712 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



whole United States. And that law Avas 

 effective until the infamous agreement was 

 made between the Mormons and the Re- 

 publican and Democratic parties — perhaps 

 not parties, but politicians at Washington 

 — that they might violate the law. in con- 

 sideration of political favors from the Mor- 

 mons to the political parties running this 

 government. 



HOW UNCLE SAM DISPOSED OF THE LOTTERY. 



I want to give you another instance 

 where the Republicans and Democrats rec- 

 ognized and applied the same doctrine: 

 Louisiana chartered the old Louisiana lot- 

 tery soon after the war. After they got 

 their charter out and were ready for busi- 

 ness they discovered that it was a peni- 

 tentiary offense to deal in lottery tickets 

 in every State in the Union outside of 

 Louisiana ! 



''Well, now," they ejaculated. "We in- 

 tend to skin the whole United States in 

 this game. What are we going to do f Sup- 

 pose we go and interview Uncle Sam." 

 They went down and saw the postmaster. 

 He is Uncle Sam in every town in the 

 United States. They said to Uncle Sam: 

 "What is your standard of morals in these 

 matters of sending newspapers through the 

 mails that have advertisements of the lot- 

 tery in them, sending circulars through the 

 mail from our lottery, sending lottery tick- 

 ets through the mail, permitting the people 

 to get postoffice orders in all the States, 

 and sending the money down to us, in 

 violation of the laws of all the other States? 

 What is your standard of morals on that?" 



Uncle Sam told them: "We have got no 

 law on the subject at all. It is just as 

 legal to send all those things tlu-ough the 

 mail as it is to send Bibles through the 

 mail." 



"All right, we will bring over a ton this 

 evening." 



"Very well, just put your stamps on 

 them and we will carry them to every post- 

 office in the United States." 



What was the result? 



We had gambling in every township in 

 America. 



What was the trouble? 



We had two standards of morals— a 

 penitentiary offense to deal in lottery tick- 

 ets in every State in the Union except in 

 Louisiana, and in the whole United States. 



What did you do? 



You went down and saw Uncle Sam 

 again, and said: "Uncle Sam, we are in 

 trouble. Two standards of morals on the 

 lottery question." He said : "All right. We 

 will fix it." One day Congress passed a 

 bill making it a penitentiary offense to put 



a lottery ticket in the mail, or to put a 

 newspaper in the mail that had a lottery 

 advertisement in it, and confiscated the 

 money orders if they bought them for the 

 lottery. 



And so you stopped that. Then, when 

 they could not use the mails any longer, 

 what do you suppose they did? What 

 could they do under the circumstances? 



ABOLISHING INTERSTATE COMMERCE IN LOT- ' 

 TERY TICKETS. 



I will tell you: When they couldn't use 

 the mails for that purpose, under the in- 

 terstate commerce clause of the constitu- 

 tion, they sent their lottery tickets and 

 advertisements by express. Did you ever 

 hear of any thing being shipped from wet 

 territory into dry by express? (Laughter.) 

 And under the interstate-commerce clause 

 of the constitution. I see you catch on 

 all right. 



Then what did you do? 



You went down to Washington again and 

 said : "Uncle Sam, we are in trouble again. 

 They are using the interstate-commerce 

 clause of the constitution to ship their 

 lottery tickets by express into all this ter- 

 ritory where you prohibited the use of the 

 mails." And once more Uncle Sam said : 

 "We will fix them all right." 



HOW THE LOTTERY DIED. 



So the day came when Republicans and 

 Democrats united and passed a bill mak- 

 ing it a penitentiary offense to ship a 

 lottery ticket across a State by express or 

 freight or afoot or on horseback; and then 

 you had one standard of morals for the 

 whole United States, and the old Louisiana 

 lottery died, and there is no legalized 

 gambling under the American flag. 



Now, ladies and gentlemen, I want to 

 ask you this question : 



Haven't I shown to you, by the legisla- 

 tion of fifty years by Republicans and 

 Democrats, congresses and presidents, that 

 all have acted upon the doctrine laid down 

 by Abraham Lincoln, that you could set- 

 tle a great moral question only when you 

 had one standard of morals for the whole 

 United States of America? 



But you say, "That is all right so far as 

 your congress and the president are con- 

 cerned ; but how about the Supreme Court ? 

 That is a part of our government." And 

 from the indications of some of the late 

 decisions, it is quite a big part of our gov- 

 ernment too. 



THE SUPREME COURT AND MORAL ISSUES. 



When slavery was abolished they went 

 to the Supreme Court on that proposition, 

 and the Supreme Court said they had a 

 right to pass the Thirteenth Amendment; 



