Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-10-11
0rigina1 4agers.
Written for The Spirit Of TIE Ags.
Vindicasion of the Sons Of Temperance.
{ [eoNcLuDED.l

OBJ. A.-The Orderis objected to because
II IS SAID it seeks to take the peoples liberty
from them. The Order does not istarfa-a
with your religious or political opinions. but
liquor IS the very thing that will do al
Ihe Poor lnebriate gets drunk and then bs
liberty is gone. You, Mr.. Swill-tub. and
Nhlskey barrel are the very ones that love.
4 and drink It, and when you are under its infl1,
Ience, and lying in some gutter or mudhole or
some other place equalYas decent, who would
give yon fig for Your liberty? 1t is not
WORTH plcayuneT It's as much gone as If
you were caaGned ia the States prison: !: and
fes ea;s iessaesognk to you, foa might be doing
shrine of Bacchus you are destroying y6nf
usefulness, degrading yourself in the eyes Of
your felow-creatures, and bringing yourself
under the wrath of that God who hath said
that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom Of
heaven. TO say that to get a man to quit
drinking liquor to excess, is taking away his
liberty, is an absurdty. You might as well
say that to hinder man from committing mur-
der, burning house, or committing theft or
any thing that is prohibited by our statute
book, IS taking his liberty from him. Drunk
enness is a sin; Solomon says that the drunk
ard and the glutton shall come to poverty
Moral suasion for the drunkard and coercion
for the drunkard maker.
i OBJ. X.-The Order is objected to because
%ley desire that liquor may be removed out of
theSQuntry. Alcohol is poison as opium,
arsenic, prussic acid, &c. Says one l can
drink my dram every day of my life and it will
not kill me- What is the reason it will not
Kill you right off? The reason is, there is but
small portion of Alcohol in what is called
moderate dram and then it is thrown off from
hIrr e. - =
and gaseous nature, and easily thrown off by
them. | have no doubt, but that spoonful
ofpure refined Alcohol would kill as quick as
Arsenic or sooner. Making Of whiskeY, bran.
dy, &c, is purely chemical operation. Unless
the grain and fruit undergoes what is called a
vlnous fermentation it is impossible to produce
Alcohol 1t is the oxygen in the air that caus-
es the saccharine matter in grain and fruit to
sour, and the nitrogen uniting with it causes
it to become in putrid state, and thus the
whole matter is chemically changed, and
changed from natural TO an artificial state
1t is SAID that Alcohol is good creature of
God. How can it be when his laws are coun-
teracted in making it. The animal kingdom
says it is not in me-the vegetable kingdom
says it is not in me- And the reason is, it is
changed from natural TO IN artificial use All
fruits and grains are intended by God to be
king it into Alcohol it is converted into an
artificial inhamabIe matter that is the ruination
OF mankind. The grain and fruit goes through
what chemists call vnous fermentation
composer OF nyuro2en, caruou o41y sUTr,
the proportion of about thirtecn, ffty-two and
thirty-five parts to the hundred. 1t from its
nature and effects subtle and dffusive poison
The elements which form this new substance
existed before but the substance itself die
not. 1t is as really different from what exis
ted before in the fruit and grau as the poison
Gus miasma is different from the vegetable:
from the decomposition and decay Of which i
springs. Hence it no more follows because
grain and fruit are nourishing to The human
system, that therefore Alcohol is nourshing-
than it follows that the poisonous miasma is
because the vegetables are from Which it i
produced by their decay. The one does no
follow the other. They are as really differen
in their natures as life and death. TO con
clude, therefore, because one is good as an al
ticle of diet, the other is also, is as really ur
philOsophically false, as it would be TO conclud
because potatoes are good for food, that tn
the soil must be good also out Of which the
grow. Many suppose that Alcohol exists i
all vegetable substances whose fermentatio
after death will produce it. That is au entiI
+ mistake. After it is formed it may be extrac
ted or separated from fermented liquors
three ways. 1st, Place the liquor under r
ceiver, exhaust the air; and at a temperatu
of about seventy degrees, the Alcohol beir
lighter and more volatile than the other part
will rise 10 the top, and may thus be obtaine
2nd, Precipitate the mucagnous parts, t
acid and the coloring matter, by means of t
subacetate or sugar of lead then take off t
: water that remains by means of the sup. cart
+ nate Of polassa, or pearl-ashes, when the AID
hol will remain. The third way is by mea
of heat aud cold, as in common distillation.
This is the ordinary method. Alcohol W
first discovered by all Arabian Alchymist abe
II nine hundred years ago-and means from
d that can learn) in the Arabic language, Il f
palpable powder; or something that was hi!
Is ly refined. 1t was first used as a medici
a But in process Of time people began to use
in other ways than rs medicine; and Il
- have thought it good for every disease in
W world; and therefore called it the Aqua vi
8 or water of life. Had it been named accc
lg ing to its real nature and ultimate effects
at would have been called Aqma morris, or wa
Of death, both temporal and eternal. me
/: cal writer says, the disease occasioned by
Ia has been by far more destructive than
~ other plague that ever ragged in chrlstend'
- and is more malignant than any other epide
- peSlllence mat ever ueSOtatou our SuHcl
re race Alcohol in all its forms is dea
ps poison. Using Acoholis not like eating Or
10 and milk, &C. Every day about the Sc
we quantity Of food that is required to sustain
ad NAL life will do; there is no increase of al
tite. But it is not so with alcoholic drir
the appetite for them increases every day,
est it is always crying give, give, never salts
nc, until the poor inebriate is SO far gone thai
en- cannot guzzle down any more.
itb Nv Kind friend, you that drink it, are ta
every organ in your system with an amour
labor. that the Great Architect who mad
lre never designed it to undergo. And you
of are in the habit of using it, are bringing
ino self under a bondage more abominable
ass harder to bear than the Egyptian task ma:
C. exercised towards their slaves. They reqr
lot them TO make brick without straw, but
yer did hot lessen their food; they did not pc
ear their atmosphere they did not diminish
u strength they did not multiply their ener
All these the rum-drinker does to his ow
cans, which he is bound, by every princT
,,o duty and interest to protect. Human life
'plo this way often cut off. ten, twenty and s
a. times fifty years sooner than sin or satan,
, 1no out alcohol, would accomplish. The pooI
taI is driven frou its earthly tenement, an
tpermitted to stay out its proper time by