Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1839-09-11
VOL. XI. NO. 81.

avs. beileVe IL IS tse duty OF
legislators to enact wholesome laws. and.
Il Inc people will not sustain them. then
those who enacted them clear their own
skirts. And if each man who is-elec,ed
ana makes pretensions 10 Iaboring for The
puolc veal, should 90 on that principle.
there would soon be but IiuIe, if any diff
hculty. The proposition las, fall was
mol TO have the towns annually give their
yes or no, but to give their voice for or
against a permanent law on that Question
In this respect the question at Middlebu-
ry differs somewhat from that discussed
by Mr.. Sergeant. Still, his views come
out during his reasoning on The subject
IN such manner as to embrace the gen
eral question; and | think many of your
readers may profit from its perusal.
Should any man contend that public
opinion will not sustain prohibitorv
law, then [ would say, try ii, and If !,
should fully be proved that the peopIe
f0IH not sustain general law, would
acknowledge myself mistaken. The diff
iicultY has been, that some towns have
under former laws, granted licenses or
APPROPRIATIONS, for fear some other towns
would, if they did not-con!endiDp that If
they must have the intemperance, they
would have the profits. Curious reason
Ing' know--yet such is the fact. And
July believe that should all legislative
sanction and monopoly be Withdrawn
from the traffic in strong liquors as a
drink, the cause of temperance would
much faster advance. Yes, l firmly be-
lieve that if prohibitory law cannot be
sustained, TO let each man sell who NAV
please. but have the legislative cloak TAX
en- away, public opinion would handle the
subject to much better advantage. Bot
no1o, let man use moral suasion 10 one
having license and withal having his
conscience little scared, he is in as de-
lenceless situation as was Braddock's
army while contending with the Indians
in ambush. There, the savage would run
out his gun and fire and be shielded be-
hind the thicket. Here, the vender takes
the life of man, and when the temper-
ance lecturer throws shot back the man
IS shielded BY the license lac, saving
what the law makes right, as right, ard
two hundred years and upwards of leg
lslation has sanctioned and sanclifed it
am right sir; your shots can't hit me-
Such Is the reasoning of many.
The time will soon come when the
Legislature will convene, and the proba-
bility is that some action will be had up
on this subject. II any one can advance
any better views than the foregoing and
those contained in the following. hope
they will be presented 10 the public.
J. HoLCoMB.
From the American Temperance Journal.
DIS Gus SIoN
Should Larc, prohibiting the traffic an
Intoxicating drinks, emanafe direcfE,
from the Legislature, and operate abso-
tntety and universally through The entire
t'mlts Of the State, or be referred To the
tOtcHS for their enactment annually. IN
toaoH meetings?
By L. NJ. Sargent, Esq. Author of
Temperance Tales, &c. &c.
To the Cor Sec A. T.. IT,
Boston, June End, 1889.
Rev. and Dear Sir Nothing can be
more groundless than the charge against
The friends of temperance, that they are
DESTROYS of efec:ing a great moral re-
form, by the power Of legislation. This
great moral reform. has been already eff
lected, at home and abroad, to an extent
beyond the measure Of our mos. sanouine
expectations, not only without legislative
patronage, but in opposition to a BODY of
men, who have been immemorialIv pro-
tected In their traffic, BY the legislature.
This great moral reform has been the re-
suit OF a process Of moral indoctrination,
which, so far as the temperance society
has been the chief minister in its produce
ton, has been in operation some thirty
years, whether we date from the organi-
cation OF the Massachusetts temperance
society In 1923, or the society of Moreau
and Northum bertrand in tie stale of New
York, whose organization took place as
early as 1903.
The temperance society is 10 the condi-
ton Of state, which has wrought out is
i independence, and calling upon other
states and empires for an admission of the
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