The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1865-11-03

4 people. IL
/ honesty and heartiness with which you and many
others hold that the drinking of glass of " inc
or of lager beer is essentially sin against God
and crime against society; but we know and
1 all who were concerned in enacting the Maine
| Law know, that there are millions of people In
| this country who believe such thing. That
| is the reason why the Maine Law undertook to
suppress, not the drinking of such liquors nor
| the buying, but only the selling. That same
| fact is the reason why the Maine law, having
| been enacted, cannot be enforced. SO long as
| the statute remains dead letter in the several
states in which it has been enacted, 1t does not
interfere with the liberty of the millions whose
| moral sense does not recognize the temperate use
| of fermented and spirituous liquors, either as
| crime against society, a sin against God and
for that reason it cannot be anything else than
| dead letter, except for a little while.
| 1.-THE Maine Law seems to forget some OF the
most essential differences between despotic, or
military government and one which 10 con-
| trolled by the people. 1t may De
doubted whether any absolute monarch IN
| the civilized world could permanently en-
force such a statue against the opinion of half
his subjects. Even in Turkey, where the estab-
| lshed religion abhors all use Of wine and where
the Koran is not only the religious rule OF faith
/ and practise but also the supreme statute book
| Scr the Mosem population, the incorporate use
| of Wine and spirits is a growing vice among Mo-
| hammedans; and all the rigor OF the government
I
| But in a country like ours where power, especi-
| ally in time of peace, is decentralized and dis
| trbuted as widely as possible; where the trial
by jury is of the most cherished of the tradi-
! tions that enter into the popular conception OF
liberty where all power executive and judicial,
| as well as legislative is continually returning in
to the hands of the people to be disposed of
directly or indirectly, in their municipal or gen.
| eral elections; aud where the questions of ma
tional or local interest that divide the public
mind are always charging and always producing
new combinations of parties, the permanent and
| effective enforcement of a statute which one-halt
or one-third of the people regard oppressive
or unreasonable, is political impossibility."
DR.. Bacon represents that at the beginning
of the temperance reform, the clergy en-
gagged in the work vigorously, and ever since
have been its earnast advocates, not only by
their example of abstinence, by their sermons
and speeches and by often repeated resolu-
tions in their local and general assem- blies.-
! But in course of time in came to pass that
| the duty of preaching against intempersuce
was superseded by the duty of preaching
against the sale of intoxicating liquors; aud
| the duty of commencing total sbst hence as
a measure of expediency was superseded by
the duty of teaching that the traffic must be
suppressed by law. After an experiences of
twelve years, says DR.. Bacon, I'VE have
been learning painful lesson Exhorta-
tions and denunciatious alike 20 for nothing
He says
In contempt of all such effoIts the use
intoxicating drinks, distilled and ferrented
holds its ground the traffic, wholesale and ref
tail, Is as free the traffic in breadstus
Hp1f, mo NlrrI.l
each other in their work of destruction the
drunkard finds it difficult 49, ever to escape
from temptation; and outside the churches men
are betrayed into habits of intemperance as east
iy ar before the beginning OF the temperance
formation, and hardly less numerousy. Here
we are, alter ten twelve years of what YOU call
prohibition. Such is the demonstration which the
Maine Law has made of its pracEicability aud Ell
hclency. Some OF US are not satisfied with the
policy which has brought Us to this pass. We
want something better, some laid of legislation"
that will really, and not III pretence merely, pro-
tect our towns and villages against the countless
evils that flow from the unrestrainsd and unre-
gulated sale OF Intoxicating drinks. We demand,
i1t the interest Of temperance candid and careful
reconsideration of the whole matter"
Ia sport of ais position, a significant fact
is noted, viz: that the most ardent oppon-
ents OF prohibitory laws Of the present day
by all the influences at their command to
prove their efficacy an auxiliary in the
promotion of temperance. Pamphlets against
the prohibitory policy written by men of this
class. are referred to; and OF the same ma
ture is the report made in the senate of Mas
sachuse.ts from a joint committee Of the two
houses, April IA, 1865, which says:
fair ofo ha ovid
this point is that the temperance reform culmina-
ted in Massachusetts before the prohibitory law
was enacted, and between the years ls45 and
1850; that since that time public interest in the
subject has, on the whole, declined, aud for the
last four years somewhat rapidly declined; that
the use of intoxicating drink beverage is
now common, and intemperance not infrequent.'
The fact Is that the Temperance reform"
progressed satisfactorily until its control pas
sed into the hands of political Managers
When 1t became mixed up with politics"
it lost the moral support which alone could
ensure it's success. And 1t can never make
any real progress without a return to the
old plan-until it is fully divorced from poll
tics and left to rest for support upon the NOR
al sense ofthe public. The sooner the real
friends of temperance learn and act upon this
fact the better it will be for the cause and
the public.
The temperance cause has been used by
demagogues for their own mercenary and
PARTISAN purposes, until the mass of the peo-
pie have lost all interest 10 it The laws on
the subject have been made party engines,
to be enforced or ignored as party interest
could best be promoted and the couse.