Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-04-28


the wonder of a politically regenerat-
ed nation of people. The political
| friends of the traffic know this, and
hence they avoid joint discussion OF
/ the subject rs the devil avoids holy
water. Then tell us not that the time
for such action has not arrived that a
majority of the people are not yet in
favor of Prohibition. If they are not,
in the name of long suffering hu-
manity, and an open and professed
christianity, it is high time that we
were drawing the line so as to know
exactly who it is that propose to make
up the majority on the other side.
Tie same thing was said when it was
proposed to make slavery a party
question. And yet, in less than six
years from time when the prospects
of the Abolition party we're no better
than the prospects of the Prohibition
party are to-day, party lines on that
question were fully drawn, the people
were forced to take sides for or against
the institution, and slavery vanished
like darkness before the rising sun.
AND so IT WILL BE WHEN THE DIVISION
CONES ON THE LICENSED LIQUOR
TRAFFIC.
Go down into the hearts and con-
sciences of the people to-day, and you
will find the majority sentiment of the
Nation against it. And if you put
the anti-liquOr licensing men of the
country into one political party; with
the virtuous womanhood of the Nation
to stand by and cheer them OH to vic
tory and the thugs, and bummers,
and thieves, and gamblers, and brew
ers, and distillers, and liquor dealers,
and all liquor license sympathizers,
into another political party, with the
harlots of the Nation to stand by and
cheer them Oh to victory or defeat, it
will take no prophet to foretell where
the victory will come in. Where
would nine -tenths of our audience be
found, even including half the men
who now favor license With such a
mess of spolt mlxed-pickles as would
constitute the latter class and label
of the damnable record of their work
written in blood and pasted upon the
forehead of each member of the decay
ing clan; and the business held up to
the public gaze in every canvass of
every character by each honest officer
seeker, instead of as now, being petted
and paid by all parties for corrupt
political influence honest men,
whether sympathisers or not with liq
uor dealers, would seek better politi
cal affiliations and il higher political
life.
1t is respectable company that keeps
respectable men in the old liquor Ii
censing parties of to-day and that
responsibility has fearful response
bility awaiting it in the future.
TO SAY THAT THE SOBER SECOND THOUGHT
OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
Will not give up old party affiliations
for the sake of thus downing the Ii
censed liquor traffic, is a sad cOmmen-
tary OH their intelligence, patriotism,
and christianity and reflects damag-
ingly on no one more than he who ut
tiers it.
1t carries us back to the time when
God marches the Israelites with an
army of six hundred and eighteen
Thousand men to the borders of Can.
aan, and told them to go in and
possess the land, and that he would
90 with them. And because of tbeil
disobedience, he turned them back
and maneuvered them in the wilder
ness until the baleful surrounding
from which they refused to escape ha(
killed that entire army, except thu
three who had voted to go in. Now
with this example and warning before
them, it will be strange indeed if Oul
so-called Christian people prove them.
selves equally unwise and refusing
to give mp the idolatrous worship OF
their old liquor licensing parties, re-
main in the wilderness of their blight
ing influences until another genera
ton of their sons and daughters have
been sccurged thereby. But if they
do, we intend to be like Moses, Joshua,
and Caleb: clear our skirts of the
blood of other mems indifference, by
following the indications of Gods
Providences, and voting with the mi
nority to go in every time we have an
opportunity.
We will help to pull men out of the
gutter, encourage anu dsSlsb thC wives
and children of drunkards, help drive
the saloon from the neighborhood, the
town, the county, or the State but
while reason sits enthrOned, and we
profess to believe in the FatherhO0d
of God and the intended Brotherhood
of man in government We will never
be so inconsistent while doing these
things, as to vote with party, or for
the nominees of a party, that is i'll
favor of licensing one single saloon on
foot of American soil. And the man
in this enlightened age of Christen-
dom, who can look this question
squareiy in the face and continues to
thus vote; invites and merits the
curse of God upon himself and pros
terity as much as did the Israelites by
their refusal to enter Canaan and de-
stroy idOlatry. IdolaGry was the
besetting sin of that age, Canaan was
| full of it, God told them to go in there
and destroy it, to tear down every
altar erected to it,. and that he would
GO with and protect them. They re-
fused and the curse followed. Drunk.
enness is the besetting sin of this age
the licensed saloon is its universally
admitted altar; the church says it il
the curse of all curses the court tell
In n Il 4 n.