Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1873-06-12
The Temperance Question.

Rev. L. d. McCabe has furnished
the w estern Christian Advocate the
following views of Hon. w. H. West
late Attorney General of the State,
and member of the Constitutional
Convention from Logan county, on
the Temperance question:
As at present advised in regard to
the state of public opinion, an attempt
20 subBlant or disturb the existing
con ;titutionaf provision respecting til e
traffic in Intoxicating liquors, would
not seem to be prudential. Free trade,
the license system, and prohibition are
the alternative substitutes.
Unrestrained free trade in alcoholic
beverages can not be favOrably con-
sidered by any people having tue least
regard for the common welfare, pub
lie morals, social order, domestic hap
piness! and the solid virtues that should
hedge our youth against Incidence,
debauchery, and ruin.
The license system does not com
mend itself more favorably. 1t simply
leealizes vagabOndism, and gives the
sanction of law to the causes of pau
perism, and the stimulents and incen-
tives to misery, degradation, and
crime. Around these authorized
fountains of vice and sorrow their vic
Tins will lolter and lounge Like carrion
birds about carcass, reckless of CHI
sdren and wife and shOmss and their
uhuttefabIes woes. Shielded by law,
I'M punity becomes assured, and the la
tbor and substance that should feed de-
Ependant Aomes, 90 by monday and
nigh to fatten licensed authors of their
wretchedness and SO ualor. This sys-
tenn has been argued on revenue
grounds, and exchequers of England
and America, filed to arepletion from
the excise on spirits, are ddduced as
examples of statesmeniike policy
1t is a monstrous commentary on the
popular appetite of the two greatest,
freest, proressedly Christian nations
of the world, that their enormous rev
enues are chiefly drawn from the ba
zaars and miseries of inebriety. 1
the raising of revenue from this un
happy source be desirable, it is com
petent, without giving legal sanction
ft07the traffic or disturbing the existing
ADA1Wdtlk kS. MlACn tlEOsS IL dOOAl3 w VI
adain that an excise duty be imposed
upon distilled spirits, and the place:
where the same are manufactured O
sold, sufficient to meet the costs anC
expenses to the public Of the pauper
ism and, crime resulting from thei
use On this platform, the advocate!
of revenue and of restriction can wei
strike hands.
Public opinion does not seem pre-
pared for prohibition. In personal gov
ernment, law is the expression of i'm
\ porial will, and is7enfereed Fegardles
of public appreciation. In a republic
law is the exHression of The. popula
will, and by 1t alone can be executed
While public opinion is surely ap
prOxlmating prohibition, prematur
effort to force it might result in
Bull-run disaster, and indefinitely posi-
pOne the achievement of triumph
Besides, it is possible to jeopradiz
our present laws, which are second il
efficiency to those of no other Statt
By grasping at the unattainable, exist
ing acquisitions may be imperiled
1t would not he wise to sacrifice til
accomplished by attempting the i'm
practicable.
These views, as at present advised
will control my action at the ConVeT
ton, subject, however, to such mod
fication as full knowledge OF publ
opinion may dictate.