Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1863-02-09
Who Shall Rule Us?

AANtbC VI PAOAOOA0 ASASS
ton with every true friend and lover of his country,
to see prominent and influential secular journals
Issuing such articles in their editorial columns. as
the following which we find in the Richmond Exam
liner. The case is herein stated in all plainness.
candor and truthfulness; and u most alarming picture
does it present, most truly. Can any friend of our
newborn Republic read it with indifference? Can
any deny the startling statements made therein!
Whisky says the Examiner lis to be master
of this Confederacy, not the Yankees. In the opinion
of many, this exchange of rulers is eminently desir-
able. To judge from the Unsuitable thirst for alco-
nohc stimulants which prevails in all parts OF the
country, but chiefly in Richmond, the installation of
the new sovereign is hailed with as much joy as the
frogs displayed when Jove, in his b~enignity, sent them
King Stork in place of King Log. The Yankees wer
q dead weight upon our political, social and CONNER
cial prosperity, but King Whiskcy is so gracious, go
familiar in his intercourse with the highest and lowest
that it is bell eyed the danger Is less that he will
gobble up his subjects, than that they will swallow
HIM.
In truth, the extent 10 which the drinking of whis-
key Is carried in the Confederate Capital, in all our
cities and villages, and even at the railroad stations
and country crossroads, is appalling. In this city,
scarcely a day passes without the opening of some
new aoggery or bar, kept by men within the conscript
age, and frequented by herds Of persons liable to
military duty. Mysterious rooms where liquor is
sold, and for aught the public know forged exemp-
tion papers are prepared; are continually announced
in cabalistic whispers to those who show any desire
to become intoxicated or to evade their duty to their
country. Despite a certain secrecy and caution,
these places must be well known. In most of them
whiskey is sold openly and above board. Almost
every eating house is also a drinking house, where
decanters, bottles or demijohns arc set out at the bar
or behind a thin partition that, to the ~practiced eye,
serves ouly to advertise the fact that whiskey is for
sale.
In the small towns, in the villages and in the
country. the case is much the same as in Richmond
viii it be believed that at one of the stations on a
railroad leading to this city, the present writer be-
held, a few days ago, d white woman offering cod
liver oil bottles, filled with apple brandy, for five
dollars each, and this in a loud, lewd tone and man.
ner, which must have shocked every lady and gen.
tleman on the train. Such, nevertheless, is the fact.
So far from being rebuked by the railroad officials,
this woman, there is much reason to fear, was en-
couraged by them. Nor was it to be expected that
she should be discountenanced and deferred from her
jokes with the soldiers, by passengers, almost every
one of whom Cat least nearly all who could afford it,
had bottle of whis key in his carpet bag. And this
is the pass to which Virginia, even in the rural
di stricts, has arrived.
OF the quality ofthe whiskey which is now exposed
for sale, only a chemist familiar with the most hor-
rible secrets of his calling, can speak. Apart from
its te. rible nauseousness to the undebauched palate
and ~nostrils, it's properties are said to bemore deadly
to the health of body and mind than that fatal and
filthy compound, which, in times of peace, used to
circulate among the negroes, and the effects 0fwhich
were made known in those terrible outrages that
happened from time to time, apparently without
cause. This is the vile stuff whidh not only ruf6ans
of beastly and depraved a~ppetites, but welEbred,
well educated, influential gentlemen, are now swal-
lowing with an avidity prompted by something akin
to insanity. This is the enemy which men who hold
the late Of the nation in their keeping, are putting
in their mouths to steal away their brains. Weumay
the people, the few at least who are themselves
g%uiltless, and whose fate is bound up in the decisions
of the muddled intellects of leading men, adopt the
language of Cassius, when in The depths ofhis re-
morse, he cried out against himself: Drunk! and
speak parrot !! ~squabsle wrangle! swearl and
50 discourse fnstian with ones own shadow! O, thou
" i~nvincible spirit of whiskey, il thou hast no name
:" to be known by, let us call thee-devili'
: The evil consequences flowing from this disease OF
drinking which has fastened itself upon the viials Of
= the Confederacy with a m~alignity far more intens'
= than any of the prevailing epidemics, are felt not onl,
in public affairs, in the miscarriage of military move
ments of the highest Importance, but in the privat'
business transactions on the street between maj
and man. In fact there is no relation of life in which
its balefnl effects are not perceivable, except in tina
, hidden world of sorrow and suffering which is locke,
up in the tender, unrevealing heart of woman. !
drunken man is a pest anywhere; he is q curse t
his wife and to every female member Of his house
hold.
For q time, the sale of wbiskey was suppressed b
= martial law. The abuse of power incident to th
exercise of that law, say nothing of it's unconstitutioI
atty, rendered its repeal a necessity. But long be
fore Congress or the State Legislatures took hold
it, nearly everybody. high and low, rich and poo
set to work to make 1t imperative, 50 far as the sa
~ Of ardent spirits YVES concerned. The world wou
i be amazed could it learn of the thousands of stale
g sober-sided old gentlemen, men Of the highest rep
al tation for morals, men of excellent social standin
men of excellent official positions both in and o
Gu Of the army, who exercised their wits tie the utmo
% to get a drink of whiskey, who thought it an exc'
he lent joke to 'run the blockade and who did
y with q success that sent them Keeling homeward
generally late at night, but oftentines in the bro
:. daylight, to the infinite distress OF their iamiliesEa
the cons formation OF such Of their friends as remain
sober enough to doubt that staggering was the ms
graceful method of ambulation. The mania
- drinking became almost universal, invading even
church, and left behind it a habit, which seems /
likely to be cured by the cessation of the r~estr;ctio
n. of martial l.w. 1t is a question whether martial i
- with all its dangers is not preferable to this Ia
-. which is its sequel.
ak - The following gentlemen have be
rer- elected Trustees of the University by t
-: ToOiclatrrn. Moccrz Kamn ID Rattle of II