Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1874-02-05
Will Our Legislature Repeal the
Adair Liquor Law?--A Question
Worth COnsiding.

EDS. HERALD The question you
raised in your editorial in the last
issue of the HERALD, with reference to
the repesl of the Adair Liquor Law,
occurs to your correspondent as be-
ing one of the gravest Importance to
the people Of this State. If we ask
our Legislature to do anything for
the cause of temperance, will anything
be done Shall we get what we pray
forT VIII the gentle though power
full persuasive influence ofa paltry sum
of money accomplish the purposes of
the whisky element of this State, in
ridding the statute of this magnificent
law, when more than a majority of
Ohio's citizens heartily. sanction it?
We are Inclined to begenerous enough
to believe that Notwithstanding this
last Legislature was not elected with
any specific reference to the temper
ance caRses they are men not so en-
tirely devoid of human sympathy, and
not so entirely unmindful of the com
mon interests of..the people they rep
resent, as to entail such a blasting
stigma upon the State of Ohio by re-
pealing or even amending Git doesn't
matter which, for an amendment is
fully equivalent to repeal, so far as
the practical operation of the law itself
is concerned,) this grand law which
gives recourse to the suffering families
of the dfunkard against the Venders of
the intoxicating draught. We should
be charitable enough to assume that
they win do all that is reasonable and
constitutional toward defending the
people ofthe State against every posi-
BILE mischief. Till we are compelled
to do SO, we ought not to harbor the
suspicion that our legislators are un-
willing to ignore bribes for the sake
of eleEating and enhancing the tenn
perance cause. What else do we
choose our law makers for than to see
that we as their constituents suffer no
damage, to see that we are defended
against perils, to see that wrongs are
made right and punished, to see that
naisancesc are abated, to see that the
people are not oppressed with unnec-
essary taxation, to see that crime is
reduced to the lowest possible limita-
tions, to see that labor be made hon
orable, and industry rewarded, and to
see that all persons be rescued from
pauperism, educated for the highest
possible service to the State, and stim-
ulated to the endeavor to make the
most Ofthemselves How shall our
Representative render good service
in protecting the people from great
perils unless they defend them from
the uneestricted sale and use of intoxi
eating liquors? How shall they man
age to have all wrongs righted anC
most thoroughly punished, unless they
allow injured parties to recover dam
ages from those who haYe rendered
their friends useless, drunken and vic
ious, for the sake of gain? How
shall they do their best to abate al
nuisances till they have rendered run
/ | SuOpS I'LL IADEdCGlCdD10S SlIlCG SuCu are Ill
resort of the lazy, low, and vile, ant
! frequently become the recruiting sta
tons of idleness, vice, mischief an,
; crime? How shall they prevent un
necessary taxation upon the peopl
| unless they do something to reliev
; the public of maintaining large Insan
Asylums, State Prisons, Jails, Hos
: pitfalls and Reformatory Institutions
, most of whose inmates are brough
q into them by intemperance, and tina
+ intemperance created and fostered b
the unrestricted sale and use of whis
ky? How shall they bring crime dow
: to the lowest possible amount, unles
they try to thin the ranks of thos
: who hover around drinking resorts
o rapidly developing into criminals, b
allowing no such places to exist whic
6 have for such classes such peculia
o magnetic attraction? How shall the
r wisely undertake to make labor honor
able and to secure industry its due re
; ward, unless they strive to relieve a
. persons from the temptation, land to Civ
:, over their toll and pass their time
f. the society of the indolent and waste
It full, who not only cease to earn the
"a own living, but become in some wa
charge upon the public charity, an
e thereby rob the thrifty of the fulle!
n reward of their diligence by extortin
from them an undeserved support,
"a the name of charity or duty? An
how shall they do their duty towal
y saving all parts of our populatio
IL from public ignorance, pauperism an
uselesmess, for the highest attainab
e. service to the State, unless they sha
;, SO restrict the sale of rum as to kee
the destroying element from fallir
u into the hands of the youth Doesn
"A the s'cNil damage" law that was enaC
c, ed in the interests of sObriety, moral
ty andjustice, practically contempla
!, all this? Isn't this law which consi
|, = ers the cause Of humanity in such
broad sense, wise, reasonable aI
ID good2 If any modification must
of made, will not our legislators ha'
wisdom enough to carry it q great de
farther than the Adair Law confer
"a plates Can they not see great pub
n, advantage growing out Of the prese
ty law? Do not the wholesale liqu
men manifest the fact that they reali
Of its power, by their strenuous
- forts to break it down? Will n
D. those who represent our interests as
I'm common people, before they take a
,al action in the premises, reflect upon t
alarming records of misery, power
49, and crime, which every day comes tea
'Fe ing through the press, the revolti
no pictures which invest every nook a
&c corner, aye even every lair of the {
he mon, and not forgetting that tits /
,rd the debauchee alone who reaps the |
ter fruits of his potations, for 9th
d rink and drain affliciion,s Gun to