Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1839-12-19
PETITION
To tie Honorable General assembly Of
IIrginia.

IIrgtnia.
The undersigned citizens of this Commons
wealth, respectfully solicit the attention of
your honorable body to what we consider the
pernicious tendency of those laws bv which
the sale of intoxicating drinks is legalzed
and licensed.
Those laws were originally dictated by a
benevolent wish to restrict the sale and use of
such drinks; they We're intended to keep the
means OF intoXicaton away from the drunk
ard, but leaving them entirely open to sober
men. Were the system perfectly successful
we should deem it highly Objectionable, as
tending to debase respectable citizens into
drunkards. But it is a matter of perfect no.
torlety that it imposes no practical restraint
whatever upon any person. Any man in the
State, ordinarily, can find the means of intoX-
lcation just when he pleases, so that the same
reason which dictated the enactment of those
laws, calls loudly for their repeal and the en-
tire prohibition of the traffic.
intoxicating liquors are the caurc of I-5ths
all the crimes against which the labors and leo
islation of your honorable body are directed {;
they are the chief cause of poverty, wretch
cdness and misery in our land. We would
then respectfully ask, why not prohibit this
fruitful source of crime, insanity, disease and
death
Thousands of the most able physicians in
our own country and Europe, have declared
that such drinks are never needed for persons
In health, and for other uses, much better
and safer provision can be made which shall
not be open to these objections. 1t is ascer-
tanned by actual investigation that above two
thirds of the taxes paid by the citizens of the
State OF New York accrues in consequence
OF this traffic, and We have no reason to doubt
that the same Is true in this State; we there
fore ask the intervention of your honorable
body to relieve us at once of the burden, by
removing the cause in which it originates.
we cannot but ask, is it just that the sober
and industrious part of the community shall
be heavily taxed to support the poor made by
this fruitful source of poverty and rain! Is
1t right to punish crimes and license the cause
that produces theml Is it right to spread
snares and punish men for falling in them2
In conclusion we would say, if the laws will
continue to permit sinks of vice, poverty, and
crime, to stand open night and day, the same
laws must continue to provide poor houses,
prisons, gallowses and graves, to receive their
victims. Can it be necessary to keep up this
state of things forever? Does the .spublc
good require that in these United States fif-
ty thousand men shall spend their whole time
in manufacturing and selling deadly poison,
both to the body and soul, and that these men
shall destroy 25 million bushels of grain year
ly, when the poor are suffering for bread 3
And is 1t necessary that thirty thousand of our
tellow-citizens shall annually go down to the
Drunkard's grave, leaving their wives wild
ows and their children orphans? Does the
public good require such sacrificed Is there
no remedyl We would respectfully repeat
the question-is there no remedy? Has law
nothing to do with humanity? Must we see
our parents destroyed, our families ruined, and
our children driven to unutterable despair q
Must thelaw that sanctions this state ofmisery,
wretchedness and ruin remain so forever As
there no remedya There is remedy. Re
peal the license laws and in their stead pro-
vide suitable penal enactments againstthe fur
ther sale and distribution of the poison.
Resolved, That the proceedings of this
meeting be forwarded to the Editor of the
Staunton Spectator for publication IN the same.
V. BIRD, Pres't.
J. TT. RucxMAS, Sec'ry.
~ Editors in the State friendly to the