Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-06-04
Address to the Voters Of WASHINGTON.


address to the voters of Washington upon
the question of License" or "No Ii
cense." The following is their report:
VOTERS You are called upon to express
your views of the liquor traffic. On the
first Monday in June, if you wish to have
Intoxicating drinks sold-under the sane
ton of ]aw-at your own responsibility,
you will vote " License ;" if not, /" No
License"
Do YOU WISH THEM SOLD? IF so, for
whom?
For the benefit of your family? Which
of your sons would you like to have drink
these liquors, form the fatal appetite, min
gle with inebriates, and imbibe the seeds
of vice, disease and death?
For the benefit of your neighbors
Would you introduce into their families
an evil from which you would shrink, as
from the touch of fire?
For the good of the wretched inebriate7
Would you send him to his miserable
home once more, with his breath tainted,
his blood boiling and hispassions raging?
Would you send another thrill of anguish
to the aching hearts Of his wife and chill
dren?
For the use of the temperate and vir-
tuous! Since they are now free from the
tyranny OF appetite, would you have them
bow down and put on the CALLING yoke?
Would you desire them to lay the fatal
train which must ultimately overwhelm
them in infamy and ruin?
For the young men to drink? Would
you have the hope and the strength of
our county's future, crushed by the fell
destroyer? What doom would be too
terrible for the man who should present
the burning draught to their lips?
Then for whom would you have it sold?
Before you vote {" License" we beseech
you to look deliberately through your
own family, and then through the city,
and lind the individual on whom you
would invoke curse so bitter as the
curse OF drunkenness. But if it must be
sold,
WOULD YOU HAVE IT SOLD UNDER THE
SANCTION OF Law? Law is designed to
protect the helpless, Mould Yapqt qtmega meake it it
leave the wife and children no redress !M1
Law is consecrated to the preservation
of social society. Would you render
it legal for one man to accumulate for
tune at the expense of the resources, and
health, and morals, and happiness of a
whole community Would you avail
yourself of the potent arm Of the law, to
open the food-gates of vice, and let ra-
ging, whitening, scorching waves roll out
over all that is fair and lovely in the land!
"But more will be sold against law
than under it's sanction - Be it so. Do
the friends of the traffic wish to commend
it, by asserting that it is above the con-
troll of law? That they have, under their
keeping, one mode OF invading the rights,
the peace, and the safety of community
which can boldly defy the power of the
people! What a farce then to insist upon
legali2ing the traffic! In what stronger
language could men say, we wish the NOR
al force of, law, to relieve our business
from the odium which belongs to it We
wish general prohibitory law, that a
few of us may monopolize this lucrative
traffic We intend to impose taxes and
other enormous burdens upon our fellow
citizens. 1t would be more convenient to
do it by their consent, and therefore we
ask it
If it were true that dealers generally
90 on to sell in violation of the law, still
we would not license them. We do not
license burglars and incendiaries because
law does not always restrain them. Law
is sacred thing. If it's voice cannot be
heard against public wrong, it cannot
-must not be heard in its favor. But we
confidently submit that the objection is
not true. The hearts of thousands have
been gladdened, by the disappearance OF
groggeries and drunkenness, and the re-
viving of virtue, of domestic comfort, and
public prosperity Lands which, under
the old system, have been withered as by
dearth and pestilence, have, under the
new, smiled in beauty and loveliness, as
the garden of the Lord. There doubtless
may, and will be, dishonorable excep'
tons but in the general, we respectfully
submit, our fellow-citizens are slandered
by the assertion that they will sell in de-
fiance of Law. In their behalf, in the
name of patriotism, and of public virtue
we repel the imputation, and rely boldly
upon history for our vindication.
IT IL