The National Hand-book of American Progress: A Non-partisan Reference Manual ...

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In July, 1862, at Preside irm, have made him a general favorite in ecclesiasin party gatherings, and in commercial assemblies, regiment, being assisted ·" Exchange and sent it speech-making came in order. There is no man in recruited a brigade Country more popular as an off-hand talker than Gen. Nov. 24, 1862. To man, it may be added, whose talking gifts have been He could command to H in more various ways, or on wider fields.

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k to his newly-recruited regiment of soldiers in St. Louis th such persuasiveness that they agreed he should do all neir swearing, well aware he would not swear a word. In camp, at the front, he could lead a prayer meeting with tender exhortation and fervent appeal. When Reconstruction days came on he could gather thousands, white and black, upon some Southern plantation, and win them to ready acceptance of the great change from slavery to freedom. And in these later years, South and North, at the General Conference of his church, as a fraternal delegate with Southern brethern, in the great Convention at Pittsburgh which nominated St. John, at some great business banquet where capital massed itself, or where old army comrades met in annual reunion-oftener than almost any other American he has been called to say the word most fitting, to lend the final grace of flowing rhetoric and felicitous quotation.

Scrupulous of his every duty, considerate of all men, the soul of personal honor, sensitive as a woman, Clinton B. Fisk skrinks from political warfare, and protests against all preferment as a political leader. The most conspicuous layman in the Methodist Church, to which, as a boy of ten, he gave himself, he gives to religious and denominational progress his chief concern; but he sees how closely the Church of God is related to this question of the ages, and his whole heart is alive, his entire nature consecrated to the moral issue now up for settlement along political lines. He will refuse no clear call of duty, whatever to him the cost.

Such is the briefest outline of the life of him who attained by acclamation the nomination of candidate for the Presidency by the National Convention of the Prohibition Party held at Indianapolis in May, 1888.

JOHN A. BROOKS, D.D.

John A. Brooks, the nominee of the Prohibition party for the Vice-Presidency, was born in Mason County, Ky., June 3, 1836. His father and mother were both Virginians. His mother was related to the Cooks and Andersons of Virginia, many of whom have figured in political life. His father was a prominent preacher in the Church to which the Doctor belongs.

Young Brooks was brought up on a farm; was educated at Bethany College, Va., then under the charge of Alexander Campbell; graduated from there in 1856, receiving afterwards from his Alma Mater the degree of A.M.; was for two years President of Flemingsburg College, in Kentucky, and, resigning that position, entered the ministry. He is a leading man in his denomination, both as an evangelist and a pastor.

When 15 years old he became a public advocate of temperance under the direction of Elijah Currans, G. W. P. of Kentucky. He was among the early supporters of Prohibition, hoping, with the great mass of temperance people in the South, to gain it through the Democratic party. He has been the life and soul of one of the most notable struggles for State Prohibition made in the nation.

In 1880 Dr. Brooks and 35 others, at a meeting at Sedalia, organized the Prohibition Alliance of Missouri. Dr. Brooks was chosen President, and for four years, at his own risk and without salary, he canvassed 100 counties of the State in the interest of submission. The first year's canvass (1880) resulted in the election of a Legislature pledged to submit, but political machinations caused the defeat of the amendment by two or three votes in the Senate. The Downing High License law was enacted as a compromise measure.

But the liquor interests were greatly alarmed, and in 1882 the brewers employed United States Senator Geo. G. Vest, the foremost Democratic leader and orator of Missouri, to canvass the State in their interest. Dr. Brooks's friends challenged Senator Vest to a joint discussion, but he had already made a list of appointments and could not change them. Despite Senator Vest's exertions, another Legislature pledged to sub

mission, was chosen.

Again the amendment failed by downright betrayal of the promises made.

Disgusted with the Democratic party, Dr. Brooks now looked with favor upon the Prohibition party, and when the canvass of 1884 opened he declared himself a member of it. In that year he was unanimously nominated for Governor, both by the Alliance and the party Prohibitionists. It was hoped that the Republicans would make no nomination and leave the field to Dr. Brooks and Gen. Marmaduke, the Democratic candidate. But the Republican party preferred defeat under the leadership of a liquor man to success under a Prohibitionist.

The campaign was very exciting. Senator Vest gave his whole time to combating Prohibition. Dr. Brooks, almost alone on the other side, canvassed the State as best he could with the limited resources at his command. Although Mr. Cleveland carried Missouri by over 30,000 majority, Marmaduke's majority was only 420. Dr. Brooks polled five times as many votes as were cast at the same election for St. John.

The agitation of 1880-4 gave an impetus to Prohibition in Missouri that has been followed by phenomenal progress. In 1886 the W. C. T. U. took up the Constitutional Prohibition struggle, another Legislature supposed to be in favor of submission was elected, the Amendment was defeated by a few votes, and the Wood Local Option law, under which 65 counties and 14 cities have been carried for Prohihition, was passed as a compromise.

Since 1884 Dr. Brooks has been actively engaged in the lecture field, speaking from Maine to Texas, and from Wisconsin to Alabama. As the General Agent of the National Prohibition Bureau for the Southwest, he has done splendid service, and much of the rapid advance made by the Prohibition party in the States of Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama, as well as Missouri, is the result of his personal influence.