The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1852-11-11
For the Gasetie.
TIE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.

Opposition is the lite OF reiorm. In
isci, one is the co-essential OF the other;
for all reform is in its very nature dggres.
sire. Il attacks prevailing evils. ba, with
no sparing hsnd. /, appeals 70 reason;
prejudice, in her presence, is disasmed
aud custom slowly. grambllng!y, snarlag
Iy-ejves way. 1t is like the prepheticsI
rock, .sapon which, whatsoever talleth, IL
shall dash him in pieces, aud whomsoever
Il falls upon, il shall grind him to powder.
Ii is nc, indeed expected that all viii
finally Yield ieill.ng compliance 70 IT.
mandates. Sound the tocsin OF reiorma.
ton never so loudly, some WILL nof .taf- =
appeal 10 " haiever motive aroases oaef
men 10 sensihiiity, some there are who Will
po, be moved by them; aud in making an
estimate q. the aggregate moral sense q
community they are to be estimated only
as cphers in the count. 1t is only the
bran which remains a.ier sitting, and Silt
as ,ou NAV, i, will still remain, leaving
Yoa only the poor reward Of labor Tor
pains" .lIe that is unjust, let him be nn
Just sill: he that il filthy, lot him be filthy
sill" The beggar loves bis rags, the buz.
gard his cagrion, "and The bog his .allo"-
ing in the nice"
In America, The Temperance Reiorn
though OF no recent origin, has not vel
completed its mission True it has driven
The BODY o. the enemies from their sknsk
ing places ia glen aud cave. and sylvan
retreat, 10 the broad and open field, on
which stands in battle array against them
IN enlightened public opinion. Bat they
have nov eulreached themselves behind
an armament Of .brass," which deiies the
shafts Of that moral sense which il has So
often insuted with impunlty, and makes
sport of that ..mors suasion," which =
hurled against conscience too long per-
gested by avarice, benumbed by the death
damps Of the distlIery, and deaiened By.
The cries Of It's victims, whose piercing ac-
cents Of woe wske not an echo, 10 The cas
eraous recesses of their pits. toEsaken abcI
God Abandoned hearts.
The amazing fact that lntemperance Isl
directly instrumental in sending thirty
victims to premature aud ign9
miaioas grave, and that i is Indirectly u
stfamcn,al 10 cutting oil in the prime q
life. aud scarcely less ignoninioasly, more
than twice that number, should be sail-
cieut aloae, it would seem 10 justify the
m5st stringent measures which il is posi-.
bic 10 devise, to suppress al evil Of so ap-
pa3har and maastrnus nature. Bot tins
occupies but small place, eomparaiireis,
Ii the dark and fearful catalogue Of hn-
name ills which follow in the wake Of this
iasatiate destroyer. 1t entails upon IFS
victims, and all who come within the cir
cIe Il their influence, poverty, and wretch,
ejness, and rags, aud filth, and disease,
and vice, and crime, and ignominy, and
shame. From The victim, and his immedi-
ate dependents, these evils flow out upon
society at large. Ii discharges its putres
cent bane into the veins and arteries q
The whole body polite; until, covered With
irrlp;ioIs, enfeob!ed by eiiemiascy, aud
overwhelmed by vice, the nation II length
sinks beneath il inifnities, involving al
III enc universal and stupeGdous ruin
For nothing can be more strikiugly true
than that the welfare Of nation is bound
up in the welfare Of the small communities
III which il is composed. The cause for
national alarm, therefore, is increased b5
the fact that drunkenness is a vice OF al
most universal prevalence in the United
States, and that Of those who rank among
It's victims there is the most perfect reek-
Iessuess and unconcern manifested as 10
the danger which must result to the coan-
try, from theirterrible example. Their in
in It's inception is mainly the
result Of ignorance, and there is !ittle hope
that they may reform after the habit be.
comes fzed, even though convinced If tn
evil il mus, do them, physically as veil as
others ty the contagion Of their example
More anon, Z. c.