The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1895-08-31
PROHIBITIONS.

We are informed that the Police
Jury will meet on Sept. 7 in special
session to consider the petition
asking that an election be ordered |
t. obtain the sense of the voters on
the question of prohibition. If the
required number of signatures are
affixed to the petition we believe
that the election should be ordered
as SOON as practicable. There are,
we are reliably informed, quite a
large number Of our fellow citizens
earnestly in favor of prohibition
and their views are entitled to re-
spectful hearing. This is one of
the questions which should be dis
cussed without passion and preju-
dice. Some Of our best people are
of the opinion that should a law
prohibiting the sale of liquor be
enacted much good would fol-
low. The Gazette believes that
they are mistaken and sincerely
hopes they will find out their error
before the election comes off. We
print below a letter written by that
great statesman, Jefferson Davis,
in the year 1887, when the people
of Texas overwhelmingly defeated
the proposition of State prohibition.
1t is SO UNNECESSARILY better than
anything we could say on the sub
ject that we reproduce it in full:
MIR. DAVIS LETTER.
BEAUvoIR, Miss, July 20, 1887.
Co.. +: X. Zn66oek:
My Dear Friend-Yours of the 1zth in
have heretofore declined to answer any
of the inquiries made for my opinion the
constitutional amendment now pending in
Texas. My reason for not replying an
unwillingness to enter into controversy in
which my friends in Texas stood arrayed
against each other.
In departing from the rule heretofore OBJ
served, trust that it will not be an unwar-
rantable intrusion.
Reared in the creed of Democracy, my
faith III its tenets has grown with its growth,
and adhere to the maxim that s'The world
is governed too much.''
When our fathers achieved their indepen-
dence the cornerstone of the government
they constructed was individual liberty, and
the social organizations they established
were not for the surrender, but for the pro-
ment were established deriving their lust
powers from the consent of the governed
This was not to subject themselves to the
will OF the majority, as appears from the
fundamental law bill of rights to guard
the inalieuable privileges of the individual.
There was then t"ofoid purpose in gov
eminent, protection and prevention against
trespass of the strong upon the weak, the
many on the few.
The world has long suffered from the OPP
preston of government under the pretext of
ruling by divine right, and excusng the in
vaslon into private and domestic affairs ON
the plea of paternal care for the morals and
good order of the people.
Our sires rejected all such professions,
their system being: Government by the
basis of natural and inalienabl. rights.
Upon the basis of these general PROPOSE
tons will briefly answer the inquiry in re-
gard to the prohibition amendment at issue.
| wise injunction, and would apply to intol-
erance as we'll to drunkenness. That the
intemperate use of Intoxicating liquors is an
evil, few, If any, would deny.
That 1t is at the root of many social disor-
ders is conceded, but the question arises, what
IS the appropriate remedy and what the
present necessity? To destroy individual
liberty and moral responsibility would be
to eradicate one evil by the substitution of
another, which it is submitted would be mo, e
fatal than that for which it was offered as a
remedy. The abuse and not the use of sti-
n1ulants, 1t must be coufessd, is the evil to
be reniedied. Then it clearly follows that
| action should clearly be directed against the
abuse rather than the use. If drunkenness
is the cause of disorder and crime, why not
pronounce drunkenness itself TO be a crime
and attach to it proper and adequate penal
ties? If it be objected that the penalties
could not be enforced, that is an admission
that popular opinion would be opposed to
the law; but if it be true that juries could
| not be impaneled who would convict SO de-
graded criminal a drunkard, it necessa-
riiy follows that statutory prohi BIZ ion
against the sale and use of in toxicants would
| be dead letter.
The next branch of inquiry is as to pres
ent necessity.
| l might appeal to men not as old as my
self to sustain the assertion that the convi-
vial use OF intoxicants, and the occurrence
OF drunkenness had become less frequent
within the last years than it was before.
| The refining influences of education and
Christianity may be credited with this re-
suit. Why moi allow these blessed hand
| maidens of virtue and morality to con.
tinue uncmbarrassed their civilizinp work
The parties to this discussion in your State
have no doubt brought forward the statisti
cal facts in regard to the effect produced
in orther States by this effort to control
morals by legislation, and will not encum-
Der this letter by any reference TO those
facts.
You have already provision for local pro-
bIuon If ii has proved the wooden horse il,
which a disguised enemy to State sovereignty
as the guardian Of individual liberty was
introduced, let it be warning that the pro.
!