CHAPTER XXIII

THE CONFLICT IS A WAR-NOT A BATTLE

No legal question, involving a proposition of funsettled until cor

ever power, is

damental rectly decided.

For over two hundred and forty years human slavery was tolerated on American soil, and was regarded as lawful for seventy-five years after George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States. It was, indirectly, at least, recognized in the federal constitution, in the clause in reference to the apportionment of representatives and direct taxes; it was directly and expressly sanctioned by numerous congressional enactments; it was approved in many state constitutions; it was frequently endorsed by Acts of state legislatures; it was often adjudged to be lawful by inferior courts, both federal and state, by state supreme courts, and most emphatically so by the Supreme Court of the United States; but all of these combined could not and did not settle the question. It involved a question of fundamental governmental power, and it could not be settled. until it was rightly determined.

Questions of fundamental governmental power are bottomed and based upon the principles of the moral law, the eternal and unchangeable principles of right and wrong, and the enlightened human conscience, is the supreme judge of such questions. An honest conscience, in harmony with the law of its Eternal Maker, never approves a moral wrong.

So, while the national congress, state legislatures and courts of high and low degree declared human slavery to be lawful, they utterly failed to settle the question on that theory. Such declarations were impotent to appease the righteous conscience of the liberty-loving and God-fearing people of a government, whose prenatal foundation is the equality of the rights of all men.

In its efforts to quiet the storm of opposition and protest against the blighting curse, congress, under the guiding and controlling hand of Henry Clay, was kept so busy framing and adopting compromises, that the great commoner of Kentucky is known in history as the "Compromiser" or "Peace Maker," but none of his compromises were effective, and all of his efforts to still the turbulent sentiments of opposition were futile. Each effort added fuel to the flames and kindled afresh the determination of the disciples of 1776 to secure a just recognition of the assumed principles of the Declaration of Independence and of the constitution.

They were guided by the spirit of the proverbial statement of Abraham Lincoln, that, "The government can not permanently endure half slave and half free." And, never until it was decreed that this is wholly a free-man's government, was the slavery question settled. It was settled then, because it was rightly determined—adjudged in conformity with the doctrine that all men are endowed by the Creator with equal rights. Infamous and odious, as was human slavery, yet, it was as harmless as a pet lamb, as innocent as a new-born babe, when compared with the red saloon dragon,

which stalks boldly, arrogantly, defiantly and insolently throughout the land, entrenched behind and protected by, not the law, but legislative enactments in the guise and garb of the law.

Courts may adjudge, judges decide, lawyers assert and newspapers affirm that such enactments are the law, but, all of them united, will never settle the question that way, but they will deepen and intensify the opposition to the iniquitous curse until it shall be swept from the face of the earth, and then the saloon question will be settled, because it will be rightly decided. The government can no more permanently endure half drunk and half sober, half "wet" and half "dry," half license and half anti-license, than it could "half slave and half free."

But the conflict can not be won in a single engagement; it is not a battle, but a protracted, bitter war. The anti-slavery heroes were frequently repulsed both before and during the test of arms from '61 to '65. If a single engagement were to have determined the fortunes of war, Bull Run would have closed the incident, but,

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Bull Run was the event of supreme inspiration to the Union forces; it was the event that aroused

the Herculean strength of the champions of the gospel of equal rights for all men. The Dred Scott decision and the battle of Bull Run could not and did not change wrong to right.

The anti-saloon forces have had their Bull Run and their Dred Scott decision, but they have not changed falsehood into truth nor wrong into right.

We have passed the Gettysburg. of the conflict, and the open defenders of the saloon are becoming as scarce as the open defenders of slavery.

The brewers, the distillers and the saloon keepers" are all apologizing; they are confessing that conditions are deplorable; they are promising to reform; but they never thought to repent until the rising tide of an indignant public sentiment has ominously threatened the annihilation of the whole business. Even, under such conditions, their greed obscures their vision, and each seeks to shift the blame to the other.

recently attempted to He said that "beer is It is cooling, and is

An Indianapolis brewer plead guilty for the distiller. really a temperance drink. beneficial as a food. It is whisky that makes the drunkards and the wrecks; that creates the disease known as appetite; that fires the passions, frenzies the brain and causes the nameless crimes and wrongs that are charged, without a just discernment, against the traffic as a whole, when they should be charged to the whisky saloon alone."

In reply to this, and, in defense of his branch of the trade, a Louisville distiller entered the following plea of guilty for the brewer: "Every one bears testimony that no man can drink beer safely; that it is

an injury to anyone who uses it in any quantity, and that its effect on the general health is far worse than that of whisky, clogging his liver, rotting his kidneys, decaying his heart and arteries, stupefying and starving his brain, choking his lungs and bronchia, loading his body with dropsied fluids and unwholesome fat, fastening upon him rheumatism, erysipelas, and all manner of painful and disgusting diseases, and finally dragging him to his grave when other men are in their prime of mental and bodily vigor."

While the traffic, as a whole, concedes that it is indefensible, and each branch of it seeks to shift the responsibility to the other, the saloon has one steadfast, conspicuous, but not consistent, defender, the Indiana Supreme Court.

In 1855, the court said that it knew, as a matter of general knowledge, and was capable of judicially asserting the fact, that the use of beer and other intoxicating liquors, as a beverage, is not necessarily hurtful, any more than the use of lemonade or icecream; that such intoxicating beverages were created by the Almighty to promote the social hilarity and enjoyment of men.

At that time, in the exercise of its general knowledge and judicial capability, the court declared that God was the original first brewer and distiller, and that he created the business to promote the social hilarity and enjoyment of the human race; that the inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, secured by the constitution, include the right to use intoxicating liquor as much as they include the right to wear clothes, to select the