Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1893-05-09


/ No. 3 Of u Series Of Six Articles Written 10y J
/ ID. Smith, NJ. d.. for the Tennessee Methodist.
/ In my second article of this series
/ insisted that in order to make our re
| ligious and political creeds harmonic
there should be a political party that
makes the abolition of the licensed
beverage liquor traffic one Of the lead
ing planks in its platform of princi
pies; and l alluded to the position tax
en- by some of our preachers at the last
Memphis Annual Conference. as an ii
lustration of the powerful influence OF
political partisan idolatry over mems
lives and conduct, in order that the
readers might realize the absolute ne
cesslty for making mems religious and
political creedS harmonic. / now pro
pose to pursue this line of thought a
little further. And in doing so | shall
take the liberty of referring to reso-
luton passed at the last Tennessee
Annual Conference, held just before
the last Presidential election. 1t reads
as follows, and was reported as 'unan-
imously passed."
"ReSOlUed, That we endeavor in every
legitimate way-by our prayers, by our
preaching, by our influence, and by
our votes-to rid our country of the
blighting evil of intemperance and of
the legaliZed traffic in Intoxicating liq-
uors which is the hot bed Of intempcr-
dnce."
Here we see that our brethren of the
Tennessee Conference were holder, or
rather, more unanimous in their bold
ness, than our brethren of the Mem
,lN a 4.
selves vow to make their prayers.
their preaching. their influence and
their votes harmOnize on this question.
But did they keep their vow? If not,
those of them who did not are worse
off than the advocates of liquor licens-
ing candidates in the Memphis Confer
ence. Better never vow than not to
pay thy VOWS"
With Il view to IL careful dissection
of the question of vowing one thing at
Conference and voting another thing
at the polls in order to stick to our an
tagonistic religious and political
creeds, shall briefly allude to the
votes of Tennessee Congressman on
the liquor traffic question during the
5lst Congress-, to the endorsement
of those Congressman by Christian
voters at the ballot box, and the late
Gubernatorial election in Tennessee,
and Presidential election in the United
States. And | will add that the state
of things | shall show to exist in Ten
nessee. can. with equal clearness. be
shown to exist in every other State in
which the NJ f. Church, South has
any substantial foothold. In doing
this am rot discussing the merits of
political parties, but the merits of a
political question on which most of the
churches of this country, and especial
ly all branches of the Methodist church,
have spoken and fully defined them
selves; and for the purpose of showing
that the members of those churches
are not voting in harmony with the
pretentiOns of their churches; and to
ascertain and point out, if possible,
the cause. as well as the inevitable re-
suit. of such inconsistency
On March Is, 1890, there was a bill
pending in the lower house of Congress
to establish a temporary government
for the Territory of Oklahoma, when
an amendment was offered to continue
in force, for the protection of the white
settlers going there, prohibitory law
that Congress had previously passed
for the protection of the Indians, until
the whites could have one legaliZed
session and arrange their own local
Jaws. On this amendment, and not
on the original bill, Evans and Taylor
of Tennessee, voted yea Pierce, Rich
ardson and Washington voted nay !;
Enloe, Houk, McMillin, Phelan and
Whitthorne did not vote at all.
On March 81, 1890, bill was pend
ing including clause to authorize the
establishment of supply stores at all of
our army stations, to be known as Army
Canteens and to be run by United
States commissioned officer, with a
regular soldier as clerk. An amend
ment was offered to prohibit the sales
of alcoholic liquors, including beer and
wine, in these army supply stores. On
this amendment to prohibit, McMillin
and Washington voted nay and every
other member from Tennessee failed to
vote at all, and the amendment was
lost. But there were six of these army
stations in States whose constitutions
and laws forbade the manufacture or
sale of alcoholic liquors within their
borders; and hence another amend
ment was offered to exempt these
States from the tyranny of a Federal
law that would override their constitu-
tions, their laws, and the legally eX-
pressed will of their people for the
purpose of establishing legalized liquor
dens in their midst. But not a single
representative in Congress from Ten
nessee thought such measure worthy
his attention, and hence not one of
them voted aat
Early in 1890 our United States SUI
preme Court decided that, as Congress
had the exclusive control of interstate
commerce, and that as the liquor traffic
was recognized by Congress as part
of the interstate commerce, therefore
no prohibitory State law could prevent
non residents of State from going in
to prohibition States, counties or towns
and selling their liquors manufactured
in other States, in original packages,
unless Congress would pass law
granting to the States such power. A
bill for this purpose passed the Senate
May %, 1890, and was pending in the
House August 6, 1890; and after all
substitutes for it had been withdrawn
and the bill was put on it's final pass
age as the only means possible to save
single foot of Prohibition territory
from being overrun by foreign and
NOM State resident liquor dealers, the
following was the vote of Tennessee'S