The Washingtonian., 1845-09-06
s Ell Il cTED.
From the New York Organ
PUBLIC SENTIMENT,

where is the vender of alcoholic poisons now,
who cannot say, as he looks around among
the victims of his calling, who "still linger in
dying condition." Though in the trade Of
rum have slain men, women, and children?'
Iago pretended to be so over-burdened with
"foolish honesty" and tenderness of conscience,
that nothing but the lawfulness of the trade
could have induced him to destroy fellow
creature. And why is the rumseller's blood
stained hand still busy in the work of death?
1t is because, while his ruling passion is to
"put money in his purse" the law allows him
to do so in the prosecution of nefarious trade.
1t is because his business, though execrable,
abominable, and truly fendish, is still lawful.
1t is because public sentiment, though morally
against it, has not yet concentrated its legal
ban upon it.
1t is not difficult to conceive how the law
fulness of any vocation may operate as an OPT
ate to the consciences of those who pursue it,
and whose interests are involved in it, not
withstanding all the acknowledged evils, and
crimes, and horrors which result from it.
are many persons who are intelligent, moral,
and, in the abstract sense, good men in society
but of these majority are engrossed in the
active and profitable pursuits of their business,
and have no time to spare, or, at least will
not devote any time to an investigation of
their true position and duty in society. 1t is
enough for them to know that established
usage, respectable precedent, and the laws
under which they live, sanction the business
and, moreover, it is lucrative business.
The great majority of liquor venders, how
ever, in this city, and probably in all large
towns, are among those who look almost ex-
clusively to the legal aspect Of any calling in
life they propose to pursue, and seldom give
thought to its moral or immoral nature, or its
good or bad consequences on the veal or wo
OF society at large. If the business is legal,
they have only to consider whether it can be
made profitable. And after the individual
once embarks in his chosen business pursuit,
nothing is more natural than that he should |
exert his whole mental and physical energies
to make it pay. Surely we ought to have
such code of statute laws, as that any voca-
tion legalized by special Legislation, shall also
be useful and respectable business.
But the time is not far distant when public
opinion and statute law will together assign
the same character and penalties to robbing
man Of his property and his brains, and poi
soning him to death, in the somewhat indirect
way of liquor-selling, as they now do to rob-
bing directly by burglary or theft, or killing
him directly with arsenic or gunpowder.
The apothecary who sells an article which
the medical faculty pronounce a dangerous
poison, is held accountable to statute law, to
duly label the article "poison," and in every
way guard against any injury from its misuse
or misapplication. But the rum vender, who
sells an article which the whole medical ia.
Guilty declare also to be a dangerous poison, is
licensed by special statute to label it "medi-
cine" and deal it out to whom he pleases,
without let or hindrance, without qualification
or limitation, provided-what solemn mock
ery!-he be of good moral character! Then
again, he is made to pay certain tax, and is
put under bonds to indemnify the public agains,
disorderly conduct and gambling; implying,
in the most emphatic manner, that the busi-
ness he is licensed to prosecute is disgraceful
in itself, and tends to vice and crime!
1t is principle recognized in every depart
ment of jurisprudence of our country, save only
that relating to the traffic in ardent spirits,
that any protective legislation, which enables
a small minority of our citizens to transact a
business, however profitable it may be to that
few, at the expense of the great majority
not taking into account the fact that such bu-
siness is inimical to the social happiness, the
moral elevation, and intellectual advancement
Of the great mass-is anti-republican in cha
racter, opposed to that democratic spirit of our
institutions which contemplates the greatest
good of the greatest number" partial and
wrong; and as sure as the cause of human
destiny is onward, all the records of such le-
gislation will be, ere long, blotted out from
those pages they have so long disgraced; and
future generations will looS back upon them
as evidences Of a barbarous age.
"To this complexion it must come at last"
and the sooner we elect Legislators who will
faithfully, and fearessly, and thoroughly, do