The Columbian fountain., 1846-06-09

" How glorious Is this Invention Pr WIinnk, Z, Wpfle "a
whatever may afford them pleasure Or improvement
THE TREATING sYsrEM4A REMEDY
MEssERs. EDiroRs IL have long entertained" =
'he conviction, which heexperieSes OF every"r
year serves to confirm, tAat.the 50 Tseating u -
system Is the mostformidable obstacle swhichihsoA
cause oi temperance has TO .encoppter; and sou.
,ong as shall be tolerated by, public opiniol,aa
entertain no hope of seeing the temperance
reformation crowned with permanent naipt sue r,~@
cess. SO long as it is the privilege Of those
who claim to be the most honorable men s,,'b II
society, to bring periodical hood Of dernoral-nd
ization upon the land, to aid their ambitious
schemes, the friends of temperance, will labor !.
to little purpose. ggpnu. .o,"a ,na0,,ia,
The system to which have referred lis not Il
practised " in corner "-7-itis confined 70 no Il,
State or district, but pervadesl the, whole coun,.
try, SO far as my information extends there, /
fore needs no description from me. Every one
knows that ii is nothing less than the most
criminal form Of bribery. II involves all the
guilt, and should be attended with the ignofniny
So long as politicians find that more is lo hs,,,
made than lost by complying With the, qdiops
custom Of treating, no regard for the health n,
morals OF society, for the souls or bodies Of
men, will withhold them from'it, their pattib-
tism "to the contrary notwithstandingN In =
order TO couneract the system, and. te promote,ai
the cause of temperance in other respects, thRoy
Society has sometimes started candidates. .afits
own but such an arrangement must always
prove abortive, for the reason that it clashes
with the political views Of temperance men. !,
They unite in The Pledge, while in politics they.
are perhaps equally divided between the great
parties Of the country. The Whig temperance
men will not vote for the Democratic temper y
ance men, and vice versa, because in doing. SO
they must sacrifice all their cherished notiDna
of the public welfare. Until the temperance
Society shall become political party, there
fore, it will be impossible to carry point in
that way. For my own part am far from
wishing to see the day, when the holy calse.of
temperance shall become identified with ,ihe
views and intrigues of any party, or when it
shall of itself become party. 1t should EN-
brace under its ample banner, all parties. and
all creeds. Temperance men can safely and
conscieAtiously fraternize with Wing and
Democrat, Christian, Infdel, Jew and Heath.
en-; but they can have no motive to make
common cause with either, against the others.
1t may, however, be remarked, that any good
cause must be promoted by the success of tenn
| perance, and hence it is that christians of all
denominations espouse it.
THE REMEDY.
" 1t has been suggested that in order to coun-
teract the unparalleled evils of the treating sys
tenn, new pledge be drawn up and presented
to the people for their signatures, to run some
what as follows:
PLEDGE
eve whose names are hereunto subscribed,
pledge TO each other and to the world Jour sacred
honor that we will not vote for, or otherwise
promote the election of any man, to any pub
lie station, whom we know or believe to have
offered, or whose friends have offered voter
intoxicating drinks, or other bribe, at any time
after declaring himself candidate for said
station, or after there was reason TO believe
that he intended to seek it,"
1t will be seen that this pledge requires MOTH
ing more than any friend of public order and
morality may and ought to accede to, whether
he belongs TO the Temperance Society or not.
1t will Of course enlist the hearty approval Of
all the members of the society; and it may,
and doubtless will, be favorably received by
thousands besides, from sense of the great
evil it is calculated to suppress. 1t requires
only negative action /; and in this respect it re-
sembles the first efforts made by the friends of
freedom on this continent, when they pledged
themselves not TO consume British goods, be-
cause the Parliament claimed the odious right
to tax them. In saying that we WILL NOT
vote for men who do all they can to demoral-
ize the people, we make no agreement TO aban-
don our respective parties-we only tell these
parties that they must select candidates whose
example and conduct will not be destructive Of
the public morals The Pledge leaves it op-
tionary with the candidate odrink if he choosess
but he must not give it to others, upon any pre-