Polynesian., 1852-04-10

u The following is going the rounds Of the
press, and is altogether too good to be lost. Itha
lost its paternity, which we regret, for the bolc
man that has dared to take this side the question
ought, surely, to be hereafter classed with the he
AN APOLOGY FOR TOBACCO.
Excepting Slavery and liquor, nothing has ever
been so vlrulently and universally abused as tobac-
co. From King James the First, to ''Seneca" no.
body has written about it that has not writer
against it. Dickens ridicules it, Ware abuses it
Greey denounces 1t, and 'Seneca" would do all
but from the unfortunate lack of ability TO do eth
er.
Calhoun was the avowed apologist of slavery
Falstaf enters plea for ''sherrie sack," Tahoro
sold port" and Redi the Italian poet, for liquor
I.generally-but nobody has a word to say for that
weed, which Indian legends say Goddess produc-
! ed, and which history says hero first used. Ev-
erybody uses it, but nobody defends it. Charles
Lamb tried his hand at sort of poetical apol-
ogy, but the poetry was bad and the defence was
worse. Have chewers, smokers, and snuffers lost
all spirit that no one can open his mouth for this
great tooth-cleaner, health-gyer heartsoftner,
clablllty- promoter, and ance-maker! 'W e
reckon OF, we 'spose not"
We use tobacco-we love il, we avow it. Half
the great men in the nation use it. Henry Clay
snutts, Joe Marshall chews, John Van Buren,
smokes, and John Quincy Adams used to do al
three, but quit, and-diedi
Tobacco cures the tooth ache-ask any smoker
if it don't-and one young enthusiastic expressed
his earnest conviction that it good for corns.
Robinson Crusoe, when he got sick chewed it,
smoked it, and drank a decocton of it in rum, and
got well.
Every wit at Wills coffee house from Dryden to
Sadwe smoked. Tobacco is provocative of wit.
The Scotch all snuff, and the Scotch are remark
able for their acuteness and subtey oftheir meta
physics and the ngidty of their righteousness. To-
bacco Is promoter of metaphysics and morals. The
Germans smoke, and the Germans excel the world
in the extent and minuteness of their Biblical and
Classical research, their persevering application
and speculative philosophy. Tobacco nourlshes
learning, speculation and perseverance. The
French snuff and smoke both, and the French are
the leaders of taste, and the fountain of fashion
the best of mathematicians and most skIliul sur
reons. Tobacco produces refinement and ele-
gance, profundlty OF reasoning and steadiness of
nerve. English sailors all chew, and their homes
ty, courage and generosity are proverbial. Tebac-
CO causes the fullest development Of all the nobler
feelings. Indians smoke, and Indians endure. tor
tnre with more firmness than all the stoics from
Zeno to Cato. Tobacco infiises lofty contempt
of death. Americans chew, smoke and snuff, and
Americans by universal concession combine all
the good qualities OF all other nations, and possess
besides, al ingenuity and enterprise that none Of
them have. This cin only be attributed to the
fact that tobacco grows here, and is used in more
shapes and more generally than any where else.
An English King wrotea .'counterblast To tobac-
CO." He hated it most cordially-and he was the
tirmest believer in the sure divine" of ali the
Kings from William the Conquerer to William the
Fourth. A belief in the divine right Of Kings, al
must slavish doctrine, and hatred TO tobacco, al
ways goes together. The English aristocracy
won't use it-they revile it as dsgustlng-siy 1t Is
plebian practice to use il Tobacco Is the dread
of aristocrats.
1t wds the favorite electioneesing tool of Davy
Crockett. and ..chlw" will concililte one of the
quicker than anything but -ink Of 'red