The Minnesotian. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1851-1852, 1852-04-03
MORAL SUASION.
BY n. MARVIN.

Extract from an Address delivered at
St. Anthony on Thursday evening, April
LIST:
"Moral suasion has been tried for years
and yet the monster evil remains. At
time when the efforts Of the friends OF
temperance were constant and untiriDgs
thousands were rescued from the destroy
err, but the destroyer remained at large.
"Moral suasion, and the restraints OF
the pledge and temperance fellowship still
have an influence Tor good with thousands
but now. more than ever the evil is in
creasing-the malestroom is gathering new
strength and q wider circle of horrible in
fuence,--hundreds every day that we live
are crushed upon the rocks which under
lie its centre; and thousands more who
little dream of death and ruin, are gliding
softly and pleasantly along, singing the
song of pleasure to the same nausoleum
Of death.
"Moral suasion has failed TO redeem
society from the curse of intemperance>
Oh, there are thousands of men-our
brothers-with natural attributes of high
and special worth, who are so enslaved by
The curse that they are powerless in its
presence-that they cannot say No when
the monster bids them bow down and
worship. They take the cup, not alone
to bury the past in brief oblivion-not
alone to steep the senses in forgetiulness
of all they have been, and all they might
have been-but to satisfy an all pervading,
an irresistible, a beseeching, cringing
desire for the soul-destroying beverage.
"What security is there in the pledge
to the slave of drink? Many such have
pledged, and pledged again, and have be-
come teniold worse than ever before
They have returned to the curse, and have
pursued the way of death with all the in
creased energy Of despair. For them I
know of no cure but the Withholding from
them of that which so curses and destroys.
If it be in their way they will get it-they
will use stratagem to obtain it-they will!
sacrifice everything for it; yea, they will
be willing to sell their souls, and seal
themselves with death and ini;amy, if they
cannot otherwise obtain it. Such man,
on one occasion, being expostulated with,
replied: You see that brandy there?
Ii | knew that i'll taking that glass of BRAN
dy should drop into hell, still l must
take it, must take it,
THE time has come when it is evident
that if we will overcome this current of
death, we must cut it off at its source
Tie evil is too great, too potent for par
tlal measures; moral suasion has been tried
long enough by itself,-the liquor must be
virtually banished by authority nothing
short OF this will enable the poor. crushed
enslaved drunkard to reassume his man.
hood-nothing short of this will prevent
the flower Of humanity, in its tens of thou
sands, from becoming enslaved as he;
nothing short of this will prevent the gen.
Grafton which, in a few years, will step
on to the stage Of action from becoming
far worse than their predecessors, and
mingling the elements Of discord and hid
eous deformity with everything that now
bears the stamp Of virtue, and receives
the veneration Of the wise and the good.
'When | look at the startling picture
which the last fifty years presents, when,
instead of behoding decrease of the
crime, amid all the appliances which have
been brought to bear against it in this
highly favored land-with its pulpits, its
school houses, and its men and means, of
refined intelligence, when, instead of this,
find an increase, a rapid increase-the
ratio of increase still increasing, feel that
something more than moral suasion is re-
CURED.
8 We then as citizens of Minnesota,
with the evil staring us in the face-with
outraged morality appealing to us-with
society III danger, appealing to us, we are
constrained to vote for a law whose oper-
alton must roll back to great extent at
least, this tide of death. Our children,
around whom thousand anxious hopes
are clinging-what will be their future if
the evil should be continued? Let the
votes OF Minnesota's citizens seal its doom,
and then our children will be free.
MANY objections, you are aware, are
urged against this law by those who hope
for its defeat. These objections it has
been no part Of my purpose, on this occa-
sion, to discuss. | have made no effort to
weave subtle argument to overturn the
mere sophistries which have been urged
against the measure. If an evil exist of
sufficient magnitude 10 cry out for legis-
lation, then in the name OF truth and right
eousness, | say if Legislation can remove
it, and nothing else can, legislate for its
removal-cancel the evil by legislative en-
actment, nor will this in reality interfere
with the just and equal rights which lie
at the basis OF Just government.
awe have the facts before us of fear
fully increasing evil, which threatens to
undermine not only the health and morals
OF individuals, but the very foundations of
The social fabric; these facts increasing
the necessity for special Legislation in ref
erence to themselves, and yet forsooth we
must not legislate in reference to the evil