The Columbian fountain., 1846-07-11
ADDRESS,
DELIVERED AT GEORGETOWN, ,
July 4ih, 1916.
BY REV. s. X. cox.
(Gioen from memory

SN'Suuaiub 10, dpu AZ f'o~~
sparkling eyes and smiling faces--these happy
hearts and heallhful forms-gather here in
dense mass the degraded and debauched devo-
tees of drink---our fellow men, our fellow coun
rymen--enstamped with the image OF the AL
mighty, endowed with an immortal nature,
engifled with like susceptibili,ies Of enjoy
ment, with equal capacities for moral and in
tellectual attainment with ourselves-these,
disgraced and down trodden beneath the foot Of
the DEsTRoYER-cursed and conquered by the
Demon OF Dissipation and following in their
train their comfortess and fersaken families
heart bleeding wives, worse than widowed,
weeping o'er the desoations OF home, and long
ing for the wonted warmth Of early love--tat-
tered children, crying for bread and the foster
ing Of fatherly affection. And here might be
presented scene Of distress and told tale OF
woe, DER which angels in Heaven.
slf spirits weep in bliss
might drop big tears of blood. But importan,
and impressive as such view of the subject
might he, we deem il more in place TO direct
our thoughts on such day as this comsfrm-
orative as the birthday Of the freestN and hap
pest nation the world ever knew-to the rela-
ton tohich the cause Of Temperance sustahs TO
our national eristence and prosperity If the ele
ments and resources of nations wealth and
permanence be found to consist in the industry,
intelligence, and virtue Of the people, then is
proof at hand, (however imperlectly we may
consider i,) that the evil we oppose is the i'm
mediate cause Of 9-l0lhs of all the ignorance,
and crime which curse our land.
Who does not know that drunkard has no
sense Of proprie,y, no regard for justice and
good order, no love for his country, or respect
for her laws? The victim Of unrestrained Ii
centiousness, the almost exclusive candidate
for the Jail mouse and scaffold, he is ever ready
for the commission of the grossest outrage and
violence. And 10 think Of it, 100000 of these
lawless wretches turned out upon the commu
nifty to disturb its peace and violate its laws
But beside, drunkenness is the means Of de-
priving at least 2sO, 900 children Of the benefit
Of common education. And, next to Intempe
rance itself, know of no greater bane 10 po-
li,ical prosperity than ignorance. An ilite-
rate people are insubordnate under the most
legitimate government, readily imbibing error,
ripe for faction, easily seduced from duty, and
mostly as atrocious as they are ignorant.-
There is something in the attainment Of know
ledge, however slight, which is ennobling, ex-
alting, refining g-something that leads to pro-
per perception and performance of right. And
apart from true religion, in no way can the
peace and prosperity of nation be better pro-
noted, than by the diffusion Of general educa-
ion.
And again, IN monetary point of view,
what does the country lose 1t groans beneath
In oppressive pauper tax, imposed chiefly By
hese 300, 900 drunkards, whose active, sober
employment should be swelling the national
evenue; and in nameless other ways, which
we have not time now to notice, are the faci
ities for accumulaing wealth cut off.
But in addition to this immense loss Of in
lustrous labor, there is the loss annual of 30,-
700 lives And who can tell what service
hese might have been to the State what pro-
essonal skill and business enterprise they
might have supplied; what wisdom to the halls
If legislation; what eloquence to the Senate;
what honor TO the nation.
But, after all, it is "Righteousnes" alone,
which "eralteth nation" Virtue is the only
of society, the only surety of endur-
ng success. Poin, me to people stripped of
moral integrity. and will point you to one
unstable, declining. dying What else will
preserve country's greatness and glory ? Will
he accumulation of wealth, the splendors of
royalty, the luxuries of the court? never else
had Beshszzar's countenance not have chang
I'd, or his thoughts have troubled him as feast
NO from the sacred vessels amid crowd Of
,ycophants, the handwriting OF an angelic pen
nan revealed to his affrighted vision the divi.
sion and destruction Of the Chaldean Empire.
so complete has been the fulhlment ol the
iivine decree, that the very tower in which ne
-eveed has become the abode OF the wild beasts
of the desert, who cry out from amid the de-
solare ruins Of the once pleasant palaces, and
s,he beauty of the Chaldees" has been literally
and "her days not prolonged"