The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1854-03-18
The Liquor Bill Report.

.lourncd without placing any effective legal re-
s!rictons upon the sale of intoxicating liquors.
Though the imploratous Of the bcsottcd VIC
,ims-the plalntive wall of grief stricken and
TOO often starving wives, and the louder, and
TO every true man, infinitely more touching
cry of thousands of children, sweltering in the
swinish filth ofignorance and moral tiegrada-
ton, has gone up before our legislators, yet,
"dullcr than the fat weed that ro.s itself in
case on Icthe wharf, they would not stir"
even in such 4 cause as this.
1t is. however, more particularly the report
whom very improperly, we leg leave to say
the House Bill was referred, which We pro-
bose to examine. In doing so we shall Gu
d,svor TO keep calm, and always remember
ing the distinguished source whence this Ia
lie document" cmonatcd, give to it a fair and
impartial Investigation. Admitting, but on
IL for the moment, the 'iirst, great" argument
II the Hon. Senator, CHAT to the revenues of
the State the operation of this bill would lie
prcjudic;al, we ask amy man ofcomn on sense
and common honesty, and who has even
enough regard for his follow men to acinowl-
edge h;msclfone CT the same genus, whether
the loss Of twenty thousand dollars or ever
doablc tha! amount, to a Safe whose annual
revenue is nearly, if not quite, million and
quarter, is to be put in comparison with the
physical and mental suffering and the moral
degradation and vice, of which the traffic in
i'r.oxrcaing liquor is the legitimate and only
cause
If this principle, la:d down by the Hon.
Senator, be correct, then is the time honorcd
doctrine that governments are instituted for
the promotion of order, peace and happiness.
and for the advancement of civilization, be-
come obsolete. and they are no longer the pro-
,cctors, bat the plN.mcrcrs of the governed.
From this traffic. and from i ooac, proceeds
an amount of ro.ing and vicc-which the
Law, armed with all'its power and clothed
with all its dignity, is powcrlcss to suDdnc-
Disgusting to every man'of common decrncy,
Lat from which there is no escape by night or
day, either on the public highway or in the
sacred circle Of the domestic fysilc. And
y'' 'hs sob,r, res. c:tabc portion Of a commu
nifty comprising to the Hon Sen
atorS own compu'ation-n;ncty-liye hun
dr. d his Of the whole, arc still to be subjected
to the polluting effects of this traffic, in Or
der that twenty thousand dollars may 60 an
nu"lly into the treasury, and five men in eve
ry hundred have the glorious liberty oftlans-
fnrnin: themselves into brlltcs, nuisanccs to
their fellows, and monuments of The degrade
ton of their race. Anhypo;hesis, so ritlcu-
husly absurd i'll lis results, even if true in its
premises, we care not how distinguished the
source whence it cmcnatcs, can awaken no
higher emotion than pity, not to say contempt.
lff"c in its premises, lay there's the rub ~
The limi,cd time at our disposal viii not al
low OF going into a minute mathematical ca
c.ilation Of this matter, nor clio we believe the
Lfnm Senator has taken much pains to asccr-
ttll how stand the figures, or he would never
fiavc rrskctflfs reputation upon pecuniary
comparison of the profit and loss of the liquor
trallii. hour own county-whcrc we sup
pose matters are not much worse, certainly
not u great deal better, than in tic other corn-
ties of tic State-the cost of the Almshousc
for the year ending May LIST, 1861, will not
be under three thousand dollars-lor we UNI
dcrsand from reliable authority, that the
twenty three hundred dollars levied forit, will
fall short at least seven hundred, and proba-
bly, "a thousand dollars, ofmccting its expenses
add to this fifteen hundred dollars for out
pensions and we have the net sum of four
thousand five hundred dollars which this
county pays for pauperism. This amount be
1t remembered, so far from being exaggerated
rather falls short ofthe real cost On the 9TH
CT hand the clerk Of this county received for
licenses to orehnarics during the last year, six
hundred and sixty three dollars. This is all
that can properly be classcd as liquor license;
but let US admit for the sake Of argument,
that, of the seventeen hundred dollars paid
for traders licenses, five hundred and forty
was from stores which would not have been
III existence but for the liquor traffic, and we
have, af cr giving all the latitude which its
most violent advocate can ask, paltry twelve
hundred dollars as the sum total of the profit
of whiskcy in Cecil county. These "spccu-
lali'c calculations" as the Hon. Senator is
pleased to term them, we are willing to place
in the hands of any intelligent and honest
citizen oftlis, Or any other county, we care
not what arc his views of the prohibitory
question, and dare him to say that the liquor
traifi; docs not cost more than it produces.
In this speculative calculation" VIC have
said nothing Of the cost of criminal prosccu-
tionS, directly tractablc to wlskey: not how
ever because We agree with the Hon. Senator
in his opinion, that drunkenness is "oftcncr
the concomitant and child than the cause or
parent Of crime but because we did not
dem it at all necessary, in order to sustain
our opinion Of the question of profit and loss.
However illogical and untrue" the infcren-
cas- OF those who consider the liquor traffic the
cause Of ''M the ills that flesh is heir to, )" we
,nur{, doubt ~ thu Han S.,, 70, ull fnl l:,,,