Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-11-04
BADLY TANGLED Up.
COL. SPOONER CHANGES HIS MIND
ON FAMOUS STATE ISSUES.
He Now Deprecates any Mention OF
the Obnoxious Bennett Law.

Its Support For All Time-As Bad Mess
With the Tariff-In Trying to Slur The
Democratic Platform He Discredits His
Own Party Leaders-The Tariff for Rev
enue Only Plank, Which Col. Spooner
Says Is Copy of the Confederate Con-
stitution, Is Found In the Republican
Had the Hearty Approval of the Party
Organs at That Time.
Two years ago when Republican politi-
clans believed the friends of religious liberty
n the state We're few in numbers and there
tore tried to force on the people the iron
clad Bennett law, Col John c. Spooner,
then candidate for the United States
Senate to succeed himself, said of this law,
III speech delivered in the West Side Tur-
ner hall i'll Milwaukee Oct. 3, 1890:
"% There is ONE ISSUE in our state
campaign which OvERSHADOwS ALL OTHER
ISSUES. 1t eNcites not only the interest of
the people of Wisconsin, but it has excited
the interest of the people of the whole coun-
try. This campaign on this one issue is
unique in the history of parties in our
government. IT Is THE BENNETT
LAW. The REPUBLICAN PARTY
being i'll the majority is doubtless techui-
cally CHARGEABLE WITH THE RESPONSIBLE
lTY OF ITS PASSAGE, and THE REPUBLICAN
NEVER WILL BE A COWARD IN THE
FACE OF RESPONSIBILITY. X"
Il say for myself that since this agitation
began | have not seen the day when !
thought with all the objections which were
urged against the law, l HAVE NOT SEEN
THE DAY WHEN THOUGHT THE REPUBLICAN
PARTY OR ANY OTHER PATRIOTIC PARTY
COULD ABONDON UPON ANY DEMAND
IT'S ESSENTIALANDF FUNDAMENTAL.
PRINCIPLES. Now, | PLANT
MYSELF FIRMLY AND STRONGLY UPON THE
PLATFORM OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY UPON
THAT SUBJECT. Now what is this
platform? 1t places upon our flag, NOT TO
STAY THERE SIMPLY FOR THIS CAMPAIGN,
BUT TO STAY THERE IN ALL CAMPAIGNS
SO LONG AS THE PARTY LIVES, THE
LITTLE SCHOOL HOUSE. Whoever
they are, wherever they come from, THE
REPUBLICAN PATRY HAS GIVEN CHAL1-
LENGE TO MORTAL COMBAT AND 1T
WILL STAND BY THE LITTLE SCHOOL HOUSE"
September IA, 1890, in the same hall he
referred to this law, which was the "para-
mount issue" two years before and which
he then said had been placed on the party
banner to stay there 'as long as the party
lives" as follows:
"The Democrats say they ought not tovote
the ticket because of the Bennett law, and
they have kept standing at the head of some
OF their papers what they say is part of
speech that | made here on this platform
two years ago. OF course the purpose is to
prejudice the Germans of this state against
me.
But if | know anything of German char
acter, and in my life have had occasion to
know something of it, no man and no party
ever gains anything with them by trickery
or unfairness, for they like fair play. And,
to take from a speech one line or one clause,
separate from all that preceded it, and all
that followed it, is too narrow and too
grossly unfair to fool anybody who is. not
anxious to be fooled. | believe in that
extract | am reported as saying that that
was an overshadowing issue. Well, / rather
think it was! But | only want to say this
about that speech: | said that night on this
platform what | say now, that under our
SYSTEM the common school, being support
ed by general taxation, inasmuch as under
our constitution there could be no religious
instruction, that the thousands and tens of
thousands of parents in this state who de-
sired, and in their conscience felt bound, to
combine secular and religious instruction.
must seek it and find it in the private and
parochial school, outside of the common
school. / remember | said and [ regretted
that | said it in a political
speech, that if my mother, who is dead and
gone, could have given me but one, religious
or secular, she would have given
me the religious instruction, and left me to
get the other in the rough school of life.
repeat it tonight only because said it then.
| said another thing that night, and you
will find it in the same speech, although
you would not find it in the extracts which
are being sent throughout the state to pre-
judice the people against me. / said that
would send my boy to school where I
thought best, and / would not submit nv
Judgment in that regard to the review of
any district board, or anyone else, and I
the same right to every other man;
and you heard me say it on this platform.
''But what on earth is the point of discus
sing again that question: The Republican
party in it's platform in May and in its
platform adopted the other day, saws that it
regards the educational issue of 1890. So
called, as settled, not to be re-opened by
the Republican party or under it's auspices
in any of its phases. Nobody is going down
in it's grave like ghoul, trying to drag it
up to disturb our people again, but the
Democratic party.
'"There is one thing about the Republican
party: 1t believes in the people; and when
a people voted against proposition which
had it's support, however qualified, the
Republican party says that ends it, i'll
were to die tonight, and this was the last
utterance of mine, l should deprecate upon
grounds away above party, an attempt to
bring that issue again among our people,
We are all one family. We have the same
government, the same aspirations, the same
hope. Your interests and our interests are
all one. We love the same flag. We may
well differ on political questions, but that
man is not patriotic man, who, for parti-
san purposes, or any other, attempts to
defeat us on any other lines than that
And if, unhappily, there ever comes a divi-
sion among us upon lines of education or