Litchfield enquirer., 1877-02-15
Temperance.

NORWICH TowN, Ct., Jan. Sth 1877. EDITOR OF LIVING IssUE:-DEAR SIR.- I have honestly believed, for these many years, that l was Prohibitionist. Fifty
 one years ago appealed to the authori-
 ties of my native town, in this State of Connecticut, to withhold license from
 liquor sellers and thus render their traffic | illegal, and themselves liable to the pen- alties of the violated law if they continued their destructive business.
 I have probably spoiled as many reams of white paper in efforts to convert my countrymen to the belief that the whole
 system is nuisance and Q curse, and the
 licensing of it 9 sin against God and hu-
 man society, as any other poor mortal
 on this continent and yet, if your defi. milton of @ prohibitionist be the correct lone, I am not yet convinced that the best and most direct way of attaining the end desired Is through a national Pro- hlbition party, or such party in eGch Stdte. without regard to the state of pub lie opinion there ln reference to the sale | of intoxicants, and to other existing cir- | cumstanceS.
 Most certainly, distinct temperance party was 1aot found necessary to the pro- l curing of @ prohibitory law, and it's en- forcement, in those two States where pro- hibition has been most thorough and suc- cessfui-Maine and Vermont. It would tax your columns too seriously were 1 to argue the question at length here. I will, I however, briefly but distinctly express my opinion that; tsitb or Vithout Q third party, no prohibitory law will avail for our purposes, in any State, until decided majority of it's voting population are con- verted to the belief that 1t is a righteous and polite measure. -
 We cannot coerce majorities and in no more than the States have named are we absolutely certain, that we have decided majority of Prohibitionists Prohibition should be kept steadily in view, as one of the instrumentalities needful to secure the overthrow of tht liquor system but not the only one by any means. Thresh. ing and cleaning grain is an important part of the farmers work, but it must be preceded by other labors. The grain must be cut aud gronud, before threshing aye, and before cutting, it is quite needful that it should be grotOn and rt. pened. There is an order to be observ- ed in all human undertakings. if success is to be attained, and where order is not observed, disaster and ultimate discour- agement is sure to follow. We had pro- hibitory law for years, in Connecticut, but 1t was powerless for good, except in few localities, and now that the State has disgraced itself by yre-establishing the in- lquitous license system, those same To- callties are making vigorous and tolera- ply successful fight with their enemies, the liquor sellers, as their authorities re- fuse license and the we'll educated and earnest friends of temperance are at those tpoints sufficiently numerous and influential to prosecute, with effect, unli- censed dealers. What is most wanted in Connecticut just now, and many other States, is not a prohibitory law but @ bet ter education of the people by the logic streedfsGts st dfsGts e8ga B8 sma4lX nsad asrResk &p cial affections and their love of country not appeals to their sympathies merely, by narrowing details of accomplished ruins; and still less by an excitement of their risibles by an endless succession of funny anecdotes.
 In most of our communities the people are not half educated in reference to the great truths and principles which under. lie the temperance enterprise. Until they are better informed, the masses will have their drink, by hook or by crook; and the ways which some take to obtaIn it are crooked enough. Our English brethren noeGr prohibitioni of the traffic in liquols as their ultimate, but they are not urging 1t just now, but pressing rather for the right of popular control, which will se- cure prohibition in localities where ma iority of two thirds favor it. They will, in my opinion, secure general prohi- bition all the sooner, by patiently pushing altogether, as they do, for lesser good, to the support of which. the voting mass es may be much sooner converted.
 We may get in miscellaneous what we fail to secure in the aggregate.
 Washington was charged with coward by some brave but rash men, because he did not at a certain time, risk general battle but contented himself. rather, with cutting off attachments of the enemy which he had force enough to conquer. as he did at Trenton, Princeton, and oth- CT points. He, all tue while, meant fight on a grand scale, when he should have gathered the requisite force-and at York Town, his prudence as we'll as his cour- age was justified before all men. With your aims brother "Issue" heartily sym pathise. Your earnest, efforts to secure what you believe to be best, I sincerely re- spect-but am not yet a convert to a be- lief of the wisdom of the measures, by which you hope to secure the desired end. If, as a consequence, must bOex- communicated from the temperance church, so be it. Let me respectfully sug- gest, however, that the process will prove difficult one and will not avail for any good. Courteous discussion among brethren relative to points on which they may diff fer, may convince and result happily. Consciousness and denunciation is out of place among the friends of good enterprise and should be reserved for tho open and manifest enemies of God and all good. If Peter should falter and fail at some trying emergency we had best treat him as the Master did, tenderly. If Thomas should prove unbelieving, let us not show him unkindness. but the print of the nails, rather. Denun- citation seldom converts even erring breth- ren to better faith or to better works, while bulls of excommunication prove nothing but the fatuity of those who frame then.
 Fraternally yours, CHAs. JEwETT.