New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-07


In this crisis, where stands the Governor
of the State-he who should be foremost
among its citizens in hailing and commend
ing every plan looking to the cure OF the
evil! What plan does he adopt! Or II
none of those which have been suggested by
others please him, what substitute does ne
suggest! Stands he forth to counsel and
advise those who are devoting themselves,
according to the light vouchsafed them, to
the godlike work of admonishing, protect
ing, rebuking, rescuing, saving
Alas no. the Governor of Connecticut has
no word of counsel or of cheer for these!
He does not suggest amendments to their
plans, nor try to show them how their
labors may be rendered more efectual.-
Deserving and decrying those who are
striving to do, for the love of God and the
good of Man, that work Of unfolding Viz
tue and depressing Vice which he is paid
to superintend 'and direct, he takes his
stand with the dispensers of Alcoholic poi
son and death-with the willing slaves OF
their arts whose voices, raised In bias
phemy of God and gloriication of Sey-
mour, resound through the dens of lechery
and drunkenness-with the sons of Be-
lial' whose praises of his Message will be,
to the virtuous and philanthropic, its Sc
verest condemnation. Well may this man
deprecate the submission of great questions
in Morals and Legislation to the ordeal Of
a Popular Vote if he regards his own
election as fair sample of the results of
such orjeals
But the Governor proposes nothing-sug-
gests nothing. His genius is destructive
only. Like Iago, he is nothing if not
critical His assumed function is that of
special pleader for the Rumsellers, whom
he obliquely commends as unconscious Of
haring committed any wrong"-which, if
it were true, as ithappens not to be, would
only be the sorer condemnation of himself
and his confederates, who ought to have
been making them conscious of the wrong
they are doing instead of encouraging and
cheering them on in their evil ways for the
sake of profting by their gratitude and re-
ciprocated support-and thence he proceeds
to raise all the "points" which pettifog-
gers smallingenuity could suggest. in arrest
of judgment on the Rumsellers under the
provisions of the Maine Law.
The proper answer to these cavils is
short and simple-We, who believe the
Rum Traffic enormously demoralizing and
ruinous, therefore proper object of Legis-
lative Introduction and repression, propose
such legal provisions as will accomplish the
end-You oppose them, not because of the
details you cavil at, but because you are
hostile to our object. You hold that the
Liquor Traffic ought to be permitted and
protected by law-Wc insist that it ought
to be forbidden and suppressed. Come out
of the bushes, then, in which you are dodg
ing and skulking, and let US first settle the
main question; if you gain verdict on
that, there is no use in wrangling about de-
tails; but if the People decide that the
Liquor Traffic ought to be suppressed, (as
you know they would on direct issue,
and hence your outcry against Legislation
by the People then the subject of details
will be in order, and we will demonstrate
the reasonableness and necessity of all the
provisions we ask for. You decry the de-
tails of the Maine Law because you con-
denim the object, the end of that Law
namely, the suppression of the Liquor
Traffic. You are arguing one question in
order to gain unfairly a verdict on another.
We insist on taking each in its order, and
first determine whether Legal Repression
is justi6able and right; then consider how
it is to be effected.
Mr.. Seymour closes with an assertion
that the Constitution of Connecticut has
"thus far sheltered the citizen without fostering the
vices which are inherent in the Social system
an assertion whereof the existence of
hundreds of grog-shops and thousands of
tipplers in Connecticut, resulting in this
mans election as Governor, is an emphatic
and melancholy refutation. And inher-
ent as these vices would seem to be, we
confidently look to Time to prove that none
of them is irremediable.
II The Erening Mirror has the fol-