The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1866-07-05
JACKSON C. H., OHIO, THURSDAY, JULY j. 1866

God gave him conscience to approve 6
the right and reject the wrong conferred {
upon him the rank and dignity Of man, t
a rational and moral being, made but '
little lower than the angels, and capa- '
bic of being raised higher than the
angels but the drunkard puts forth his
hand deliberately to destroy this noble
workmanship Of God He declares by
his perslstant acts of folly that he will
not be man; that he prefers to be a
fool, and to rank himself with the beasts
of the field. He prefers to extinguish
all the Godike powers and susceptible
ties OF his higher nature, and to defeat,
so far as in him lies, all the glorious and
gracious purposes of God in his creation.
The drunkard is, therefore, double
suicide, for he destroys both body and
soul. And if it be a crime deserving
the wrath of Almighty God, to kill the
body, to lay murderous hands upon it
and extinguish the animal life, much
more is it a crime to extinguish the
spiritual life. And OF how much surer
punishment think you will not God |
esteem him to be worthy who lays
suicidal hands upon his rational and |
moral nature, and destroys that higher
life which is the peculiar glory Of God
among all the works which his hands
have made!
2.-Bm the erils Of tntenperance do not
terminate in the person Of tie d,unkard
htmsclt; they extend to those around him.
His family must necessarily share in
his degradation, shame and misery, and
, if dependent on him for subsistence,
must share, also, his poverty and wretch
edness. And the bitterest ingredient in
all this cup of sorrow which is thus
wrune out OF the innocent wife and
Y children, is the fact that their want and
5 woe have not come upon them in spite
e of the manly struggles ola loved hus-
v band and father, but they have come at
. the drunken husband and fathers bid
o ding. Brutality, starvation and wrIt;h-
a edness sit in that household, his own
# invited guests-and the unnatural father
G takes pleasure in abusing those he ought
d to love, and in venting the spleen OF a
!. disordered stomach and frenzied brain
h upon those he ought to protect. Ills
l. children are likely to grow up IN idle
al ness and vice and crime, to follow the
,e example of a drunken father, and become
q q curse to themselves and their kindred
le burden to society, and to go down tC
ID the grave with the eternal curse OF Goo
ID upon their heads. Drunkenness is
,e monster crime because it is prolific o
H. all other crimes. Careful statistics go t
a show that it keeps $4,000 criminals il
es the prisons of the United States, ant
re more than 100000 paupers i'll our aim
III houses. Now it taxes the sober and in
dustrious to support these paupers an'
ks to convict these criminals; and henc
is the honest and industrious are needlesSl
robbed of their just earnings by tn
he vice of intemperance. 1t is, therefore
"a n crime against society as well as agalns
of the person and the family.
he But the drunkard is not alone in thi
NJ gigantic and hydra-headed crime. Ii
lie has partner-a partner who is, attt
,ry all, the principal agent in this tremeT
on dous war upon human happiness lib
lie poor inebriate whose appetite has bee
". inAamed to hellish passion by anothe
lie for the sake of his money-the inebriat
= whose Judgment and self-control al
nd gone. and whose solemn resolutions
ars reform are as weak and unstable as waite
old is often more to be pitied than to
the blamed. But the rum-seller who mak'
md it his dirty and damning business to TO
he ter this unnatural appetite and to Tee
in this inffamed passion, is thousand to
his more guilty than his victim, and
ife oucht to be branded by every friend
the humanity, as a traitor to the best inte
md ests of society. He it is who isprope
he " the father of drunkards, the breed
md Of criminals and paupers, a parrlcl,
,st- upon the community in which he dwell
he For how does he get his living! Is
md by anv honest occupation which benet
md society? No! 1t is by sucking t
ned manhood out of his fellow men;
ach robbng happy homes of all the charT
wife Of affection and love; by snatching bre
asst from the mouths of the poor and need
Ipid by breeding wretchedness, poverty, d
two grace. disease and death, and eterI
not. damnation. He is greater nusar
and to society than smallpox, thousa
ess. times over; he is greater criminal
and the sight of God than the midnight
edy sassin. Yes, the man who plunges
laws dagger into the throbbing heart OF
and little child, and draws forth his murd
rous ous weapon reeking with the warm i
thin blood of my dear child and spills it II
by NV face. is man to be respected
tent hcnored by one sooner than the
i'm wretch who corrupts the dearer, ;
one, destroys the higher life of the soul
shes The rum seller is murderer OF adee
ion. dye,. for he poisons the springs OF
Iight moral and spiritual life, as we'll as tn
his of the animal life. He corrupts the wh
,oral being, and destroys hopes which
{ his assassin's dagger could not reach
f his rots asunder the ties Of conjugal at
sus- ton; yea, of paternal, fraternalhnd fl
him. affection. He lays waste domestic h
gave piness, he kills self-respect, he sill
Hrlo- over with the fifth of degrading