Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1845-12-25
For the Phanir.
License Question.
TO THE VOTERS OF wINDHAM COUNTY


FELLOW cIrIzEEs:-
Within one week from the time this reaches YOU
you will be called upon to exercise one Of the most
important duties confded you Called upon 70 vote
for three men for Commissioners, who will either Ii.
eense the rafick in alcohol for another year or 70,
three men who viii refuse all licenses exeep. for the
purposes Of medicine and the arts for whom will YOU
vote
VIII you vote for those who will say that sit is fol
the public good" that men should be authorized by
law to sell poison or, will you vote for those who
will fghteousy and rghtiuly decide that the sp,.6Iie
good" does not require the licensing Of men 10 sell
except for medicine and the arts
II has been demonstrated so plainly, il has been
proved so strongly, that one not even a retailer.
will dare 10 deny, but the traick or in other words The
sale Of ardent spirits, is the direct cause Of more crime
more poverty, more wretchedness, more misery, and
more suhefng, Than any one cause, even all other
causes combined.
The history Of individuals, the annals of the race
prove this indisputaby. No well informed man. who
values his veracity, will dare to dispute this assertion
What is il then 10 license men 10 sell alcohol .,
trahck in rum. What is il, when stripped of the
cloak which the law by licensing throws over il. and
wraps about t!-what is il, but to license men 10 do
under cover OF the law, what no man would dare IN
90 without What Is il, but TO enable men TO soothe
ther not quite scared consciences with the med;e..
menis OF the law and quiet them with The on;a,. ~
fsgaf sanction, as If the statutes enacted by man coud
make that right which the law Of the greatest of law
givers makes wrong.
"hat is It then, we ask again, that the law doth
when II authorizes to deal in alcohol IN ALL In
loxcatng dIink We answer, il is 10 authorize ma,
10 get rich by creating crime and making oovertv &c
get gain by tFaficking in human misery and bnnsn
wre'ehedness 1t is 10 authorize one man IN mai.
brute oil his fellow 10 take bread from broken hearted
WIVES and hal-sarved children to cause his neipbbor,
family TO suffer hunger, and cold, and nakedness ,h.,
ne ana h's,may be "clothed in fine linen and fare
snmpluously every day."
The law authorizes him to do all these thiDps vvhsn
u authorizes him TO SELL That is TO saw il first ana
pies nun to do all this, and then shelters him and his
coward conscience" beneath its ample folds
NOW Fellow Citizens, there is not man among vou
VINO would directly do single one of those so,s
e"anRed as being done by those who engage in ,bis
uaeSi you would revolt with your whole souls from
"e commission directly Of crime, or of adding little
p' 10 'ne iHghllu sum of human misery and
"u"an "ie'enedness' And It IT were charged unon
you individually that you would be puil,v Of H.
things, you would say with the Syrian of old 81 ms
servant dog that he should do these ,bings p, Wy
But Fellow Citizens what no man will do d;r..,,.
many man will do Indirectly No one of vou r,on1b
commit crime or add to the already ffieh,iol ann "
human misery, by your own immediate acts ond -,
every one who votes for the self styled "beraI ,cta,
indirectly does what directly he would NOT dare 10 ID
ror by doing this he authorizes retailers 10 caus.
crime and poverty and misery, He gives Them ner-
MISSION by the law, TO do all that is alleged ohovs
~u u Nc were called on TO do these things himself he
wou'u shrink with horror from the act
Serious solemn responsibility therefore rests no
on every voter in Windham County, one which -
s~""o' snake oil Il he woold,one for which he mus,
answer 10 MS conscience and to his God.
WIN you then Fellow Citizens, suffer the s,reaD, Of
misery which iiows from the traick in alcohol 10 ao,s
~ una nave lis tide swoenlby the accumulatons =,
'"''nef years license in order that few NAV have