Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-01-01
A Talk with Temperance Men in the West
By REV. THEo. l.. CUTLER

4He w.urs eg-- 2a reasssh q.
The able and candid discussion of the
temperance question in the columns oil
the ADVANCE make it the best medium
| through which to reach my temperance
brethren in the WRIST. Nearly every day
| brings me letters on this great question
from some oil the most true-hearted friends
of Christ and OF humanity in Illinois and
the adjoining States. hsrasaaogas 81 ~
| Sonic of these letters quite amusingly
press upon me the claims OF Prohibition !!
Good friends i have made too many
| speeches with Neal Dow before legish-,
lures and synods, etc, in behalf OF pro-
hibitory legislation,' for You to give me
amy new views ON that topic. There is
out one logical and Christian method OF
dealing with grog-shops, and that is--to
suppress them. A dram-seller.is drunk
ard-maker andsa soul-destroyer, and to
| license n man to turn men into1brutes,
and souls into hell is both contrary to
Scripture and to sound republieanism.
In theory, am radical sprohibi.ionist.
But the practical questions of the hour
are--how shall we make the public senti-
ment that will make thorough laws against
| the dram? How shall we enforce the
laws when we get them? How shall we
arouse a Christian conscience in the COM
muniiy against both selling and partaking
of all alcoholic stimulants? hH a'-a5sr v
On these points have reached--after
twenty-five years of "pegging away" at
then1-the following conclusion. A genuine
prohibitory law is hard to get and hard to
Keep. Ii it actually shuts up the tippling-
houses, then the trinity OF avarice, appe.
tite, and fashion are arrayed against it
with venomous yehemence. Ii it Is a
dead letter, then the law IS hardly worth
the paper it is printed on. And law for
tsuppressing the liquor-traffic always will
be dead letter in every community where
there is not "a powerful and active public
sentiment against rum-seling. Such
suppression" of grog-selling as Boston
has seen for the last three months is
| enough to make the Devil laugh. There
are probably towns in Illinois, too, in
which prohibitory law would be trampled
into the mire. ' 'H. tf
When then? Shall all attempts to close
the ruin-dens by statute be abandoned? /?
| No. But let the law be so framed that
every city or township which votes to pro
tect itself from the rum-den shall be so
protected. And let those towns which
vote to legaizc the tipping house. have
it, until the miserses it brings have opened
the eyes and changed the sentiments of
that community. Voting is trust; and
they who exercise it, must take the con
sequences. The citizens Of Augusta in
Hancock Co., Illinois, voted last yeap<o
have no liquor sold as a beverssc within
their borders. Accordingly, when visit
cd Augusta last ~ufnmer, / found no dram
shop in, ~that thrifty village. But the
ci.izens Of that town never would have
voted as they did if they had not been
convinced by argument, that rum-selling
was a crime and drinking folly
The moment that Augusta gives up moral
suasion and relaxes her efforts to keep
her public sentiment sound. she will have
the rum-traflic back upon her and her
young men win be reeling in the streets.
"E.ernal vigilance is the price of such
blessed liberty as that favored town en-
joys. There are others like it. IS, ~ :
't1 Now, good friends, am heartily in
G.