Smyrna times., 1856-08-27
Communication.
Written for the Smyrna Times.
Shall the Law be Repealed ?

THERE are those living in our mdst-the
fact cannot be dened--who are either so
bliIl to the interests of society or so oblivious
to everything else but the advancement of their
own, that they desire, and intend using every |
means to effect, repeal of the present Prohi- |
bitory Liquor Law of Delaware. They de-
clare that the law has not accomplished any |
thing for the good of the community, and that
it has utterly failed to retard the ravages of
Ium. They even assert that, instead of sup
pressing, it has alarmingly increased, intemper-
ance
If these assertions could be sustained by a
single shadow of proof, certainly no one could
object to a repeal. But what is the fact? On
which side is all the proof?
"THE la,o has done no good" This is their
strongest argument in favor of repeal, since
the last court at New Castle decided the law
to be constitutional. And yet, how fallacious
must be any argument when based on such a
mistaken promise as this! The law has done
good. Its good effects are felt all over the
State We see this in the absence of drunk
enness at great gatherings of the peoPle-we
see il in the diminuton of the number of rum
shop-those hells upon earth in which young
men become initiated into the use of that ac'
cursed poison which ultimately leads them to
exchange the glory Of man and barter the hopes
Of heaven, for the rights and functions OF a
beast, and where they find abandoned associates
who allure them on, step by step, until they be-
gin their descent of the path of intemperancc
with such fearful rapidity that they canno
pause in their mad career! Previous to the
passage of the Prohibitory Law, who will den!
that these dens were to be found open in broat
daylight in every town and village Of our State
When that law went into action, their death
blow was given. By its enforcement, Saturna
lisn reyelry was hushed-its warning voic
penetrated these secret haunts of intemperanc
and summoned forth their contemplate pre-
prieiors to appear at the bar of justice. The
who for years, under the actual protection of
rum-Iicense law, had been disposing of mo
deadly poison, Transforming man into denloi
rendering families miserable, filling jails ar
aimshouses with the victims of this infern
trafic--they who dignifed, with the name
eipaI liberty, the right to embitter the live
ruin the fortunes, and blast the health and rep
tation Of men, and spread desOlation over neig
borhoods. They who, although engaged in
s business which can only be considered as wor'
athousand times, than murder, cared not
the consequences, having no law to restra
them, and being encouraged by legislative q
tion, found, on the passage of the present Pl
hibitory Law, that the ear of humanity was
longer deaf to the wall of the widow and
cry of the orphan; and that the strong arm
Law was at last interposed between man and
destroyer-the rumseller
The misery which existed in this State, q
Of which these mercenary beings-the keep
Of rumshops-were the direct cause, can o.
be estimated. We could not arrive at Il
calculation. We might have gone into
jails aud beheld their victims in those there