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1880
Prohibition Party Platform
The Prohibition Reform Party of the United
States, organized in the name of the
people to revive, enforce and perpetuate in the Government the doctrines
of
the Declaration of Independence, submit for the suffrages of all good
citizens
the following platform of national reforms and measures:
1. In the examination and discussion of the
temperance question it has been proven,
and is an accepted truth, that alcoholic drinks, whether fermented, brewed
or distilled, are poisonous to the healthy human body, the drinking of
which
is not only needless but hurtful, necessarily tending to form intemperate
habits,
increasing greatly in number, severity and fatal termination of diseases,
weakening and deranging the intellect, polluting the affections, hardening
the heart and corrupting the morals, depriving many of reason and still
more of its healthful exercise, and annually bringing down large numbers
to
untimely graves, producing in the children of many who drink a predisposition
to intemperance, insanity and various bodily and mental diseases,
causing a diminution of strength, feebleness of vision, fickleness of
purpose
and premature old age, and producing to all future generations a deterioration
of moral and physical character. The
legalized importation, manufacture
and sale of intoxicating drinks minister to their uses and teach the
erroneous and destructive sentiment that such use is right, thus tending
to produce
and perpetuate the above-mentioned evils.
Alcoholic drinks are thus the
implacable enemy of man as an individual.
2. That the liquor traffic is to the home equally
an enemy, providing a disturber
and a destroyer of its peace, prosperity and happiness, taking from it
the earnings of the husband, depriving the dependent wife and children
of essential
food, clothing and education, bringing into it profanity and abuse, setting
at naught the vows of the marriage altar, breaking up the family and sundering
the children from parents, and thus destroying one of the most beneficent
institutions of our Creator, and removing the sure foundation for good
government, national prosperity and welfare.
3. That to the community it is equally an enemy,
producing demoralization, vice
and wickedness; its places of sale being often resorts for gambling, lewdness
and debauchery, and the hiding places of those who prey upon society,
counteracting
the efficacy of religious effort and of all means for the intellectual
elevation, moral purity, social happiness and the eternal good of mankind,
without rendering any counteracting or compensating benefits, being in
its influence and effect evil and only evil, and that continually.
4. That to the State it is equally an enemy,
legislative inquiry, judicial investigation
and the official reports of all penal, reformatory and dependent institutions
showing that the manufacture and sale of such beverages is the promoting
cause of intemperance, crime and pauperism, of demands upon public and
private charity, imposing the larger part of taxation, thus paralyzing
thrift,
industry, manufacture and commercial life, which but for it would be unnecessary;
disturbing the peace of the streets and highways; filling prisons and
poorhouses; corrupting politics, legislation and the execution of the
laws; shortening
lives, diminishing health, industry and productive power in manufacture
and art; and is manifestly unjust as well as injurious to the community
upon which it is imposed, and contrary to all just views of civil liberty,
as well as a violation of a fundamental maxim of our common laws to use
your own property or liberty so as not to injure others.
5. That is is neither right nor politic for
the State to afford legal protection
to any traffic or system which tends to waste the resources, to corrupt
the social habits and to destroy the health and lives of the people; that
the importation, manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages is proven
to
be inimical to the true interests of the individual, the home, the community,
the State, and destructive to the order and welfare of society, and ought,
therefore, to be classed among crimes to be prohibited.
6. That in this time of profound peace at home
and abroad the entire separation
of the general Government from the drink traffic, and its Prohibition
in the District of Columbia, the Territories and in all places and ways
over which (under the Constitution) Congress has control or power, is
a political
issue of first importance to the peace and prosperity of the nation. There
can be no stable peace and protection to personal liberty, life or property
until secured by National and State Constitutional Prohibition enforced
by adequate laws.
7. That all legitimate industries require deliverance
from taxation and loss which
the liquor traffic imposes upon them, and financial or other legislation
cannot
accomplish so much to increase production and cause demand for labor,
and
as a result, for the comfort of living, as the suppression of this traffic
would
bring to thousands of homes as one of its blessings.
8. That the administration of Government and
the execution of laws being by and
through political parties, we arraign the Republican party, which has
been in
continuous power in the nation for 20 years, as being false to its duty,
as false
to its loudly-proclaimed principles of `equal justice to all and special
favors
to none,' and of protection to the weak and dependent; and that through
moral
cowardice it has been and is unable to correct the mischief which the
trade
in liquor has constantly inflicted upon the industrial interests, commerce
and social happiness of the people. On the contrary, its subjection to
and
complicity with the liquor interest appears:
(1) By the facts that 5,652 distilleries,
2,830 breweries, and 175,266 places of sale of the poisonous liquors,
involving an annual waste, direct and indirect, to the nation of $1,500,000,000,
and a sacrifice of 100,000 lives, have under its legislation grown
up and been fostered as a legitimate source of revenue; (2) That during
its
history six Territories have been organized and five States admitted into
the
Union with Constitutions provided and approved by Congress, but the Prohibition
of this debasing and destructive traffic has not been provided for, nor
even the people given at the time of admission the power to forbid it
in any
one of them; (3) That its history further shows that not in a single instance
has an original Prohibitory law been enacted in any State controlled by
it, while in four States so governed the laws found on its advent to power
have
been repealed; (4) That at its National Convention in 1872 it declared
as a
part of its party faith that `it disapproves of a resort to unconstitutional
laws
for the purpose of removing evils by interference with the right not surrendered
by the people to either State or National Government,' which the author
of this plank says was adopted by the Platform Committee with the full
and
explicit understanding that its purpose was the discountenancing of all
so-called
temperance (Prohibitory) and Sunday laws;' (5) That nothwithstanding the
deep interest
felt by the people during the last quadrennium in the legal suppression
of the drink curse, shown by many forms of public expression, this party
at its last National Convention, held in Chicago during the present month,
in making new promises by its platform, says not one word on this question,
nor holds out any hope of relief.
9. That we arraign also the Democratic party
as unfaithful and unworthy of reliance
on this question; for although not clothed with power, but occupying the
relation of the oposition party during 20 years past, strong in number
and organization,
it has allied itself with the liquor-traffickers and has become in
all States of the Union their special political defenders. In its National
Convention
of 1876, as an article of its political faith, it declared against Prohibition
and just laws in restraint of the trade in drink by saying it was opposed
to what it was pleased to call `all sumptuary laws.' The National party
has
been dumb on the question.
10.That the drink-traffickers, realizing that
history and experience, in all ages,
climes and conditions of men declare their business destructive to all
good,
and finding no support from the Bible, morals or reason, appeal to misapplied
law for their justification, and entrench themselves behind the evil elements
of political party for defense, party tactics and party inertia having
become the battling forces protecting this evil.
11. That in view of the foregoing facts and
history, we cordially invite all voters,
without regard to former party affiliation, to unite with us in the use
of
the ballot for the abolition of the drink system now existing under the
authority
of our National and State Governments. We also demand as a right that
women,
having in other respects the privileges of citizens, shall be clothed
with
the ballot for their protection, and as a rightful means for a proper
settlement
of the liquor question.
12. That to remove the apprehensions of some
who allege that loss of public revenue
would follow the suppression of the drink trade, we confidently point
to
the experience of government abroad and at home, which shows that thrift
and revenue
from consumption of legitimate manufactures and commerce have so largely
followed the abolition of the drink as to fully supply all loss of liquor
taxes.
13. That we recognize the good providence of
Almighty God, who has preserved and
prospered us as a nation, and, asking for his spirit to guide us to ultimate
success, we will look for it, relying upon his omnipotent arm.
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