"AS ONCE HE SAT OVER AGAINST THE TREASURY, SO NOW CHRIST SITS OVER AGAINST THE BALLOT BOX TO SEE WHAT HIS DISCIPLES CAST THEREIN."

-Mary Allen West.

CHAPTER I.

THE HOME PROTECTION PARTY.

My purpose to adopt the new faith gained power at the Saratoga Convention in the summer of 1881. Called by the National Temperance Society, of which Hon. William E. Dodge was president, this great meeting was "non-partisan" in action, but not in utterance. There I first met James Black, of Lancaster, Pa., the James G. Birney of the new abolition war, in which Northern and Southern bayonets point the same way; John B. Gough was present, at his best, and Rev. J. O. Peck, of Brooklyn, outdid himself in eloquence; Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, was chairman, and three hundred and thirty-seven delegates were present, representing many states. A noticeable feature was the presence of accredited delegates from the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, the Lutheran Synod, etc. Two ladies were designated to escort Doctor Gordon to the chair, and for the first time in history, a lady, who had been chosen as vice-president, presided over the deliberations of a convention made up chiefly of men. The keen, clear logic of those who declared in the convention their conviction that the temperance question must follow the liquor question into politics, the earnest talks I had with leaders, the fervent religious spirit of the convention, confirmed me unchangeably in my new political departure. To me, the central figure of the scene was James Black, the Presbyterian, with his noble gray head, his pure, true face, his sturdy figure, as he stood before us all on the first morning with the Bible in his hand, and read God's decree of downfall for despoilers of the people, and triumph for the truth. I shall never forget the night before the close of the convention, when I, who am one of the "seven sleepers," could not sleep; but, while dear Mrs. Carse, who was with me, peacefully reposed, I thought through to the conclusion. of my personal duty and delight to take sides for the Prohibition party. It was a solemn and exalted hour in which my brain

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teemed with the sweet reasonableness of such a course, and my conscience rejoiced in its triumph over considerations of expedi ency. Nothing has ever disturbed the tranquil assurance that I was then helped to make a logical and wise decision inspired from Heaven.

Two months later, at Lake Bluff, Ill., thirty miles north of Chicago, we held our usual Temperance Convocation. This beautiful spot, on the sunset shore of Lake Michigan, has long been famous as the chief rallying place of Temperance leaders on this continent, and has borne a part unequaled in influence by that of any other rendezvous of the Prohibition army.

Coming here with a heart full of new love for the South and enkindled perceptions touching what might be done, I heard a reformed man of Illinois, Captain Lothrop, of Champaign, make a most touching plea for better protection from the legalized drink curse. As he left the grounds he shook hands with me and said, "Don't let this convocation end in talk-we want to hear that you folks who stand at the front have done something; taken a forward step against the liquor power."

His worn face and intense earnestness made a deep impression on my conscience.

"By the help of God we will do something," I said in my heart and immediately sought Dr. Jutkins, Colonel Bain and John B. Finch, who that year came for the first time to Lake Bluff and captured everybody by his great gifts as an orator.

I told them what I had heard from the reformed man; of the thoughts and purposes that came to me at Saratoga; of the stirring in my spirit when my brave cousin, Willard Robinson, also a reformed man, who signed the pledge at one of my meetings in Spencerport, N. Y., had said this very year, "Cousin Frank, you people ought to go into politics; you'll never succeed until you do. I've got where I write my own ticket and put it in all alone for men who, if they were but voted into power, would outlaw the saloon."

My temperance brothers listened and gave heed. What had been tutoring them for this same hour, I do not know; the living can speak for themselves. I do not profess to give all the links in the chain that led us, then and there, to found the "Home Protection Party," but only those that are most clearly impressed on

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my own mind. As a result of our deliberations at this summer camp, an address was issued to the temperance people of the country. R. W. Nelson, of The Liberator, Chicago-a bright young man, whose paper was devoted to political prohibition, was prominent in all this movement and his journal gave us at once what we needed most, a medium of direct communication issuing from a metropolitan city.

A committee on organization was subsequently appointed, a form of constitution for Home Protection clubs prepared and the co-operation of all Prohibition leaders sought.

On the 13th of March, 1882, a Call for a national convention on the 23d of the following August, to be held in Chicago, was issued by Gideon T. Stewart, chairman of the Prohibition Reform party of the United States.

In the autumn following the Lake Bluff Convocation, our National Woman's Christian Temperance Union met in Washington, D. C. When I prepared my annual address, this thought came to me: "For you to favor the Prohibition party as an individual is one thing, and to ask the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in your official address to indorse that party, is quite another; are you going to do it? Such action will cost you much good-will and many votes." But a voice from loftier regions said: "You ought to declare for the party officially as well us individually." I knelt to pray, and rose to write as follows, without one misgiving:

BELOVED SISTERS AND CO-WORKERS-When the National Prohibition party held its convention in Cleveland in 1880, women were invited to attend as delegates; but while I admired the progressive spirit thus indicated, it seemed to me clearly my duty not to go. Always profoundly interested in politics, as the mightiest force on earth except Christianity, and trained to be a staunch Republican, both my education and sympathies were arrayed on Garfield's side; moreover, I labored under the hallucination that the South secretly waited its opportunity to reopen the issues of the war. During all that stormy summer of the presidential campaign, I did not hear Neal Dow's candidacy spoken of with interest by the workers of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and yet we all honored and gloried in that brave father of the Maine Law. In contrast to the apathy with which we regarded the "Third Party" movement, you will remember the profound enthusiasm that greeted General Garfield's name at our annual meeting in Boston, and that, later on, we hailed his election as an answered prayer. Dear sisters, since then, by your commission, I have visited the