Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1894-03-06
NO. 80.

Mississippi "the excellent measure"
, says further: "Tbe Legislature of
Mississippi, now in session, is decid-
, edly Prohibition in sentiment" and
that "the excellent measure" passed
by it '!practically puts in the hands
of Prohibitionists soon to carry seven
eights of the counties in the State."
Now what is to become of every eighth
county, and who is responsible for the
degradation that must ensue to innO-
cent and helpless minorities in conse-
quence of the concentration of this in
famous business upon them by the
legislature of whole State? If the
Legislature is Prohibition in senti-
ment, and because of that has passed
local option law that will rid seven
eighths of the counties of the liquor
curse, why did that Legislature first
pass a license law to damn every
eighth county? 1t was doing business
for whole State, and ought to have
been more careful, if any difference,
to protect innocent and helpless mi
norities from evil influences than COM
paratively independent majorities.
Our court of last resort has Outlawed
the saloon so far as any right to exist
under our common law is concerned,
and has said that it can only exist as
the result of legislative will enacted
into statutory law. And yet here is a
legislature Prohibition in sentiment
tLat fixes the legalized liquor infamy
on helpless minOrities situated in wick
ed communities, and then incOrpo-
rates other features in the same law
by which more favored communities,
and seven-eights of them at that, may
rid themselves of such legislative
curse; and ministers of the Gospel
rush into print and commend the
measure! Should those helpless mi
nOrities have no right left them under
the laws of great State? Not even
the right to move against an accursed
saloon as nuisance under our COM
mon law? No, even that right, which
they otherwise would have, is taken
away from them by this Mississippi
licensing law, denominated by the
writer of the article under review
"the excellent measure"
Where is the excellency of any Ii
quor licensing law? At the very best
it is only robbing of helpless minor
tiles by statutory law of the rights
they have under our common law. The
very people above all others who need
most the protection of law are thus
robbed of their rights by whole State
in its legislative capacity and left at
the mercy of a lot of drunken outlaws.
Talk.about restrictions in such lOcali-
ties; as well talk about restricting the
devil in his own empire. Who elects
the officers in these liquor ridden COM
| mn an1 hof Of off In
they elect9 Which does experience
anarchy and intimidation or law and
order? When God appointed cities of
refuge for the unfortunate of Israel,
he had no local option about it; it was
for the weak and not the strong; for
helpless minOrities and not for pow
erful majorities; and government
that fails to pattern after Gods model
is stencil in His nostrils.
But we are told IN the article under
review that there "is not third party
PrOhibitionist in either branch of the
Legislature" that passed this "excel-
lent measure" AS third party Pro-
hibitionist am devoutly thankful to
the writer for that gratuitous state
ment. A greater compliment has new
er been passed on third party Prohi-
bitiOnists, nor has more striking il
lustratiOn ever been presented of the
Importance of their presence i'm legis-
lative assemblies. If there had been
just one ''party PrOhibitiOnist," in
that Legislature the deliverances of
the General Conference of the NJ. f.
Church, South, would have been
shown some respect, and their utter
reputation would have been met by
at least one protest; the decisions of
the United States Supreme Court
would have been urged in defense of
the rights of helpless, innocent minor
tiles; and heathen rulers pleading
with so-called Christian nations not to
debauch their subjects with intoxi-
eating liquors, and refusing to accept
revenue from the same, would have
been held up as an object lesson for
those who proposed and passed an
"eXcellent measure" for rObbing the
violator of law of his money simply
because it had been paid into the
State treasury and had passed beyond
his control. Yes, of all the cranky
cranks that the Mississippi Legisla-
ture and its clerical hackers ever heard
of a "party PrOhibitionist" in that Ii
quOr licensing body would have been
the crankiest. He would have been
as Samuel before Saul, an Elijah
before an Ahab, n Joshua before an
Achan, Nathan before David, a
Daniel before Darius, a John the
Baptist before Herod, Luther be-
fore a mutual admiration court of de-
generate State officials and apostate
Ecclesiastics, and as John Wesley
laundering into the ears of a debauch-
ed and drunken AristOcracy endorsed
by degenerate church: "Your excel
lent measure makes poisoners- -gener-
al, who murder his majesty's subjects
by wholesale; neither does their eye
pity or spare. They drive them to
hell like sheep. And what is their
gain! Is it not the blood of men?
Who, then, would envy their large
estates and sumptuous palaces Tor
State revenue.)! A curse is in the
midst of them. The curse of God Is
in their gardens, their graves-a fire
that burns to the nethermost hell.
Blood, blood is there! The founda-
tion, the floors, walls, the roof, are
stained with blOOd!"
laava IL tn tho eonscianea of n