The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-04-15
PUTTY MORRILL,.
Our Miserable Shifting State
Executive
Held Up to the Light of
ScOrn
By Major I. 0. Pickering in an
Open Letter.
ARRANT COWARDICE
In His Treatment Of the Law
sfte State.
Guilty Of FalsehOOd When He
SwOre
He WOULD UPHOLD
The Constitution and Laws OF
Kansas.
he WOULD UPHOLD
The Constitution and Laws Of
Kansas.
Morrill's Disreputable and Cow
ardly Course Shown Up.

Governor Morrill, has stirred up the
prohibitionists by his interview in
which he said he would not enforce the
prohibitory law because it made "dis-
sensions."
Major I. 0. Pickering of Olathe has
written Governor Morrill, a letter in
which he says some interesting things
about the governors utterances. The
letter is as follows:
OLATHE, Kan. April II, 1895.
To Hon. E. n. Morrill,, Governor, Topeka, Kan
Sas:
DEAR S1R:-I would be glad to hear
from you personally that the reported
interview with you, printed yesterday in
regard to the enforcement of the pro-
hibitory law in Kansas, is incorrect
l cannot believe that you, as the gov
ernor of our state, charged with the en-
forcement of the laws, commander-in-
chief of the militia, would publicly de-
clare that the enforcement of any gen.
eral law must depend on local sentiment
in favor of the law Would that not be
anarchy in it's most aggravated form? It
was exactly the position of James Bu-
chanan (but with less reasOn) when he
declared tnat there was no power under
the constitution to cOerce a sovereign
state.
That sentiment and the author of it
became almost universally execrated.
The constitution of the United States and
the laws of congress was decided by four
long years of bloody war to be binding
and obligatory upon every citizen in
every part of this union, without regard
TO local sentiment, James Buchanan to
the contrary notwithstanding. What SOW
ereignty is lodged in any municipality IN
Kansas, by which it dares to claim the
right to violate the constitution and laws
OF the state, because, forsooth, they are
opposed to the local sentiment of sucn
municipality? And was it more execra-
bic in Buchanan as president of the
country to publicly acknowledge and
proclaim the powerlessness of the execu-
tive to enforce the laws of congress to
preserve the integrity of the union, than
of the governor to acknowledge his ina
bility, for precisely the same reasons, to
protect the. honor of his state?
If there have been fourteen years of
failure or partial failure, to enforce the
prohibitory law in Kansas, there has
also been fourteen years of determined
opposition on the part of the people to
any repeal of the constitutional amend :
ment or of the laws to enforce the same
except in the direction of greater strin-
gency. In this attitude of the people of
the whole state it seems to me should be
found that instruction to the executive
which ought to be of more potency than
the weak threatenings of a part. and
that the most vicious part of the people.
l suggest that if any business men of
Kansas City, Kansas, have left because
of increase of taxes made necessary be-
cause of cutting off the illegal saloon
licenses, that the public be furnished
their names, the kind and extent of the
business they have abandoned, the
amount of tax they paid, and whether
or not their places have not been more
than supplied by men, in more repu-
table lines of business. l think it will
be found that the ex-jointists are about
the only business men who have
left Kansas City for the reasons stated.
If it is true shat Joints
are open in but three cities in Kansas
Atchison, Leavenworth and Wichita.
this proves that the law can be enforced.
and that the Rev. Mr.. Brumbaugh was
exactly correct in his statement that its
non-enforcement was owing wholly tc
derilection of dpSx on the part of officers
charged with It's Aforcement
seriously doubt whether an ex-
pressed Willingness on the part of The
governor to face condition and admit
that the law (any law cannot be enforced
where local public sentiment is agains,
it, will be universally, or ever
generally recognized as a courageou,
position, but on the contrary, to people
jealous of their laws and worthy of lib
erty, 1t will appear the excess of weak
ness, the virtual abdication of govern
ment on the part of the executive
1t should not be forgotten tha
local public sentiment was back ot
John c. Calhoun when he defieC
aud counseled notification of the law
of congress, nor that the pubIi,
sentiment of the whole country wa
behind General Jackson, when he de
clared that by the Eternal the law
should be obeyed and that Mr.. CaIhou,
would swing from gallows higher thar
Haman's if he persisted in his schemes o
notification. little infusion of sOlt
Hickory would be refreshing and rein
vigOrating to the body polite at thi
sime and in Kansas Yours Very Truly
l. o. PICKERINe.
DE- E h. Brumbaugh, the Atchisol
Methodist preacher, is out in an inter
view in which he replies to Governo