Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-06-18
Influence Of Politics upon Tenn



Perancc,
The Temperance fanaticism, says the
Philadelphia Argus, has run its course,
and the result verifes the prediction and
attests the wisdom of those who oppos-
ed its Introduction into politics, and saw
only injury to the cause as the result of
the blind and bigoted zeal with which
Temperance advocates plunged into the
political arena, e~ndeavoring to foist up
on the people laws at once violative of
the Constitution and the rights of man.
The great Temperance Reformation
which had elected SO largely and so just
ly of the attention and cooperation of
the benevolent humane, began from that
hour to decline, until now it has almost
wholly lost its efficiency, and must begin
and do its first work over again. Mr..
Cough, the eloquent lecturer, recently
bore testimony to the decline of the
temperance cause, but he did not as he
might have done, explain the cause of
that decline 1t is ascribable solely to
the excuses ofthc Temperance advocates,
who have sought to override the rights
of the people by means of restrictive
legislative enactments, but which, from
their own inherent wrong, it has been
impossible to enforce; and the moral in
fuence of the reform being lost, the
evil of intemperance has proportionatcly
increased. The Sons of Temperance
dwindled down from 200, 600 to less than
$4,000, and the life has about gone out
of this once powerful organization. The
''Temperance" papers have sunk into
mere "whippers-in" of faction. The
amount raised for lectures and temper
ance tracks is one-ffth of what it was
five years ago. The Providence Post,
speaking of this, and repelling some
false assumptions of Neal Dow, before a
Black Republican meeting, says:
Mr.. Cough went further. He said
that more liquor was sold in Massachu-
sets than he had ever before known,
and that it was the same in the other
States. Here, again, he spoke the truth;
and 1t is folly for Neal Dow to say that
his statements are sat variance with the
facts" Wecan testify for Rhode Island.
Mr.. Cough has known the State for ff-
teen years. We have known it as long,
and we are sure more liquor is sold in
the State than has been sold at any for
mer period within that time. We know
that before Neal BOWS machine went in
to operation-say six years-there were
not n fifth as many grog shops or me
fifth as many drunkards in the State as
there are to-day. There were then sew
en towns where liquor was not sold open
ly or slyly. There were twelve or ff-
teen in which it was not soldopenly; and
there were only five in which licenses
were granted. Now it is sold openly in
every one of the thirty-two towns; and
in Providence there are at least three
times as many grog shops as there were
then--1n the town of BuFrilville, six
years ago, there was not a single grog
shop. We have had the Maine Law
five years, and o there are twenty-five
grog shops in B~urrilville.
What is true ofRhodc Island is near
ly true of Connecticut, nearly true of
Vermont, nearly true of Maine and New
Hampshire, true to the very letter of the
whole of Massachusetts,, and true, to a
great extent, of New York. Indeed, it
is true, in its main features, of every
State where the Main Law has been
tried. In every one, the law has proved
a failure. Mr.. Dow knows better than to
say the law is enforced in Vermont and
New Hampshire. In the former it does
little or nc good. In the latter it is
every where a dead letter. He knows
better than to say that the Maine Law
carried Maine last fall. The Republi-
cans carried the State, it is true; but
they did it by ignoring the Maine Law
question, and taking into their service
the only papers in the State the State of
Maine and Erpositor-that were re-
cognized as organs of the rumsellers.
Bay- Some of the particulars in rela-
ton to the new expedition for Arctic
search were stated by Henry Grinnell,
V. p, at a recent meeting of the Geo
graphical Society. 1t appears that the
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