_Question_. What is your explanation of the Republican disaster
last Tuesday?
_Answer_. Too much praying and not enough paying, is my explanation
of the Republican defeat.
_First_. I think the attempt to pass the Prohibition Amendment
lost thousands of votes. The people of this country, no matter
how much they may deplore the evils of intemperance, are not yet
willing to set on foot a system of spying into each other's affairs.
They know that prohibition would need thousands of officers--that
it would breed informers and spies and peekers and skulkers by the
hundred in every county. They know that laws do not of themselves
make good people. Good people make good laws. Americans do not
wish to be temperate upon compulsion. The spirit that resents
interference in these matters is the same spirit that made and
keeps this a free country. All this crusade and prayer-meeting
business will not do in politics. We must depend upon the countless
influences of civilization, upon science, art, music--upon the
softening influences of kindness and argument. As life becomes
valuable people will take care of it. Temperance upon compulsion
destroys something more valuable than itself--liberty. I am for
the largest liberty in all things.
_Second_. The Prohibitionists, in my opinion, traded with Democrats.
The Democrats were smart enough to know that prohibition could not
carry, and that they could safely trade. The Prohibitionists were
insane enough to vote for their worst enemies, just for the sake
of polling a large vote for prohibition, and were fooled as usual.
_Thirdly_. Certain personal hatreds of certain Republican politicians.
These were the causes which led to Republican defeat in Ohio.
_Question_. Will it necessitate the nomination of an Ohio Republican
next year?
_Answer_. I do not think so. Defeat is apt to breed dissension,
and on account of that dissension the party will have to take a
man from some other State. One politician will say to another,
"You did it," and another will reply, "You are the man who ruined
the party." I think we have given Ohio her share; certainly she
has given us ours.
_Question_. Will this reverse seriously affect Republican chances
next year?
_Answer_. If the country is prosperous next year, if the crops
are good, if prices are fair, if Pittsburg is covered with smoke,
if the song of the spindle is heard in Lowell, if stocks are healthy,
the Republicans will again succeed. If the reverse as to crops
and forges and spindles, then the Democrats will win. It is a
question of "chich-bugs," and floods and drouths.
_Question_. Who, in your judgment, would be the strongest man the
Republicans could put up?
_Answer_. Last year I thought General Sherman, but he has gone to
Missouri, and now I am looking around. The first day I find out
I will telegraph you.
--_The Democrat_, Dayton, Ohio, October 15, 1883.