The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-07-07
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| for its validity on the support of public
sentiment. Unless it be in harmony with
the opinions of the community and with
what is called the common sense OF man.
kind, it will be Impossible to enforce it
Examples in illustration of this fact occur in
multitudes. The fugitive slave law set al
defiance the sentiment of the Northern
people, aud after few vain attempts to
carry it into effect, it was aban-
doned, having served no purpose save
to increase the feeling of bitter anImosity
between the North and South, and to precipi-
tate the impending conflict. Its mission was
to defeat the objects of the men who framed
it. The various blue and black laws OF
unpopular severity, have passed into OBJ
livion. They remain on the statute books
simply as matters of curiosity to astonish
and instruct the student as he
stumbles over them in the course
of his investigations. The great
state of New York has in the rusty reposito-
ries of her legal armory, the means OF burning
any suspicious looking old woman as witch,
and Indiana retains unrepesled that remark
able piece of legislation whereby negroes are
forbidden to emigrate into the state 1t has
ever been the boast of the English people
that they were peculiarly law-abiding
race, and yet, to illustrate this necessity for
harmony between law and the spirit OF the
age, an instance may be drawn from Eng
lish history. The severity of her statutes
against crime, which visited almost every
petty misdemeanor with death, so out
ragged the sentiment of clemency prevailing
at the beginning OF the present century, that
great Judge declared the proceedings in
every capital case ''to be conspiracy be-
tween the Counsel for the prisoner, the
crown prosecutor. the judge and the jury,
to defeat the law" Legislation OF such
nature that men will not hesitate to over
ride it, not merely fails of its purpose but
tends TO foster spirit of lawlessness and
contempt for all authority, which is ex-
tremely dangerous to society.
The lesson 70 be drawn from these consid-
erations is. that temperance legislation, TO
be effective, must not be extreme. A
strong law with a weak public sentiment
behind it is powerless, compared TO a weak
law with the support of a strong pub
lie sentiment. AS a proof of this fact
an appeal to actual experience may be
made. There are tracts of hundreds
of miles in some of the states
where a traveller can pass from one thriving
village to another, and never see glass
of liquor drank, or offered for sale, although
no temperance law is in force, except an or
binary license act, with temperance COM
munity to put it in operation. On the other
hand there are many cities, in which the
strictest prohibition legislation is supposed.
to hold sway, where liquor is free as air or
water; because the men who use it cOnsti-
tute an element powerful enough to set at
naught the law. The first step then in tenn
perance reform should always be to
mould and transform public sentiment, and
care should be taken to follow
the march of the popular will with legal
enactments only at long distance, Where
opinion is almost equally divided, the law will
be useless, as there is something oppressive
in its enforcement under such circumstan-
ces, and it must become repugnant even to
the feelings of its supporters and finally
fail.
For these reasons the most direct and
obvious method of restraining intemper-
ance, namely legislation to prevent its man
ufacture and sale, has rarely been success
full. The experience OF various states in the
Union, and of foreign countries, furnishes
evidence of the truth of this statement.
The propensity TOR sttmulants Of some kind
70 To- oil 1cf
tribe has been found so savage as not to nave
attained to the knowledge of an intoxicating
beverage and no nation so civilized as TO
have acquired selfcontrol enough TO do
without it. Consequently a sweeping law
against stimulants is sure to affect so many
that the opposition to it inevitably becomes
powerful enough TO break it down. Besides,
such law transgresses the principle which
iustifies state interference in this re-
spect. 1t not only aims at those
whose drunkenness and riot have made
them dangerous to society, and proper sub |
jects for restrain6-but it affects classes of
men who, though not strictly temperate,
would yet pass through life, useful and valu-
able members of society.
That form of prohibition which is known
as local option and which. on account of its
apparently fair and democratic method of
dealing with the liquor question has become |
very popular, does not avoid this difficulty. |
The arguments against entire restriction of
the sale and manufacture of liquor may be |
urged against it, while at the same time it |
has peculiar disadvantage and defect as
measure. 1t is calculated |
to go into operation only where
sentiment is already in |
the ascendant. It practically relinquishes
the field at the only points where the liquor
traffic is great source of crime and misery. |
Its effect viii be to cut off the trade in the
country towns and rural districts where it