Smyrna times., 1855-04-18
Correspondence Of the Smyrna Times.
a0ne Of the Dear People,"
"The Delaware State Renor,sr

| lhinks the article was not written by the same
person as the former, over the same signature,
because 1t manifests a greater attempt at ar
gument than the former" | shall not CRAFTY
the curiosity of the Editor. Whether the arti-
cles that have appeared, and may get appear
over the signature of " One of. the Dear. Pen.
ple,' are all written by the same person, or are
the Jomt production Of score of different indi
vlduals, is none OF the Reporters business
Inc articles when published are public proper
ty' and he is at liberty to deal with them as he
pleases. He says his first editorial was written
as mere notice of the passage of the Prohb.
tory Law-that it occupied about one column
that | attacked it in an article of two col
umns, and that | now talk about the lenpth Of
his editorial. His simple notice of the. passaoe
was "rabld editorial, breathing throuohont
violent opposition to the law; as such | did at
TACK IT, and shall claim the privilege ALWAYS to
attack similar ones. AS to the lenUtb of his
EDITORIAL that is not the one of which spoke.
thought he was "gong it strong" when he
got to tour-cOlumn editorials; but as that seems
to be his regular length in replies to One of
the Dear People," J. of course, must acoui-
esce; and the Reporter" here has nv " writ
ten permit " to make his editorials as long as
he pleases.
tie finds fault with me for stating that he did
not state facts fairly. l reiterate that state
ment The Editor of the :. Reporter" know.
that the great bulk of petitioners for a Prohb-
tory Law were voters of the State-he seems
to acqulesce in the number of voting petitioners
as being not less than 5000 again saw, that
If fairness had been his object, he would have
compared the 5000 voting petitioners with the
$4,000 voters in the State, and not have COM
pared the whole number of petitioners with the
entire population-men, women, children and
negToeS-and then gravely tell us that law
passed on the petitions of6, 600 voters met with
almost universal condemnation. If he has tho
temerlty to make such comparisons and sucb
assertions, he ought to be willing to have them
found fault with, without feeling that he WA :
prosecuted for righteousness sake" Whether
any OF those petitioners were children or NOT
am not prepared to say, though | do not be-
ieYe they were. The Reporters assertion that
some OF them were negroes, pronounce nm
true, and call on him for proofs of the truth of
his assertion.
In reference TO the propriety of the Report.
er's calling an Act passed by the Legislature of
Delaware "a law of the State of Maine"
have something to say. know, that in conse-
qlence of Maine being the State that first
! passed, or rather sustained, a Prohbitorv Law.
that such laws are frequently called :. the Maine
Law Had the Reporter" used the term in
| tins sense, merely SYNONYMOUS with the term
prohlbItory," | should have found no fault
with him, though it would have been more cor
rect to have called it by its proper name: but
he used the term in no such sense-it was an
eHort TO cast opprobrium on the law, not by
showing that 1t was impolItic, unjust, tvranni-
cal or unconstitutional, but by representing it
as Yankee notion by saying that it was
the first time in the history of Delaware leOis.
iatIon that the State had been dsgraced: by
what the passage of PrOhibitorv Law no :
the passage of the Maine Law" " no; but bv
placing upon its Statute Book ga Euw Of the
State Of Maine! The law passed bv the late
Legislature oil Delaware is by 10 means the
same law as that enacted in Mane--it differs
from /. IN many respects, and differs. too. in
leading features Of that law, to wit: the conHs.
cation Of the liquor kept for sale, and the right
Of search. Who does not, then, see that while
the " Reporter" might have been permitted TO
!
call our law "the Maine Law" he bad nc right
to call 1t ga law of the State of Maine ~
thereby Implying that it was literal COPY of
the Prohbitory Law passed in that State
But, again, so far from our going to Maine to
adopt the principle of Prohibition, Maine in
TACT, came to Delaware for that principle--the
Legislature Of Delaware having been the first
III the Union to pass Prohibitory Law; which
was pronounced by the Superior Court of tho
State to be unconstitutional-and. instead of
our Delaware Law being called ga law of the
State of Maine," it would be more in conson-
ance with the facts of the case, to call all Pro-
hlbltory Laws the Delaware Law" instead of
" the Maine Law
But the Reporter" insists that 7 shall
Pi"FS thdI law snOuId not be enacted pro-
hIblting the sale of guns, pistols, dirks, sword
canes, spears and other such destructSe wea
pons' on the same principle that would prohibit
the sale of intoxicating liquor" / might ask
what right the Reporter" " has to call upon
me to prove any such thing! We are discuss.
ing law relative to prohibition of the sale Of
Intoxicating drinks as beverage | nigh, say
to him am willing to prove that the law am
IN favor OF is just and proper, and you have no
right to call on me to make proof about imapi-
nary laws, when nobody dreams of asking for
their enactment; but profess to be an accom-
modating man, and the Reporter" shall be
gratifed. have already proven to the salts
fiction of everybody else, except the Report
err" that the principle upon which Probibitorv