Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1833-02-21


questing Mr.. Leigh to prolong his sojourn
in South Carolina until after the sitting OF
the Convention.
Ertract from The Tenth Report o. the Req.
DR.. Thckerman, as Minister at large
an Boston, Massachusetts.
"The Legislature assumes the right to
regulate the sale of ardent spirits. This
assumption is founded in the right, which
is conceded to government, ofcontrolling
those operations of individuals, an unre-
stricted allowance of which is incompati-
bic with the general welfare; as the pow
er to require the erection and mainte-
nance of Work Houses, Houses of Cor
rection, County Jails and State Prisons,
is founded, in like manner, upon the
right which is also conceded to govern
ment, Of depriving of their liberty, and
otherwise of furnishing those, whom its
other restrictive enactments are insuffi-
cient to deter from idleness, vagrancy and
crime. And yet, by the very term on
which it offers to licence the keeping Of
dram-shops, and the freest sale of the
substances which we have the evidence
every where around us, that they are a.
mong the most active and influential of
the causes, ofabject pauperism and crime;
it dose all which it can well do to legal
ize that, which it acknowledges to be
inconsistent with the public safety; and
thus to secure a perpetual increase of
the inmates of those very institutions,
a principal demand for which grown out
Of the facilities and excitements which
dram-shops and bar-rooms offer to intem-
pcrance, lawlessness, and every civil and
moral offence. Now | would say, the
government either has the right and the
power to restrict the sale of these spirits,
or it has not If it have not the right,
let the assumption of it be relinqushed;
and let every one, in this respect, do what
he will, without asking permission, and
purchasing the privilege to do it. But If
it have the right and power, would ask,
what is the extent of that right and pow
er? 1t is limited to acts which do not,
and which it is known cannot, and will
not, impose the smallest possible restraint
upon the sale ofthese spirits? Why then
waste time and money in laborously franz
ing and modifying legislative enactments
which not only go for nothing in the cause
either of private virtue or public security
but which themselves virtually sanction
debasement and crime; and, indirectly,
call up any sentiment in the public mind
respecting other legal restraints, than
that Of respect, and sense of the import
ance of regarding them? | would appeal
to Legislators, and to our whole commu.
nifty, on this great subject. If govern
| ment have the power to restrict the sale
Of these spirits, except on the conditions
on which it shall see fit to licence their
sale, it must then have the power to i'm
pose conditions which shall be effectual
to the restraint of their sale. This seems
to be selfevident. And if the power to
impose these conditions, where lies the
responsibility for six or seven hundred
dram-shops in our city; and the facility;
| in every village in our Commonwealth,
| of obtaining gallon of these spirits for
the small cost of forty cents? Either
power is here assumed without right, or
there is very sorry trihing, in our le-
| gislature upon this subject, with right, and
power, and responsibility. Much has in
| deed been done in the cause of Temperance
and much more trust is to be effected,
through an enlightened public opinion.
But our halls oflegislation have yet done
nothing in this good work. Have they,
however, nothing to do in it! And have
they not all the requisite power to dc
much in it; and thus more, perhaps, than
| by any other restrictive right and power
which they possess, to secure order and
happiness, property, liberty and hfe?"
| Thus far DR.. Tuckerman.
/ Mr.. Editor--The subject ofDr. Tuck.
erman's remarks is of high Importance
and general interest. 1t is greatly to be
lamented that no measure have been de.
vised for the recovery ofthose to sobrie-
| ty who are in danger of falling victims
to lntemperance. Relatives and friends
mtreat, beseech and demonstrate in vain,
while the means qualification are SC
accessible. According to our laws, drunk.
enness is so venial an offence, that it is
expiated by the payment of shillings
Pennsylvania currency. 1t is of no &C.
count that much domestic misery is en-.
dured, that personal degradation and
ruin are the portion of the slave of this
yipn and that numerous ou;lS n NO o,ad,,o