The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-03-02
To be continued. !
Defense Of the Good Templars.

! To be continued.
Defense of the Good Templars.
Some editorial remarks that appeared, &
short time ago, in Tile Wing, reflected very
sharply on the motives and conduct ol
| those who have the cause of Temperance
Din hand here, and it appears must have
been written under misrepresentation
| both of our power and intentions. "Dic
| you see the article in The Wig, in regard
! to the Good Templars - heard inquired
of member of the Order. go yes, il
only shows the authors ignorance, he
replied; and l suppose that was the feeling
of most of those acquainted with the facts
who read the article.
\ large portion of our numbers are those
just entering life, and it is just those that
we wish to have enrolled amoug us. We
are aware of the magnitude of the task
before us, but the adherents of the rum
policy, will no doubt be astonished to find
the number of those with the almighty
ballot in their hands, who will come for
ward to use it when there is a prospect OF
accomplishing good purpose.
Those who examine the arguments
brought forward against the temperance
movement, will find them nearly the same
as those advanced against the anti-slavery
movements few years ago. Slavery and
alcohol are twin denominations and the
medicine that was good for one is good fol
the other. 1t is like jeff Davis, "all we
pressible conflict - is now in progress, and
error stand peacefully side by side, will
n frl1f fri
umphantly out Of the struggle with the
power of the cursed demon entirely broken.
Fathers and mothers are directly respon-
sible in most cases for the ruin of their
children. They do not teach them why
they should not tritle with an article that
is sharper than two edged sword, even to
the dividing of soul and body.
1t is sure that we must convince legisla-
tors that we have some power before we
can hope that they will pay any Difference
to our wishes, and it is certainly for those
of us who have the ballot in our hands to
so use it., that they will understand us, and
we give notice that it will be done. But
there is good proportion of our numbers
who are not yet in possession Of this
power, and many ladies whose influence
we sorely need, and all legitimate means
that we can employ to make the associa-
ton attractive and retain them on the
right side, it is our duty to use and is a
decided benefit to our case. We know
that our organization is not as effective as
it might be, but it is working up to be
power that will be felt politically as well
as socially, and the idea that boys and
girls are running the machine is a mistaken
one, as some Of our politicians will find to
their sorrow. AS to our stopping to deal
4 f< I,n IS l.
to take glass of wine or something
stronger it is entirely unnecessary, ten
to one he deals to himself we would only
stop to help him. In conclusion would say
she that is not for US is against us, and
we would earnestly ask all true workers to
come forward and enroll themselves in the
cold water army and no longer let it be
said that the children are setting their
parents good example that they refuse to
follow. 119.
REMARKS BY THE WING.
The supercilious remark of the '.good
brother which our correspondent sup
poses "was the feeling of most of those
acquainted with the facts" is very charac-
teristic.o "Order" folks, and therein lies a
great weakness. Those who know all gen.
orally end by finding out they did not
know enough to accomplish their Object,
and might have learned something use
full from outside barbarians. Outsiders
are, in the main, very sharp critics, and
though uncharitable sometimes to some
extent, in the majority of instances strike
very near the truth. A greater mistake
could not be made than to suppose that the
ti-slavery excitement and the temper
ance cause are similar. Two things could
not be more dissimilar. Slavery was es-
sentially sectional, and created an aristo-
cratic class and laboring class, between
which there was nothing in common
While intemperance is the most universal
and democratic institution that ever existed.
1t places the king and the beggar, for the
time being, on level, and both in the gut
ter together. Slavery rebelled against free
government and liberal institutions. In
temperance clamorous for both 1t was
not public sentiment that put down slavery
but its own violence. 1t took the sword
and persisted by the sword. Had it rested
its cause solely with the appetites and sell
fishness of man an intemperance does, it
might have reigned thousand years.
Intemperance we believe may be restricted
within certain bounds. The groggeries,
which are licensed by law to polute every
neighborhood and debauch the masses,
NAV be banished. and drinking as fash
ion, with its train of evils, be broken up,
but intempcrance will never be wholly
broken up. 1t is co-eXistent with man,
and exists in all countries on the globe
1t is well to war upon the vice, and keep
its danger to the human race constantly
IL. 1,,,41 lat low
fattering JUNCTION to his soul that it will
ever be entirely overcome. Along with
other appetites of the epicure will be found
that of intemperance in the use of spiritu-
Gus liquors. All temperance societies have
boosted of what they intended to do with
the politicians, as our correspondent does,
| but they were always defeated by the lat
ter The question is. have they learned
from experience
/ A "boy'' gets behind the door in last
weeks Democrat, and pouts over the gen.
tie reproof administered by Tile Wing,
E, while the rummies of that party doubtless
laugh at his calamity. We hope he feels
relieved, and will go to work in earnest,
and in the meantime divest himself of
| the mistaken notion that the demand of a
few hundred petitioners is as potent to
move legislatures. as of as many thousands,
to legallZe "a certain right that the people
! have by virtue of the Constitution, This
view is worthy of Mrs. Woodruff. Don't
shipper and whine, "boy," over what
"mght have been" or boast of what you
mean to do. We have exposed the whisky
rings continually in open day, and pointed
out their candidates and political machinery
hy which they work, without the aid of
resets or incarnation mummery: notwith-
standing, hundreds Of you came out of
your Lodge rooms last November and
v'ied for men whom you knew owed their
numination to grog-shop influences, and
they pigeon-hole your petitions to-day, a
inerited rebuke 10 your party slavery and
stupendous folly.