The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1872-10-19
Reform at Washington.

Referring 10 the old custom of drinking wines
and spirits at the National Capital and the White
House, the Chicago Journal remarks
But President Grant is not a negative temper
ance man. On rhe contrary, he has earned the
gratitude of the friends Of that cause by the great
aid he has afforded 1t during his administration.
Win the exception oil Pierce and johnson, the
presidency was never diSgraeed by a drunkard,
and Lincoln was 4 teetotaler; but 10 General
Grant belongs the honor of being the only chief
magistrate who wholly discards the use of wine.
There is no popping of champagne nor iow of
any kind of wine AZ his table. not even at the
grandest OF State dinners. Until General Grant
set the example il was assumed that wine was as
indispensable To a State dinner as napkins and
walters. Drinking being a social vice, laws and
pledges are weak 50 long as the wine-glass is q
token of rspectability. If only il could be
banished from the highest places, il would soon
lose caste, and be " RENTED TO the people of
beastly tastes. BY ruling it out of the White
House, President Grant is doing more for the
cause of temperance than any other man in the
country. The power of such an example is in
calculable. 1t has the advantage of encountering
no angry hostility. \ sumptuary law, however
we'll drafted, is looked upon by a large class as
an infringement upon their rights, but no one
can object 20 each mans being the judge OF what
entertainment he shall furnish to his own guests.
Carl Schurz seeks every opportunity to create a
prejudice among the Germans against General
Grant, but he does not attempt to make n handle
of his temperance State dinners. General Grant
has hit upon a way 10 push the temperance cause
which is at once effective and understandable.
Unobjectionable though it be, the adoption and
adherence TO the nO-wine policy required moral
courage in an eminent degree. Fashion is a
stern old vixen, and essays TO make her broom
stick rule an iron reign. But now that the
highest social as well as political authority in the
country has pronounced against the wine cup, it
has lost caste. The decline in its use IN the aris-
tocratic circles is a recognized fact, and for this
beginning of better things General Grant deserves
especial credit.
The contrast between Washington under Dem
ocratic rule and under Republican rule is strik-
ing. The Capitol in those good old times
had within its walls a gorgeous gin mill, and the
member of Congress vibrated between that bar
and their seats with shameful frequency. The
sight of a reelIng Senator or member of the Hoase
was an every day affair, and at times a stranger
entering the Capitol would suppose himself in a
temple of Bacchus. All has changed. Not a
drop of liquor is sold in the building. and a
drunkard In Congress is now a very rare excep-
ton. The leaders in effecting this reform were
Schuyler Colfax in the House and Henry Wilson
in the Senate-the present Vice-President and
the man who will succeed him. They did in
Congress substantially what General Grant did
at the Executive Mansion.
So far, then, as the temperance question enters
into the present campaign at all, the argument is
entirely on the Republican side. Greeley is, we
believe, a strict teetotaler, but his advocacy of
compulsory temperance by Maine law legislation,
while it has made him bitter enemies, has done
far less real service to the cause than the flank
movement of President Grant. And the drunk
enDess of Gratz Brown is in as strong contrast
with the sobriety of Senator Wilson as the de-
b%auchery OF Congress, under Democratic rule,
with its temperance under Republican rule.