The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-09-22

| ~ " BAASA~ ASSE tNAs~~~S
mockery? VIII you frown down th
just Indignation of American free,
men by the stale and puerile asser
ton that the use of tobacco and tht
drinking of whisky and brandy ar
| indecent and immoral and ough
therefore to be taxed out Of exist
ence? Is that your apology fol
trampling under foot the birthright'
Of freemen? Sir, l blush to see oul
craftsmanship driven to the fnrtilc
pretexts and bald subterfuges oi
medieval fanaticism TO defend its
assaults upon republican freedom
and personal liberty Manners are
the manifestation Of morals, as NOR
ais are the outgrowth Of religion,
aud religion is enshrined in the Sc
cret sanctuary of the soul, within
whose sacred precincts earthly courts
and Legislatures have no jurisdiction
Tyranny. instigated by fanaticism
and ambition, dared for ages to in
wade that sanctuary, and to achieve
its holy ends invested the inquisi-
ton, the rack. the auto da .fe, and in
the name of the Goldman inundated
thousands of innocent victims upon
it's bloody altars-the same Internal
spirit that kindled the fires Of Smith
field, that made Saint Bartholomew
infamously immortal, transformed
the prosecuted and exiled Puritans
into prosecutors and inspired the
blue laws of New England that full
inmate Punishment or death to
witches and Quakers.
l had hoped, sir, that we had out
grown these criminal abeurdities
but when we enact a code of morals
and dictate and define good man
ners, and establish rules of deoency,
in short, legislate into Imprisonment
and poverty thousands of small dis
tillers and tens of thousands of in
dustrious tobacco growers, because
the use of tobacco and whisky are
indecent and immoral, we are evi-
IDENTITY advancing crawfsh fashion
backward toward the spirit and
methods of medieval church rule, or
the still later policy and legislation
Of New England in her persecution
If Quakers and witches. No, sir,
this pretext is but a gauzy veil to
hide from the public gaze the COM
binations of greedy capital which
inspired the legislation that has
built up hideous legalized whisky
rings and tobacco monopolies all
over the land on the ruins of two
great industries and of thousands Of
SOOO anu III uC SIbIACbBs
How absurd and shameless the
pretext Of ''indecency and immoral
ity T. what a straining at gnats and
swallowing of camels Sir, the Con-
stitution we swear to support re
quires Us to "apportion direct taxes
among the States according to their
respective numbers" I have seen
no decision Of the Supreme Court
constituting this claas to mean sac
cording to the 5ndecency or 5nanlOrall-
ty, Or according 10 the tastes, appe-
titeS, education, customs, or habits OF
the people" But if there exists
such a judicial construction, and if
the legislation complained of as
sumes TO get its warrant there, how
far have we conformed the statute to
the decision? Have your tobacco
and whisky taxes improved the NOR.
ale, dignifed the manners, purified
the habits, refined the tastes of the
people? Have they cleansed The
people from the filthy use OF the
weed or closed a rum hell Oh wrought
solitary reform from drunkenness
to sobriety, or Iessened by single
drop the rivers Of Intoxicating drink
that deluge the land have they held
back from the drunkards death 8
single one of the sixty thousand IN.
happy victims that annually perish
in this land from drink? Have they
soothed the sorrow of a drunkard' {
widow or ministered bread or cloth
lug or comfort to single poor drunk
ards orphan child? No, sir. YOU
have only robbed labor of its wages
and the land Of it's profits to gIut thc
greed of lordly capital. Yen have
cut down the little stills of a thous
and poor mountaineers, destroyed
their property. made them felons
dogged them to the Jail, the peni
tentiary. and sometimes to murde
and the gallows, and pauperize
their families. Your law for estat
fishing decency and promoting MOI
f ais has created bands of hired spies
, who prowl the mountains and val
leys under assumed characters temp
ing the unwary and ignorant to viz
, late the law that they may ear
r from the Government wages
. treachery as witnesses or prosecu
: tors. You have dried up the litt
\ streams Of whisky and brandy,