The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-05-23
Address of the Central Committee


posed to the liquor traffic, beg leave to address
you, and most respectfully to ask your aid in
carrying out the purposes Of the Convention.
We desire the entire suppression Of the liquor
traffic, but yet we do not desire even this great
and beneficial reform against your will. We
hope your understandings either have been or
will be convinced of the enormites Of the
traffic and the necessity of ending it.
Before entering on our main purpose, we
desire to say, that when We speak of ending
the traffic, we do not wish to accomplish that
by any violent or injurious means, even to the
dealers themselves. Our proposition is to pass
a law declaring the retail traffic in Intoxicating
drink unlawful, and forthwith to prohibit it by
the most stringent provisions. The manufac-
ture of the article we would also prohibit in
the same way. The sale Of intoxicating drinks,
as beverage, from and after some reasonable
time, we would by law forever abolish and pro.
hibit. But these great reforms we do not ask
for until your will is ascertained. We ask for
the passage of law whereby the freemen Of
the State, entitled to vote, shall, at the polls,
say whether they desire the enactment of
prohibitory law!
1t cannot surely be necessary in detail to
state the evils of the sale of Intoxicating drink.
They have been present to every man, woman,
and child, in this Stale for the last thirty years.
Every day noa0 they are as apparent as the
light OF mondays sun can make objects.-
The sale of Intoxicating drink is the parent of
the bloody murders which have occurred, and
which are even now so shamefnlly frequent.
1t has produced, does produce. and will pro-
duce, nine-tenths of all the crimes of South
Carolina. 1t is the parent of poverty; it
causes the loss Of character; tdestroys activi
ty, energy, industry, and hope, and fills our
country with miserable, drunken loafers. 1t
squanders the millions of wealth and income
which otherwise might be appropriated to be
nevolence, education, and Improvement The
money spent "in riotous Hving' would build
all the railroads contemplated or desired in
South Carolina would endow and support
colleges and academies in every part of tie
State and would crown every section with the
result of genius and art. The sale of intoxica-
ting drinks is the cause of the fearful increase
of insanity. 1t is the dread tyrant which crushes
all the affections Of the heart; destroys all the
charms of"home Swcet home;" breaks the ties of
wife and children; and turns the husband and
father into the brutal tyrant, hated and feared.
1t ruins the slape! at the places where intox-
icating drink is sold>he learns to steal his mas
ter's goods, to hate him, and finally to put him
to death.
An awful picture has thus been hastily
sketchcd. Do you desire to hang it up in your
homes, and say this is thing to be loved? E
No. We are sure you will say take it away.
Let the original no longer be found in South
Carolina.
How can it be done? Prohibit the manu-
facture and sale as beverage? 1t can't be
done, is the demagogue's objection. The same
objection was urged when your fathers OF 10
were about breaking their fetters on the head
of their tyraut mother, Great Britain. Trust
ing in the Lord of Hosts, the patriots offs en-
tered on the glorious trial, and were rewarded
with liberty-priceless liberty. We propose
to YOU to do So likewise, and we promise you
lberty-sobcr liberty freedom now and for
ever from the reign of the tyrant of the cup!
The constitution is in the way, is another
objection. Read the constitution of this State
and the United States. and you will find that
the power to legislate in this particular is LETT
to the Legislature of the State without restrlc'
ton. The decisions of the courts Of this State
ard of the United States affirm this 10 be SO.
But it is restrictive of the rights of property,
is another objection. The manulacturer-the
distiller-says, 81 thus turn my corn, rye, and
barley, into money" You turn the STAFF Of
lite into the destruction Of ii for money! Are
you heartless enough to hold up the price OF
blood and say this is our wealth. Judas sold
his master but did it profit him! The answer
is in his voluntary death, and in the pottcr's
field. Oh, our countrymcn, fly from such ac
cursed avarice There is no necessity of yield !
ing to it, You can sell your corn, rye, and
barley for a better and more certain reward
The railroad has brought market to your
doors. South Carolina does not raise enough
of the breadstuffs for the consumption of the
people, and hence there is no necessity to dis
till. There is no surplus Every bushel dis
titled takes that much bread from The mouths Of
the hungyy, starring and poor.
The vendor has not even the poor pretence
of the distller. He makes money out Of the
blood, tears, misery, poverty, degradation, in
sanity, and crimes of snen, women and chill.
dren, and, Vespasian. like, holding it up, he
says, can you tell by its smell whence it came?
The human sense may not be able to ascertain,
but the eye of the everlasting Avenger has
seen from the beginning whence it came, and
lie is ready to say of the dealer, scat him
down, why cumbereth he the ground"
That prohibition is no new thing, is shown
by our laws prohibiting the sale Of intoxica-
ting drinks in quantities less than three gallons
wiIout license, prohibiting gaming; our
quarantine laws; the laws which prohibit idle
gentlemen from going at large, by CHASING them