Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-03-11
The Raid on the Liquor Law.


hibitory law Of this state, there is small
room for doubt. The exciting contest
carried on in too many of the counties to
secure the election Of commissioners who
were opposed TO it, we think is an indica-
ton sufficiently strong to warrant our be-
lief, and should be an admonition TO tom
peranee men to be on the alert il they
would not he defeated. There is a grow
ing opposition to the law everywhere /;
this fact cannot be successfully disputed
The Burlington Times, the leading orgaE
in opposition TO the las and in favor of
gong back TO the good old rum times
under the ancient system of licenses, has
SC; the ball in motion and works with a
vigor that is worthy of better cause.-
Its main argument is, as i; is that Of all
who are for free rum, that tie law is Sin.
ert," "inoperative," "a dead letter" and
''cannot be enforced That il is not inI
too many cases is true, but it is little
singular that the more it is enforced the
louder the satellites Of the rumsellers cry
that ii cannot be, which is proof conclu-I
sive to our mind that the reasons given
by them are not the true causes Of their
blows. We think the experience Of the
past few months in numberless instances
is that il can be enforced without the
slightest difficulty where the people are
fully alive TO the fact that it must be aud
shall be. The Times editor has knowl-
edge OF more than a hundred instances
where it has been enforced within the
last three months, and if il has not been
made terror TO evil doors in thousand
other cases proves nothing more than this /:
that people, aud the editor Of the Times
among them, have not done their duty as
well as those who made war upon the 2
hundred. If the Times wishes to see Il
the present law enforced let its editor "
make complaint to the proper authorities y
and have the law breakers brought for II
ward for trial, and If he has no proof of hi
a broken law let him forever after hold pl
his peace SO far as railing at the law is pi
concerned. No one has a right to COM III
plain of the inadequacy Of any law when co
he takes every means TO retard its opera. lis
tion and make it odious in the eyes of Ge,
giving it nothing but kicks mi
and curses. IL our cotemporary aud all la:
those who argre like him will exhibit vi
1.-THE OF the zeal to have the law enforced sc
that he does 10 bring il into contempt,
the law would accomplish every end for
which it was intended, and prove a terror 10
to rummies of whatever name or descrip- II
ton. Il
The opponents Of the law do not deny |
but that it is sound enough of itself, but j
their expressed objection to it is that it is
"a dead letter )" then if it is good enough
of itself, why not help enforce it The
truth is they do not like it because it can
be enforced and made TO hurt the rum.
seller and 10 deprive in a great measure
the drinker of his dram--just as the man
who has committed murder aud thereby
earned hemp necklace cries out against
the state regulations for hanging, in seer
tain cases made and provided"
But a prohiOiIory liquor law tends to
encourage private drinking, say lis oppo-
sers, In the good old license times, say
they, when it was the custom to sell it
openly, many men who now link did not
then think Of doing SO. A young man
who thought anything Of himself would
not step up and call for glass Of liquor,
but when the "rights Of man" were inva-
ded, and the law makers said you shall
drink this and you shall not drink that,
then was their anger stirred, and from
mere spite they resolved to drink what
they did not want. When liquor was
banished 10 dark closets" and dirty eel
lars" was the period when young men
began to seek for the forbidden BEVERAGE !
and to carry it in their pockets, and to
imbibe in secret in workshops and stores
and all, Of course, because the law said
that rum should not be sold What ar
guments What shallow reasoning is 1
this that is urged to inaugurate the license 5
system upon the ruins Of the prohibilory l
law And all to promote tie cause of :
temperance--to be sure If this is the
design, how singular it is that they are I
advanced by none but those who have /
ever been among the Incorporate, pus. |
iulated blue noses, radiant faced o 0
soaks, bIear EYED "bummers," aud by all tt
who are bound body end soul to the rum [
traffic
Who believes that the prohibisory law [
is more conducive TO dram drinking and {
drunkenness than under the old system .
of licensing? Why should it be so?-I