Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1833-07-31

eu-We nave TRENDS, children and rela
whose happiness we would secure by al
practicable means which are warrantable
we see them exposed to the fell destroyer
we would throw ourselves between then
and the danger to which they are exposed
and endeavor to arrest the progress of the
moral Pestilence. which is daily sweep
ing hundreds of our fellow beings into
dread eternity. Do you begin to enquire
what must be done in this perlous condi
ton of society; answer, let all who love
their relations, friends, neighbors or theil
country, all who regard the moral pre-
cepts of high heaven, unite as one man
and resolve, by precept and example, to
lnculcate the great principle of temper
ance, "touch not, taste not and handle not,
and on all suitable occasions, set intern
perance and its consequences in their true
co'ors before those with whom you have
lntercourse-entreat them, by the love
they bear towards their children and
friends--by all the tender sympathies
which should bind man to bis fellow mar
by all their hopes of happiness, tempo
raj and eternal-by all the miseries which
are consequent upon intemperance, in this
life, and the terrific scenes of dread eter>
nifty, to pause, to reflect, and to resolve,
as we have done, that from this time for
ward, they will entirely abstain from the
use of the deadly poison. Teach your
children that it is as criminal to drink lit
tie as it is to steal little or to lie little.
| ask you, what other security have
you for your children or yourselves?-
You have none but in the course recon-
mended or one similar. If the places of
the present generation of drunkards are
to be supplied, whence will the victims
come, but from our own children? And
who can tell but that the infant now on its
mothers knee, however lovely it may ap
pear to her, however respectable and ell
evated her station in society, may make
one among that degraded and wretched
class, that in her declining years, she may
see him wandering through the country,
houseless, hopeless and abandoned
drunkard.
But we may, and are apt to suppose
that the unfortunate beings we daily see
in the practice of intemperan e, were al
ways so, or that they sprang from msera.
Bile and degraded families, and are only
walking in the steps of their fathers; but
this is not the case with all Of them, a.
mong the number, may be found large
proportion lwho were as lovely in their
infancy, as promising in youth, and as
useful in early fife, as your own children,
and have became drunkards by the tenn,
perate use Of ardent spirits; and were it
not for this temperate use, as it called,
we should not now see drunken senators
and drunken magistrates, drunken law.
yers and drunken doctors; parents would
not now be weeping over drunken chill
dren, wives over drunken husbands and
angels over drunken world.
And now, perhaps | may be asked, will
you set aside the use of spirits in all cases
and circumstances? Are they not neces-
sary and indispensable on some occasions
would not pretend to say that | have
sufficient knowledge of the human system
and the adaptation of spirits in the cure
of diseases, but will give you the opin.
ion of a medical gentleman of great en-
inence in the east: He says that tits now
admitted by large majority Of the most
enlightened and respectable members of
the medical profession, that there is no
state of tine system, however enfeebled
or exhausted, no species of malady, how
ever obstinate and unyelding, no case OF
disease, however dangerous and appall-
ing, in which alcohol is indspensaby ne.
cessary, and in which substitute, per.
fectly equal TO all the exlgencies Of the
case, may not be easily found.
1t was considered that ardent spirits
were necessary to enable us to endure the
extremes of heat and cold that ii was ne,
cessary for the sailor amid the terrors and
exposure of seafaring life; that it was
necessary for the soldier, the mechanic.
and the common laborer, in their arduous
avocations; bnt those opinions have been
swept away like the "baseless fabric of a
vision," by that sure, unerring guide, ex
perience; and no doubt is entertained, bu
that the period is rapidly approaching
when the opinion that spirits are occa
sionally necessary as medical agent, viii
in like manner be dissipated; that as soor
as the light Of observation and experience
can be fairly brought TO bear on this sub
ject, it will be found that there are Other
means, other remedies, quite as efficient