Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-10-09
NATIONAL INTELLlGENCER
GEN. SCOTT AND TEMPERANCE.
TO THE EDITORS.


GENTLEMEN: Will you permit an old soldierin the
cause Of Temperance-one who has been engaged
for the last twentyodd years battling against the
armies Of Bacchus--to express his surprise that,
while other brilliant deeds of the lustrious SooTT
have been named, and have elected the admiriDg
gratitude of has country, nothing has yet been said
of him as an interested and noble advocate of the
Temperance reform
ask, then the privilege through the columns of
your paper to say 10 every friend of this benevolent
enterprise, and particularly those who understand
the full meaning of the words Looe, Purity and Fdelf
IT," to remember that Gen WINFIELD ScoTT while
Der Of the Societies formed in New York for the proven
ton of pauperism and the suppression Of vice and i'm
morality struck the devouring beast of ntemperance
blow between the horns which has been felt from that day
to the present.
He is one Of the first pioneers in this great work
About the year 1926 DR.. LYMAN BEEoHER preached his
celebrated Temperance discourse, and though not the
founder yet among the earliest advocates of this
But previous TO this the I'D December, 1921
Gen. ScoTT published his great Temperance document
of the able written the subject 1t APP
peared in the 1s0h number Of the above date of the
National Gazette, edited by Robert Walsh and occupied
twelve columns of supplement of that paper, from
which it copied and sent abroad in every direction
living messenger plead the of suffering thou
sands We give short extract from this Essay and here
il is, aad Uer5um:"
" 1t is many years since the writer of this essay
first made to reflect with intensity the vice
Of drunkenness whilst endeavorng apply remedy. in
small corps to that greatest source of disease and in
subordinaton in the rank and file of army. Having
the attention awakened and subsequently being much
accustomed to change of place from extreme of the
Union another he has been led to observe with
than usual keennes the ravages of the habit among
the classes Of the community The con-
viction has thus been forced upon him that of all
dental evils this is the most disastrous to general po
pulation.
Insanity from other causes is for example, exceed
ingly The yellow fever only visits occasionally
Of larger cities the seaboard the smallpox
the terror of the world has disappeared before the
benign influence of vaccination but the of ntem-
perance still crcuates everywhere and saps the founda
tons of morals, health, and happiness For, not mi
nuely dwell in this place. the innumerable disor-
ders both domestic and public which hourly result from
the earlier progress of inoxcaton-happily in few
individuals carried excess rpened into fixed
habit and such ills alone constitute frghtful aggre-
gate-how few the families that have not BEEN within
the memory of the living plunged into the deepest Attic
ton by this baleful vice that have not had blight
ed in the vgor of youth and genius by its pestental
breath; fond husband alienated by the syren or
father laid in unmey grave by the DESTROYER leaving
tender offspring destitute and forlorn Lives there
person who believes this picture overcharged Let him
go forth from his and inquire of the first of
observation in his way whether such caamtes do not
almost daily within the sphere of his knowledge
There can be doubt that magistrates lawyers physi
clans, dvines, and others much in the world or much
connected with its business and uferngs would univ er
sally concur in mournful reply
""Tis quenchless thirst
or ruinous ebriety that prompts
His every action and imbrues the n
Who starves his who persecutes the blood
as gave them in his ehldren's veins, and hates
And wrongs the woman he has sworn to love.
Is there then, antdote for this ev-no kind pre-
-ha thar- L
ways, the general sum Of human wretchedness?
We are told Of an ancient spring the Of which
gave TO those who even once drank Of them sovereign
distaste Of Intoxicating liquors In times private
associations have nterposed their benevolent efforts to
arrest the burning food morasts have acclaimed and
Legislatures enacted partial laws against and the pull
pit too, armed with Divine Revelation, every where sends
forth its denunciatons.+ The evil still spreads mas
ter remedy yet remains to be found
q The gathering number as il along,
Involves involuntary throng;
Who, gently drawn, and struggling less and less,
Ron in her vortex and her power confess"
General ScoTT proceeds to show some Of the happy
suits which would flow from the adoption Of temperance
principles
" Thus il has been shown land some Of the probable
results viii be strictly Demonstrated that under the
operation Of the proposed law ardent or burning spirits
might gradually, and in the lapse Of few years be al
most entirely banished from the country other beye-
RACES sautary in their effects comparatively nnoxi-
substituted by corresponding degrees home indus
try maintained and promoted diseases simplfed and d.
minshed hresd0 enjoyments fenced in against their
most powerful enemy; in short general population
rendered moral and robust il is by inheritance and
in fact, politically free.
Ii will be attempted class the enterprise herein
proposed with the great revolution which gave birth to
country, and practical example TO suffering ma
tons but certainly 10 break the shackes Of that vice
which has held and is likely to hold millions Of
ymen state Of moral bondage and Of physical debii
ty, would be reform only inferior in importance to that
happiest and most glorious Of human achievements"
We have given but short from this able Essay
which Is supposed to have led 10 the formation of some
the first Temperance Societies in the United States It
accompanied by statistical tables and embodied
its arguments Of the principal facts which have been
used for the last twenty years efectuay in the sup
preston Of this vice. And maintain that there are few
positions in this life that occupy in which they
more positively and exempy the true dignity
Of human nature than by becoming the interested and
jealous advocates Of noJe 50 6eaepoent so
patriotic NJ
He who walks in the Imagination Of hs heart 10 add
drunkenness to thirst the Lord will spare "-Deut XIX
10, 20
Awake, ye drunkard., and weep"-Joel
For the drakard and guttcn shall come 70 poverty -
Prov. xiii p,
ATTACK or SAvAGEs UPON An AMERICAN RnIo-we
learn by private letters from Rio de Janeiro that the
American brig Mary Adelise A. 0AKsaIrH Of New York
master arrived ut that port the 9th Of August from
the coast Of Africa where she had most perilous and