The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1847-10-28

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letter upon our Statute Book.
We reply: Better have, in that book,
law that shall be dead to any good, than one
that is alive for every evil; which is necessa-
rily the character Of every law that licenses
a wrong. And again, in reply, we ask: Be-
cause wrong act cannot be entirely proven
ted or suppressed by law, does it follow, not
only that there shall be no law against it, but
also that it shall be licensed by law? Theft,
in all its forms, from pocket-picking to high
way robbery, is not suppressed by all our
laws against it. Shall it, therefore, be licens-
ed And that no more of it may be done
than is for the "public good" will you entrust
it to men of sound judgment and discretion
You have laws prohibiting brothels. Do your
laws suppress this evil And because they
DO not, will you repeal them Or will you
seek to restrict the evil by committing it to
clean hands DO all our laws against adul-
terry suppress that sin ? And, because they
do not will you license that sin Are all
the laws, both of earth and heaven, against
murder, effeectual for the suppression of muir
der ? And because they are not, shall they
all be repealed, and murder be licensed by
law? And yet not all these-not theft, pros
titution, adultery and murder, taken together;
great as is each single sin, and monstrous as
they are when all combined, do not inaict
1.-THE of the suffering and the loss, to the body
or the soul, to the individual or the State, that
is brought upon it by the traffic in Intoxicating
drinks.
Admit, then, that the State has not the pow
err fully to enforce a law, prohibiting the traf-
fic in question. There is one thing that she
can do She can wash her hands of the ni-
guilty. She can withhold her sanction from
the sin. She can lift up her voice against it /;
and by no longer consenting to put the profits
of it into the public purse, she can, at once,
withdraw herself from her partnership in a
ruinous business, and shield herself from the
charge of pandering to a loathsome vice.
By the Conventions, of which we have spok
en-, it was, among other things, Resolved,
" That we will r0te for such men only, as we
believe will, if elected, give their influence
and vote in favor Of a law, granting the peo-
pie liberty to decide by ballot, in general
State vote, whether Intoxicating liquors may,
or may not, be sold within the State :" and
they solemnly pledge themselves to maintain,
| by Just and lawful means, the principles in
volved in their Resolutions.
Without adopting this Resolution as our
own, or pledging ourselves to the specific
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and we recommend to the trends of the Tenn
perance Reform, throughout the State, to
act, in the spirit that prompted this Resolu-
ton, as we'll as those of the same primary
Conventions which we have adopted as our
own; hoping and trusting that each will pur-
sue that course, which, in his particular cir
cumstances, he conceives most conducive to
the object at which we all aim, viz the with
drawing from the traffic in Intoxicating
drinks of all countenance or protection, Ii
cense or sanction from the State law; and
the holding of all who continue in it liable
for all damages that result from it,
The politician may ask us" Do you, TEN
perance men, then, mean to organize your
selves into new political party? In addi-
ton to the Democratic, and the Wing, and
the Native, and the Liberty, are we now to
have Temperance Party?"
This question politician may very natu-
rally ask and, though it may be prompted
} as smuch by his fears, as by his thirst fol
knowledge, we will not deny that it is pro
per question and, to the best Of our ability
: we will frankly answer it,
Our object being to bring the laws of this
) State into harmony with those Of the Mos
Uioh. ON this subject, it is obvious as VIZ
= have the Temperance sentiment of the State
: manifested in the legislation of the State
This purpose we mean to effect by seeing t.
it that if not technically Temperance men
: mon known to favor the cause of Temperance
! and known to be neither engaged i'll the trat
i fic in Intoxicating drinks, nor subject to TIN
dictation of such as are, are elected to TIN
Legislature. We do not propose to recon
!, mend a state organization, so far as an organ
ization consists in the nomination and supper
S of Temperance Ticket, if either of the pre-
Z sent political parties will nominate and sup
:, port men who, we believe, will do our work
Il Where this is done, in the several towns AM
Z districts of the State, by the party wit
which we have hitherto been associated, W
: shall give that ticket our support. Wher
t this is not done by our party, but is by an
), other, we shall throw off the harness in whic
! we have hitherto worked, and shall give GU
II vote for the man, who, in our opinion, wi
; use the power that we put into his hands, Il
J. favor of the moral interests OF the communl
c tv. We recommend this course, and sha
J. pursue it, upon the simple principle, that tn
n moral interests of society are its most lmpol
d tant interests. Wherever they are protected
+ they will protect all subordinate Interests
IS The morals of state will protect its money
r Its money is no protection to its moral:
: ,sSeek first the kingdom of God, even hi
h righteousness, and things that ye need to ga
n and to drink, and to put on, will be adde'
unto you" In one word, as the moral int
If rests of state are, in their nature, para
J. mount to mere political atlinities and objects
Il we shall treat them as paramount in our pc
i litical action. THAT is our principle; ant
+ whichever political party recognizes that prln
c cple, and acts upon it, in its nominations 10
It the next Legislature, will secure to itself on
= support If neither acts upon it, we recon
i. mend to the several towns and districts, tn
e nomination of temperance men, by temper
n ance men, even though it may result in n
it choice" because we think that no represents
r tive is better than bad one.
L -. .,ol;L;n;.,r,n nrnn 1lIin