The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1842-09-07
TEMFERAN
TO TIE People OF 'sRCARo'
IIN,A.As-.

at the same time, aifcc,;onateIy, address
themselves to Your understandings and
your hearts, in the hope of removing
prcjudices against, and enlisting your ma
turally generous impulses, in favor Of the
great Temperance Retortn.is
The proceedings of this meeting will
inform YOU that our sole object is to per-
Suafic men to bs sober. We have no po-
litical views whatever: powerand place are
wholly foreign from our objects: rc Ia
Dor ",cithom money ud ,ciihom price"
for the gooa of our ftiloD men. This
end we hope to attain without any other
aids than such as we can claim from knout-
edge and lore. We seek first to inform
the people of the true principles of Tenn
perance, and then to claim their co-ope-
ration on the principle of love to his kind,
which, IN ercry uncorrupted sober man,
prompts him to do all the good he can.
TO carry out this expectation, VIC are
anxious that people should '.search the
different Temperance publications daily,
that they should attend our meetings. and
hear the different addresses. To our BIT
terest enemies, we would, in the language
of the great Athcnian, say, ''strlke but
hear" If, after searching our Publca-
tions and hearing our addresses, there be
any thing wrong found in them, then We
are willing to abide the just condemnation:
but if, on such examination, there be no
thing found which is wrong, then, fellow
citizens, suffer us to stand before you IN
the character of Philanthropists, seeking
TO do you all the good we can!
The Temperance Associations in South
Carolina now number in males and ie-
males, nearly 10000 members: this great
body of the followers Of Temperance rs
taken from all classes of society: the rich
and the poor, the wise and the simple,
the high and the low, the preacher, the
lawyer, the doctor, the farmer, the mer,
chant and mechanic are here all united
together, as one family, among whom
there are no distinctions. What bcautl-
full, practical. republican simplsity is thus
presented? Here too there is no sectarI-
anism! In the temple of Temperance,
all the worshipers take each other by the
hand as brothers. Is it not beautifully IL
Illustrative of that time when "thc lion
shall lie down with The lamb, and the
leopard with the kidd" But we present
you still greater claim to confidence
when we say, among us you Will hnd
hundreds of reformed dtuukasd',-sshoi |
were once like the man who came Out ol
the tombs "exceedingly fierce, so that no
man could tame him." but they are now
like him, after the Saviour had cast out OF
him the "legion,7 "clothed and in their
right minds"
How have these results been accom-
plished7 By persuasion meretyl we
have not been helped by either law or
force. Such a,thing as compiling men,
By la,o, to be sober never entered INTO
the head of any Temperance man. True,
many of our members, as citizens and
magistrates, have thought, and still vii!
think, that the whole license system should
be destroyed, and that public tipping
should be ended. But, as body, the State
Temperance Society now dIsclalms all
dependence upon legislation in any shape
form, or manner. The laws as they are,
or as the good Of the people of the State
may will them to be, are sufficient for as.
We have nosreformer among us who, II
he had the power, would, like Mahomet,
convince people Ivy the sword. We have
all been reared in that noble; school OF
liberty, our free country, where freedom
of opinion, political any relig glous, is as
unrestrained as the air we breathe. Thus
reared, it would be strange indeed, that
we should attempt to force men to think
as we do! If, however, we would. we
cannot do so. For no enactment OF that
kind, in Carolina, would be worth the
paper on which it would be written
The Constitution ,could at once abrogate
it. So fellow citizens, your liberty can
be in no danger from Temperance. in,
stead of it, she is both the parent and
nurse of freedom. Where people are So
ber there will be found liberty: where
they are drunken, there will be seen the
. demon slavery, stealing upon his revel-
ling victims, until like the armed Cyrus,
bursting into the chamber of the Bette
shazzer. he saws and compels them 10 SerUe