Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1882 — TIPPECANOE DEMOCRATS. [ARTICLE]

TIPPECANOE DEMOCRATS.

The Democrats of Tippecanoe -county held their convention Saturday. Barefaced and shameless in their distrust of the people they instructed their nominees for Representatives and Senator, (and whom God grant may never be elected) to vote against the submission of the amendments. Upon a preamble opposed to “sumptuary legislation” and favoring the “least possible curtailment of the liberty of the citizen, compatible with public order and prosperity” is based a resolution against the adoption of the prohibition and female suffrage amendments. The logic is worthy of such a party and such a cause. Passing over for the instant the question of prohibition we would ask by what process of reasoning the female suffrage amendment can possibly be classed as sumptuary legislation or as a curtailment oi the liberty of the citizen ? And even prohibition cannot, by any legitimate use of the term, be classed as sumptuary legistation, no more than could a law against the sale of rotten meat or against the manufacture of antihougli cheese. Prohibition, like many other laws already upon the statute books, provides simply that no person shall manufacture or sell a certain substance, the use of which is believed to be injurious to the individual and to society at large. In no way does it interfere with the of the individual or regulate wliat he shall eat, drink or wear, which in its very nature a sumptuary latv must do.