Plymouth banner. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1852-1855, 1855-01-04
We copy the foil wing from the 'Hro
ist," published al AibanyN Y.
What is jour Rum Tax!

The burdens which drunkenness imposes IN
on society, are borne. Cor the most par; By the
sober aaa industrious. Fw understand how
heavy these burdens really are: how much ex-
renditure of time and muscle they demand
and how utterly unnecessary they all are. SO
long have the people bowed their patient necks
beneath the accumulated load, that they forfeit
e the right to lit their heads and look the
bloated r lib in tie face, TO whom they have
paid tribute. 10! these many year.
What would he said by the yeomanry e the
mi, should G. vcrnrent demand of them the
N duct of every tenth days toll to swell its
revenues, There would he heard q lnurnnr
from the multitude. growing deeper, louder,
more 81 gniticant and terrible with each passing
hour. till it should swell TO thunder, rolling in
many voiced ahaihemas ag inst the Tyranny
thar w snld thus rob LABOR OF lis reward. But
Labor is robbed, IleS e-ihelcsSr and submits to
il with patience that endangers the hard
worn laurt Is If the Man 81 u: rosbed, toe, by
the sanction o. the law making power; tnroU Oh
a legislation alike mpolitic, inl;n,rl and slb-
<urd, opposed to the purpose for which Civil
Government was ordained, finding Eo defence
in issiuhsrcni power, and TO excuse except in
the guoruncc orso'lY that enact what appetite
and ayarce desnsnd.
1t was sometime siLcc estimated BY Ma.
GRIZZLY tiat I've wears oi NE lie OF % cry so
Der and Industrious man, VINO reaches the age
OF foriy-ive, 60 to app 9rt dr1nkaids, ist\ the
criminals that Drunkenness makes. fnlt IL.
one day In nine. b, ginnI w lii his infancy ard
extending through forty five ye rs. he is cons
PEELED to devote 10 the bcneiit,i the Rum Pow
era O., eStinatng that his acsive, ieas aproduces
commence with his twenty first yeas, ore day
in fv0! What an enormoua drain upon the in
dustry of people is tlris.-and this is Rum
Tax! Whom does it benefit Not ourselves,
nor our Oh llren-not the drunkard norhs tam
Ily.-ft dc es not build churches, nor end W
schools, nor dig canals, nor link State to State
by the iron hands OF the ralway.-It does Meth
ing fer the publc-no;liing for the in.hvidu l =
Why, then, should we longer submit to il!
A law brohibtcry Of the Igor traffic. similar
Ia that oi NJ zine rigdly en- forced us it must be
W, nd gradually lift ilom tie people this euor
nous burden, No. in one year, nor in iive,--
| perhaps not wholly in teIi--Lut Ultimately; am
thea, once freed from the weight which the,
had borne so long they would look with amaze
mcnt upon the folly that had imposed and en-
,lured il thrs ugh years multiplied into years.
generations asded 10 generations.
| Ia view oftlis Rum tax so needless and enor
m6us borne patiently ard long by the sobol
and industr;t,u iljurisz 10 then and e.ieftin.
| n one who will venta to say that The dcnai.,
Tor plohiDitnry law Is unjust or uni e lsonahl,
or that the Civil Power IS rue TO the purpose o
It's ordination, while it dc ies that projection
which il owes to the peoplci We pause, no
for reply, exactly--ier We expect re; bu
10 let the reader ponder the sign ficant iac that
Ihowever sober he may lie himself, his Rum Tai
s.bsors just fifth of his active life from tn
age OF twenty TO foriy-iiSe.