The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-08-08
MisrRllauRulls.
From The South Carolinian.
Temperance.

mas some experience IN the aHalrS Of temper
ance to say, in successive numbers, few words
to the people of Carolina through your columnsg
He regrets that candidates for the Legisla-
ture should have been asked care you 10 fa-
vor of prohibition :" He hoped if any ques
tion was asked, it should have been 1" Are you
in favor of letting the people speak for them
selves in favor Of or against prohibitory law!"
His purpose will be to explain the principles
and working of such law. For the present,
however, and in this number, he proposes to
run his eye over some of the answers giver to
the questions propounded to the candidates.
He confesses that he has been much amazed
at what seems to him, with due Difference, be
it said, their strange inconsistency.
All are in favor of temperance-all are op-
posed to prohibitory laws. They have not an.
swered, say they, the ends intended. All are
for moral suason, and one really good man,
who once was thorough going temperance
man, and whose name is now on the Central
Committee, goes step beyond all others :: he
does not like prohibition because it comes from
Maine, and smacks too much of the higher
law.
1t is mistake to say that prohibitory laws
have failed to accomplish the ends intended.
The workings of the Maine law have been ef
ftctual. In Portland, living, credible witnesses
affirm that the law has put down the traffic,
and made that great fishing, lumber, and ship
building city sober. A condemnation Indiana,
Dr.. Brown, who tarried two days in Portland,
u stranger to the people, atfirns that he en-
plored the city, and put his jolly looking face
into every nook and corner where he thought
a dram could be got, and he could not get
drop for love or money. Neal Dow in pub
lie speech at st. John, New Brunswick, stated
that not a pipe Of intoricati~g drink could he
5oughtin the entire State Of Maine. Is it pos.
sible that such man as he is, remarkable for
Straightforward truth and honesty, should utter
such deliberate falsehood Mr. STIFFNESS, of
Providence, Rhode Island. at the same place,
stated that the law was now working we'll in
Rhode Island. Connecticut, right alongside of
Massachusetts, where the law has been in force
for some time, has. with singular unanimity.
within the last month adopted the law. Michi-
gan, the great lake State, the hume Of the old,
est teetotaller in the Uuion, Gen. Cass, last
wear, by twenty thousand majority, adopted
the Maine law Will friends still venture to
affirm that the law, as prohbltory law, has
failed to answer the ends intended?
1t is perfectly ridiculous to talk of moral
suasion as means any longer to be relied on
in affecting temperance. The writer has tried
moral suasion until he knows it will never
stop the sale or the drinking of Intoxicating
drinks. He has seen intelligent, we'll informed
gentlemen, as well as drinking men, sign the
Temperance pledge, and he has been mortified,
nuy even ashamed TO knoaD, that they afterwards
yielded to temptation, and were again believers
@ in the pistol that never snaps"
What can moral suaSion do without hands
Do liquor sellers ever come to hear! Do our
gentlemanly, fashionable drinking people listen
to moral suasion9 Do they not generally de
nounce the followers Of temperance, and es.
peciaIly those who speak, as fanatics, crusa.
ders, zealots, &c.
Did you, gentle reader, ever see the keepers
of the erchanges Our houses &c, at temper
ance lecture? Sometimes friend Trnesdell, of
Oyster House, and julius, the departed host of
the Tupper House, might have been seen lis.
tening to an old friend, or some extraordinary
facetiuus man. But such instances are rare
rare as angels visits. The questions asked
point TO very important answers. il, friends,
in your hearts, you are obliged to'say that they
point to facts about Which there can be no dis.
pute, the writer begs that you will not be led
as,ray by cant. He would say to the people
of South Carolina, as he will have occasion
probably hereafter to consider at more length,
that prohibition is no new thing in this State.
Open your statute book. Why does it contain
laws to prevent the odious and loathsome sin
of drunkenness! TO prevent the inordinate
haunting of ale houses and tippling houses p
To prohibit the sale of intoxicating drinks in
quantities less than three gallons To prevent
the selling, giving. delivering or exchanging in.
,oxicating drinks TO or with slaves? Why do
you object to prohibiting the sale of ntoxica.
ting drinks in South Carolna9 Do you not
prohibit crime Is not the sale Of intoxicating
drink the worst of crime? To sensible men
the writer would say, examine the calendars
of crime. Let mayors, intendants, and other
police officers speak, and then you will know
where crimes originate. The writer knows
from examination that nine-tenths of all the
crimes of South Carolina are to be ascribed to
the retailing of Intoxicating drink. Can it be,
felow-citizens, that your lawmakers, past,
present. or to come, can be justified in not lift
ing finger to remove the cause of crime2
You are slave owners What is it more
than anything else, which ruins your slaves
Is it not intoxicating drinka Where do they
get it9 If you answer or know that they get
it at your tail shops, why not shut them up
But the principle of prohibition comes from
Maine. If this were true, the writer would
say what of that Do you. refuse to eat her.