Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-03-14

before you Was there Ia single memorial
against them? How then did you get your
informationi All! gentlemen, the truth is
out that paragraph was written when you
were sorely pressed bl your appetites.-
Tough beef and two dollars a day had made
you mad. And your own insane desire for
what your 'appetites crSYed' was what you
sane desire of the memortalists.
Your proposition, gentlemen, is a SANDER
upon the community f. since the Chris
tan Apostle declared that, if eating meat
would cause his brother p offend he would
eat no meat while the world stands the
whole christian community, and every patri-
otto citizen, have beep- ready to surrender
: without o struggle any right, the exercise
of which tends to the ruin pf society," And
of the truth of this you had 5000 witnesses
before you, when you wrote that paragraph.
But I must proceed with your reasons
You say:
"Nothing is so detestable to q people as a med
ding govern ent-a government that tells them
what to read and write, and What to eat, drink and
wear. Our fathers within our knowledge would
not tolerate it and we are not more patient than
they"
Every single word in this paragraph, which
has any sense in it, is false. The sense Of
the first proposition is this: If a govern
ment interfere with what a man reads,
writes. eats and drinks then the govern
men5 Is hieddfing wiSh4xhat does not c5ks
Germ it, and is detestable.' If this be true,
then your own State government is detesta-
BILE, and you are detsstable legislators. Have
not quoted page and section Of your law
which Furnishes with pillory, whipping and
death for what a man may speak, read or
write And did you not vote for the sam
law in the. New Revisalf' And do you not
know that drunkenness has always been pun
ishable? And do you know of a govern
ment upon the face of the earth that does
not concern itself with what q man may
speak, read and write And are all govern
ments detestable I know that there are
a certain class of men to whom government
is detestable. They are such as desire to
run riot and
Deal damnation rouLd the land :"
but they are worse men than | had taken
my chosen eleven to be. But you say
: our fathers could not tolerate it, / deny
it. Whom Do you mean? When were the
times? What were the instances? You do
not name them. 1t is suggested that you
would not drink the British tea, because
there was a tax on it. Is this what you
mean? Then it is false to say that we are
not more patient than they ; for We do
drink tea, and there is a tax upon it. If
this is what you mean, then it is disingen-
uous and unstatesmanlike. Has not the gov
eminent always had a tax on tea? Il be-
| lieve it is not one of the articles free O fduty !;
{ if it is, then any article that is taxed will
answer my argument as well.) And have
not our fathers, and have not we, always
r drank tea? That which our fathers would
) not tolerate was not a tar on tea, but it was
the British tao on tea. It was, that a gov
/ eminent in which we had no voice, taxed US.
3 And l dare say that if any government in
which we had no voice were to tax or NEEDLE
: with US in any way, whether with our eating
t or what Motive would not tolerate it. But
? no instance is known in which our fathers
or ourselves refused to tolerate the laws
!, which our own government makes. But,
gentlemen, | do confess that your Report,
e which is a sort Of quasi legislation, puts our
federation to the severesltcst. Perhaps the
design of it was to prov khat, if we can toll.
T crate that, then we can blerate anything.
Your 9th paragraph is not worth a cent,
y unless you can make the pursuit of happi.
S ness consist in the ruin of society,' and the
traffic in spirits the gift of God
n Your 9th paragraph is quite noticeable, and
n deserves another letter, which you shall have
next week. Yours, truly,
PICKLED-ROD.