Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-04-18
INTERROGATION IDEALIzED.
A Defence of Drunkenness by a Unit.
ed States Senator.

duced into the United States Senate, on
Thursday last a,resolution prohibiting the
sale of liqnor within the Capitol or on it,
grounds. 1t might have been expected
that the Copperheads of that body, though
in the minority, would have battled like
another Spartan band against this tyran-
meal curtailment of their dearest priyil-
eyes; but, alas they proved cowardly and
recresnt. Only two Senators were found
brave enough and manly enough to stand
by their principles, and vote for the pro-
lection of Whiskey-Garret Davis, the
Bourbon representative of Kentucky, and
Nj. McDougan of California. These two
gentlemen at least practice what they
preached, and preached what they prac-
tice-but what of the others? Where was
the intrepid Ssulsbury-where the gallant
Cowsn2 Why were not their clarion
voices heard in eloquent defense of the
deity they worship Thank heaven
there was one Senator chivalrous and
bold and true enough to stand up for
drunkenness, and from the "high plane of
life to which whiskey has lifted him, to
explain to the unfortunate New England
teetotallers the ennobling, purifying, and
inspiring effects of debauch. This wsl
Mr.. McDougall of California, who, single
handed and alone, battled with the intol-
Grant Puritan ~blue-bellies in behalf of tht
divine right of mankind to get drunk
His speech is unique enough to become
one of the "Curiosities of Literature ,
and we put it on record here as the first
| plea for ~intoxication uttered by so high
an official as a Senator of the United
States.
Mr.. PRESIDENT: It was onoe said that
there are as many minds as men, and there
is no end of wrangling. I had occasion
some years since to discourse with a rever-
end doctor of divinity from the State
which has the honor to be the birthplace,
I think, of the present President of this
body. While l was discoursing with him,
a lot of vile rapscallions invited me to
Join them at the bar. l declined, out OF
| respect to the reverend gentleman in
whose presence l then was. As soon as
! the occasion had passed, l remarked to
the reverend doctor, ado not understand
that 1 declined to go and join these young
men at the bar because l have any obiee-
ton to that sort of thing, for it is my habit
TO drink always in front and not behind
the door" He looked at me with a GER
tain degree Of interrogation. 1 then
asked him, doctor, what was the first
miracle worked by our great Master ?'
He hesitated, and ! said to him, WAS il
not at Cana in Galilee, where hessconverted
water into wine, at q marriage feast?'
He assented. 1 asked him them, "Aftel
the ark had foated on the tempestuous
seas for forty days and nights, and as it
descended upon the dry land, what wa:
the first thing done by father Neah?" He
did not know that exactly. "Well," said
!, "did ne not plant a vine ~ Yes, he re-
membered it then.
I 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 n
/ He did not. l asked, "Do you know any
great philosopher that did not use it for
the exaltation of his intelligence Dc
you think, doctor, that a man who lived
| upon pork and beef, and corn bread, could
get up into the superior regiOns-into the
ethereal 2" No, he must
"Taks nectar on high Olympus
And mighty mead in Yalhalla."
1 said to him again, Doctor, you are
scholarly man, of course-a doctor of di-
vinity-a graduate of Yale; do you re.
member Plato's Symposium 2" Yes, he
remembered that. Preferred 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 aristocracy
Of that city, for it was a proud triumph
to Athens to win the prize of Tragedy.
They got together, at the house of Phed-
rus, and they said, "Now, we have been
every night for these last six nights drunk;
let US be sober tonight, and we will start
a theme; which they passed around the
table as the SUI goes round, or as they
drank their wine, or as men tell q story.
They started a theme, and the theme was
love-not love in the vulgar sense, but in
its highsense-love of all that is beautiful.
After they had gone through, and after
Socrates had pronounced his Judgment
about the true and beautiful, in came Al
cibiades with aidrunken body of Athenian
boys with garlands around their heads, 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 had
made his talk in pursuance of the argu-
ment in which he undertook to dignity
Socrates, as l remember it, they required
latter the party had agreed to drink, it
being quite late in the evening, and they
had finished their business in the way of
discussion) that Socrates shoulddrink two
measures to every other mans one, be-
cause he was better able to stand it. And
so one after another they were laid down
on the lounges in the Athenian style, all
except an old physician named Aristotle
mus, and Plato makes him the hardest
headed fellow except Socrates. He and
Socrates stuck at it until the grey of the
morning, and then Socrates took his bath
and went down to the groves and talked
Academic knowledge.
After citing this incident I said to this
divine, "Do you remember that Lord
Bacon said that a man should get drunk
at least once q month, and that Montaigne,
the French Philosopher, Endorsed the
proposition ?"
These exaltants that bring us up above
the common measui 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 go
beyond the mere beastly means of animal
support never live in the high planes of
life, and cannot achieve them. 1 believe
in women, wine, whisky and war.