The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-19
FAD EPoCHs.

| atI Birmingham last Thursday in fav- or of the amendment. was opened by Hon. J. F. Thompson. who. in his speech. said:
 This is the third epoch. as see it. must be settled. as have the other | two. by an appeal to the Constitusion. The first epoch was marked when Thomas Jefferson preached absolute 1t was put into the Constitution. The second came with cyclone in the ab. olition of slavery. It was not settle until 1t. too, went into the constitu- the moral development of the people with this issue, which will never be settled until 1t is put in the Consti- tution."
 Mir. Thompson is good citizen. an intelligent and pure man. and his views on any subject are entitled to respect. His comparison of "epochs" Is singuiarly unfortunate for his case. He unwittinxiy recalls the evils Of a similar propaganda for the moral development of the people" In the slavery epoch" the abolitionist in- sisted the institution of slavery pre- scented merely a moral issue." which should be settled by outsiders. just as many good people now say that the amendment presents a purely moral issue. which should be settled with- out regard to the rights, needs or con- ditions of the localities concerned. Thousands at the North and a few at the South insisted that the Constitu- ton should be changed to extirpate the moral evil in slavery. just as peo- pie now urge the State Constitution should be changed to carry forward a moral issue. by changing the nature of men by laws and extirpating she whiskey evil. Wise and conservative men then. as now. impiored the agi- tators to take some thought of the rights of the people immediately con- cerned. to govern their domestic af- fairs as they thought best They pleaded that forcible or sudden eman- cipation would bring curses in its train far worse than the moral evil" of slavery. They were not needed. The world knows the result of the moral issue"
 The Supreme Court of the United States was denounced in those days. for the same reasons and under the influence of the same passions which make it impossible for the leaders of the present propaganda to refrain in these days from denovncing the Su- preme Court of the State. A United States Court which protects inter. state commerce. where a whiskey shipment Is involved, Is denounced as bitterly now as were the United States Courts in the days of old for returning fugitive slaves. Preachers then made their pulpits ring with con- tinua1 denunciation of the 'pro-siav- cry movement" just as they now use their pulpits to denounce the pro- liquor movement" It mattered not then that the men who opposed inter- ference with their domestic institu. tions. were fighting for constitutional liberty and the best interests of their homes. and the right tos solve the problems confronting em around their hearthstones. in the way they thought best. The same issues are involved now in the constitutional amendment and what lays behind 1t. The reference to the epoch of Jef. forson in enforcing the separation Of church and State is still more unfor. tunate. in a speech made in a church. Jefferson did not separate church and State. until he forced the church out of politics and took from 1t the reve- nues of the glebe lands. The reasons for which he then confiscatsd their revenues to the use of the State, would compel him now. if he were now in Alabama. to insist that 1t Is just as fatal to true religious liberty in this day for the church to collect and dis purse revenues from assessments and contributions for the cause,' as It was in the old days for the church to have or spend the revenues from the glebe lands. Appomattox. not a constitutional amendment, killed slav- cry. The mode in which that moral | issue" was settled. left behind 1t train of ills to curse our people for years. which could have been avoided if common sense and not fanaticism had controlled.
 Some other epoch must be recalled to bolster up the present movement. --ss-
 THE MARTIAN PROBLEM.
 Astronomers are making great