Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1840-10-07


who denoance the traffic as wrong and per-
niciOus, very many entertain very erroneous
views. / am acquainted with influential
persons who anathen,atize retailers IN the.
hottest terms for selling to drunkards among
the lower and destitute classes, but open not
their mouths against selling 20 drunkards
" Of property and standing" In fact they
advocate the propriety and necessity Of
keeping and selling these poisons at public
houses Only il must not be sold to desti-
fuf< drunkafds Now hold that if il be
wrong 10 selI 80 drunkard who is already
without property OF standing, il is equally
wrong to sell to drunkards who yet have
properly and influence to be destroyed and
not less wrong to sell to those who have
but Just entered TIE downward road. What!
can il be wrong 10 sell the joyful which
terminates the miserable victims awful ca
reef-and not have been wrong TO have sold
him the first dram which added his head,
created his thirst, and turned his feet into
the path that has lead him down to this
death 2 How strangely men will reason,
dnder the inhreace Of their passions or their
lusts. Or rather how strangely will their
carnal feelings pervert their reason.
dwell on she peilt now under consider
alton the more, because there are weighty
things here that have been overlooked. Pub
lie opinion is AL wrong here. II has been
clearly shown, long ago, that the traffic is
wrong. But has the whole matter been ex-
hibited in all its bearings2 BY no means.
Listen and read, and you will find that the
clamor in regard to the traffic has been too
much confined 70 casting imprecaiions on
the heads Of those who have retailed to the
abandoned drunkard, and degraded tippler.
In this clamor have heard high notes from
the mouths Of those who buy their own IL
quors BY the quantity and keep them con-
stantly stored up il their houses for the use,
& convenience, OF their own families and
friends. These same persons advocate the
propriety and necessity Of liquors being kept
in public houses, and will 60 there and fur
nish themselves and treat others st their
own pleasure. Now here is . place where
there needs to be great reformation. AS
long as the rich, and the temperate drink
ers, 60 to market add supply themselves, By
the quantity, with the choicest poisons, and
buy at public houses as often a. they will,
the poor and intemperase viii persist il ac-
commodating themselves BY such means
and opportunities a. they have. And what
will il avail for these men " Of property and
standing who furnish themselves By their
own ways and means, and who themselves
buy of retailers as often - suits their own
tastes and convenience, to cry ont against
the retailer selling to the poor man and the
drunkard7 Will not the retailers retort 70
such be, -" the poor mans money is Is
good as your own; and I DO not pretend te
jssse f0r him, any Inofe uRan IoS YOU
Thus it il plain that the rich and influential,
If they would exert any good infludnce over
the retailer o. the drankaEd, must Be them
selves consistent. It il high time that the
doctrine that retailing must b licensed for
the accommodation # respectable drinkers
were exploded. If they wiH hare it, and
the government, 10 their benerolence, feel
disposed to have them gratiRed, withhold
ing the license will not prevent their getting
Il. twill only be taking away the partici-
patton Of the government il the iaiquiiy.-I
The result will be-a thing indispensable
to the advancement Of the Temperance
detachment Of responsibility
from pernicious practice, and the casting
Of share Of odium where it properly be-
longs. As long Is the higher order Of sell
ers and consumers are allowed to keep them
selves in countenance BY looking up 10 the
government, the loUer order will keep them
selves in countenance by looking IN TO the
practices Of the higher, and through them TO
the government. But il may be said thar
It's The object Of The government, by IL
censing 70 the fen. to interdict to the ma
ny, and thus prohibit and prevent evil
This position appears to me to Be absurd in
corrupt in ethics, and delusiye
IN fact. Toall who stop to reason. is il
not absurd to think Of preventing the extern
sion Of an evil By licensing the cause Of
Ihatevil2 Il the sale be- confined 10 re-
spectacle persons. all The worse. The in
evitable tendency Of this n,ust be, the ex-
tension Of the purchase. The evil lies in
The poison being drank. If it were pur-
chased and poured on the ground, the evil
would be comparatively small, and entirely
different in its nature, 50 that government
would never have got about meddling with
i. Now il should be understood that The