The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-14
The Temperance II RefOrm ana FrOnlOl-
tory LAWS.

49,. ;,,tar,narance has not been so great as TO
,ust;fv the hope, which some seem to enter
fain. that in it we have the great panscea
against the evils which are acknowledged to flow
from the excessive use of alcoholic drinks.
In the first place, prOhibitory laws are Of no
avail unless sustained by public sentiment;
and the existence of public sentiment which
will sustain and carry out such laws, implies
condition of moral restraint OH the part Of
the community at large which would go very
far of itself to check and eradicate the very
evils against which the laws are directed In
other words, you have got to make a commu-
nifty practically temperance community
before you can make a prohibitOry law sue -
oessful.
Those who rely mainly, or to any. very great
extent, upon prohibitory legislation, do not
comprehend the philosophy of the evil against
which they contend. They apparently assume
that in the sale of Intoxicating drinks we have
the chief cause of their use; so that If the sale
oan be stopped the evil will be eradicated. But
seller implies buyer Men do not offer for
sale that for which there is no demand. The
sale of alcoholic drinks only meets an existing
demand-a demand, it is true, which the
traffic may in part have assisted to produce,
but for which it is by no means primarily re-
spOnsible. Intemperanoe has its root in mems
appetites, and this appetite for alcoholic stimu
1ants, whether a natural or an acquired one,
is one of the most widely diffused among the
human family. We find it among all nations
and tribes. The sale of liquors is only an in
Cident which has grown up out of this wide
spread and dominating appetite. When
therefore, reformers place their chief reliance
upon repressing the incident, without Crap
pling with the cause, they make fatal mis-
take. The moment the evil is reached in its
root, that moment all its incidents are reached
also. 1t is far easier, as we'll as more philo-
sophioal, to suppress the sale of Intoxicating
drinks by aOolishing their use than it is to
suppress their use by prohibiting their sale.
The early history of the temperance reforma-
tion may be studied with profit. That was
emphaticallya movement for the moral educa-
tion of the masses. The community was en-
ightened upon the physical aud social evils
growing out of intemperance. Direct efforts
were made to reclaim the drunkard and to
prevent others from falling into his condition.
The result was that the social customs of the
entire people were very much changed.
Liquors were banished or much less widely
used. Thousands of liquor shops were closed,
not by prohibitory laws, but by the absence
of patrons. The reformation went on and
accomplished great good. So long as the
efforts of temperance men were directed pri-
marily to reaching and controlling the appe-
skas 6 1phy iun
ing the cooperation and voluntary efforts of
those whom they were seeking to reform, they
had all the success due to so great and good a
work. But when reformers tired of this
slow process of moral education and
voluntary, selfimposed restraint aud at
tempted to make men temperate by
law, and that law directed not against the use
but the sale of alcoholic drinks that moment
they abandoned their true line of work, lost
the power Ofthose great moral influences which
they had been so successfully welding,
arrayed against themselves a host of new
enemies, and brought the temperance re-
formation to a stand-still. For more than
twenty years the efforts of temperance reformers
have been expended in promoting sumptuary
legislation. 1t is time that the results of these
efforts should be carefully examined. A new
generation has grown up, comparatively unin-
struoted in the facts and truths which were
once relied upon to exert a restraining infu-
ence upon mems appetites. 1t cannot be
denied that intemperanoe has greatly in
creased. Drinking customs in private and
social life, which were once wellnigh
banished, are again establishing themselves.
They are no longer tabOo9d by the moral
sentiment of the community. The grOsser
forms of the vice are becoming more common
and shameless. In a word, the reform has
gone backwards to almost the point whence
1t hrst started. These are results which should
set serious men to thinking, and to re-examin-
ing the whole subject. That some error has
been committed is obvious. What is itY To
our own mind, 1t seems clear that a fnuda-
mental mistake has been made in attempting
to substitute repressive legislation. directed
against the liquOr-seller, for moral influences
addressed to the reason and conscience of tha
drinker. The battle has been transferred 40
a wrong field The incidental has usnrnsS
the place of the fund mental. The attarp M
has been made TO substitute physical for
moral force, and it has proved failure.
GENERAL SICKLEs' REQUEST DENIED.-The
Administration, it is said, will refuse Genera
Sickles court of inquiry. This is equivalent
to abandoning the charges which were made
AGAINST him. Public sentiment has already