Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-12-25

FUi0S WOoia ~ u AAteAN ANHI
quarter of dollars. Think now of l to | 10
millions of dollars annual useless outgo, But
Vermont has strong population, and is able to
sustain it No doubt but is she willing to sus-
tain it-all for no useful end, unless to crafty,
at once, the palates and the prejudlces of a part
of her body polite? But if, most unnaturally,
she is submissive to all this, as mere Udste, can
she bear it as an immolation by the liquid fire
poured into the vitals other people? What time
and enterprise can repair the loss to a common
wealth of her own chiIdren-her strong men
and her youth The s%ophistry which merely
flches from us all an unjust amount of taxes
the articles, the political Juggling and s%enseless
falsehoods which merely entail losses, curtail-
mants and accidenfstia a hundred forms, can bS
borne calmly, so long as the rum interest is strong
the consequent deprivation of individuals; to be
cognizant of the domestic suferings, to number
the four thousand six hundred drunkards which
(by our own home-gathered statistics) exist with
in her borders, and to witness, in no scanty
number of instances, their pangs of mortal de-
Ierium can s~ophistry reconcile her to all this !
Perhaps it can,-her freemen are soon to decide.
Fellow citizens, the law which, after the or
deal of a new and protracted scrutiny, was left
by your legislature, at their last session, untouch-
you to throw off, if you prefer it, the burden of
these grievances, first by ballot, and next by in
sisting on the execution of the statute in its
penalties, was passed subsequently to the ductu-
atIons in Massachusetts and Connecticut, which
established their legislation, as we suppose, upon
a stable basis, and made the people the arbiter
of their own civil condition. 1t preceded the
similar legislation of New York,-and it ought
to be an exciting motive that your determination,
if it should issue in the body of these counties
as it has, with overwhelming force in the two
sister States first named will give an impulse of
encouragement, in the third State, to all the So
Der minded and the prudent Of that great popu-
lation in their anxious coming trial. Those
who favored the passage of our own truly re-
publican statute are known to you, in general
as are those who opposed. You have the record
of the yeas and nays, on the journals of legisla-
tive proceedings. You have the records Of your
own observation of those who have favored the
execution, and of those who have INSTRUCTED the
execution OF the law. In certain counties, at
least, there will be remembered the din of cleo
ton and the anticipations of the enemies Of
the law that they had secured its overthrow
But now that the law has sustained, mistaken,
all attacks upon it, our opponents are bending
their efforts to make it appear, in contrariety to
an elementary principle of society, that r%estric-
tons upon licenses have increased the consump-
tion,-that the removal of temptations, from
open shops and public bars TO the secret recess
es in which the laws are violated unseen, has
increased the force Of temptation. If any con-
slderation at all were due to so absurd an idea,
we would oppose to it such testimony as that Of
DR.. J. A.. Allen, who volunteered to the Coun-
ty Convention lately assembled at Middlebury
the declaration that, in the range of his practice
during the year past in this region, where nc
licenses for dram drinking we're admitted, there
had been an unprecedented absence of "mania.
a potu' and other diseases which originate in the
use of alcoholic stimulants. In short, the film
sy pretence to which we have alluded, is only
one Of the many links in the strong, but as we
trust Intellectual endeavor to chain down the
virtue and independence OF this commonwealth
to the bondage of antiquated and %ruinous idea:
and practices.
Go, therefore, to the polls, we entreat you
FREEMEN, who know how to exercise the reality
Of conscientious voting, When such a cause
as that of the traffickers and drinkers hangs in
suspense; the endeavor to sustain it is always Wig
orous and united, 1t is no time, therefore, tc
underrate the value of your individual activity
You draw no sword-you wave no hag-but you
do cast a vote which mag be the turning point
in your county, fthis whole contest and its in
describabIy numerous and important issues.
ALEX. C, TWINING, Chm.
THOS. A. MERRILL,
VIM. NASH,
AARON Angler,
s. STODDARD,
E. W. DRURY, Scc'y, Central Com.
MlddIebuIy, Dec. 16, 1913