New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-06-14
1ntemperance and Its Cure.
NEW ORLEANS. june S, 1856
Mr.. EDITOR:

Mr.. EDITOR:
Please allow me space in your pa
per for the insertion of few remarks
on intemperance and its remedy, which
if they accomplish no good hepe will
do no harm.
| In retrospeoting our past. history
and contrasting it with that Of our
present, we are led to ask what is go
| ing to become Of Louisiana? The
only answer that can be made is unless
change is wrought for the better it,
as a State, will soon be numbered
among the things that were. "A glance
at the state Of affairs of the land, which
should be the peaceful abode of mil
lions, is sufficient to meisten with tears
the eyes Of the most hard hearted.
One of the many prevailing evils, and
in no wise the least, which tends to
impoverish US, and will, if it has not
already, bring upon US Gods curse, is
the inerdinate desire for Intoxicating
drinks which we are sorry to say is
predominant among our colored
friends.
1 propose now briefly to consider
whether the use of intoxicating drinks
. is an evil, what are the chief causes OF
intemperance, and what remedies ex-
list for the suppression thereof.
The highest medical authority as
serts that the use of Intoxicating
liquors produces Inflammation of the
stomach and viscera, and extends the
ravages of diseased action to the
nerves and brain, involving ultimately
the most remote parts of the body.
At the same time they predispose the
system to epidemics and render them
more fatal where they attack those
addicted to the vice,
The reports made of the causes Of
lunacy attest the fact that the same
vice contributes largely to fill the
hospital with persons whose minds
have been derangei through the in
huence of Undertaking liquors.
The criminal calendar of our courts
is but record of the names of those
who, having been demented by ''the
dark beverage of hen," have progress
ed from the smaller vices to the com
mission of enormous crimes that
shocked the community by their
atrocity.
All those who have read the cOnfes-
sions of great criminals who have ex-
plated their offenses by death are
aware that they attribute the sad re-
suit to the use of intoxicating liquors
/ can assert that it is my conviction
that it is the cause of nine-tenths Of
the crime, vice, and poverty, and that
without its use it will be impraetica-
BILE to inaugurate another civil war
That the use of intoxicating beverages
contributed largely to produce the
late rebellion / can truthfully affirm
My conviction is that intemperance
embodies in itself many great evils
, that viii impede progress in sound
morality and virtue SO long as it exists
and that by extirpaton alone can it be
prevented from accomplishing its sure
3 work of destruction
= Among the causes that promote the
, desire and love for intoxicating liquors
mention that these appetites are
; sometimes inherited from ancestors
= who have INDUCED in their use; thai
:. they are sometimes engendered by the
, too free use Of tobacco, opium, OF
: morphine. Every stimulant, solid OF
fluid, that producesa great exhalation
of the animal spirits, is followed in 0
= few hours by corresponding depres-
r sion; and at such times almost any
stimulant that will relieve that depres.
sion becomes, eventually, an ha5itua
necessity. Those periods Of depres
: sion rarely occur when all our dietet
ical habits are correct. But thu
chief cause of the evil of intemper
ance exists in our social habits, an(
, the temptation presented to the young
a and unwary in the thousand saloons
3 and dsggeries existing everywhere
f by sanction of law, whereby the pur
suit is rendered comparatively re
spectacle, and intsmperance is rem
dered attractive. The appetite is thu
often produced by accidental associa
tion. and when it has once becom
established ali know that it is Difficult
to eradicate. How often a slight prov
ocation will persuade the reclaime
Incorporate to forget his pledges an
: return to the damning bowl. Man,
:, have relapsed from taking sseir
!, drink at fashionable party, or q toni
:. administered with alcoholic basis.
0 knowledge would save the intempeT
5 ate they would long since have al
i been saved.
. The most eloquent lecturers an
/, writer's have presented the evil Of in
J temperance in all its hideous deformi
: ty time and again to show who ar
O the victims of that vice, and accom-
: plished very little. IF resolves, 81
! pressed with all the sanction Of solem
= vows, were kept, how many would no
live honored members Of society the
4 are the slaves Of intemperanee. Ma
( Is too often but bundle Of habit
q and the laws of the land should nj
:. hold forth temptation that, If not II
: sisted, leads to certain ruin.
Lastly, propose to consider Wit