The organ of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, O. [Ohio]) 1852-1853, 1852-04-09
State Convention.
LETTERS FROM CANDIDATES.
FROM FRANCIS aILLETTE.

BLOOMFIELD, COM, March sth, 1852.
MEssss. B. E. HALE
AND L. BURLEIGH,
Dear Sirs You PROFOUND to me the fol-
lowing question:
eff elected to the Office for which you
are in nomination, will you give your official
influence for the enactment of Law in this
State in substance like that of Maine, for
the suppression of the sale of Intoxicating
Liquors as beverageP"
| am not a little surprised, Gentlemen,
that you should ask me such question. /
am half inclined to infer, that by way of
relaxation from your philanthropic labors,
YOU make it an amusement TO exercise your
undisputed prerogative of asking questions.
However this may be, perhaps, l cannot
better answer your question than by asking
another. How could /, as a humane man,
an upright magistrate, and a true patriot,
do otherwise than "give my official in
fluence" in favor of law so coincident
with the great design of civil government
the protection of man, and so wisely adapted
to produce the greatest good of the largest
number-that is to say, of the whole popu-
latiOn of the State
in the State of Maine, and swept over it
with frightful devastation invading nearly
every family circle, filling hospitals with
its writhing victims, and turning the State
into one vast lazaretto, resounding with the
groans of the diseased and dyiDg-when,
10, remedy is found which, after repeated
trials all over the State, has proved no quack
nostrum, but genuine Antidote, so ade-
quate and efficacious, as not only TO arrest
the fatal progress of the malady, but to heal
thousands already fallen under its power,
and make green again its wide spread de-
solations-how could | do else than cor
daily favor the introduction of the same
God. given remedy into my native State, if
ravaged by the same terrible plague
When we turn from the imaginary pesti-
lence to contemplate the real scourge, with
what augmented force does the impossible
ity press upon me, of returning you mega
tive answer The State of Maine had long
been devastated by pestilence, unspeaka-
bly, more fearful than any which . waiketh
in darkness :" pestilence whose hot, con
suming breath blasted not the body only,
but smote the soul, and demoralized It's
victims, Transforming them into driveling
fools, or frantic demons, to afiiict society
with numberless woes. But thanks be q
God a sovereign remedy has, at length
| been discovered, so simple in its nature
and so wOndeful in its effects, as already to
have frightened the whole aspect Of that
/ State, and won the admiration and graft
tude of the country.
| The same desolating scourge, that wasted
Maine, and covered its surface thick witt
unhonOred graves, wreaks its appalling
vengeance upon Connecticut, and smitet
her through and through. Her thousands
of debauched and reelirg citizens, her
many desolate hearth-stones, wet with thC
tears of weary, wasting woe, her crowded
alms-houses and prisons, her oft erected
scaffolds, are Eome of the mournful evi
dences OF the ubiquity and power of the
curse among us. And now it is proposed
to apply to the evil in this State the same
Antidote, which has been so potent and
salutary in Maine and / am gravely
asked, whether in a certain contingency, ]
should be disposed to aid in applying it,
and purging old Connecticut of the horri-
/ BILE fecculence of fourteen hundred liquor
sellers. Ay, God scath me with his hottest
thunderbolt, if ] would not do i'll What a
heartless, satanic monster should be, could
l see her sick, we'll nigh unto death, and
grievously tormented, with passive indifer-
ence, and refuse my aid in administering