Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1892-04-28
A Political Party Necessity to
Accomplish Its Complete
Overthrow.
An Awful Responsibility Laid
at the Door of the Christ
ian Ministers and Lay.
men.
What Will This Class i'm Missis-
sippi do About 1t?
A Lecture on; "Thc Fatherhood of God
and the Brotherhood of Man in
Government"
BY ]. d. SMITH, NJ. D., OF PADUcAH, KY.

righteousness exalteth nation but sin is q
reproach to any people. Prov IA: 81.
God deals with nations as we'll as
with individuals, and adapts His prov
idence to each according to their op-
pOrtunities for Improvement for phys
ical, mental and moral culture. The
earliest form of government was tri-
bal, and among such tribes might was
considered right. This form of gov
ernment exists among savages till the
present day, and its impress is too
often found in the code of the so call
ed civilized nations. But God in
structed Moses to give the Israelites a
better form of government, and doubt
less intended it as a pattern for the
nations that were to come after them
and although the Mosaic code recog-
nized a multiplicity of tribes, its pro-
visions applied to all alike. The
cities of refuge afforded equal protec-
ton to the citizens of every cOmmu-
nifty regardless of the wishes or incli-
nations of local majorities. The wise
provision of the deity unified the peo-
pie, and impressed upon their minds,
as perhaps nothing else could have
done, "the .fatherhOod Of God and the
brotherhood of man IN government"
The great principle thus inculcated
should not he lost sight of in any age,
and is the one we wish you to keep in
mind during the following discussion !;
that is, that no one has a right to be a
party, directly or indirectly. to the
making of law for the government
of others under the provisions of which
he himself would not be willing to
live. The principle rests on the ir-
revocable command, "DO untO Others
as yOu ,couM hare others do unto yOu,"
and cannot be disregarded without an
abandonment of the whole moral code.
1t is the foundation principle upon
which we now propose to base dis
cussiOn of
THE LICENSED LIQUOR TEAFFIC, ITS
RIGHT TO EXIST; THE WRONG OF
ITS EXISTENCE, AND THE RE-
-sPONSIBILITY FOR THAT
WRONG.
We maintain that if said traffic is
here by any inherent right it's exist
enee is not proper subject for dis
cussion if here without such right, it
is an intruder; and if an intruder,
somebody is responsible for the intru-
sion, and for the royal reception the
intruder has received at the hands of
our government. And whatever may
have been the diversity of opinion as
to it's right to be here in the past, the
United States Supreme Court has set
tied the question, and settled it right ;
because, in the interest of humanity.
Recognizing public opinion and the
best interests of the people as the
proper foundation of law in civil gov
ernment, the court says: ''By the gen.
eral concurrence of opinion Of erery
cirilised and Christian community there
are fev sources of crime and misery TO
society equal to the dramsh0p." And
that, furthermore, "he statistics OF
every State" sustain the correctness OF
this concurrent opinion, and because
of these facts the, court further and
emphatically says:
s'THERE Is NO INHERENT RIGHT IN A
CITIZEN TO SELL INTOXICATING LIQ-
UoRs BY RETAIL; 1T Is NOT A PRIV
ILEGE OF A CITIZEN OF A STATE,
OR OF A CITIZEN OF THE
UNITED STATES"
See Crowley, VS.. Christensen, U. s.
Report vol. 1S7 p 80, November 10th,
1890.
The court further says that the ex-
istenee or perpetuation of these sa-
looms SIS a matter of Legislative acid
only" Here then we have two Eunrded
thousand of these dramshops in the
United States outlawed by our court
of last resort under our common law,
which law is based upon the law OF
God and the law of humanity /; and
yet perpetuated, fostered and protect
ed by Federal Congress and State leg
islatures, and all this, too, in the face
of another decision of the United
States Supreme Court, which says
that,
1 .'No legislature can bargain away
the public health or the public NOR
ais. The people themselves cannon
do it, much less their servants. Gov
ernment is organized with view tC
their protection, and cannot divest
itself of the power to provide foi
them."
/ See Stone VS.. Mississippi, us. Re-
ports. Hence we discover that the Ii.
censed saloon is here not only without
any sanction of our common or higher
law, but in direct conflict with tbs
fundamental principles of governmen,
promulgated by our court of last re-
sort.
1T IS THEREFORE THE ILLEGITIMATl
OFFSPRING OF LEGISLATION, BOTH
FEDERAL AND STATE.
Or, what is still worse, parasite,