Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-03-03
fFrom the Waterman and Reflector. ]
RUMSEILING A CRIME.

"a I'VE
The Legislature of Vermont, at its late
session, passed an act of which the follow
ing is the third section.
"Whenever any person in state of in-
toxcation shall wilfully commit an injury
upon the person or property of any other
individual, any person who by himself,
his clerk or servant, shall have unlawfully
sold or furnished any part of the liquor
causing such intoxication shall be liable to
the party injured for all damage occasioned
by the injury so done, to be recovered in
the same form of action as such intoxicat-
ed person would be liable to; and both
such parties may be joined in the same ac-
ton and in case of the death or disability
of any person, either from the injury re-
ceived as herein specified, or in conse-
quence of intoxication from the use Of liq-
uors unlawfully furnished as aforesaid,
any person who shall be in any manner
dependent on such injured person for
means of supper, or any party on whom
such injured person may be depenent, may
recover from the person unlawfully sell
ling or furnishing any such liquor as afore
said all damage or loss sustained in con-
sequence of such injury, in any court hav-
ing jurisdiction in such cases, and cover
ture or infancy shall be no bar 10 proceed
ings for recovery in any case arising I'M
der this act"
This law ig based on the principle we
have long advocated, viz, that thu rum
seller is responsible for all the crimes that
flow from his act that he is not only
particepS crtmiaiS, but the instigator, the
principal in the criminal deed. This is not
a novel doctrine, new position taken up
by extreme men. 1t was the general
opinion of the founders of the Temper
ance Reform. AS early as 1928 the
ground was taken that the rumseller
i" should be held directly responsible for
the consequences of his acts, and that the
time was coming when the gambler, the
slave dealer and the rum dealer would be
classed together" Says the Fourth Re
port Of the American Temperance Society,
written nearly forty years ago, " 1t is an
established principle of law, for the viola
ton of which men have been hanged, that
the accessory and the principal in the
commission of crime are both guilty" R.
EEL. Walworth, chancellor of the State off
New York, declared, the year after, that
" the vender of ardent spirits is morally
responsible for all the crime and misery
which his maddening potations naturally
produce"
Says the Report of the American Tenn
perance Society for 1882, IA mar is as
really guilty who is accessory to the death
of his fellow-men by means of ardent
spirits, as by means of opium, knife or
a pistol" Says Rev. Baxter Dickinson,
" Without a prophets vision I foresee the
day when the manufacture of Intoxicating
drink for common distribution will be |
classed with the arts of counterfeiting and
forgery" Says Hon. Chief Justice Dag
gett, 1884, When public opinion shall
place those who furnish the means of this
destructive vice on level with thieves
and counterfeiters, then, and not till then,
may we expect to see our land purged
from this abomination." Hon. John Cot
ton Smith, former Governor of Connecti-
cut, affirms that, without any additional
legislation, the common law of the land
already contains within it principles pre-
cisely adapted to the case both of the dis
tiller and the vender and he adds, 4" let
informing officers then, and courts and
juries do their duty, and the day of re-
demption from the sorest curse of the civ
ilized world cannot be distant"
Said DR.. Beecher, " Can it be denied
that the commerce in ardent spirits makes
a fearful havoc of property, morals and
life 2" DR.. Wayland speaks of it as
the known cause of nine tenths of all
the crimes which are perpetrated against
society,"" Hon. William Writ described
it as e living poison" The latter adds,
3" I have been for more than forty years
a close observer of life and manners in
various parts of the United States, and !
know not the evil that will bear mo-
ment's comparison with intemperance. 1t
is no exaggeration to say that this single
cause has produced more vice, crime,
poverty and wretchedness In every form,
domestic and social, than all the other ills
that scourge us combined"
Does the law in Vermont go too far
Would to God that public sentiment was
to enact and enforce law which
would pursue and punish rumselllng as
one of the hugest crimes against society.
But it will come to it. There is, how
ever, much work to be done first. Let the
friends of temperance grid themselves
anew. @ as