Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-06-30
For the Vermont watchm
The ProhibitOry Law.

We can best understand the value of the
prohibitory law of the state of Vermont by
looking at some of the conditions of social
life which necessitates prohibitory enact
ments. In order to do this we must take
look at the history of the temperance cru
saders which have been found necessary in
the past to check the popular feeling in form
of strong drinks as beverage. There was
time in the history of our country when
there was no check placed upon the use of
strong drinks, and Vermont, in common
with the other members of the republic,
caught her inspiration from the exigencies
of the hour, and, in common with other
states, felt the throbbing of the national
pulse for or against this tremendous evil
The history of the republic, therefore, is
the history of each particular state to GER
tain extent In the early history of our
country everybody drank. Liquor was a
certain panacea for all ills; browning
sheaf to all blessing-good in health and
sickness-good to dispel the cold in winter
and the heat in summer. Drinking all the
way from the cradle to the grave seemed to
be the rule. The deacon drank and the
parson, the good old man, after finishing his
round of visits, not unfrequently returned
to his dwelling perceptibly influenced by
the cordial " welcome of his parishioners,
feeling that this was not very bad world
after all and what is more strange still,
congressman drank and no one has ever
been able TO fix the precise date at which
they left off. Alcohol first made its appear.
ance in Arabia, about the year 1000, and
was regarded at the time as poison, and
was not used as drink About the year
1880 it made its appearance in the south of
Europe, and was chiefly valued there as a
tended all over the civilized world, and from
its immediate effects it was called aqua
UitG or the water of life. Theoricus, an
eminent writer of that date, wrote treat
Use upon the wonderful effects of alcohol,
in which he says: alt sloweth age, it
strengtheneth youth, it helpeth digestion, it
keepeth the stomach from wambling, the
heart from swelling, the hands from shining,
the sinews from shrinking, the veins from
crumbling, the brain from aching, the mar
row from soaking" and other writers of equal
merit wrote with praise. Physicians pre-
scribed it and recommended its general use.
The masses, from such high commentator,
adopted 1t as a beverage almost universally,
and many thought they could not live
uithout II TIC rot uoa ao Jr;plr bo,,,
ever, was in the miues of Hungary and
among the English soldiery in the war in
the Netherlands, about the year 1881, and
finally spread as a common beverage among
all nations, until the crime and woe it en-
tailed was more terrible than the most ma
lignant pestilence. Yet men were blind to
the evil and constantly increased its use, un-
der the mistaken idea that its use was
real benefit; and this was natural from the
fact that it quickened action, animation and
excitement, pleasure without any real good.
The business of distillation commenced in
Boston about the year 100, when West
India molasses was converted into New Eng
land rum but it was not until the year 1874
that dstilleries chiefly from grain came into
being. Pennsylvania is responsible for in
Producing a device for the destruction of
grain, and sacrifice of the elements Of life
into the agency of death and in less than
twenty years thereafter there were more
than forty thousand distileries, consuming
ten million bushels of bread stuff and flood
ing the land with thirty million gallons of
| liquor made from grain and more than ten
millions made from molasses. When we
contemplate that this vast flood gate was
| opened for all ages and conditions of men,
and at the same time meeting the approval
Of the best men of that age, can we wonder
that a race of drunkards sprung in an un.
natural and terrible existence with certain
| entailed vices and habits which the centu-
ries have not eradicated Neither can it be
regarded strange that from among the
masses thus in error some should arise to
vindicate the cause of right and put down
this popular curse, and among those who
fought against this evil stood Howard, the
philanth 'opist, Newton, Matthew Locke, and
DIR. johnson, and the venerable and pious
John Wesley, who made it condition OF
membership to his church at this early day
total abstinence from all that can intoxicate
| This partial alarm for the nations safety
occurred about the close of the eighteenth
century and during the early part of the
nineteenth, so that at this time some of the
best minds of the country were engaged
with the difficult problem, not yet solved
how to rid the country of this evil, which
had from its universal approval become Of
gigantic proportion. Aud it is safe to say
chat although nearly three-fourths of cen
fury has elapsed, yet to-day the seeds of this
transmitted evil are apparent in every
town and hamlet. In my next shall speak
of the temperance organization for the sup
| praas,np IF fhia avi1