The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-10-03
eRrAr mEN ON PROHIBITION.

| muCQ Thought W TIC ChoA 10 w
been made in the past to constitute Il
single moral offense a statutory crime
| punishable with fine and Imprison-
ment Penal laws, proper, are TO pro-
tect the individual from another. FRO
hibitory laws seek to protect the free
moral agent from himself.
Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln anc Grant
and many others have gone on record
upon this question of attempting TO
make men morally better and to spirit
ually save them through the enforce
ment Of penal statutes.
We do not expect to convince any
Prohibitionist that such legislation is
futile, any more than we could hope to
convince some parents that the natures
of their children are not changed or
made better by flogging. 1t simply
involves the same old ethical question
that marks the difference between
Christianity and Mohammedism.
Christ set out to persuade men by the
word, Mohammed to compel them by
the sword. But to show that those
who do not believe in prOhibitory or
sumptuary laws are not outside of the
pale of civilization nor wrOng-headed
and beyond hope morally or spiritually
we herewith quote some of the best
purest and mentally greatest men
known to American history, upon this
question. We can find nothing in the
speeches or writings of Washington
bearing upon the subject, so we first
quote Abraham Lincoln who stands
next to Washington in the history.
"great injury to the cause of intern
''perance. 1t is a species of intern
"perance within itself, for it goes be-
''yond the bounds of reason in that it
attempts to control mans appetite
''by legislation, and in making crimes
''out of things that are not crimes.
"a prohibition law strikes blow at
''the very principle on which out gov
"ernment was founded. 1 have al
"ways been found laboring to pro-
"tect the weaker classes from the
stronger, and l never can give my
consent to such a law as you propose
"tO enact. Until my tongue shall be
"silenced in death, 1 will continue to
flight for the rights of man."
General Grant was not so strictly
temperate as Lincoln, but touching the
principle Of prohibition as applied to
the tobacco habit General Grant said:
81 know from my own experience that
when l was at West Point the fact
''that tobacco In every form was pro-
Inhibited, and the mere possession of
1.-THE weed severely punished, made a
majority Of the cadets, myself includ-
''ed, try to acquire the habit of using
cit"
This same question seems to have
been mOOted early in the history of the
nation. John Quincy Adams, the sixth
president and son of the second, wrote:
Forget not, / pray you, the right Of
personal freedom. Self-government
"is the foundation of our political and
social institutions, and it is by self
government alone that the law of
Temperance can be enforced. Seek
mot to enforce upon your brother by
Legislative enactmentS that virtue
which he can posses only by the die
"tafes OF his own conscience and the
energy of his own will"
Thomas Jefferson, author of the
Declaration of Independence. who had
not only made human liberty a life
study, but who seemed inspired with
the spirit of freedom, in his writings on
the rights of man declared as follows:
NO man has natural right to commit
aggression OH the equal rights of an
"other; and this is all from which the
law ought to restrain him: every man
is under the natural duty of contrib
"uting to the necessities of society. and
"uhis is all the laws ought to enforce
"On MN. When the laws have de-
"clared and enforced all this. they have
fulfilled their functions. and the idea
is quite unfounded that on entering
into society we give up any natural
fright"
No writer seems to have moro fu,,r
grasped the real spirit of Prohibition
and its logical sequences than ex-Gov-
ernor Andrew of Massachusetts. who
ut a time when his own state WAS rent
with discussion, wrote: Artificial Of
"IenseS and wholesome legislation
and that felt to be unjust. are. indeed
causes of crime of which the philo-
"sophical educator cannot afford to ba
ignorant Artificial offenses mt q
large class of people. and often that of
the least discriminating and instruct.
ed, into needless antaconisn with
law. Confounding of moral distinct
IONS on the side of the law pegefS =
corresponding confusion in the mind
of the citizen. If the law treats tha
sale OF a mug of beer or sweet cider
as OF like delinquency with the crime
OF larceny, how long VIII it take the
humble and unlearned to concluda
mat the law is either sham m
worthy of generation or else iump to
aie converse of the first proposition.
ana vote larceny of an article IN no
no worse than the selling of the baar
or cider: So. therefore. every statute
oehouncinS the penalties of the Grim
mal law against men in violation of
the commonly received sense of ms
uce concerning human relations In
the civil state. becomes bv rassa, -.