Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1869-03-10
IS HING.---CAN HE BE
OVER1HROWN

The Ministerial Association ofWyalusing District
met at Montrose, FEBRUARY, 10th, and unanimously
ance, read before the Association, by Rev. 8 f.
Brown, of Tunkhannock, be furnished to the County
papers of Bradford Susquehanna, and Wyoming fol
publication.
Alcohol is King by the consent Of the
people, and by the laws of the land. He
sits a King of mighty power and influence.
He has in this fair land, probably, more
than five millions of willing and obedient
subjects, and his annual expenses are four
teen hundred millions of dollars.
| We claim that this is free and indepen-
dent government, that these States are gov
erned 10y the will of free people. And
yet here is a despotism prevailing all parts
of this great Repubhc-every city, town,
and hamlet-The sea coast, and the plains
the mountains, and the valleys; the sunny
South, and the vigorous North; the thriving
East, and the growing West; the forest, and
the prairie; the land of gold, and the land of
herds and focks III the mines, dark and
| deep and on the bosom OF the beautiful
lakes and rivers; in the houses of the rich,
and the novels Of the poor f; in the political
caucus, in the conventions of the people,
i'll the Legislatures, i'll Congress, i'll the
| Cabinet, in the Presidential mansion, ev-
erywhcre, the subjects and votalies of this
regal despot, are found to uphold and de-
fend his authority. And worst Of all, the
| constitutional authority of this great ma
ton, has been thoroughly baftied and set
at naught by the minions of his satanic ma
jesty, King Alcohol For long centuries
he has ruled in the world, not only with
rod Of iron, but with Il rod of fire and
death, a fire consuming soul and body,
| death present and eternal, ''for no drunk
| ard shall inherit the Kingdom Of God.
He is q tyrant that levies a tax upon his
| subjects, that would furnish bread for the
multiplied millions of these United States,
! and yet, he gives ID return, nothing but
poison for the body and mind, nothing but
discord and sorrow nothing but poverty
and crime broken hearts, and hopes, and
promises; ruined health and homes dwarf
ed, starved, and impoverished children
broken hearted mothers, and wives bound
to the bloated and corrupted living carcass
cs Of drunken husbands. He stirs up
strife, incites to blasphemy and Sabbath
breaking, to lying and the4t, to robbery
and murder, to prostitution and adultry.
Soils the ermine of the bench, and desc
crates the sanctity of the pulpit. No air too
pure to be contaminated by his breath
no place too sacred to be polluted by his
staggering tread no society SO exclusive,
that it may not be blasted by his curse no
tie so holy, that it may not be severed by
his touch his presence is degradation his
breath is death and his feet take hold on
hell. His priests III their unholy ministra-
tions, stand behind polished and gllded al
tars, and are greater i'll number and lntiu-
ence, than the ministers OF our holy reli-
gion. They minister not to weekly, but to
daily worshipers, that in their regularity,
devotion and liberal support, shame the
most liberal, devoted, and punctual, Of the
professed followers of the Cross of Christ.
But God, the living God has pronounced
a curse against his priesthood. "Cursed
is he that putteth the bottle to his neigh
bors, and maketh him drunken, and the
hard bony, and relentless hand of this
curse, clutches not only the guilty rumsel- |
ler, but the more guilty Legislator that
sanctions by law, the unholy traffic, and
the little less guilty Judge, that grants the
license, and the thrice guilty petitioners,
that ask its continuance and with a long
arm, and with discriminating justice, fas
tens upon every one, IN every station III
life, that by word or act or silence, upholds
the accursed thing, for the whole response
bility rests with the people, ''for the voice
of the people is the voice OF God lin this
matter) to the Legislator and the Judge,
and when the people say, III private and III
public, through the press, and the ballot
box, that, not only ninety-nine persons out
of every hundred shall not sell alcoholic
poison, but that the hundredth shall not
either, and if is right, las We all believe 1t
isl to prevent by legislation the ninety
nine persons selling it, it is equally right to
prevent the hundredth. But, says an Hon
orable Senator, you may as well legislate
against eating Goldfish, as against drinking
rum. Well let US see. l have used cod
fish, and potatoes, and bread, myself, and
in my family, for many years, and none OF
them ever threw us or any Of lis into the
gutter, or made us make worm fence in the
Streets, or tangled our legs, or muddled our
brains, OF untitled US for business, or ruined
our finances, or blasted our character, or de-
stroyed our health, or injured our morals,
nor gave us the delirium tremens, and we
are not aware that they ever did any OF
these things to our neighbors, or their chill
dren, and no curse is pronounced against
them or the use of them or the sale or gift
of them And We ask in the name OF
peace, and order, and the good of human
society, and the good of all the people, and
all the land what laws are for, ii not to
protect society from evil, and wrong, and
d;eoorl oDd immortality and to defend