Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-05-13

GENTLEMEN: | am directed by the Temperance
Convention to send to you for publication the ac-
companying letter, addressed to committee of
that body appointed under one of the resolutions
heretofore published in your columns.
Like responses have been received from many
Others of the clergy, which will appear in due
time. Very respectfully,
ULYSSES WARD,
President of Convention.
MONDAY MORNING, May 10, 1852.
WASHINGTON, April H. 1852
GENTLEMEN | have received your commune
cation Of the 30th ut., and read it with deep in
terest.
The convention which you represent marks a
new era ON the subject of temperance in the city
of Washington. Though prevented by the pres
sure of other engagements from personal at
tendance on their deliberations, / have watched
their proceedings with much solcitude, and can
not but hope that they will be followed by results
in which thousands will have occasion to rejoice.
/ have no pulpit at present, and cannot there
fore comply with your request, SO far as dis
cussions in the pulpit are concerned. In respect
to g such suggestions as will aid the convention
in their great work" am not certain that | can
offer anything new or very Important wish
you to understand, however, that will most
cordially cooperate with you IN promoting the
objects of the convention in all wise and practi-
cable methods.
The following points are settled, in my judgment:
L. The sale of intoxicating liquors cannot be
regulated. Every law, in every community, in
tended for the regulation of the traffic, has been
a failure
2 The attempt to regulate the sale has
increased the evils of it in many ways. 1t has
given the protection Of laW to most iniquitous
business it has created a false standard of action
in the community, as many suppose that what
is legally right cannot be morally wrong it has
led respectable members of society to engage in
the traffic who would fly from it as from piracy
and murder if it were deprived of the respect
ability which legislation has conferred upon it;
and, finally, it has blinded the minds of the ma
jority of this community to the meanness, the
selfshness, the cruelty, the crime, and the sin of
this traffic.
g. Many of the best interests of society would
be perilled by permitting all unfortunately to
engage in the traffic without any restriction.
There are so many unprincipled men in every
community-so many who are willing to crafty
their ayarice, or their Incidence, or their own
appetites at the expense of the virtue and hap
piness of others-that we cannot consent to throw
open this pernicious traffic to all I need pro-
lection from such men for myself and my children.
Society would soon be resolved into its original
elements, and universal anarchy prevail, if bad
men we're free to act out their evil passions un-
restrained by the civil law. This is true as
general principle and lies at the foundation of all
civil government 1t is on this account that my
conviction is clear and settled, that
| 4. The protection against the evils of intern
perance must come from an absolute prohibition Of
The traffic in intoxicating drinks.
have seen but two objections to prohibitory
law which seemed worthy of an answer:
The first is, that such law is a sunptuary law;
that it prescrbes what and how and when man
may drink, and is therefore most unjust and OPP
pressve, if not absurd and ridiculous.
Now, it is certainly possible for the habits of
individuals to become such as to need the regula-
ton and even the prohibition of law Society, to
protect itself in such circumstances, may doubt
less enact wise laws. But this is not the case
before US. The prohibitory law which the friends
of temperance desire to see enacted respects the
traffic in intoxicating drinks-it has nothing what
ever to do with their use. 1t has no precepts OF
| penalties for the consumer. He may drink with
out censure from the law, though he will not es-
cape the influence of moral suasion, or cease to
be an object of solicitude and sorrow with all
temperance men. But the BENDER must not escape.
This law fixes its grasp upon him. and denounces
its penalty against him for putting his bottle
to his neighbours mouth" This objection, there
FORE is not founded on fact, and of course, falls
! to the ground.
The second objection is the following: This ap-
peal of the virtuous members of society to the civil
authorities to protect them by law from the evils
of the traffic in intoxicating drinks is an acknowl
edgment of the weakness of the church, a con-
fession of her incapacity to reform the world and
a virtual surrender of this divinely-appointed
agency into the hands of the civil government.
This objection is quite spurious and may pre-
vent some good men from "bidding God. speed"
to this important enterprise. But never did
there exist more erroneous opinion. 1t strikes
at the very foundation of all civil government,
and, if permitted to prevail, would soon put in
the ascendant the disorganizers Of our world.
| If the charge Of surrender of the church to the
civil government can be made good against tenn
perance men, it can be equally sustained against
all men who believe in civil government at ALL
But does the man who relies upon the civil law
to protect his house from robbery, or his person
from violence, proclaim the weakness Of the
church? Must he, to be a consistent Christian,
entrench himself within that sacred enclosure,
and declare that all has been done that he is au-
thorized to do to protect himself and the commu-
nity from robbery and assassination? Does not
the gospel In which he trusts proclaim that civil
government is of divine origin, that it is or
dained for the punishment of evil-doers and that
it "beareth not the sword in vaiu?" And while
he will rely upon the preaching of the gospel, or
| moral suaslon, to restrain men from robbery ana
murder, we'll other sins, will he deem it a
reputation u his principles, or an acknowledge
ment of the weakness Of the church, if he unites
with others in sustaining civil government that
may protect him from robbers and murderers
who fail to be persuaded to goodness by the gos-
pei There can be but one answer to these aues-
tons among all right-minded men
1t is OH the same principles that laws may be
enacted against the traffic in intoxicating drinks
That the time may soon come when our families
shall have the same protection against this most
pernicous traffic that they now have against
robbery and assassination, is the earnest prayer