Smyrna times. [volume] (Smyrna, Del.) 1854-1987, 1856-03-19
Another Letter from John Chambers.
PHILADELPHIA, Fish. 81, 1856.

PHILADELPHIA, Fish. 81, 1885,
Hon. HARLAN INGRAM-Mv Dear Sir
have read your speech delivered in the Senate
on the 18th inst, on the repeal of the Restrain.
ing Liquor Law | also read the speech of the
Hon. Judge Wilkins, and other distinguished
gentlemen OF the Senate. As proceeded, line
ny line, through the speeches, l earnestly
sought to lind, IN one or the other, or all tose-
ther, single argument in favor either of the
manufacture, sale or use of intoxicating liquors
as beverage, but from necessity or choice Won
nave not said the first word in favor of the knsi
ness in one form or another.
True, you have denounced some of the Min.
listers OF religion-stigmatized many of the
temperance men as fanatics, and all of Won. as
sort OF salve presume, denounced drunken.
ness IN the most measured terms. But whore
let me ask, is your consistency in railing AZ
drunkards, and yet defending the accursed fra f.
nc by which drunkards are made! Ifvou con-
denim the effect, does not consistency reouire
you to condemn the cGuSef What is ali this
out battling on the side of drunkenness. for il
is folly to say that that is not the side YOU are
on for surely man of your high intelligence
Will not pretend to deny that just SO long al in.
toxicatlng liquors are to be had as a beverage.
drunkenness and its fearful catalogues OF evil
will prevail. Facts on this subject are great
deal better than fine spun theories or sham logic.
PROVE, 1t you can, that liquor drinking is a
benefit to the individual, the family, the COM
Inunlty, the church or the State. Let the men,
bers OF the Senate and the House, who are in
favor of the liquor business, hold meeting.
make the venerable Judge Wilkins chairman,
then compare notes, and see from the APPALLING
tod III
the past one hundred years, if the protection
and perpetuation of this traffic is worthy of the
earnest efforts ofgrave Senators and wise Leg
lsatOrs Point out in how MANY instances the
use of intoxicating liquor has reformed the
abandoned; how many worthless husbands have
been restored to their broken-hearted wives and
worse than fatherless children, by their use =
How many widowed mothers in PENNSYLVANIA
have had cause, morning and evening, to thank
God for the practical influence of the bar-room
upon the prodgal SONS Set forth the benefi-
cent effect of tipping houses and dram drink
Ing' upon which you and many of our Demo-
cratic friends are throwing your legislative
smiles! Tell us how much our prisons have
been saved from the halter by our delectable
dram shops
Come, my brother Democrats of the Senate
ana the House, give US some cheering Stats.
tics in regard TO the delicious fruits of the rum
traffic. Has the sale of Intoxicating liquors re-
duced taxation one mill, or decreased the num-
Der of paupers, except by consigning to an early
and dishonored grave the bloated carcases Of
the miserable victims of rum!
My Dear Sir, deeply lament that you and
the great body of Democratic members in the
Senate and the House should have espoused
the cause of the Liquor League, a combination
as Infamous as the object they seek to accom-
Plish is wicked. With an opportunity you had
to prove that Democracy is the sum of equal
rights, the cause of the widow and the orphan,
the cause of virtue and good morals, and is not
affiliated, as its enemies have often represented,
with riot, rowdysm and rum Attempt to pal
late liquor selling and dram drinking 1t is
the source of all vilanies: g. the winding sheet
of souls )" the frightful vortex, where Young
men and old men-where husbands, fathers and
sons are eventually swallowed up. Look at
your associate in the Senate, N. B. Browne,
Esq, what a noble example has he furnished of
intelligence. independence, patriotism and mo-
raj courage! He stands on pinnacle, so high
above the whIskey-advocating Democrats, that
they would have to look sharp through Sir
Isaac Newton's great telescope to see his fair
proportions and manly statue. He has reared
for himself an enduring monument, upon which
will be inscribed: " The friend of the People
the true Patriot, the enlightened Statesman,
the honest Senator" Your might have done
the same; nay, you can yet hold place Of
equal honor. influence and responsibility, if you
will break loose from the iron letters of the
Liquor League Do it, my dear sir, at any
cost; do It if you have to pluck out right
eye, or cut off right hand; do it for the honor
of democracy; above all, do it for the sake o
bleeding virtue and suffering humanity, and the
thousands who are tempted and destroyed by
the worm of the still.
Yours, truly, JOHN CHAMBERS.