Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-11-12

aud Sale OF Ardent Spirits In the
/ state or West Virginia, except Tor
1IedIetnRI and DtS Q ehRhIeaI purposes
desire through your widely circulated
journal to submit 70 your readers some
desultory remarks upon q subject now
under consideration In the Legislature of
our new State, involving as think the
most vital iuterestsi-ol our people, viz e.
the suppression Of the manufacture and
sale of intoxicating liquors for use as q
beverage. .-....
I am one OF those who believe that the
enormous evils Of drunkenness can be
ended by no earthly means but by suppress
ling the liquor traffic, which, through its
operation and agency, occasion annually
the death of thousands Of our fellow. men
and the expenditure Of millions Of treas
ure-thousands Of paHpers-multitudes of
Impoverished men, women and children
Ewho are not Ryowed paupers-at least four
flfths ofall the murdsts, thefts, robberies,
breaches Of the peRee, and other crimes
and misdemeRnors that engage our courts,
to cay nothing Of heaVy additional taxes
for legal costs Of criminal prosecution, be-
side heavy expenses 60 parties, witnesses
and inrors) of attending courts and OF time
lost from their proper employments.
Around every one of these crimes and
misdemeanors-around each instance nf
pRuperism and impOveTishment-Day,
aro6nd each single act of drunkenness there
cluster such throng of sorrows not only
to the wretohed inebriate, bat to relatives
and friends, that for every draught Of his
from the so.called soup of kindness" 1t
may be truly said some human heart has
felt pang. Aud far the most numerous
and most torturing Of those pangs have
Wrnng female hearts, the hearts of sisters,
mothers, daughters or WtVesi pangs of
shame and grief, or ofteTror for brothers,
d sons, fathers, husbands disgrace or
danger, outrage, ruin death -. .issss,--.
Il i appeal to all who ate at all obserVant
of human life to searchsthei memories and
soy If q vast majority Of all the vices and
crimes of every dye that have occurred
within their view are not direCtly or indi-
irectly trRcsahle to the use demonstrating Of
liquor. If the doer, the pTovoker or the
sufferer was not at the time under the spell
of caught in the snare Of
him who for gain ''putteth the bottle to
his neighbours mouth to make him drunk
EN-" or if the previous arts of those en-
snarers, inducing q long previous career of
intenpeEance, had not led TO the criminal
act? Especially reeur to the many instan- |
ces you may have kuoWnfof unkindnesses
or brutality in husbands toward their
wives, and say If nine-tentbs of them did |
not originate in strong drink
The wounds inflicted by that traffic up |
ON domestic peaee-the scenes of woe it |
produces in that proper home Of the high. |
est bliss-the sorrow it Poprs out on chill |
dren, brothers, sisters aud parents, and the |
anguish above all names Of wretchedness |
that wrings the Wife's heart, when he to |
whom her Warmest youthful affections
stantly clung her fondest hopes-is trans
formed by that demon to Q brute, crashes
those affections and blights those hopes |
Those are things that In any good mans
view far transcend the moneyed waste and
ruin, the diseases and even the deaths of
which the traffic Is so fruitful,
Look around on every side and see the
evils of intemperapce.s Look at that poor
terror stricken mortal with the delerium
tremens, sinking down into a drunkard'e
grave and a drunkRfd's heil.l SEQ that
poverty-stricken widow wringing her hands
in alguishl See that heart-broken daugh-
Ter Of once respectable, but now drunk
en-, degraded, beastly fatherl Hear the
sobs and lsighs of that poor orphan child
whose bread has been sold for liquid poi
son. Look out upon that river Of abomi-
nation, bearing upon its angry and fiery
III
low mortals down into the Hlake that
burns with fire aud birthstone"
Humanity has long been shocked by the
human sacrifices of India, where on the
festive days of their Deity, while his hid
eOus and gigantic image moves along 10 al
towering cartdtAwn jby multitudes of men,
his deluded Yotaries PROSTATE themselves
before its wheels to be clushed by them,
deeming that an acceptable Offering 70 the
God. But the whole number Of beathens
Tins sacrificed, is Comparatively small when
contrasted with the yearly saerifce in this
enlightened country to our mOloeh-Who
here we'll maintains his ancient character
Of
l.. -ShOrrid King, besmeared with blood
sof human sacrifice, and parents teaFsF
1t ID the great dhtyof society TO protect
itself and Its people against wrong and
evil, whether coming BY violence or frand,
or pernicious allurements. p
This is the chief end-nay Il Is he end
for which society aud goyeFnments are
formed. The State. through its LeRislature
should protect tts citizens against VIII Ateyer
threatens their lives, property morals,
peace or happiness. No sane man ever
deemed sucl1 o. aspfoteeting law "inVasive Of
individual right-er fgeedpTt because no
sane man ever deemed .tfse9om TO be the
right Of doing mischief witt imp1Bity.-
Our code teens with instances 0f such
i legislation, forbidding praetiees of which
Ipone, nor allput together, are tho1sapdth
part 90 deslFucdGel 10 health property,
MORALS peace, hspPiness and life rs the
Lliqnor traftic is. asa.4.1
Fthink there can be doubt as to the
power of the Legislature TO pass aneh O
r1.,t.k a.