Evan P. Howell and Henry W. Grady are among the owners of the Atlanta Constitution. During the recent campaign on the liquor question in Atlanta these gentlemen were on opposite sides, so that the papers reported that while Mr. Grady was making a speech in behalf of prohibition in one part of the town, Capt. Howell was making a speech against it in another place. Two of Mr. Grady's speeches have been published in pamphlet form, and they are worthy of that gentleman's reputation as an orator. THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY is glad to find Mr. Grady on the right side of this question, and regrets that prohibition failed to carry the day in the election.
The colored people held the balance of power. We praised them last year when, using that balance, they carried the city for temperance. We regret that this year they have used it against temperance. There is no use of concealing the fact. Ignorant people cannot be depended upon to take the right side of any question. It will be a mere happening if they do. The election in Atlanta gives additional emphasis to the necessity of our work in the South.
White ladies so far overcame their caste prejudices as to join their colored sisters in the campaign for prohibition. Together they prayed and worked. Many of the white people were disgusted at this exhibition of social equality. These white ladies have taken a step in the right direction, and, when all their white sisters join them, reform will be well advanced. May the day be hastened!
The rum advocates resorted to all manner of devices to influence the colored people. They had a circular printed with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The picture represented him standing, with a slave in chains kneeling before him. Under the picture, in quotation marks, were the words, as if spoken by Mr. Lincoln: "Prohibition is slavery; I will cut the manacles from your hands." This was a mean trick. To put such lying words into the mouth of a man whose name the colored people revere next to that of the Saviour, is a piece of wickedness that only rum-sellers could be guilty of. It accomplished their vile purpose, however, in leading a great many colored people to vote against prohibition.