Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-07-05
Snuirming and Twisting.

A DI
rafic. Here is one before US who affects to be viii ~
ing to submit the matter to the people, but forth j
With proceeds to bring his objections to bear a.
yainst the proposition, By saying that to vote bal .
OTIS simply inscribed z RefoEpv or No Reform y
carried so as to Be understood for prohibitions tt
would be no Reform at all That remark is so tow W
eringly sapient and wise that it is abore compre IL
and we therefore pass it by in wondering If
establishment. D
The same writer then proposes that a bill, posi- :,
lively and definitely settling the provisions to be !,
enacted, be printed aud scattered throughout the =
State, and then " let the people vote for or against =
that law" Very well; the friends of reform long ?
since proposed this plan, but our wise constitution !
al lawyers decided that such a course would be IN C
constitutional, for that instrument forbids the au- |
thority of tr%ansferin the law-making power to the 9
people, the General assembly alone being vested :
with the power to legslate. !
This writer objectsto Temperance Lecturers be-
cause they receive pay for their services. how
many of these political =" Patriots are there, who
serve their country without reward or emolument?
They love the dear people" nightly, for the sake
of Office and the dimes but temperance lecturers
must work for nothing and find themselves, else
these money-hating philanthropists will be down
upon them about .full purses" from sheer envy,
if nothing else.
But "we are opposed to trusting any set of men
who have but one idea" Indeed, Mr. Banner i
How many ideas have politicians? The outs have
the one idea of how they shall get IN, and the ms
the one idea of how they shall keep in. This one
idea business prevails equally with them as enmity
to intemperance does with the Reform men. Tenn
perance Democrats are just as good free suffrage
men, just as good internal improvement men, just
as true to their party principles, as liquor demo
Gratis, unless whiskey be attempted to be engrafted
upon their party creed-then they bolt. Temper
anee Wings are just as true and loyal to the inter
ests OF the State and of their party as anti-temper-
ance Wings, and will be foand discharging their
whole duty in the Legislature in every respect, but
not at the sacrifice of truth and virtue for the sake
of catering to g~rog-shop influence.
But temperance men are raising new issues and
exciting the people upon advanced schemes! Is it
not so in every cause? Do not politicians in every
campaign raise new issues and excite the people,
from the mountains to the ea-board, concerning fresh
schemes of State and National policy2 Must every
thing else advance and progress, but temperance
principles? Is it right to cry Reform upon al
other subjects except the liquor trafic-is that sys
tenn so perfect and sacred that it cannot be reform
ed-must not be interfered with?
All! but publishers of Temperance papers and
few designing men, have misled thousands of hon
est ones, and pocketed their money Do politica
Editors work for nothing? Does the publisher Q
the Salisbury Banner labor for the good of his pal
- tv nIono with no hOna n p dnsira to 6 nookat 1nno
for the expenditure of his time and means? ]
he did not pocket money in so doing, would h
not drop the pen and scissors at once and go
some business that would give a support to himse
and family !? He ought to be ashamed of SUE
demagogical slang. What is there of argument
/ truth in such?
e We will not insult the readers of the Banner
, insinuating that its Editor is able to 'mislead the
The free citizens of North Carolina are as intel
gent and discerning as are the Editors of pape
and have too much good sense to be 'misled' by {
; thinking and acting for themselves, and are
'honest' and intelligent to be hoodwinked and
J. ceived concerning their duty to their country a
4; their fellowmen. The Banner is welcome to al
IL can make by impugning the intelligence of
people.
;, But, lastly, the agitation of the question of %
hibitlon has resulted in injury to the cause of te
" perance from the fact that some Divisions of
d Order of the Sons of Temperance have surrender
u their Charters, and some reformed menhave retu
y ed to their cups. Some ten or twelve years ago
ut country was filled with the triumphs of Washing
ne nianism. In every town, village and neighh
al hood, societies were established and millions
papoaS Uara oprol1ad on tbo;, .Il.. MI.
81 went on ~swimmingly a year or two, but soon
tide of success began to ebb, and before the orga
cation was five years old, there was scarcel,
- Washingtonian society to be found in existence
IA What produced this declension? Nothing but N
IL al suosion aoas then used or thought of but still so
ties went down, thousands of drunkards returne,
their old habits, ana hope almost seemed gone {
di- corning the great temperance reform! Why
lne this? It was because the temptation had
n. been removed; the novelty of the movement
S. subsidized, and men were e~ntrapped in the enen
snare. And if these miserable victims of the
%tation' of prohibition, who so excite the sympat
cd of the Editor of the Banner, were Intercepted a
IN the cause of their downfall, they would point to
lot law licensed whiskey den as the door that lie
Of their destruction.
The Order of the Sons of Temperance, it is t
does not now embrace as large a number in
" membership as it has in former years, in N
III Carolina, but the cause of temperance is in6ni
las stronger and more engrafted on public sentin
lid and feeling, than at any previous period
an where the agitation of prohibition has caused
Son of Temperance to desert his flag, a scor
others have rallied under the banner of exte
-, nation of the evil, because in this they could Sc
=. means of procuring relief from the liquor SCOT
!" But the Toss has not beeen so great as the Ba
$751; would intimate. By the Returns forwarded By
ent Grand Scribe in January last. we find thar du
ion the year 1853, there were 2,6O6 admitted int
the Order, and the entire number of members
iii. S,6O2. There were about l 900 expulsions for
~ %lations of the pledge, and about half that nul
of withdrawals and deaths togther. About Il
was the largest report of membership in the
au- ever made. so that from this exhibit doubl
De number were reduced by strong drink from
7 to fealty to the cause, than were driven away b.
itch prohibition sentiment that obtained among
members.
We think We have spiked every gun the b
| to has leVelled against prohibition, and we now
Tho him to repair the damage done.
1ks.
ling Bar From the Star of The West, of
avs 18th, a capital Temperance Paper, pri
p at San Francisco, California, we learn
pro- the Order ofthe Sons of Temperance is