Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-09-27
EXTRACT


Washington. In Congress, July %, 1854.
Were this the place for the usual style and
topics of temperance speech, would dwell
upon the horrors of drunkenness. / would
enlarge on the fact, that there are in our be-
loved country more than half million OF !
drunkards3 and | would group along with
them their wives, and children. and parents,
and brothers, and sisters, toshow that drunk /
enness makes millions of the American peo-
pie miserable.
Were this the place forit, would make
much use of the fact, that the annual ex-
pense to our nation, from the vice of drink
ing intoxicating liquors, largely exceeds one
hundred millions of dollars; and | would
add. that. instead Of doubling whether We
have means adequate to the building Of a
railroad to the Pacific, we would, were the
American people to abstain, for only two or
three years, from drinking Intoxicating liquors,
save enough, by such abstinence to build
two or three railroads to the Pacific.
Were this the place for it, would refer
to the mighty hindrance which this vice
puts in the way of education, order, and ev-
cry form of comfort, and Of pure and true en-
jovment. would insist, that Intoxicating
drinks have much to do with the frequency
of national wars, and, what is more than all
else, that there is no other agency SO mighty
to block up the way of religion, and render
it powerless, as the practice Of drinking in
toxicatng liquors. There is no antagonism
more decided and deadly than that between
the spirit of heaven, which alone can save the
soul, and the spirit of the bottle. which is
more effective than any other to kill it.
Were this the place for it, would endeav-
or to make it apparent that total abstinence
from intoxicating drinks is the only remedy
for drunkenness, and the only sure protec-
tion from it. | wo lid, in that case, expose
the fallacy of the doctrine, that temperate
drinking is friendly to sobriety, and is the
cure and preventive of drunkenness, or is
either.
Temperate drinkers claim great merit foi
their practice-great merit in it to serve the
cause Of temperance. These temperate
drinkers are, By the way, very selfcompla.
cent class Of persons. They pride them
selves on being the ia medic tutiSsimus ibiis
the juste neitieu--class of persons; equally
removed, on the one hand, from the vulgar
the cold water fanaticism Nevertheless, a
the hazard of ruff1ing their self-complacency
must tell them, that they are more iniuri
Gus than drunkards themselves to the cause
of temperance. In point Of fact, drunkard
are helps to the cause of temperance, insteat
of being obstacles in its way. Why, ou
half million Of drunkards are our half milliol
strongest arguments for the necessity of to
tai. abstinence! Indeed, I would, that n
person were able to drink Intoxicating liquors
q without Immediately becoming drunkard
s For who, then, would drink it, any soone
e than he would drink the poison that alway
It kills, or jump into the fire, that always burns
It 1t is because so many, who drink intoxc;
!, !; ting liquor, escape drunkenness, that SO man
= y are emboldened to drink it, said, thi
: drunkards serve the cause of temperance
h | appeal to mothers for the truth of it.
H. Mothers when you would most etfectual
Of admonsh your children not to drink into,
At eating liquors, do you not point them to thi
III that, and the other drunkard? And so lor
= as your children keep their eyes on the
\ beacons, they take not one step in the pat
n. way which leads to the drunkard's gra
p and the drunkard's hell. But the danger
le that they will avert their eyes from the
is beacons, and fasten them on the long al
Ie attractive train of sober, respectable tempe
81 81 ate drinkers, and follow them. There
% not one youth in this city, whose habits a
ds perilled by the presence and influence
le, drunkards-for the example of the drunka
is too bad to be contagious. On the cont
MS ry, there is not one youth in this city who
ID habits are not III peril from the example
S ,nS temperate drinkers.
be But some, who hear me, may be rea
ell to ask What has Congress to do with
lat this, which have been sayingH View
ne pass on, then, without any further delay,
ne question with which Congress certain
has to do. This question is not, whett
the government may undertake to promo
0i- the cause of temperance-for / have vir
ally admitted it may not. But it is whe
'u' er the government must not do its duty
70 every point, and even at that point, VIII
in- Il the doing of its duty helps incidentally
Ine cause of temperance. To explain mys
- ns' hold, that the suppression of the sale
'uo intoxicating drinks is indispensable to
zap protection of person and property and
'oo therefore, the manifest duty of COVE
!, ment. At the same time, I admit, t
gu the suppression is important, yes, indisp
'SS- sable, to the success of the cause of te
~ '% perance. Now, must government forb
1'ie the suppression, in order to avoid reno
eep ing an incidental benefit to the cause
'aw temperance? Surely, not for that reas
Anu all will say. But l shall be called or
iVe prove, that such suppression is needfu1
= the protection of person and property
"a. 5a. hold, that it is, because the sale Of int
5ll'- eating drinks is, by far, the most frui
lhc source of pauperism and madness-n
ana more fruitful of all these evils than
other sources put together.
iaSt .~ certainly need not go into proofs of
- fact, that the industry Of the sober is be
e. ly loaded by the pauperism which the dr
jof a shop imposes on it. That fact is as plai
- - the sun. And SO is the fact that the n
Tn men of the land are, to great extent.
80 manufacture of the dramshop. How fri
80 fully insecure are both property and lif
- the presence of these madmen How K
~ ..S. we, when we step into the stage-coach,
"na 'S car, the steamboat especially on the fo
'OU' of July, or on some other holiday. but
- the driver or the engineer has indulged il
qua" maddening draught, and that our lives
be required to pay for the indulger
lu' How know ua whpn uo walk tho cir