The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-04-23
The Grog Shops-No. TX.

Too stringent" then you think the new law
to be; why do you think it so? 1 asked of
gentleman who calls himself an enemy of grog
shops, and friend of the Maine Law. 'sWhy
you see, he answered, s'the law comes down
upon the liquor dealers suddenly, and gives
them no day of grace,-even seizing and con-
fscating their stocks of liquors which do not
think a kind and gracious proceeding, and it is
calculated to produce a reaction. How differ
entity co~sress intended to deal with the traders
in tea and coffee, when it was proposed to make
these articles free the law was NOT 70 taLo Of
Ject until the first of July, so as vo~allow the
dealers to sell off their stocks without losst--
And you really think there is an analogy be-
tween the liquor dealers in Maine and the cof-
fee and tea dealers of the country? "Yes, 1
think SO, why not" The reasons to the con-
trary are many and obvious. The trade in cof-
fee and tea is legitimate and lawful business,
and there has never been pretence that it is
injurious to the country. The dealers have
their present stocks on hand by bargain with
the country, having paid the heavy duties re-
quired of them; and it is only just and reason
able that the government, in its change of pol
icy, should spare their interests as far as is con-
sistant with those of the country. But the
liquor-sellers, on the contrary, have been in
open violation and defiance of the law for more
than twenty years. They brought their liquors
into the State in violation of law, kept them
and sold them in defiance of law. Their trade
is and always has been dreadful mischief to
the community, and in deadly conflict with
every interest of the State. The liquor sellers
have no more right nor reason to complain that
the law has come down upon them suddenly
and harshly, than the thief, burglar or house
breaker has to complain that the officers seizes
him by the throat without warning. These
last are enemies to society, declared by the law
to be So and are to be diligently hunted and
seized wherever found. And the same thing is
true of the liquor Sellers with the difference
that they are a thousand fold more the enemies
of society than robbers, burglars and house
burners are, and therefore ought to be hunted
out of the country, with many times more the
activity and earnestness -t -
l think there are few persons, even of the
temperance men, who comprehend fully the
position which this movement against the grog
shops in to occupy in history. [ am quite con,
fident that it will be regarded as no less impor-
tant to human happiness and to every consider
alton of right and duty than the great move
ment against the slave trade and slavery 1t
is not little singular that the men who upheld
slavery and the slave trade, and resisted every
effort to abolish and suppress them, are the
same who are opposed to every effort to eman-
cipate the people from the dreadful evils of in
temperance and from the bondage of the LIQUOR
traffic. And as notC no man can be found will
ing to confess that he ever favored human slay-
cry, so the time is coming when those who OBJ
struct the efforts for the suppression of the
grog shops will be willing to forget, and desir-
GUS that others should forget also, that the con-
tinuance of that dreadful trade, even for a day.
was largely due to their opposition.
When contrast liquor selling with robbery.
burglary and house burning, declaring the for.
mer to be the greater crime against society
let no man say the Judgment is harsh and mn.
just unless he cen show that the latter nrodnc.
more mischief and misery in society than tb,
former. Chief Justice Daggett said in ,s34
In my view the great source of intemperanct
Is 10 be found in grog shops and tipplne
houses, those outer chambers Of He'll When
public opinion shall place those who furnish
the means of this destructive vice on level
with thieves and counterfeiters, then, and moi
ttH uaen, may we expect to see our land purgedd q
from this abomination. Let the word OF God
answer: Woe unto him that giveth MS nelgh,
Dor drink, that puttest the bottle TO MN ana
makeSt him drunken also. L DeneVe tnat
liquor selling produces, year. by year, ana every
| year, more suffering among the people than all
| the robberies, burglaries and house burnings
| do in quarter of century. am continent
| that no Intelligent man win venture to
| this Then let him not say it is harsh and
inst to stigmatize the liquor seller as a most
nmischeyious enemy to the public welfare w. !,
N. ID.