"It is a well-known fact that Mr. Lincoln hesitated to show his strength of conscience, as he did his wealth of goodness, lest it be counted as ostentation. He said often in 1854-55, 'The saloon and the liquor traffic have defenders—but no defense!' With him men were neither great nor small—they were right or wrong. He knew no fear except the fear of doing wrong. His expressions and conduct on this question of the prohibition of the liquor traffic and the saloon were so firmly anchored on his profound convictions of right and wrong that they were immutable. "In that memorable canvass, Mr. Lincoln and myself spoke in Jacksonville, in Bloomington, in Decatur, in Danville, in Carlinville, in Peoria, and at many other points. "The gist of Mr. Lincoln's argument was contained in this fearless declaration: "'This legalized liquor traffic, as carried on in the saloons and grogshops, is the tragedy of civilization. Good citizenship demands and requires that what is right should not only be made known, but be made prevalent; that what is evil should not only be detected and defeated, but destroyed. The saloon has proved itself to be the greatest foe, the most blighting curse of our modern civilization, and this is why I am a practical prohibitionist. "'We must not be satisfied until the public sentiment of this State, and the individual conscience shall be instructed to look upon the saloon-keeper and the liquor-seller, with all the license each can give him, as simply and only a privileged malefactor—a criminal.' "Mr. Lincoln used, in advocating the entire prohibition of the liquor traffic, nearly the same language, and in many instances the same illustrations that he used later on in his arguments against slavery. At another place he said: "'The real issue in this controversy, the one pressing upon every mind that gives the subject careful consideration, is that legalizing the manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is a wrong—as all history and every development of the traffic proves it to be—a moral, social, and political wrong.' "It should be stated distinctly, squarely, and fairly, and repeated often, that Mr. Lincoln was a practical total abstinence man; wrote for it, worked for it, taught it, both by precept and by example; and when, from a long and varied experience, he found that the greed and selfishness of the liquor-dealers and the saloon-keepers overleaped and disregarded all barriers and every other restraint, and taught by the lessons of experience that nothing short of the entire prohibition of the traffic and the saloon would settle the question, he became an earnest, unflinching prohibitionist.