The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1853-01-26

lhc law III qucntiOh uOSS HVe PiVP'oO w
do. 1t provides amply for the sale for
all ncedful purposes, and prohibits all
the rest and further, it does rot prohib-
it the use, but only the sale.
The principle in its application to this
subject has been declared right and con-
formable to the Constitution Of the Uni
ted States by the highest judicial au-
thority In this all the judges Of the
Supreme Court are unanimous-that,
I" If any State deems the retail and inter-
nal traffic in ardent spirits injurious to
its citizens, and calculated to produce
idlcncss, vice, or debauchery, there is
nothing to prevent it from prohibiting
it altogether, if it thinks proper "
This principle is just and righteous.
q Society has right to protect itself
has right to put a stop to any evil. The
right is inherent in the organization. 1t
is always acted on. If it were not go,
the attempt to organize civil society
would be farce.n The enactment OF
laws, the affixing of penalties to laws.the
institution Of courts, the establishment
of police and military force, all proceed
on the principle that society has the
right to protect itself so as to secure the
ends Of its organization. And this right
clearly extends to everything where in
jury or wrong could be done ; to every
thing that would affect the good order
of society, its safety, its prosperity, its
existence. 1t is on this principle that
society legislatcs against lotteries.
gainst gaming, against counterfeiting the
public coin, against drunkenness, against
poisonous or corrupted drugs, against
any employment that in its nature tends
to endanger the public health, peace, Or
morals
Such legislation should always be q.
gainSt evil, never for it. Society has
no right to protect evil by law. The
law is designed to suppress evil, not to
protect it, So also society has no right
to attempt to regulate evil by law. This
is not the province of law; to remorc
evil is its purpose. That such attempts
have been made is not denied but the
adoption of such a principle in legisla-
ton, is the extreme of absurdity. What
would this community say, if the Legis-
laturc in their wisdom should frame laws
on the principle that murder, and adul-
terry, and theft, were only to be JceH(a'
ted, not suppressed, by law Murder
to be prohibited except in certain cir
cumstances, and adultery permitted by i
certain privileged few, under proper re
strictious And on the same principle
that the evil of licentiousness was to bt
so regulated by law as to allow but one
house of infamy in town, licensed un
der proper checks and with suitable Sc
curity in regard to the moral character
of those engaged in the business Ap
ply the principle to any acknowledge
evil, and its absurdity appears. Admi
a thing to be wrong and evil, and the law
can do nothing rightfully but suppress it
And this is what is now done in regarC
to lotteries, and horso-racing, and gam
ing and arson, and murder, and adultery
and polygamy and why should not th'
same be done in relation to the sale o
intoxicating liquorsl which is, confessed
", productive of more evil than all these
combined.
Society has the right to abate naisan
ces, to prohibit property from being u
sed so as to create them, and if need be
to destroy property when it is SO used
1t is laid down by Kent in his Com
mentary on American law, that 'th(
government may by general regulations
interdict such uses of property as would
create nuisances, and become dangerous
to the lives, or health, or peace, or com
fort of the citizens. Unwholesome trades
slaughter-houses, operations offensive tc
the Senses" (rumselling is surely al
these) "the deposit of gun-powder, thu
building with combu stible materials an,
the burial of the dead, may be interdic
ted by law, in the midst of dense masse:
of population, on the general and ration
al principle that every person ought tt
nse his property so as not to injure hi'
neighbors, aud that private interest mus
be made subservient to the general in
terest of community"
1t follows incontestibly, from these
principles, that tho traffic in intoxica
ting liquors to be used for drink-bcing
fraught with evil and danger at all times
and in all places--may of right and should
in all justice, be entirely prohibited.
Sd We come now to the third princi
pie, which embraces all that is peculiar
to the new Law-thc right to enforce
prohibitory enactments by adequate pow.
ers and penalties, the same as provided
in other cases. The essential defect in
the law now in force is, that it wants the
power and efficacy which are necessary
and such as are granted by other stat
utes The law against counterfeiting
for example, gives authority to search
for counterfeit money, and tools and i'm
plements; it makes the presence of these
in suspicious circumstances, prima fa-
cir evidence of guilt; and it authori-
zes the breaking up Of countcrfeiting es.
Establishments by the seizure ofall which
belongs to the unlawful trade, Without
such authority the law would be a nulli
ty, and counterfeiting would be as com.
mon as rumselling. Suppose the law a
gainst counterfeiting modelled after the
pattern Of the existing law on tho sub
ject of temperance, giving authority to
apprehend aud punish only such as are
convicted of making or passing their
goods. and then only by fine of ten dol
lars and suppose the principle carried
out, making the counterfeiters establish
ment safe from search or seizure; what
would be the effect A man might be
fined every day in the year, and still
fnd lucrative business. Such fines
would bo regarded as a mere mOckery Of