The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-09-21
The Reform Will Go On.

Intemperance is not Il mere local
affair, but strikes at the very vitals
Of the nation. The liquor traffic is
the fruitful source of woe, crime,
misery, taxation, pauperism and
death.
Bear me witness if [ eXaggerate
when | say that the country is rap
idlV becoming one vast grog shop, to
which half million of its youth
are yearly introduced, and over
whose threshold sixty thousand are
annually carted to a drunkard's
grave. The streets Of our cities echo
to the shouts and oaths of drunken
jewellers, from whom society seeks
protection through police regula-
tion and within hovel and mansion
alike, not entirely smothered either
by physical fear or social pride, is
heard the sound of insane violence
and Wailing.
There are some who say the tenc
rerance movement is a sentimental
affair, and that the reform will not
90 on. The reform will 90 on. Point
me to a reform which ever stopped
Why, reform is motion, and motion
cpaselessIy acted upon by the i'm
pulse Of acceleration so is it with
the temperance movement. FrGm
whatever standpoint you look at it,
it is seen to be in exact harmony
with the age; nay, it is a part of the
age itself. The great civil revolution
is to be supplemented with a great
social revolution. God has SO writ
ten it down. He has blessed the eff
forts of its friends until it has al
ready taken a strong hold on the pop
ular heart. Its champions are not
fanatics; they are not sentimentalists;
only terribly in earnest. Back of
them are memories which will not
let them pause. Broken circles and
ruined affairs, and fallen roof-trees,
and the cold, sodden ashes of once
genial fires, urge them on. No fear
such men and women will falter, un-
til YOU can take out of the human
mind painful recollection until you
can make the children forget the fol-
lies and vices of parents, over which
they mounted to usefulness and hon
or; until the memory Will surrender
from its custody the OathS Of drunk
en- blaSphemy and the pains of bru-
tai violence; until you can do these
things, no man, no combination of
men, can stop this reform. Its cause
lies deep as human feeling itself. The
reform, then. will go on. 1t will go
on because its principles are correct
and its progress benificent. The
wave which has been gathering force
and volume for these fifty years will
continue to roll, because The hand of
the Lord is under and back of it, and
the denunciations of its opponents,
and the bribed eloquence of the un-
principled, cannot check, no, nor re-
tard, the onward movement of its
flow. Upon the white crest of it
thousands will be lifted to virtue and
honor, aLd thousands more who put
themselves in front of it will be SUBJ
merged and swept away. The crisis
through which this reform is PASS
ing will do good. twill make known
its friends and unmask It's foes. The
conclusions above and around Us
will purify the atmosphere and
when the clouds nave parted and
melted away, we shall breathe purer
air and behold SUMMER skies.
We know not, indeed, what is
ahead what desertion of apparent
friends may occur ; what temporary
defeat we may have to bear; nol
against what intrigues we NAV be