North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1867-05-01
From the New York Tribune, April 8.

tlmulants.
In spite of the awful logic of experience
and in defiance of prohibitory statutes, in
temperance is more prevalent in the United
States to-day than it has ever been at any
former period. This is statistical fac
which the well-informed philanthropis
cannot deny, however much he may re-
gret it, and it proves one of two things
either that the vice is past remedy or miti
cation, or that the stringent means adopt
ed to prevent the sale and use of stimu'
lants have been unwise and irrational
Human nature is not so hopelessly vicious
as to be beyond the influence of reason
and persuasion-however obstinate it may
be in its resistance to arbitrary and incon.
sistent laws, and the inference, therefore,
is, that the extremists who have declared
uncompromising war against the use oi
liquor under any circumstances, have orer-
shot the mark, and actually increased the
evil they intended to crush out. The United
States law authorities the importation,
manufacture, and sale of spirits, and the
Government derives large revenue from
such importance, manufacture and sale,
and while this is the case, no local law can
ever prevent the use of the article. The
statutes which impose taxes and duties on
liquor, presuppose that it will be used,
and recognize the right of the people to
use it. That right is denied by the pro-
hibitionists, and they make bylaws to pre-
vent the citizen from exercising a personal
privilege guaranteed to him-by implica-
ton at least-by the law of the land.
This is the whole ease in nutshell, and
it is for these reasons that the Maine law,
and every other enactment of its class,
have proved dismal failure.
Every good man admits that intoxication
is terrible vice-the fruitful parent of
every species of crime. But it does not
therefore follow that alcoholic stimulants
should be abolished. Wipe them out, and
what becomes Of one of the most impor-
tant departments of medical art? Only
ignorant fanatics, or men whose better
judgment is warped by prejudice, will at
tempt to deny that lives are saved daily by
the timely administration of spirituous
stimulus as terminating and restorative
agent. 1t is the basis of all the tinctures
of the pharmacopeias, and it has preserv-
ed the lives of thousands on the battle
field, in military and other hospitals, and
in private practice. Without it, medical
science would be like the play of Hamlet
with the part of the hero omitted. Most
especially is this true of pure medical
stimulant. PROFESSIONALLY, the extremist,
of the Neil Dow stripe, would like to sup
press all medicated preparations contain
ing alcohol. They would probably begin
with such popular bitters, as are reput-
ed to be the most potent restoratives and
alternatives of the day. They would deprive
the ague and fever districts of the South
and West Of such powerful specifics. They
would meet the traveller in the Valley of
the Mississippi, or the miner in the placers
or canons of California, or the voyager
about to sail for the insalubrious coast of
Mexico or the West Indies. and demand
the surrender of these great antidotes to
malaria, and protective against the effects
Of unwholesome water, if he happened to
be provided with them. Nay, they would
probably go further than that and destroy
the great factories where they are
prepared, and every bottle of it upon which
they could lay their hands throughout the
length and breadth of the land. In vain
would it be proved to them that the article
was manufactured from the purest of all
known diffusive stimuli and the most val
liable of medicinal herbs and roots.
"Away with it! away with itr' they
would cry; sit contains alcohol, and there
fore it must be destroyed"
But this is the language of insane bigo-
try. Enlighted Science-aye, and enlight-
ened Religion and Morality, too-condemn
it utterly. Bishop Eastburn, the Reverend
DR.. Worcester, and other great divines
have recently given their testimony against
such wholesale hostility to stimulants, and
have declared that the vice of drunken.
ness has been greatly increased by the un-
discriminating onslaughts of the prohi-
bitionists. The great Agassiz, and such
men as Professors Horsford and Jackson,
together with Drs. Bigelow, Clarke,
Holmes, White, and many other eminent
practitioners, whose standing as physicians
should secure respect for their opinions on
a point like this, have stated that alcoholic
preparations are absolutely essential in the
treatment of many diseases, and as restOr.
atives. They only insist that the prepar-
ations be pure. They are in favor of strin-
gent laws against adulteration; their motto
is "reyulate not destroy"
-d this is the true policy, dictated alike
by philosophy, eAperience, and common
sense. What, on the other hand, is the
tendency of the policy of prohibition II
does not prevent, it never has prevented
it never can prevent the sale of alcoholic
fluids, but it leads to their deterioration
and thus increases thousand fold, the
evils that it proposes to annihilate. When
liquors are sold secretly, and at the risk ol
personal liberty, of course the dealers will
seek to compensate themselves for the haz-
ards they incur by inordinate profits, and to
obtain those profits, they will adulterate
what they sell. 1t is notorious that the
liquor sold in States where prohibitory
laws exist is for the most part poison. 1t
is as safe for the vender to give his Gus
toners fiery and destructive compound
as good article-the penalty being in
each case the same. Strict and faithfully
executed inspection laws would prevent
this horrible adulteration. Prohibitory
laws promote it. 1t is well known that
most of the liquor recently forfeited in
New York, Brooklyn and elsewhere, for
evasion of the Government tax, has been
of the vilest description. The manufac-
turers, in view of the possibility Of seiz-
ure, have got up the contraband articles at
the least possible expense, in order that
their loss, in case of discovery, might be
comparatively small. The safety Of the
public health demands that such perni-
cious stuff be destroyed, and under pro-
per system of tests it would be condemned
and emptied into the docks. But no, it is
sold by the Government, at the average
rate of about 50 gallon, to pay the tax.
In this way alcoholic poison is distributed
broadcast among the people. The whole
system of legislation bearing upon the IL
quor trade in this country is, although not
SO intended, in the interest Of Intemper-
ance. A moderate excise and wise santa
ry laws, in relation to the testing Of all
distilled and fermented beverages, are the
best safeguards against the great evil which
all thinking men deplore, but for which
few have the wisdom and boldness to pro-