Litchfield enquirer., 1852-03-18
For tAe Eaquisr. THE MAINE LAW,

Mr. Editor-As your paper is occu' pied with discussions upon the Maine Law, am induced to send you a few remarks on the subject.
 There is a great deal said about it's tyranny, inequality, interference with mems natural rights, &c., but none of your correspondents assert that it's pas. sagsswould promote crime, misery, pau perism, or any of the increasing social evils of the day, whereas, on the contrary it is fully proved by its execution in Maine to be quite the reverse. Now can the upholdcrs of the rum traffic say as as much for their idol ? And would not they, or the rum sellers either, if com pelied to answer upon oath. "Do you not sincerely believe that the passage of the Maine Law would largely decrease the number of inmates in our jails, pris. ons, and poor houses ?" be constrained to answer We dol" If so, then what avails further reasons? If it be fact, that out of eighteen thousand persons arrested in one year in the State of New York, for crimes and misdemeanors, on |. ly fifty two were total abstinents, while majority were hard drinkers If it be fact that alcohol causes the crimes. the woes, the disturbance of peaceful fami- lios, the suicides horrible death, the murderer's ghastly deed, and the final destruction both of the body and soul of it's victem, (so vividly portrayed by fall, colt in his Trial of Alcohol, and he was ons of it's saddest victems, )-if it is pros we'd by statistical facts. that nearly three fourths of all the crimes committed are caused y Alcohol's gu;dance-then why should IN. E. Farmer" be found had almost said profaning the Bible, by quo. ting it in support of this '' stealing away mems brains ?"--or Mack,' professing himself temperance man, notwith- standing his secret envy of men of afflu- ence " extending the hand of friendship through social glass of old Burgundy --stigmatizing the uphelders of the law as " "disputing the laurels of generalship with Robespierre, Danton, Murat," &e. condemning them as "time servers, and aspiring to demand the cessation of our ights as citizens; and finally deneuncing the law as inconsistent with govern. ment. freedom and equality" while hun dreds of men are pouring down the liquid fire, destroying themselves, and dooming their posterity to shame, destitution, and vice? Surely, they must have some novel ideas of promoting "the era of universal temperance throughout the most glorious republic that ever adorned the surface of this fair planet"
 How honest men, who desire the wel> fare of humanity, the peace families, the prevalence of virtue aver vice, and the safety of haman life, can oppose that law in the face of overwhelming facts, is hardly conceivable.
 Look at the the respective sides of the question. On one we see facts and fig. ures; on the other. pompous declama> tions, wholesale assertions, and figures of rhetoric. The one is proved to up. hold virtue and good order: the other. crimes and riotous brawls. One brutal izes and debases the soul, fitting it for the woes of hell the other tends to pu- rify and exalt. fitting it for the bliss of heaven. And on one side or the other of this question we are called to take the ranks. Under one of the standards must we enroll ourselves. May our decision be such, that when we arrive at Deaths portal, where the trivial excuses of time and sense will not avail, we shall not it and on that Great Day of account. may no condemned wretch, pointing at us his finger of remorse, have occasion to say, ooh. if it had not been for your example had not been here!" sI
 ... .. HUMANITY,