Smyrna times., 1855-01-24
miscellaneous,
Temperance in New Work.

subject of Inemperauce and the Sale OF lntoxl- !
eating Liquors, made the following report:
They entirely concur with III; Governor in !
his views, expressed in that portion OF his |
| message referred to them, They are IlsO sat !
isbed that ne tune has arrived when sound and
Wholesome legislation, winch shall eLitclually |
put stop % The sale and puLlic use OF ihtoxt- |
eating liquors as beverage is demanded alike
by the voice Of the people, and the highest IN
terests of the State.
They are aware that since the public atten-
ton has been turned toward prohibition, very
many objections have been eravely urged
against any law upon the subject.
The annals Of the past abundantly prove that
intoxicating liquors have heretofore been re-
garded as dangerous 10 society, and their use Il
proper subject OF legislative restraint and pro-
hbItion, tor more than three thousand years, IN
different counr cs, uuGer different govern
ments, they have been thus treated.
History tells US that the ancient Egyptians,
Greeks, Romans, and other more eastern na-
tIons, through most periods of their existence,
maintained and enforced right and severe re-
strlctIols upon the use OF t0iHe--and exces i've
ndulgences was dt all times deemed CrlmiRa
In CHINA and some of the bordering nations
abstinence from intoxicating drinks is enforced
as a religious duty
He NeStcIH HdllOHS OI nave also
from time to time passed laws equally coudem-
natory OF mtempcrancc, and laying restraints
upon the Traffic OF intoxicating drinks, and they
are continued to the present time.
The coiHnon law trOwns upon ntemperancP.
1t holds 1t 10 be without apology ana con, enln-
as guilty hun committing u CRIME, while in the
widest insanity, caused by the use of lntoxica-
ting liquors
, In Oregon, years since, when the settlement
was new and made up Of people coIgregated
from different parts of the world the Sale ana
Manufacture OF Spirits was forbidden by law.
In all periods of our own history, and in that
OF most Of our :isler States, such sale has been
lald under severe restraints. JUDGED, hut one
! opinion has to any large extent prevailed
throughout all ages in regard to the evil conse-
quences of this traffic.
II barbarouS and semi i-barbarous, halfcivi-
Lied and civilized nations. have in all ages re-
garded it as evil and injurious, and needing re-
a strant, even IN the mllder forms III which aico-
= hol Is combined by fermentation. certainly We,
a highly civilized and Christian nation, ought
not to suffer 1t to goat large in its sublcr form
g of distillation.
r Your committee would not, however, urge
l. these records of the past as establ shng the
.s soundness Of legislative restraint prohibition
: now. The world may all this time have been
= wrong, and these recent scntlllations Of genius
= struck from the anvil of self-nterest, may be
y revealing to the real and true channel o
l. legislative action.
% One OF the gravest of these objections urge,
against legislation j., that "men cannot b,
N made moral. charitable, temperate, or honest b,
n law You" committee had always suppose.
that nasmuch as government was estS ID shed /,
K protect It's citizens, the primary o0l cl OF las
was TO restrain and prevent crime, not so mucl
No TO punish and reform the crmnal; that thes,
- latter were rather the Incidents not the snd
Ii this be So, the objection Is pOwcriess, since
ID though true, II argues nothing against any law
. B-cause men cannot be lcgslated moral" or
" 10 the language 6fanother, because temperance
le like other virtues, IL not Produced by law-ma
Is kers," does 1t follow that the weak, the help
ye less. the dependent, the moral, the vrtuous
ur should not be protected from the strong, tn
immoral, the vicious, by laws that shall reStrail
To- them Is it an argument TO be urged agalns
OF laws prohibiting and punIshng THEFT, burg larry
nd aad murder, that such laws W,l not make n
or moral, crme-nclmed men, moral and vlrtuOus
:, Yet such Is the character oil the objections urg
ed, and gravely, too, by those high III oflicu
~ position, which objections torn the kew that IN
I'D locks Pandora r box OF Executive charms whic
to me people have been scrutmiZlng the plst yea
zoe But, not content to rest their def nee upo
oi again that present laws are sufficient, If the
ok be but executed. Our first answer to that pos
I'd, tlon is, if they are why have not the opponen
. of Prohibition demonstrated Their sufficiency b
, ~ executing them! For several years ProLib
- ton has been urged throughout the State a
h'- the only sufficient remedy The friends OF ia
measure had tried the present laws thoroughly
il" but without any considerable success. The
cd efforts have become part OF the judicial RECORD
- Of the State. Public opinion has, during tn
AN period, been rising higher and approachin
so nearer the stand points of Prohibition. FL
Sc, some time 1t has been apparent to the mo-
nd casual observer that unless something wa
,ut done, Prohibition was inevitable. Why hay
on not it's opponents stepped out upon the presel
ga laws and demonstr ted their claimed sufhclenc
The if the really possess it. Had they done so tn
,ilt exciting question had long since been put
lie rest. Humanity would have clapped her hanC
in. tor Joy. Posterity would have bowed at the
er. shrine in grateful remembrance, and have fe
tic elevated by the homage -a. ..t
md Another answer Is, that present laws, fro
The their nature, cauuot effect the object The
,py do not propose to. They are wrongly bascd.-
a." They proceed upon the hypothesis that it is rig
leir and proper to drink intoxicating liquor as
the bevarage. They sanction and Encourage suS
of drinking. They create a morbid appetite, al
ro- then put on a curb-bst, with stroug reins and
and niorat driver TO n9Id y IN eaeck. Wnat Is y
g consequence That in the Stats there are no
,eir over $4,000 who, deeming themselves as ski
and iui relhsIneA as those selected by the boards
ilv. Excise, have assumed the drivers seat, al
= their number is annually increasing. Whe
hou under present laws, will that number begia
m" dininishl Neutr License in each TOW
twenty. in the city of New York seven tho
- sand, good moral men to swear aud ste i, a
J. let them goabout doing so, and all the La,
and police power Of the State could not preve