New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-08-06
chased legal opinion, as to the uaconstitutiOn
slity Of d. Law

atty Of tie Law.
The FIVE or six dissenting Boston Jurors,
though Doubtless very much sustained ant aided
BY the serene light Of each others coun.e1s aces,
would however hardly find in that, or even
in the secret testimony Of their individual
condolences, any more than in the red nOses
OF the drunkArds and the restitution and misery
Of their wives AID children, justification for the
course they have taken. Nor would the expect.
ston of being ciApped on the back and pro-
noubcei good fellows" by the rumseller' De Of
itself alone a sufficient inducement to act as they
have done. What Jurors need to susta n them
in such course is tie eountenance OF at least
the tolerstion Of the leading classes in the
community, especially Of those who claim TO
lead in ell questions Of morals and religion.
That the Boston Jurors who have undertaken
to block the operation of the Liquor Law in
that city, TO all appearances have; and while
that state Of things continues it is reasonable TO
expect the natural results Of it,
In this matter Of deliyerance from the terrible
scouree Of the liquor trade every community
must work out its own salvation. II is seldom
that either individuals or cities are saved lnde-
pepdeDtly of their own excrtions. But IN the
matter Of the suppression Of the liquor traffic BY
law, the conduct of the religious aud moral
leaders Of Boston has been for the last fifteen
years the extreme Of pusillanimity not TO call
il by any barsher name.
When in 1857 Massachusetts, took the lead in
the movement for the entire suppression of the
LIQUOR traffic, by enacting the set known ss the
Fifteen Ga Ion Law-from the Circumstance that
it prohibited the sale of liquors in quantities less
than fifteen gallons-the moral and religious peo-
pie Of Boston rallied generally to its supports and
when the liquor-dealers, with that mixture Of
fraud and audscity by which their conduct has
ever been distinguished, secretly cOnspred and
got possession of the Boston Nominating Com
mittees for the purpose Of nominating city
ticket for the Legislature pledged TO repeal the
act, the good people of Boston rose in
rebellion against that fraudulent nOmina-
ton and defeated it. Bat when the
liquor-dealers by joining the Democrats had
elected Marcus Morton Governor by one
vote, the Boston leaders were seized with
a sudden panic, and finding that the en-
lOICtHcht vi TIC Law was hvN W Dp A"tAASt
without struggle, they at once abandoned the
contest, and have done nothing ever since ex-
cept to prate about the impossibility Of enforc.
ing prohibitory laws. That in the case of the
City of Boston an inability to enforce the Law
at present exists is unfortunately tos sp-
parent; but it is, we apprehend, what JOnithan
Edwards would call moral not natural in
ability, the want Of a viii rather than the
want of either natural or legal power.
How this want of will is best to be dealt with
whether by rubbing ones hands together and
mumbliDg 81 can't'-when any liquOrdealer
breaks or wriggles through the meshes of the
Law, crying out with selfsatisfed air, "See
"there l told you so and when Jurors disa-
gree, laying the whole blame of the matter upon
Reform Legislatures, or anybody else, rather
than on the real sinners-whether or not such
is the beet way 10 meet this case of moral
inability We shall respectfully refer to the
pIayerful consideration of The Trdrelier, which
must be taken to be far better skilled in theo-
logical apbysics-conducted as it is by half
a dozen clergymen, more or less-tban we can
pretend TO De.