The Portsmouth inquirer. [volume] (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) 1849-1855, 1851-06-09
License or no License---That is the
81 Question.

License or no License---That is the
Question.
To The Voters Of Ohio Your Constitutional
Convention were importuned by more than 20,sl
600 citizens to insert clause in the organic
lawof Ohio, forever prohibiting the granting Of
licenses to sell intoxicating drinks: That body
did not think proper to grant directly, the re-
quest of the petitioners, but provided that such
a section might be incorporated in the Constitu-
ton, If majority of the legal voters desired it.
Section Is of Schedule reads as follows:
eat the time when the voters Of the electors
shall be taken for the adoption or rejection of
this Constitution, the additional section in the
words following, iz:-ssNo License to traffic in
intoxicating liquors shall hereafter be granted in
this State; but the General Assembly NAV by
lawproyide against evils resulting therefron''--
shall be separately submitted to the electors for
adoption orrejection, in form following, viz A
separate ballot may be given by every elector,
and deposited ina separate box. Upon the bal
lots given for said amendments, shall be written
or printed, or partly written and partly printed,
the words 'Iicense to sell intoxicating liquors,
Yes and upon the ballots given against said
amendment, in like manner, the words :" Lii
cense to sell intoxicating liquors, No. If at
said election majority of all the votes given
for and against said amendment, shall contain
the words 'LicenSe TO sell intoxicating liquors,
No. then the said amendment shall be sepa-
rate section of article Is Of the Constitution. "*
/ Whether the liquor traffic shall continue to
be the subject Of license and protection from
Government in the great State Of Ohio, is thus
submitted to you, fellow citizens, for solemn de-
cision on the 18th day of June next. Compared
with this, all other questions involved in the
new Constitution, such as banks, apportion-
ments, judiciary, ETC., are of small moment
Before you go to the polls, and vote " License
| to sell intoxicating liquors, Yes,,' will you
calmly and dispasSionately weigh the following
considerations
THE NATURE OF THE TRAFFIC..
On this point there cannot be at this day a
great difference of opinion. 1t will not be
questioned that the sale of intoxicating drinks
has ever, in all places, and under all circum-
stances, been attended with the most disastrous
consequences to individuals, families, neighbor-
hoods and States. /. 1t may be fearleSsly
asserted thatthere never was grog-shop on
the face of the earth that did not produce ire
parable mischief, no matter how honest the in
tentions of the occupant, or how well guarded
by law.
ITS INFLUENCE UPON THOSE ENGAGED IN THE
| TRAFFIC.
We ask our fellow-c citizens to call to their
recollection the names, and trace the individ-
ual and family history of those distillers and
dealers in these poisons with whom they have
been acquainted, and ascertain whether a large
majority have not been seriously injured, if not
utterly ruined in property and character, or
greatly cursed in their family relations. When
you have honestly examined the facts you will
come to the conclusion that Jehovah did not
utter an unmeaning threat when he said, "Wo
unto him that gveth his neighbor drink" The
personal history of 1,116 venders in Ohio has
been ascertained. OF this number 5SS have
become drunkards and this, too, after proving,
in the first instance, fair regulations for sobriey
and integrity. These statistics were gathered
| from the country where we would expect to
| find the least injurious results. Within the
last five years there have not been less than 20-
O0O liquor sellers in Ohio, of which, taking the
above as basis of calculation, 1880 have fall
len, or Will fall victims to the destroyer. If our
limits permitted, we would give extensive de-
tails. We can only refer to two or three in
stances, as fragments of universal history.
vi 81 engaged in the traffic in Marietta,
Washington county, 25 become intemperate.
and many of their families were utterly ruined.
Of 81 in Preble county, % become sots-1I OF
them died, and eight died drunk. Out of 112
Akron, Summit county 70 become insolyent,
56 incorporate, 10 had the delrium tremens.
10 ran away We're sent to the penitentiary, 8
were in jail for counterfeiting, and one tried
for murder. If the statistics were obtained in
our cities, the ratio ruined would be much
larger.
INFLUENCE OF THE TRAFFIC UPON COMMUNITY.
Terrible as has been the havoc made in the
army of liquor venders in Ohio, this is the least
of the consequences to be regretted, from The
continuance of the licensed traffic, We request
our countrymen, Individually, to survey their
own fireSides, and ask themselves what this bu
siness has done for them that it should have the
protection Of license Does not the blood of
father, brother, husband or son, stain almost
every hearthstone in Ohio I? Does not every
breeze that is waited over your hills, and val
leys, and plains, go laden with the sighs of liy-
ing wretchednesS, and the groans Of unutterable
despair, extorted by this trade of death.
-Four -ffths of the pauperism, and seyen-tenths
OF the crime you pity, pay for, or punish, is di-
rectly traceable to the same prolific source of
evil. The public records of the country, as
well as your family records are full of evidence
that the liquor traffic is the fountain, whence
flows the desolating stream of moral death. that
burns, blights, blasts, damns society in all its
relations. 80
THE OBJECT OF LICENSE.
The license law originated in the idea that
the trafflc was wrong, and that it must be re-
strained; and the mistake has ever been that Ii
censlng wrong, will restrain it. 1t must be ad-
mltted that all efforts in this direction have pro-
ven total failure. The evils of Intemperance
are not incidental, nor do they depend upon the
good or bad character of those who sell LIQUOR,
but these evils are the legitimate and insepara-
Bile fruits OF the bllsineSs-so inseparable that
they cannot be prevented by the best intentions
OF the Government or its licensed Agents.
As subordinate to the design of restraining the
traffic, Government had another object in estab
lishing license laws, viz To derive revenue.
This, also, has been a signal failure, to say
nothing of the morality and decencyof attempt
ing to replenish the treasury by bartering away
the bodies and souls, the hopes and happiness Of
men, women, and children. All heathendom
would blush to own us as belonging to the hu-
man race, If we would tell them we were ac-
tuated by so base motive. A mother that
would sell the body of her;daughter to a liber-
tine, to raise means to buy ornaments for her
own person, would not do more Infamous act
than our Government has been doing in COM
missoning, for pecuniary consideration, vul-
lures to prey upon the vitals of society," author
izing "guerilla band" to desolatc our homes,
fill our grave-yards with premature mortality,
rob the earthof its loveliness, and heaven of It's
Jewels
Has The liquor traffic been source of reye-
A. r 4 4