The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-07-25

VI uSdlhop SlNlii pOicOhoiI pOilG-
ical, or religious rights; making open
dies, and rascals of the whole country
that for the future, there shall be free
scope for all their villainies.
We hear the low and angry mutterings
and threats of the idle, lazy, thriftless,
profigate, drunken hordes, all over the
country, denouncing prudence, industry,
enterprise, and thrift; denouncing prop
erty, the result Of industry and economy
as robbery, and denouncing the wages of
labor as degrading badge of servitude
and slavery; denouncing the rich as the
enemies of the country, and denouncing
capital as the deadliest enemy of labor
Already we hear vague threats of wrest-
ing from patient industry and prudent
economy the just reward of these great
virtues, and bestowing their fruits upon
the vagabond classes of the country
1t is quite time that the thoughtful
part of our people, that our statesmen
should take note of all this and should
powerful instrumentality, beyond any
the fate predicted by Lord Macaulay to
our institutions will be inevitable We
already see our great cities-the most of
them, if not all-governed absolutely by
the lowest and vilest part of the people;
and these cities-the majorities manu-
factured there by fraud and the grog-
shops-going far to control and determ-
ing the complexion of the government
and the policy of the states and the ma
ton.
1t will not be easy to provide a more
general and more thorough system of
education than that we have now in all
our Northern states; and it is evident
that this is not and cannot be sufficient
to protect our institutions from the dan
gers and the fate predicted with so much
confidence by that eminent Englishman.
What, then, can be done more than has
yet been effected to avert the danger that
every intelligent man must see to be i'm
In Maine, more than twenty
seven years ago. the people attempted to
solve that problem of infinite Importance
to the nation and to free institutions the
world over. The people of Maine be-
lieved the liquor traffic to be the fruitful
source of poverty, pauperism, suffering,
and crime and the greatest danger to the
of the country and to personal
and civil rights. They resolved, there
fore, to put it under the ban of the law,
with pains and penalties sufficient to ex-
pei it thoroughly from the state. The
liquor traffic was regarded as the dead
liest enemy to the state, to its peace and
to law and order, and to ev-
cry legitimate industry.
Every body knows this charge against
the liquor traffic to be true. 1t impover-
ishes, degrades, and brutifes the people
all those who come under its influence
1t fills our workhouses and jails and lu
netic asylums it makes miserable and
wretched thousands of homes and many
thousands of wives and children, which
but for it would be omfortable and hap
py. 1t changes good husbands, fathers,
sons into bad ones; good and useful men
into bad and dangerous members of So
cety In short, but for it there would
be no vagabonds, no tramps, no danger
ous classes in the country.
| know that many persons believe the
liquor traffic, however malign its infu-
ance, to be an inevitable evil; that it
cannot be suppressed; that, if its tend
ency be to degrade the people, and
through them to degrade and destroy our
free institutions, we hay Ie no remedy, but
must submit to that fate. The men of
Maine thought otherwise, and with
strong hand and an infexible will they
attempted the work of destroying that
great enemy of every good thing.
On the 1st of June, 1851, the liquor
traffic was licensed trade in Maine, as
N all other states and nations, protected
by the law. 1t was carried on extensive
and retail-in every part
of the state. Not city. town. village or
'ural district in all its territory was free
rom it. Everywhere its withering
influence was seen. The earn
ngs of the people spent in drink; the |
products of all their industry were largely |
quandered in that way and the poverty |
,esulting from their drinking habits was
En- gland and West India rum, passed |
through all the state, over all its avenues
If communication, and their course |
through the country was as distinctly |
marked by their destructive effects as
hat of a fire through forest.
A bill carefully drawn of outlawry to
he liquor traffic was presented to the |
legislature, was passed without change in
10Th houses through all its stages in one
lay-in the Lower House sc to 49, and
n the Senate Is to TO- And on the sec
md of June, 1851, at 9 o'clock in the
morning, the bill was signed by the
,ovrnor, and from that moment it
,ecame the law of the state. This
ct reversed the policy of license to the
iquor traffic, and substituted for it
he policy of prohibition. The sale
# Intoxicating liquors was sternly for
,idden, under severe penalties of fine and
and Intoxicating liquors
,ept anywhere for unlawful sale were
liable to seizure at sight by sherifts, con
tables, and police, and might be searched
OF anywhere by warrant, and, if found
we're seized; and when condemned in
pen court, as being intended for unlaw-
ul sale, they were to be destroyed, like
poisonous reptiles and dangerous ami
nails. Such is the law of Maine st thIs
lay. Since 1851 there have been several
dditicnal aeta against the liquor traffic
n the state, all in the direction Of greater
tringency And in 1877 another act
ar more stringent than any which had
receded it. was passed without 3 die
enting voice in either house. No fact
,ublic opinion in the state relating to
he liquor traffic, regarded as it is by our
,eople as "the gigantic crime OF crimes"
nd spoken Of as auah everywhere.
This Maine Law, so called, was not ac.
uiesced in quietly by all our people
Iarge stocks OF liquors were on hand in
IL our larger cities and towns, and stocks
If them, more or less costly, were in the
hops and hotels all aver the state, the
ybGIa af tnsm liable to seizure and de-
truction on sight Generally these
liquors were sent away Immediately to
,ther States and such stocks of them as
we're seized were defended ia the courts
With all ingenuity, subtlety, and unscru-
,aiousness. But always the consttu-
of the law was sustained II was
fortunate thing for Maine and for the
aw that the justices of opP eoaGts were
nen of integrity and honor, with no
.ErunatEY with wrong Or Mron n.dners