The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1842-08-30
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THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE VT.
TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.
SALE OF ARDENT SPIRITS.

DRESS DELIVERED IN EASTON, fENNSYL
VANIA.
The immense importance which attache
10 right understanding of this subjec
reads me TO remark farther; thai, by the salt
of ardent spirits, the consumption is direct
ance promoted. ! know that there are ma.
nv who are backward 10 believe this; but il
is the only conclusion to which can come
by any correct course of reasoning. Ar
dcLi splits are not an article, like bread,
Of which the consumption. and the trade,
are limited by the necessities of our nature;
but they are all article Of which the presence
rreutes the want, and is constantly enhanc-
ng it; so that by increasing the facilities of
lis diSiribu ion you, of course, create an
increased demand. If it were necessary
of life, that necessity would limit the con
sumption and CONT oil the market; but, being
cthcrwise,ii cln ha,e no limit but depraved
appetite, which the presence of its object is
IS er inhaming. Ii must be true of every
.has which has an action either good or i'll
19an the mind, and especially if that ac-
ON be one of temptation,-tha the good or
al effect is the deeper, the more the object
IS before the mind. Put gambling tables at
ever corner. and you create. of course,
multitude cfgamb'crs,-and put spirits in
every store and you create of course mul.
ti'ude of drunkards. Put lottery schemes
in every house, and they will make multi.
lude of discontinued fortune seekers. Pui
Bibles there and divine truth viii make
multitude Of penilents.
This course Of thought affords an unan.
swerable reply to those who, admitting the
general evils of the sale Of intoxicating
drinks, inert you in way like this; "if
we're 10 dcsisi viii le ny neighbor continue
10 sell ] only lose the custom and he sells the
more" Il is course of thought which
shows that every man who has an agency
in distributing The poison swells the aggre'
gate Of ruin. But let US suppose the con
irarv. Let suppose that by the cessation of
ona individual the sale is only transferred,
but not diminished, and the consumption re
mains the same. | will suppose the same
of another, or two more, or ten; till, if you
please, the consumption is supplied from a
single store, while there's no less consumed; /
what then?
- Why then say that in the crater
OF that volcano there would burn such ter |
rife fires that men would flee from it as from
an earthquake. There is no man who, sing |
y, could sustain the responsibility of deal
ing out all the misery which infests society
from that one cause,-of handing the Bit
Ter cup of Tears 10 sorrowing wives, and of
famine TO impoverished families. Let him
sustain his practice by all the common place
arguments of the day as this; my neigh.
Dor will If do not; his house will be calle1
The house Of lamenlation, and its walls stand !
as II they we're blackened by confag grafton.
And the nearer you narrow the number 10
this point, the heavier will the burden be
on character and on conscience: but distri-
Outed as the responsibility and the mischief
now are, among many, their shoulders are
strong enough to bear it. Is it not amazing
that, al this day, with all the evils which this
blighiing curse infcls full in our view we
are willing 10 measure Out iguominy by the
dram, and sell perdition by the gallon.
know of but one parallel in the worlds his.
Tory. The slave trade. that trade now
stamped as piracy, was once, before the soil
Of England was declared free, the occupa-
hon of numbers of England's best iRhabi.
'ants. Even the pious John Newton mar
faies In his biography. that he was himself
SAaFer in its dreadful operations; but he
Eods' that he soon became tired of an cccu.
ialIon so closely connected with groans and
u''-S AMI chains. So LET US hope, that when
gn'' which dissipates the misis of error and
,'eI's the frozen chains of darkness, shall
nave broken in upon the error and darkness
Uui umes; when our vendors of spirits
. s4on look on the severe missries Of man |