The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1872-03-21
For the Clarion.
The Temperance ELL.

EDITORS CLARION Il see bill has been
introduced by Col. Mcintosh into the Leg
islature of this State which aims at the
establishment of more efficient means for
the prevention of Intemperanee. We are
glad to see this. The highest ends of gov
eminent have been thwarted long enough
by mistaken fear of curtailing the liberties
of the governed. While the proper object
legislation is admitted to be the protee-
tion of the lives and property of citizens a
nefarious traffic is everywhere legalized by
which the lives and property of thousands
of those very citizens are annually destroyed
with impunity. We have been a nation of
monomaniacs on the subject of liberty.
Antagonistic ideas are apt TO run into ex
tremes. In undertaking to avoid oppres-
sion we have protected RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Setting out with that falsest of all false
maxims. that sail men are created free and
equal" the entire current of our political
thought has been Initiated by the poisonous
error that lay in its foundtain. The truth
is, that men are created neither free nor
equal, but the very reverse of both. Imag-
lining liberty in itself to he the chief good
of human existence, we have sacrificed the
veal of large majority of our Citizens to
protect the supposed rights of small mi
more men suffer from lack or sufficient
restraint, than from curtailment of rights.
We are oftener governed too little, than too
much. The fear of depriving few men of
the faneied liberty of selling poisonous
beverages, has caused hundreds of thous-
ands to I'LL untimely graves. Our whiskey
shops have cost us more lives and more
treasure than all our wars. But lest Liber-
ty-thaS chiInerical goddess that holds
deadly sway in our frenzied brains, should
be offended, all this must be permitted TO
continue. The States of this Union have
for years, like Hindoo mothers, been offer
ing their children in superstitious blindness
to the Moloch of Liberty. If the unlawful
sale of arsenic should produce the death of
a single man, the life or liberty of the seller
must pay the penalty of the crime; but if
by the sale of Intoxicating drinks the lives,
fortunes and happiness of thousands be
destroyed the author must be spared as
compliment to the glorious goddess of
Liberty.
We are glad that the days of this folly
seem to be passing away. Ii Will 20 far TO
relieve the land of the bllghting curse OF
intemperance to place its crinHnality where
it properly belongs. The courts of the
country are beginning 20 admit, what the
Greeks declared two thousand years ago,
that drunken man is a maniac; while
benevolent associations are raforining many
unfortunate inebriates by treating them on
the supP0sition that they and the sellers OF
poison that steal their brains. are firlv rep
resented by Eve and the Devil in the origi-
nal temptation. While the incorporate are
much TO be blamed, they are, We think,
more to be pitied. Few men drink with
the design of becoming drunk. We do hope
the Legislature win do something to take
temptation out Of the way of those who
cannot control their appetites. why should
not the seller of ardent spirits be made liable
for consequential and all other damages
produced by the liquor he sells?
We had government during the late
war that was strong enough to suppress
almost entirely the making and selling of
ardent spirits. We wonld rejoice to find
power enough somewhere TO do the like
again. III.