The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-05-30
From the Eagsfeld ADVERTISER
Legislative Restrictions OH the Lii.
GuOr Traffic.
NO. III.

quOr IraIiIc.
NO. III.
We promised in No. /, of this series, to no.
tice in the present essay, the moral evils re-
sulting from the use of spirituous lqnors.-
This, however, has been so often and so ably
done, that it seems almost work of superero.
ga,ion to allude to it, and therefore, we will
dispose of it as summarily as can conveniently
be done. Indeed we hardly know how to 90
about making an argument to prove that ma.
king, vending and drinking ardent spirits is
productive of moral evil, it looks like arguing
10 prove that light comes from the sun, or that
an effect must have cause. What is there
that occupies a higher place in the records Of
crime than liquor? What causes more muir
ders and violence and misery in any form e
What brings poverty, gaunt and hungry, to the
mansions of the great, and the cottages of the
lowly? Listen to the wall of that widowed
heart and see the tears that stream from those
orphans eyes, as in their helpless grief, they
gather about the cherries hearth and cry for
bread which the mother in her desttution can
not give them. Behold that old man as he
bends bver that newly made grave and longs
to pillow his head beside him who was the
pride Of his heart and the hope of his declining
years. What means that woman's- terrified
flight from the hovel of her daily misery, and
the speechless horror of those children as they
contemplate the insane rage Of one whom in
better days they welcomed with gladstone
smiles to his home of happiness. Look at
that man, made in Gods image, and destined
to an endless existence see him reeling along
the streets deGled with the cutters filth, his
moral feelings degraded, desperately bent on
destruction. Surely if this be not evil, the
word should be stricken from the language
How then is the evil to be remedied Moral
suasion saws one, voluntary societies says
another, while third insists that it shall be
let alone, and it will cure itself. Well, it
was let alone long enoug before any attempt
was made to stop it, but it did not cure itself.
Soriety after society too, has risen, fl"urished
and gone the way Of all human organizations;
"Take a little," total abstinence" " Wash
ingtonians,' +" Rechabites" and "Sons of Tenn
perance," have all stood in the breach, and
tried to stay its progress. Temperance lectu'
rers have pcrarnbulated the length and breadth
of the land; they have employed argument
and rdicue and sarcasm; they have appealed
to the judgments and passions of the people;
every motive that moral suasion could bring to
bear upon the subject has been presented; at:
fection, interest, honor, happiness temporal and
eternal, have been appealed to in every shape
that the genius of man could invent, and still
the evil is not remedied. Who then will blame
the friends of good order, or of domestic hap
Diness, patriots and christians for making one
more effort, by calling to their aid the strong
arm of the civil power? object says one,
because it will deprive me of my personal liber
ty. Would it indeed? Let us see then how
far man is entitled to personal liberty2 Here
is man just about to leap from precipce
under the maddening influence of strong emo
ton, and friendly hand is stretched out and
draws him to place of safety and holds him
until the infatuation has passed away. Is there
any violation of personal liberty in this kind
act A thousand illustrations might be pro
duced on this point, but it is needless TO muI
tiply them. Well, the assertion that a man
has a right to do as he pleases with his own
property, in the same valetudinarian sense. is
capable of refutation as clear us geometrl-
cal demonstration. An individual has an or
chard of peaches and apples, and the right to
he thinks, to turn his fruits into brandy for the
benefit of all who will buy and use it. But
this supposition proceeds upon mistaken no
ton of what constitutes true liberty. Now
am no lawyer, and do not profess to speak
advisedly on matters pertaining to statutory
enactments. have never read law and never
had fancy for hanging around places where
judicial proceedings ale dispensed, and my
stock Of chimney corner law is therefore not
very large; yet venture the opinion that no
one would be allowed to build dam across a
stream on his own premises, if by so doing he
should cause the water to overflow his neigh
boris land, or if the efflrvia from the pond
should engender disease in the neghborhond.
l presume no one would be allowed TO build Il
powder mill in the heart Of a popuous city.
And why not? Simply because there would
be trespass upon the rights of Others. Their
lives and property would be endangered by it.
Well, on the same principle no one should have
o right to turn his fruits and grains into a Ii.
quid fire to scatter disease and poverty and
death through the country. Certainly tres
pass on ones property is not worse than tres
pass on the morals of his children. Far better
would it be to risk the miasmatic exhalations
from mill pond than the effluvia from grog-
shop, more pestilential than ever emanaied
from the Pontine marshes or the everglades of
Florida; and less would be the danger in rails
ing family in court surrounded by powder
mills, than in the neishborhood of place
where distilled fire under thousand seductive
forms is presented for the temptation of youth.
Upon the noble principles of Equity then,
should not the State make such provision as
would relieve the country of this evil? Now
be it distinctly understood that we do not con-