Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1858-09-08

to promote the spread of intemperance, and
the ruin of the land.
What power is it then that holds communi-
ty so spell-bound-that renders public opin-
ion so impotent-that ties men hand and foot.
and prevents a resort to such safe, wise and
lawful measures as are n ~ecessary for the sup
preston of this great evil? Is it an enligh-
tened Difference to the claims Of Justice and
human liberty? Is it "a wise and wholesome
respect to human rights? What other evil
SO effectually in this land defeats and uproots
justice, as the sale Of intoxicating liquors and
its results? What so destructive to human
liberty? What but the ruin ofintemperance
can render a nation like ours incapable of
self-government and make us a nation of
slaves And if man have the right to sell
and a right to drink, has not community some
rights? Has it no claim upon legislative pro-
t~ection--no right to peace, to order, to ex-
emption from the injuries of bankruptcy, i'm
morality, and high taxation? No right to
protection against midnight revelling and de-
bauchery-against theft, burglary, house
burning, murder and ~pauperism ? Butt it may
be said, the law does protect community by
providing for the punishment of evil-doers
In the name of common sense, is that protec-
ton? Is that a wise, safe government, which
affords no other remedy for the prevention of
crime than its punishment?
It Will not be denied THAT three-fourths of
the pauperism, bankruptcies, thefts, burgla-
ries, houseburnings, rapes and murders, oc-
curing, are occasioned either directly or in
directly by the sale of intoxicating liquors.
Now, we ask, what protection does govern
ment afford against the crimes committed
through the agency of the sale of alcohol p
Let 1t not be forgotten that the government
regards the sale and use of intoxicating IL
quors as an evil hence it undertakes to regu-
late its sale by license. Can the property,
virtue and lives of the citizens of a State, be
protected by the simple punishment of the of
fender, when the incentive to and the cause
OF the crime, are sanctioned by the law ? Is
1t really a protection against loss by a debtor,
to imprison him for the offence, when the real
cause Of his failure was his Incorporate hab-
its formed under the protection of law ? Now,
the habit of intoxication, is lawless. Drunk
enness knows no law-fears no law and it
may well be doubted whether a Door. infatu-
ated inebriate, can justly be held amenable
to law. No question, but a sane man who
knowingly and wilfIlly commits a crime,
should be punished. But is an intoxicated
man sane, is he a man at all, in the true sense?
But the law does not license his drunkenness
nay, when it leads to other crimes, punish
es him for his drunkenness, and yet stoutly
refuses to provide a preventive. 1t is pre-
cisely one of those crimes, which the law and
public opinion regards more as a fault, a mis-
fortune, than a crime, and hence government
is Tecreant and criminal, in not providing for
its prevention and cure.
But, like the shadows of evening, the sub
ject grows longer as we advance. Hence we
must reserve for future letters it's further ex-
amInaIIon.