Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1871-12-07

AUSTIN, MIMI
THURSDAY MORNING, DEC. 1871.
Tho Temperance Question.
There seems to be manifested, Just at
the present time, al uncommon interest
IN the cause Of temperance The
Christian people Of the land especially,
are moving against the traffic in spirit
uous aid malt liquors, and they arc,
evidently determined to make their in.
fuencc felt We hope for results cor
responding with the magnitude Of the
work. Two separate efforts to promote
temperance reform in this State
through agencies purely political, have
slgnal(y failed. No party ever existed
that could hold itself together under
the banner Of total abstinence, and the
reason is quite evident. Politics is not
an unmixe1 good. While protesting
devotion to principle, politicians arc sci.
dom unmindful Of their own services,
or, Of the propriety Of having them
rewarded.
n temperance storm is a manifesto
ton Of genuine oenevolencc, and hence
it naturally originates among those
whose ultimate purposes do not include
the possibility Of some personal advan-
tagc.
The experience IF older States has
demonstrated quite clearly that the sale
Intoxicating drinks cannot be. success
fully prohibited. There is, probably,
no State in the Union which had lie IS
diversified popu|ation-we mean tower
nationalities-than had the State of
Maine. Her citizens were the posteri-
ty Of her earliest colonial settlement.
They had all the heightened morality
for which New England was ever IA
mous, and yet prohibition was there
grand failure. It failed for two rea-
sons. Public sentiment did not sup
port the enactment. That was one rea-
son. Another was, individuals pretend
ed that the law was an unwarrantable
interference with personal privileges,
or, the reserved rights Of tho citizen,
and they resisted it accordingly, and
successfully, too. sumptuary laws have
never found favor with tho American
people.
What man shall eat and drink
Is as much q matter of conscience--if
he have any conscience-as is the hon.
age which he offers at the shrine of his
Deity, and he will b. dictated in his
choice Of tho latter, as readily as in
that of the former. We may conclude,
then, that men will not be controlled in
their appetitcs unlcss it be in tho drec-
ton Of their qualification If this be
true, there is but little, if any, use in
seeking to reform men who have be.
come drunkards, or in trying to prevent
them from obtaining liquor with which
to crafty tho appetite it creates.
Legislation cannot furnish an ade-
'quate remedy. Public virtue must
erist, before it can be embodied in
legislative enactment. The people of a
State must be inclined to sobriety and
temperance, else they will resist with
mob violence, any restraint upon the
qualification Of their appetites, Laws
do not educate the people, nor do they,
of themselves, confer rights which we're
not before recognized as being the COM
mon property of the State. They are
only authoritative expressions of public
opinion, i. e. opinions entertained so
generally as to be popular.
Upon questions which have special
moral tendency, legislators usually vote
tho sentiments of their constituencies
Tie character of our legislation is shap
ed by the intelligence and the moral
convictions of the people, and our stat
ute books are the expression and just
measure Of the wisdom, tho virtue and
the sobriety of the people Of Minnesota.
We have no prohibitory law. Why
not A.? For the best Of all reasons: A
majority of tho people do not desire
such Mu. This is an unvarnished
truth. Too many of us fail to realize
tho force of it. And yet, until we
make our efforts harmonic with this
idea we shall fail ofachieving any good.
1t is the minority in this State
that want prohibition. We proudly
claim place in the ranks Of that party,
but we do not expect to make our
wishes prevail, until we shall have ex-
changed places with the majority
Such transition cannot be effected by
voting. When once achieved, the vic
tory may DO sealed by the exercise of
the right Of suffrage, just as bolt,
firmly inserted in its place, my be held
there by riveting.
What, then, is our remedy? First,
negatively, it is not in a prohibitory
law; it is not in laborins with saloon
keepers. But little can be done with
those who are habitual drinkers. Most
Of them will become confirmed in their
excuses, and, ultimately, fill drunkards'
graves. Not one in hundred will
ever be fully reclaimed. The great
mass Of those for whose reformation