Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-08-28
FRIDAY, AUGUST II, 1855.
THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION IN
tl CONNECTICUT. sis

l
Probably there is more Intoxicating liquor re-
tailed IN Hartford at this time than ever before,
and evidently there is more drunkenness. A
| stringent law will not make men moral or
temperate. The liquor generally used at this
time is said to be verv deleterous article and
is doing much harm. A laborer remarked tho
present week to one of our merchants, that he
knew OF twenty three places on one short street
where liquors were sold. The town rum agency
is also in full blast, dealing out large quantities
Club-rooms have multiplied to fearful extent,
hundreds of families in which liquor was unknown
before August last. now keep variety and ask
their friends to drink. This one feature alono is
doing incalculable mischief. The fashion of
keeping liquors upon the family sideboard is fast
coming into use, and its evils as great as those
of the rum shop. The liquor law is the parent of
that evi.--Nesc Haren Palladium.
CV-A more shameless, contemplate article
than the above. was never penned but when We
consider the source from which it originated, we
are rot as much surprised as we might have been
under other circumstances. The Hartford Times,
the paper that is justly entitled to the credit of
this article, is now, and always has been, bitter
opponent of the Maine Liquor Law, no doubt more
from personal taste than from airy principal its
passage would involve. When man has been
in the habit of iml,ibing freely for many years,
and has acquired strong desire for liquor
that he has become mere slave to his
appetite, it could hardly be e.pec.ed that he
would make what he would no doubt consider
great saci iice live without little of the stim-
ulous. Well, if he wants to drink it, and will in
the face of reason and common sense, when he
knows as he most certainly must, that by SO doing
he will injure himself both bodily and mentally,
let him do so, but why fabricate story, why pro-
mulgate doctrine that cannot possibly do any
one the remotest coed, but on the contrary injure
all who are SO We * as to be led by the last faint
glimmering of ignis atuus he sets before them.
Ii our cotemr orary cannot live without drinking
himself, for the sake of common humanity, let
him not hold the glittering cup of poison before
his fellow men and enticc them into the broad
road to ruin, where they in companywith himself
will stagger down the steep descent and finally
plunge into the darkest recesses of oblivion.
If We cannot do good, let us not do harm. If
our neiehbor is in the path of morality and sobri-
ETY., let us not attempt to lead him into dissipa-
tion and n. This article has been copied into
the Pioneer and st. Croix lnion, and to show
those gentlemen as well our readers, the utter
fallacy it puts forth, give short extract from
speech of Ex. Gov. Duiton. He says:
We have now lived for one year under the pro-
hibitory law. And it is great wonder that after
what have read in the papers about the oppres-
slve character OF the enactment, so many of our
citizens as see here tonight, should be present
it is matter of congratuation that so many have
lived through the past year of oppression. Let
us take a look backward through the year that is
gone, and forward to the one that is to come
And in looking back, Mr.. President, am proud,
first, of the Legislature of 1854, the body which
passed the Prohibitory law. am proud, too, of
the people OF Connecticut, who elected such
Legislature. am proud of the clergy of the
State, who have to man, sustained the act. We
may have or two cler gymen who will sustain
even the Fugitive Slare Law, but there is not one
who goes against this benifcent statute; and
much OF the success which has attended it for the
past year has been owing to them. Then l am
proud of the lawyers of Connecticut, to which
profession belong. No one of them has ever,
for fee, or without fee, pronounced our law un-
constitutional. Indeed, distinguished lawyer Of
this city, the only gentleman who was intinated
to have said that the law was not valid one, on
hearing OF the ruinor, took pains to contradict it,
and assured me that he never gave such an opin-
ion. am proud, too, of the physicians of the
State. None know more than they of the evils
of the traffic. And am proud of the ladies, for
with them most laws originate, and certainly
y
or be repealed. am proud of our merchants, to
whom the Rev. gentleman who preceded me, has
given their need of prase-proud also of the
mechanics and farmers of our State. And wish
to notice the influence of our States action upon
other States. know that copies of our law have
been sent from hence to more than half the States
in the Union; have myself mailed it to individ-
uals in eighteen States. 1t has accomplished
great good-the goods just commenced, and now
it must be followed up.
Let US look then, to the duty for the year to
come, which devoves upon the friends of the law.
Its success rests with them. 1t will never be re
pealed if its friends are faithful. And what they
must do is this: establish the principle that no
party can be safely trusted with the government
Of this State who will repeal It. 1t is our duty to
adopt this course. The law itself is so framed
that it will carry itself into execution, whether
authorities are in its favor or not, if it's friends
arc faithful to it. So We have bright prospect
before US.