Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-02-29
Original IeMpefaQcc.
For the Journal.
To the Youth of Our Land.

such profound ignorance. All reprobate
drunkenness, and YET, not one of the thous-
ands who fall into it dreams of the danger
when he enters the way that leads to it,
The soldier, approaching the deadly breach,
seeing rank after rank of those who preced-
cd him swept away, hesitates sometimes,
and reeoils from certain death; bat men be-
hold the effects upon others of going in
certain course, they see them begin, adj
vance and end in confirmed intemperance,
and unappalled rush heedlessly upon the
same ruin. a
A part of this heedlessness arises from
the underlined nature of the crime in its ear
" stages, and the ignorance of men concern
ing what may be termed the experimental
indications of its approach. Theft and false
hood arc definite actions. But intemper-
anee is a state of internal sensation, and the
indications may exist long, and multiply,
and the subject of them not be aware that
they are the signs of intemperance.-
1t is not uanfrequent, that men become ire
claimable in their habits without suspicion
of danger Nothing, therefore, seems to be
more important than description of this
broad way, thronged by so many travellers,
that the temperate, when they come in sight
of it, may know their danger and turn away.
Intemperance is the sin of our land, and,
with our boundless prosperity, is coming in
upon us like flood; and if anything shall
defeat the hopes of the world, which hang
upon our experiment of civil liberty, it is
that river of fire, which is rolling through
our country, destroying vital air, and extend
ing around an atmosphere of death.
The more common apprehension is, that
nothing is intemperanee which does not
supercede the regular operations of the
mental faculties and bodily organs; howev-
er much man may consume of ardent
spirits, if he can command his mind, his ut
terance, and his bodily members, he is moi
reputed incorporate; and yet, drinking
within these limits, he may be incorporate
in respect to inordinate desire, the expense
incurred, the present effect upon hi:
health and temper, and moral sensibilities
and what is worse, in respect to the ulti
mate and inevitable results of bodily anC
mental imbecility, or scottish drunkenness
The effect of ardent spirits on the brain
and the members of the body, is among th'
last effects of intemperance, and the leas
destructive part of the sin. 1t is the mora
ruin which it works in the soul, that gives i
the denomination of giant wickedness. I
all who are Incorporate, drank to insensi
bihty, and on awakening could rise from th'
debauch with intellect and heart uninjured
it would strip the crime of its most appal
/ inc evils. 1t is a matter of undoubted Ger
tainty, that habitual tippling is worse thai
periodical drunkenness. The man witt
once month drinks himself dead, all bu
simple breathing, viii out-live for years tn
man who drinks little and often, and is moi
perhaps, suspected of intemperanee. N
person can receive ardent spirits into hi
system once day, and exercise such dis
cretion and self government that the quan
tity Will not be increased, and bodily infirm
tiles and mental imbecihty be the result
and in most instances inebriation.
A resort to ardent spirits as a means c
invigorating the intellect or of Pleasurabl
sensations, is intemperance. 1t is dis
traint upon nature to extort in a short tim
those results of mind and feeling which i
her own unimpelled course would flow wit
less impetuosity, but in more equable an
healthful current.
The mind has its limits of intellectual ap
plication, and the heart its limits of fleeing
and the nervous system of healthful exhil
ration; and whatever you gain throug
stimulus, by way of anticipation, is only S
much intellectual and vital power cut off a
} the latter end of life. 1t is this occult ii
) temperance, of daily drinking, which genel
ates a host of bodily infrmities and disea;
les; loss of appetite, nausea at the stomach
, disordered bile, Instructions of the live
jaundice, dropsy, hoarseness of the voice
ghs,consumption, rheumatic pains, ,epileT
sy, gOut cholic, palsy, apOplexy and insanit
are the body guards which attend intempel
ance, in the form of tippling, and the odiOu
name of drunkenness may, perhaps, be neve
applied. Let it therefore be eagrayen W
on the heart of every going man, that til
daily use Of ardent spirits IN any form, 0
IN any degree, IS Sintemperaace. 1t is a wa
upon the human constitution, which neve
fails to subtract more vital power than
imparts. Like the letting out of water b
r little and little, the breach widens, till lif
itself is poured out. If all diseases whic
terminate in death, could speak out at th
grave, OF tell their origin upon the cofir
lid, weshould witness the most appalling an