The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1852-04-14
SELECTED ARTICLES.
Maine Liquor Law.


Liquor, as an article of trade and co,
: summption, has been extensively discussc
IN the col ntry, and is attracting som
! attention in this State, perhaps our res
ders would like to see a good ariel
which we have read in the New Yor
Express. 1t is almost two long for ou
columns, but We think very sensible view
are suggested, and food for reflection ar
afforded, on all sidcs.-Ral. Times.
There arc considerations, which w
would respectfully suggest to all warn
hearted, enlightened friends of Tcmnor
ance. If there be n cause on earth, whicl
deserves success from the singlcness anc
sincerity of its motives, and from its bur,
and high aspirations, it is this,-but in it,
enthusiasm to do good, it must be careful
that 1t does no wrong. 1t must not only
remember the toibles of mans nature but
II must remember also, that man has Ger.
tam rights, privileges, or prerocatiyes
winch no law, not even dcspotism, can
violate with impunity,-or If it violates
them for time, the reaction will be sucl,
that in the rebound, more will be lost
than by force was won.
The right to cat and the right to drink
what man pleescs, many believe is ma
tural right. Man knows, however, that
II IN eating or drinking, he violates one
natural law Of his physical organization,
that nature almost instantly puashes him.
Nevertheless man believes and feels that
he Is free agent, and without excusinp
or palliatng sin, it is his sentiment, his
fixed belief that he has right to Judge
IN what concerns himself, whether he sins
or not God has planted in mans own.
oody the instant punishment of excess in
eating or drinking,---and man believes that
ne has night TO judge of what is, or
is not excess. To violate this fixed belief
this almost universal sentiment, to deprive
man of this his natural right, even to do
good, Is to incur risk of reaction, that is
emincntly dangerous, as well as to cstab-
lish precedent that may be polit-
icall used for dcpriving man of ever.
vcstlge of freedom that he has, or has ever
had. Instead of being free agent
then, IN anything, under such compulso-
ry laws, man becomes out mere agent
OF unlimited absolute laws,-and n law.
not ruling over him so much rs a subject
OF the State, as over his tastes, his natural.
and perhaps just appctitcs, his habits,
habltudcs, DC, DC.
The force and peril of such legal tvran-
ny; perhaps can be better appreciated. if
we direct law against eating us we'll as A.
galnst drinking,-for though apparently
more men die of being drunk than Of
over-cating, yet Il experience shows that
Ie"th scizeS many more of the victims of
food, than Of drink. Eating, in short,
Kills more mon than drinking-and eat
ing rs more dangerous to life than drinking.
because excessive eating is an insidious,
invisible poison, Fastening death by GER
tam, but 10y secret SIPS. And vet would
1t be tolcrablc, endurabIc even if legisla-
toned weighed out to every man in socic-
y tor his dinner, so many penny weights,
OF bread, or beef or.ut him off from but
ter, or gravy, because physicians might
not happen think them good for heaitbl
Nobody thinks of keeping all society on
rations rs soldiers or criminals are kent
NO despotIsm, save that of Sparta, per
haps, ever thought of such thing. At
the first blush all men say, all men have
a right to have on their table, for their
breakfast, or dinners what they please
and hence, if the quantity Of bread to be
eaten were to be prescribed, or its age,
whether fresh or stale, or its quality,
whether mixed or purely wheaton, there
would be revolution in society. If corn
bread or oat bread alone were prescribed
ty Law as the only bread to be eaten,
or veal or mutton forbidden, all mankind
would say at once such Legislation was in
tolerablc. To mans table is associated
III universal public sentiment as much of
Sanctity rs to his domicil, or house.-and
the legislation that intrudcs upon it is set
down as arbitrary and tyrannical.
1t is, however, argued that Alcohol is
a poison of such wide spread pernicious
character, doing so much universal dam
age, that society is justified in prescribing
It, as in prescribing wild beast, or pes
thence. 1t is not strictly true, that Alco-
hol Is such poison for used in modera.
ton, it may he useful as a luxury, or as q
medicine; and the statement is only true
when it is used in excess. To guard al
society, however, against the cXccsses of Q
few, and the consequence Of that excess
the proposition is to prescribe Alcohol in
lnIl and to bar all men from its uses
Thus all mankind are deprived of luxu
ry, or medicine, because few pervert
it from its proper uses. Whatever force
there Is in this argument is equally good
against tobacco, or snuff, or two-thirds. B
the things that are laid upon our table.
for us to eat and if once the principle i.
adopted as rule oflegislation, it is mex
to impossible to decide where such legisla
ton is to stop-where are its boundaries
or to what excesses it may, or may no
go.
Government at best is but a neccessar,
evil-and the less there is of it beyoncc
what Is necessary to secure the rights O