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

You create paupers, and lodge them in
your aims ~house-orphans, and give them
n residence in your asylum-convicts. and
send them to your penitentiary. You seduce
men to crime, and then arraign them at the
bar Of justice -immure them in prison
With one hand you thrust the dagger to the
heart-with the other attempt to assuape
the pain it causes.-Dr. Thomas SetoaH.
And thus it has been since the liquor trail
fc first left the footprints of its curse upon
the land and its footprints have marked
every hill and shore where human foot has
trodden. Let us look at the curse in its true
light From the hour that Noah Law in his
tent drunken on the fruits of his VINEYARD.
the tide of intemperance has been flowing
on and onward, blighting earth's most sacred
hopes. The wrath Of Jehovah had blotted
out the curse in the old world but ere the
earth was dry, its poisonous waves had be-
gun its course in the new. And thus it has
been sweeping on with every days sunlight
and thousands have been borne away forev-
or with its maddening current. The bright
est and best hopes Of hearts and homes have
been withored and blasted for aye. Homes
have been broken by the iron wheel Of the
scourge, and the most sacred idols of the
hearthstone have been cast down and trodden
under the feet Of the ~insatiate monster. The
peace Of families has been disturbed, and
the most holy ties of earth severed by the
bloody sword waved by blood. stained hands.
Love has turned into hatred, and Joy into
mourning. Christians have been transformed
into devils and men into demons. Riches
have been sown to the wind and poverty fed
upon stones and serpents. Helpless women
have been slowly murdered and innocent
children turned away in the storm to hunger
and perish. Strong men have been bound
down in iron letters and giant minds have
persisted in the ruins Of intellectual temples
they have torn down with their own hands.
Earth has been rendered incarnadine with
murdered blood and the shadow Of the exc
cutioner's scaffold has darkened lands boast
ing Of civilization and morality. And to
support this curse, the people-the free peo-
ple-have tamely submitted to being annual
ly taxed with onerous taxation without a
murmur. What other system imposing the
same burthens upon the people would be
quietly tolerated ? Would freemen consent
to be annually taxed to support any other
system that would produce half the woe and
misery And for the perpetuationo of allthese
evils, who gains? A few men who have
been fortunate enough to prove in open court
a good moral character For the sake of a
few dollars, men who deal in Intoxicating
liquors, visit upon their fellow beings tho
direst woes of earth. They send calamitiei
upon their brothers for a few pennies, anC
turn loose the murderer with dripping blad,
for a price. They poison the fountains tina
they may gain gold and be clothed in fin,
linen ReU. JOHN WESLEY, in speaking 0
this matter says:
"The men who traffic in ardent spirit, an,
sell to all who will buy, are prisoners geneI
p. ~ -ars.
wholesale neither does their eye pity no
spare. And what is their gain? Is it nc
the blood of these men? Who will env,
their large estates and sumptuous palaces
A curse is in the midst Of them. The ours
of God is on their gardens, their walks, thei
groves n fire that burns to the nethermos
hell. Blood, blood is there the foundatio
the floor, the walls, the roof, are stained wit
blood"
And in the final day, when the murdert
man and woman and child shall come L
from the grave when the rum made suicit
shall stand in the great company with gapir
throat of CHASTITY wound and when the riv
and sea shall send up its dead tribute fro
its briny bed, q voice, not like that Of ma
shall ask Of the " innumerable company
the startling questionable Slew all these =?
And will the rumscller have an answer :?
Chi bono Who gains? \