The Northern galaxy, and Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1843-1844, 1843-12-27

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sort of retribution, either Immediately up
ON those who have thus "gotten riches and
not by right" or upon their children, 1t
maysbe to ''the third and fourth genera
ton" And then there is to be balanced
again the present profit, the retributions
of the great day of account. We should
never balance our accounts of profit and
loss without bringing into them this item ;
for that day will surely come. And who
can calmly count over the dollars he has
made in the sale Of intoxicating liquors,
without thinking of the meeting he must
then have with the ruined and the lost
victims of his gainless profits!
Though the friend of temperance have
gained much, they must remember that
that they have not gained the privilege of
exemption from labor and care and watch
fulness in the cause. Appetite, alas! re-
mains to crave indulgence, and the love of
gain to tempt it, and a perverted ingenuity
to find ways of escape from the meshes of
the law, and the just indignation of an in
jured community. Eternal vigilance" is
the price to be paid for success in the tenn
perance reform The ground we have
reached must be maintained. IL can be.
1t only needs courage f'mness, Perserer-
ance. And it will be the more easily done
] because it is manifest that there is rap
idly increasing conviction in this commu-
nifty that the law ought never to sanction
a traffic which, in the language of the
petition of 324 freemen of this town, Gre
duces families to want; sends misery and
wretchedness into the domestic circle /;
kills men; makes widows and orphans !;
produces pauperism; breaks the peace ::
stimulates to crime; and taxes the commu-
nifty to support poor-houses and paupers."
! The common sense of the people is be-
ginning earnestly to press such questions
as the following
Wig should men claim to have fcence
to engage in a traffic which has been, and
is, and must be, connected with such terri
bic evils! Why should horse racing and
gambling, and the printing and selling of
obscene books, prints &c. be prohibited I'M
der heavy penalties, while men are author.
ized by the Judicial tribunals to engage in
the demoralizing and destructive traffic in
liquors that intoxicate-that deprive men
of their reason-that lead them TO commit
crimes, that turn the domestic fireside into
a bedlam, and hell, and send men to I'M
timely graves? What compensation can
be given in the form of licenGe money, for
the infection of such evils al ese on the
community
i Even the incorporate themselves : in
their sober hours, when agonized with
recoleciions of the past, and tortured with
the thirst which the spent force of indul
gonce has left 10 urge on 10 new and deep
er drafts of The maddening bevcrage--even
they, at these moments when appetite and
resolution are struggling in a conflict on
which hang the issues of life and death,
often revolve in their sminds the anxious
enquiry-rhy should the public authori-
ties sanction the keeping up of these es-
tablishmont hicb draw me by such an
irresistible power to the coveted, yet hated
and horrible indulgence Where is the
courage and frmness of those TO whose
discretion the law has committed the
question whether these temptations shall
assail me at every corner, 10 say No to the
application for their Jntinuance? Oh for
some kindly aid-some power 10 Danish
these temptations forever from my sight
And there then is the reclaimed, with
wife and children, now made happy in the
great transition. tremblingIy alive to this
subj & anxiously enquiring-trhy should
there come from the highest Judicial tri-
bunal in the county hcence to tempt
back the husband and the father into the
jaws of the great destroyer, and turn the
home now made cheerful and happy into
an abode of want and wretchedness, and
VOL
The eyes of the people are more and
more opened TO the true character of the
traffic in intoxicating drinks;and feeling
of quiet qualification runs through the mas
SEES at every step that is taken in the pro-
gross towards the great result which is
at no distant day to free the community
from the pcstilence of rum selling esta5-
lishments. The rum sellers and their ad-
vocates may talk of reactions but they
will find that this revolution does not 90
backward. Where has been the reaction
since the decision of the Court last June
against the applications then made for IL
cences There were threats enough of
reaction but how impotent they have
proved-No. The action has been the
other way. 1t has been onacard-not
backward. And it ,oW be onward The
great mass of the people rejoice that so
much has been effected-some openly,
others secretly. And now if those who
talk Of reaction are disposed to bring it to
the test, let them get up a petition TO the
Court TO grant licence to all the late retail
ers and tavern keepers in Mddlebnry, and
sec how many can be prevailed on to sign
it. Why did they not try this at the late
} term of the Court? Why did they pre-
sent their own solitary applications backed
by the arguments of ingenious lawyers
instead of the peoples petitions? The
truth is, they dared not make the expert.
ment. They knew that it wDuld be an
uphill business to attempt to get men. at
this time of day, to record their names in
favor of rum selling But l must close
I al.