Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1884 — METHODIST MINISTERS. [ARTICLE]

METHODIST MINISTERS.

What the New York Association Thinks of Voting for St. John. [New York TribuneJ The members of the Methodist Episcopal.. Ministers’ Association had an informal talk about candidates for President yesterday at their weekly meeting. Cleveland, it was found, had no friends. In the course of the conversation it was suggested that St. John ought to be supported as the candidate of the Prohibitionists. An animated discussion followed. The Rev. Merritt Hulberd. of the Washington Square Church, increased the interest in the subject by reading a paper entitled: "A Preacher in Search of a Party,” in which he argued that it was the duty of temj eranpe people to vote the Republican ticket and not for St. John. He charged that the Democratic party was the party "of th? brewery and distillery,” and that its ranks were recruited Irom the grog-shopstje'Tf now and a rain it subsidizes the third party”—the Prohibition—he continued, "it is that it may more effectually rivet the chains of the people by defeating the real friend of temperance"—the Republican party: Mr. Hulberd eulogized the • Republean party, in the course of his remarks comparing the organization to a noble ship, and saying: “She has counted 85-per cent, of the voters of the Methodist Episcopal Church and 91 30-100 per cent, of its ministry among her crew. She has put forward as a candidate for the suffrages a man who, under the hottest tire that has been turned upon any citizen of the republic, so byars himself- that, without an officeholder that he can manipulate, he is made by a majority of his party its standard bearer, and' the best men of the republic are following where his white plume leads.” -.Mr. Hulberd, in concluding, returned to the j question of voting for St. John. "The brewers," i he said, “have made their selection and are ; working with their might and main for the sue- I cess or one of these parties and spending some I of their money, .1 bel.eve, though 1 could not prove it, to keep St. Join in the Held to help defeat the other. Carl Schurz is rallying such of his com}>atriots as love the r beer to help defeat a mean, narrow, bigoted Prohibitionist, as he calls the standard-bearer of one of these parties. I have seen the use made of the pronounced prohibition proclivities or otie of the candidates, and even the ridicule cast upon his jiersonal ab- i stemiousness, 1 intend to watch th,e nominations for the Assembly in this S ate. l ean ot afford to vote for a man of straw for President, who, e en if successful, could not bring about prohi bitio» ~ . Me. Cleveland, it is said, keeps his collars in a cheese box.