The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-21
DAVIS
 AGAINST PROHIBITION
NO ONE CAN QUESTION THE SIM CERTIFY OF THE MAN WHO WAS THE coNFEDERAcVs PREsl- DENT.
HE WAS INFLUENCED BY NO OTHER CONSIDERATION THAN HIS coUNTRY's GOOD.

 any great question historical facts which bear upon 1t, the expressions, opinions and experiences of others should be given fair and impartial weight. If it be a question with which we have had no actual experience, a question where our opinion and judg- ment must necessarily be influenced and moulded largely by the state ments and theories of others, then the character, ability and experience of the men whose opinions are given should be the determining factor in our final action. Various and unusual arguments have been advanced by the leaders of prohibition in Jefferson county, seeking to discredit the views, motives anG sincerity of the men who favor high license and strict regula- ton rather than drastic prohibitory laws. Our position is based upon what we consider sound moral and business considerations. In this column we shall publish each day the opinions of some of our greatest and best men who, in the open, denounce the theory and practice of prohibition.
 The following words are from the pen of Jefferson Davis, the great Presi- dent of the Southern Confederacy. No one will doubt the sincerity and hon esty of his conclusions, or charge that his opinions were influenced by the
 
 whatsoever, save his country's good
 Beauvoir, Miss, July 20 1SS7 Col. R. P. Lubbock.
 My Dear Friend-Yours of the 18th instant with it's enclosures has been re- ceived.
 I have heretofore declined to answer any of the inquiries made for my opinion on the constitutional amend ment now pending in Texas.
 Reared in the creed of democracy my faith in it's tenets has grown with \ it's growth, and l adhere to the max i'm that "rhe world is governed too much"
 When our fathers achieved their in- dependence the corner stone of the gov ernment they constructed was individ- ual liberty, and the social organiza- tions they established were not for the surrender but for the protection, of natural rights For this, governments were established deriving their just power from the consent of the gov erned. This was not to subject them selves to the will of the majority, as appears from the fact that each com munity inserted in it's fundamental law a bill of rights to guard the inalien- able privileges of the individual.
 There was then a two-fold purpose in government-protectio and proven ton against trespass by the strong upon the weak, the many on the few.
 The world had long suffered from the expressions of government under the pretext of ruling by divine right, and cxcusing the invasion into private and domestic affairs on the plea of pater- nal care for the morals and good order Df the people
 Our sires rejected all such preten- sons, their system being: Government oy the people for the people, resting on the basis of natural, 'inalienable rights Upon the basis of these gen. sral propositions, I will briefly answer she inquiry in regard to the proh1b1- .ion amendment at issue.
 "Be ye temperate in all things" was a wise injunction, and would apply to intolerance as well as to drunkenness. That the incorporate use of intoXicat- ing liquors is an evil. few, If any, would deny.
 That it is at the root of many social disorders is conceded; but then the question arises, what is the appropriate remedy and what the present neces- sitye To destroy individual liberty and moral responsibility would he to eradi- rate one evil by the substitution of am other, which. it is submitted, was of- fcred as Il remedy. The abuse and not the use of stiumalnts, it must be con ressed is the evil to be remedied. Then if clearly follows that action should clearly be directed against me abuse rather than the use. If drunkenness he the cause of disorder and crime why not pronounce drunkenness itself to he a crime and attach to it proper and adequate penalties? If It he ob- ;ected that the penalties could not he cpforced that ii m. admission that popuIar opinion would he opposed 10 tbe law; but if it he true that Juries couId not be impaneled. who would convict so degraded il criminal as
 ....I fsaIIn m n statutory prohibition against the saie and use of intoxicants would he n dead letter. I might appeal to men not as old as myself to sustain the assertion that inc convivial use of intoxicants and inc occurrence of drunkenness had be- ro,oe less freuuent within the la-t twentv years than it was before. The reenine influences of education and christianity may be credited with this result Why not allow these blessed bandmaidens of virute and morality ,o continue uncmbarrassed their civi- lzing work: -, nrohihition. If it has proved the wooden horse in which a disguised enamv to state sovereignty as the .uardian of individual liberty was in- troduced let it be warning that the progressive march would propaply De from village to state ana rom stale +o Trnited States, and result in gov ernmental supervision and paternity instead of the liberty the heroes or ] 1776 left as a legacy to their poster itv Jmpelled by the affection and | pratitude feel for the people or rex as and the belief that a great question | of American policy is involved in the issue you have before you. the silence had hoped to observe has been broken. If the utterance shall avail anything for good, it will compensate me for the objurgations Wlth whicn sho,l doubtless be pursued by the fol- l lowers of the popularism of the day. di.. ' MCPHERSON DAVIS.