Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1881-05-26

| Tho dogwood buds are now a swelling.
Aud yaller jouquils sweet arc smelling;
The darkey follows his stubborn mule,
Aud lively hollers "gee you fool"
Tho honey bees arc swectly humming,
Aud everything says spring is coming.
From tho Southern Presbyterian Review
for April.
The Maine Law at Present in
Maine and Vermont.
REV. DR.. ADaER-My Dear Brother:
Ia answer to your request, will give YOU
tho dearest statement am able to make of
tho present aspects Of tho "NIaine Law" in
Maine and Vermont, and of the chief
grounds of argument BY which the wisest
and nblcst defenders of the law maintain
it. OF course it hos many advocates who
are neither wise nor able, as every similar
cause will have. Wo shall not concern
ourselves with such.
In the two States Of Maine and Vermont,
the prohibitory law, SO generally called the
| "Nlaine LAW" is intact, and is comforting
lneat!mable blessings upon those States.
Tho law IN general is as we'll executed as
any other law. In some cities, as in Au-
gusta and Bangor, it is violated in shame
ful manner. There are many reasons why
those places should have majority Of
drinking or drunken people. Let oity
hayc majority of thieves, and good ma
tured relatives Of thieves, who can't boar
to have anybody punished, aud tho law
against theft would be laxly executed, cs-
pecially if the officers arc thieves or thicva
lsh. But 10 the country towns and vii
!ages, among all the farming population, the
law is held with firm grasp aud steady
hand. 1t shows no signs of weakening.
The great liquor interests of Boston, oop-
trolled by men of great wealth and small
morals, is spending money at every acccssi-
bio point to weaken it.
That they succeed in making some
drunkards, admit. The law does not un-
dertakc to prevent man from buying a
cask or case of liquors for his own uso
What 1t forbids is all manufacture and re-
tail sale of intoxicants. When you havo
| shut up all the dram shops and closed all
the disillcrics, you have removed nine
| tcnths of tho drunkenness and its many
attendant evils that cluster thick around the
dram shops This work has been done,
and well done, in Maine and Vermont.
The existence of drunkenness to GER
tain extent does not prove the law to be in
efficient, for repeat, it docs not attempt to
keep man from making brute of him
selfat home. If he come into the street
drunk he will he arrested as dangerous
and pernicious man, aud will be taken care
of and suitably fined. II in his drunken
ness at home he commits acts of violence,
tho common laws will take cognizauc, of his
crimes.
The following are tho chief logical
grounds upon which the advocates of the
law base their cause.
LIST. The general right of self defonsc or
protection.
This is one of tho acknowledged rights
OF government, and carries with it great
and noble duty. No government can aban-
don the right nor evade tho duty If it
have reason to beive that an enemy is un-
dermining its power aud plotting in any
way whatever its destruction, it is under
obligation to destroy the enemy or elfeotu-
ally battle his designs. Hence laws against
adulterated food, against tho communication
of contagious diseases by the establishment
of quarantine laws, and forbidding tho sale
of common virulent poisons
On this broad and solid ground tho duty
of government to prohibit tho sale of in.
toxiOants is urged. For alcohol is poi.
son more dangerous than any other poison
in this, that its use establishes vicious and
uncomfortable destructive to industry,
health, morals, and reason, often making its
victim dangerous, always injurious to So
cioty. AS tho evil is confcssedly greater
than any other evil, government is under
supreme obligation to guard society against
it. 1t cannot discharge its duty as n gov.
ernment and leave society prey to the
most m eroiless destroyer that man has over
known.
2. A second and valid ground of argu-
ment for prohibition relates to the defense
of tho family. All governments that are
above barbarism take the family oonstitu--
tion under their protection. They estab.
)ish laws Of marriage and define many of
tho rights and duties of husbands and
wives parents and children, brothers and
sisters. The perpetuity of the government
and tho progress Of Christian civilization
depend very largely upon tho purity of tho
family constitution. Nothing corrupts and
destroys it like alcohol. The children of
drunken parents inherit disordered cons
stitution. Insanity or idiooy is ofton tho
final outcome of thousands. The whole
race will deteriorate physically, mentally
and morally, unless the manufacture and
sale Of intoxioants be forbidden by law and
suitable penalties be inflicted upon trans
gressors.
Tho following petition to Congress was
formulated and circulated by the "Woman's
Christian Temperance Union" in Maino.
It expresses we'll tho views aud feelings Of