Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-01-21

y men must dare and die for the bless
s ings of it, they do not draw their in
= spiratiOn from that low source
p Gentlemen. liberty will survive il
/. America rs long as the of people Ot
: America deserve freedom, but a de.
+ bauched nation u people who place
e money above their home people
? who are willing to sell their SONS and
5 daughters for license -mOney-such a
5 a people do not deserve liberty, and
$ will not long enjoy it, An intelligent,
c moral people cannot be cnslaved. A
: depraved people cannot be free in
= any true sense.
If YOU frame n constitution in the
interest of organized society, it is
! clear that the saloon and kindred in
stitutions must be forbidden to exist.
But, to prohibit saloons is, to some
extent, an innovation on the customs
of the people, and therefore, as has
already been argued, it meets with a
certain amount of opposition. If it
were an original proposition to Ii
cense saloons, but there could be
no doubt as to what your policy
would be. If, for instance, propO-
|
Joints, we suppose no favor would be
shown it. And yet, opium joints are
nothing like as destructive to society
as saloons, The victims of JOINT are
destroyed, and made useless members
of society but are never violent and
dangerous to the community.
But while this is not an original
question. we beg that the Convention
will go back to original principles in
the settlement of it. The friends of
prohibition invoke no new principles.
We stand where jefferson, the author
of the Declaration of Independence
and father of the Democratic party
stood. That great political seer and
consunate statesman fOresaw the
dangers of the liquor traffic, and
recommended, in the infancy of the
Republic, that it be prohibited. He
foresaw the growth of cities, s,aDd their
dominancy over the whole country,
while they, themselves, would fall
victims to the greed and appetite of
this bane of civilization. He was no
sertimentalist, but regarded this a
question of the public safety, as we
would have you look at it now; not
as he did, with the eye of prophet,
but it is before us to-day in our great
Cities and, in measure, everywhere,
a menace TO 'domesty tranquility"
and to all our civil institutions.
The right to prohibit the common
traffic in intoxicants is fully establish
ed in these States. Back of all license
is prohibition. The common rule in
this State is prohibition, the exception
is license. 1t is only necessary for
this Convention to say there shall be
no exception, but all citizens shall
stand equal before the law, in respect
to dealing in alcohol, as i'll other
respects. BY so providing in the Con-
stitution, you will go no further than
the Supreme Court has gone in the
case of Stone VS.. Mississippi, 1O1 l. ).
The court says: "No Legislature can
bargain away the public health or the
public morals. The people them
selves cannot do it, much less their
servants. Government is or
ganized with view to their preserva-
ton, and cannot divest itself OF the
power to provide for them" This be-
ing true, and the saloons being, in
their practical working, against both
public health and public morals, as is
now well nigh universally admitted, a
State cannot properly license them.
That is what we ask you to settle IN
the Constitution.
Nor is prohibition by explicit de-
claration new among us. We have It
| day under legal enactment over
more than half the State. Successive
Legislatures have sanctioned the doc
| trine by euacting prOhibitOry laws.
Our own Supreme Court harmonlzlng
with the Supreme Court of the United
States, and of all the States, has at
| firmed these statutes. What is lt,then,
that You are asked to do more than
! has been done ? Simply to carry an
accepted principle further and apply
it to every part of the State and to
securely lodge this principle i'll the
/ Constitution, our bulwark of future
safety.
If it is said that prohibition exists
now where it does exist, by virtue OF
q local majority in its favor, we reply
by statement of facts:
+ There are seventy-fve counties in
I Mississippi, and forty of them are dry.
These dry counties are i'll the white
section. The thirty five>wet counties
are mostly in the black-belt and are
kept wet by the negro vote. Three
counties voted dry and then wet.
Each of these was carried back to the
wet column by the negro vote. These
facts would appear more foreeful by
.an exhibit of the white and black
population in all the counties; but 1t
lis sufficient as it is to show that to-
I day majority of the white people
of Mississippi favor prohibition.
What are you here for, if not to
maintain white supremacy, especially
when. majority of whites stand for
great principle of public morals and
public safety? We especially appeal
to the delegates from the black
counties. Gentlemen, can yOu III
reason expect the white counties to
stand by you: and uphold white su,
premaey for you, while you discard
1.-THE doctrine which has been our COM
mon safety, in the interest of the sa
loon keepers of your countless How
long is it to be expected that white
solidarity can be maintained, If th'
negro is to be brought forward to ar
bitrate this great question in the In
terest of a majority of the whites
and they mostly. foreign born, aQ'