The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1874-01-22

one or the other Of these alternatives
for the benefit ofthose Legislative pets
the LIQUOR dealers,
Our Legislature has been ready
enough to protect the health and life
Of the citizen, when liquor has not beer
involved, Among other laws pointed
in that direction, is the prohibition Of
the sale Of unwholesoinc provisions
from the unrestraincd traffic in which
very little injury would result in com
p%arisen with that attendant upon the
sale Of liquors. Yet against the sale
Of "unwholesomc" food our law makers
have enforced strict prohibition, while
the sale Of unwholesome drinks, which
have destroyed the lives and health o
thousands upon thousands; which
have brought an infinite number tc
want, disgrace and shame; which have
filed the land with violence and blood
and with the cry Of the widow and or
phan, anil which have wrenched many
millions Of dollars from the hard earn
ings Of the people, our law making
power has LICENSED!
In 1860 legislative wisdom was
greatly moved against those who were
supposed to "adulterate spirituous and
vioous liquors." and photographed
their wrath in the form OF a law intilct.
ing severe penalties. The idea seem,
ed to be that the pure liquors were in
nocent and healthful beverages, and
that all the manifold evils traceable to
their use, were MISUNDERSTANDING
lated poisons. The Legislature, it is
evident, failed to see, or were unWlll'
ing to admit the fact, a.tested by sci
cncc and experience, that spirituous
liquors are in themselves poison, dis,
ease, death, bcggary, crime and taxa
ton.
This Inconsistency Of legislation,
which carefully protects from lesser
evils, and leaves the people unprotect.
ed from the aggressions of the greater,
may be explained by the fact that many
Of our leading men nave entertained a
loving partially for 'spiritnous and vi
nous liquors." and for the dealers in
them. Many of those who have here
tofore most enthusiastically "deared"
the people have enjoyed social and un.
social glasses-liquor has been an &C
tive electioneering agent, and has done
vastly more service in securing posi-
ton than brains, honesty, or fitness. ;
and q sheer at temperance, upon the
thousandth repetition, by the genius
who used it. has been q capital joke
that eve grew stale.
But those mistake the times who
hattcr themselves that the people are
to be controlled by party organiza-
tons, or are to be wheedled by chat
into the support of men or measures,
in the future, as they have been in the
past. Blind fealty to party ne longer
cxists-the occupation o f"the whipper
in" is gone-independent thought has
become S power, before which all the
arts and appliances Of low demagog-
ism have dissolved. In this State, the
doom Of drunken politicians and of the
" whisky ring" was foreshadowed by
our last Legislature, and is sure to
come,
The license TO sell Intoxicating H.
quors is an UNNECESSARILY greater out.
rage than would be q license to sell
tainted and putrid flesh, or the flesh
of animals which had died of disease
or a license to carry on trades, EN-
Payments or manufactures, which oc-
casion noxious cxhalations, injurious
to individuals or the public; or q H.
to authorize gaming, To license
all Of these o~tfenses, now prohibited.
would produce infinitely less evil to the
health, life and morals of citizens
without reference to cost than results
the license of the sale of intoxi-
drinks, and the toul blot should
be wiped from our statutes, if nothing
IS substituted in its place, save the
rights of individuals, as regulated BY
he laws of the land.
If your convention Of Judges can
a way to restrain the sale of Ii
luors, you will open an avenue to re-
'ieve the people Of a very large proper
ton of the costs arising from criminal
prosecutions. If the restraint should
anything like complete, | am salts
led that three.(ourths would be saved,
..ncluling the expense of pauperism.
Three modes have been devised to
attain this end. The first is to remove
Ill restrictions from the sale Of intexi-
,ating beverages, but hold The dealer
esponsiblc for all the consequences
esulting from the traffic, in the way
If damages. This law has been adopt.
ID by Ohio, and some other States, {
md if properly guarded to secure its
'blect, might be mape very effective. S
The second made is a positive pro- ;
libition Of the sale of liquors, adopted t
" Maine, Massachusetts, and some /
'ther States. Il
The third mode is to submit the t
uestion of sale or no sale to the to u
nip, district or county, and is known 4
3 the "ocal option law" now in sue Il
'ssfui operation in Pennsylvania, and r.
'veral other States. c
The last mode has this recommend Il.
'tlsn: Popular opinion will support o..
taw wherever it EXISTS. While no ~
Ugh: is given to the silly objection o.
a law will be evaded, flor all laws ~
; evaded or v~iolated), yet popular
IS are always more vigorously en-.
reed.