Charles Clinton Nourse

“ The question is, have we anything to gain by duplicity and insincerity, and by now claiming for this law what we did not claim for it when we procured its enactment by the general assembly? Above all things, have we, as prohibitionists, anything to gain by entering into an alliance with the distillers of other states who are making war upon a productive industry in our own state, for the sole purpose of promoting their own pecuniary interests in destroying competition in their business? ”

“ Have we anything to gain by turning aside from the great work that we have undertaken of destroying the saloon as a place of resort where our young men are taught the habit of intoxication, and engaging in the Utopian scheme of regulating the supply of alcohol in the markets of the world, the use of which it is impossible for us to control after it passes beyond the jurisdiction of our laws?
There is another very grave and important question that the true friends of prohibition in Iowa should stop to consider. ”

“ Our free soil, free labor, free schools, free speech, free press, free worship, free men and free women, were their free gift and contribution. Iowa is the thirty-year old child of the republic that celebrates the first centennial of its birth. Our state is simply the legitimate offspring of a civilization that has found its highest expression in building up sovereign states. Iowa was not a colony planted by the oppressions of the parent government, and that threw off her allegiance as soon as she gained strength to assert her independence ”

“ The great ultimate fact that America would demonstrate is the existence of a people capable of attaining and preserving a superior civilization, with a government self-imposed, self-administered, and self-perpetuated. In this, her centennial year, America can exhibit nothing to the world of mankind more wonderful or more glorious than her new states—young empires, born of her own enterprise, and tutored at her own political hearthstone. ”

“ The answer to the position that our law is unconstitutional because it affects the value of this property is, that it does not prevent the manufacture of alcohol for export or for sale within the state for lawful purposes. But if we propose to destroy the value of this property by this new interpretation of our statute, and say that it is our purpose and intent to prevent its use for the manufacture of alcohol for export, then may we not seriously apprehend that our law will be held unconstitutional, and may we not, in attempting too much, lose all? ”

“ Iowa is indeed a remarkable state and her people a peculiar people. We have but few drones in the hive. Our population is made up of simply the young and the strong and the enterprising of the other states that have come hither to build up their personal fortunes, and who have at the same time laid well and strong the foundations of a great state. There is scarcely a college or university of any of the older states that is not well represented in our men and women. We have come together here and what one did not know he has learned from his next door neighbor. ”

“ Iowa hails with joy this centennial of our nation's birth. She renews her vows of devotion to our common country, and looks with hope to the future. The institution of slavery, that once rested as a shadow upon the land, that was fast producing a diverse civilization dangerous to our unity and nationality, has been forever abolished. ”

“ The declarations of the recent republican convention have not been brought about by any change of sentiment on the part of the republicans of the state, but in our judgment its action is the result of a combination of politicians who had other and ulterior purposes at heart, and have failed to realize that whatever may have been their own want of convictions upon the question, the great mass of people have been honest and sincere. The honest voters of the republican party are not "clay in the hands of the potter," to be molded into any fashion that may suit the professional politician. ”

“ I said to him, "How is it possible for a colored man to support the democratic ticket in view of the history of the past twenty-five years? The colored race have been emancipated and enfranchised and made equal before the law through the efforts of the republican party of the nation. How, then, can any of your people support the democratic party?" "Well, sah," said he, "in some respects a colored man is very much like a white man." ”

“ Returning to Denver, we all came home by rail well satisfied with our trip, but when we struck the blue grass regions of Iowa and its fields of ripening corn, with the memories of the homes that we were nearing our hearts were made glad that we lived in a land of civilization and plenty. ”

“ The battle that for the past quarter of a century they have been waging against the liquor power and influence, and in which they have gained so many signal triumphs, has not been prompted by a mere desire for office or place, nor have our forces been kept together by the mere "cohesive power of the hope of public plunder." Hence if the defeat of 1891 could in any measure have been attributed to the position of the party on the question of prohibition, it would not constitute a valid reason for a shameful surrender and retreat. ”

“ I know too well that there were grievous complaints justly made against the management of railways not only in this state, but in many others. But I beg the people of Iowa to remember, and the railway employees to remember that, although railway managers and railway presidents may sometimes be unjust, that affords no excuse whatever for the sovereign power of the state of Iowa in being unjust. The wrongs of capital produce, it is said, the anarchist—so it is with respect to the wrongs perpetrated by the railway companies, the railway organizations. ”

“ Others have challenged the admiration of the world because of their great abilities. Others have been brave in war and wise in counsel. Others have been heroes and statesmen, and we have honored them and done homage to their greatness, but this man was not only great and wise and brave, but a good, true and pure man also, and the nation loved him. We give honor to his greatness, we give the tribute of praise to his great abilities and his great achievements, but we bring tears and heart throbs to the tomb where manly virtue, purity, and faith are to be enshrined. ”

“ The general government does not exercise police power within the state but it may enforce penalties for the violation of revenue laws or enact laws regulating commerce within the states, but it cannot prohibit the establishment of the saloon or the maintenance of such a place merely upon the ground of preserving public order and morality. I could not and never have been able, therefore, to see the propriety of a national organization based upon the idea of prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, or establishing places of resort for such sale. ”

“ We recognize no middle ground. We do not believe in compromising with criminals or commuting offenses committed against the best interests of humanity. Neither do we believe the republican party of Iowa can ever survive an act so inconsistent with principle and her former professions, as would be the repeal of our present prohibitory law or the enactment of a license system for any part of the state.
We do not propose or recommend opposition to the election of any candidate for the general assembly on the republican ticket who is in favor of maintaining and enforcing our present law. ”

“ In this new role of "affidavit maker" to the State Register he has already attained distinction. Whether this enterprise will prove a financial success I do not know, as I am not advised as to the terms of the new partnership. It is not yet known whether Pearson has taken the State Register into partnership, or whether the Register has taken in Pearson.
It has always been my fortune in life to antagonize men of this stamp. If I have not as many friends as some men of less positive opinions, I have the consolation to know that I have reason to be proud of the character of my enemies. ”

“ I told him that I could talk about the general effect of protecting American labor and the duty of the American congress to so arrange the tariff upon imports as to relieve our people from competition with the low wages paid in Europe; that the American laborer must receive higher wages than the European laborer for he must educate his children and must enjoy better conditions in life, and as our free institutions were based upon the intelligence of the voter, we could not afford to allow the laboring man to occupy the position socially or politically of the European laborer ”

“ Kidd had made his investment in good faith in a manufacturing industry, manufacturing an article that was recognized as useful for many purposes, both as a medicine and for mechanical purposes, and there was nothing in the article itself to determine the use for which it was intended when it was manufactured. Whilst it might be used for the purpose of making a beverage destructive to human life and happiness, yet, so far as the law was concerned, it was only by restricting the sale of it for the destructive uses to which it might be applied that any remedy could be made effectual. ”

“ Gue's history of Iowa makes a case of such extreme cruelty and hardship.
That this controversy over the title of the Des Moines river grant was a most unfortunate one, both for those who purchased the lands from the state and those who attempted to purchase them from the general government after the state had sold them, there can be no question. It was also very detrimental to the settlement of that part of the state. The squatters or settlers made very indifferent improvements and very indifferent cultivation of the land, and seldom if ever paid any taxes. ”

“ Judge Leonard, then upon the district bench, had been former prosecutor in the district and did not listen with complaisance to any defense which tended to acquit an accused person, but after wrestling with him for quite awhile he finally admitted my defense and the testimony sustaining it, and instructed the jury flatly that the defendant was not on trial as defaulter to the funds of the state of Iowa, but as defaulter as treasurer of the Agricultural College funds, and they must find him guilty of the latter or they must acquit him, and the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. ”

“ The platform adopted on the sixteenth inst. not only does not promise to maintain prohibition as a state policy, but expressly declares in favor of "something else" in those localities where the prohibitory law was not enforced. This "something else" in the pretended "interest of true temperance" can deceive no man who does not desire to be deceived. It is a base imitation of democratic state platforms, and intends merely the "Schmidt bill" or the "Gatch bill" or some other equally objectionable attempt to abandon prohibition as a principle and as a state policy. ”

“ We hope, gentlemen, aided by the evidence of these members of congress, intelligent men, honest men, who have stood by the people of Iowa—we hope, with their depositions and the circumstances, and the evidence contained in the Congressional Globe, to show this matter up to you. We will prove to you by men who were on the ground that no sufficient motive could honestly have induced that man to have cast his vote in the way he did ”

“ The railroads of Iowa had become a very potent political power. We had five railroads extending from the Mississippi to the Missouri river, and in every county of the state in which these roads were located the railroads had one or more active attorneys to look after their interests, and under such captaincy as Blythe, of Burlington, and Hubbard, of Cedar Rapids, they exercised a very important influence over the politics of the state, controlling to a large extent the nomination of supreme judges and district judges and other state officers. ”

“ Surely a man who has invested two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in manufacturing in our city, by the advice and encouragement of the Register, is entitled to as much consideration as the man who takes the life of a public officer whilst in the discharge of an official duty. The statement that the State Temperance Alliance has ever favored or endorsed the prosecution of Mr. Kidd is wholly without foundation. ”

“ It is sufficient to say that the supreme court held the provisions of the inter-state commerce law, that gave to shippers a remedy for unjust discrimination by a civil suit for damages, to be a penal statute upon the ground that if the railroad company discriminated by charging one person ten dollars for a particular service and charged another person twenty dollars for a like service, then a suit to recover back the ten dollars thus unjustly demanded and received by the railroad company was in the nature of a statute to recover a penalty. ”

“ It is made into cologne and other perfumed spirits by flavoring it with different kinds of oil, and all over Europe, when fuel is scarce, it is used in vast quantities for cooking and heating stoves. Millions and millions of gallons of it are used for other mechanical purposes. Very little of it in this form is ever used for a beverage. To say that Iowa corn should be made into this form in Illinois, or in Cincinnati, or New York, or Liverpool, but not in Iowa, is to still leave it to be so converted, and with Iowa bearing the whole loss and reaping none of the gain. ”

“ Here is the model of a life from which we would have our children mold their own future, no blemishes to record, nothing to apologize for, nothing to cover up—it stands out in its moral perfection and beauty—in its intellectual strength and greatness—in its religious faith and fervor, a fully developed manhood—a complete character—a perfect pattern. ”

“ Does not a fair trial also involve the right of the citizen to have the aid of a counsel?
Third. If the defendant is to have the aid of counsel, can my employment be any more objectionable than the employment of one who is an enemy of the law? ”