The Ohio organ, of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, [Ohio]) 1853-1854, 1853-03-11

Defpetual SlaVtfy tOA VhC PeA1< q
And if such Be the moral character
Of the traffic, who can doubt the right
or the d0ty Of the community topro-
bibit It by laWg
| say, then, that a law to prohibit
all the traffic in intoxicating drinks,
as a beverage, is good law, because
tits well founded. The law prohibit
inythe slave trade does not rest on a
6tmer basis. A law growing out Of
public necessity, it is generally acced-
ed, rests on good principles. The
foundation Of all prohibitory laws, is
the safety of civil society Society
has, and must have, the moral right
toprotectitself. No private, personal
claims must be allowed to conflict with
this right. Thepublic good must ever
be held paramount to all private or
personal interests and all laws based
on the public good, must stand.-
These statements, / take to be self
evident truths. They will receive your
full. and hearty assent, They cannot
bedenied, without subverting the very
foundation on which safe and salutary
legislation rests, The few must not
setup their interests against the many,
All wise Legislation, has respect to the
public good, For the public good,
you erect prisons and penitentiaries;
and, to secure the safety Of the com,
munity, you have'a conceded right to
doait. For the public good, you es-
tablish police government-for the
public good,you seize and destroy OBJ
scene books and prints-for the public
good, you seize and con6scate the i'm
plements for gambling and counter
feiting.* Strange, indeed, itmust be,
ifzyou have no right to enact a law
against an evil which does more to fill
your prisons with victims, and the
Commonwealth with crime, disease
and death, than all other causes com
bined. Have you legitimate right
to legislate against every other evil,
except that of intemperance? May
youenactlaws against minor evils, but
not against the monster evil
We do not ask for a law which
shall prescribe what men may eat Oh
drink. We ask for no sumptuary
laws : we do not even ask to know
how you legislate intemperance down
although the tendency of former lega
enactments OH this subjecthas been tc
legislate it up but, we think reason
able to ask, that legislation may b.
such as to prevent the evil flom eve,
coming into being. We do ask ant
urge to have that business prohibited
by law, which creates vicious appe
tite, which impairs the health and en-
dangers the lives Of men-a bushes
which taxes our property, corrupts ou
morals, and though it brings pecuniar,
profit to the feW, is working untol'
mischief and misery to the many
We ask that such a business may b
prohibited as a nuisance. We thin
it both right and expedient to hay
such a law, and to have it enforced
and we fully believe that the citizen
of every State in our extensive Union
who have just sense of their right
and duties as freemen, as patriots, a
philanthropists, will not rest unit
such a law is enacted from the shore
of the Atlantic to the shores Of tn
Pacific.
But, it has been objected to a la
which should prohibit all traffic in il
toxicating liquors, as beverage,
Il. Thai II OouId invQde the rights Q
private property. Wefrankly comics
that we do ask for a law which sha
authorize our civil officers to tai
+At a meeting of the Synod of the Weste
Reserve, in Hudson, O., in September last, d
following resolution was unanimously adopte
'Resolved, that if it is within the leaitima
province of State legislation n forbid The n