The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-05-16

their actors as members OF our race. !
Each pure and honest heart turns
aside to shed tear of grief, when |
the family to whom God has link
ed it, proves unworthy to be joined |
to worthy name. And by this |
principle the fact remains-account !
for it as yon may-it plants a sharp
and wrankling thorn in our hearts
who believe this hideous thing to
be crime against God and against
humanity, when we are made to
help throw the egis of the law
over those who make it their busi-
ness to strew humsnity's path with
wrecks of nobility and worth.
But passing by all appeals to your
generous nature, can interest afford
to ignore this class? Who are they
who are unwilling 10 be implicated
in this crime? Are they the despis-
ers of religion, lawless in society,
with uncared for opinions, uncovet-
ed influence? Or, are they God
fearing people, respecters of chris
tianity. Where do you expect the
minister of the gospel to stand. 1
believe the sturdiest friend of Ii
cense would scorn me in his heart
if should stand as its champion at
this hour. No man who means to
preach the whole gospel could N ore
fatally injure his influence with
dealer and drinker of ardent spirits
than by helping to legalize its use.
Do you wish to do without this in
fuence? Would you have churches
decay and be unbuilded? Would
you hush the preachers voice?
Wonld you Danish the Bible and the
God of the Bible from our precincts ?
1 think hear you say never, no
never. But You are doing gradually
and surely what you will not do at
stroke, by declaring that the law
shall protect deeds which conscience
and God pronounce wrong.
Sd. The sanction of law to in
temperance imposes unjust burdens
upon those VINO oppose this course.
If there could be whisky quarter
in the city which decent people
could shun while about their BUSH
ness; if no vile odors CO uld issue
from it; if every maddened inebri-
ate were compelled to waste his
curses on the desert air, and not on
our shuddering ears; if every fiend-
ish brute could only lavish the
blows of his brawny fist on the bars
of cell instead of wife and chill
dren, there might be some pallia-
tion, but no show of reason for such
a course. Then the transgressor
would chiefly bear his own burdens.
l tell you the effect OF license is al
ways this: we who hate it, are
ashamed of it, Disguised with it,
have to carry the lions share of the
burden. There is always suffering
linked to intemperance, and while
we hould not fail in good offices OF
charity, let us not, when the suffer
ing come-as some say it must
have the authority of our comely
city stamped upon it.
4th. The sanction of law 10 such
a business creates distrust of law
Regard for law lies at the root OF
Republican institutions. Remove
the respect which the masses have
for the law, and the sturdiest bull.
wark of our freedom falls. AS YET
it is but a short remove from an ex,
pertinent whether this foundation
stone of our free government car
hold the national fabric together
through all the round of centuries
Now when the law contradicts the
moral sense of men and wields its
power on the side of wrong; when
directly from its protection issues
guilt and woe which else would
have had no such shelter and nc
such source, it inspires the indigna-
ton and the scorn of all the good ;
and if you weaken the moral force
of one, you do it of all. One clear
act of baseness vitiates lifetime OF
virtuous deeds. So one law that
banishes right and furnishes the bull
wark for wrong undermines the
faith of the community in the value
of law to redress wrong and sustain
right. Men will long endure laws
unwise or inexpedient, they will not
long suffer those which run athWart
common conscience and the express
ed will of the eternal God. Can we
afford for the little gain of time and
pains and money to make such his
tory for ourselves? We have laid
out our city in lots and blocks and
have built houses on them. We can
determine the size of each to the frac-
ton of an inch if we wish to be so
accurate, but we cannot measure the
time they will endure and we shall
inhabit them. We can approximate
the results of a certain line of con-
duct for to-day, and perhaps strike
the average for the year, but we
have no plunet to sound the future,
nor have we a tape-line by which to
measure the fruits of our conduct
long after we have passed away.
The aggregate of communities like
ours makes up the nation. and our
action contributes no less than that
of thousands more to make up our
nations future.
9Th. To legalize intemperance
vitiates the moral sense Of the adj
vocates of such a course. Such sys-
TENS are sustained because men
stand ready to back them up. When
they become champions they must
fortify themselves by every resource
in their power. Not only must
they sransack knowledge, expert
ence or imagination for arguments;
they have another warfare. Some
thing within loBjlly reminds that ali
is not right, and the realm of rea-
son and history must be searched to
find answe rs that will satisfy this
inward voice. The trial uniformly
proves too much for the harrassed
soul. Something must yield; either
the law, his advocacy of it, or his
instincts of right. The last is often
est done. 1t is the most hazardous
thing in the world To debate the
wrong side of moral questions. I
consider their case q comparatively
easv ona who mn the matter on The