The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-03-13
TEMPERANCE.

I EN ER ANdEs
Mr.. Mann presented petition Of the
Grand Lodge of Good TempIars of the
State, representing seven thousand mem
bers, asking for an act to prevent the
sale Of intoxicating drinks.
The petition was read as follows:
To the Senate and House Of Representa-
tires Of tbe State Of Pennsylvania:
The Grand Lodge of Good Touplars.
in and for the State OF Pennsylvania, in
annual session, at Lewistown, Mlfiin
county, Juue II, 1868, speaking the sen
timents and wishes Of large portion of
their fellow-citizens Of tLis Common.
wealth, do most respectfully represent
That cur license system is an intoler-
able nuisance, from the evils of which
we ask to be. delivered. In our opinion
these evils do not arise from any laek of
vlgor in the enforcement Of present laws,
but essentially from the character Of
those laws themselves, aud the practices
and habits that are sanctioned and fostcred
by then. Intemperance, with all its
concomitaot crimes, prevails to an alarm
ing extent in our Commonwealth, not.
withstanding our most strenuous exertions
to suppress 1t. After longand toilsome,
though not vain contest with effects, at
tendants aud consequences, we find this
demon Of society SO safely entrenched
behind a citadel Of statute law, that we
are forced to petition your honorable bod
les to break up his hiding place and
cease TO screen the monster, lest we be
compelled to abandon an en-
tarpri5e the most important and beneicent
the world has ever known.
Permit US, then, to glance briefly at
some of the prominent features of our
license regulations. Under them the re-
failing of spurious liquors is forbidden to
all but a few favored individuals (who,
anomalous as it may appear, are com
D ! I'd to furnish certificates Of moral
charac.er), to whom a special license is
granted Why is this If the business
is a useful aud moral one, why should the
law interfere with it? Why attempt to
or restrain that which is neces
sary and proper? Way attempt to pro-
vide good agents to carry it on VIII the
character of the dealer change the nature
or modify the effects of the article in which
he deals ? Can be make poison whole
some food and drink. Why not forbid
all but moral men from selling -four and
meat? Why not carry out the principle
aud forbid all bad men doing any good
thing
Again, if the traffic is immoral in its
nature and tendency, why require moral
men to conduct it? fla brand is applied
to one of our dwellings, will not the FIRE
burn and spread, regardless of the moral
character of the individual who applied
it? Can good men dispense that which
IS pernicious and crime -engendering, with
3u. injury to society? As we'll might
We license gambling houses and brothels, I.
aud attempt to counteract their evils by
good men (if the thing were
0ossible) to superintend them. The truth
;, our license laws are bit tissue of de- f.
,eplion, answering none Of the purposes
Intended aud evinciDg only the short
lghtedDess of the Legislature that first
enacted them, aud in our opinion they
Biil continue to be the reproach of all
succeeding ones that allow them to re-
main unrepealed.
We have surely made full and fair
rial Of such laws, and they have slgnalIy
alod, as might have been expected We
10 not see how legal eGactments made I.
With a view to to the proper regulation
f o vice, are ever to restrain, much less
o suppress it. The principle is uusound. .
{ is notorious that all such attempts have
lore more to sanction the evil than to
heck it. Our present laws aim at no.h.
ng more than moderation in the use
II liquor and such moderation (even if
lesirable) we are confident Is absolutely
under any license law that
he ingenuity of man can devise. Absti-
lence is natural and easy, but moderation
: always difficult, and with many persons
impossible.
In the first place, we doubt the cen
tifWi2aa2tyofaIl such laws. Lfthe liquor
rattle is right, they are wrong, because
hey debar ninety-nine out Of a hundred
# our citizens from engaging in it;-and
{ the traffic itseIfi5 wrong. they are sem .
lalous, because they give legal sanction
o a fruitful source Of vice and crime. So
hat whether intended as a restraint on a
rade which all men have 2 natural and
mprescriptaoLe right to participate 10. or
IS legal authorization Of business that
destroys life, safety aud happiness, they
re equally rePugnan: to the fundamental
principles Of our Government. We be-
ieye that the State might a. we'll set up
schools for instruction in gambling, couu-
erfeiting and licentiousress, as to license
iqIor selling taverns.