Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-07-19
JULY 49,.
The Reason WIN.


"Why do you manifest such an uncompro.
missing hatred against the liquor traffic and
why are you SO enthusiastic in your denun-
Citations Of the policy of legaliziDg that par
ticular traffic, in all your writings and speak
ings, when other vices claim reformation as
well as thisR" So said a qucrist to us not
longsincc. Athousand reasons whyi From
boyhood we have been an eyewitness to its
atrocities and its growing fairness on the
blood Of its inundated victims. Among its
victims have been those we loved, and all
we're allied to us by the common bonds of hu-
manity. This alone were enough to enlist
all tho hatred our faculties could compre-
bend against the burning curse. And we
do hate it with all tho f%ervency Of unforgot-
ten hatred. We have Joined league with
our brother crusaders to hate and give swift
battle against this monster vice-against a
policy which, more than all others, " turns
fields into desert places" and arrays the
hearts of fathers against their children, and
burns curses on the lips Of children against
those who gave them birth, against a scourge
worse than gaunt famine or loathsome pes
thence, which sweeps thro' a land and leaves
IL secure. The Rum plague rides on every
breeze and fingers at the threshold of every
home to vex and then destroy the trusting,
Beneath the fiery and sparkling wavelets Of
the whiskey-glass and rum.bowl there lies
all the poison Of shining adders; oil the in.
formal agencies and engines of bodily and
mental torture all the subtle elements o
pauperism, insanity and red hand crime
and the burnings Of hell, torturing and gnaw
ing through time and eternity I
My dear g., it seems that you should hell
us hate the common foe of our race, our Ian,
and our God. Interests of a personal char
acter ought to arouse you-the exalted low
you bear for Carrie and your little childreI
ought to enlist your hatred against the arcI
fend that seeks to destroy them. "ThougI
your lines have fallen to you in pleasant pla
ccs, and your wife, like a fruitful vine by th
sides Of your house, and your children lk
olive plants round your table," yet drunken
ness can destroy your health and intellectu
al powers-devour your goodly heritage
wither the bloom on your Carries cheek
blast the bright child-hopes Of little Rob, an
Mag, and the little baby, Mary, that CARR
sang to so sweetly when we were last togeth
erl
Yes, my dear g., if you saw the famin
curse as we have long seen it, you would n
longer stand aloof from the cause, and n
longer wonder why We so hate the Curse
Your philanthropy aud benevolence woul
cause you to fly to the relief of your s%ufferinf
manacled fellow-men bound down in the darI
cells ofthe Rum-devil. Your patriotism woul
swell your bosom as you heard the blows o
the battle-axe Of intemperance ringing on th,
pillars of our glorious Republic, and hewiny
down every gate of our boosted edifce IN
its blessed institutions. Your motives o
Christianity would impel you to the gooc
work Of binding up the Wounds of the strick
en- and confirming the reformed.
Bear with us, my dear g., if we say, il
conclusion, that if such considerations a
these do not warrant your hatred, and, a
the same time, do not secure your aid an
fervent zeal in p~romulgating a cause that in
wolves all the sacred interests Of home, fire
side, and bliss in time and eternity, it is ust
less to ask you further to help us hate tn
rum.curso. "Sleep onl" Butin that "day
when L" lie maketh requisition for blood,
neither human nor angelic agency will r
lease you from the terrors of the responsible
ity which you will incur by your rash r
solve to blindly-" SLEEP oNlp =