The Portland daily press., 1867-03-13
To V0x Pspufs.

SIR: AS you have chosen to enter the field
with mask, you will allow me to call you V.
2. 1t will save some writing. You prefer to
be on the side of just cause-a cause so Just
and so reasonable that, by implication, they
who differ from you, are no better than knaves
or fools, deficient alike both in s.head and
heart" Ifhonest and sincere, why get behind
mask?
That prohibition and license have both been
tried, and found to be Intellectual, L acknowl.
edge. And what then? Have they been tried
in the best way? Go TO Massachusetts, read
over the names of witnesses who have been be-
fore the legislature clerymen, mayors of cities,
police officers, &c. all temperance men and
friends oftemperance, who have been hereto
fore the friends of prohibition, and what is
their testimony? That prohibition is a dead
failure; that intemperance is everywhere in
creasing; and that now they are in favor of
stringent license law; not of nominal license
law. -5-..Isll4 .DA .a.al Ibid .Hfola +lh
But, you say .'if the sale of Intoxicating Ii
quors is an evil, and productive of eoil--it be-
comes crine'-others say a sin Here is a
begging of the question. Extravaganza is an
evil-surgery is an evil medicine is an evil
and law itself is an evil; and all are productive
Of e0l Are they crimes Are they sins ? Or
will you not look to the motive? surgeon
cuts and slashes to save life, not to destroy
Now say, if a license law will lessen the evil
complained of, then why not have such s1icense
law? .-. ofc'r 4 ...,..i.frl rI..,f-.
And then you ask triumphantly4 why not Ii
eense houses of i'll fame? To which answer
1UhU nnto IL l;aaps;p., x,,;u Iaaea ia o:J ii
nothing else can, why not license them?-or in
other words, why not regulate them, and sub
ject them to the constant supervision Of a COM
petent and faithful police? Do not mistake
words for things. IF an ulcer can be appeased
by plunging a knife into it up to the hilt-why
shrink from doing what would be evil in itself
apart from the motive, because your short
sighted or weak minded neighbor says that you
must not do evil that good may come of it, If
your object in licensing be to lessen the evil af-
ter diligent inquiry and long experience, then
your n,Otsoe sanctifies the act?
And why not license murder, theft, bur
slary?" This we do now by authorizing war;
by allowing life to be taken under the law.
But perhaps you will say this is not murder Ii
is only homicide. Be not deceived. Defni
N'''N" 49, 49, itcbs. by war you author
Use the killing of innocent persons. You an
thorise piliage and burglary In other words
you license all these crimes! And wbvp Re-
cause on the whole, you believe, or pretend to
believe that good will come of it-greater GOOD
on the whole. And you set aside the laws of
God in the hope ofthat greater good. Yet war
sis an evil, and productive of evil and there
FORE according to your argument, a crime.
Do you not see, that by this course of reason
ing, my good friend you are not touching the
core of the question? If the"sale of intoxicat-
ing liquors is an eya, and productive ofeoa," so
as to be crime, how dare you countenance the
liquor agency? or the apothecary shop? Would
you license crme?f y b ti--''t' a.
The questions, after all ARE only these On the
whole, does the evil of liquor selling overbal-
ancc the advantages? And thennMif It does,
what Is the surest and speediest way of curing
that evil? These are the only questions; andI
must beg my friend V. =. to weigh them we'll
and to believe that others may be as honest 40
himself, and perhaps as disinterested and
well-informed, even though they do not apree
with him on the subject of prohibition. .,,...r
-a oaT s.5ls5f JOHN NEAL. OIL.