Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-01-23

IN the house OF Representatives January 9Th 1883,
In favor OF the amendment 10 the constitution for
ever prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxi
eating liquors.
Mr.. Speaker:
Our constituents have different views of this
subject of temperance. God has not given
all knowledge, all wisdom, to one age, party
or person. Our mental endowments are not
alike. Hence various opinions are enter
tanned upon the same subject. Right remains
right, and truth remains truth, but our COM
prehension of them differs
Truth is sure protection against error.
As light protects us from darkness, so truth
protects us from ignorance. If error covers
itself with darkness the light of truth will
disperse it. If it intrenches itself in false
principles and evil habits truth can drive it
from them. Truth is power, error is weak
ness. Truth is substantial; /; it is divine order
and harmony. Error is discord and confusion.
Therefore none should be discouraged
BE We temperate in all things is the in
junction of God. That that command NAV in
future, sOmew here, somehow, be Obeyed, in
spires me with hope, and sheds a halo of light
around the temperance cause. Otherwise,
the imperfect laws, the innumerable and sue
cessful attempts to evade those laws, the want
of interest and skill on the part Of officers,
whose duty il is to enforce the law, would
indeed pale the face of the philanthropist.
and disgust and despair take the place of
enthusiasm and hope.
propose on this temperance question to
show my cause and produce nv reason. My
purpose Is TO secure constitutional amend
ment prohibiting forever the manufacture,
sale, exchange or gift of any ardent spirits in
any form whatsoever. Such an amendment
would settle this all important issue; an issue
too much ignored by selfish politicians:
an issue fraught with the most sacred inter-
ests and worthy our noblest efforts.
There are two important principles, two
laws of nature upon which | stand. lst,
everything that is useful or proper. either as
food or drink, for man or animals, is pro-
produced naturally by some process of growth
IN living organic matter. I'd, every substance
proper for animal sustcnance, either as food
or drink, is such only while it remains in the
same organic state and chemical condition in
which nature produced it.
Now what is alcohol! What | mean by
the word alcohol in these remarks is,
everything which has alcohol in it-braDdy,
gin, whiskey, rum ale, beer. wine. cider. etc,
anything which by a fermenting, that is
rotting process, whereby alcohol is formed.
The spirituous or Intoxicating element of
fermented liquors Webster.
Cider is the juice of the apple, {, rmented
or not fermented. Wine is the Juice of the
grape. fermented or not iermented. but gen.
orally used in ancient history as we use the
word Misunderstanding containing that which
intoxicates..
Does alcohol grow? Is it found a
constituent principle in anything that has
life? No never, Go search creation through,
examine ali the structures and fluids of that
being whom God alone has taught to laugh or
weep, and of all the tribes of animated exist
eDce that ''roam the wood or wing the sky.
or roll along the flood. Won find it not.
Look through all the vegetable kingdom;
analyze the alimentary grains, the nutritious
seeds, the esculent roots, the juicy apple, and
the luscius fruits. it is not there. Then go
down to the mineral regions; search through
all the strata of earth, and explore the depths
OF old ocean, II is not there. Nature through
all her domain Of things. animate and inani-
mate has not produced it. Whence comes it
then? Human art. led on by the solicitations
OF depraved instinct, has produced it; not
by any process Of growth and development,
but by a rotting process of destruction and
REORGANIZATION. Many persons even at this
day think alcohol is constituent of vegeta-
bic matter. read not long since, in a work
exhibiting much more metaphysical than
chemical knowledge. that alcohol existed nat
urslly in sugar, corn and apples. from which
it was merely separated by fermentation and
distillation, and this was given as reason
why it is SO natural for us to love 1t.
Natural. There never was a man or ami
NAL. that did not find it disgusting in every
shape, and abhorrent to every sense, unless
his or its nature had become changed from its
pure and pristine condition. This error has
had a most disastrous effect on the popular
mind. Let us try to understand this matter.
hos hi hi,t,t tho
beneficent Creator has caused TO grow for our
sustenance various proximate principles
which are nutritious: as water, sugar, starch,
gum, gluten, fibrine, albumen and others,
which are called in dietetic works, alimentary
principles. Now so long as these proximate
principles maintain the natural state. or
chemical condition, so long are they salutary
food and drink, but no longer. They are all
composed mainly of certain proportions of
oxygen. carbon. hydrogen and nitrogen which
constitutes their primitive or ultimate ele
ments. If the proportions of these ultimate
elements become changed in any way, the
whole nature of the substance is altered. and
the most bealthful sliment may thus be con-
verted into the most virulent poison. To
illustrate The air we breathe is composed of
about go parts of oxygen to 76 of nitrogen;
but bv combining a greater proportion of
/
corrosive liquid that will decompose the ami
NAL structure like fire.
Water is composed Of definite proportions
of oxygen aud hydrogen; but unite these ele-
ment. in any other proportions and it is water
no longer sound potato is wholesome
food but when it rots, its organic state or
chemical constitution is changed; il is no
longer food. and if you eat it you will be
poisoned The juice of an apple, or grape,
| is salutsry drink: but let those juices rot,
change their natural state BY ferment or rot,
to cider or wine, and they are Natures bev-
erages no longer for they contain alcohol.
a poison which is the result of ferment, rot,
decay, decomposition.
The fermentation Of leavened bread con-
verts portion of the sugar into carbonic
acid gas, and if the fermentation is carried
too far the gluten 10 destroyed and acetic acid
tieveloped-or, as the women say, their bread
is sour. Hence fermentation in the best Of
bread dim,nishes its nutritive qualities. If
| food ferments in the stomach instead Of d.
gestinz, various acid, acrid and irritating
| compounds are formed. as the dyspeptic we'll
knows-greatly to his cost and all fermenta-
/ ton, xhether panasy, saccharine. vinous,
acetc, or putrefactive, is simply the trans
formation of matter from its organic or prox-
innate, to it's ultimate or elementary condi-