St. Paul daily globe., 1892-03-12
HIS POLITICAL RECORD.
How He Became a@Democrat and
Led Iowa to Democracy.

How He Became asDemocrat and
Led Iowa to Democracy.
Until he was tiftysiX years old Horace
Boies had been a Republican. For the
last eight years he has been Democrat.
For the last three years lie has been the
most foremost Democrat in the newly
Democratic state of Iowa. The story of
how he became converted and how the
state was converted is one and the same.
1t furnishes an illustration of how many
men in Iowa have been moved by con-
science and faith in principles.
Iowa was Republican through the war
and after the war, because the Iowa
people believed that the Republican
party was the guardian of the National
Federation and the exponent of sound
theories.
Horace BoieS was a Republican for
like reasons.
In the forty years of life in the East
he had never been politician. The
holding of office did not attract him.
When he arrived in Iowa, at the close
OF the Rebellion, he found that the ma
jority of the voters in the state held
views similar to his own. He was there
fore among friends. Soon many of
them became his warm friends. Re
quests that he should accept the NOM
inatiOn for congress were repeatedly
made. He declined one and all. He
felt no special call to take nOmina-
tion fol that or any other Office, and
yet to have become a candidate for
congress at any time within ten years
after the war, when the opportunity
was laid before him, would have made
Horace Boies most prominent Repub-
lican and given him precedence in the
line of aSpirantS for the gubernatorial
chair. But the future of the Repub-
lican party in those days seemed safe
to him even without holding office,
through its power, and, therefore, car
ing more for the law and the farm than
for the glamour Of political place, he
Stuckyto his briefs and to his acres and
to his fields of corn.
In those times the Republican con-
ventionS of the state adopted platforms
recommending the reduction of the war
tariff. The leading men among Iowa
Republicans, from Grimes to Allison
and KasSon, had been tariff reformers.
and Horace BOies stood with them.
In 1880 the Republican party at its ma
tional convention adopted a protection
plank which antagonized the beliefs of
mOSU Iowa hepuUllcdllS.
Among those who were dissatisfied
was Horace Boies.
Argument was made by Republican
leaders that Notwithstanding the ma
tiOnal attitude of the party they should
all maintain their allegiance TO the Or
ganiZatiOn.
With the independent lawyer of
Waterloo such course was out of the
question. He did not openly break with
his party, but his faith was shaken.
Three years later another cause of
dissatisfaction arose, and then he rose
in protest and led revolt
The prohibition craze had struck the
state. Its advocates dominated in Re-
publican councils. The decision was
reached that prohibition would be
good thing for the people, and there
was every indication that a law forbid
ding the manufacture or the sale of
alcoholic beverages would be forced
upon the state.
So far as his personal tastes and habits
were concerned the adoption of such
law would not have affected Boies He
had never smoked and the taste of
LIQUOR was unknown to him, but the
probability of prohibitory law was OBJ
n0XouS to his sense of justice. He had
always been firm believer IN the prin-
ciple of the largest liberty for the indi-
vidual; he had always opposed the claim
that the state possessed right to enact
sumptuary legislation.
Therefore, because his creed of per-
sonal liberty compelled him, he entered
into the prohibition movement.
His friends in the Republican party
demonstrated. They argued tnat by
his course he would jeopardize the
safety of the party.
He answered that he cared more fol-
his principles than for the organization.
A state campaign was pending and
legislature was to be chosen. 1t was
critical moment, and the Republicans
besought him to be silent, bu: the mans
love OF independence had been aroused
and he refused to be still. He prepared
a protest against the Republican prOhi.
bition policy and against the election of
its candidates for office. He signed the
protest, obtained signatures from his
friends and circulated the document
from one boundary of the state to the
other.
The state supreme court had decided
that the prohibition amendment was
unconstitutional. Mr.. Boies had pointed
out that fact. One of those on the Su-
preme bench, Judge Day, was can
didate for denomination, and the Re
publicans decided to punish him for
daring to pronounce the prohibition
amendment unconstitutional. They re-
fused to place him upon the ticket.
This impressed Boies as an act of injus-
tice, and he refused to be restrained.
Here are the words with which he made
his protest:
"As Republicans we cannot indorse the
action of our party on the subject of prohibit
ton as defined in the third plank of the plat
form lately adopted at Des Moines. We be-
lieve that such position is fraught with the
gravest of dangers Among other objections
thereto we urge that the laws enacted to
carry such policy inlo effect will tend to re-
tard immigration and drive from the state a
class of people who. whether correctly or not,
regard such laws as intolerant and proseup-
tive.
"rhese proposed laws will practically de-
stroy property of the value Of many millions
of dollars,
SC 'z1rney viii prove an unwarranted attempt
to regulate by force the social habits of a
large class of our citizene. ~
''They will substitute TIE unpopular power