Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-01-31
Communications.
LETTER FROM NEW YORK
BlNonAMProN. n. Y. Jan. Is.

LElIEh thUM NEW 1Uhh,
BINenAMPToN, n. Y, Jan. l3, 1867.
DEAR NJ: | don't know whether this part Of
New York is u fair specimen Of the anti-temper
ance feeling and practice of the rest Of The State
if it is, | fear it will not be many years before thu
rising generation will reel into the drunkard''
grave. All around me ] behold renewed the old
bar room scenes, which | had hoped were foreve'
banished. In the room | have Just left some twelve
or fourteen young men had gathered around the
fire, and while they were pouring forth volumes o.
tobacco smoke, their language and conduct showed
the effects Of the brandy, gin, and ale for which
they had been calling. To look at them, one would
suppose them capable of better things, but their
low and p%rofaue language, their recital of bar
room rowdyism and drunken frolics, indicate their
moral degradation, and tell of the marring of the
image of God within. So far as / can learn, drink.
ing is the rule, abstinence the exception.
The friends of Temperance in this State were
much encouraged by the passage of a prohibitory
liquor law two summers since, but the decision OF
their highest judicial tribunal blasted their hopes
and r~e.opened the grog shops which the enactment
Of the law had closed. From all parts of the State
comes the same terrible testimony. "The tide of
Intemperance has increased awiully," writes one;
I'VE have now even travelling grog shops, at which
people can procure any quantity Of liquor, from a
single quart to a gallon" says another; Rum is
let loose upon us without restraint" declares a
third; 1.-THE grog shops are all open, pouring forth
streams Of DEATH" testifes q fourth; Drunken
ness has increased to a fearful extent" is the evi.
dence of q fifth; and so, through a long list Of
similar declarations.
This fearful increase of Intemperance is not,
however, owing solely to the practical repeal oil
the prohibitory law, if the Executive Committee
of the New York State Temperance Society is good
authority. In their late annual report the Com
mittce uses the following significant language:
Upon the heels of the decision of the Court oil
Appeals, followed the excitement of the Presiden,
tial election; \ 4 = y \ and the cause Of
TEN perance it may be safely said was put back
for years. Thousands and tens Of thousands OF
young men, during the recent canvass, took the
first step in the fatal path of the drunknrd; and as
many more, who had a9jured the cup, forgot their
pledge in the whirl Of excitement, and rclapsed
into former habits Of dissipation III"
If such was the degrading effect of the Presi-
Dental campaign in the State of Now York, may
we not unmistakingly infer that IN other States
the same cause produced similar results? And
this was only the present immediate effect. Add
to this increase Of intemperance the long catalogue
Of evils which are sure to follow in its train; bag
gard Want, with shrdnken frame, Mental imbecil.
ity, with its soulless face, Crime, with its stealthy
tread, Madness, with its frenzied eye, Murder,
with its bloody hand, and more terrible than oil
the Drunkard's fearful Death, and then say if the
scourgings of the Cholera ought not to he prayed
for as a welcome substitute for q Presidential cam
paign?
"What will it profit q mau 10 gain the whole
world, if he loose his own soul? p and the question
may be as pertinently asked, What would it have
proftted the members Of the Republican party, tC
have purchased freedom for Kansas, at the price
of their sobriety ? and withoat gaining what they
expected, many of them paid that fearful price,
For though they may be correct in their assump
ton that the Democratic party was mtre drunken
than theirs, they cannot deny that rum drinking
was practiced among them to a most fearful extent
a delegate to the Philadelphia Nominating Con
yention told me that what he saw on that occasion,
made his heart sink within him. 'Ercry body
EVERY BODY % said no drinks. The nomination
of Fremont was celebrated with drunken carou'
sal; and | saw men who I never suspected would
do such a thing, tossing of their glasses of cham
~paigne."
knew that while RepublicanisDn had dissent.
mated many wholesome anti-slavery truths, it had
also deadened the moral sense Of some of the most
ardent friends of freedom, and ~whelmed, in the
n,aelstroom Of its excitmen:, many a noble man
who vainly thought he could stand alone, but
/, never before realized what fearful havoc it made
r upon our young men, through the potent influence
of the poisonous cup.
II would be well for Abolitionists 30 introduce
into their liturgy a prayer, 'From all politica
, CAMPAIGNS with their whiri of unhealth(ul excite
f ment; from all Presidential elections with theit
death.dealing agencies Of lum; Good Lord, deliv
er usv!'