Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-02-15


chinery, to be fabricated and brought into
action, or remain inert and useless, as in the
opinion of this hastily and loosely appointed
committee circumstances may require.
We do not wish to quarrel with the origi-
majors of this movement for doing thing
we cannot say indirectly, for that would not
be true,-that they have declared it - mex
pedient to do. The organization is a fact !;
its results remain to be seen. The best
hearted men, and men with the best intPn-
tions-and such we know those who consti~
tuted the recent Temperance Convention to
be-are not always the most practical.
The feeling that something more might and
ought to be done in the way of legislation
to suppress the traffic in intoxicating liquors
always will exist SO long as the traffic goes
on, and that, too, without recurring to the
fact that the present statutes of the State, if
enforced, would entirely put an end to the
introduction and sale of intoxicating bever-
ages as now carried on in some localities
What is there that is required in the way of
preventions and penalties that is not found
within the General Statutes and the later
session acts As an honorable senator re-
marked last fall, when an effort to pass a
" constabulary law - was being made,
there is already provision for doing every
thing to man that sells liquor but hanging
him, and he thought that had better be
added so to make the catalogue of penal
ties complete Still the sale would 90 on,
the dissolute would continue to drink, some
less, some more, butas general thing more !;
and then, what? Why, hold another con-
vention, and appoint another committee
don't call it an Organization-to " watch -
all the rest, and so on till grand committee
Of the whole are on the " watch,' except
those that have gone /" around the corner, ="
to take drink. After election it will too
often be found that the :" regular ticket ="
has prevailed in spite of all the watching,
even in localities where it has been - deemed
expedient y g to prepare and publish such a
ticket as they can recommend What is
the inevitable result and conclusion? the
rumseller feels his hands strengthened, and
CONSTITUTES the election into a triumph for
regular ticket.
The difficulty does not lie in this direction.
The makers did their duty long ago, and
have been doing little more every year
since the so-called d" Maine law was en-
acted, until our statute book has grown as
obese as an alderman, under so much
good examining. The g executive depart
ment " has failed in rs duty, and whenever
that is not the case the traffic has been near
ly or quite suspended. The localities are by
10 means numerous in the State where the
contraband trade in liquors is carried on to
any great extent, and the same appliances,
added to the force Of public sentiment, that
have banished the trade from some commu-
mites would force the trader to capitulate in
others.
This new movement, this organization that
it is % inexpedient to organize, it seems to
us is an attempt to set back fires where the
ground is already burned over, and fan a
fresh blaze out of smouldering ruins, instead
of using the ample tools already provided to
clear off the remaining debris, and make
clean work of field which cannot further
be improved by legislative enactments or
resolutions adopted at public meetings.
Any community, where there is sufficient
stamina or force of public sentiment to take
hold of the matter and enforce existing laws.
will find no difficulty in putting an end to
the sale of intoxicating drinks but our
we'll meaning friends who assembled at Bur
lington can never do it with this q" wheel
within wheel, which they propose to put
in motion whenever, in their opinion, other
parties do not nominate for office such men
as they deem to be sufficient upon this one
point.
The whole matter rests with public senti-
ment and existing laws, properly enforced
4 by the law officers. Every community
has the po,0er, and knows its own 4" violat-
crs." Additional machinery Is not re-
quired, but we do need putting in motion
of that which already exists. 1t has, how
ever, become quite fashionable, as it is
certainly an easy way, to satisfy conscience
by passing resolution and appointing a
committee yet such a course does not often
result in any great reform. If the known
friends of temperance that assembled at
Burlington, will put their shoulders to the
wheels already waiting to be rolled, instead
of wasting their strength in constructing
new ones, we believe more good would b,
accomplished.