Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-08-25
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

Should any trader or taverner in a city or village
be only suspected of communicating to his neigh
bors, or the passers by, the virus OF the small pox
or the seeds of any other dreadful disease, would
the public sit still and aliow him to prosecute his
diabolical work ? | need not tell you, nay; YOU all
know they would not. There is reason to appre.
bend, rather, that the public indignation would be
too hot to wait for the processes Of law, but wo III
vent itself upon the wretch in the most summary
manner. And yet the crime of such a enc would
be really not greater than that Of the rum-seller r.
Who of you would not prefer to die of small pox,
or yellow fever, or cholera; than to die of intern
perance What parent here, who has an only son,
the delight of bis eyes, the hope Of his house. the
staff Of his age, would no-t-ncompGrably prefer to
see that son a corpse, covered all over with tho
marks Of the most hideous disease that ever infes-
Is the human body, than to see him bloated and
blotched as the victim Of drunkenness? | know
this question can be answered but in one way
Why, then, oh why have we tolerated the rum
sellers so long? They are the most dangerous class
Of men, the worst enemies to the peace, good order
weilbeing Of society. They are she instigators to
crime; the accessories before the fact to the most
horrid, heilish deeds that men commit.
The community will never deal with rum-sellers
and drunkards, as they ought to be dealt with, I'M
til the sin of drunkenness is fully appreciated
Fellow-citizens drunkenness is one Of tile greatest
sins man can commit. Poverty, sickness, tile dis
ruption Of domestic ties, the disturb ance of the
puDllc peace OulTuScs upon properly ana persons,
are dreadful evils-but they are not SO dreadful as
the evil passions which impelled men to infict
them, or the malignitY or the the avarice which
stimulated those passions to violence. The cause
of all crimes. This is not generally conceded in
the present case. Let me then enforce the asser-
ton. If a man commits a breach of the peace
theft, arson, rape or murder, when intoxicated, our
sage Iawgiyers and iurlsts tell US his crime is az
gravated by the fact that he was drunk when he
perpetrated it. But is this a correct statement of
the case? ] trow not. The wretched criminal
may have been as devoid of evil intention, nav. ms
utterly unconscious Of what he was about, as n
crazy man; and 50 he may have been as truly irres.
ponsible for his acts at the time as he would have
been if he were insane from any other cause. All
his sin then virtually resides in tic making ofhin.
self insane, putting out the eyes Of his Understand
ing, dethroning his reason, quenching his moral
sense, and so fitting himself in his madness to
scatter about 'irebrands.a arrows and DEATH Hav.
ing prepared himself for crime, having put it out
of his power to control his conduct, and left it to
accident to determine his course, he must be lust
as sinful if he does not, as if he does commit any
violence upon the property, the peace or the per.
son Of his neighbor. Human governments have
not, in modern times, seen fit TO arrest, try and
punish an intoxicated man, unless his stimulated
passions have broken out into certain overt acts OF
violence. But to the drunken man, all may have
been a blank between the act of swallowing the
portion that made him drunk, and the commission
of the deed for which he is arraigned. lie cannot
be guilty of the crime charged, any more than he
would be if he were crazy. Consequently, all his
wickedness must be found in his drinking what h
knew would take away his senses; and here thu
guilt is obviously the same, whether in the inter
val of moral Inconsistencies lie shall be left t
perpetrate a devilish deed or not.
Ii what | have said on this point be true, and
am confident that after due consideration you will
assent to its correctness-then are all those per
sons, who help to make men drunk, Accessories
/ before the fact to the high crimes and misdemea
nors which intoxicated men are liable to COMM
/, and ought TO be held and accounted accessories t
= the highest crimes, whether the overt acts whicl
bear those bad names happen to be perpetrated 0
not. If the makers Of false keys, or Of counter
: felt money, or of contrivances for the firing q
! buildings or of any other internal machines
; would be justly seized and treated as criminal
. although their instruments of fraud or vIolenc
had never been used, much more should they
n regarded and treated as aiders and abettors
crime, who stimulate men to use the instruments
fraud or violence, even though they may have bee
diverted from such OWL purposes Rev. Samu'
= j. MAYS Grafton on the Inauguration Of the Main
Law in New York.