Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-04-19
Oblo SStat&5n1ar1,
atiOn-SenatOr McBbOuRnPS
Speech on "CapitOI" Liquor.

rntiOn-SephNOr McDOu4uAh y
speech on ''CapitOI" Liquor.
Especial Dispatch Washington, llth) to tho
Journal
Mr.. PREsIDENT-It was once said that
there were as many maids as men, and
there is no end of wrangling. had occa-
sion some years since to discourse with a
reverend Doctor of Divinity from the
State which has the honor to be the BIRTH
place, l think, of the present President of
this body (ConnecticuD. While was dis
coursing with him lot of vile rapscallions
invited me to Join them at the bar. de-
clined out OF respect to the reverend gen
tleman in whose presence then was. AS
soon as the occasion had passed i remarked
to the reverend doctor: "Do not under
stand that declined to 60 and join those
young men at the bar because have any
objection to that thing, for it is my habit to
drink always in the front ana not behind
the door," He looked at me with certain
degree Of interrogation. then asked him:
"Doctor, what was the first miracle worked
by our great Mastcr?" lie hesitated. and
said to him: "Was it not at Cana in Galilee,
where he converted the water into wine at
the marriage feast?" / asked him then !:
After the Ark had floated in the tempest
uous seas for forty days and nights, and as
it descended upon the dry land, what was
the first thing done by Father Noah? 2" He
did not know that exactly. "Well," said /,
did he not plant vine?" Yes, he remem-
bered it then.
| asked him: "Do you remember any
great poet that ever illustrated the higher
fields of humanity that did not dignity the
use of wine from old Homer DOWN." lie
did not. | asked: "Do you know any great
philosopher that did not use it for the eX-
altation of his intelligence? Doyou think,
Doctor, that man who lived upon pork
and beef and corn bread could get up into
the superior regions-intO the ethereal?
No; he must take nectar on high Olympus,
and mighty mead in Valhalla." / said to
him again "Doctor, you are scholarly
man of coursG-a Doctor of Divinity-a
graduate of Yale-dO you remember PlatO's
Symposium Yes; he remembered that.
l referred him to the occasion when Agatha,
having won the prize of tragedy at the
Olympic Games at Corinth, on coming
back to Athens was feted by the nobility
and arstOcracy of that city-tor it was a
proud triumph to Athens to win the prize
of tragedy. They got together at the
house of PhGdrus, and they said, 'Now we
have been every night for these last six
nights drunk; let us be sober tonight, and
we will start theme"-which they passed
around the table as the sun goes round-or
as they drank their wine, or as men tell a
story. They started a theme, and the theme
was Love-not love in the vulgar sense but
in its high sense-lOve of all that is beauti-
ful. After they had gone through, and at
ter Socrates had pronounced his Judgment
abOut the true and beautiful, in came
Alcibiades with drunken body of Athe-
nian boys, with garlands to crown Agatha
and crown old Socrates; and they said to
those assembled: "This will not do; we
have been drinking, and you have not" and
after Alcibiades haG made his talk in
pursuance OF the argument in which he
undertook to dignity Socrates, as | remem-
Der it, they required, after the party had
agreed to drink Gt being quite late in the
evening, and they had finished their busi-
ness in the way of discussion), that Socrates
should drink two measures for every other
mans one, because he was better able to
stand it. And so one after another they
were laid down on the lounges In the Athe-
nian style, all except an old person named
Aristodemus (and Plato makes him the
hardest headed fellow except SOcrates.) He
and Socrates stuck at it until the gray of
the morning, and then Socrates took his
bath and went down to the Groves and
talked academic knowledge. "After citing
this incident | said to this divine: "Do you
remember that Lord Bacon said that man
should get drunk at least once month.
and that Montaigne, the French philOso-
pher. indorsed the proposition? Do these
eXhalations that buoy us up above the COM
mon measure of the brute--wine and oil
elevate us-enable us to seize great facts
inspirations which once possessed are ours
forever, and those who never get beyond
the mere beastly means of animal support
never live in the higher planes of life and
cannot achieve them? believe in woman,
wine, whiskey and war" Let me add that
the Reverend Doctor said to me, swell,
General, you are right; but cannot afford
. se