The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-04-30
AN ABLE TEMPERANCE SPEECH
The Sentiments OF a Converted CIeve-
land Lawyer.

|
Hon /. r Critchfeld, a distinguished
Democratic politician. and hitherto a
strongly anti-temperance man, has come
boldly to the front and taken his stand in
favor of temperance. At a grand mass
meeting in Cleveland few nights ago, he
aid
Mr.. CHAIRMAN, AND LADIES AND GEN
TLEMEN My being here to share in the
noble purpose of the right thinking and
christian men and women of this city is
the result of conviction of some years
standing and practice. think have seen
this development away in the horizon,
when it was not larger than mans hand,
/ and now it has overspread the heavens, it
seems the marshaling of mighty forces fer
a sublime''an ordainedlpurpose. 1t is re-
garded as a spasm; but if so. there is
great method in it.
Enthusiasm, impelled by deep moral
conviction, is, logically calculating and en-
| during and unwise persons, only, grope in
| darkness and fail to see that electric flash
is spiritual fire from heaven. Revolutions
never 90 backward, and moral right is
never lost in the confusion of refsrm, but
from its contests always emerges enthroued
in beauty and with the appointed crown of
victory upon its brow.
Reformations in the church and achieve
ments for liberty and law which have been
often baptized in blood are cherished by
the generations as sacred legacies, and
they live forever. To-day marks another
era in reformation Righteousness to-day
is in the ascendant. The world resounds
with the glad shouts of the free and the re-
generated, and Gods spirit awakened in
man assails the=anly remaining gigantic
abuse of the century. The wonderful
! force of its assailant is the most remarka-
BILE of the age The soul of man has fused
into grand magnetic current, whose cir
Gle draws fresh and potential munitions
from the skies.
What is this blot upon civilization
! From Europe and lis system of revenues
! the drinking saloon has spread over the
whole world. Liberty has been Frustrated
/ into lawless license, by this established in
stitution for drunkenness, which with Its
/ attractions and seductions, is the great
| artery that sends poison and insanity
| through the veins Of the human family.
In a land of law, where spirituous liquors
cannot be sold lawfully but to sober men,
10 be carried away and used in privacy,
and where the gilded halls of revelry are
declared common nuisanoes, though men
be made drunk on ale, beer. wine or cider
(for these must be sold only to sober men,
thousand of saloons adorned with bar and
bottles, attractive with music and paint
ING, and exhaustless fountains of poison
control and absorb the happiness, the
peace the virtue, and energy of q great
portion of mankind They are without
common or political right, without the
sanction of the law, or the approval o
conscience; and accustomed piOlGlio1l Of al
the Tiq6ts of society, is their sole authority
for the commission of these wrongs, ane
the foundation for this huge aggregation
of human woe The very existence of the
dIinking saloon is a stupendous crime; tn,
great crime of the age. 1t is branded as 6
1 public enemy in the constitution which
| provided for its regulation, and the statute
which enrolled 1t among the forbidden
things. In Ohio in twenty years 1t hai
| destroyed millions of dollars Of production
and paralyzed and taxed the arm Of labo
to the loss of billion more.
In q single year. IS distilleries and III
breweries and more than 10000 saloon
have drawn $4,000, 900 in cash from th,
productive industries. The saloon impov
erishes; it levies black mail on society; j
weakens the average good; it teaches DIS
regard of law; it is an enemy of every or
/. paniZed government. Its miseriesl Mer
ciful God Has not the recording ange
shed more tears over the record Of its de-
vastation, its sInless victims and broker
hearts than over all Heavens record o
man? Universal and organized as is thi
anomalous incorporation of most Of tn
evils Of the age, it is weak in uniform law
lessness in which it exists, in its disregard
of moral right and human statutes. l
exists by toleration and because the justic
f of man and God has not hurled It's sveng.
ing thunderbolt.
. The saloon, I repeat, is wholly illegal
declared nuisance, and price Is set up
on its head; but the purifcation that vii
sweep it away from the church, and tn
school and the tortured boEom of society
: must widen its range until reform shal
blaze ike an avenging angel In the path
2 of party corruption, politics, lnebriate of
: cials and drunken authority. The ordi
. nances of the city are not adapted 10
! | reform of the whole abuse. That of 197
J weakens the State law by restricting mi
: nority to Is years, and the Sunday ordi
nance Of 1874, besides involving q religion
restriction and being condemned by thu
:, courts is insufficient to accomplish an,
E great result. A partial restriction encour
aged the remaining abuse. The law sleep
eth, but the wakening is at hand. Thi
labor Is herculean; so are all the achieve
e ments of liberty; does not history tell u
: that paganism and ITS temples, and th
ergies Of the dark ages and the georgeOu
a and insolvent power of iniquity has bee
\ dissolved by the spirit of God? This i
our day aud generation has develope
!. wonderful works. Glowing moral conVie
# tions have burst forth and the world ha
been ennobled in our day. Woman, II tn
- spiritual image of the Father, Is walkin
= forth IN the msjesty of faith in all the val
II leys and over all the mountains, and i
- ali the cities of this lovely land of ours
.e and pleading and praying for her race
10 Her progress is glorious The nation
e on its knees, and half regenersted, an
a Justice with frown has firmly graspe
- the hilt of her sword and pauses Are "
skeptical as to the principle of the phe
nomena? If Socrates could believe an
K rejoice in the rich baptisms of spiritus
= ! lite when civilization had not advance