Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-02-20
~BAC0NsBURG LETTER.
BAcoNsBuRG, Feb, II, 1866

Gle and other newspapers, that the sub
ject of Temperance is being revived
and discussed in your town and in
many other places. am not surprised
at it, but more surprised that much
more is not said and done on a subject
of such great interest.
1 fear the terribly destructive evils
attending the liquor traffic are not full
ly comprehended by the good people
Of our county, Of there would be
a more active and persevering effort by
them. The aggregate amoun of crime,
misery and degradation legitimately
attending the liquor trade is really ap.
palling. According to statistics, there
areioVer 300, 900 drunkard's in land.
Some $4,000 drunkard's wives $50,
600 drunkard's children, and some
100000 incorporate drinkers who are
not yet drunkards.
This is indeed a mass of ruined for
tunes, blighted hopes, broken hearts,
dsthroned reason, haggsrd want, squat
lid poverty Gods dishonoring crime,
moral pollution, disease and degrada-
ton, at the sight of which decency
bushes, humanity turns pale, reason
sbhors, pity deplorse, and christianity
Weeps.
Drunkenness is a disease. 1t is not
merely a habit as some suppose, but
the most terrible and loathsome of all
diseases. Drunkenness, like all malig-
nant diseases. has its pathology, its
symptomology, its fatal tendencies,
and if not arrested in its durable stage
its terminus is death. Drunkenness
is an acquired disease, incubated and
developed in the human system by in
~toxicating liquor, and attacks a man
only when he seeks and acquires it.
From $4,000 to GO, 900 drunkards die
annually in the United States. Oh,
what a solemn and mournful thought !!
When we remember that God has said
that "no dSnnksrd hath eternal life"
what impenetrable gloom gathers
around his tomb. The malignancy
and deathly tendency of all the intoxi-
eating liquors now used in commerce,
owe much of their destructive power
to the mode of manufacturing them.
n the process of fermentation, distii-
~lation, and what is called rectifying,
they gre all adulterated and drugged
with the most deadly poisons known in
the scientific world. All pure liquors
have been driven from commerce and
The drugged and adulterated reign tri-
umphant on all the field of death and
damning ruin.
The adulteration of liquors is dia-
bolical crime. The way it is 10Y car
ried on in our country it amounts to
1holesale and retail murder. All the
liquors of commerce are drugged with
the most deadly of poisons. The hor-
rid disease of drunkenness is a thous-
and degrees intensified, and the awfnl
doom that awaits the defrauded and
deluded victims of the internal trafic C,
is a thousand times accelerated.
On every highway, in every by-way,
lane, street, venue and public corner
in our cities, towns, villages and coun-
try places, and wheresoever we turn
our eyes we meet the victims of those
engines of disease, death and damning
ruin.
Drunkard making is a legalized bust
ness of our country, protected by law
and upheld by the people The dire
full disease of drunkenness, with all its
physical anguish and degradation, NOR
al pollution, and crimes of every name
and order, lay at the door of public
sentiment, the moral status of the
church and our general and state Gov
Take away from the occurs
ID traffic all its props and legislative
sanctions, and the sustaining approba-
lion of public sentiment, and then
EiSit upon it just penalties for all its
and it would soon find its home
the penetration of fallen angels and
1ngodly men.
Ours is a government of the people
md for the people. The people were
prior to the government. The people
made the government, and the prime
of the government is to serve
he people. The people command and
he government must obey in all things
to their prosperity and
The Constitution of the United
states declares that Congress shall pro
ide for the general welfare. The liquor
rade has the same legislative sanction
nd the amount of legal protection
hat the iron, -four, wool, cotton or meat
radss have. Now is it right ? Is it for
he good of the. country that it Is so
10, no, it is not right, nor for the good
f the country, and every man that has
ense above a brickbat can see it.
The aggregate amount of evil attend
liquor traffic ten thousand times
urpasses all its benefits. There is one
audable pursuit that cannot dispense
nth all diluted liquors, without any
-etriment, and that is the medical pro-
Alcohol VIII answer all pur-
oses in the mechanic arts.
We say that drunkenness is a disease
nd SO it is, exceeding in malignity all
therdiseases. Getting drunk and max
ng drunksrds isa crime per Sc, and
'ught to be declared a crime in our
and visited with penalties a
ordingly.
Now, Mr.. Editor, who is accountable
,r the 100000 drunkards in our land?
Vho mada them drunkardap The IL