The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1842-05-28
Mr.. MarshalPS Speech.

the Hon. Thomas F. Marshall.
"Nature, wise and justas she is, has not
exposed man to evils from which she has
protected animals. Is instinct mightier
and more powerful than reason. Drunk
enness is mans own work. 1t is peculi-
ar to his kind. 1t is not found any where
else throughout the whole universe. A
Drunken nan is the hardest and most diff
fcult thing in the whole creation for phil
osothers to classify. Who can say to
wha. genus he belongs? In the whole
course Of my examination and ample ex-
perience, and feeling too, am sorry to
say IT'D have been unable to decide to
wha. he belongs. 1t amt man; he has
not the feeling, the intellect, the heart, or
the form of man. That face and form,
shaped in the image Of his Creator, he no
longer looks upward to the skies, as he
was made by his Creator TO do. He
can't walk. It fuddles his brain, blears
his eyes, deadens his ears, swells his bod
y, and dwindles his legs What ruin does
it not work upon his heart and moral con-
stituiion. All the rest it does one might
overlook. If it only made him sick,
destroyed his beauty, and sent him 10 a
premature grave-if it only dilapidatcd his
health, and took his life, we might forgive
it. Man must die, and what only accele-
rates this few days or weeks might be
overlooked. But there is the diviner part,
which, on the authority of revelation. was
breathed into him by the Creator, lie
alone, of all creatures, becomes unhearted
destroys his reason, his heart, and moral
organization. Nothing else destroys pa
rental feeling--,hat feeling which, when
all hope of life has forsaken him, still
clings to him. 1t is alcohol alone that
has the power 10 do this. You may give
arsenic TO a man, you may poison him,
still at the point OF death he thinks Of
wife and child, of his country and friends
Alcohol can achieve what nothing else
can do; it can overthrow, destroy, ami
hila,e tnc immortal soul. What else can
poison the heart, and lift the arm against
the innocent2 You may make man a
robber, murderer, an enemy of his kind
but let him 60 TO his wife and child, he is
still man. Nothing but alcohol can
destroy the chivalry of manhood, can raise
the arm Of man against feeble, helpless,
innocent woman-nothing but alcohol
can destroy parental feeling You may
have man suffering from disease, from
poverty, from crime, ard bring him to the
immediate presence of death, and bring
him the infant bound to him by the strong
and indissoluble ties of parent, and still
his feeling will be drawn to him. Alco-
hol oblterales every trace Of the great OIL
ginal whence he was taken and formed.
Gentlemen, ! might descant forever on the
evils of alcohol. might trace its every
operation, might show the evils which it
brings, without the slightest particle Of
benefit TO counterbalance this enormous
evil. When think of intemperance, ]
trust TO reason for its overthrow. The
time is perhaps not yet come, and there
will perchance be great struggle be-
fore The grand contamination is achiev-
ed.
Let not the cause Of temperance-I
speak to you members who have joined
the society-to you high priests of the
temple let not the cause Of temperance
mingle itself up with any other whatever
And above all things whatever let it es-
chew party politics. Let them fight out
their own battles by themselves, but don't
you 60 even into the smoke of them. It's
too high for law, Attempt 10 make no
statutes on the subject. II began in weak
ness--leave it unaded by human legisla-
ton or by human enactments. Leave it
to that agent which God has selected to
be its support, and which has thus far sas-
tanned it through every trial, and which
will sustain it till its final triumph. Let
the politicians, as politicians, alone; leave
legislators, as legislators, alone. II they'll
| 60 in ard join you, all very well. Let
them come; and when they come, oh! in
| Gods name, open wide your arms to re-
ceive them. But don't you go to them
Lie, them fight their political battles and
wrangle and weary The very atmosphere
with party din; but do you keep aloof-
| Keep to yourself But look with COM
passion on those unfortunate wretches
who are doomed TO be mingled up III
those broils; don't make any laws TO bear
hard on, or to prosecute them; they're UNI
dera law hard enough to bear already
| have always said of the temperance
cause that IT'S too high for law-and it's
too pure for any politician to NEEDLE
with.
Like that beautiful and chaste nymph,
Diana, whom once read of in classic lore
who was pressed hard by some enemy
from whom she dreaded the obstruction of
her purity and honor, and who then in
voked the assistance of her tutelary god
dess to shield her from pollution--as we
are told in the beautiful fable 10 which
refer, she was turned into a crystal foun-
tain of pure and gushing wa,er-and not
| so. but to shield her still farther and that