The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-28
OLD METHODS IN NEW FORM.

In the days of old. in the abolition crusade. wenwen Phillips led in the assaults upon the Constitution. and the Supreme Court of the United States which construed 1t. In the present day, Brooks Lawrence leads in the crusade against the Constitution of the state and the Supreme Court of the State which construes it.
 Wendell Phillips bitterly denounced the Constitution of the United States "as a covenant with hell and a league cry. "a great moral evil" He could find no epithet too vile to apply to the high tribunal which construed the Con- | stitution. Brooks Lawrence denounces the Supreme Court of the State as part of a 'pimp and hariot domination" be- cause 1t, too. stands for the Constitu- | tion. He demands an instant change In the Constitution of the State. In l spite of the appeals of good men of all I question upon the people now. he la bors in and out of season to work his
 will. and. finally, by artfuliy playing upon the ambition of a Governor in office. and the ambition of men who wish to be Governor. he brings them to his aid and plagues the people with | his amendment. . Wendell Phillips insisted all during the Civil War that the Southern peo- pie were devoting their sons to slaugh- ter, and their women and children to I suffering and poverty from no better motive or higher purpose than to make chattels out of human beings. He in. sisted slavery. and slavery alone. was the cause of the war Every thinking man knows slavery was not the real cause of the war. It and the diverse interests q brought about were only excH'.Ig incidents which caused the -culmination of the strife. The Consti- tuition of the United States recognized slavery. Dealing with 1t in its own way. the South would have evolved the best remedy for the situation by grad ual emancipation. The agitstors on the outside demanded force and instant emancipation. They assaulted the right of a State under the Consultation to control its own domestic institu- tions, and boldly avowed they would tear the Constitution of the United States to tatters to effect their ends Finally. the Southern people were forced in self-proection to withdraw from the Union. They were lighting for the constitutional right to control their own homes and iresides. and slavery was merely an incident. Nevertheless. agitators and defamers of the South. for years have endeavored to write 1t down in history that the South's mo- tive was not to protect it's liberties and rights. but to uphold slavery.
 Brooks Lawrence renews the old abolition cry In another shape. He leads, and many follow. in denouncing thousands of good men. probably a majority of the voters at this time. as allies of the demon rum." and engaged in the devils work of bringing back the saloon." because they oppose the amendment. Wendell Phillips knew. though slavery was not the cause of the war. If the Confederates won. it meant the continuation of slavery, or rather, the right of the people con- cerned, to deal with 1t as they thought best, and to guard their homes against calamities worse than slavery. result. ing from the sudden emancipation of a race of slaves. Brooks Lawrence has not even that excuse. He knows the defeat of his amendment cannot possibly lessen the right of the people to deal with the saloon. and will not change in one iota a line of a single statute regulating the liquor traffic
 Catch words and shibboleths cannot cloud great principle. Such islanders upon the motives of his fellowmen can not stem the tide against the amend ment It will be defeated because the great majority of the people. whether they be prohibitionists, local option ists or high license men, are united in the opinion that the ferocity Of the measure. is unparalleled in Its far reaching consequences, and utterly de- structive of the best interests of the State. It can not stem the tide of popular disgust at the use of moral issue" as a football in a political game. planned and umpired by few selfish leaders. to promote the personal ambition of few men and to continue politico- clerical dynasty In Ala bama.
 Puts S2O,OOO Into Hen Hotel.
 New York Press.
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