thesduty of the State to
coerce the individual man, except SO far
as his conduct may effect others; not re-
motely and consequentially, but by vio-
lating rights which legislation can recog-
nize and undertake to protect. The OPP
posite principle leaves no room for indi-
vidual reason and conscience, trusts moth
ing to self-culture and substitutes the
wisdom of the Senate and assembly for
the plan of moral government ordained
by Providence. The whole progress of
society consists in learning how to attain
by the independent action or voluntary,
association of individuals. those objects
which are at first attempted iythrough
the agency of government and in lessen
ing the sphere of legislation and enlarg-
| ing that of the individual reason and con-
science"
Ex-Gov. ANDREW, OF MASS.
"Artificial offences and meddlesome leg
| islation, and that felt to be unjust, are,
| indeed, causes of crime of which the
philosophical educator cannot afford 10
| be ignorant. Artificial offences put a
| large class of people, and often that of
| the least discriminating and instructed,
! into needless antagonism with the law.
| Confounding of moral distinctions on
the side of the law begets a correspond
| ing confusion in the mind OF the citizen.
/ III the law treats the sale of mug of
| beer or sweet cider as of like delinquen-
| cy with the crime of larceny, how long
| will itNtake the humble and unlearned to
| conclude that the law is either a sham
| unworthy of yeneration, or else jump to
| the converse of the first proposition, and
/ vote larceny of an article to be no worse
/ than the selling of the beer or the cider
/ So, therefore, every statute denouncing
/ the penalties of the criminal law against
/ men i'm violation of the commonly re-
ceived sense of Justice concerning human
| relations in the civil state, becomes, by
reason of that very excess, generator of
evil. The laws under which men are
| punishable can have no moral value un-
/ less the appeal can also be made to the
4 consciences of men,
THOMAS f. BAYARD.
/ regulated system of license whereby rev.
enue is largely brought into the public
treasury, coupled with severe penalties
for illicit sales, has provided the most
i efficient check upon the abuse of the
liquor traffic. In many respects the
/ question is a sumptuary one, the laws
attempting to establish sumptuary regu-
lations become inquisitorial and impos-
sible of execution, so that In those COM
munities of this country where they have
been enacted, they have either aggravated
the evil where intended to prevent, or
have fallen into contempt and useless
ness, and been repealed"
/ Ex-Gov. RoBEsoN, OF KANSAS.
uCommon sense, reason, experience and
i God are against Prohibition, and who
ever insists upon it to the exclusion of
| restriction and regulation is an enemy OF
temperance and good order in society.
/ No progress in temperance reform ever
resulted from Prohibition, or ever will.
Ali the progress that has been made from
! the time when the use of Intoxicating
drinks was we'll nigh universal to the
time when not one-fourth of the people
resort to them has been made outside OF
Prohibition. In every attempt at legal
Prohibition the temperance cause has
suffered. This all great temperance re-
formers we'll understand. The Father
Mathews, the Coughs, the Murphys, the
i Washingtonians, are never found parties
in street wrangles over Prohi bition."
Il ROGER @. MILLS.
/ oppose the adoption of Prohibition
4 because 1t violates fundamental prin-
| ciple of free government. Our free insti-
/ tutions stand upon the foundation prin-
ciple that man iscapable self-goyenment
that he is endowed by his Creator with
the intelligence and virtue to govern
himself in all that pertains to himself
that, when associated together, the socie-
ty is capable OF organizing and admins
tering government so as to promote the
well-being of the whole, that our gov.
/ nru YnaYat was fraafa1 tn sacllrfs DnrSnn al