Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-05-30
The Temperance Triumuhs.

Tn onward and steady march of the tenn
perance host, as it redeems State after State
from the curse of intemperance, heralds a
moral triumph, over which the heart Of every
true patriot should swell. with the proudest
exultation.
For the last twenty years, the Union has
been agitated from one border to the other by
political struggles and barterings for spoils
and office, leaving in its train the blighting
influences of corruption and the blackness of
drunken ~demagogues and for this the people
have heretofore been aroused in their passions
and feelings-but all this dwindles into in
significance when compared with the grand
and lofty struggle Of freemen resolving to
cast off the yoke of bondage" and relieve
themselves from the blighting influences Of
the rum traffic, and to shut down the food
gates of intemperance whose dark and dam
ming tide sweeps away thirty thousand of our
fellow citizens with each annual sun.
The reform heralds q moral heroism that
rises up in grandeur over the nation, replete
with good, and which will rebound to the
welfare of men and result in far greater
blessings than ever entered the brain of po-
litical demagogues whose highest ambition
is to receive patronage and whose God and
master is the loaves and fishes of Office.
Yes, there is q moral grandeur in the en-
terprise and each soldier in the host is a
%dauntless hero. The heroism of the generals
on the tented plains of the Alma is IN martial
conquests and triumphs, and in the seething
flash of bursting shells and ring of blood
stained sabres their names are being heralded
from continent to continent by the flying
steamers like mighty shuttles, as heroes
worthy of proudest eulogy !; yet in Albior
there is wailing cries and on Alma's plain,
dying soldiers and curdling blood. But il
the triumphs of the temperance reform
amidst the efulgence of Love, Purity anC
Fidelity, there is a glorious sublimity that
braves the scorn and reproach of s%cofing
multitudes, and filings the glory of its triumph
from cline to cline with q brighter hall
than ever ~gladdened warriors eye through
the smoke and carnage of tented fields.
| In this struggle there are no Sebastopols
, Crimeas or Balaklavas. No pits are dug t
D be filed with the mangled corpses ofthe slain
t Walls are not reared against mountains no
r gates built by the river. The shrieks of dy
l ing victims startle not the ear as the carr
man comes around with his spade to carr
e away the dead. But in the wake of its figh
t a beauteous effulgence glimmers-a pathwa
a of joy where Angels might love to walk an
9 sing. The inmates of thousands of broke
homes rejoice in thankfulness as the stone
$ rolled away from the grave of buried hope
d and the victims of the curse come forth wit
broken letters.
1t is a false philosophy that looks only ft
heroes in the smoke of battlefield and facin
the iron hail of brazen cannons. We love
turn the eye across the moral field whel
d veterans march with stately tread, and a
cord praise to those who dare to strike f
glorious principle in the face of opposing ri
!. ;cnle. and with kindly hand lift the man fro
the depths of degradatiSn ana shame b
y g Stotn we We See s,ot tins t6 6onq m"rSl sublimity q Of Il
80 reform spans the world witRR the CrlShtne
ir of a better day, and rises faAaoo'e Tue Col
st mon eulogy of man. c r.
The heart throbs proudly < state All
III State holds up its broken chains" IN S"e
the choral shout.