Loudon free press. (Loudon, Tenn.) 1852-1855, 1853-09-30
CnArrA> ooGA, TENN. Sent. %. 1858.

wing of the body polite suffered most in thi.
region-the poor fellows got such drubbine
that they have surrendered at discretion. b
the way, this Maine Law agitation is fraugh
with important. consequence, and is it subject
/ which demands serious consideration Individ
ualy it matters little with me whether it il
passed or not, but is a matter of deep concern
to me, aid to every citizen Of this proud com
monweallh, as citizens. l have every coufs
dence in the cincerity, patriotism, and virtue ot
the friends of the measure, and my sympathies
are with any proper plan to rid the country Of
the vice of intemperance, but it seems to me to
be dangerous risk to adopt a prohibitory
liquor law-dangerous because such species
of legislation is opposed to the genius of our
government, and an innovation on the line OF
policy handed US by our fathers. 1t is urged
that as intemperance is the worst of evils, it
requires an extraordinary remedy. That it is
an evil fr.htfully destructive in its effects none
can deny lis blighting course rests everywhere;
poverty olphanage, crime, disease, broken
hearts, mind, and death are strown thick in its
pathway-the bitter cry of wo is heard all round
US, thousands of moral and intellectual wrecks
are stranded everywhere by the foul breath of
the monster, on lifeS ocean. "To prevent such
awful desolation," says the friend of the Maine
Law rs not any step necessary" But we ask,
would the passage of such law destroy the
source of so many evils? Or if it should, would
not the corresponding results and influences of
such measure be more TO be dreaded than the
evil it eradicates? We assume in the first
place, that if such law were passed, it would
not effect its object,-it would not generally be
enforced. Such is the fact, as the history of the
Maine Law already shows, in those States in
which it has been adopted. Furthermore, it
would lead to the adoption of all sorts of STRAIT
egy and fraud by thousands of our citizens to
evade it, and every law which has not the love
and respect of the citizens weakens the power,
influence and integrity ofthe government. The
stability Of government depends not on the
stringency and severity of its laws, but on the
regard and veneration its subjects have for
them. Law does not so much to aid virtue as
virtue does to aid law. Legislation never made
people free and virtuous. 1t is the intrinsic
character of the people which effectuates those
objects. We lay it down as broad proposition
discoverable from the light of history that it is
the subjects of government, who give cast
and complexion to its laws, and not the laws
III nba oSto IN, ha =. .b
incident, not the foundation of national charac-
ter-no people were ever made moral and hon
est by legislation; and that government is the
freest which circumscribes the liberty of IFS cit
liens by feweSt laws. Excessive legislation
leads 10 a disregard of all law and
the adoption Of such measures as the Maine
Law as inevitably tends TO excessive legislation.
as we shall show. The theocratic government
of the Jews did not inhibit the use of intoxica-
ting liquors, although there were shameful in
stances of drunkenness, even among the best
of the patriarchs, long before the age of Moses.
Drunkenness there was TO an alarming extent,
in the days of our Saviour, yet he requires no
prohibition of the manufacture and sale of ar
dent spirits. But in the second place, we as
sumo that it would be dangerous precedent,
and one which might lead to fearful results as
such. The passage of the Maine Law is ur-
ged because it will rid the State of one evil If
one cause of evil may be the subject of legis-
lative prohibition, another may; if liquors may
be driven from the State by the arm Of law,
there are other causes of vice which may. To-
bacco is a poison, men generally use, and for
which the citizens of our State pay more actual
cash, than ardent spirits. 1t not only destroys
the health of our young men and old men,
but often robs the rosy cheeks of our fairest
maidens of their bloom. Let one of our can
didates for legislative honors advocate the abso-
lutte prohibition Of tobacco, and our matrons,
armed with their pipes and our maidens with
their snuff-boxes would drive him from the
State. Extravaganza in dress often produces
poverty and ruin; then let US, like our Puritan
fathers pass law prescribing the size and
shape of a ladys' sleeves. Not Stopping here,
let us prescribe of how much material, and of
what cost the dress shall be composed-what /
shall be the fashion and cost of gentleman's |
pants and coat.
1t is sometimes modestly limited, with how
much of truth I wot not, that ladies in order to |
compress the 'human form divine" into more
shape than it has pleased their Gre
Itor to make it, have invented an article of
lress styled corsets, believe, and wear them.
Physicians tell us that this practice is produc-
i've of many evils that disease and death very
,ften result from it. Well, what shall be done?
Pass law prohibiting the manufacture and
wearing of such vestments, and appoint Off
ers, who, armed with the authority of the law,
hall tear them off every women who shall be
ound wearing them. Into just such ridiculosi-
y does the reasoning which urges the passage
# the Maine Law lead US. That law is the
fSpring of restless set of Northern Abol-
ion Yankee fanatics, who eagerly trudg, and
uzza after every humbug of the dav. who for