Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1884 — DANIEL’S ACCEPTANCE. [ARTICLE]

DANIEL’S ACCEPTANCE.

The Second Man on the Prohibition Ticke' Declares His Principles. 2 William Daniel, the Prohibition candidate foi Vice President, has issued his formal letter o acceptance of the nomination. It discusses in detail the basis qf prohibition, reriews th< growth and extent of the prohibitory law, shows wherein the sentiment is not utilized, that drinl demoralization is on the inert ase, that officials fail to enforce the law; it speaks of the policy of national and State Governments,, gives method for changing the policy, holds that the present parties are opposed to the reformat on. and pleads that the presence of the Prohibition party is a necessity. Mr. Daniel holds that the necessity for prohibition is based upon the lacts that the liquor traffic is the producing cause Of a large part of 1 - the crime, poverty, insanity, suicides, and diseases that exist in the land; that it is the great disturber of the public peace, as well a° the destroyer of domestic peace and happiness; that it renders life, liberty, and property insecure, and imposes upon the community heavy burdens of taxation without equivalent or consent; that its legitimate tendency is to produce “idleness, vice, and debauchery," and to create nuisances. The Supreme Court of the United Statesand the highest courts of the States have decided that laws entirely prohibiting the traffic are constitutional ; that "idlesness.vice, and debauchery" being cancers on the body politic, endangering its very life, there must of necessity be inherent . power in it to remove them, in order tnqjrevent its own destruction. In such decisions these courts have also held that these laws are for the protection of society, and not for the regulation or control of the conduct of the individual, and hence in no sense partaking of the character of “sumptuary laws, as they are so_ often falsely and knowingly styled by the liquor leagues and politicians of one of the great, political partie?; and that neither are they restrictive of "personal liberty,” except in so far as they restrain the individual from inflicting injury upon others or upon society. In all such cases the public safety must be the supreme law. The letter reviews the growth of the prohibition sentiment from the enactment of the Maine law in 1851 to the present day, and shows that the feeling is now regarded as a great force in a majority of the States of the Union. In spite of the strength of the sentiment, it is unorganized and of no great monetary and political power. There has been too much praying, preaching, and resolving until election day, and not enough steadfastness then. Mr. Daniel claims that the policy of the Government, as illiistrated in its jurisdiction over Territories and the District of Columbia, and the policy of many States, is to license the evil. He claims that the only way to change these policies is by the election of a straight Prohibition ticket, because the old parties are opposed to prohibition, and the suppression of the liquor traffic is a necessity.