Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-08-05
Rum Raisings.

EDITOR FREEMAN Il trust we shall soon
learn by the Freeman, how the late interpetra-
ton of the Temperance Law in Orleans County
is regarded by judges and lawyers in other parts
of the State. If that decision is sustained,
then it seems certain that our law is defective
in one important particular, at least
If there exists in the minds of legal men in
the State any doubt in respect to the true sig
MITIGATION of the law, and its ability to reach
and punish all cases of furnishing rum at rails
ings, and all other places where people may as
semble for any purpose whatever, (though it
may be for one day only, Or for an hour even,
and they may never meet at the same place
again. the law, should, in my humble opin-
ion, be so amended by the next Legislature, as
to remove all doubt on the subject.
A raising, it is believed, is one of the worst
places where liquor can be furnished at all
On such an occasion, men should be kept cool
and calm, and as free from excitement as posi-
BILE, instead of becoming heated and crazed by
rum. 1t is a fact beyond dispute, that acct
dents are much more likely to occur at rum
raisings than at those of an opposite character,
and it has come to be the case that sober men
hesitate in regard to going to assist at raisings
where liquor is furnish ed freely, for fear of the
result.
have been informed that in Greensboro at
a rum raising, not long since, three young men,
through the strange want of proper manage
lnent and caution of some other persons, came
very near losing their lives. Some of the poles
placed upon the high beams breaking as soon as
they were stepped upon, the men, with the
broken timbers and planks, were precipitated
some fifteen or twenty feet to the ground. 1t
cannot be kno,cn, perhaps, that rum did this,
but rum was present, and what other agent SO
likely to do it as he?
We frequently hear it said by those who call
themselves pretty good Temperance men, that,
give them glass of liquor, and they can go
upon frame and not have their heads whirl
when without glass they should not be able to
go with any feeling of safety. 1t may be said
in reply to such, if you have been so little ac-
cushioned to going up, or if your nerves have
become so unstrung, or so shattered by the use
of rum, tobacco, or any other means, that you
IRE unable to go upon frame without the aid
of intoxicating liquor, by all means remain as
near the ground as possible You should be
excused from going up. Rum is deccivcr; it
only leads you while under Its influence vainly
to imagine that you arc perfectly safe, when
you are actually IN more danger of falling than
if you had taken none.
1t is principle long since settled, that in the
present dcpraved state of human society human
governments (Which are ordained Of Cody can
not be Just to their subjects without laws pro-
hibitng and Furnishing crime, forbdding what
is manifostly subversivc of the great end of en-
lightencd government, the greatest good of the
governed.
The fact is established beyond all question,
that the sale of intoxicating liquor, as bever-
age, in a community, is great public calamity
and is productive of an almost inconceivable
amount of evil, both physical and moral. At
the bar of God, and at tho bar of conscience,
unless conscience be unenlightened, or para.
llyzed and stupefed by strong drink, the fur
nishing of ardent spirits to be used as COM
mon beverage, is a crime of no ordinary mag.
Initudo.