Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1847-07-20
AN ADDRESS
TO THE VOTERS OF WILL COUNTY ON THE suB-
JECT OF THE LICENSE LAWS

The necessity of making such an address
brief, will not only render it impossible that
it should be full, but will also make what is
presented, disconnected and give it rather the
character of a synopsis than of an argument
However, in behalf of the friends of temper
ance, your attention is invited to the follow
ing:
By special act of our Legislature, pass
ed at its last session, the voters of Will coun-
ty are authorized to decide at the approach
ing election, on the I'd day of August next,
the important question, whether licenses shall
be granted in the several precincts in this
county, for the sale of Intoxicating liquors.
This act provides that the voters of each pre-
cinct may vote for, or against the granting of
licenses in their precinct; and if majority
of all the votes cast are against licenses.
then the County Commissioners shall not
license the sale of spirituous liquors in that
precinct. Two ideas should be particularly
noticed here.
lst. No person has a right to vote on this
question, out of the precinct in which he re-
sides.
I'd. Every person who votes at all, and
neglects to cast his vote on the question of
license, will be counted in favor of licenses:
for majority of all the votes cast, are re-
CURED to prevent their being granted.
In anticipation of the important decision
to be made at the polls, by the whole commu-
nifty, in relation to this question, let us ex-
anime some of the reasons which should in
fluence our vote. We rejoice that this is no
party question. It is one in which all are
interested, and which appeals to the good
sense and sober judgment of every citizen.
To ascertain our individual duty, we have
only to inquire what is right, and what does
the interest of the whole community require
OF US. The question arises then, is it right.
or does the public good require the granting
OF licenses? We answer, no; neither. On
the contrary, licensing tits throwing the pro-
tecting @gis of law over the traffic, and
thus giving Legislative testimony in favor
OF the sale and consequently the use of in
toxicating drinks. That the public good re-
CURES the very opposite of this, is evident
from the following considerations.
|. Alcohol, whether in wine, beer. cider.
or the stronger liquors, is as really poison.
as arsenic or the serpent's venom. As we'll
then might we license individuals to sell
arsenic for food, or to keep vipers and fierv-
flying serpents to bite their neighbors, for the
public good.
IL. Licensing the sale of intoxicating
drinks, is granting indulgences to certain
persons, authorizing them to produce with
impunity and under the sanction of law, all
the evils which follow drunkenness. A
license to sell alcoholic drinks, might with
truth and the utmost propriety set forth, that
the bearer, having paid 1875, and possessing
the requisite moral character, is authorized
10 reduce the industrious to idleness and
poverty;
To drag down and destroy those who are
to reform;
To rob families of their only support, and
make them paupers;
To produce disease and an early and dis
honorable death:
To debase public morals, and decoy the
young to vice;
To excite to the commission of eyerv
crime;
70 Perpetuate intemperance;
To diminish the national wealth;
To deteriorate the intellect;
To ruin the souls of men;
Totaz the whole community to pay what
It costs.
III. Licensing the traffic, blunts the moral |
sense of the public, so that we become in
sensible to the enormous evils inflicted. and |
burdens imposed upon US. What torrent |
of indignant rebuke, would this community |
pour upon the heads of any mercenary class,
or fanatical sect, who by some new and un-
authorized mode, should occasion one half the |
mischief produced by Intoxicating drinks
And yet so powerful is the protection of law, |
that IN the face of the most startling facts. |
we are told that this is a lawful, and there |
fore commendable business.
Nv. The support of law given to this traf- |
nc, stands directly in the way of the temper |
ance reform Many make no distinction be- |
tween what is legal and what is right. They |
have no other standard OF right and wrong |
but law. If they wish to sell the means Of |
lntoxication, and it is lawful, they conclude |
that 1t is right. Tell them of its ruinous eff
Eects, and they reply that the law of the land |
Sustalns them-that they have taken a license |
and paid for it-that this is free country: |
and as to the evils talked of, that cannot be |
true, they say, for if SO, the Legislature would
have not licensed it. Thus they shield them
every appeal, while the traffic with all its re-
suits continues and increases among us.
V. We have no right to license the sale of |
alcoholic drinks. If it is admitted that the |
use and sale of such drinks is injurious. If |
lion of moral obligation and of our duty to |
our fellow men. For the same reason, the |
legislature has no right to license it. Gov
is organized solely for the protection
and benefit of the community. To authorize |
certain persons to deal out an article ac-
knowledged to be injurious, would be author
Izing the injury of those whom they are
bound to protect; palpable violation of duty.
The license laws then are morally wrong
But in reply to these views it is said, that
g Granting licenses does not sanction or in
crease the sale, it only confines it to persons
Of responsibility and good character The
of this objection may readily
be seen, by applying the principle to any
crime; say, the coming and passing of coun-
terfeit money. Suppose we license men of
and standing to carry on that BUSH
ness. would this diminish or increase the