The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1831-12-28
THE CAUSE OF TEMPERANCE

TRAFFIC IN ARDENT SPIRIT. The vend
ing of ardent spirit cannot be carried ON
without guilt. Every grog shop exhibits
scenes that religion cannot witness without
horror. Here every evil passion is fed
Here every base propensity is nourished
Here is kept the food OF Drunkenness, and
hither resort all those miserable victims of
the disease, who would ratherdie of it than
he cured! Here is found the poison that
vitiates the taste of the temperate, and pre-
PaTes them to supply the places of those
who die OF this plague Here the temper
ate drink, and here the temperate learn TO
he drunkards. All the drunkards of the
country are brought up at these stores
They are the schools OF intemperance as
long as they continue the traffic in ardent
spirit, they will continue to be the poison
of the land. And can the Christian carry
on this traffic Can he supply the lava
which scorches the land, and be innocent
Does he find nothing in the benign religion
which he processes, to forbid it.? Can he
be the agent of intemperance, the commits
sary of the drunkard, and feel no remorse?
know the vender tells you he is not an
swerable for the cOnsequeHces-that he
trowns on Intemperance, and withholds the
cup from the drunkard. But this is not so.
Does not the vender know the effects of
ardent spirit? Does he not know The con-
sequences which they will assuredlv pro-
duce? Does he not know that of those
who drink many will he drunken? And
can he supply the cause, and detach him
self from the effect Can he hurl fire.
brands through your city, and witness the
conf1agration, and claim exemption from
blume ? Can he spread the contagon
among your families, and when he hears
the dying groaD, and sees the funeral, tell
you that he is innocent? Yet the vender of
ardent spirit does all this. He spreads the
Intoxicating cause; he sees the drunken ef-
feet; he bears the drunken curse he wit
nesses the drunken revel; he is surround
ell with 1t; he is producing it and yet tells
you that he is innocent! Wonderful fatuiiy
But he knows the responsibility is so great,
that he shrlnks from acknowledging it. He
sees the guilt and the wo, and shudders at
the thought of being its cause. And well
he may but he cannot escape. AS long
as he furnishes the means of drunkenness
to others, he IS partaker of the crime
And he should he SO held in public opinion.
He should be held directly responsible for
The consequences of his acts, and the same
odlnm which attached to the principal
should attach to all accessories. But he
tells you he frowns on intempeIance. SO
perhaps he does After producing it. he
trowns on the wretch that he has made
drunken, ard abhors his offspring. But
every retailer should remember that the
drnnkards with whom he is surrounded
are his own children and apprentices, and
that they afford living exhibition of the
character of his own deeds. When he
looks upon them, ragged, filthy, and debas-
ed-when he hears the noon day curse and
the midnight broil-he should say, here is
my work; this IS what have done. 1t is
my trade TO make such men. have spent
my life in it. And if he is a Christian, and
duly appreciates his guilt, he will raise his
hands to heaven, and before God, declare
that he will make no more such.
But the retailer is not alone. He is but
a subaltern in that mighty army of the
agents of intemperance, which is scattered
through the land. He is the immediate in
strument of the ruin which spirituous
liquors occasion, but the wholesale dealer
although one grade above him, is equally II
partaker of the guilt. lie supplies the nu-
merous streams which issue through the