The Ohio organ, of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, [Ohio]) 1853-1854, 1853-01-21
From the New York Tribune.
Judge Curtis on Rumselling.

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to pass law prohibiting and punish
ing the sale Of Alcoholic Liquors to
be used as a beverage within the limits
of that State, and the Legislature
obeyed the popular mandate The
Rumsellers resisted the law in the
State Courts, and were beaten but
they have carried peculiar case
(where a nonresident Of the State
claimed to be owner Of the con6scated
Liquors) up to the U. S. District Court,
and have there obtained a sweeping
verdict from Mr.. Justice Curtis of
Boston--no very earnest disciple, we
are confident, either Of State Sover-
eighty or Total Abstinence. The case,
we presume, will be carried up 10 the
Supreme Courtnow sitting at Wash
ington, and we trust its essential and
pressing importance will secure for it
prompt hearing and an unequivocal
decision.
Wedo not believe that august tribu-
nal will sustain all Judge Curtis's po-
sitions; but we must prepare for a
partial concurrence in his views. Our
higher Judges are nearly all devotees
of the sparkling bowl"-in modera-
ton, of course la and they cannot,
therefore, comprehend the funda-
mental proposition on which the Maine
Law reposes--namely, that Alcohol
is poison, and its dispensation right
fully subject to all the statutory and
police restrictions which regulate the
sale Of poisons generally. Had the
legislation of Rhode Island here as
sailed been directed against Obscene
Books and Prints, and had Mr.. Greene
shipped an invoice Of such Books and
Prints to Providence, and had they
there been seized and con6scated un-
der a law against such publications
similar in all its principles and essen
tial provisions to the And-Rum Law,
we have not doubt that Judge Cur
tbs would have sustained the Law,
and non-suited or beaten Mr. Greene.
So had Virginia on South Carolina
passed an act essentially similar in its
provisions to this Rhode Island act,
save that it was aimed at the illegal
Importation into such State Of Aboli-
ton appeals to their Slaves to rise and
cut their masters throats, we have
no doubt that Judge Curtis would
have upheld the act, nor that the full
Court would, on appeal, uphold him
This, we are confident, is the old case
of the Dutch Justice who put the
screws to long row of tipplers who
had been tempted to get drunk on
Brandy, Rum, Beer, &C., but let of
the lucky dog whose overpotent stimu.
lus was Punch, because 81 gifts droonA
on Bunch myself sometimes"
We, Maine Law men, musthave pa
tience while the contents of the whisky
barrels are running out. We mus
anticipate, receive undauntedly, anC
coolly devise the ways and means o
obviating such side blows as this o
Judge Curtis. Such a Reform as W
contemplate is work, not Of days 9
months merely, but of years. Ful
well we know that a Sovereign Stat
has power to protectits citizens agains
so pervading and terrible scourg
as the Rum Traffic, and that wher
there is will there must be way
A State certainly has the right to for
bid and punish the commission with
her limits of acts which she has sol
emnly adjudged destructive to he
prosperity and perilous to her moral
-provided those acts be not expressl
authorized by the Federal Constitution
Will any one assert that Rum-sellin
is an act of this nature? If SO, VIII
not Public Gaming and keepin
Houses of Infamy? The Suprem
Cnurt cannot nreveTt the States fO]