The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1909-07-29

l nave just COuS dClOsS IAS '
ington Sentinel of November IL,
1901, containing an open letter from
President Davis expressing his sentl-
ments on the subject of prohibition,
in answer to a request of the editor
and written during the Texas prohi-
bition campaign of 1887.
Coming from the source it does, l
think the republication at this time
In The State would not be inappro-
pirate and l send it to you for the
purpose.
w. H. FABER.
Charleston, S. c.
"Beauvoir, Miss, July 20.
'Col. F. B. Lubbock.
my Dear Friend: Yours OF the
18th instant, with Enclosures, has
been received. 1 have heretofore de-
clined to answer any Of the many in
Quiries made for my opinion on the
constitutional amendment now pend
ing in Texas. My reason for not re-
plying wa san unwillingness to enter
into a controversy in which my
friends in Texas stood arrayed
against each other. In departing from
the rule heretofore observed, trust
that it will not be an unwarrantable
Intrusion.
Reared in the creed of Demcc-
racy, my faith in its tenets has grown
with it's growth, and I adhere to the
maxim that the world is governed
too much When our fathers achiev-
ed their independence, the corner
stone of the government they con-
structed was individual liberty, and
the social organization they establish
ed was not for the surrender but for
tie protection of natural rights. For
this governments were established,
deriving their just powers from the
consent Of the governed. This
was not to subject themselves to the
will of the majority as appears from
the fact that each community insert
ed in it's fundamental law bill of
rights to guard the inalienable pri-
vileges of the individual. There was
then, a two-fold purpose in govern
ment, protection and prevention
against trespass by the strong upon
the weak, the many many upon the
few.
s'The world has long suffered from
the expressions of government under
pretext of ruling by divine right, and
excusing the invasion into private
and domestic affairs on the plea of
paternal care for the morals and
good order of the people. Our
sires rejected all such pretentions,
their system being government by
the people, for the people, and rest
Ing on the basis of national, inalien-
able rights. Upon the basis of these
general proportions I will briefly
answer the inquiry in regard to the
probition amendment at issue.
r'Be ye temperate in all things
was a wise Injunction, and would ap-
ply to intolerance as well as to
drunkenness. That the Incorporate
use of intoxicating liquors is an evil
few if any will deny. That it is the
root of many social disorders is con-
ceded, but then the question arises:
what is the appropriate remedy, and
what the present necessity? To de-
stroy individual liberty and moral
responsibility would be to eradicate
one evil by the substitution Of anoth-
er, which it is submitted would be
more fatal than that for which it was
offered as a remedy. The abuse and
not the use Of stimulants, it must be
confessed, is the evil to be remedied.
Then it clearly follows that action
should clearly be directed against
the abuse rather than the use Of IL
Quor. If drunkenness be the cause
Of disorder and crime, why not pro-
nounce drunkenness itself to be a
crime, and attach to it proper and
adequate penalties? If it be objected
that the penalties could not be en-
forced, that is an admission that
popular opinion would be opposed to
the law; but if it be true that iuries
could not be empaneled who would
convict so degraded a criminal as a
drunkard it necessarily follows that
a statutory prohibition against the
sale and use of intoxicants would be
q dead letter.
"The next branch Of the inquiry is
as to the present necessity. I might
appeal to men not so old as myself,
to sustain the assertion that the cor
vivial use of intoxicants and the oc-
nnrrenco of drunkenness had hecome