Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-06-27


same blow attempt to ALLEVIATE one portion
OF the country from another Such man
" Is fit for treason stratagems and spoils,
The motions of his spirit are dull as night.
His affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted"
This degeneration in the capabilities Of
the Statesmen of the age is evidently moral,
produced in great degree by the moral fac
ulties becoming SO blunted by the extern
sive and habitual use of alcohol in almost
all classes of our citizens, as for them to be
unable to clearly see, and rightly appreciate
the good and true. By it they are made
ignorant and as dumb dogs sat eannot
baark,,sleeping, lyingsless S lssssg d SUM.
ber Come ehe the Demagogue, J
| will fetch vine and We will fill ourselves
with strong drink and tomorrow shall be
as this day and much more abundant
The history of intemperance is one of
fearful interest. Look where we will at
the past, in every age since the introduc-
ton of alcohol, and we see the ravages of
the dread destroyer. Nations once prospe-
rous and powerful under the benign infu-
ence of temperance principles, were reduced
to efeminacy and poverty through exces-
sive indulgence in wine and the many in
novations which follow in the train ofABac-
chus. Where are proud Babylon and Min
evah? Their greatness stands recorded on
the pages of history, their ruin is declared
in the annals of Intemperance and the
great Empire an Alexander called his own,
what says the epitaph which commentaries
its overthrow? Thus does it read--s Foun-
ded in rigid abstemiousness and virtue
destroyed by lntemperance it's withering at
tendant' Rome too has fallen, and look
at the origin of her decay. Her legions
while strong in interrupted appetite were
invircible; but when the tempter came
witE poisoned cup, she drank, and fell be-
fore her enemies. These are few of the
wrecks of Empires, all Of them mighty,
which like high and fearful monuments at
test the remorseless energy Of King Alcohol.
Such cloud is cast over the moral per-
ceptions of a people by its use for a num-
ber of generations, that we need not be sur
prised if wine is called virtue, and virtue
wine good evil and evil good The
sins of the father are visited upon the chill
dren to the third and fourth generation,
so that the son who in this day uses alco-
hol will be more liable to be injured by it,
if his parent used it before him, than if
they had not used it. There are fou4 chan
ces for him to become drunkard or to be
seriously damaged by it, where there would
have been but one if his forefathers had
not used it. How many among our friends
remembered for good-who might have
adorned society and adorned their country S
interests, but who wrote their names in
wine and saw them vanish with the sparkle
"What constitutes State
Not high-raised battlements or labored mound
Thick wall or moated gate
Not bays and broau arm ports
Where laughinga the storm, rich navies ride
Not starred and spangled Courts
When low bound baseness watts perfume
to pride
No! men, high minded men,
THESE constitute the State"
The capabilities of our country have beer
drowned in alcohol To resuscitate them
change in the morals of the present AM
rising generation is necessary. We wan
more of the frmness and temperance, pro
bity and uprightness that marked the char
acter of our forefathers.
The early settlers of this country brough
with them the seeds of temperance, and fo
several generations its principles were dill
gently instilled into their offspring Th
circumstances which surrounded them ren
dered this duty comparatively easy whe
contrasted with the difficulties in the wa
of such an undertaking at the present day
Being entirely cut off from the vices an
follies of European society, and not havin
the desire, if they had the means, to impo
Intoxicating liquors, several generation
passed by before the evils resulting fro1
the extensive use of it began to be felt
The result Of this total abstinence on Il
part Of the early settlers of our countr
was, that there sprung up race of me
here, who for physical nerve. mental res
luton and moral courage, have no superio
}, in the history Of the world. They we
reared, educated and fitted for the dischar,
of the responsible duties that in after Ii
devolved upon them, under prohibito
law
5 For greater part of the sixteenth ce
tury prior to the landing of the Pilgrir
$ on Plymouth Rock, the Spaniards he
f their Bacchanalian revels in the halls
f the Montezumas, and up to the period
: those deeds of heroism, and those mamie
t tations of virtue, which marked our entran
: into the family of nations, and opened
e to us the high pathway among them whi
d it has been our happy destiny to achie'
! had continued to degenerate from the d.
: ing, active and intelligent race that imm
n talized their father land To what sh
J. we attribute this degeneration if not to tn
; Bachanalian revels? To what shall we
tribute their signal failures in attempt
y to initiate our form of government, if
te to their moral and religious character
Or How utterly useless how utterly hopel
E. is the attempt of one individual to beco
is an intelligent, virtuous citizen who is ho
es ly, daily or periodically saturating hims
ID with alcoholic stimulants As with
L. individual so with the community, STATE
g. Nation, and as certainly as the individu
C. virtue and happiness are injured and
ly pride humbled by such course, so cert;
m ly Though it may not be so speedily !
to the nations prosperity and welfare be
tie jured and her pride humbled.
Ter Now to what do we owe our natiC
", birth, growth and prosperity, and to "
Ell are We to look for their preservation