DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
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CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 https ;//archive.org/details/constitutionalam01fost 
 
Constitutional Amendment 
 
 N' 
 
 MANUAL. 
 
 CONTAINING ARGUMENT, APPEAL, PETITIONS, FORMS 
 OF CONSTITUTION, CATECHISM AND GENERAL 
 DIRECTIONS FOR ORGANIZED WORK 
 
 FOR 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION, 
 
 J. ELLEN FOSTER, 
 
 Superintendent of Department of Legislation of the 
 Christian Temperance Union. 
 
 k 
 
 ’Oman's National 
 
 “Statesmanship consists rather in removing the causes than in punishing or evading 
 results.” — James A. Garfield. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 National Temperance Society and Publication House, 
 
 58 READE STREET. 
 
 1882. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1882, BY 
 
 The National Temperance Society and Publication House. 
 
 Edward O. Jenkins, 
 
 Printer and Stereotyper, 
 
 20 North Williafft Street^ New Vorh. 
 
To my dear husband, at whose suggestion and earnest entreaty 
 I begun my work in the study and practice of the law, 07i the pub- 
 lic platforiJi a7td hi association with the Wo7nan's Christian 
 Te77tpera7ice Unio7i, a7id whose hearty co-operatio7i aiid approval 
 have been a consta7it source of e7icourage77ient aiid support ; a7id 
 to my beloved so7is. Will, and E7nory, who, to the 77teasure of their 
 opportunity, have shared the work, with its privations a7id its 
 joys ; to these three, who 77ii7iister at our blessed ho7ne altar, do I 
 dedicate these desires of 77iy heart, these thoughts of 77iy brain, with 
 the prayer that always, as now, their shibboleth 7nay be for God, 
 and Ho7ne, and Native Land. 
 
V 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I DESIRE to render what assistance is in my power 
 to temperance workers in the various States, who 
 desire to join the movement for Constitutional Pro- 
 hibition, with enforcing statutes in both State and 
 Nation. 1 sincerely believe this to be the work ol 
 this day and age. I thank God that He has given 
 me life in this glorious time, to work while the days 
 last in my purpose. To help you, kind friend, to 
 work, is the object of this little pamphlet. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 J. Ellen Foster, 
 
 Clinton, It^jua. 
 

 
 
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Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 The movement for Constitutional Prohibition, so 
 general at this time throughout the entire country, 
 winning as it does the approbation of philanthropists 
 and the co-operation of Christians, also demands the 
 calm study of all temperance workers. Those who 
 lead in so glorious a struggle must understand fully 
 the magnitude of the evil fought, its entrenchments 
 in appetite and avarice, in social custom and unright- 
 eous law ; thev must see the broad field of the entire 
 war and understand the scope of the present cam- 
 paign. Let it never be said of our hosts, “ they per- 
 ished for lack of knowledge.” 
 
 THE CAUSE AS IT NOW STANDS. 
 
 Tne Amendment Campaign does not discuss the 
 •simple question of total abstinence. A 11 temperance or- 
 ganizations — except, perhaps, an occasional unimpor- 
 tant one — stand upon this platform, but the claim for 
 Constitutional Prohibition does not of necessity rest 
 upon a recognition of the necessity of total absti- 
 nence. The proposed prohibitory amendments to 
 State Constitutions deal with the traffic in its rela- 
 tion to the individual and society. Temperance 
 organizations deal with the individual in his relation 
 to society and the State. The case then may be en- 
 titled. 
 
10 
 
 Constitutional Proltibitio7i. 
 
 THE PEOPLE versus THE LIQUOR CRIME. 
 
 The people claim that prohibitory legislation is 
 necessar}^ to material prosperity, is sanctioned by 
 political economy, is sustained by enlightened juris- 
 prudence, and is demanded by sound morality ; and 
 further, they propose to incorporate the conclusion 
 thus reached — after years of experience in the study 
 and conflict of the forces that go to make up civil 
 society — into the Constitution of the State. 
 
 They consider this principle so vital that the}'' 
 desire to place it beyond the tricks of politicians, the 
 machinations of demagogues and the price of hire- 
 lings. 
 
 It is answered by the defendants, that the principle 
 of prohibitory legislation is opposed to personal lib- 
 erty, that it is a removal of the work of “ moral 
 reform ” from the philanthropist and the Christian to 
 the politician "and the jailor; that it will destroy 
 large business interests, and throw many men out of 
 employment, that it will not accomplish the desired 
 end, but will, on the contrary, increase drunkenness, 
 pauperism and crime. It is further claimed, that if 
 the principle of prohibition were in itself correct, it 
 ought not to be of constitutional law, but of statutory 
 legislation only. 
 
 In SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE’S CLAIM we State, 
 that so long as “ the love of money is the root of all 
 evil,” so long will men argue that prohibitory liquor 
 laws are opposed to the interests of any community, 
 not that they are so opposed, but because the invest- 
 ment of a little capital in manufacturing and selling 
 brings such great returns, and because the large reve- 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 II 
 
 nue to nation and State seem to the careless observer 
 to be a real source of wealth. What are the sources 
 of a nation’s wealth ? We answer. Land and labor. 
 Political economists may classify otherwise ; they 
 may speak of agriculture, trade, commerce, of mines, 
 and fisheries, of railroads and steamships, but these 
 all may come under the two broad divisions I have 
 given, land and labor. The land is the gift of God— 
 our beautiful prairies have been filling up through 
 the centuries, each adding its accumulations to the 
 last. The mines, those wondrous pockets of the 
 earth, have been filled by no accident of nature, but 
 are careful treasuries stored by the Father for his 
 needy children. The trees in the forest, the fish in 
 the sea, the cattle upon a thousand hills, these but 
 wait man’s wish, they are his to possess. The subtle 
 forces of nature ; steam, electricity, light, sound, the 
 gases and the common air, come and go at call. It is 
 his labor of hand or of brain that yokes them to his 
 triumphal chariot. Whatever then increases the 
 earth’s richness or aids in its development, whatever 
 subjugates the forces of nature, whatever increases 
 man’s power of brain to think, his skill of hand to 
 expcute, his force of muscle to endure, this is a 
 source of wealth. The farmer -who wins from the 
 earth the golden harvest, the product of its richness, 
 the glory of the sun, the freshening of the rain, and 
 his honest toil, he is a source of wealth, he gives the 
 people food. The lumberman who fells the forest 
 tree, the miller who gives us a pile of boards, the 
 carpenter who builds a house by so much as lumber 
 is better than logs, and houses than lumber, by so 
 much do they benefit society. The common laborer 
 
12 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 who plows in the field or digs in the mine, who 
 catches fish from the sea, adds to the common welfare, 
 and to the common comfort; the tradesman who 
 brings to our door the manufactured article, of neces- 
 sity or of luxury, these supply our need and give us 
 joy. The educator, by his study of intellectual 
 faculties and their training in the world’s work, is a 
 source of wealth beyond compare ; the minister of 
 God, who by the promised joys of Heaven and 
 possible pains of Hell, induces men to lead upright 
 lives ; he also increases the wealth of the body 
 politic. 
 
 Behold the world’s work-shop, its actual and 
 possible sources of wealth ! Bringing the liquor 
 traffic to tliis test, we find that it destroys the grain 
 that ought to be used as food for man or beast, and 
 lessens or wholly destroys the ability to labor with 
 hand or brain. Baron Liebig, the German chemist, 
 says : “ There is not as much nourishment in eight 
 quarts of Bavarian beer as in the barley that might 
 lie on the point of a table-knife.’’ The International 
 Congress of ph3^sicians which met in Philadelphia in 
 the year 1876, said, “ We find alcohol has no appre- 
 ciable food value.” The essential value of grain tl^en 
 being its food value, and this being destroyed b}' the 
 distiller and the brewer, we are justified in saying that 
 the grain is destro3’ed by the distiller and the 
 brewer. But it does more than this, the product of 
 this destruction, the manufactured article, injures 
 man’s ability to labor, it actually weakens the mus- 
 cles, and so deranges ph^^sical functions as to impair 
 health and shorten human life. This is true, not 
 only of the drunkard, but of the moderate drinker. 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 13 
 
 Thus we conclude that the two sources of a nation’s 
 wealth are lessened or destroyed by the liquor 
 traffic, and thus national prosperity demands the ban- 
 ishment of the liquor traffic. 
 
 THE SANCTION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. ' 
 
 Having considered the liquor traffic in its relations 
 to material prosperity, we have laid the foundation 
 for the sanction of political economy, for political 
 economy is merely a wise distribution of the nation’s 
 resources. That intemperance is a most prolific 
 source of pauperism, insanity, and crime need but be 
 stated. The common observation of mankind and 
 the testimony of society’s official guardians — the 
 courts, the penal and the charitable institutions of 
 the State-all agree in this. Does not wise political 
 economy then as well as Christian philanthropy de- 
 mand that the cause of this wanton profligacy, this 
 outrageous waste of men and money be stopped? 
 Surely he who denies this has not studied even the 
 primer of political economy. But what of enlight- 
 ened jurisprudence, and sound morals? Have they 
 any voice in this decision ? Have they any demands 
 or commands in this contest? 
 
 PHILANTHROPY AND REVELATION. 
 
 When we consider the liquor crime, from a moral 
 standpoint, when we try its character and fruits by 
 the light of philanthropy or of revelation, its con- 
 demnation is sure and final. The destruction of 
 health, of happiness, of the home, of the glory of 
 manhood, the beauty of womanhood, the innocence 
 
14 Constitutioytal Prohibition. 
 
 of childhood, the blasting of individual character, the 
 blighting of society relationships, and the poisoning 
 of even the Church of God; all this catalogue of 
 woes is set forth in letters burned into the earth’s 
 greenness. 
 
 And every voice unites in this sad chorus in minor 
 tone, “ it’s wrong, it’s wrong.’’ 
 
 That this traffic in alcoholic beverages is the source 
 and universal ally of intemperance, all persons must 
 admit. All the States of the Union have confessed 
 
 THE NEED OF SOME LEGISLATIVE REMEDY. 
 
 The law-making power in all civilized countries 
 recognizing this evil, has attempted a suppression of 
 the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, 
 or has sought by civil and criminal processes to 
 cover the injury wrought or punish for the wrong 
 done. These laws have been termed license, local 
 option or prohibitory according as their provisions 
 have dealt with the subject. The histoiy of these 
 laws, their enactment and enforcement is a history of 
 the battle between civilization and progress on the 
 one hand and barbarism and usurpation on the otheii 
 
 In the contest we behold an oligarchy ; 500,000 
 men engaged in the liquor traffic with their S3'mpa- 
 thizers and supporters arraj^ed against all the forces, 
 individual, civil, and moral that make for righteous- 
 ness. Every State in the union in its present legis- 
 lation concedes the necessity of some legislative 
 remedy. The only difference of opinion among law- 
 makers being, which is best in principle and in re- 
 sults. I said the only difference of opinion among 
 “ law-makers,’’ I should have said between statesmen, 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 1 5 
 
 for law-makers are not always statesmen, and stat- 
 utes are not always subjected to the test of right, 
 principle and beneficial result, but too often to the 
 touch-stone of political expediency and personal gain. 
 But all these laws confess the need of some legis- 
 lative intervention. 
 
 THE OBJECT OF LEGISLATION. 
 
 The object of legislation against the liquor traffic 
 is twofold. On the side of the individual making it 
 easy to do right and hard to do wrong, and on the 
 side of societ}'’ warding off the actual and possible 
 results of the liquor crime. 
 
 The primary object of this legislation oyi the side ^ 
 of the individual, is to protect the young from the 
 allurements of the saloon ; such of them as are free 
 from an entailed appetite, may never know its ter- 
 rible power ; but they who bear even in infanc}’^ and 
 childhood the woful verdict of nature’s violated 
 laws, to these it becomes doubly the duty of the State 
 to present the best possible social conditions for their 
 speedy relief and final deliverance. Also, it is the ^ 
 duty of the State to remove temptation from the in- 
 ebriate, from the man who cries out “ Who shall de- 
 liver me from the body of this death,” who would 
 gladly abstain from the cause of his ruin, but who, 
 with a raging appetite, with an enfeebled will, and 
 with the tempter always at hand, is carried wildly 
 on to his untimely grave. iVnd, too, the home, as 
 the smallest community of individuals, needs protec- 
 tion. Shall any voice attempt to echo the desola- 
 tions of the home which are the direct and indirect 
 results of this liquor crime? Are not our ears grown 
 
1 6 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 deaf with the sad strains of women worse than 
 widowed, and children more than orphaned? Do 
 not our hearts ache to breaking at the ever present 
 sight of so much misery ? Has the State any duty 
 to these ? 
 
 THE PROTECTION OF SOCIETY. 
 
 On the side of society there inheres in the very ex- 
 istence of the body politic the right o f self-protection . 
 Even as an individual may save his own life at the 
 risk of other lives, and is protected by the law in so 
 doing, so may societ}^ protect itself from the injury 
 resultant upon the traffic in alcoholic beverages. 
 The extent to which an individual may go in self- 
 protection is determined by his apprehension of im- 
 minent danger. Upon the trial of such a cause in a 
 civil court, it is not necessary to show that there 
 really was imminent danger to life and limb, but that 
 the individual thought there was such danger. Thus 
 with the State ; if the danger from this liquor crime 
 is not great or imminent, the State may endeavor to 
 suppress or regulate the traffic, by a judicious license 
 law, while not attempting its entire overthrow. But 
 if there be imminent danger to the life of the State, 
 then the traffic ought to be wholly destroyed which 
 can only be done by 
 
 ENTIRE LEGAL PROHIBITION. 
 
 The same rule applies to the State as to the indi- 
 vidual. The term “ body politic ” is not an idle phrase 
 for rhetorical effect. It is truthful and. significant. 
 That which in the individual is called the instinct of 
 self-preservation, when considered as existing or be- 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 17 
 
 ing exercised by the State, is termed the “ police 
 power” of the State. It is exercised in many ways 
 of which quarantine laws, sanitary regulations, and 
 dog ordinances are familiar illustrations. The au- 
 thority that inspects buildings as to their mechanical 
 and architectual safety, that smells about sewers and 
 condemns defective drainage, that removes and de- 
 stroys diseased meats, decaying vegetables, sour 
 berries, that same power may, if it choose, condemn 
 and destroy sour mash and rotten barley. The au- 
 thority that prohibits the sale of fire-crackers may 
 prohibit the sale of fire-water. Prohibitory legisla- 
 tion merely seeks to do with intemperance what 
 other penal statutes do toward the evils with which 
 the}' deal. 
 
 Human law can never eradicate the sin of the 
 human heart, it can never wholly cure the vices of 
 society, but it can largely suppress crime. In the 
 language of Gladstone, “ It can make it hard to do 
 wrong and easy to do right.” This is the scope of 
 prohibitory legislation. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PROHIBITORY LAWS. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States is recog- 
 nized authority, its decisions are final. 
 
 With surprising unanimity has decision after de- 
 cision been given, ail assuming the constitutionality 
 of the restrictive and prohibitory laws of the various 
 States. Not only so, but the text-books of study, the 
 commentaries on the science of civil law, every where 
 set forth this inherent State Right. The relation of 
 the States to the General Government, the constitu- 
 tional limitations of each, is a most interesting study 
 
l8 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 to even summarize which would require more time 
 than this paper allows. I content myself with giving' 
 the quotation from authorities which have become 
 as familiar as nursery rhymes to the student of the 
 legal phases of this question. They are often quoted 
 in temperance addresses, and are given in all treatises 
 that claim to be in any degree comprehensive. Here 
 let me interpolate a story that is told of a youth who 
 had begun the study of law. After a few days he 
 came to something he did not understand, and de- 
 clared he did not agree with Mr. Blackstone. That 
 was years ago, and Blackstone’s judicial ermine is 
 still the pride of all English-speaking lands. The 
 brewer, the saloon-keeper, the drinker, may talk 
 about an interference with his personal liberty, but 
 the law utters its injunctions all unconscious of his 
 groundless protest. 
 
 ‘ Let a man,’ says 'Blackstone, ‘ be ever so abandoned in his 
 principles, or vicious in his practice, provided he keeps his 
 wickedness to himself, and does not offend against the rules of 
 public decency, he is out of reach of human laws. But if he 
 makes his vices public, though they be such as seem principally 
 to affect himself (as drunkenness, or the like), they then be- 
 come, by the bad example they set, of pernicious effect to so- 
 ciety ; and, therefore, it is then the business of human laws to 
 correct them ’ (I 124). 
 
 “ ‘ The Government may, by general regulations, interdict 
 such uses of property as would create nuisances, and become 
 dangerous to the lives or health, or peace, or comfort of citizens. 
 Unwholesome trades, slaughter-houses, operations offensive to 
 the senses, the deposite of powder, the building with com- 
 bustible materials, and the burial of the dead may be inter- 
 dicted by law, in the midst of dense masses of population, on 
 the general and rational principle that every person ought to 
 use his property as not to injure his neighbors, and that private 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 19 
 
 interest must be made subservient to the general interest of the 
 community’ (2 Kent, 345). 
 
 In pursuance of this judicial authority, and in ans- 
 wer to the demands of society, groaning under the 
 load of evils resultant upon the manufacture and sale 
 of intoxicating liquors, the States have passed pro- 
 hibitory and restrictive laws; adjudicated cases aris- 
 ing under these various laws are numerous. In the 
 fifth volume of “ Howard’s Reports” (being reports 
 of cases tried before the Supreme Court of the 
 United States), these are grouped for convenient 
 references, and are called “license cases.” 
 
 Hear this from Justice Grier: 
 
 “ It is not necessary to array the appalling statistics of misery, 
 pauperism, and crime which have their origin in the use and 
 abuse of ardent spirits. The police power which is exclusively 
 in the State, incompetent to the correction of these great evils 
 and all measures of restraint or prohibition necessary to effect 
 that purpose, are within the scope of that authority, and if a 
 loss of revenue should occur to the United States from a dimin- 
 ished consumption of ardent spirits she will be a gainer a thou- 
 sand fold in the health, wealth, and happiness of her people.” 
 
 And this from Chief-Justice Taney : 
 
 “ And if arty States decree the retail and internal traffic in 
 ardent spirits injurious to its citizens and calculated to produce 
 idleness, vice, or debauchery, I see nothing in the Constitution 
 of the United States to prevent it from regulating and restrain- 
 ing the traffic, or from prohibiting it altogether, if it thinks 
 proper. Of the wisdom of this policy it is not my purpose or 
 province to speak. Upon that subject each State must decide 
 for itself. I speak only of the restrictions which the Consti- 
 tution and laws of the United States have imposed upon the 
 States.” 
 
 After such legal authority and grave judicial opin- 
 
20 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 ion, the pusillanimous attempts of small lawyers and 
 ward politicians to attack prohibitory legislation from 
 a legal standpoint, command our pity and deserve 
 our contempt. Both of these sentiments should, how- 
 ever, be restrained, for we are all weak somewhere, 
 on some side, and we must give the charity we ask. 
 
 These opinions clearly show that there is no force 
 in the sometimes intended reproach, that these tem- 
 perance people are impracticable, that they may have 
 standing in moral principle, but not in law, that they 
 are well-meaning people, but they do not understand 
 all the legal principles involved. We answer, that 
 we consider our standing in morals immovable ; we 
 believe there are no foundations so sure as those of 
 God’s expressed will. From this “strong tower” 
 can we make our battle, but if our enemies call us 
 forth, if they pitch their tents on the plains of civil 
 jurisprudence, we will meet them there, and on their 
 chosen field, and with their selected weapons, will we 
 vanquish them. 
 
 THE SANCTION OF GOD’S LAW. 
 
 Underneath the tower of God’s revealed will is His 
 eternal truth. This strong foundation underlies 
 all permanent systems of human jurisprudence, and 
 among the rubbish of human laws, among the civil 
 instftutions that have asked a place in the world’s re- 
 cognition, none have endured in blessings to the 
 human race but such as are built upon this truth. 
 
 The announcement of Revelation, “ He that sin- 
 neth against me wrongeth his own soul,” “All they 
 that hate me love death,” “ The soul that sinneth it 
 shall die,” “ Woe to him that buildeth a town with 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 21 
 
 blood, that establisheth a city with iniquity,” “ Woe to 
 them that call evil good and good evil, that justify 
 the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteous- 
 ness of the righteous from him.” These are not 
 arbitrary commands, not cruel fiats of sovereignty; 
 they are the voice of infinite wisdom and love, reveal- 
 ing a condition of things pre-existant and external. 
 This condition of things the common observation 
 of mankind and the voice of history confirm. How 
 heart-breaking is the thought that so many indi- 
 viduals, and in so many instances nations will try the 
 experiment of an utter disregard of these truths, a 
 violation of these conditions. May we not in some 
 sense understand the wail of the royal Psalmist. “ My 
 people would not hearken to my voice and Israel 
 would none of me, so I gave them up unto their own 
 hearts’ lusts, and they walked in their own counsels. 
 O that my people had hearkened unto me and walked 
 in my ways; I should soon have subdued their ene- 
 mies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.” 
 Can we not also catch a glimpse of the anguish of 
 the world’s Redeemer, when He cried with tender 
 pathos, in which is blended infinite wisdom and un- 
 utterable love : “ Father, forgive them, for they know 
 not what they do.” 
 
 Has it seemed unnecessary to support our demand 
 for prohibitory legislation in this new movement for 
 Constitutional Prohibition? A little consideration 
 will show that the same principles are involved in 
 this new movement, as in the claim set up by the 
 grand old prohibitionists of more than a quarter of a 
 century ago. The only new question involved is 
 this : 
 
22 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 IS r'^OHIBITION THE PROPER SUBJECT OF CONSTITU- 
 TIONAL LAW? 
 
 We answer, in simple language: Because this 
 is a government of the people, by the people, and 
 for the people, and the Constitution is the expression 
 of their will in government, and because they desire 
 to do so. 
 
 Let us review some of the lessons learned when 
 we '-('ere boys and girls at school. The constitution 
 of a State is the agreement and arrangement of the 
 people in the State as to mutual rights and obliga- 
 tions, it is a setting forth of the principles by which 
 they desire to be governed and a division and defin- 
 ition of the functions of the legislative, the judicial, 
 and the executive departments of the government. 
 
 Our form of government is not a pure Democracy. 
 This would be practically impossible in States so 
 populous as are those of the United States. All the 
 people could not meet together in a common place to 
 consider common subjects of legislation. There is 
 no place large enpugh to hold the people. They 
 could not all be heard, even if they should thus as- 
 semble, and the time and trouble of coming together 
 would be very great. Further than this, all the peo- 
 ple do not know about everything ; the details of civil 
 affairs and the minutiae of the administration of gov- 
 ernmental principles are an elaborate stud}'. All the 
 people can not take time, neither have they the qual- 
 ifications requisite to do this. So they say, “ We will 
 set forth in a document called a constitution, a few 
 great principles and a few regulations, and we will 
 elect certain men from our number who shall give 
 
Constittitional Prohibition. 
 
 23 
 
 the application of these principles and the finer de- 
 tails of governmental affairs their closest study and 
 their most careful attention. We will call these men 
 our Senators and Representatives, and they shall go 
 every one or two years to the State capital, and devote 
 their time and thoughts to this duty. There are 
 always men ready to go ! They are so self-sacrificing ! 
 so unselfish ! so willing to devote themselves to the 
 public good. The regulations made in detail by these 
 representatives of the people are called statutes. 
 They are supposed to embody the letter and spirit of 
 the Constitution. Indeed, no statute has any right to 
 be, unless it guard a right or give redress for wrong 
 either expressed or implied in the Constitution. The 
 constitution limits by its provisions the power of the 
 Legislature ; beyond it legislators can not go, within 
 its limitations their power is absolute. If at any 
 time a Legislature should ignorantly or viciously pass 
 a statute, not in harmony with the Constitution, the 
 judiciary — a department of the government created 
 and defined by the Constitution — would declare it 
 null and void, because unconstitutional. 
 
 It is the duty of the executive, from the governor 
 down to the least policeman, to enforce the people’s 
 will thus expressed and elaborated. How beautifully 
 do these functions of government operate within the 
 limit of the Constitution. Constitutional provisions 
 are broad and general ; they are such as may touch 
 all the people of the State, and such as are deemed 
 by the people of supreme and vital importance to the 
 State. They relate to such subjects as the people 
 are unwilling to leave to the uncertain and fluctuat- 
 ing influences of Legislatures under the possible con- 
 
24 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 trol of partisan interests. Judged by this test is not 
 the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intox- 
 icating liquors the proper subject of constitutional 
 law ? Are not the evils of intemperance broad and 
 general, do not they threaten all our people every- 
 where, is any home safe, is an}^ mother’s boy out of 
 range of the shot and shell of the enemy? Further, 
 is not the material loss to the State and the violation 
 of every right principle of political economy a suffi- 
 cient justification for the most emphatic and perma- 
 nent expression of the people’s will concerning the 
 traffic that thus endangers the home and the State ; 
 and further yet, does not the history of legislation in 
 State and nation teach us that the interests of tem- 
 perance are not safe in the hands of the people’s rep- 
 resentatives, but should be guarded by the direct, the 
 most dignified and authoritative voice of the people 
 themselves, even in their constitutional law ? 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW NON-PARTISAN. 
 
 The existence of political parties is conceded in a 
 popular government. The ostensible end of all po- 
 litical organization is to set in motion such machinery 
 as shall secure the election of such men to offices of 
 public trust as will carry on the government accord- 
 ing to the letter and spirit of the Constitution. The 
 differences of political belief grow out of differing 
 interpretations of the spirit of the Constitution. No 
 political party dare set itself in opposition to the Con- 
 stitution, and yet expect to secure the support of the 
 people, unless it claims that the Constitution does not 
 rightly give the will of the people and thus ought to 
 be changed and set itself at work to ask the people 
 
ConstiUltional Prohibition. 
 
 25 
 
 if they do desire a change. But when the people by 
 a constitutional majority have said, “ This is our 
 will,” that is the supreme law of politicians, and all 
 parties must support the principle or rule of action 
 thus laid down. Thus constitutional prohibition is 
 non-partisan and compels enforcing legislation. No 
 legislator need ever be petitioned to enforce the pro- 
 visions of the Constitution ; it is his own sworn duty 
 to do it. 
 
 Not so with statutes; these are born in his own 
 brain, in his own understanding of the needs of the 
 people under the Constitution. And if, the Constitu- 
 tion being silent on the subject, he says “ I do not 
 believe a prohibitory .statute is demanded by the 
 spirit of the Constitution,” who shall dare say he has 
 violated his oath? There is no accounting for the 
 convolutions of people’s brains, and since we alf live 
 in glass houses, we had better not throw stones. 
 
 THE RELATION OF GREAT CITIES. 
 
 It must have appeared to even the careless observer 
 of American institutions that the greatest problem of 
 our political economy is the government of great 
 cities and their relation to the entire body politic. 
 And in this problem, the caucus, the primary, and the 
 saloon are the chief factors. I might have said the 
 saloon as inclusive of the caucus and the primary, 
 for, too often are the early germs of political society 
 grown in the fetid atmosphere of these malarious 
 swamps. The criminal classes in our great cities 
 guzzling the slops drained from these cesspools, fol- 
 low with eager rush the demagogues who carry the 
 buckets. These demagogues, greedy for the spoils 
 
26 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 of office, elevated by such means to positions of legis- 
 lative power, will not, of course, make laws repug- 
 nant to the people who “ voted them in,” and be- 
 cause these low and vicious people, actuated by 
 stubborn, stupid sensuality, are so easily controlled 
 to secure their own supposed interests, and because 
 the honest voters of the smaller towns and the rural 
 districts areso slow to wake up to any sense of indi- 
 vidual responsibility, and thus as good men do not 
 combine, and bad men do conspire, the cities possess 
 a greater influence in politics than their numerical 
 strength demands, and our statute books are often 
 disgraced with legislation that does not fairly repre- 
 sent the sentiment of the great people. But in a vote 
 on the Constitution, no one individual is voted in or 
 voted out. The saloon stands on its own merits. 
 The question is one of principles and not of persons. 
 Thus, with no confederates in its interest, with no 
 collateral to fall back upon, its shameful abomina- 
 tions appearing in their own hideous deformity, the 
 system falls under the condemnation of an enlight- 
 ened civilization,-and must be buried along with other 
 slain barbarisms. 
 
 AGITATION EDUCATES. 
 
 It can not be doubted that the development of a 
 sense of personal independence among the citizens of 
 a free State may, and ought to lead to a resultant 
 sense of individual responsibilitjq that it does so tend, 
 among conscientious, thinking persons, is quite plain 
 to the student of histor}^ But it is equally apparent 
 that there is a tendency among the masses of our 
 rushing populations of to-day to revel in the supposed 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 27 
 
 blessings of liberty, and to disregard the consequent 
 responsibility to the established order of civil society 
 known as law ; indeed, they regard law and liberty 
 as though the case stood “ law versus liberty.” This 
 is illustrated in the perversion of the system of trial 
 by jury, a S3^stem originally set up as a defense 
 against kingly power and arrogant tyranny, but 
 which, under a popular form of government, has 
 often seemed to serve best the criminal in his escape 
 from the just penalties of the law, and thus to frus- 
 trate the very ends sought by all righteous law. So 
 bewildered does the mind become in this study of 
 the tendencies and possible results of popular gov- 
 ernments, that we sometimes cry out, “Give us a 
 king to reign over us ; ” but there echo down to us 
 through the years the words of the prophet, “ The 
 Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the 
 Lord is our King, He will save us.” How shall the 
 voice of the people be the voice of God unless the 
 whole people are brought very often to consider 
 great moral questions in their relation to social, and 
 even commercial relationships. In the ordinary round 
 of political elections, where personal and party inter- 
 ests are often dominant, and the spoils of office follow 
 close upon political success, the weal or woe of the 
 people is — to put it mildly — sometimes so obscured 
 that the act of sovereignty affords little opportunity 
 for the exercise of that self-determined will that is the 
 result of moral personality, which moral personality 
 is born of God. Thus comes a lowering in legal 
 standards, and consequent demoralization in society. 
 How beautifully does the consideration of the ques- 
 tion of constitutional prohibition, by the people of a 
 
28 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 great commonwealth, act as a conserv’ator of this 
 moral personality. Every man votes directly for 
 himself; he can not divide his responsibility with the 
 will or wisdom of his representative ; neither is the 
 question involved with others of equal or lesser im- 
 portance. It is not dimmed by the perspective of 
 expediency, or shaded by the veil of partisanship. In 
 the panorama of the nation’s life, it stands out bold 
 and strong. Behind it are the mounts of Sinai and of 
 the Beatitudes, one ablaze with the “ thou shalt ” and 
 “ thou shalt not,” the other green and beautiful with 
 the words that fell on listening multitudes, “ Blessed, 
 blessed, blessed.” In the foreground are the multitude of 
 the world-groaning toilers, honest laborers, burdened 
 tax-payers, oppressed women and children, and poor 
 drunkards, the most of all to be pitied. With such 
 a picture before the eyes of every sovereign voter of 
 the State, a picture framed in the call for immediate 
 action, there can hardly fail to be realized a grander, 
 purer citizenship, and thus a system of law in har- 
 mony with that of the great Law-giver, the great 
 Judge, the great King. The movement for constitu- 
 tional prohibition, extending in the various States, 
 and at last to the organic law of the United States, 
 shall mark a gigantic stride toward the establishment 
 of that grand Theocracy of which the prophet spoke. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL TRECEDENTS. 
 
 Let US stud}^ the proposed prohibitory amendment 
 in the light of existing provisions in State Constitu- 
 tions. 
 
 I have chosen to consider the Constitutions ol 
 Massachusetts and of Iowa ; they are at this time 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 29 
 
 more convenient of reference, and, too, I may be par- 
 doned if I indulge a personal preference for the State in 
 which I was born, and for that one which is my adopt- 
 ed home. It is sometimes argued that this is a moral 
 question, and thus has no place in the Constitution ; 
 but these States both recognize God as the supreme 
 ruler of the universe, and the dependence of the 
 State upon Him. They sing their grand Te Deura 
 before they begin their Gloria Patria. Again, that 
 we seek to overturn long-established usages of society, 
 and to put the opinions of fanatics into constitutional 
 law. To which we reply, Yes, that is just what we 
 have started out to do, and, God helping us, we will 
 never cease our efforts till all long-established usages 
 that are contrary to the eternal principles of right are 
 overturned, or till, as the Psalmist has it “ the way ol 
 the wicked is turned upside down.” The “ Bill of 
 Rights ” of every State is a catalogue of “ overturned 
 usages,’ it is a cemetery where stand marble monu- 
 ments over the graves of buried wrongs, and these 
 graves were dug by fanatics. Do you see this com- 
 pany ? Look as I call their names : “ All men are by 
 nature free and equal.” Who dug that grave ? The 
 plebeians of Rome, the Switzers of the mountain, 
 Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans — the barons on the 
 meadow at Runny Mede — the pilgrims on the stormy 
 sea and on the rock-bound coast ; yes, every man, 
 evenwhere feeling in his breast his divine origin and 
 his eternal destiny, and to whose ear has come the 
 sound of these words of the Son of God, “ All ye are 
 brethren”; these all have helped to dig the grave, 
 but to America was left the sacred task of setting up 
 the stone, and engraving the tablet : again, “ Govern- 
 
30 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 ment is instituted for the common good, for the pro- 
 tection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the peo- 
 ple, and not for the profit, honor, or private interest 
 of any one man, family, or class of men. Therefore, 
 the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, 
 and indefeisable right to institute government, and 
 to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when 
 their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness re- 
 quire it.” This grand sentiment uttered b}^ the de- 
 scendants of the men of Lexington and Bunker Hill 
 is familiar to every schoolboy to-day. It was once a 
 wild fanaticism, indeed quite a fanaticism among 
 the despotisms of the old world now. Ask Alexander 
 III. of Russia, who sat so long a prisoner in his cas- 
 tle, who, though the autocrat of all the Ru-ssias, 
 dared not go to Moscow for his coronation, lest his 
 triumphal chariot prove his catafalque — ask Eng- 
 land, who mourns in shame the defeat of its rule in 
 Ireland, and in grief sits at the tomb of its assassi- 
 nated representatives, the wisdom of its proud states- 
 men anxious but unable to deal out justice with a 
 certain hand— ask Plymouth Rock — ask all these— 
 if it would not have been better if the crowned heads 
 of earth had sooner learned this fanaticism, that 
 whether acknowledged or not, all political power 
 does inhere in the people, and they have the right to 
 alter and reform the government when the public 
 good demands it. This movement for constitutional 
 prohibition is in harmony with this very truth. The 
 people consider the public good demands that the 
 government be altered and reformed. So 3'ou see 
 our constitutional amendment is quite constitu- 
 tional. Again : 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 31 
 
 DUELLING. 
 
 “ Any citizen of this State who may hereafter be 
 engaged either directly or indirectly in a duel, either 
 as principal or accessory before the fact, shall forever 
 be disqualified from holding any office under the 
 Constitution and laws of the State.” 
 
 A while ago I saw the old duelling ground just 
 outside the City of Washington, where Members of 
 Congress used to go and square off at one another, 
 for real or supposed wrong. I remember the illus- 
 trious men that had fought duels there, and also that 
 Henry Clay, that proudest of American statesmen, 
 once fought a duel. If he lived in Iowa to-day he 
 could not be constable, so says our Constitution. 
 
 Again : 
 
 LIBERTY OF SPEECH AND PRESS. 
 
 Rise, brave of every time who have dared to write 
 and speak for wronged humanity. Here lie your 
 foes ! 
 
 TRIAL BY JURY. 
 
 Remember the Magna Charter, King John, and 
 Runnymede. 
 
 IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. 
 
 “No person shall be imprisoned for debt in any 
 civil action or final process unless in case of fraud.” 
 
 The hardships of the old system are known to every 
 student of law. Whittier describes the old man dy- 
 ing behind prison bars, and asks, what evil hath he 
 done? The answer comes, “ God made the old man 
 poor.” But not now can such outrages be com- 
 mitted. So also with 
 
32 
 
 Constitutional ProJiibitio7i. 
 
 AFRICAN SLAVERY, 
 
 a crime in which both North and South were partners. 
 The South raised the cotton and the North bought it. 
 The plantations and the factories together wrought 
 the fruit of that which grew in tears and blood ! But 
 now behold the change, and these are the words 
 upon the stone that marks the grave where lie the 
 manacles and whips and chains of years ago : “ There 
 shall be no slavery in this State, nor shall there be in- 
 voluntary servitude, unless for punishment of crime.” 
 
 How did it come ? Through the agitation of fa- 
 natics, and the legislation of enthusiasts, and the bat- 
 tles of warriors, and graves of boys in blue and boys 
 in gray, and the proclamation of Lincoln, the emanci- 
 pator! And after all these, then what? Then this 
 crystal of truth was set in the frame-work of both 
 State and National constitutional law. Don’t 3-ou 
 see how Constitutions grow ? The history" of our 
 civilization is written in our Constitutions. 
 
 And now we approach the matter directly before 
 us. The temperance reform has been under wa}" in 
 this country for three-quarters of a century. It has 
 passed many stages. Various remedies have been 
 applied — moderation, total abstinence inculcated by 
 Father Mathew and the Washingtonian methods. Sons 
 of Temperance, Good Templars, Woman’s Christian 
 Temperance Union, reform clubs, and man^^ other 
 organizations. We have tried license laws, local op- 
 tion laws, tax laws, and prohibitory laws — and now, 
 what? The people, educated b}' the successes and 
 the failures of the past — confident of the righteous- 
 ness of that decision, and conscious that this oppor- 
 tunity gives tremendous responsibility, shall bury 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 33 
 
 beyond hope of resurrection the liquor criminal, and 
 set up over the grave a stone bearing this inscrip- 
 tion : “Here lies the alcoholic liquor traffic.” 
 
 Let us not fear the stigma of fanaticism. Every 
 generation builds monuments over the graves of the 
 fanatics of the last. There are names, now cast out 
 as odious and laughed at as synonyms of foolish 
 enthusiasm, that shall shine in letters of light on the 
 pages of history when the names of their scoffers 
 shall be buried in the mud-colors of dead oblivion. 
 God save the State ! 
 
 An argument for State constitutional prohibition 
 would be incomplete without a setting forth of 
 
 THE RELATION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT TO 
 THE LIQUOR CRIME, 
 
 and the needed reformation there. It must always 
 be remembered that ours is a dual form of govern- 
 ment, that the States were first; the General Gov- 
 ernment is their creature. They possess original 
 sovereignty — the General Government only derives 
 powers. The object of this dualism is set forth in 
 the Preamble to the Federal Constitution : 
 
 “ We, the people of the United States, in order to form 
 a more perfect union, establish jtistice, insure domestic 
 tranquillity , provide for the common defense, promote the 
 general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our- 
 selves and our posterity, do ordain a7id establish this Con- 
 stitution of the United States of A^nerical'' 
 
 The traffic in alcoholic beverages breeds disunion, 
 overthrows justice, creates domestic strife, weakens 
 the common defense, and fastens the chain of an ig- 
 noble slavery upon ourselves and our posterity. It 
 
34 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 will thus be seen that this liquor criminal is a greater 
 foe to national prosperity, as set forth in these im- 
 mortal words, than was British tyranny or African 
 slavery. These touched society as a whole; they 
 bore down upon its material prosperity and circum- 
 scribed its possible development ; they fastened fet- 
 ters upon the bodies of men and women for no other 
 crimes than the color of the skin and texture of the 
 hair. Intemperance destroys the body, poisons the 
 blood, rots the tissues, weakens the muscle, un- 
 steadies the nerve, frenzies the brain, enervates 
 intellectual vigor, dims mental vision, dulls spiritual 
 sense, dethrones the will, and sears the conscience. 
 It makes of the citizen an alien, yof the freeman a 
 slave, and intemperance is the fruit of the liquor traf- 
 fic. It always bears this fruit. In this vale of tears, in 
 this swamp of desolation, in this place of death, there 
 are no barren years. Is the liquor traffic in harmony 
 with the spirit of the Constitution? 
 
 To state the question is to answer it. And to do 
 violence to the spirit of the organic law of the nation 
 is to divide a house against itself. The stud}^ of State 
 and national powers, and the limitations of each is 
 most interesting. A merely cursory view will serve 
 our present purpose. Except in the exercise of such 
 derived powers as the States surrendered to the gen- 
 eral government for the purposes set forth as above, 
 the .States are within themselves as absolutely sov- 
 ereign as the independent nations of Europe, and 
 yet so proximate geographical!)', so similar as to 
 race and religion, so one in common economies, so 
 bound together by iron thoroughfares, and electri- 
 fied with the same great throbs of the world’s work, 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 35 
 
 that a common spirit must pervade them all. The 
 Constitutions and Statutes of the States differ widely, 
 but the spirit of these Constitutions and these Stat- 
 utes must be the same. So also the spirit of the 
 legislation of the General Government, must be in 
 harmony with the spirit of State legislation. Among 
 the derived powers of the General Government 
 which are enumerated in the Constitution, is the 
 right “ to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and 
 excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common 
 defense.” Under this power, Congress, has passed 
 
 INTERNAL REVENUE LAWS, 
 
 the theory of such legislation being that such taxation 
 upon the thing was milder in its operation and more 
 general in the burden borne, than a direct tax upon 
 the citizen would be. These internal revenue laws 
 have been and still are the subject of much contro- 
 versy among political economists ; the subject of 
 their constitutionality and general expediency is not 
 called in question here, neither the abstract question 
 as to the loss to the State and to the nation from the 
 traffic as far outweighing any revenue from it, either 
 by way of tax or license. I simply desire to show 
 what the nation now does, what it might do, and 
 what ought to be done. 
 
 Congress by its revenue laws does not empower 
 the manufacturer or dealer in alcoholic beverages to 
 carry on his work, it does not say, “ If you pay a 
 certain sum to the Government as revenue, you may 
 do a certain thing.” It says, “ If the State allows 
 you to engage in this business, you must pay a cer- 
 tain sum as revenue." Thus the manufacturer or 
 
36 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 dealer pays the sum required, and receives his special 
 tax receipt (sometimes improperly called United 
 States License). This tax receipt does not protect 
 him from State law ; it is as any other receipt, his 
 protection against a second assessment for the same 
 time and thing. Thus any State can deal as it chooses 
 with the traffic, without any reference to the regula- 
 tions of the General Government. 
 
 In legal phrase- 'the commercial power of the Gen- 
 eral Government must yield to the police power of 
 the State, and this is always true in all conflicts of 
 laws. Is it claimed that with limits so definitely 
 drawn, there need be no conflict between national 
 and State laws ? 
 
 We answer, there need be none as to the letter, for 
 Supreme Court decisions have dispelled every mist 
 of interpretation, but the spirit of a law, of a con- 
 tract is sometimes outraged while the letter remains 
 inviolate. Let us see ! In every State in the Union 
 this traffic in alcoholic beverages is under bonds to 
 keep the peace ; in some of the States it is outlawed, 
 but everywhere, wherever the criminal hides, in 
 every place where he seeks to carry on a piratical 
 cruise in the peaceful harbors of our quiet homes, 
 there the officers of the General Government wait 
 to divide with him the spoils of prey. Maine lor 
 years has stood strong and grand as her pines, she 
 has fought this outlaw step by step, and among her 
 chief obstacles has been the recognition of the traffic 
 by the United States Government. Kansas and 
 Iowa, whose liberty-loving citizens have brought in 
 a verdict of banishment to the criminal, these States 
 find 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 37 
 
 “THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT PARTICEPS CRIMINIS 
 THROUGH HER APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVES.” 
 
 Is this right? Is not our house divided against it- 
 self? Is not the spirit of harmony in our govern- 
 mental dualism wofully violated ? 
 
 We sing : 
 
 “The Union forever, 
 
 Hurrah, boys, hurrah,” 
 
 but “ by their fruits ye shall know them.” Such a 
 system of laws tends to disintegration, and not to 
 Union. We said in the old slavery days, the nation 
 can not live half free and half slave, and do not the 
 graves of boys in blue and boys in grey bear mourn- 
 ful testimony? Neither can a nation live half drunk 
 and half sober, neither can peace in the nation be the 
 fruit of conflict of laws. 
 
 What remedy do I propose ? 
 
 THE REPEAL OF ALL REVENUE LAWS TOUCHING 
 THE TRAFFIC. 
 
 What ! Let the accursed traffic go free, unburdened 
 of a tax? Yes, I would. The levying of a tax 
 gives the traffic dignity, it classes it with the indus- 
 tries of the nation, when, in fact, it is a pirate preying 
 upon every industry. A member of the National 
 Distillers’ Association said in Washington last winter, 
 we would like the tax lowered, we do not desire it 
 removed, it gives us a “legal status.” Oh, yes, and 
 that “ legal status ” is just what, God helping us, we 
 will destroy. Is it not the price of blood ? Have we 
 not heard the woe of Revelation upon him “ that 
 buildeth a town with blood, that establisheth a city 
 with iniquity ? ” 
 
38 
 
 ConstitJitional Prohibitioti. 
 
 Let it be noticed here that the spirit of a tax-law 
 and the spirit of a license-law are not the same spirit. 
 The practical effect is very much the same. 
 
 A license-law says — in spirit — the evil of intem- 
 perance is abroad in the State, it is the direct result 
 of the traffic in alcoholic beverages. In order to re- 
 strict the sale of these beverages and thus lessen the 
 evil, he will oblige the dealer to put himself under 
 certain limitations, he must be a man of “good moral 
 character,” (what of the standard of those not thus 
 certified to ?) he must not sell on certain days and to 
 certain persons, he must conform the furnishing of his 
 apartments to certain rules and regulations, he must 
 pay annually a certain sum of money into the State 
 Treasury, and be responsible for the payment of suf- 
 ficient damages should any evil results come of his 
 business. All these restrictions and limitations 
 brand his business as disreputable, the}' do not make 
 it respectable, as is sometimes claimed. But a tax- 
 law has no conscience in it. It says with no refer- 
 ence to the resultant evil, “ If you sell, you must 
 pay, and the more you sell the better for the public 
 treasurv, for thus the greater will the revenue be.” 
 In dye-stuff there is sometimes a shading in blacks; 
 on this theory a tax-law is a little blacker black than 
 a license-law. 
 
 Congress also has exclusive legislative control in 
 the District of Columbia; and the city of Washing-' 
 ton has to-day saloons on every hand, and under the 
 dome of the capitol are alcoholic beverages sold. 
 And this is the very summit of our nation’s great- 
 ness, and those who authorize it are our chiefest 
 men. Why must the glory of this free age be tar- 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 39 
 
 nished with the barbarism of the last? Thank God, 
 the shining- light reveals the dust, and, seeing it, we 
 know the sun shines ! The men who to-day serve 
 the nation at her capitol, are such as any country on 
 earth might be proud of, and they must in respect 
 for their own manhood, cleanse this temple of our 
 liberties from the buyers and the sellers^ of liquid 
 poison. In the territories also does this traffic exist, 
 and away off in the West, where the timbers of a 
 new civilization are being laid, are found the rotten 
 planks of this barbarism ; but of these we have great 
 hope. Dakota, already knocking for admission as a 
 State, has declared in favor of prohibition in her Con- 
 stitution. All hail to the State pure and clean from 
 its birth ! 
 
 To sum up the whole matter of the relation of the 
 General Government to the traffic Congress is deeply 
 implicated. It might repeal all revenue laws con- 
 cerning the traffic, it might banish it from the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia and the Territories, it might ap- 
 point the 
 
 COMMISSION OF INQUIRY 
 
 into the Alcoholic Liquor Traffic, so long asked for 
 by the National Temperance Society, and then with 
 its hands clean from any taking of bribes, and the 
 States meanwhile having more effectually battled 
 with the traffic within their borders, they would have 
 so destroyed their common enemy in so many of his 
 strongholds, that weakened and dispirited and driven 
 into the last ditch of resistance, three-quarters of the 
 States concurring with the Constitution of the United 
 States, might be amended, forever prohibiting the 
 importation, manufacture, and sale of alcoholic bev- 
 
40 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 erages in any spot over which the flag floats, and 
 thus the voice of the people being the voice of God, 
 our redeemed land shall rejoice in the fulfilled promise, 
 “ Righteousness exalteth a nation.” Does not the 
 heart swell at the thought? O flag of my country,- 
 worthy then to wrap the foot of the blessed Cross of 
 Jesus ! 
 
 “ Ring, bells in unreared steeples. 
 
 The joy of unborn peoples ; 
 
 Shout, trumpets far off blown. 
 
 Your triumph is my own.” 
 
 But sta}’’ ; how long must the blight continue? 
 Does the tired worker cry out, “ When shall all these 
 things be,’’ and what shall be the sign when all 
 these things shall be fulfilled ? The Hon. Henry W. 
 Blair, Senator from New Hampshire, in his great 
 speech delivered at Washington, December, 1876, has 
 set the alarm for a.d. 1900, even the morn of a new 
 century. What a grand conception, and do you not 
 see the signs of its coming? Education, agitation, leg- 
 islation, the thunders of Sinai, and the pleadings of 
 Calvary, statesmen thinking, politicians trembling, 
 saloons tottering, children singing, women praying! 
 These are the signs, and the day shall surely come. 
 
 “ I feel the world move sunward, 
 
 I join the great march onward. 
 
 And take by faith while living 
 My freehold of thanksgiving.” 
 
 “ He that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but 
 his neiofhbor cometh and searcheth him.” 
 
 Having set forth our claim for constitutional prohi- 
 bition, we wait for the 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 41 
 
 defendant’s answer. 
 
 His objections must be considered, and conscien- 
 tiously answered. 
 
 . It is claimed that the whole temperance question 
 is one of morals, and thus ought never to be “ taken 
 into politics.” The question of personal temperance 
 surely is one of morals, for it is a Christian grace, 
 ranked by the apostle with “ love, joy, meekness,” but 
 prohibitory laws do not deal with the drinker, they 
 attack the seller; the State does not protect a man 
 from hhnself, it protects him from his neighbor. The 
 law seeks to make it hard for him to do wrong and 
 easy to do right. It does not compel him to do 
 right ; it can not do that. But the law protects so- 
 ciety from the man who, resisting the appeals of phi- 
 lanthropy and the warnings of Christianity, will pur- 
 sue his own wicked gain and selhsh pleasure to the 
 discomfort and loss of society. The legal prohibi- 
 tion of the liquor traffic is a political question, made 
 such by those engaged in the traffic, who claim pro- 
 tection from the law. It must be met on the ground 
 of th^r own choosing, which is clearly in the domain 
 of politics. Again, and closely allied to' ‘this, is the 
 pusillanimous wail. It is an invasion of personal liberty. 
 The very idea of government implies certain limita- 
 tions and restrictions. The end of government being 
 “ protection ” in its broadest sense, it im.plies the per- 
 fect elaboration of the golden rule, being the greatest 
 good to the greatest number. It being clearly shown 
 that the liquor traffic is the source of a large propor- 
 tion of the crimes of society, and these crimes being 
 trespasses upon rights, which rights it is the very 
 business of the law to protect, it follows that the 
 
42 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 liquor traffic must be put away, even at the risk of 
 some personal inconvenience to the drinker. The 
 greatest good to the greatest number demands it. 
 As well might the murderer, with gleaming knife or 
 deadly poison, cry liberty ! as these murderers by 
 slower torture to claim protection from our beautiful 
 goddess ; not thus have we learned the meaning of 
 her charmed name. 
 
 Again, it is claimed it will 
 
 “ IMPOVERISH THE STATE ” 
 
 by a withdrawal of the revenue from license and 
 taxation. This is a penny-wise and pound-fool- 
 ish objection, and needs but this answer : The income 
 from these sources does not equal the outgo, caused 
 by the pauperism, insanity, and crime which are the 
 direct result of the traffic. 
 
 Again, that there are large numbers of men en- 
 gaged in the business who will be 
 
 “ THROWN OUT OF EMPLOYMENT,” 
 and that they have families dependent upon them for 
 support. Yes, we know there are about five l^undred 
 thousand men in the business in the countr3L The 
 population of the countr}^ is over fifty millions, and 
 this 500,000 is a very small oligarchy to demand that 
 their interests shall be guarded at the expense of 
 all the woe and anguish attendant upon their busi- 
 ness. If they were good citizens, if their business 
 were an honorable one, it would be jealously guarded 
 by the exercise of ever}' governmental power; even 
 as it is, the individual rights of the men in the traffic 
 are defended b)' the administration of the courts and 
 the extreme exercise of executive prerogatives. But 
 
Constitutiojial Prohibition. 
 
 43 
 
 to claim that because of individual inconvenience or 
 even suffering to these 500,000 and their dependents, 
 the greater number of sufferers by the traffic — many 
 of them innocent victims— must endure on and find 
 no protection, this plea can have no standing in any 
 court of equity. It would be ludicrous, if the subject 
 were not so sadly solemn. The greatest good to the 
 greatest number demands that these 500,000 shall 
 be thrown out of employment, that their many vic- 
 tims may again be in employment, and their wives 
 and children given food and raiment and shelter. 
 Not only this, but the increased demand for food, the 
 comforts and even luxuries of life would soon in- 
 crease the demand for every grade of labor from 
 that of the coarse laborer to that of the skilled arti- 
 san. Then would there be no cry of over-produc- 
 tion, or any fear of the competition of cheap labor. 
 There is no stronger claim from any standpoint of 
 materialities than this one in behalf of labor. 
 
 Again : 
 
 The 
 
 “ PRICE OF GRAIN WILL BE LOWERED ” 
 
 by shutting off the demand of the distiller and the 
 brewer. The amount of grain thus used, though 
 great when considered as so much breadstuff worse 
 than wasted, is yet very small as compared with the 
 entire yield of the country. The State of Iowa alone 
 could supply all the liquor-manufacturing interests of 
 the country, and not use one-tenth of its average 
 crop. The price of grain is controlled by the crop ot 
 the world, as shown in the prices-current of her great 
 markets. Actual statistics show that the rise and 
 fall of these prices are not controlled by the still and 
 
44 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 the vat. But if it were so, the increased demand for 
 other of the farmers’ produce would more than com- 
 pensate him for his supposed loss in the price of corn 
 and barley. When men do not drink so much beer 
 the women and children will have more bread. 
 
 Again : 
 
 “ IT WILL DESTROY A GREAT INDUSTRY.” 
 
 The liquor traffic is not a great industry, it is a 
 pirate on every other industry. Its labor is not pro- 
 ductive labor, its union of capital and labor does not 
 give to the consumer a manufactured article better 
 than the raw material, it brings no gift to the com- 
 mon service of mankind, it is a leech upon the body 
 politic, a vampire with sable wing hovering above 
 every American home. Every toiling engine, every 
 groaning shaft, every laboring beam, every turning 
 wheel, every flaming forge, every flying shuttle, joins 
 in the thundering chorus, 
 
 IT IS NOT AN INDUSTRY. 
 
 But it is claimed that the business has grown up 
 under the guarantees of law, that if not an industry 
 it has been so regarded by the law, since “ taxation 
 is recognition,” and now granting the right of the 
 State to abolish the traffic, it ought to compensate 
 those who will suffer an immediate loss in depreci- 
 ated buildings and fixtures. That a commission 
 ought to be appointed to estimate their loss, and to 
 give 
 
 INDEMNIFICATION IN DAMAGES ! 
 
 If these dealers have any legal claim it must be under 
 either the section of the Constitution which declares 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 45 
 
 that private property shall not be taken for public 
 use without just compensation having been made, 
 or the one which guarantees to every citizen protec- 
 tion to life, liberty, and property. Is this taking pri- 
 vate property for public use ? Let us see. When 
 the railroad came to your town you were glad, but 
 when it cut through your farm you were not so well 
 pleased, but it was the taking of your private proper- 
 ty for public use. The law said, “your farm is a 
 little private good, but it must yield to the greater 
 public good,” and you were paid for the value of the 
 land. But the law does not say your brewery is a 
 little private good, which must yield to the greater 
 public good. It says, and do we not hear the vox 
 Dei in this vox populi? “ Your brewery is an evil, it 
 must get out of the way,” and the law never pays for 
 evils. 
 
 A learned judge, in a case involving this same 
 principle, says: “ In the exercise of its police power, 
 a State has full power to prohibit under penalties the 
 exercise of any trade or employment which is found 
 to be hazardous or injurious to its citizens and de- 
 structive to the best interests of society, without pro- 
 viding compensation to those upon who7n the prohibition 
 operates." And again, in the case of Presbyterian 
 Church vs. City of New York, Corwin, 539 , when 
 a deed to a certain piece of land covenanted that it 
 should only be used as a cemetery and was used 
 for that purpose. Subsequently the city, by ordi- 
 nance, prohibited its being used for that purpose ; 
 held, that the citj^ had the right to enact such an 
 ordinance, although it rejidered the property prac- 
 tically valueless. It was a wholesome police regu- 
 
46 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 lation for the public health. We might illustrate 
 at almost any length. Will the owner of a choice 
 dog, for whom he has paid a great price, claim 
 of the distracted father whose son has been bitten by 
 the same dog gone mad, will he claim indemnifica- 
 tion in damages when the dog is shot? Burglars’ 
 tools and counterfeiters’ dies come under this rule. 
 More than this may not equity set up, that great as 
 would the loss be to those now engaged in the busi- 
 ness of distilling and brewing, a greater loss of 
 material substance is all the time falling upon the 
 victims of this traffic, and that their loss ought to be 
 made good, before the claim of indemnification can 
 be considered ; when every poor woman beggared 
 by the drunkenness of her husband has had furnished 
 her the barest, plainest home in which to gather her 
 children, when these children have wholesome food, 
 and decent clothing, when the long list of losses to 
 the State from the traffic has been covered, then it 
 will be time to consider how much shall be paid this 
 presumptuous pleader. 
 
 Again, lawyers and law-makers claim that even if 
 the principle of prohibition were sound, it should not 
 be embodied in constitutional law ; in other words, 
 that 
 
 “ POLICE REGULATIONS OUGHT NOT TO BE PUT INTO 
 THE CONSTITUTION.” 
 
 There is no arbitrary rule as to what shall or shall 
 not go into the Constitution. It is made by' the peo- 
 ple, is their expressed will, and they are sovereign. 
 Any subject that to them is essential, or vital to the 
 welfare of the people, any subject which they are un- 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 47 
 
 willing to leave to the Legislature, they put into the 
 Constitution, and there is no limit to their sover- 
 eignty. Does some one say, Does not the United 
 States Constitution limit State legislation ? Yes, but 
 the people, through their State Legislatures, make 
 that Constitution, and so again we are brought face to 
 face with 
 
 THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE. 
 
 The student of governmental science must stand in 
 reverence before this sovereignty, for the exercise 
 of this power, fraught with such possible blessing, is 
 also capable of a tyranny of the most dreaded type. 
 
 Thus, of however much value to any people any- 
 where is the temperance reform, with its beneficent 
 aims and blessed accomplishments. It becomes to 
 us, under this popular form of government a vital 
 necessity, for if the people are king, the people must 
 be sober, intelligent, and good. Again, it is urged 
 that the 
 
 “FOREIGN POPULATION IS AGAINST THIS REFORM.” 
 
 Not SO fast, friends. That is not true. We know 
 the traditional love of the Irishman for whisky, the 
 German for beer, the Frenchman for wine, the 
 Englishman for ale ; but wc know also by sight, not 
 bv tradition, that the American drinks everything, and 
 we fear that the charge upon the foreign population 
 covers a like fact nearer home. We know the traffic 
 on trial is very largely in the hands of the Irish and 
 the German, but we know the customers, the con- 
 sumers, are not confined to these nationalities ; and 
 also that earnest temperance work is being carried 
 on by and through the Irish Catholic Temperance 
 
48 
 
 Constitutional Prohibit io 7 i. 
 
 Societies, and that these are arousing to the need of 
 prohibition by the State, as well as total abstinence 
 for the individual. This doctrine was enunciated 
 long ago by that proudest Roman of them all. 
 Father Mathew, and his followers are beginning to 
 honor his memory by the application of the truths 
 he taught. The Scandinavians are largely right on 
 this question. In the late great struggle in Iowa 
 they stood strong for the amendment, over 30,000 
 having voted for it. And the ro}^! Teuton, he who 
 is represented so often with the mug and foaming 
 beer, he is waking to the physiological effects of the 
 alcohol in his favorite 'beverage, and is joining our 
 temperance hosts; over 5,000 Gernia^is in lozva voted 
 for the amendment. The members of the Evangelical 
 Church and the German INI. E. Church were for it. 
 One of the strongest press champions in that State 
 was Mr. F. Holfer, editor of the McGreggor Neivs. 
 He was at one time a German saloon-keeper, he is 
 now an able Christian temperance editor of a politi- 
 cal newspaper, and in manly honor and Christian 
 courage is the peer of any editor in the State. He is 
 now writing and publishing much valuable literature 
 in popular form upon this subject. The children of 
 the Germans sit side by side with those native born ; 
 they will soon together study our text-books on alco- 
 hol ; indeed, already thev do in some of our schools, 
 where, through the efforts of the W. C. T. U., they 
 have been introduced ; the}' are growing up under 
 tlie blaze of this “ Gospel Temperance Dispensation,” 
 and are as sure to yield to its influence as the ice is 
 to melt before the winds and the sunshine of early 
 spring. Native-born American citizen, do not arro- 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 49 
 
 gate to yourself all susceptibility to God’s truth, as 
 written in bone and muscle, vein and sinew ; all ap- 
 preciation of wholesome laws and wise political 
 economy, as these are illustrated in prohibitory legis- 
 lation. To the Fatherland we already owe much ; 
 the pious heart swells with devotion at the name of 
 Luther, the soul thrills at Beethoven’s songs, articu- 
 late in sweet harmonies, at Goethe’s poetry and 
 Schiller’s dramas. The world may feed at Germany’s 
 table of science and philosophy, spread at Prague, 
 at Vienna, at Heidelburg, and the Americanized 
 German shall yet be our pride, and not our fear, for 
 the infusion into our hot American life of his cooler, 
 calmer brain shall bring us a better type of citizen- 
 ship. And, lastly, a final argument, as though if 
 every other objection had failed to dismay and over- 
 come, this surely would be sweeping and conclusive : 
 
 “ OH, WELL, YOU CAN’t ENFORCE IT.” 
 
 If this were true, it would not dismay us, for we 
 should then be no worse off than now on that side 
 of the question, but would have the education of a 
 good law, which is vastly an advantage. For all laws 
 are educational, and a good law unenforced is better 
 in its educational influence than a bad law enforced. 
 The implication desired to be drawn by this objec- 
 tion is untrue. It is as though it were said, “ license 
 laws are enforced, prohibitory are not and can not 
 be.” We answer, license laws are not enforced ; not 
 a license law of any of the States but is violated 
 every day in every city where liquor is sold exten- 
 sively. Under the provisions of the law it is unlaw- 
 ful to sell to minors and to habitual drunkards, and 
 
50 
 
 Constihitional Prohibition. 
 
 on the Sabbath, and after certain hours of night ; 
 these conditions are openly and constantly violated, 
 and the public conscience is thereby debauched. If 
 the law were prohibitory, its education would be in 
 the right direction. 
 
 A writer on civil government has wisely said, that to 
 a very large portion of society law is the measure and 
 standard of commercial and social morality. The 
 legal standard of practical morality should, therefore, 
 be ever a little in advance of the popular one, while 
 the basis of the law’s ethics should embrace the great 
 fundamental element of righteousness. By this means 
 the law will itself be steadily advancing toward per- 
 fection, and will bear with it the hearts and charac- 
 ters of the people. 
 
 But prohibitory laws are enforced ! This fact is 
 clearly established by unimpeachable testimony. If 
 they are not enforced, why such opposition on the 
 part of the men in the business of liquor selling? 
 Why are prohibitory laws their chief aversion, if they 
 are a dead letter? These laws have been on the 
 statute books of several of the States for a quarter of 
 a century; strange that the men with instincts made 
 keen by financial interests should not have discov- 
 ered the stick and the empty coat and hat, if pro- 
 hibition is only a scarecrow. A sensible bird would 
 have learned sooner. But is it not true of those who 
 cry non-enforcement, that the wish is father to the 
 thought? If not so, if these last-named objectors are 
 honest in their fear expressed, I sa}", shame on you 
 who indulge such whimpering cowardice. I remem- 
 ber the days of the war, when the boj’S with whom I 
 had played in childhood and studied in girlhood. 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 51 
 
 whom I knew only as fair and g-allant and gay, be- 
 came men full grown in twenty-four hours after the 
 fearful tocsin sounded. The soft lines of boyhood 
 settled into the deeper ones of manliood, their eyes 
 grew dark and deep and full of soul ; with white faces 
 they kissed us good-bye as they put on the blue and 
 marched under the bright new banners we gave them. 
 It was the great necessity which gave birth to hero- 
 ism. So it has always been, so it shall always be. 
 Thei'e are men walking up and down our streets to- 
 day, who look very commonplace, who never boast 
 about their love of country, but who, when the time 
 shall come, will show themselves to be the stuff they 
 make martyrs of. Not only is it cowardice to talk of 
 non-enforcement, it is treason. 
 
 Let no man who loves his country, thus give aid 
 and comfort to its enemies. 
 
 Our fathers’ God, to Thee, Author of liberty. 
 
 To Thee we call. 
 
 Long may our land be bright. 
 
 With freedom’s holy light, 
 
 Protect us by Thy might. 
 
 Great God our King. 
 
■ / 
 
 SUGGESTIONS, DIRECTIONS, AND 
 EXPLANATIONS. 
 
 FORMS OF PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS. 
 AMENDMENT CATECHISM, &c. 
 
 The first requisite of successful |\vork along the 
 line of constitutional prohibition, is a conviction that 
 something must be done to stay the tide of intem- 
 perance that is sweeping over our beloved land. Not 
 an impression that something ought to be attempted 
 and might be successful, but a conviction deep enough 
 to impel to action, and to hold the individual to long 
 continued, steady endeavor. This means more than 
 the careless thinker will at first suppose. Let no one 
 put his hand to this plow, unless he have well consid- 
 ered the long furrows before him — furrows that will 
 disturb his ease, his comfort, perhaps his business 
 success, perhaps his political affiliations and aspira- 
 tions, but which shall prepare the field for the fruit- 
 ful seed and the ripe harvest of better homes and a 
 purer state. Let the worker then study the consti- 
 tution of his own State, the general histor}' of its 
 adoption, with its amendments, and the constitutional 
 methods of their adoption. Let him also become ac- 
 quainted with existing legislation in the interests of 
 temperance, its effective and its defective features. 
 Statutes are made by legislators, and legislators are 
 (52) 
 
Coiistitutional Prohibition. 
 
 S3 
 
 men with human understanding — imperfect, and with 
 human hearts susceptible to weakness and impurity ; 
 moreover, statutes depend for their application to 
 society’s need, upon executive officers, and these may 
 be insufficient, or unwilling, to give them their best 
 force and effect, because of possible personal results 
 to themselves. A good statute may be powerless in 
 the hands of weak or wicked officials, and a weak 
 statute may be quite effective when used by a strong 
 executive. 
 
 Again, the trials of causes growing out of our 
 liquor laws, which are given in State Reports of Su- 
 preme Court Decisions, are very interesting to the 
 worker who has access to a law library, and who 
 cares to give this phase of the subject his study. It 
 is most cheering to the tired worker who may be dis- 
 gusted with the pettifogging of the criminal lawyer 
 in the police court, whose indignation and disgust at 
 the occasional or frequent holdings of these courts in 
 the interests of the saloon even against law and testi- 
 mony, and the corruption ofjuries by this same saloon 
 influence, to read the opinions and decisions of judges 
 more removed from popular clamor and partisan 
 prejudice. The elaboration of great principles and 
 their application in specific instances revives one’s 
 faith in civil government, and in its divine origin, and 
 in the final triumph of the right. Decisions which 
 are contrary to these right principles drive the con- 
 scientious citizen back upon that eternal vigilance 
 which is “ the price of liberty.” Here let me caution 
 the zealous temperance worker to remember the 
 limits of judicial poxver. Courts do not make law. 
 They expound and apply. Blackstone puts it that 
 
54 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 they must find the “ bosom of the legislator.” A 
 judge can not always hold according to his own sense 
 of justice and of abstract right ; he must exercise this 
 sense of justice and right within the bounds set by the 
 statute, and, too, according to the testimony intro- 
 duced in the trial of the criminal or the trespasser. 
 So with juries ; they are subject to the same limita- 
 tions with the added confusion that different minds 
 must all agree to the same verdict. Again, the fact 
 that liquor-sellers have legal defense, that they ob- 
 tain legal counsel is sometimes claimed to be a per- 
 version of justice, and a subversion of the courts to un- 
 righteousness. This position is not well taken. Every 
 criminal, of whatever t3^pe or grade, must have a fair 
 and impartial trial; he is presumed to be innocent 
 until proved beyond a reasonable doubt to be guilty. 
 Not to give him such trial, with all the helps of legal 
 counsel, would not secure the ends of justice. Of 
 course, any recourse to trickery or low cunning is as 
 despicable here as elsewhere, perhaps more so, since 
 so sacred interests are at stake, but the cause of tem- 
 perance suffers when its advocates assume untenable 
 ground. I may say here, that all well-advised at- 
 tempts at the enforcement of existing law, is good 
 preparation for the definite work of securing consti- 
 tutional prohibition ; and the more the features of 
 these laws and the legal processes of the courts in 
 their enforcement are understood b}^ the masses of 
 the people, the more read}'' will they be for the direct 
 expression qf their will toward the whole business. 
 The attitude of politicians and political parties toward 
 legislation in the interest of temperance may be 
 studied with advantage. The almost uniform timidity 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 55 
 
 of office-holders and office-seekers (and the latter in- 
 cludes a large and influential class !) is significant and 
 suggestive; indeed, the more the temperance worker 
 knows of the traffic and its relations to society and 
 society’s relations to it, the better is he qualified to 
 work for constitutional prohibition. Thorough and 
 systematic organization is essential. It is not desir- 
 able that any approved line of work be abandoned 
 that this be taken up ; let all the old lines go on ; let 
 various organizations pursue their own methods — all, 
 however, uniting in one central organization for this 
 only purpose, the submission and adoption of the 
 amendment. It is well to call this a Prohibitory 
 Amendment Association, or Prohibitory Alliance; 
 it matters little what it is called, but it does matter 
 that it shall have this one single aim in view. A 
 financial basis, as is the case with the Alliance in 
 Michigan, is valuable. This obligates each member 
 to pay a certain specified sum annually, which sum 
 is appropriated for Amendment' work. It is well for 
 Woman’s Christian Temperance Unions to issue 
 petitions, for general circulation, asking the Legis- 
 lature to submit the desired amendment. These 
 petitions were circulated with good results in Iowa. 
 They should not indicate the very words of the 
 amendment desired, but should ask for an amendment 
 prohibiting the manufacture, sale, etc., etc. It is 
 better to leave the w'ords of the amendment to the 
 Legislature which votes upon it, this is not quite so 
 dictatorial — though it ought not to be so considered 
 ■ — and what is of more consequence, it leaves less 
 ground for argument and objection. If the exact 
 words are given some would-be objector will say, “ I 
 
56 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 believe in the thing, but I do not like the wording- of 
 the article ; if it were otherwise I would sign it 
 whereas if you had said “ an a])iendment ” the objector 
 would have had less room for objection. 
 
 At the Legislature, when the proper time comes, a 
 wise committee should present the amendment which 
 the temperance people desire, to the committee of the 
 Legislature having the amendment in charge. Such 
 a committee is sometimes called the “Committee on 
 Amendments.” The wording of the amendment is 
 of great importance, and sometimes the champions 
 of the cause choose to settle upon some approved 
 form, and make the battle from the start on that. Our 
 friends in Pennsylvania have done so. It may work 
 well and have some advantages ; I think, however, the 
 other way is freer from objections and possible hin- 
 drances. The object of the circulation of popular 
 petitions is not only to affect the body to whom they 
 are addressed, but to stir the public mind to a con- 
 sideration of the subject involved! Let a town be 
 districted and a dozen women start out to get signa- 
 tures to a petition for prohibition, and there can not 
 fail to be a general stirrhig of dry bones, which shall 
 cause some to rise and breathe and walk forth. Let 
 the persons who carry the petitions be sensible, ear- 
 nest men or women, not children ; let them go to every 
 budding — be it house or shop or store; let every in- 
 dividual over the required age be asked to sign. 
 Let a few petitions be left in places of common re- 
 sort, such as the post-office or barber-shop, to catch 
 the signatures of those who might otherwise be over- 
 looked. I think it is well before the canvass begins to 
 open the “ petition campaign ” by a public meeting in 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 57 
 
 a church or hall. Let the ministers and other influ- 
 ential persons be invited to address the meeting-, to 
 read the petition and to explain and enforce its state- 
 ments ; in this way the work may receive a valuable 
 indorsement and impetus. I consider this petition 
 work of great importance ; let it be undertaken with 
 prayerful, intelligent zeal and it can not fail to bear 
 good fruit. While this work is going on let temper- 
 ance men look well to the making up of the Legis- 
 lature before whom the petition is to come. Let the 
 primaries and caucuses of all political parties be at- 
 tended by temperance men in these parties, and let 
 none but men who will submit the desired amend- 
 ment, receive nominations for members of the Legis- 
 lature. Do not insist that these shall be prohibitionists, 
 though these are of course desirable, but let the test 
 be, “Will you, if elected, vote to submit the desired 
 amendment to the people ? ” Ought any aspirant for 
 the suffrages of the people to object to this? Ought 
 he to say, “ I want the votes of the people to gain 
 legislative honors, but I will not in turn afford the 
 people the opportunity to express their will in consti- 
 tutional law?’’ The man that makes such a blunder 
 will not be likely to have the chance to repeat his 
 blunder. 
 
 When the nominations have been made in counties 
 and senatorial districts, or at any time when the con- 
 ventions of the State or of these political divisions 
 (counties and distidcts) are held, let an attempt be 
 made to have the party commit itself by resolution 
 to the submission policy— not to prohibition pure and 
 simple, but to submission. Let every effort be made 
 to keep the question wholly free from partisan alii- 
 
58 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 ances ; let it not be a Republican measure or a Demo- 
 cratic measure, but a people’s measure. This non- 
 partisan character is more easily sustained by the 
 participation of the women as active workers ; they 
 having no political existence, must neutralize very 
 much what might otherwise be tinged. 
 
 As to the presenting of the petitions to the Legis- 
 lature, I think it is well that quite early in the ses- 
 sion — a public meeting be held at the capital city, — 
 perhaps in the Hall of Representatives, if that is de- 
 sirable and possible. To this meeting let each mem- 
 ber of the august law-making body be invited by 
 personal invitation, either verbal or written, also all 
 state officers and emplo3^ees, and lastly, but not least, 
 the great people. Make the meeting as attractive and 
 enthusiastic as you can, have flowers, music, flags, 
 banners, and speakers who have something to say. Let 
 the petition be fully set forth, and also the dutv' of 
 the Legislature to the people — whose servants they 
 are. Let this formal public presentation be fully 
 noticed in the press of the capital, and also sent to as 
 large a number of the country papers as can be 
 reached. 
 
 The actual presentation of the petitions to the 
 Legislature, may be done b}' having them in one mass 
 and presented b}" one member, or they may be given 
 to the several members whose constituencies have 
 petitioned ; I think the latter wa}’ the better one. 
 The right of petition is a constitutional right, and no 
 representative will dare, — whatever his personal 
 opinions — to refuse to offer in the proper way, what 
 his constituents send. The reading of the petitions, 
 day after day, the veiy sound of the words Woman s 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 59 
 
 Christiayi Temperance Union, is educational ; it may 
 carr}^ convictions of duty toward the constituency of 
 the homes, it may bring- memories of ruin wrought 
 to homes through intemperance, it may thus soften 
 and tender the hearts of the men who will be called 
 to vote. It is a right and proper thing to do. 
 
 The proceedings of the Legislature should be 
 carefully watched, judicious men or women, or both, 
 should be at the capital, and by personal interviews 
 inform the members of both bodies in the Legislature 
 of the people’s will. This work is wearisome and 
 sometimes disagreeable, but somebody must do it. 
 
 If the Legislature does not heed the prayer of your 
 petition, you must do the work over again; not feel- 
 ing that the agitation has been lost. A brave setting 
 up of God’s truth, in any of its many^ manifestations, 
 can not fail to accomplish much toward its final tri- 
 umph. Let temperance men and women see to it 
 that every legislator who voted against the resolu- 
 tion to submit is elected to stay at home in the future. 
 
 If the Legislature does vote to submit, and it goes 
 directly to the people for their vote — or even if the 
 Constitution requires that a second Legislature 
 should ratify the action of the first, in either instance 
 the hand-to-hand work of securing the popular vote 
 in favor of the amendment should be rigorously car- 
 ried on. If a second legislative vote is needed, the 
 same care should be exercised as to the character of 
 the men who make up the body as was exercised 
 concei'ning the former Legislature. There must be 
 no “ let-up ” anywhere along the line. 
 
 I desire to suggest that the plan of registration 
 adopted in Iowa is a most excellent one for the other 
 
5o 
 
 Constitutional ProJiibitioyi, 
 
 States. I give here the text of the little book used 
 there ; with some very slight changes it will suit the 
 work in au)^ of the States. This personal, individual 
 work is absolutely essential. There is little doubt 
 that Legislatures will submit the question — the de- 
 mand is too imperative to be disregarded; but after 
 submission comes the vote of the people, and the 
 people must be educated. To this end 
 
 CIRCULATE TEMPERANCE LITERATURE. 
 
 There is no one means so effective ; indeed, it 
 is vital to success. Let the ministers, the public 
 speakers, the circulators of petitions — let every 
 friend of the cause become himself well-armed and 
 equipped with facts, figures, and arguments. Re- 
 member, knowledge is power. You have no right to 
 allow the golden opportunities afforded by the tem- 
 perance publications of the present day to go un- 
 improved. Every department of science, the voice 
 of political economy, and the words of God’s re- 
 vealed will are with us in this conflict. And in this 
 multitude of voices— this cloud of witnesses, shall we 
 lie asleep or sit with hands hung down, or wail with 
 pious drawl, “ O Lord, bless our poor, feeble efforts ! ” 
 The Lord has never promised to bless feeble efforts 
 that are thus feeble because of crkninal negligence 
 on our part. Temperance literature is cheap; it is 
 within the reach of all ; it is an undisputed agency 
 for good ; and there is no justifiable excuse for failing 
 to use it in this work. The general question of pro- 
 hibition is involved in this new phase of constitu- 
 tional prohibition, and the supply of literature is 
 almost inexhaustible. 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 6i 
 
 It is well also to publish as campaign literature the 
 speeches of prominent men in the State. In Iowa the 
 speech of Hon. James F. Wilson, U. S. Senator- 
 elect, was spread by many thousands, and was very 
 useful. Who can estimate the value of Governor St. 
 John’s printed addresses that have been in every 
 home west of the Mississippi and in thousands in the 
 East? While reading his grand utterances, one 
 seems to feel the beat of his heart and to see the 
 flash of his eye, and to believe that, like Hiawatha, 
 
 “ At every step a mile he measures.” 
 
 So also is it useful to gather local statistics, show- 
 ing the relation of the traffic to local expenses. Let 
 the criminal record of the county, and the cost of in- 
 sanity and pauperism be set over against the miser- 
 able pittance received from license, and then show 
 the deficit on the side of the traffic. These sent to 
 taxpayers and coming so near home will be the best 
 kind of eye-openers. Let every newspaper available be 
 pressed into the service. If the editor will not him- 
 self take up the weapons of war, he will perhaps give 
 space to a Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, 
 or a Good Templars’ Lodge, or an Amendment As- 
 sociation, to set forth the discussion. Be sure and 
 keep the campaign non-partisan. In Iowa the move- 
 ment was a sort of political millennial, for former po- 
 litical foes took sweet counsel together and walked 
 in company. 
 
 Draft everybody into this bloodless war. The 
 young men will find this a grand theme upon which 
 to plume their early oratorical powers. Let them go 
 out into the school-houses in the rural districts, let 
 
62 
 
 Constitutional Pi'oliibition. 
 
 them introduce the question into their debating 
 societies. The duties of citizenship shall be better 
 borne by them, because of the consideration of this 
 great question, and its relation to the welfare of the 
 State. The young ladies too; let them bring the 
 beauty and the freshness of their life into this holy 
 crusade. Let them write essays and make speeches, 
 and ask voters, and sing at the meetings, and beg 
 money or raise it by entertainments, all to carry on 
 this war— for God and home and native land. And the 
 dear children, let them in their Bands of Hope and 
 Temperance Schools, along with their Catechism on 
 Alcohol, study the “ Amendment Catechism,” and 
 thus be ready to help in the common cause. The 
 boys and girls of Iowa did their full share of the 
 work there. So the faithful temperance worker, 
 upon whose heart the burden really presses will in- 
 vent ways and means, according to local conditions 
 and surroundings, and when the final vote shall 
 come, it will be impossible to tell what has helped 
 the most. It is very desirable that the vote shall be 
 at a special election, called for that purpose ; thus its 
 non-partisan character can be preserved. If the 
 machinery used at the ordinar}" election be in opera- 
 tion for the election of the regular tickets of the 
 parties, it will be difficult to keep the amendment free 
 from its entanglements. Some of the State Constitu- 
 tions provide that the vote shall come “at the next 
 general election,,” in which case there is no choice 
 left. But, if the provision on Amendments says, “ in 
 such manner as the legislature ma}" determ.ine,” or 
 words to that effect, then temperance people should 
 insist on its being called on a day when no other 
 
Constititiional Prohibit ion. 
 
 63 
 
 questions are before the people. Let the friends of 
 the cause use care in the choice of the polling places, 
 officials having this matter in charge will usually 
 receive suggestions, if given by proper persons and 
 in a proper manner. Let existing laws in regard to 
 the closing of the saloons on election day be rigidly 
 enforced. Let the women go to the polls ; let them 
 have the right tickets for distribution, let them 
 spread lunches, that, so the common table with the 
 home look of mother and sister and child, may keep 
 this home constituency in hourly remembrance. 
 Let decorations of mottoes in print and in evergreens 
 assist the eye and speak to the heart. Let flowers 
 and music and home influences make every voting 
 place appear to be what in truth it ought to be, a 
 shrine upon which every freeman offers the sacrihfice 
 of his loyal sovereignty. And do not forget the - 
 prayer-meetings, let the bells ring hourly the calls, 
 and from the opening to the closing of the polls let 
 the fire on the altars of religion be kept burning, 
 “ Them that honor me, will I honor.” To the 
 devout student of history, who has seen God all 
 through the centuries, working out his vast designs 
 by human instrumentalities, and who recognizes in 
 this great uprising of the people for Constitutional 
 Prohibition, the hand of God, who ever leads his 
 people, to this wise temperance worker, I need not 
 enforce this plea for this marked recognition of 
 God’s leading. To the blind toiler, who sees only 
 the near sorrowful past, and the approximate bettered 
 future, and who does the best he can within these 
 limitations, do I say — that he will find his own soul 
 cheered — if he does not repel the influence — by the 
 
64 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 faith of the pious enthusiast, who has “meat to eat 
 he knows not of.” Yes, by all means, let the prayer- 
 meeting be held. And thus, by education and agita- 
 tion, through the pulpit, the press, the temperance 
 organization, the school, the home, and these all 
 baptized with prayerful zeal, with pious enthusiasm, 
 thus shall the much desired result be accomplished. 
 
 “ ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES.” 
 
 Has any one questioned why I have so often used 
 the term “alcoholic beverages” instead of “intoxi- 
 cating liquors ”? I consider it the better term to be 
 applied, because it is complete in itself. If we say 
 “ intoxicating liquors” we must go on to qualify by 
 the words “ as a beverage,” or “ except for medicinal, 
 mec+ianical, or sacramental uses ”; these are clumsy 
 forms of expression, and the latter raises the contro- 
 versy of the use of alcohol as a remedial agency, and 
 also the use of fermented wine in the commemora- 
 tion of the Holy Sacrament, which is a sacred rite of 
 the Christian Church. These questions must be dis- 
 cussed by the people and authorities in the science 
 of medicine, and leaders of thought in the Christian 
 Church are dealing with these subjects, but the dis- 
 cussion is more pertinent to the moral than to the 
 legal phases of the temperance question. It also nar- 
 rows much the arena of debate. When some would- 
 be objector says, “I’m against the amendment be- 
 cause we need alcohol as a medicine,” we can reply, 
 this desired legislation does not interfere with its 
 legitimate use as a medicine, it says “alcoholic bev- 
 erages’’'-, and also when some impious man, who sud- 
 denly assumes a great interest in the institutions of 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 65 
 
 the Church, says he is opposed to the amendment 
 because it will be in the way of getting communion 
 wine, his objection will be answered by the distinct 
 pronunciation of the words “ alcoholic beverages.” So, 
 also, the term “ liquor crime ” I consider very terse 
 and distinctive. We commonly say “ liquor traffic,” 
 with a mental reservation that we mean the unlaw- 
 ful trade in liquor, that is, the trade in it for beverage 
 use ; but when the term licpior crime” is used, we 
 define just what we mean, and educate the people to 
 consider it a crime. I am indebted to the writings 
 of Hon. G. T. Stewart, of Ohio, for this suggestion. 
 Again, be sure always to remember that it is the 
 manufacture and sale about which we legislate, not 
 the use. A confusion of terms leads to a confusion 
 of ideas, as well as indicates that there is such a con- 
 fusion already in the mind. 
 
 The user of alcoholic beverages comes within the 
 domain of moral influences — the pledge, the temper- 
 ance society, the persuasive plea, the convincing 
 argument. The trafficker in these beverages, being 
 oblivious to these influences, or impervious to their 
 operation, is outside this domain, and within that of 
 the law, thus the forces of civil law must be set in 
 motion toward him and toward his business. 
 
PETITION TO STATE LEGISLATURE TO SUBMIT 
 CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of the State of 
 , to the Honorable Senate and House of Rep- 
 resentatives of the State of , Greeting: 
 
 Your petitioners, citizens of the State of , do respectfully 
 
 set forth, that intemperance wastes the material resources of the State, deso- 
 lates its homes, and debases its citizens ; that intemperance is the legitimate 
 outg;rowth and universal accompaniment of the traffic in alcoholic beverages ; 
 we, therefore, in the name of G ,d and home and native Itmd, do petition your 
 
 honorable body that you will, i accordance with article of the 
 
 Constitution of the State of , propose an amendment to the 
 
 said constitution, which shall forever prohibit the manufacture of, and traffic 
 in, these beverages. 
 
 NAMES. 
 
 VOTERS. 
 
 WOMEN OVER 21. 
 
 MINORS OVER l6. 
 
 
 
 
 Note. — R emember that the object of popular petitions is education and agitation.. 
 Thus taking the text of the above petition it will be seen that it will serve as notes of 
 a good temperance address. Let it be shown how' intemperance “ affects material in- 
 terest — affects the home, affects the citizen,” and the circulator of the petition and 
 the signer of it will both be educated. Let care be taken to keep the three classes, 
 ” voters,” ” women,” and ” minors,” in their proper places. Also put a little note 
 at the head of the petition, stating at what time and to whom the petition must be 
 returned. 
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
PETITION TO A POLITICAL CONVENTION. 
 
 The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of the State of 
 
 , to the State Convention of the 
 
 party in , Greeting ; 
 
 Your memorialists do respectfully set forth that they are an organization of 
 women citizens of the State ; that they are engaged in Christian and philan- 
 thropic work, for the suppression of the evil of intemperance ; that their 
 methods are well-known and approved, being chiefly the teaching of the chil- 
 dren as to the real nature of alcohol and its effects upon the human system, by 
 the introduction of text-books on this subject into the schools supported by the 
 State, by the circulation of temperance literature, and by personal effort to re- 
 claim the inebriate and to comfort and support his family, all these means 
 tending to the creation of a sentiment which shall strongly reprove the use of 
 all alcoholic beverages by our citizens, and shall not tolerate the manufacture 
 and traffic in them in the State. In these efforts we are constantly hindered 
 and often wholly frustrated by the traffic in these beverages, and it is our sin- 
 cere conviction that this traffic might be, and ought to be, abolished by more 
 stringent laws and more thorough enforcement of the same. To the end, 
 therefore, that the Legislature of the State may be informed of the people’s 
 will, and thus more definitely bound to enfoi'ce the same, and because many 
 members of the Legislature will be elected on a platform of principles set forth 
 by your Convention, we do most earnestly pray you to — by resolution of your 
 Convention — call upon the Legislature to propose and submit — at the earliest 
 possible date — to the people of the State an amendment to the Constitution of 
 the State, forever prohibiting the manufacture and sale of all alcoholic bever- 
 ages. We point with pride to the recent recognition of this question by polit- 
 ical parties throughout the country, and, as loyal daughters of this Republic, 
 we would modestly remind our political leaders of the historic testimony of 
 American politics, that the people do not long adhere to a party which does not 
 listen to their expressed desire. 
 
 Note. — The above petition is merely suggestive. It maybe presented to county, 
 district, or State conventions, care being taken to have blanks filled out correctly, and 
 the memorial signed by representative persons. It should be presented by a member 
 of the convention to the convention, in open session, or by some committee (of 
 ladies or gentlemen) to the Committee on Platform and Resolutions. If the memorial 
 is presented in open convention and referred to the committee above-mentioned, 
 then the Temperance Committee can call upon the party committee and enforce their 
 desire concerning the memorial. It can be changed to suit any association. 
 
 (67) 
 
68 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 A little Hand-Book was prepared for the use of canvassers in 
 every school district, and we herewith print a copy of the 
 instructions which it contains, together with sample pages for 
 list of voters, summary of returns, etc. : 
 
 This little book is prepared and sent out by the Department 
 of Legislation of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. 
 It is designed, first: to show the present sentiment of the voters 
 of the State of Iowa toward the proposed prohibitorj^ amend- 
 ment ; second : to form a basis for systematic and thorough agi- 
 tation and education concerning the movement ; third : to 
 facilitate the securing of a full vote on election day. 
 
 THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE 
 CONSTITUTION. 
 
 “ Section 26. No person shall manufacture for sale, sell or 
 keep for sale as a beverage, any intoxicating liquors whatever, 
 including ale, wine and beer. The General Assembly shall by 
 law prescribe regulations for the enforcement of the provisions 
 herein contained, and shall thereby provide suitable penalties 
 for violations of the provisions thereof.” 
 
 The law governing Constitutional Amendments is Sec. 1, Art. 
 X of the Constitution, which reads as follows : 
 
 “Section i. Any amendment or amendments to this Con- 
 stitution may be proposed in either house of the General 
 Assembly ; and if the same shall be agreed to by a majorit}' of 
 the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed 
 amendment shall be entered on their journals, with the yeas 
 and nays taken thereon, and referred to the Legislature to be 
 chosen at the next general election, and shall be published, as 
 provided by law, for three months previous to the time of 
 making such choice ; and if in the General Assembly so next 
 chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or amendments 
 shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members elected to 
 each house, then it shall be the duty of the General Assembly 
 to submit such proposed amendment or amendments to the 
 people, in such manner and at such time as the General Assem- 
 ( 68 ) 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 69 
 
 bly shall provide ; and if the people shall approve and ratify 
 such amendment or amendments by a majority of the electors 
 qualified for members of the General Assembly voting thereon, 
 such amendment or amendments shall become a part of the 
 Constitution of this State.” 
 
 TO COUNTY PRESIDENTS. 
 
 (or persons acting in their stead.) 
 
 Let the County President go to the office of the Auditor in 
 the Court House at the county seat. There she will find poll- 
 books of all the townships and voting precincts in the county, 
 duplicates being with township clerks. In these poll-books will 
 be found the names of all who voted at the last election. This 
 is not a perfect list of all the qualified voters, for some might 
 not have voted who were then entitled (the Poll-book of the 
 Presidential Election of 1880 contains the largest list), and be- 
 cause the population is constantly changing ; but it is a more 
 accurate list than can be obtained from any other source. To 
 supplement this, examine the census returns so lately taken 
 (1880), also found at the Auditor’s office. Among the minors 
 there will be some who have attained their majority since the 
 taking of the census ; these should be added to the poll-book 
 list. Also let search be made for new-comers, and as to their 
 qualificatione to vote. 
 
 From the Assessor’s books, also with the County Auditor, 
 might be found some who were qualified voters, and had not 
 voted, who might also be added to the list ; this, however, 
 would involve much labor and inadequate return for the same. 
 Therefore the examination of the Assessor’s books / do not 
 recommend. 
 
 After the names have been copied into the Amendment 
 Register Books, the voters of each township or voting precinct 
 being in a separate book, with the name of the township or 
 voting precinct written in the same, then let the County Presi- 
 dent with great care, and as far as possible with personal 
 knowledge, select a person or persons in each township or vot- 
 ing precinct, to whom the books shall be sent with instructions 
 
70 
 
 Constitutioiial Prohibition. 
 
 to peruse carefully the directions herein given, and to carry out 
 the plan proposed with conscientious fidelity. After the can- 
 vass has been made and the report is received by the County 
 President, let this be the basis for general supervision of fur- 
 ther work to be done by the circulation of temperance litera- 
 ture, and the agitation of the question by sermons, lectures, 
 and public meetings. Let her make a report from the reports 
 she has received from the townships, carefully following the 
 plan of the township report, and send the same to me. As the 
 voting day approaches, let her by consultation with true and 
 tried men and women select a committee of three persons for 
 each polling place, one of whom shall be the holder of the 
 Amendment Register Book, and one or more of whom be 
 gentlemen who shall be at the polls on election day early and 
 late, with at least two conveyances driven by staunch tem- 
 perance men, who shall see that everj'- qualified elector — in 
 favor of the Amendment — has convenient facilities forexpress- 
 ing his sentiments at the ballot-box. Let the books be finally 
 returned to Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, Clinton, Iowa, to be kept as 
 permanent temperance documents of the reform in Iowa. 
 
 To THE Person to whose Hand this Book May Come. 
 
 Let the holder of this book study all the forms and instruc- 
 tions given herein, and then either in person or by weil chosen 
 helpers, find out how all the voters whose names are on the 
 book expect to vote on the Amendment, if the same shall come 
 before the people. These voters need not be asked to sign a 
 pledge that they will do so, but the record “ for,” or “ against,” 
 or “ doubtful,” must be made according to the canvasser’s best 
 judgment after conversation with the voter, or receiving defi- 
 nite information from any other source. 
 
 This canvass will involve much labor, and in some localities, 
 large cities and towns, it is possible that holders of books may 
 be unable to do thorough work in person, or by gratuitous 
 helpers, and may deem it best to hire some competent and 
 faithful temperance man or woman to give a few hard days’ 
 work in this direction for a moderate compensation. 
 
 Let the work be done with as little ostentation as possible. 
 
Cci stitutio7ial ProJiibition. 
 
 n 
 
 and with kindness and good nature ; not in public meetings 
 after stirring appeals, in the presence of numbers of persons, 
 but by personal appeals at home or shop, or plow or office. 
 After the canvass has been made, let the holder of the book fill 
 out the blank reports on the last two pages, tear out one and 
 send it to the County President of the W. C. T. U. (or person 
 acting in her stead), keeping the duplicate in the book. This 
 will be the basis for the selection and circulation of temper- 
 ance literature and other temperance work. To illustrate : 
 Mrs. Smith canvasses in a little town ; she goes to Mr. Brown, 
 who says he “ is opposed to the amendment, because saloons 
 build up a town and make business ; he owns some town lots 
 and wishes them to increase in value.” Mrs. Smith makes a 
 mark | in the column headed “against” after Mr. Brown’s 
 name, and under the head “ memoranda ” the letter “ A.” 
 
 Again : Mr. Johnson canvasses in a township of farmers ; he 
 talks with Mr. Jones as he rides on his load of corn which he is 
 taking to the nearest R. R. station. When asked how he will 
 vote, he says: “Well, I am against the Amendment; it will 
 lower the price of corn.” Mr. Johnson marks | in column 
 “ against ” and the letter “A.” 
 
 Mrs. Thompson goes to a good man, a*member of her own 
 church. She says : “ Deacon Bland, how will you vote on the 
 Amendment 1 ” “ Well, Mrs. Thompson, I have no sympathy 
 
 with drinking or with saloons, but I have serious doubts as to 
 whether the State has the legal right to interfere with men’s 
 habits and customs.” She marks | in “ against ” column and 
 letter “ B.” 
 
 Again : Lawyer White goes into the office of Messrs. Quirk, 
 Gammon & Snap, Attorneys and Counselors-at-Law. He says : 
 “ Gentlemen, I’ve called to see how you stand on this proposed 
 Amendment.’’ Mr. Quirk replies ; “ Prohibition may be all 
 right enough, but you can’t enforce it.” (Memoranda “ C.”) 
 Mr. Gammon responds : “ Statutory prohibition rests on good 
 legal principles, but police regulations have no place in the 
 Constitution.” (Memoranda “ F.’^) Mr. Snap can scarcely wait 
 until the others have finished, and says : “ I don’t believe in it 
 as a subject for law at all. It’s a great moral question, 
 
72 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 and should not be taken into politics.” (Memoranda “ G.”) 
 These three will vote against the Amendment, and opposite 
 their names should be marked | in “ against ” column, with 
 memoranda indicating reason. 
 
 Mr. Schrader is visited at his saloon ; he responds to the 
 inquiry that he believes in a judicious license law, and will vote 
 against the amendment. (Memoranda “ D.”) 
 
 Mike Mahoney says he wants his drink, and don’t propose to 
 vote it away. (Memoranda “ E.”) 
 
 Key to Letters Under the Head “ Memoranda.” 
 
 Will hurt business “ A ” 
 
 Against personal liberty (sumptuary laws, etc.) “ B ” 
 
 Can’t be enforced “C” 
 
 In favor of license “ D” 
 
 Wants to drink “ E ” 
 
 Not proper subject for constitutional law « p ” 
 
 A moral question not to be taken into politics “ G ” 
 
 There will found at the end of this book a catalogue of 
 standard temperance books, tracts, pamphlets and periodicals 
 for circulation. While these are all good for general circula- 
 tion, you will find each class of objections specifically answered. 
 Yon can thus “give a portion to each in due season.” 
 
 Write to me if at any time I can help you in any way. Cor- 
 respond with county, district and State officers ; ask advice 
 when confronted with difficulties, and spread the cheer when 
 encouraged by successes. 
 
 When downcast, pray for clear spiritual vision, that shall re- 
 veal the “ mountain full of chariots and horsemen.” When con- 
 fident of success, remember that it is “ not by might or by 
 power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” 
 
 Things to be Remembered. 
 
 The majority vote for the Amendment must come, if at all, 
 from the rural districts, and in these must the larger amount of 
 work be done. 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 73 
 
 All helpful agencies and opportunities must be sought out, 
 temperance men and women must hold meetings for consulta- 
 tion and discussion, and to answer objections, in churches, halls 
 and school houses. Ministers of the gospel are always ready to 
 give advice and service, and school teachers may be influential 
 for good. Every one that has a brain to think, or a heart to 
 feel, a voice to speak, or money to give, must be drafted into 
 the service. No class of voters must be omitted in the canvass. 
 It must not be taken for granted, that because of nationality or 
 personal habits, or political affiliation, certain voters will be 
 opposed to the Amendment. Be prepared for great surprises, 
 both encouraging and discouraging. 
 
 “ Knowledge is power,” “ truth is mighty and will prevail.” 
 Thus spread the truth, circulate literature. There is not an ob- 
 jection which can be urged against the movement but has been 
 answered by somebody’s pen. Don’t allow any temperance lit- 
 erature to lie about the house unused ; circulate, circulate, agi- 
 tate, agitate. 
 
 The question of finance will in this, as in all public work, re- 
 quire careful attention. Plans should be adjusted according to 
 the local needs and financial circumstances of communities. 
 Money can be raised by collections at church services, at public 
 meetings, by private solicitation, by “ Amendment Socials,” 
 by “ Amendment Suppers,” by “ Amendment Fairs,” by 
 “ Amendment Quilts,” by “ Amendment Offerings ” from the 
 herd, the flock, the granary of the farmer, and from the butter, 
 the eggs, the cheese, the chickens of the farmer’s wife. These 
 can be collected and easily converted into money. The money 
 outlay needed will be very small as compared with the magni- 
 tude of the work done and the glorious results to be achieved. 
 
TO THE CANVASSER. 
 
 After the Summary" has been made out on the 
 Blank in back part of this book, make otit a duplicate on 
 the last and opposite leaf, which leaf you will tear out 
 and send to County President. 
 
76 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 CLASSIFIED LIST OF VOTERS. 
 
 NAMES OF VOTERS. 
 
 Doubt’I 
 
Constitutio7tal Prohibition. 
 
 77 
 
 Co. 
 
 ( Township or 
 ( Voting Precinct. 
 
 RESIDENCE. 
 
 MEMORANDA. 
 
78 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition, 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 r County, 
 
 Name of ■< Township 
 ( or Precinct 
 
 No. of Voters 
 
 No. of Voters for Amendment 
 
 No. “ against “ 
 
 No. “ doubtful 
 
 No. “ not found 
 
 No. Churches 
 
 No. Temperance Societies 
 
 No. Schools 
 
 No. Saloons 
 
 No. Breweries 
 
 No. Distilleries 
 
 No. making objections A. 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 D 
 
 E 
 
 Other memoranda 
 
Constitutional Prohibition, 
 
 79 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 ! County, ) 
 
 Township, ^ 
 
 or Precinct ) 
 
 No. of Voters 
 
 No. of Voters for Amendment 
 
 “ “ against “ 
 
 “ “ doubtful 
 
 “ “ not found 
 
 No. Churches 
 
 No. Temperance Societies 
 
 No. Schools 
 
 No. Saloons 
 
 No. Breweries 
 
 No. Distilleries 
 
 No. making objections A 
 
 “ “ “ B 
 
 “ “ “ C 
 
 “ “ “ D 
 
 “ “ “ E 
 
 Other memoranda 
 
8o 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 The following are among the resolutions adopted 
 b}'^ the National Convention, which assembled at 
 Saratoga, June, i88i, with 350 delegates from 25 dif- 
 ferent States : 
 
 ro. “ Resolved. That we re-state the affirmed position of the sev- 
 eral National Temperance Conventions that the absolute legal pro- 
 hibition of the manufacture and sale of all alcoholic beverages is 
 the only legislative remedy for the evils of intemperance, and far- 
 ther that this principle ought to be incorporated in the organic law 
 of all the States of this nation, and to this end we urge all temper- 
 ance people to unite in efforts to secure such State constitutional 
 amendments as shall thus embody their righteous abhorrence of 
 this iniquitous traffic. 
 
 II. “Resolved, That the citizens of the several States, having 
 ample opportunity to observe the influence of the liquor traffic upon 
 the health, happiness, and welfare of the people in their respective 
 counties or communities, and having to bear the burdens which it 
 imposes, should at least have the power to prohibit the same by a 
 submission of the question to a popular vote; and we recommend 
 this measure as a wise and proper one to be adopted, great benefits 
 having already been proven to have resulted therefrom where it has 
 been fairly tested, and we regard this practical method of demon- 
 strating the benefits of prohibition as an important aid in the secur- 
 ing of constitutional prohibition. 
 
 “ Whereas, The beer-brewers’ associations and kindred liquor 
 dealers’ organizations, during a score of years past, have declared 
 the traffic in intoxicating drinks to be a legitimate part of American 
 commerce, entitled to and demanding for it the protection of law 
 and the fostering care of the States and national governments, de- 
 nying the right to prohibit or restrict the same ; have yearly avowed 
 their purpose to vote for no man who favored legislation in the in- 
 terests of temperance, and constantly have used their political fran- 
 chise for the continuation of their trade ; in the past have received 
 the countenance of political parties in support of the positions and 
 selfish interests thus assumed, securing through such aid the re- 
 scinding of constitutional enactments and the repeal, modification, 
 or impairment in efficiency of acts of Congress and ot the States 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 8i 
 
 restrictive of their business, and by many and other influences have 
 secured the election of friends and the defeat of supposed oppo- 
 nents ; having thus deliberately resolved and acted by the consent 
 and co-operation of the party press leaders, they have forced the 
 liquor question into national and State politics, making their traffic 
 an issue in State and municipal elections, and have in their interest 
 largely secured the administration of government laws ; therefore, 
 
 12. "Resolved, That the interests of the public peace and wel- 
 fare, the defense of personal liberty, the safety and protection of 
 home with faithfulness to avowed convictions, demand from the 
 friends of temperance, good government and free institutions, the 
 acceptance of this field of contest and their gauge of battle, and 
 this convention declares it to be the duty of every temperance voter 
 to cast his ballot at every election only for such candidates for pub- 
 lic office as may be relied upon on this liquor question to use 
 official power and place for securing the enactment and due execu- 
 tion of law for the prohibition of the manufacture, sale, or importa- 
 tion of alcoholic liquors for drinking uses. 
 
 “ That an organized ballot, whether under the name of Prohib- 
 ition party, or for securing and maintaining amendments of the 
 national and State constitutions, or general or local prohibition, or 
 the restraint of the liquor trade, in view of the platform declarations 
 of present parties against the prohibition of such trade, and of the 
 machinations and organizations of the brewing, distilling, and 
 liquor selling interests for political ends, has become a present and 
 imperative necessity in order to purify our politics and legislation, 
 and save our free institutions from the blight of the God-defying and 
 virtue-despising liquor business. That adhesion to party allied 
 with liquor manufacturers and sellers is to give aid and comfort to 
 the enemy, and is treason to temperance. Prayer and the ballot 
 should be as inseparable as faith and works. 
 
 13. "Resolved, That we recommend the immediate organization 
 in every election district of all voters favorable to the prohibition of 
 the liquor traffic, and pledged to support only such candidates as 
 will accept and promote the constitutional and statutory prohibition 
 of the liquor traffic.” 
 
82 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 AMENDMENTS IN STATES. 
 
 The following is the text of the Constitutional 
 amendments so far as they have been adopted. 
 
 KANSAS. 
 
 “Proposition — Article 15 shall be amended, by adding section 10 
 thereto, which shall read as follows : ‘ The manufacture and sale of 
 intoxicating liquors shall be for ever prohibited in this State, except 
 for medical, scientific, and mechanical purposes.’ ” 
 
 IOWA. 
 
 “ No person shall manufacture for sale, or sell, or keep for sale, 
 as a beverage, any intoxicating liquors whatever, including ale, 
 wine, and beer. The General Assembly shall, by law, prescribe 
 regulations for the enforcement of the prohibition herein contained, 
 and shall thereby provide suitable penalties for the violation of the 
 provision hereof." 
 
 INDIANA. 
 
 The following has passed one legislature, and 
 must be also approved by the next, before it is sub- 
 mitted to the vote of the people : 
 
 Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, 
 That the following amendment be and is hereby proposed to the 
 Constitution of the State of Indiana, to be submitted to the vote of 
 the Electors of the State — viz.; Article 17, as follows: 
 
 “Sec. I. The manufacture, sale, or keeping for sale, in said 
 State, spirituous, vinous, malt liquors, or any other intoxicating 
 liquors (except for medical, scientific, mechanical, and wines for 
 sacramental purposes) shall be and are hereby prohibited in the 
 State of Indiana. 
 
 “ Sec. 2. The General Assembly of the State of Indiana shall 
 provide by law in what manner, by whom, and at what place such 
 liquors should be manufactured or sold for medical, scientific, and 
 sacramental purposes.” 
 
Constitutional Prohibitio7i. 
 
 83 
 
 HOW TO AMEND STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Hon. S. D. Hastings, of Wisconsin, has carefully 
 prepared the following account of the various meth- 
 ods of amending State Constitutions : 
 
 “To amend the Constitutions of Alabama, California, Colora- 
 do, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, 
 Mississippi, Texas, and West Virginia the proposed amendment 
 must be submitted by a three-fourths vote of one Legislature, and 
 then go to the people for ratification. To amend the Constitu- 
 tions of Arkansas, Minnesota, and Missouri the proposed amend- 
 ment must be submitted by a majority vote of one Legislature. 
 To amend the Constitutions of Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, New 
 York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wis- 
 consin the proposed amendment must be submitted by a ma- 
 jority vote of two successive Legislatures, and then adopted by 
 a majority vote of the people, except in Rhode Island, where a 
 three-fifths vote is required to adopt. In Georgia, Florida, 
 Nevada, and South Carolina the proposed amendment must 
 pass two successive Legislatures by a three-fourths vote before 
 it goes to the people. In South Carolina, however, the second 
 vote in the Legislature must be after the amendment has been 
 passed upon by the voters. In Maryland, Nebraska, North Car- 
 olina, and Ohio a three-fifths vote of one Legislature can sub- 
 mit an amendment, and it can then be adopted by a majority 
 vote of the people. In Connecticut an amendment must be 
 proposed by the House of Representatives, approved by a three- 
 fourths vote of the succeeding Legislature, and then sent to the 
 towns to be ratified. In Delaware an amendment must be 
 proposed by a three-fourths vote of the Legislature, and, after 
 having been extensively published, ratified by a three-fourths 
 vote of the succeeding Legislature, when it becomes a part of 
 the Constitution without a vote of the people. In Tennessee it 
 requires a majority vote of one Legislature and a three-fourths 
 vote of the succeeding one to submit an amendment, when a 
 majority of the people adopts. In Vermont an amendment 
 can be submitted by the Council of Censors, and then adopted 
 by a convention called for the purpose. In New Hampshire an 
 
84 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 amendment must be submitted by a convention, and adopted by 
 a three-fourths vote of the people. In Kentucky the Constitution 
 can only be amended by a convention called for the purpose.” 
 
 GENERAL PETITION. 
 
 The following is a general form of petition which 
 can be used in any State : 
 
 To the Sejiate and Assemhty of the State of : 
 
 The undersigned, adult residents of ^ Assem- 
 bly District, County, respectfully and earnestly 
 
 pray your honorable body to adopt, and submit for ratification 
 to the voters of the State, as duly and legally provided, an 
 amendment to the State Constitution, to forever prohibit the 
 manufacture and sale as a beverage of all intoxicating liquors 
 within the jurisdiction of this State. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The following is the form of Constitution adopted 
 by the State Amendment Association of Iowa: 
 
 PREAMBLE. 
 
 Whereas, The evils of intemperance are still existing to such an extent in 
 our State as to demand of all classes of citizens continuous and united efforts 
 for their suppression ; and. 
 
 Whereas, Botli moral and legal forces can be successfully united to that 
 end ; and, 
 
 Whereas, Prohibition should be incorporated in the organic law of the 
 State as the Declaration of a Principle by the people ; and should be supple- 
 mented by Legislative enactments enforcing the same ; 
 
 Therefore, for the accomplishment of these purposes, we, the undersigned, 
 hereby associate ourselves together, and adopt the following 
 
 ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION. 
 
 I. name and place. 
 
 This corporation shall be known as the State Prohibitory Amendment Asso- 
 ciation of Iowa, and its principal place of business shall be at Des Moines, 
 Iowa, 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 85 
 
 II. OBJECTS. 
 
 The objects of this Association shall be to procure the submission, adoption, 
 and enforcement of the proposed amendment to the Constitution of Iowa, pro- 
 hibiting the manufacture and sale, within this State, of aU intoxicating liquors 
 as a beverage, including ale, wine, and beer. 
 
 III. CAPITAL STOCK. 
 
 The capital stock of this Association shall be $100,000.00, divided into one 
 hundred thousand shares of $i each, with a provision for honorary member- 
 ship by the payment of the sum of $5 by any one person, but certiGcates of 
 honorary membership shall be non-assessable. 
 
 IV. OFFICERS. 
 
 The officers of this Association shall consist of a Board of Directors of one 
 from each Congressional district in the State, and in addition thereto the Pres- 
 ident or chief officer of each State Temperance Organization in the State, and 
 said Board of Directors at their annual meetings shall annually elect from 
 among the stockholders a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary and Treas- 
 urer, who shall hold their office for one year, or until their successors are duly 
 elected, and they shall perform the duties usually required of such officers. 
 
 V. MEMBERSHIP. 
 
 Any person may become a member of this Association by subscribing for one 
 or more shares of the capital stock, and the payment of one dollar for each 
 share, and may become an honorary member by the payment of $5. The pay- 
 ment of $25 by any one person at one time shall constitute such person a life 
 member, and he shall be entitled to one vote. 
 
 VI. MEETING. 
 
 The first annual meeting of this Association shall be held at the same time 
 and place as that of the next annual temperance jubilee, and, each annual 
 meeting thereafter, shall be held at such time and place as the President, Vice- 
 President, Secretary and Treasurer shall designate ; and at each annual meet- 
 ing a full report of all the doings of the Directors, and other officers of the As- 
 sociation, shall me made, together with a minute statement of the collection and 
 disbursement of the funds. The officers shall be reimbursed for aU their nec- 
 essary expenses incurred in the discharge of their respective duties. 
 
 VII. FUNDS. 
 
 The funds of this Association shall be placed in the hands of the Treasurer, 
 who shall pay them out upon the written order of the President, countersigned 
 by the Secretary, and they shall be used exclusively for the purpose of procur- 
 ing the submission, the adoption, and the enforcement of the prohibitory 
 amendment to the Constitution of Iowa — 
 
 First — By aiding the thorough organization of the friends of the proposed 
 amendment. 
 
86 
 
 Constitutio7ial Prohibition. 
 
 Second — By the circulatioin of temperance literature and the employment of 
 temperance lecturers and organizers, and in prosecuting the violators of law 
 against the sale of intoxicating liquors, and the fulfillment of the provisions of 
 these articles of incorporation. 
 
 VIII. DIRECTORS. 
 
 The Directors of this Association shall have the power to assess the capital 
 stock of this Association any amount not to exceed the sum of $i per annum 
 upon each share of stock, and may declare the stock of any member forfeited 
 when the assessment made thereon shall remain unpaid for six months after he 
 shall be notified of such assessment, by written or printed notice through the 
 mail, by the Secretary ; but no assessment of stock shall be made during the 
 first year. 
 
 IX. PRIVATE PROPERTY. 
 
 The private property of the stockholders of this Association shall not be 
 liable for corporate debts. 
 
 X. INDEBTEDNESS. 
 
 This Association shall at no time contract for or have an outstanding and 
 unpaid indebtedness exceeding the sum of $i,ooo. 
 
 XI. REMOVALS AND VACANCIES. 
 
 The Board shall have power, and it shall be its duty, to fill all vacancies that 
 may occur in the Board, and on failure of any officer or member of the Board, 
 from any cause, to perform his duty, the Board shall have power to remove 
 him and supply his place. 
 
 XII. AMENDMENT. 
 
 The Constitution or By-Laws may be amended at any annual meeting, by a 
 majority vote of the stockholders present in person. 
 
 BY-LAWS. 
 
 1. EXTRA MEETINGS. 
 
 The President and Secretary shall have power to call an extra meeting of the 
 Directors, upon ten days’ notice, at such time and place as they may see fit, 
 but the call must state in general terms the object of the meeting. 
 
 2. TREASURER’S BOND. 
 
 The Treasurer of the State Association shall give a bond in the penal sum of 
 ten thousand dollars for the faithful performance of his duties, said bond to be 
 approved by tlie President and Secretary of the Association, who shall hold 
 said bond in their possession. 
 
 3 . QUORUM. 
 
 Five Directors are necessary to constitute a quorum for the transaction of 
 business. 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 87 
 
 4. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 For the purposes of this campaign the Directors from the Congressional dis- 
 tricts shall constitute a State Central Committee, who shall have general charge 
 of the work in the State, and who shall provide for the organization of a 
 County Central Committee, of not less than three in each county, to have 
 special charge of the canvass in their respective counties, and one of the mem- 
 bers of said County Committee shall be Treasurer thereof, whose duty it shall 
 be to receive and disburse all funds raised within his county, save and except as 
 provided in the next by-law. 
 
 s. CERTIFICATES OF STOCK. 
 
 The officers of this Association shall prepare certificates of stock and of hon- 
 orary and life membership, which certificates shall be sold by or through the 
 agency of the district Directors, the presiding officers of the County Com- 
 mittee, and duly-accredited temperance lecturers, and organizers. The money 
 received for such certificates of stock and honorary membership shall be divided 
 by the party receiving the same, and paid equally to the Treasurer of the State 
 Association and the Treasurer of the county where raised. 
 
 6. AMENDMENT ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 We recommend that the organization of amendment associations in districts, 
 counties, torvnships, and school districts shall be carried on according to the 
 Constitution sent out by the State Association last year ; and we urge all 
 amendment associations in the State to heartily further the objects of the State 
 Prohibitory Amendment Association, of which they are considered auxiliaries. 
 
 VOTERS’ PLEDGE. 
 
 The following is a form of Voters’ Pledge used in 
 the State of Minnesota : 
 
 We, the undersigned, do severally hereby pledge ourselves 
 not to vote for any person to be a member of the Legislature of 
 the State of Minnesota, which is to meet January, 1883, who 
 has not pledged his sacred honor, as a man, to vote in the Legis- 
 lature assembled, for a bill which shall submit to the people of 
 this State, for their approval or rejection, an Amendment to 
 the Constitution of the State, which shall prohibit within its 
 bounds the importation, manufacture, and sale of all intoxi- 
 cating liquors, as a beverage. 
 
88 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 The following is a Membership Card used in Alle- 
 gheny County, Pa. : 
 
 MEMBERSHIP CARD. 
 
 Coiistitutioiml l^mniliranit dissociation. 
 
 Pa., 1 88 
 
 I do hereby become a member of the Constitutional Amendment Association 
 of Allegheny County, and pledge my assistance to elect members to the Legis- 
 lature who are favorable to submitting to the voters of the Commonwealth an 
 Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the manufacture or sale of Alco- 
 holic Liquors, as a beverage. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Residence. 
 
 Fiill Mefuber, $ 
 
 Associate Me77tber, $ 
 
 FORM OF CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The following is a form of Constitution for County 
 and Local Councils in Indiana, which were formed 
 specially for Constitutional Amendment w-ork : 
 
 FORM OF CONSTITUTION FOR A COUNTY TEM- 
 PERANCE COUNCIL. 
 
 ARTICLE 1. 
 
 This organization shall be called the Temperance Council of 
 
 County, auxiliary to the Grand Temperance Council of the State. 
 
 ARTICLE 11. 
 
 Its object shall be the thorough organization and effective work for combating 
 intemperance, and securing the proposed prohibitory Constitutional Amend- 
 ment now pending in the State. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 This Council shall consist of its officers and delegates from temperance or- 
 ganizations, churches. Sabbath-schools, neighborhoods, and all other persons 
 
Constitutional Prohibition. 89 
 
 who will pledge themselves to the objects and work as herein set forth, by sign- 
 ing the Constitution and assisting in its work. 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 The officers shall be a President, one Vice-President from each to^vnship, 
 ward, or voting precinct, a Corresponding and a Recording Secretary, and a 
 Treasurer, who shall be elected semi-annually, and perform the duties usual to 
 
 such offices. There shall be an Executive Committee of 
 
 persons, of which the officers shall be ex officio members. 
 
 ARTICLE V. 
 
 There shall be appointed a special committee of three on organization for 
 each township, of whom the Vice-President for such township shall be chair- 
 man. The duties of such committees shall be to consult the needs of their re- 
 spective townships, and proceed at once to the establishment of some one or 
 more forms of temperance organization within their jurisdiction, and inaugu- 
 rate such plans of work as will most effectively secure a preponderance of or- 
 ganized temperance sentiment therein. The chairman shall report the status 
 of the work at each meeting of the Council, or oftener, if required by the 
 Council or the President. 
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 The Council shall be executive in character, and shall in no way interfere with 
 the plans or distinctive forms of work of any temperance society whatever, but 
 shall in every consistent manner contribute its energy to the advancement of 
 all, with a view to establishing such forms of temperance organization in every 
 locality as its citizens may prefer. 
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 The meetings of the County Council shall be held month- 
 
 ly, at such time and place as it may vote, or as may be appointed by the Presi- 
 dent and Corresponding Secretary, and in different parts of the county when 
 practicable. 
 
 The regular meetings and shall be the 
 
 regular semi-annual meetings for the election of officers. 
 
 The Executive Committee may call mass meetings whenever and wherever 
 the interests of the work require. 
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 The Corresponding Secretary shall report semi-annually to the State Cor- 
 responding Secretary of the Grand Temperance Council the names of officers, 
 members of the Executive Committee, and township or ward committees. The 
 Executive Committee shall appoint semi-annually a financial agent to collect 
 funds for State and local work, according to the State financial plan. 
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 Such amendments or by-laws may be adopted at regular monthly meetings 
 as may be deemed necessary, due notice having been given at the previous 
 monthly meeting. 
 
90 
 
 Constitutional Prohibition. 
 
 CONSTITUTION FOR A LOCAL TEMPERANCE 
 COUNCIL. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 This organization shall be called the Temperance Council of 
 
 auxUiaiy to that of the county and State. 
 
 ARTICLE 2 . 
 
 Its object shall be vigorous and effective work in combating intemperance 
 and securing the proposed prohibitory Constitutional Amendment now pending 
 in the State. 
 
 ARTICLE 3. 
 
 It shall consist of all persons who will pledge themselves to the work as 
 herein set forth, by signing this Constitution and assisting in its labor. 
 
 ARTICLE 4. 
 
 Its officers shall be a President, one Vice-President (one for each ward if it be 
 a city or incorporated town, and one for each voting precinct outside of the city 
 or town), a Secretary, a Treasurer, and an Executive Committee of five per- 
 sons, of which the officers shall also be ex officio members and the President 
 shall be chairman. 
 
 ARTICLE 5. 
 
 Its regular meetings shall be held weekly (or semi-monthly, or monthly), and 
 such other meetings shall be held cis the Executive Committee or the Coimcil 
 
 shcdl determine upon. The first regular meeting in and 
 
 shall be the semi-annual meetings for the election of officers. 
 
 ARTICLE 6. 
 
 There shall be appointed a-committee of three in each ward, district, or pre- 
 cinct, of which the Vice-President for such ward, district, or precinct, shall be 
 chairman, whose duty it shall be to inaugurate such form of temperance work 
 and appoint such sub-committees as will effectually develop and utilize aU the 
 latent temperance forces within the jurisdiction of each. No temperance or- 
 ganization shall be interfered with, but aU shall be fostered and encouraged. 
 
 A committee on programme shall furnish interesting exercises for the meet- 
 ings of this Council when desired, and such other committees on special lines 
 of work shall be appointed, as will enable the Council to secure a preponder- 
 ance of temperance sentiment within its jurisdiction. 
 
 ARTICLE 7. 
 
 Amendments or by-laws may be enacted by a majority vote at any regular 
 meeting, due notice having been given at a previous regular meeting. 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 
 CATECHISM 
 
 FOR W. C. T. U., BANDS OF HOPE, AND OTHER TEMPERANCE 
 WORKERS. 
 
 Ques. What is true temperance ? 
 
 Ans. The proper control of the appetites. 
 
 Ques. What is the rule of action for all true temperance 
 people 2 
 
 Ans. Moderation in the use of good things, total ab- 
 stinence from bad things. 
 
 Ques. What is the duty of all true temperance people 2 
 
 Ans. Their duty to society is to teach what they prac- 
 tice, and to pursue, as far as they are able, approved lines 
 of temperance work. It is their duty to the State and 
 nation of which they are citizens, to labor by head and 
 heart and hand for the entire overthrow of the manu- 
 facture of and traffic in all alcoholic beverages. 
 
 Ques. What do you mean by the State 2 
 
 Ans. An association of persons under one govern- 
 ment. In this book it is used to distinguish any one of 
 the “United States.” The people of the whole United 
 States are called the nation. 
 
 Ques. Has the State a right to abolish any trade or busi- 
 ness carried on by its citizens 2 
 
 Ans. Yes, when that trade or business injures the 
 people. 
 
 ( 91 ) 
 
92 Constitutional Amendine^it Catechism. 
 
 ■ Ques. How does this business injure the people 2 
 
 Ans. {a) It destroys the grain that God intended for 
 food for man and beast, (b) The use of alcoholic beverages 
 lessens a man’s ability to labor, and thus to be himself 
 a source of wealth to the State, (r) It produces pauper- 
 ism and insanity, vice and crime, which demoralize the 
 citizen and ruin the State, {d) The care of the idle, the 
 vicious, the insane, the poor, the criminal, imposes a 
 burden of taxation upon the industrious and sober, 
 which is a usurpation of power by the State, {e) The 
 payment of taxes is legitimate, and every member of 
 society ought thus to contribute of his means to a com- 
 mon fund, which shall be appropriated to the common 
 welfare, and to care for the unfortunate poor, the af- 
 flicted, and the aged ; it is not right, however, to uphold 
 a business that, for its own benefit, increases these bur- 
 dens. This the liquor traffic does. 
 
 Ques. Hoes the State now atteinpt to control this traffic? 
 
 Ans. All the States attempt some control. These 
 laws are called local option, license, tax, or prohibitory, 
 according to the manner in which they deal with the 
 traffic. 
 
 Ques. How are local option., license, and tax laws defective ? 
 
 Ans. They are wrong in principle, and do not accom- 
 plish the desired result. 
 
 Ques. How about prohibitory laws ? 
 
 Ans. They are right in principle and beneficent in 
 result. 
 
 Ques. What is the best form of prohibitory legislation ? 
 
 Ans. Constitutional prohibition, with enforcing stat- 
 utes. 
 
 Ques. What is a Constitution ? 
 
 Ans. {a) It is the organic law of a State or nation. A 
 plan of government, {b) It is a statement of principles. 
 
Constitutional Amendment Catechism. 93 
 
 an agreement of mutual obligations by which the people 
 consent to be governed, (c) It divides and limits the 
 functions of government, into the legislative, the judi- 
 ciary, and the executive. 
 
 Ques. JV/io makes the Constitution of a State ? 
 
 Ans. The people of the State. 
 
 Ques. Why do the people make it 2 
 
 Ans. Because all political power inheres in the people. 
 They are sovereign in a free government. 
 
 Ques. How do the people make it ? 
 
 Ans. They could not all meet together in a common 
 place, because they are so many ; so they choose persons 
 to meet in a convention, called a Constitutional Conven- 
 tion ; these persons frame what they term a Constitu- 
 tion. This is submitted to the people at an election 
 called for that purpose. They then vote upon it, and 
 either adopt or reject it. If rejected, the people call 
 another convention, and try again to make one they can 
 agree to adopt. If adopted, it thus becomes the voice 
 of the people. 
 
 Ques. Of all the people! 
 
 Ans. No ; of qualified electors only. Paupers, crim- 
 inal idiots, and women can not be qualified electors, 
 
 Ques. What is the object of government! 
 
 Ans. The protection of human rights. The Declara- 
 tion of Independence says ; “ We hold these truths to be 
 self-evident, that all men are created free and equal, en- 
 dowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” To secure 
 these rights. Governments are instituted among men. 
 
 Ques. Dees the Constitution have anything to do with the 
 happiness of the people ! 
 
 Ans. The perfection of a State, and its aptitude to 
 fulfil the ends of society, depends upon its Constitution 
 
94 
 
 Constitutional A mendment Catechism. 
 
 Ques. Can a Constitutio7i he changed ? 
 
 Ans. It can. The same power which made can change 
 that which is made. 
 
 Ques. Are Co}istitiiiions often amended 1 
 
 Ans. Yes. The history of the progress of a people is 
 written in its Constitution, and it must ever be open to 
 recognize the advance in each age. The “better insti- 
 tution of rights,” the “broader domain of freedom,” 
 must find its voice in the Constitution. 
 
 Ques. What are proper subjects of Cojistitutional law 1 
 
 Ans. Interests that are broad and general, essential 
 and vital to the whole people. 
 
 Ques. What are statutes ? 
 
 Ans. They are rules and regulations made for enforc- 
 ing the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. 
 
 Ques. How are Constitutions amended 2 
 
 Ans. Every Constitution provides for its own amend- 
 ment. Sometimes the Governor is required, at certain 
 times, to inquire of the Legislature if the people desire 
 the calling of a Constitutional Convention ; or, in other 
 States, the Legislature may, upon its own motion, or 
 upon the petitions of a respectable number of citizens, 
 propose an amendment, and submit the same to the 
 votes of the people. Sometimes a two-thirds vote of 
 one or two successive Legislatures is required before it 
 reaches the people. Sometimes a majority vote of the 
 people will adopt it, sometimes it requires a two-thirds 
 vote. These steps are definitely set forth in each Con- 
 stitution, and must be accurately followed. 
 
 Ques. Who jnakes the statutes? 
 
 Ans. The Legislature. 
 
 Ques. What is the Legislature? 
 
 Ans. A number of qualified electors, chosen from and 
 by the people, who meet at the capital of the State at 
 
Constitutional Amendment Catechism. 95 
 
 certain specified times, and deliberate upon the welfare 
 of the people and their needs under the Constitution. 
 The result of their deliberations they embody in statutes. 
 
 Ques. Are statutes always just and good? 
 
 Ans. They are not. Sometimes lawmakers are igno- 
 rant, sometimes careless, sometimes wicked. Sometimes 
 a statute, good in itself, is not in harmony with the Con- 
 stitution, and then is declared unconstitutional by the 
 Supreme Court ; or sometimes, perhaps, a statute, though 
 bad in itself, is not unconstitutional. Thus it appears 
 that the character of Constitutions is of vital importance 
 to the welfare of the people. 
 
 Ques. Do Constitutions enforce themselves ? 
 
 Ans. They do not. They set forth certain rights, but 
 do not provide means of securing the same, or penalties 
 for their violation. They define certain wrongs, but do 
 not give redress against those wrongs. 
 
 Ques. To what source must we look for the enforcement of 
 the Cofistitution? 
 
 Ans. To the Legislature for statutes ; to the Courts 
 of law for an application of them to specific instances, 
 and to the Executive for carrying out the same upon the 
 person or thing that transgresses. 
 
 Ques. What is the relation of Constitutions and statutes to 
 God's law ? 
 
 Ans. They ought to be in harmony with it, otherwise 
 they will not protect human rights. 
 
 Ques. Where is God's law concerning governments found ? 
 
 Ans. In the Bible and in national development. It is 
 called the moral law. 
 
 Ques. What is meant by the moral law ? 
 
 Ans. The law by which we know what is right and 
 what is wrong. 
 
 Ques. What are the sanctions of God's laws ? 
 
96 ConstiUltioyial Amendment Catechism. 
 
 Ans. Anything which is for our good, or for others’ 
 good, God permits us to do, to have, or to be, and it is 
 right, morally right ; but anything which hurts us, or 
 our neighbors, God forbids us to do, to have, o-r to be, 
 and it is wrong, morally wrong. 
 
 Ques. Ca7i a7iything which is contrary to God’s law ever be 
 made 7'ight by huma7i law ? 
 
 Ans. It can never be morally right ; the Bible calls 
 these unrighteous decrees. 
 
 Ques. What are so7ne of these which existed hi former 
 times ? 
 
 Ans. Protection of duelling, lotteries, and African 
 slavery. 
 
 Ques. What unrighteous laws now disgrace our people I 
 
 Ans. Gambling and liquor-license laws, and some 
 others. 
 
 Ques. How do we know these are imrighteous laws ? 
 
 Ans. They prove themselves to be such, for they do 
 not make the people good and happy who do just what 
 the law allows. 
 
 Ques. Does the Bible speak co7icer7ii7ig liceTise a7id tax laws ? 
 
 Ans. It says, “Woe to him that giveth his neighbor 
 drink, that puttest thy bottle to him and makest him 
 drunken also.” “Woe to him that buildeth a town with 
 blood and establisheth a city by iniquity.” The Gospel 
 rule of love certainly condemns liquor-selling. The law 
 ought to be a “ terror to evil-doers and a praise to those 
 who do well.” 
 
 Ques. How do te77ipera7ice people desire the Co7istitutions of 
 the States a77ie7ided ? 
 
 Ans. By putting in provisions forever prohibiting the 
 manufacture and sale of all alcoholic beverages, and in- 
 structing the Legislature to pass enforcing statutes. 
 
Constitutional Amendment Catechism. 97 
 
 Ques. Why is Constitutional Prohibition better tha7i mere 
 statutes 2 
 
 Ans. It is more permanent and dignified, and compels 
 the enactment of statutes. It takes the question out of 
 party politics, and gives it to the people. After the 
 people have spoken through the Constitution, all parties 
 must respect their will. 
 
 Ques. Why do Constitutions compel enforcing statutes ? 
 
 Ans. Because every member of a Legislature, before 
 he takes his seat, takes an oath to defend the Constitu- 
 tion and the law. 
 
 Ques. How have the people been forced to a consideration 
 of Constitutional P rohibitio7i ? 
 
 Ans. The criminal classes of the great cities, and the 
 careless voters everywhere, have elected men to the 
 Legislature who have neither feared God nor regarded 
 man. They have, by definite purpose or criminal negli- 
 gence, allowed the traffic to intrench itself among the in- 
 stitutions of society. They have disregarded the claim 
 of the women and children to be protected from the 
 traffic. This condition of things has grown so grievous 
 that it can no longer be endured, and the people — such 
 as can vote — are rising in righteous indignation, and are 
 sweeping the traffic in alcoholic beverages from the 
 State and from the nation. 
 
 Ques. Ca7i wo77ie7i a7id childre7i do a/iythvig to help in so 
 glorious a work 2 
 
 Ans. They can, for the love of God and home and 
 native land, work and sing and pray for the amendment. 
 They can circulate petitions ; they can spread temper- 
 ance literature; they can themselves study the subject 
 so as to be intelligent teachers ; they can use whatever 
 influence they have of time, talent, and money in carry- 
 ing on the general work, and in the “ Harvest Home ” 
 all shall rejoice together. 
 
98 Constit 7 itio 7 ial Ame^idinent Catechism. 
 
 es. How can the whole nation be saved from the traffic I 
 
 Ans. When three-quarters of the States, having driven 
 the traffic from their own borders, or desiring to do so, 
 shall vote to amend the Constitution of the United 
 States, it can then be made to prohibit the importation, 
 manufacture, and sale of all these liquors in any place 
 over which the flag floats. 
 
 Ques. Is the National Constitution amended in the same 
 manner as the State Constitutions are I 
 
 Ans. Very nearly in the same way. Congress sub- 
 mits the question to the Legislatures of the States, not 
 to all the people of the States. When two-thirds of 
 these adopt, then it is done. 
 
 Ques. Has any effort been made in this direction ? 
 
 Ans. The National Temperance Societ}" and thft 
 Woman’s National Christian Temperance Union have 
 for years been petitioning for such an amendment. In 
 December, 1876, the Hon. Henry W. Blair, of New 
 Hampshire, then a Congressman, introduced into the 
 House of Representatives a joint resolution proposing 
 an amendment — on this subject — to the Constitution of 
 the United States. He has since introduced the same 
 amendment into the Senate, being now a member of 
 that body. 
 
 Ques. Has Congress now any control over the traffic ? 
 
 Ans. It has exclusive control in the District of Colum- 
 bia and the Territories. It might banish the entire 
 traffic from these parts of the country. It also imposes a 
 revenue tax upon the business everywhere. This is wrong, 
 and ought to be abolished. It is blood-mone3q and it is 
 written, “ Sin is a reproach to any people ; and blessed 
 is that people whose God is the Lord, who have respect 
 unto His Commandments, and keep His law, because it 
 is not a vain thing for them. It is their life.” 
 
Constitutional Amendment Catechism. 
 
 99 
 
 Ques. JFhat reason have we to believe Constihitional Pro- 
 hibitio?i will yet prevail in all our great coimtry ? 
 
 Ans. It is written, “ Every plant that my Heavenly 
 Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.” 
 
“We take with solemn thankfulness 
 Our burden up, nor ask it less, 
 
 And count it joy that ev'en we 
 May suffer, serve, or even wait for Thee, 
 Whose will be done ! 
 
 “ If for the age to come, this hour 
 Of trial have vicarious power. 
 
 And, blest by Thee, one nleasant pain 
 Be Liberty’s eternal gain. 
 
 Thy will be done ! 
 
 “ Strike, Thou the Master, we Thy keys. 
 The anthem of the destinies ! 
 
 The minor of Thy loftier strain. 
 
 Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain. 
 Thy will be done ! ” 
 
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