Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-10-25

IA \ Ulisfs
ras,l We cbn ID nothing divided.
IF is Standing togesbsf ana
fs.i ~ s6ciates, Il were kapNn
any ssnergeney might Re
~ 3 upon s our eS1stences
ag DISK thousand
we're agoWedly On
pna thousand were
Fa is 3 this subject.
81 presume 70 say
'kkves - ~ that the ques
form or nofs-
5ss of Is tlied has faiied.
prohibitlen has oh.
aley have been he zeaIof
shk pul the activity Of the pres or the
nnnber Of temperalgce asaoeiationeI whaf
ever |ad Che uurllz pf We pf
y sauce has not decreased, the num-
-ber of paupers and criminals and sufferers
by the traffic has not decreased-hnt when
the law has laid its hand upon the traffic,
immediately jails, penitentiaries, hospitals,
poor-houses, have given evidence Of the
efficiency of this mode of suppressing intem-
perance. The people feel it in their taxes
Now these are notorious facts and they
are accompanied by this other interesting
historical fact that where any community
hes enjoyed prohibitory law for any space
of time necessary to give any thing like
test of Its effects, they haze clung to that
la1o. Popular sentiment has taken no step
backward However men may theorize,
there is that fact appealing perpetually to
the good republican common sense of our
people. And it should be frequently and
freely pressed upon their attention. If these
laws are oppressive, if they are destructive
of liberty, how is it that after they have
once been established by any means they
can by no means be torn from the people ]?
Politicians have tried it. They have elab-
grated cunning combinations. They have
appealed to the passions, the prejudices,
the old associations of the people The
people in turn have held up the tax lists
and compared rum years with prohibi-
tory years.. and while all men like their po-
litical friends, it is rather fatiguing to pay
annually very large amounts for the distinc-
ton of being whig or democrat. So itcomes
to pass that even selfshness goes to the aid
Of philanthropy, when prohibitory law is
once established. Now, l say, in view Of
these things, the question is narrowed to
Legislative reform or no reform. When de-
voted Sons of Temperance have been labor
ing to bring about the end proposed by our
institution, by the only means now known
upon earth which can achieve it, and when
they have been spending time and labor
and money, and riskipg health and rspu-
tation, and have seen all their work undone
by few apathetic members of the Order,
or by few who acknowledge the claim of
political parties to transcend the claims of
their country and of our Order, by few
who suffer themselves to be gulled or lashed
into the service of drinking or drunkard-
making politicians how can we expect
them to submit to such injury? They will
leave us. They will perceive at once that
they can achieve more out of the Order
than in it.
1t is because these facts and the reports
from the Division have come under my OBJ
servation, that am compelled to report q
4 pretended decrease in moral power The
2 result Of our elections in many places ha!
4 4 led men not belonging to US, who desire tt
cooperate with us, to fear as unreliablea
They cannot trust themselves to us as de
mocratic nominee can to his party or a whiG
II to his. Until it can be fully known that il
g any election the Sons of Temperance can b.
,, confidently counted upon as going for tho
d Temperance candidates, we are powerless
e We are worse than that. We are an OBJ
stacle. Unless we can fight togethar let u
4 disband. No man is willing to be march
: ed up to battery in a company and be de
le serted at the moment Of the discharge
.. speak earnestly, for / know the feelings c
ID honest, moral, intelligent men out of th
D. Order. And know their opinions to b
in too we'll grounded.
40 The excuse made by Sons of Temperanc
IS. who fy their colors in battle, is that we al
re not to let the Order have anything to q
Vn with politics. Convince me of this, and
OF Law down the highest honor of the Order
IS, this State and abandon it for ever. kno
Ii that our Order is so organized that no poll
re ical partisan can seize it for base purpos
ch I understand the spirit of our Order ar
ur our obligations to be such that no man
70 bound, unless he choose to abandon his p
10, litical party, but he is bound by no distir
en- VOWS but by the spirit Of our Order, to vo
'ut for only such men of his party as are on Of
INT side. That he is not bound to vote for az
. man because he is Son of Temperate
ice but that he is bound not to vote for al
are man, in or out Of the Order, who is opp
I'VE sed to the reform. III am mistaken in thi
ent it is a mistake of long standing, and m
II take which has perpetuated my connect,
ex- with the Sons of Temperance. Seven yea
der ago, in an Address to this Grand Divisio
An took this ground,
"Our temperance principles must be carried
IL to all our connections in life. There is gu
lth- tOn of national or State policy now equal in
md portance to the question involved in this ST
moral reform. We must, therefore, let all our
pirants for Office know that no man can have
It'll votes who does not give all his influence agai
cen this traffic. We must respectfully let our leg
~. tors know that they have no right or power to b
out what God curses that they are acting against
our the received maxims of ordinary prudence in
oral censing those who are to make Paupers and CT
Il Iinals. and to create a loss to the State which
""0 more than counterbalances the received fol
sons censes.& Suppose our Legislature should proI
our to legalize the violation of the Sabbath and st
=. inv. and murder, and adultery, in open tern
II would that make it right, and would not the Oh
urse ans throughout the State rise up against such
And outrage7 And what less is virtually done W
Moe the sale of ardent spirits is hcensed2 1t is
sidered in our Statute-Book crime to sell with
Oun- I;asnss ndictable and fneable: but not WI
pre- to sell with a licese. Why not license men to
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