Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1854-07-15
ADDRESS
OF the Penna. State Temperance Convention.

OF the Penna State Temperance Convention.
FELLOW CITIZENS The Temperance Con
vention which met at Harrisburg on the 9TH
inst, was called together under the following
resolution adopted by the State Temperance
Convention, on the 9th of January last, to
wit:
ssShould the present Legislature refuse to
pass Prohibitory Law. with. or without refer
ring its repeal to vote of the people, or should
they pass any Bill which would be unaccepta-
bic to the friends of Prohibition. then it shall
be the duty of the State Central Committee to
call State Convention, to meet in Harrisburg,
some time during the month of June, to con-
sist of delegates from the Senatorial and Rep
resentative Districts in proportion to their rep
resentatives in the legislature. and the State
Central Committee, who shall determine the
propriety and expediency of nominating a
State Ticket, to be supported by the friends of
Prohibition"
Precisely this contingency occurred. The
"Legislature refused to pass a Prohibitory
Law with or without referring its repeal to a
vote of the people," They refused to ':pass
any Bill'' acceptable ssto the friends of Prohi-
bition." All that they attempted was mod
ifcation of the license law, measure the
practical utility of which is to be tested, but
the inadequacy of which to remove the giant
evil of the rum traffic is not matter of con-
lecture or doubt. For more than one hundred
and fifty years, the experiment has been tried
in every form which legislative wisdom could
devise to render the license system safe to
make it a source Of revenue, and yet guard
against the blighting, desolating evils which
follow in its train. How impotent and abor-
tive these effects have proved, the history of
the past sadly and conclusively shows. 1t
would seem that wise legislators and States
men might easily have seen in the light of the
past, the impracticability of divorcing the le-
galized trafic in ardent spirits. If a fountain
was sending forth poisonous streams, they
would regard it as an insult to their intelli-
gence if legislation should be asked by which
the rills and the rivulets should be divested of
their hurtful, deadly power. If the Bohon
Upas tree were sending forth its noxious exal-
ations, producing disease here; and death
there, they would regard it as worse than tri-
fling to top off its outer branches and nip in
the bud its poisonous flower, while its roofs
were permitted to remain firm and fourishing.
We are not forgetful of the Apostolic injunc-
ton, s.not to speak evil OF dignities," but
there is no divine precept forbiding us to pray
that our rulers may be endowed with more wis
dom than they have sometimes evinced. With
the blessing of Heaven, and the combined ef-
forts of the friends of Prohibition, we mean
that men shall be elected to the next Legisla-
ture, who will put forth earnest and resolute
efforts; purify the fountain,-m who will er
fripate the Bohon Upas, root and branch, and
cast it into the fire. The legalized traffic in
ardent spirits with the ten thousand appalling
facts proving its cruel devastatons, is an in
suit to the intelligence of the people and
fragrant wrong upon their sacred. inalianable
rights. 1t is time to say with an inhexible
determination, .sif men will engage in this de-
structiye trafic, if they will stoop to degrade
their reason and reap the wages of iniquity,
they shall no longer have the law book as their
pillow, nor quiet their conscience by the opiate
of q court license.''
1t is readily conceded in regard to most i'm
pending social evils, that society has the right
of self protection. 1t is the right of society
to protect itself against burglars, incendiaries
and midnight assassins. 1t is her right to pro-
tect herself against tainted meat, spoiled pro-
visions, unwholesome odors, short weights and
measures, and the storeage of fgunpowder. Now
If the promiscuous sale of Intoxicating drinks
is infinitely more fatal to its peace and happi-
ness than all these combined, can there be a
doubt that it is constitntionaily right and just,
TO restrain and suppress such a trafc 2 The
Supreme Court of the United States have set
tied this question DEFINITELY and forever
Chief Jnstice Taney says:-eI see nothing in
the Constitution of the United States to pre-
vent any State from regulating and restraining
the liquor trafies or from prohibiting IL alto I
ssther, if it thinks proper" Mr.. Justice NJ
Lean says:-s3A nuisance may be abated A t
State may in the exercise of that great and