New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-02-28

There are depths of infamy to characterize
which language is inadequate, and which
are only to be contemplated with silent
unutterable loathiDg.
But there are some honest and worthy
men who do not selfshly affect, but really
feel, some apprehension that the Maine
Law is too stringent measure-that it
will not be sustained-that it will cause
reaction &c.-to whom we have few
words to offer, and entreas that they hear
and weigh them.
Doubling friends What have We to
lose by trying the experiment of legal re-
pressionl Can grogshops multiply faster
under any regime than they have done dur
ing the last FIVE years! Can habits of tip.
ping become more generals Can our youth
be more thoroughly exposed to temptations
and corrupting influences Why should
not the triumphant experience of MAINE
overbear your untimely scruples! Should
not positive and cheering facts outweigh
mere conjectural distractions
But, if nothing else will convince you,
ought not the great commotion' in the rum
sellers camp to be conclusive Here we
have been preaching, pleading, entreating,
in behalf of Total Abstinence for years
vet who has heard usi The rumseller
came not to our meetings, and cared notl-
ing for our demonstrations Of the dire
effects of his calling. His victims, say.
here and there straggler, also stood aloof.
The interest la Tempe rance, the knowledge
of the essential facts OR which it is based
the attendance at Temperance meetings,
were very generally confined to those who
were already with US, and needed no con-
version. At long intervals, the fame of
Cough or a Father Mathew would draw
together curious crowd; but, as general
rule, the efforts for Total Abstinence have
hardly attracted the attention of the rum.
drinking, rum-selling classes. And thou
sands after thousands have been trained to
drink and gradually to love liquor and be
come drunkards without having ever heard
or suspected that Alcohol was essentially
poison, and stimulated only because it
uas poison. And, in spite of all eff
forts and sacrifices for the Temperance
cause-in spite of myriads of Temperance
volumes and Temperance tracts-in spite Of
the reform of thousands and the saving of
tens of thousands in spite of very great
and steady increase of those filling the
Temperance ranks-we doubt whether the
number of drunkards, or of those fastening
to become such, was ever greater In the
aggregate than it is at this moment In
stances of local as of individual reformation
exist but we believe the humber of gallons
of Alcoholic Liquors turned down human
Threats within the United States was great
er in no former year than it was in 1851,
and that the number of tipping houses is
this day greater than at any former time
And thus it would, in all human probability,
continue, if no new measure of resistance
should be resorted to.
Doubling friends is not all this true =!
Has the Temperance Cause gained enc whit
in our own State as a whole since the day
that our last law of repression was repealed.
now some five years ago! And have you
not lamented with us that some measure
could not be devised to call the attention of
Rumselers and drinking men to the Great
Question?
Well, friends what do we nou see?
Your brethren, weary of the long years of
measurably fruitless effort, and cheeced by
the success Of an experiment tried By their
brethren of the East, have, by one common
impulse, shouted MAINE LAW AT once
the whole hive is in motion, as if stone
had been thrown into nest Of hornets.
Rumsellers are hurryiug and sweating to
flood Albany with petitions they are hold
ing secret caucusss and spasmodic Mass
Meetings; they are impressing officers and
speakers for their public demonstrations;
they are trying to infuse felow-eeling
into their customers and so, from ohe end
Of the State to the other, TEMPERAscE or
its opposite is the universal theme. No
man is nOw selling liquor in Ignorance that
his calling is deemed moral wrong and so
cial curse by great portion of his fellow
citizens, embracing most of those whose
good opinion should be most highly
priced. No man noU drinks in Ignorance
that the habit he is forming is deemed most
vicious and perilous by those whose good
opinion be Should value and deserve No