The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1866-05-16
YoLITIcAL T~EMPBRANCE.

" AetfN 4
ences upon the morals Of the people and
society; but while we thus deplore the
habit Of drunkenness aud the general
tendency Of intemperance, we have an
cquafhorror Of those political demasogues
who attempt to ioist themselves into Of
fee under the p%retense of reform aud the
enaction Of stringent laws regulating the
sale Of intoxicating liquors. Drunken.
ness, like any other species Of immortality,
cannot be cured by stringent laws. Pu.
ritanism has tried this in vain; and We
can assure those who arc trying TO get up
a political issue on this subjac they will
be equally as successful in attempting to
legislate men into the various Churches
Of tie land by stringent laws regulating
their various consciences /; for in both in,
stances they will signaIly fail. If the
reason Of men cannot be reached, and o
CONSCIOUSNESS Of shame and morti6c alton
be produced over their drunken %reyels,
and the i'll consequences to themselves
and suffering families, II will be in vain
that prisons, fines, penalties and prosecu-
tions are appealed to in the hope Of put.
ting an end to the habit. On the 4th
inst, a mass q meeting composed OF
four or Eve ministers and about eight
other political hacks, met in the Town
Hall, in Ashland, and resolved that the
civil authorities Of the County had been
derelict in enforcing the laws in relation
70 the sale Of Intoxicating liquors and
that the time had come when the
friends " Of reform and temperance
should insist OF o new organization Of
Temperance leagues to put down the
evil. We congratulate the Republican
Party on its sense of returning deceucy
and consciousness. That party is guilty
of causing all the intemperanco in the
land; and where else couldt the reform more
appropriately begin than in the ranks of
that party ; and hence the apparent neg
lect to invite others than their own party
in their late call for a convention is fully
explained. The imputatior cast upon the
Court and others in reference to the en-
forcement Of the laws, is groundless and
false. We venture the assertion that not
a single instance can DO produced, where
there was a complaint before the Grand
Jury, and the testimony sustained the al.
legation, that a bill was not found. and
the parties duly arraigned and tried. The
attempt, therefore, to impute negligence
of duty, and corruption of the Court and
others, is simply malicious, and comes
with a bad grace from these whose duty
it is always to speak the truth. Why,
then, the increase Of intempcrance p
The question is easily answered. During
the prosecution Of the late war, the pull
pits Of the country were so intensely en-.
gagged upon the cry Of blood, war, pesti.
lcnce and ruin, that SO long as there we're
Southern homes to rob, houses to burn,
people to imprisou, and niggers to free,
temperance, and almost every other social
virtue, was wholly neg%lectcd,-in fact,
during the enlistment Of the soldiers,
drunkenness was smiled upon, and used
as a, engine Of power to induce the poor
fellows to enlist for the slaughter Of their
cOuntrymen in Southern climos!! The
saloons had a free run, and never in TIE
history Of this country did they accumu
lated wealth so rapidly. Having com
plcted the task Of enforcing tyrannical
DEGREES, orders, impr' sonments and con.
fscaticn down South, and having ridden
the niger to death, these fellows return
with arpeti,cs whettSd for a new side is
sue ; hence they now desire to turn their
attention TO new victims to confisca,ion,
6ncs and imprisonments at home! They
start out with tho assumption that the
Democratic party is ne friend to temper.
ance end hence the holy twelve propose
to get up a new party composed exclu
sivcly of Republicans or such as will be
controlled by them and manipulated into
the Abolition party. This trick will not
win. The Democracy are not RESPONSE
bic for the drunkenness that now afaicts
the country, and especially The Republic
can Party. The Constitution Of Ohio,
framed and adopted BY the Democrats,
prohibits the issue Of license to sell in
tcxicating liquors, and the statute, also
enacted by the same party, afixes severe
penalties ~fcrsellius intoxicating liquors
to be drank 10 aud upon the premises
where sold. In the face Of these whole,
sOmo provisions of tho Constitution and
Statute, the Black Republican Congress
at Washington passed laws licensing over
ono hundred thousand saloons in Ohio at