The organ of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, O. [Ohio]) 1852-1853, 1852-07-02
MiattllQnruua.
National Division

would submit the following report
The Order, in every locality within our
Jurisdiction, has been fulfilling its mission
with more or less faithfulness and success
The attentive and careful student of the
temperance reformation cannot fail to see
that it has been marked by distinct eras,
each one more important than the preced-
ing aud yet all necessary parts of one great
and perfect whole. Thus each association
for the promotion of this great cause has
signed to it. None can fail to recognize in
every successive step Of progress the guild
ing hand Of God. In the inception of our
Order, and through all the years of its use
full existence, there have been those who
doubted the propriety of such an organiza.
ton yet no one at this day will deny that
it has accomplished, and is accomplishing,
mighty, benifcent and glorious work.
Our past is interesting, our present full of
Importance, our future pregnant with hope.
But we have no time to rejoice over past
victories, or exult in present attainments
but the Providence of God clearly bids us
press forward while the same Providence
as clearly says" This is the way, walk ye
in it," It seems to your Committee, that
whatever differences of opinion may exist
as to the means by which the work is to be
accomplished, there can be no doubt that
the mission of our Order is to secure the
utter annihilation of the manufacture of,
and traffic in intoxicating drinks To the
accomplishment of this end, all our energies
and efforts should be directed
We regard these as indisputablc factsg
That the traffic in intoxicating drinks is
the fruitful source of pauperism, wretched-
ness and crime: that the train of evils is
not merely incidental to the traffic, but in
separable from it: that no police regula-
tiOns, however strict, can prevent, or greatly
mitigate these evils. that tho object and
duty of Government are not to regulate, but
prohibit wrongs not to license, but to pun
ish, crime that for the injuries inflicted
upon society by this gigantic wrong, there
is and can be no redress after the injury is
done and that consequently the only ade-
quate remedy must be preventive one.
1t has been settled by the supreme judi
cial tribunal in this country, that no person
has right to introduce into any community
anything which will corrupt its morals, de-
stroy its life, or endanger its peace. Upon
this acknowledged principle is based all
that legislation that asserts that the right to
seize, contiscate and destroy the tables of
the gambler, the dies and implements of
the counterfeiter, and which absolutely in
terdicts the carrying on of certain useful
and lawful trades in given localities-in
short, all that class of enactments which is
founded upon the inherent right of self
defence. Your Committee, from the very
nature of the evil to be removed, are fully
convinced that any legislation will be ut
terly inefficient which does not provide for
the seizure and destruction of the instru-
ment-which does not brand it as an out
law, and abate it as nuisance. If Govern
meat has no right to interfere with a mans
business, when that business is destructive
to all the best interests of his fellow men,
individually and socially, then is the declsr.
alton that we have right to enjoy aud
defend life and liberty, acquire, possess and
protect property, pursue and obtain happi.
ness, a miserable falsehood, worse than
poetical fiction as no man or society of
men can enjoy any of these asserted rights
in a land of distilleries and dram shops.
These facts being all admitted, it has yet
been denied that our Order is instituted to
interfere with the legislation Of the country,
and it is asserted that as Sons of Temper
ance, we cannot legitimately assatl the esta.
blished usages of Society. We apprehend,
that as citizens, we have Alright, and that
it is our duty to exercise il, Of interposing
the strong arm of law--embodied public
opinion---against the terrible outrage upon
the peace and well being of society pefpe
trated by the manufacture Of, and traffic in
ardent spirits. By uniting with this Order,
we surrender none of our rights as citizens,
and the very fact that temperance is the
basis of our organization, and the bond of
our union, imposes upon us an additional
obligation to unite inremOying every obsta-
Gle in the way Of the ultimate and speedy
triumph of our gOd-like reform. 1t is ex
peeted of US by the world that We should
point out the way by which our race is TO
be delivered fromthis bodyof sin and death.
It is also expected that we shall stand with
our armor on, in front of the battle.
Your committee feel, that while the mem
bers of our Order should be true to their
Division rooms, and to all their obligations
as Sons Of Temperance, they should be ex-
horted to regard the extinction of the LIQUOR
manufacture and traffic, in their several
Ijurisdictions, as their special business, not
forgetting at the same time to direct their
attention to the National Councils, and see.
ing that all foreign liquors shall be speedily
placed under eternal quarantine.
Let the brethren, not merely as Sons. b1t
as citizens, fathers, brothers, men. Sec that
the public mind is enlightened, quickened
energiEed by addresses, sermons. tenDerI
anee tracts and newspapers, not omittipe
10 employ, where 1t is possible, the secRIaS
press. In the publication Of short article
on the subject Of legal enactment for tbe
suppression Of the traffic and take caFa
that the public sentiment is properly pfe-
sented in the Legislative, judicial and exeeu.
tive departments Of the government.
That laws are enacted ii each appro
pirate Jurisdiction, embodying the principle
J Of seizure and confscatiOn Of liquor and