The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1845-01-16
BRANDON, Thursday, January 16, 1916.

peared.
Individual effort no doubt can, and hal
accomplished much; but it is to associated
effort that the philosopher of mind turn;
with confidence. when any great and ex'
tended lurpose of philanthropy and benev'
olence is 10 he accomplished.
1t is, gentlemen, before an organization
for the removal OF one Of the greatest evils
that ever visited civilized man, that I have
the pleasure of speaking this EVENING"
society for the removal of intemperance
and its collateral vices.
In presenting this subject to your con-
sideration, and inviting YOUR hearty and
assiduous cooperation, | labor not under
the embarrassment of urging upon your
attention the claims of new and untried
enterprise, the success and efficiency OF
whose operation, is only to be predicted
from analytical deductions. But with tri-
umph can | point you TO its past history as
sure guarantee for its future achieve
ment.
Intemperance the very name awakens
a train of associations that thrill through
every heart--,he burial places oithe mem
DRY give up their dead--lhe exhumed
spectres of its murdered victims slaunch
as the ghost of Banquo, stand thick through
the wide waste of life. It's ravages have
observed no periodici.y, like the infectious
breath of the endemic, peopling the grave
with its occasional visitalions; neither is it
controlled by sectional limits or geograph'
ical borders the world is its theatre of
action-man its victim. Incompetence is
the most determined foe to man in every
condition. The ermined temples of law
and Justice have reeed and totlered under
its influence. The sanctuary of the most
high has been profaned, and the fire>side
altar around which ascended the vows OF
patriarchal devotion like sweet incense,
has been usurped by the mad rawlings OF
the inebriate.
The calamities Contemporaries are not
like many other evils that afilct man,
which hehas no agency in produclng,& no
power to avert; out he invites the the blow
that strikes him down, and with suicidal
infa,uation which the love ofstrong drink
can alone produce, courts the influence
which he knows will crush him III the
very dust, and extinguish every great and
generous aspiration of the soul, till at
lenght he falls, self-immolated upon self
constructed altar.
Contemplate the man addicted to intern
nerance. His countenance is pale and
sunken or b dated and fiery, his eye in
famed, watery, dim, and devoid of ex'
preston, its fire quenched its speculation
gone. The dignity and beauty Of the hu.
man countenance has departed. The step
is infrm and awkward, and the arm has
lost its vlgor-hs whole aspect is chang
ed and is loathsome and disgusting TO look
unop. Blu, what mournful havoc do we
no, witness in those noble, those god-like
powers that elevate man so high above
every thing that has life. Intellect with.
ers, and sckens, and dies under the de-
basing influence of ntemperance.
Talk with the Incorporate man, how
may and confused are his thoughts the
sparkles OF wit and the fire OF genius new
er enIiveu his CONVERSATIONAL is dizziness
and stupidity Home and the quiet joys
of she freside, have no attractions for him.
Ties of friendship are rent assunder--the
tender relations between man and man
broken up-and cold, cherries misanthro-
py made to usurp the seat where love and
benevoIence should abide. Good society
have cast him forth, and he is reckless
forsaken being on the face Of the earth,
careless of himself of his God
crime succeeds crime, and when life draws
to close, no tear of pity, and no hope of
mercy sooth the fever of despair that awaits
his las. fearful hour-the man dies, and
no wind Of good fame blows over his
grave.
1t is a very common saying that the
drunkard is the greatest enemy TO himself.
Would it were so; we should then regard
intemperance as very much less evil