The Columbian fountain., 1846-10-24
Rev. ]. 7. WARD, AssistanlEditor
:. . PRICE ONE CENT.
To the Electors Of the city Of N. York
ParoI,ioI 4 Il II

10 the Electors Of the city Of N. York
Parents Brothers! Sons /! 10 behalf Of
moral purity and social happiness--in be-
half OF the fallen, the tempted, and the
still virtuous behalf of Mothers, Wives
and daughters, whose lives have been or
may be made wretched by the intemper-
ance of those near and dear TO them--we
address to you this earnest appeal.
Need we speak to you of the nature and
effects Of Intoxicating liqiors' Does not
every hovelinhabited by human beings, ev-
cry poor house, every prison, every grave
Yard bear auneqnivocal testimony thereto?
What murder or other horrible crime is
perpetrated to which rum is not an incite-
ment What gambling-house or den of
iniamy could be sustained without the aid
Of this deluding desola,ing poison The
youth whose ensnared feet hasten TO ruin,
like the OK to the slaughter, is impelled to
infiame his passions and drown his reason
I'm Liquor. The gamester's victim is first
piled with maddening wine before he can
De induced to stake, on a card, the sums
which reduce him from comfort to wretch
edness, perhaps render him an 'outcast and
afelon, fleeing from the burglars DOOM
Assaults and batteries, breaches ofthe peace,
manning, mansaughter, almost ever have
their origin and fain would find their apollo
gy, in the use Of Intoxicating Liquor.
Idle, then, is the pretence, montrous the
sophistry, which asserts a parallel between
intoxicating Drinks anI Excess in Eating,
| in dress or some sensual qualification, and
al ,af c,, ho law ~ xu,oI faEa
hold of the former. When any other gross
ness of appetite shall induce its victims to
break the peace, to commit every grade of
crime, even to murder,--when it shall fill
TO overflowing on poor houses and prisons,
engross the time Of our Courts and create
the necessity for half our Taxes, THAT we
shall insist that such perversion of Appetite
needs to be, and should be resisted by Law.
The use Of Intoxicating Beverages is not
q mere individual concern. It deeply af-
fects every interest Of society To be Sc
cure from excessive public burthens, from
lblasphemous revilings, from vindictive as
Isaults, from depredations, outrages and mur-
der, the people must arise in their might
( and put away from among them the means
andappliances of lntemperance.
Nv Say not that the State can do nothing to
stay this devastating deluge of Rum. The
State has done too much to increase and
madden it to plead want Of jurisdiction now.
For ages the Liquor business has been pa
tronlzed, upheld and il possible dignifed
| by the State Rum has made our legisla-
| tors, and they in turn have done their best
for their patron. The traffic in Intoxica-
ting Liquor has been expressly licensed, up
held, protected by the State. Now that it's
consequences stand unmasked, it is too late
to pretend that the State has nothing 10 do
! with it. The monster has been nourished
and fattened by the State lei it now be ex-
terminated by the same powerful hand.
The drunkard, the tppler, the self-styled
moderate drnker, will indulge his perverted
appetite when opportunity prof7ers !; it is for
the State to diminish and ultimately DESTROY
the occasions and temptations 10 such in
dulgence. The popular judgment, declared
by the popular vote of s.No LIcENsE,n is
the only effectual weapon that remains to
be welded against those wo scoff at remon-
STRANGE and will not listen to demonstratiye
evidence of the poisonous character of In
ltoxicating Liquors. There can be no doubt
that the vote against licensing in four-fifths
of the towns of this State, though often e.
vaded or defed, as are the laws against
gambling-houses and brothels, has had
powerful and salutary influence on the habits
ofthe People. Thousands have thereby been
brought to reflect on the character of Alco-
holic Beverages who had never before be-
slowed serious thought on the subject
The exemplary, or law-abiding merchant
or innn-keeper, who formerly found it i'm
possible to refuse liquor to his customers or
guests, though convinced Of the evils of the
traffic, has now an all-sufficient reason for
conforming his daily acts to the dictates of
his conscience, leaving the Liquor traffic to
those only who would violate any law; hu-
man or Divine, for prospect of gain. his
worth much TO our cause to have the traffic
and those concerned in it well-matched, SO
that the one shall truly indicate the other.
'# (ro be continued
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