zr 67/ sss ,H«:"'°"=°~SRESS oo,3 78;5;:rT' 671 >py 1 BROKEN REEDS. ■« » » The Republican Party Tried by its Record. A DDRESS AT WESTERVILLE, OHIO, AUG 25, 1875 ' —BY- GIDEON T. STEWART. Tiio Oz-iioao of Oz-liiaosr '••*•' '01, OSS The cloud of a great crime is impencling over the land. One third of the male adults who were last year buried in the cemeteries of our cities, were murdered men. They died by the hands of legalized assassins, who slav ten thousand a year of the citizens of this State, and a hundred thousand a year of the citizens of this Republic. Every year and from all parts of the land, the cry of thirty thousand in the State and three hundred thousand in the Nation, of new widows and orphans go up against this govern- ment to the avenging God of the widow and the fatherless. It is a crime which re- 'epects neither • age nor sex. The fast coming and countless reports of its horrid work, are every moment and from every direction, brought on the ligbtniug's wing and tiasbed upon as through thejdaily press. Yesterday, you read of one of its atrocities committed in the village of Jamestown, in Green country, Ohio, on the evening previous. A drunken father there, cut the the throat of bis babe, aged about fifteen months, with a knile which he had sharpened on the stove, and attempt- ed to kill his wife, who fled to the house of a neighbor. We have the usual fact appended, that when not in liquor, he was a kind hus- band and father, and peaceful citizen. No one can doubt that the whole ciuseofsuch shocking, but too common tragedies, in the homes of the million drunkards ot our coun- try, is the txistence of a legalized crime against society, and 'hat if the government would withdraw its protection and support from this crime, such scenes would soon cease to appal the public. But on the side ot the liquor crime there is arrayed against the people, the whole power of the law. That wretched father brutalized and demonized by the crime which had destroyed his reason, that poor, anguished, horror stricken mother, and her murdered babe, were outlaws of the state, under the ruling crime. All who suffer its cruel inflictioijs are outlaws. If our states- men speak or act on the subject, it is only to mock the people with some impotent pretense of legislation. Our United Slates Senator, Mr. Sherman, tells us that the best temper- ance law, and the only one he favor>!, is the so-called Adair law, which he says, gives compensation to ''innocent third parties." Senator Sherman, there are your innocent third parties, — that broken htarted mother weeping over her slain babe. What compen- sation can you offer heir Go to the courts, call in the jury,and let them assess that moth er's damages. What can they givt? Nothing. Against this crushing crime there is no in- demnity for the God-given rights ^ofjjfe aLd '. iiapfin&s, 'llu^'bfily If r a^fji^ar'iind ccnt Vdailfo^f^l ^ti«»**2cliles* of ^i!»tie*^ reject the •giJldTahd Vfei^'dillJ' tfie dross.* The law asks but one question, how much money has she .•k)9l^. "VT^tii tti^ls^.'at^^'^? ^];|ai;* light of .'^,.„»,^,.»A ^x.o.. Ai^r. !,* •'■■"•"^ottitj 'l^Ve, un- in the life ot j'prpl^ertj di*jr Jt>? «)l^»1ijj.*mi '"aer*oliV*6rueiry 'uujubt lawo, her child Not to the value of one cent. The sole right of property recognized by the law in that child, was in the blood-stained hand of its father. Over twenty years ago, the women, in two villages of the county where I live, feeling themselves outlawed by the government which protected the destroyer of their homes, arose and formed in procession, with axes and hatchets in their hands, and attacked the E laces where intoxicating drinks were sold, reaking in the liquor casks and barrels and pouring their contents on the ground. In one of those villagps, I was told by one of those ladies, last year, there has not been a dram- shop since, because, she said, the liquor men know that the same mothers, with their daughters grown up since, are there, ready to repeat the deed. The only symbol of pro- tection there against this ruling crime, is an ax in a woman's hand. But is this the war we advocate? Are we hpre to advise this ap- peal to nature's law? No. This is not the war for Protection which we are waging. We point to these facts only to show that when government fails to perform the duty lor which it was instituted by the peoplp, to pro- tect them in their natural rights; and when it lets inose, aids and abels the myrmidons of crime 'u their assaults on the people, these disorders are the natural and inevitable re- sults ot such a crime and such a warfare. We are the advocates of law, order, and civil lib- ertj'. Though outlawed by the crime which rules the government, yet we are not defense- less; for we hold in our bauds the power that makes and unmakes governments and laws. We hold that weapon, brighter and sharper than any Toledo blade, more potent than the cannon; that weapon "firmer set, and better than the bayonet," the mighty peace weapon of the ballot. TME PAETT Qt/ESTION. It is the season of the year when the politi- cal markets are open, and all the party huck- sters are cr3iag their wares; when party demagogues ot the least character are loudest in proclaimiog their principles; and when candidates lor office who cannot pay for a certificate of discharge in bankruptcy', are most profuse in their professions and promi- ses. It is also the time for glorious conflict on the political battle-fields by patriots, phil- anthropists and Carislians, contending for the high principles of right and the great is- sues of humanity. It is not surprising that in this political cmvass, when the two old parties of the country, are nearly balanced in t'jis and other States, the direction given to the temperance vote is a topic of concern in the circlesjof politicians; and that aporoache^ are made on all sides to delude Prohibition voters by false pretenses ot friendship to their cause, or to withdraw their attention to minor, or false issues. On the question of political action for tem- perance, there is this marked difierence be * 'tween the two oW parties. One is an open, nudisguised enemy of our cause. The other has been a pretended Iriend, but has proved itselt the worst foe, for the same reason that a traitor gaining access to place and power with- ^-^in the walls, is worse to contend with than "'the foe without. The Democratic parly has looked with but one face and has spoken with but one tongue on this question, in all the States where it has made any expression, dur- ing the last twenty years. Now, as in the past, it everywhere advocates the license and regulation of the liquor crime, and op- poses its prohibition. Not a Democratic con- vention, press or politician of any promi- nence, can be found in all the country, ap- pealing to Prohibitionists, by any professions or promises, to induce them to vote the Dem- ocratic ticket on the ground that they will thus advance the cause of Prohibition. Here and throughout the nation, we meet the Democratic party in uncompromising conflict, and whatever we obtain from it when in pow- er, in the way ot temperance legislation, we take by such concessions only as are won from the foe in battle. It never invited or re ceived the confidence of the Prohilntionists. It has broken no promises to tbem, for it has made none. It has not, for it could not be- tray their coufldence. Hecce it is, that the men who leave the Democratic party and unite with the Prohibition party, influenced by their regard for the temperance cause, seldom are seen returning to the old party standard. We count them by the thousands in our ranks in Ohio, and by the tens ol thousands in the nation, standing firmly by the Prohibition flag. But the course of the Republican party and the tft'ect of its policy have been very different. It has been double-faced, double- tongued, double-hearted and double-handed on this whole subject, from the beginning of its existence. Althoueh at first tem[ierance sentiment had some influence in its councils, now in all but the two States of Maine and Vermont, it is entirely subordinate to the li- quor power, and only the overwhelming strength of tbe Maine Law among the people there, compels its support in these two Slates. Yet appeals have been and are unceasingly made by its leaders, presses and politicians to the Probibition voters to give their sufl'rages in its behalf, on the nretense that it is more friendly to their principles than tUe Demo- cratic party and that they can accomplish more in its success, than if, by independent voting, they permit th^ Democratic party to take power in the government. In the present canvass, the Republican par ty comes, as usual, with one face to the tem- perance voters, repeatiug its old cheats, and with the other face looking down into the thousands of dram-shop-i of our country, pro- testing the sincerity of its servility there. Let us no longer act the part of the fleeced gambler clinging to his cards, by coming up again to be cheated at every new election game, as if we loved to be cheated for the sake of the cheat itself. Let us as rational men, take us the record ot the Repubican party, and demand the proof of its professions and the test ot its pledges, in its past administra- tion of our public aflairs. A candid examina- tion of that record will fshow that the reliance of the friends of temptrance on the Repubh- can party, is treacherous as that of Israel on Egypt, of which the Assyrian tauntingly said: '• io, t?iou tiusfeih in the staff of this broken reed on Ugy2)t, ivhereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh King of Egypt, to all that trust in him." SLAVERY AND THE UNION — A FALSE ASSUMPTION. The Republican party in its platforms and through its representative organs and advo- cates, arrogates to itselt the glory of having abolished slavery and restored the Union, and for this, it claims the gratitude and continued snftVage of the people. The assumption is false. By the fiat of the Almighty, enforced by military necessity, slavery was abolished. The President as commander-in-chief of the army, as an act ot war and under the war powers of the Constitution, proclaimed eman- cipation of the slaves, and the boys in blue executed the process. Not until the fact had gone into history, that slavery in the insur- gent States was no more, not until by milita- ry and constitutional law it had there ceased, did the Republican party declare for its civil abolition. Then the Republican majority in Congress, sat down as recording cJerk, to make up the record. With sovereign power to abolish it ther^, they permitted slavery to continue in tlio District of Columbia until in the second year of tbe war, and in the Terri- tories of Anzoua and New Mexico for nearly two month'!, attr-r the President's proclama- tion, abolishing it in the States. The thir- teenth amendment of the National Constitu- tion abolishing slavery in all the Republic, received the votes of both Republican and Democratic legislatures. As well might Ban- croft claim the honor of discovering America and the achievement of our National Inde- pendence, because as a historian he recorded those events, as the Republican party claim the credit of abolishing slavery, because it re- corded in the statute book, what the army and the people under God, and irrespective of party, had already made the law of the land. There was no such pretense of partisan property in the results of the civil war, while It was in progress. Then the RepubUcan leaders recognized the fact that it was the work of the whole people, and paid especial honor to Democratic statesmen, officers and soldiers. The highest, the ablest and most successful generals of the Union Army were taken from the Democratic party. Hundreds of thousands of Democrats fought under the Union flag, or voted the Union ticket ia sup- port of the war, and war Democrats were elect- ed to the most eminent civil offices. Two of the three Presidents chosen by this union of war Democrats and Eepu'blicans, were taken out of the Democratic party. Andrew Johnson who lived and died a Democrat, and Gen. Grant who never voted a Republican ticket, until he voted for himself for Presi- dent. The Republican party experienced great changes, first, by a union with hun- dreds of thousands of war Democrats during the war; second, by a union since ihe war, with myriads of men who fought under the Confederate flag or sustained its cause during ihe war; and third, by the loss of such pure (ind able leaders of the Anti-slfivery cause, as Salmon P. Chase, Charles Summer, Horace Greeley, Cassius M. Clay, Gen. Bmks, George Julian, Ljman Trumbull, and others, follow- ed by hundreds of thousands, including the best men of the party, driven out ol it by the force of its corruptions. Its political heights are now covered by rings of corrupt politi- ^ cians, scoffing at all moral ideas, and linked with rings of like character, tx^ending to, and controlling the parly in every district or county of the Union. Looking into the Re- publican National Convention winch nomina- ted Grant for President the second term, we see the Contederate General, Thomas Settle', of North Carolina, in the Chair as presiding officer, and Contederate generals and officers among the delegates. Looking at his admin- istration, we find among the most potential of his advisers and supporters in the South, "Hangman Poot," "Hangman Wise," Gen. Longstreet, Gen. Forrest, Gen. Mosby. and many other prominent Confederate generals and Statesmen. In fact the complete identi- ty of the Republiaan party has been destroy- ed. If a wa.rant could be sent out to bring into Court the body of the Republican party as it existed when Abraham Lincoln was first chosen President, it would be relumed b^ the Sheriff, "Non esl inveyitus." For a party thus metamorphosed, to claim h'^reditary honors and succession, with the undying gratitude of the people, for acts achieved by the people, themselves, is the sublimity of impudence and falsehood, in the face of its own public history. PROMISED KDFOEMS. We are often told by way of excuse for the recreant course of the Republican party on the Temperance question, that it has had other great interests in keeping, great trusts to be fulfilled, and great, measures of public welfare and reform promised to the people, and to be carried out in the government, which have demanded its paramount atten- tion; and that when these are disposed of, it will by and by take up the temperance cause in earnest. As to poliiical parties which have been in power, the fair test of the future is in their past public record. The Eepubliean leaders cannot p'ead a want of power irom the people to enable tUem to per- form their promises. In all the history of our nation, no other political party was ever entrusted with such vast sway and patronage, as the Republican party. From the first inauguration of President Lincoln to the (xpiration ot the last Congress, a period of fourteen years, it held the most ab'^olute control of all departments of the National Government, with a large army and powerful navy at its command, during the war; and to this time, it has been sustained in power and profligacy, by enormous revenues. It spent more money in those lourteen years than the government before expended iu its whole exis- tence. The blood and treasure of the people were freely poured at its feet. It made many promises; it had grand opportunities for good; it sought and enjoyed without measure the confidence of the people; but it ha-! sign, lly filled iu duty and betrayed their unbounded trus^. It is very easy to take up the platforms and public records of the party from the be- ginning, and to discover precisely what were the great measures and reforms promised by it; but it is not so easy to fiud the pr imises that have been fulfilled. Let us briefly con- sider these promised reforms, and we shall see that as to nearly all, except the part which it look in the removal of Slavery and the pres- ervation of the Union (and for its part in that work we will give it due cicdit), it has proved itself utterly unworthy of the high trust re- posed in it by the people, and has given back into their hands only the broken reeds of Egypt. We will consider them in their relalion to the tollowing topics, Krst— Religion and Moeauty in the Gov- EEl^^MENL. The primary and m^st important of all measures of poliiieal refjrm is that which seeks to carry into the framework of the gov- ernmeua, and into all its operations, a jjracti- cal recognition of its dependence oa God and its duty of obedience to His laws. This is no union of Church and Slate; it is precisely the opposite. It is that grand philosopliy which we find in the writings of Washington, and especially emphasized in his "Farewell Ad- dress" to his countrymen, in the Declaration ot Independence, in the Ordinance of 1787, and in the lives and political teachings ot tbe founders of the Republic. They affirm that God is the Creator of all mrn; that all human rights? are the gifts of His hand, and that gov- ernments are instituted among men, for the sole purpose of protecting and f nforcing these God-gi'veu rights by His authoritv and under His laws. Civil liberty consists in the prcbi- bition of cnme^s by laws which depend en- tirely on the Divine decalogue. Take away those ten comuiandments, and there is no fouu'^alion left for any laws against crime, for civil liberty, or free government. Hence it is that slavery, the liquor crime, and every other crime against society, is opposed to tnis doc- trine of religion and morality in the govern- ment, as embodied in the Declaration ot In- dependence. Henee also, all polities are cor- rupt, whieli are not based on morals foundtd on religion. Religion anc" morality are not the same, for the reason that religion includes more than morals: but ibere is uo morality without leiigion. Religion and politics are not the same, lor the reason that the greater and the less are not the same. But the greater iuc'udes the less; politicsisa part of religion; and no citizen is u consistent Christian who does not conform his political action, in the light of his conscience, to the laws ot God. N'ltbiog is more absurd than the attempt now made by the demagogues of the liquor crime, to eonfound religion with sect, aud polit.cs with parry. There are parties without reli- gion, morals or poiitics. The two old parties of our country are immense illustrations of this truth. So there are sects .and churches with little or no religion. A witty lawyer once told me why he attended a certiiu cbuich. He said there were two reasons. In the hrst place, he liked his wife and she liked that church; and in the second place, the preach -*r there never said anything to interfere with any man's business, politics or religion. There are too many such churches. Sects and parties are mere tools made by men to work with. When they become corrupt, worn out and useless, they should be cast aside. But the truths of religion and politics are eternal and changeless as their Divine Author. This doctrine of religion and morality as e'*- sential to pure politics and free government, distinguished the tirst founders cif the Repub- lican party. The Liberty Party N:itional Con- vention of 1843, which nominated James G. Biruey for Presiilent, resolved, in these word.-: "T at we regard V' ting, in an eminent degree, as a moral and rehgious dutj ;" and, "It is a principle of universal morality th it the moral jaws of the Creator aie paramount to all hu- man laws;" and. "That the Ktrength of onr cause lies in its righteousness, and our hope f >r it in our contormity to the lav«s of God." The flixt year over sixty-two thousand voters declared for this doctrine, in support ot that nomination at the ballot box, and this sowed the seed of that moral harvest which ripened in the election of Lincoln to the presidency. The Republican party began its career in a fiame of religious enthusiasm, like that which fired the Crusaders in their march to rescue the Holy Sepulchre from the Moslem Infidels. It professed a great mission to rescue this gov- ernojent from the wickedness and infidelity engendered by Slavery, to assert the brother- hood of all men as children of the all-Father, and to make this verily "a nation whose God !•; the Lord." Its grand appeal was to the Christian churches and its text book ot poli- tics was the Bible. In irs first two national platforms ot 1856 and 18G0, it proclaimed as its chief purpose that "of restoring the action of the Federal government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson." It affirmed the doctrine of religion and morality in the gov- rnment maintained by thera and declared "Tual the mainfpnance of the principles pro- claimed in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal constitulun, is essential to the preservation of our Republi- can insfifution.s." "That we hold with onr Republican fath- ers, to be a self-evident truth, that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that the piimary object and ulterior designs of our Federal government were, to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive juri- dictiou." Abraham LioGoln entered upon his great mission, with a heart imbued with this senti- men*, and it pervaded all his public acts and words, until his death. In his farewell speech to the people of Springfield, when about to depart for Washington, after his first election, he said : "A duty devolves upon me which is, ptr- liaps, greater than that which has devolved npon any other man since the days of Wash- ington. He would never have succeeded ex- cept for the aid ot Divine Providence, upon whom h? at all times relied. I feel that I can- nijt succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him and on the Almighty Being I pl-.ice my reliance and support." lu his speech at Independence Hall, Philadel- phia, in 18G1, he said of this doctrine of equal human iighis, derived from God, and to be enforced by government: "If this country cannot be saved withoutgivingnp that princi- ple, I was about to say, I wuld rather be as- sass'ma'ed on ihls spot than surrender it." In the last words f f his last Inaugural ad- dress, he said: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, wllh Jinnness in the righi, as God glees us to see ihe right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in." The appeals made by the Republican party and its great leader, Abraham Lincoln, to the moral and religious sentiment of the nation, were nobly answered, not merely in the work of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, to assuage the horrors of war, but in the enlist- ment of soldiers for the battle-field and voters at the ballot idox, for the success of the Union cause. They were the means of bringing so large a portion as then appeared of the Christ- ian ministry and churches of the North with the Republican party. Bat during the admin- istration of Lincoln a great change began to be seen in the moral character and control of that party. In the year 1862, the Beer Infi- dels (or Liberals, as they style themselves), first appeared in this country as an organized body and formed what is known as the Beer Congress, of which the first session was held in New York that year, and the fifteenth ses- sion was held last June, in Cincinnati. It has grown to be a vast social, financial and politi- cal power m our nation, with branch associa- tions in all the States, Territories, districts and counties, combining with it the whole li- quor interest of the country. Tho members at 6 first were mostly of foreign birth and auU- slavery sentiments, and allied themselves with the Eepublican party on that question, and in support of the Union. But they hated, what they styled the Puritan fanticism of that party; and they at their tirstRession, dictated, and at every recurring session repeated their dictation of the terms on which their support should be continued in that party. In the life of Lincoln they could not control the pan- ty. Hence they opposed his renomination. To appease their enmity and secure their sup- port, Hamlin, a Prohibitionist from Maine, was put aside from the Vice Pre.e.idency, and the inebriate Johnson from Tennessee, was s ib- stitnted to represent the dram-shop interest. The last days ol Lincoln were embittered by the demagogues and ringleaders of the party, in and out of Congress, who were subservient to the Beer Infidels, and opposed to his poli- cy for the moral restoration of the goverumeut to the principles of Washington and Jefferson. He was, under Providence, the Mosts of his his parly, leading it through the Eed S^a of civil war; and when from the heights of vic- tory, he was looking into the protnised laud of peace and union, and was planning the great future of the Kepuljlic iu the complete inauguration of civil liberty and the principles of religion and morality as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, the hand of one drunkard laid him prostrate in death, and the hand of another drunkard grasped the reins of government. From that time, the Beer Infi- dels rapidly assumed control of the party. They declared against all Sunday laws, tem- perance lawg and moral legislation of every kind, as violations of the National Constitu- tion, of religious freedom and personal liber- ty- Their power v\as seen in the last three of the five National Conventions of the Republi- can party which entirely ignored in their plat- forms the principles of the Declaration of In- dependence so prominently proclaimed by the party in the first two of those Conventions. Against these principles the Beer Infidels, like the slaveholders, are at war, for their enforce- ment in the government would destroy the li- quor crime. In the year 18G9, at the winter session of the Beer Congress, this resolution was adopted : "Resolved, That we hereby reiterate and re- affirm, as our standing creed and unchangea- ble wurpose, to use all honorable means to deprive puritanical and temperance men of the power they have so long exercised in the councils of the political parties of this coun- try, and that for that purpose, we will sup- port no candidate for any office who is identi- fied with this illiberal and narrow-minded ele- ment." Three years after this, we find the Eepubli- can party at its National Convention in Phila- delphia, in 1872, nominating President Grant for re-election, and adopting the following resolution as the 16th plank of its platform: "The RepubUcan party proposes to respect the rights reserved by the people to themselves as carefully as the powers delegated by them to the State and to the Federal Goverument. It disapproves of a resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing evils by interfer- ence with rights not surrendered by the people to either State or national government." This was accepted by the Beer Infidels as expressive of their views against the union of religion and morality with government. The author of this resolution, Herman Raster, the editor of a Beer organ at Cbicago, was a meni- ber of the platform committee in that Conven- tion, and this is his reply to a letter from J. A. Miller, of Portsmouth, Mich., inquiring as to the evils referred to in that resolution; Chicago, III., Julj 10. 1872. J. 3f. Miller— Dear Sir: In reply to yours of July 8ih, I have to say that I have written the 16th resolution of the Philadelphia plat- form, and that it was adopted by thePlatfortH Committee with the full and explicit under- standing that ils purpose was the discounte- nancing otall so-called temperance (prohibi- tory) and Sunday laws. This purpose was meant to be expressed by refererce (o those rights of the people which had not been dele- gated to eitbeir National or State governments, it being assumed that the right to drink what one pleases (being responsible for the acta committed under the influence of strong drink), and the right to look upon the day