The Ohio organ, of the temperance reform. (Cincinnati, [Ohio]) 1853-1854, 1853-08-12
FROM 10 Cincinnati Commercial.
!. IonaWofth's Letter.

parent candor and good feeling, tnat
It Is worthy of an Ingenious and tenn
pefate reply. It Is codched in the
terms following, substantially: "Do
the friends Of ihe Maine Liquor Law
propose a law in our State that shall
prohibit the sale orour domestic wines,
and like wines made in our neighbor.
ing States, from the pure juice Of the
grape ~
As one of the friends of the-Tem-
perance cause to whom this appeal is
made. / answer without any evasions
or circumlocutions we propose" Just
this the enactment Of law prohibit
inc the manufacture and sale Of all
Intoxicating liquors, except for use in
medicine and the arts. We wish to
have this poison returned to the drug
store, where it was kept for some CEN
turtles after its discovery, and made
the minister of good and not Of evil
to man, We hope that Mr., Long
worth, and other wine producers, will
read without passion or prejudice our
reasons for this course, and give them
their proper and intrinsic weight in
the scale, and no more.
First: Consistency requires US to
take this stand. We cannot single out
and condemn the stronger alcoholic
liquors, allowing the free use of the
milder ones, and yet hold up our heads
as opposers of intemperance in a gen.
eral and generic sense. lfalcohol be
not only useless, but eminently inju-
rious as beverage, why not prohibit
the sale Of it in its diluted as well as
in its concentrated forms ? Why heal
slightly the wound of the people ?
Why attempt to remove a part of the
evil only? We have no confidence in
quackey. AS the enemies of all the
agents which bring such calamities
upon society, we can make no excep-
tions in favor Of tour domestic wines I"
Even the dear Sparkling OatasOba
must go by the board. We must
keep company with consistency, or
consistent men will not go with us.
Secondly: Mr.. Longworth greatly
undertakes the Intoxicating pOaOer OF
our domestic wines. If we grant that
all that is manufactured by him and
others, in the circle described in his
letter, is consumed in the state in
q which it leaves their hands, uncon.
taminated with drugs or alcohol, we
must yet claim that it will produce no
little amount of drunkenness, and some
of the evils that are inseparable from
it. Fermentation wiN generate alcohol.
If Mr.. L. will allow me to go to his
cellar and select three bottles, / will
prove to him not by drinking them,
though that experiment would no
doubt be equally satisfactory to him, }
that his habitual representations on
this score are not just. These wines
have enough Of the intoxicating prin-
ciple in them to arouse an appetite for
ardent spirits that has been got under,
and what is more serious impeach-
ment of its character, it has enough
of this principle in it to create an ap-
petite for the strongest liquors. The
use of them will certainly open and
pave the way to inebriation in its most
melancholy and revolving forms. Al
most all whose families and fortunes
have been ruined by intemperance,
began their career with the use of the
more gentle stimulants.
But, how much of the enormous
quantity q wine which Mr.. Long.
worth is instrumental in sending
abroad upon the community can be
called the "pure juice of the grape" /"
when it is consumed ? He must re-
member that all men are not as scru-
pulous as he. After it has passed
from his hands it is re-mGnatactured.