IN THE NAME OF THE PUBLIC.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1293, 23 November 1911, Page 6

IN THE NAME OF THE PUBLIC.

VERY LIKE LINCOLN. GOVERNOR'S GREAT SPEECH. Governor Patterson, of Tennessee, saidt "In tho name of temperance 1 refuse assent to an intemperate moasuro (the Prohibition Law) which will cause more evils than it pretends to cure. ... In the name of morality, I will not sanction a. law that will foster hypocrisy and invito ovasion and deceit in the people. . . . For the manhood of Tennessee, proven on every field of war ana exemplified'in all her glorious history ot peace, I do not approve a legislative guardianship which would make weaklings of her men instead of leaving them unhampered and unfettered by onerous and sumptuary laws interfering with thei" personal rights and privileges. . . . For the youth who will bear our burdens when we' are gone, whose bodies, minds, and souls should he robust with tho hardy virtues of tho race from which they sprung, I would forbid a law which would teach and set before them daily lessons of duplicity and evasion. ... In the name of our women whoso true and heaven-born mission is to bless tho homes and teach honour, courage, and truth to their children, who are the strength, the inspiration and the saving grace of man, I condemn any measure which Vill bring even a part of them into tho heated and poisoned atmosphere of political strife. . . . Vicious and undemocratic as I believe this prohibitory enactment to be, forced upon communities without their consent, it will be my duty as Governor to enforce it, if passed, and no man who breaks it need expect, from me any different treatmcnt than -will bo; accorded other violators. . . . Bu 1 before, you make it tho law over my veto, yon shall not, in tlia name of morality, commit an immoral act, and in tho name of tho public welfare commit this political crime without hearing through mo the voice of an indignant, protesting, and outraged people.

.... [This sounds un.nmruonly like President Lincoln's "Prohibition will work great injury to' the temperance cause."] In the name of the South, and as Governor .of a State which is one of its ancient, most conservative and illustrious members, I may not bo abl-; to avert, hut I can and do Eound th- signal of danger against thjs new and strange spirit which seems now to possess us. . . .

Prohibition is the present bane of our civilisation, the future peril of our land.

. . .. Our fathers .fought as no soldiers did since war anions the human race began; suffered as none others have suffered; died as none others have died since the annals of man were first recorded. It was not for oonqucst, pelf or power; not to force their view 01 institutions upon others, but for tht holy purpose of preserving tho rights of their States and that sacred principle of self-government dear to every Southern heart, sprinkled with Southern tears and baptised in tho purest Southern. blood. ... It has been their pride and boast that while they lost on the ficlo of forco they won on tho field of honour and saved the treasure from nli the perils and dangers which beset them. . . . They left it a heritage to their children abovo price, securo in possession, separate and apart from all that could tempt or betray.

. . . Tlicso men and women who made tho South immortal needed no law to make them great and good, for they held tho title by right of sovereign manhood and spotless womanhood. If their children are true to them they will stand as they stood; do as they would have done."

Is not this enough to induco all lovers of freedom, of liberty, of morals, and of patriotism to strike out (he bottom lino 011 both ballot papers, and free this country from the domination of tyrannouf Prohibitionsts?"