USA > Wisconsin > A political history of Wisconsin > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
When the National Republican Convention of that year met in Chicago, General Rusk's name was presented. in behalf of the Wisconsin delegation, by Colonel John C. Spooner, in an eloquent and appropriate speech.
Much might be said in commendation of Governor Rusk's three administrations, and the critic will find little to condemn.
During General Rusk's occupancy of the gubernatorial chair
:
216
A POLITIC.1I. HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
there were four Senatorial elections, but none of them was at- tended by any extraordinary excitement. When the term of Angus Cameron drew toward a close, Philetus Sawyer was elected to succeed him. January 26. 18Sr. But Senator Carpeuter's death, which occurred at Washington. February 24, 1881. made an unexpected vacancy, and Cameron was elected to fill it, March 10. 1881, only six days after the conclusion of his first full term. On January 28, ISS5. John C. Spooner was elected for a full term of six years, and on January 26, 1887, Philetus Sawyer was reelected for the full term of six years.
At the senatorial election held. January 28, ISS5, a new candi- date for senatorial honors put in an appearance, and modestly gave notice to all whom it might concern that he had entered the contest with the desire and expectation of winning. He was the youngest man who had ever aspired to that high and honorable office; he was a lawyer by profession and a graduate of the Wisconsin State University; he had never held an important elective office, except one term in the Assembly; and he was comparatively a stranger to the older politicians of the State. His name was John C. Spooner. He left the University about the time of the breaking out of the Civil War, and he shouldered a musket and marched to the front to defend the flag. When the rebellion was put down he resumed the practice of his profession, and it was not long before he was recognized as one of the ablest of the younger members of the bar. Back in 1860 Matt. II. Carpenter had set the example, which was then contrary to all precedent, of a man of breadth and brains vault- ing from his private law office into a seat in the Senate of the United States, and whatever has been once done can be done again. is an old saying. But the general rule and custom was against the young attorney's ambition, as laudable and virtuous as it might seem. All the distinguished gentlemen who had been elected to the Senate up to that time, with the exception of Mr. Carpenter. "had done the State some service." and going over the whole list front Governor Dodge to Philetus Sawyer. it was found to em- brace judges, candidates for Governor. Speakers of the Assembly. State Senators and members of the popular branch of Congress. Then the seat that he coveted had been occupied by Timothy (). Howe and Matt. H. Carpenter, men who stood a head above most
٤
217
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
of their colleagues in the Senate and who were eminent for legal learning and statesmanship. The young candidate felt the force of all these comparisons keenly, and he only promised his friends and supporters that he would do his.best, and the contest was kept up. Then he had a dangerous and competent rival in the field in the person of General Lucius Fairchildl. a man well known to the people of the State and greatly beloved by all. But Col. Spooner had a fine equipment for the office to which he wished to be promoted, and he felt that self-reliance which comes of conscious power and ability to accomplish whatever he undertook. He had the divine gift of ready speech to a degree that is denied to most public men; he had already won his way to distinction at the bar and he knew himself, as others knew him, to be honest, clear headed and stanchly patriotic. General Fairchild had been constantly in public life for over twenty years, and everyone agreed that he pos- sessed superior qualifications for a seat in the Senate. He added long experience in dealing with public affairs to mature judgment and high character, and it is no wonder that he had a strong follow- ing. Thus the friendly contest went on for days, the supporters of both candidates flocking to the capital from all parts of the State in large numbers, but it ended at last in a triumph for the younger element of the Republican party, and Col. Spooner was nominated in the cancus. His little speech of acceptance, when he was brought in by the committee, was exceedingly modest and a model of its kind. His lip trembled a little with suppressed emotion as he stood there in the bright glare of the gaslight looking into the faces of those who had bestowed a great honor upon him, only promising to do his best. and that he would never disgrace the party whose representative he was. That he has faithfully kept that promise to the letter we all know. His splendid record in the Senate during the next six years amply justified the high expectation which his admirers and supporters had indulged in regard to him, and when the Democrats in Wisconsin succeeded in electing a majority of the members of the Legislature in 1891, when his term was out, and Colonel William F. Vilas was elected to succeed him, Senator Spooner retired from the Senate with the respect of his colleagues and the admiration of the whole country. No man ever entered (19)
21S
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
the Senate and won his way to the front more quickly and held his position more securely than he. It has seldom fallen to the lot of a new Senator to make such a favorable impression upon all those who take an interest in public affairs, and it seklom happens that a young man, during his first term, impresses himself so perma- nently upon the older and more experienced statesmen at the capi- tal. When he left the Senate chamber at the end of his first terni in 1892, he made a vow never to enter it again until he was sent back as one of the Senators from Wisconsin, and he only had to wait six years before he was returned to his old seat by a grateful constituency.
-
CHAPTER XIX.
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN WISCONSIN.
There was a struggle during Rusk's administration to commit one or the other of the okler parties to advocacy of an amendment of the constitution prohibiting the liquor traffic. Failing in this, the Prohibitionists organized a separate party, in 1881. This is an appropriate place, therefore, for a review of the history of the temperance movement in Wisconsin.
The attempt to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages in Wis- consin by law was begun as soon as the territory was organized, and has continued with more or less zeal among the temperance advocates ever since. The first territorial Legislature that met in 1836 passed a law authorizing groceries and victualing houses to sell liquor, and fixed the license fee at $Ios. The penalty for vio- lating the law was not more than $50. Changes were made in the law from time to time and the license ice reduced until 1839, when a license could be had for $25. In 18440 a law was passed forbid- ding the sale of liquor to Indians.
In 1849 the most stringent liceuse law that ever was passed in any State was enacted by the Legislature that met in January of that year. The law was known as the Wisconsin Bond Law, and it was the first civil damage law probably ever passed in the United States. It provided that the seller should give a penal bond of $1,000, with three or more sufficient sureties. "conditioned to pay all damages, to support all paupers, widows and orphans, pay the expenses of all civil and criminal prosecutions, growing out of, or justly attributable to such traffic, that communities or individuals may sustain by reason of such traffic." Married women were au- thorized to institute, and maintain. in their own names, suits on any such bond for all damages sustained by themselves or their children. No suit for liquor bills was to be entertained by any
219
220
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
Court in the State. When a person became a pauper by reason of intemperance, a suit could be instituted by the proper anthorities on the bond of the person who had been in the habit of selling or giving to the person who had become a public charge. A person against whom judgment was obtained could sue all others engaged in the traffic in the place who had been in the habit of selling to the person, to compel contributions towards paying the judgment. The penalty for selling without first giving the required bond was not less than $50, nor more than $500, and imprisonment not less than ten days, nor more than six months. The passage of this law was hailed everywhere by the friends of temperance as the most advanced step ever taken in legislation touching the liquor traffic. It was not regarded with favor, however, by a large class of persons. Especially did the most of the foreign born population look upon it as an infringement of their personal liberty, and de- nounced it and all who helped to pass it. One of the most active men in pushing the law through the Legislature was John B. Smith, then representing a part of the city of Milwaukee in the State Senate. As soon as the provisions of the law were fully understood and discussed in the newspapers. it created intense excitement in Milwaukee, and on the night of the 4th of March a mob of several hundred infuriated men surrounded Senator Smith's house, during the absence of himself and wife, broke in the windows and de- stroyed and mutilated the furniture inside. Great excitement was the consequence of this outbreak, publie meeting's were held in the city, every one took sides and the matter had a serious effect upon political parties.
The Legislature that passed this stringent law was largely Democratic, and the bill was signed by Nelson Dewey, a Demo- cratic Governor, and the credit of it. therefore, was to be accorded to the Democratic party. The most active man. however, in get- ting the bill passed was Samuel D. Hastings, a Free Soiler, a miem- ber of the Assembly from Walworth county, and the father of the temperance movement in Wisconsin. He made an able report as chairman of the special committee to which the bill was referred. that was like the voice of one crying in the wilderness of the great West in favor of a great reform.
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN. 221
In 1851 the Bond Law was repealed by a Democratic Legis- lature, and a license law put in its place.
The Neal Dow Maine Liquor Law was passed in 1851, the same year that the drastic Wisconsin Bond Law was repealed.
This was the commencement of an active campaign in almost all the Eastern. Northern and Western States to secure the passage of similar laws. Sanmel D. Hastings was then at the head of the Order of Sons of Temperance in Wisconsin-Grand Worthy Pa- triarch. Mr. Hastings had been interested in the temperance move- ment all his life. He never drank a glass of intoxicating liquor or used tobacco in any form. He made his first temperance speech to an audience of colored people in one of their churches in the city of Philadelphia when a lad in his teens. He was, naturally, very much interested in the movement to secure a prohibitory liquor aw for Wisconsin, and in his capacity as Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance started a movement to circulate petitions to the Legislature asking for the enact- ment of such a law. Through the agency of the various divisions of the Sons of Temperance a large number of petitions asking for the law were presented at the session of the Legislature of 1853. After beginning the movement to circulate the petitions Mr. Hastings started out to advocate the proposed measure before the people in the chief centers of popula- tion. He held meetings at Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Wau- kesha and Watertown, and then went to Madison where the Leg- islature was in session. He asked the privilege of addressing the body on the subject of the proposed law. . The Assembly chamber was granted and the members generally were present and gave him an attentive and respectful hearing. The result was that a bill for a prohibitory law was introduced and for a while seemed likely to pass, but finally the matter was compromised by submitting the question to a popular vote. A law was passed providing that "At the general election to be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday" in November, 1853, at the usual place of holding elec- tions in the State for the election of all officers required by law. then to be elected, it shall be lawful for the qualified electors of this State to vote for or against a prohibitory law, such vote shall be
.
222
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
by ballot =
* and shall contain the words: "Prohibitory Liquor Law. No," or "Prohibitory Liquor Law. Yes," and the ballots so cast shall be canvassed and returned in the same manner . as the votes for State officers are required to be canvassed and re- turned.
This law passed the Assembly by a vote of 40 to 12 and the Senate by a vote of 15 to 7-a more than two-thirds vote in both houses. Mr. Hastings spent the most of the time from the passage of this law until the day on which the vote was to be taken in ad- vocating the measure in the papers and by addresses to the people in all parts of the State.
In 1854 the Governor, in his message to the Legislature, said: "At the June session of the last Legislature an act submitting to the electors of the State the question of a prohibitory liquor law was passed. The Secretary of State, in pursuance of the require- ment of that law, reports the whole vote cast at the last election upon that question to be 51,632, and that 27,519 votes were for, and 24,109 against the law. The expression of public opinion contemplated by the act referred to, submitting the question to the popular vote, is now before you, and it remains for you in your wisdom to determine what will best satisfy the sentiments of the whole people in relation to the subject, subserve their true in- terests and be best adapted to the actual condition of things in the State at large."
This portion of the message was referred to a special committee consisting of James H. Knowlton, John W. Davis, Harlow S. Orton and C. C. Remington. This committee reported a stringent prohibitory law and recommended its passage. The bill passed the Assembly by a vote of 43 to 28. It went to the Senate, where it was amended, providing that it should be submitted to a popular vote before going into effect. The Assembly refused to accept this amendment on the ground that the people had just voted upon the question, and as neither house would yield, the bill failed to become a law.
In 1855 a prohibitory law was passed, but was vetoed by Gov. William A. Barstow. In 1872 the Civil Damage Law, generally known as the Graham Law, was passed. This law was substan-
223
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
tially the Bond Law of 1849, and was chiefly instrumental in de- feating the Republican party which had enacted the law, and stood by it, and turning the control of the State over to the Democratic party.
The most of the large Church denominations in the State-the Methodist, the Baptist. the Presbyterian, the Congregational and several of the smaller denominations in their annual conferences, conventions, synods, etc., have declared themselves in favor of the principles of total abstinence and prohibition. The great national temperance organizations, such as the Sons of Temperance, the Temple of Honor and Temperance, the Good Templars, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Catholic Total Abstinence Union, · have always had a State organization in Wisconsin.
Along in the 'sos the Sons of Temperance was the leading temperance organization of the State, and for many years was very efficient in pushing on the temperance reform. At a later period the Temple of Honor and Temperance, under the leader- ship of Col. J. A. Watrous, was quite a power in the State, num- bering many thousand members, and was the means of doing great good.
The first lodge of Good Templars in this State was organized at Sheboygan Falls in 1855. The order grew rapidly until at one time it had nearly 500 lodges and a membership of 20,000. It has been an active, aggressive organization ever since it came into the State, and has probably done as much if not more than all the other temperance organizations in creating the strong temperance sentiment now existing. Among those who have been at the head of the Order in this State are: Dr. T. J. Patchen, Samuel D. Hastings, H. H. Giles, George S. Graves, Theodore D. Kanouse, James H. Foster, Phillip Allen, Jr., Capt. J. F. Cleghorn, E. W. Chafin, W. S. Frazier and the Rev. W. H. Clark.
The man who did more than any other one person to create this temperance sentiment was Theodore D. Kanouse. Mr. Kanouse was at the head of the Order of Good Templars in this State for twelve years, and during nearly the whole of this time he was going from place to place advocating the principle of total abstinence and prohibition. Mr. Kanouse is a man of superior
1
224
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
intellect, well educated and a speaker of great power and eloquence. He was four years in the army and had an excellent reputation as a soldier. About fifteen years since he removed to Dakota. He was a member of the South Dakota Constitutional Convention, and was elected to Congress under the first statehood movement. He served as warden of the penitentiary of South Dakota for several years. He is now on a fruit farm in Glendale, near Los Angeles, Cal.
At an early day a large majority of the active friends of tem- perance in Wisconsin were attached to the Republican party. In 1872 the Legislature, in response to a large number of petitions, asking it so to do, passed what was generally known as a Civil Damage Law. This law was substantially what was known as the "Bond Law" passed in 1849, and repealed two years after. The bill for the Civil Damage Law was introduced by Alexander Gra- ham, a member of the Assembly from Rock County, and was often spoken of as the "Graham" Law. It was the old wine in a new bottle. The Legislature was Republican and. C. C. Washburn was Governor, and the Republican party was held responsible for the law. The liquor interest made a vigorous opposition to the law and tried very hard to repeal it. It was made an issue, more or less, at the succeeding State election. The party generally, and especially Governor Washburn, stood by the law and it was not repealed at the session of the Legislature in 1873. But the opposi- tion to the law was very great and a most determined effort was made to defeat the party that had enacted it and acting in connec- tion with the Granger movement in 1873, the party was defeated and William R. Taylor was elected Governor. This law had been enacted at the request of the temperance people of the State, the Good Templars being chiefly active in circulating the petitions ask- ing for it and the temperance people felt that it would be unfair and unmanly to desert the party that had been defeated, largely because it had done what they had asked it to do.
The Prohibitionists of the State were eloquently urged to unite with the National Prohibition party.
The matter was before the Grand Lodge of Good Templars at their annual session in 1874. The following extract from the
-
.
.
225
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN. .
report of a committee written by Sammel D. Hastings, adopted by that body, will show the view they took of the matter:
"Consider the question in view of the actual situation in our own State. No definite attempt has been made to secure pro- hibitory legislation in Wisconsin during the past twenty years. The only thing that has been distinctly asked for is a law making the liquor seller responsible for the results of his business. This was granted by the party then in power at the first session of the Legislature to whom the demand was made. At the next session the liquor interest demanded the repeal of the law. The party that passed the law resisted the demand and retained it. Last fall there was an entire change in the politics of the State, and another party came into power. The law was then repealed; the party that orig- inally passed it still standing by it. Now, with what justice or consistency can Prohibitionists in the Republican party be asked to leave it and unite with an independent organization in existing circumstances? We have the evidence that there are thousands and tens of thousands of such now in the party. Would it not be more reasonable to ask the party to make prohibition a plank in its platform before we call upon Prohibitionists to leave? If this is refused, then we would have more cause to make such a demand."
There does not appear to have been any special demand for legislative action touching the liquor traffic until 1878. when peti- tions containing about 15,000 names were presented to the legis- lature asking for the submission to the people of an amendment to the constitution of the State prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages. The measure was ably championed by William T. Price, but it failed to pass. At the session of 1879 petitions were presented asking for the measure, signed by 40,000 nantes besides memorials from religious bodies representing about 100,000 citizens of the State. The measure was again defeated. The matter was presented again in 18so and 18St and in 1882. while the vote in favor of the measure in 1882 was less than it was in 1878, when it was first presented. In view of these facts the friends of a constitutional prohibitory amendment came to the conclusion that if they wished to secure the object for which they
1
226
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
were laboring it would be necessary to adopt some other plan of procedure, and hence, after a consultation between the leading members of the different State temperance organizations, it was decided to call a conference of all the friends of temperance in the State. All Churches and all temperance organizations and all friends of the cause outside of all such organizations were earnestly requested to be represented at the conference.
The conference was called to meet at the capitol in Madison on the 13th day of June. 1881. The call was signed by the Presidents of Beloit and Ripon Colleges and Lawrence University, and by many prominent citizens of the State.
The conference was largely attended and was highly repre- sentative in its make up. The Hon. William T. Price was the permanent chairman. The proceedings were harmonious. The feeling was unanimous in favor of continuing to work for a con- stitutional prohibitory amendment.
It was decided to make a formal demand upon the two State Conventions of the two great political parties soon to assemble, that they place planks in their respective platforms to the effect that they would favor the submission of a constitutional prohibi- tory amendment to a vote of the people-not that they should pledge themselves to favor or vote for such an amendment, but simply that they would allow the question to be submitted to a vote of the people in the manner prescribed by the constitution. The conference provided, in the event the State Conventions of the two parties refused to grant their request for the immediate calling of a State Convention to place in nomination candidates for State officers pledged to the submission of the proposed constitutional prohibitory amendment. A committee was appointed to act in case the action of the Republican and Democratic Conventions was adverse to their wishes. Both conventions refused to grant the request made to them, when a call was immediately issued for a State Convention to meet in the Assembly chamber, Madison, on the 29th day of September, ISSt. The convention was well attended and the proceedings were earnest and harmonious. A full ticket for State officers was nominated. with Theodore D). Kanouse at its head, as the nominee for Governor. H. H. Giles
.
.
227
A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
was appointed chairman of the State Committee and S. D. Hast- ings secretary.
There were about five weeks for the campaign, and the com- mittee had at their disposal only about $500 for the entire expenses of the campaign. They made the best possible use of the time and money at their command .. They were compelled to labor at the greatest possible disadvantage, as they had no organization and but very limited means of learning who their friends were in different parts of the State. One great difficulty they labored under was their lack of knowledge as to whom they could send tickets, as there was no Australian Ballot Law in force then. There were, doubtless, hundreds of voting precincts where there were no tickets from the fact that no persons were known to whom tickets could be sent.
In spite of all these difficulties 13.225 votes were polled for Mr. Kanouse.
The party was known as the "Independent Temperance Party." In 1884 the party affiliated with the National Prohibition party by sending delegates to the National Prohibition Convention, held · at Pittsburg in that year. It has had tickets in the field at every National and State election since.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.