Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1874-03-06
bort O. obQrfu Qimes
Pc RI BACCO:
Friday Morning, March ..........."6, 1874

Friday Morning, March ..........".6, 1874.
Intemperance-T women's Crusade.
We are told by Taylor in his Synonyms
that ';enthusiasm is the zeal of credulity-
fanaticism, of bigotry y and we are at
loss, in the face Of this definition, under
which head to place the crusade of the
praying women against the saloon keepers
in Ohio and elsewhere. But as the subject
is one concerning woman and her rights
and wrongs, we will use the milder term
and call it enthusiasm. But were it not
for this fact we would be inclined to call
it the downright fanaticism of that puri-
tan bigotry which would compel all others
to be regulated by its own standard of
morality. That intemperance in drinking
exists throughout the country to shame
full degree cannot be denied; but that it
exists in this nation and in this genera
ton to greater extent than ever hereto
fore, or that it is sapping the foundations
of society, we do not believe. The history
of the human family shows, that from the
time of the flood at least, it has been ad-
dicted to hard drinking. And the Anglo
claim descent, was even gluttonous in this
respect. And yet in the face of all this
we do not find that the present generation
has intellectually, morally or otherwise
4 - T.
as research into the past shows, is now
cultivated and developed to an extent
never before known, until the hidden Sc
crets of nature concealed from the creation
to our day are made the landmarks of
commerce and industry by the develop
ment of the mighty power of steam and
electricity. AS the intellect has been de-
veloped step by step, so likewise has been
the moral attributes of man: and instead
of the days when might made right, we
now have the halcyon days when right
makes might; when morality is the rule
crime, the exception. AS this progress has
been steadily made and the world has be-
come more civilized and more evangelical,
SO necessarily has industry become more
general, until all men recognize the man
date that their bread is to be earned by the
sweat of their brow. All this being SO,
we are not prepared to acknowledge that
the human race, or even our nation, is in
danger of being destroyed by drunkenness.
We are no apologist for intemperance
in any thing, whether it be religion or
drinking. Intemperance in the one has
led to as much suffering as probably the
other. The horrors of the Inquisition, the
reign of 'hloody Mary and her more cruel
father and sister, 1.-The virgin Queen" need
not be recalled to remind US of the wrongs
done in the name OF religion, nor need we
invade the haunts of vice in the large cities
to recognize the terrible degradation and
misery caused by drunkenness Yet any
argument deduced from these facts in ia
vor of the prohibition of the manufacture
of liquor would apply with equal force a
gainst the dissemination of religion. 1t
would be an argument from the abuse and
not from the use. Then it is against the
abuse, and not the use of intoxicating be-
verages that the efforts of those who wish
to rescue their fellow beings from ruin
should be directed. And it is wise to un-
derstand to what point the efforts should
be directed, because it will require an a.
mount of concentrated energy to accom-
plish the object in view equal to the mag
nitude of the occasion, and there will be
none to fritter away.
That intemperance in drinking exists in
this country to fearful degree and is
most prolific of crime and suffering we
have already said. That something should
be done to check this common and grow
ing evil we also believe. But what that
something is or how that object is to be
accomplished We do not clearly see. But
that this crusade is not the proper mode
of bringing about the desired end we are
clear. On the contrary, so far from &C
complishing good, we most firmly believe
it will be productive of untold injury to
the advancement of the cause of true tenn
perance-because intemperance can never
beget temperance. Everything connected
with it is repulsive to our notions of pro-
priety.
The history Of the world is full of SINH
lar episodes of more or less magnitude, all
of which serve to snow how injurious have
been such commissions in their reactionary
effects upon the causes they sought to ad
vance. When the puritans seized upon
the English government and decapitated
Charles I, they acted from motives of the
sincerest zeal in behalf of what they be-
lieved to be true religion, morality, or
temperance. They smote the Philistines
hip and thigh, and spared not, for they
believed it was their mission to WELD 1.-The
sword of the Lord and Gideon" Yet:
when the reaction came and Charles Ii
was restored to the throne Of his slaught-
cred father, the English people, who un-
der Cromwell had lived in state of most
austere morality and abstinence, became a
nation of Observation-Disclosures was scoffed