The Brookhaven leader., 1883-07-26
4 NEW DECLARATION.

fRcad by Rev. F. q. Blair, at Lebanon. ILL.,,
July 4, lSS2. N a Temperance Picnic given
by tie w. {. I. u
When in the course of human events,
it becomes necessary for n people to
dissolve their connection with the Gov
ernment to which they have hitherto
owed allegiance, a decent respect for
the opinions of mankind demands that
the causes should be clearly set forth,
VIII ch impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evi-
dent: that all men are created equal;
that thcv are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienabe rights; that
among these are life. liberty and the
pursuit of happiness; that to secure
these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that,
whenever any form of Government be-
comes destructive of these ends, it is the
right and duty of the people to alter, or
to abolish it; that it is the first law Of
sclf-preservation that any State or Ma
tion may, and of right, ought to, do all
those things which are necessary to
perpetuate its own existence; and to
abolish all those practices, and to coun-
teract all those influences which are
calculated to ruin the body polite, and
destroy society.
For many years the inhabitants of this
country have suffered from the cruel
acts and oppressive measures instituted
by King Alcohol, with the evident de-
sign to reduce them under an absolute
despotism, and after long and patient
endurance of fragrant wrongs, and after
having made many and fruitleSS efforts
to obtain redress. until it is plainly evil
dent that nothing can be hoped from APP
peals to his Justice or mercy, we, the
people of these United States, having
resolved to cast off the authority of this
tYrant, do unite in this declaration of
the causes and reasons which constrain
us to take so important Il step, and of
the miseries and grievances which have
been inflicted on us by him, until his
government has become a burden too
heavy to be longer borne. The history
of his course toward us in the past is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpa-
tions, all having in direct object the estab
lishment of an absolute tyranny over
these States, and the subsection of the
people, through their deprayed appetites
and passions, to his complete control.
To prove this, let facts be submitted
to a candid world:
He has refused his assent to laws the
most wholesome and necessary for the
public good
He has caused the enactment of laws
which have opened the sluice-ways of
destruction, pouring forth upon
the people of this land a dreadful
tide of intemperance. with all the at
tendant evils of drunkenness, disease
and death.
He has bribed in various ways, and
under various diSguiseS, the Legislators,
the Judges and the iuricS of the country
to prevent the enactment and the exc
cution of laws, however needful for the
welfare of the public, which would in
terfere with his ncfarious traffic in in
toXicating liquors, or prevent the accu-
mutation of wealth by himself at the
expense of the comfort, the fortunes,
the lives and the future well-being of
his victims.
He has taken away our property,
earned by patient, faithful labor, and re-
duced our families to beggary and want.
He has diverted the wealth of the
Nation from its proper Office to the sup
port of the criminal, the pauper and the
idiot, caused to become such by his
blighting influence.
He has locked up vast sums of money
from the legitimate uses of trade and
commerce in the iails, the penitentiaries
and the asylums, these having been
made necessary by the vices AMI crimes
he has stimulated into activity among
the people.
He has eXtorted many millions from
the laborers of the Nation to be eX-
pended in maintaining the police forces,
the courts of justice, and all the ma
chinery of Government, devoted largely
to vain effort to remedy the evils he
himself has inflicted upon society.
He has transformed the fruits of the
earth. given for the sustenance of man
and beast, into q death-dealing poison
which changes men into demons.
He has diverted the laborS of thou
sands from productive occupations to
the preparation and distribution of the
fiery flood which deSolates our land.
He has smitten the people with in
sanity and idocy, and filled our asylums
with maniacs, and driyeling idiots, as
we'll as the prisons with our institutions
lOT lIlt Nlln
He has enticed our boys from their
homes, and sent them forth as tramps
and vagabonds in the land, and, instead
of good citizens, they have become the
dangerous classes of society.
He has won our young men from lives
of sobriety, industry and frugality, to
course of drunkenness, Incidence and
wastefulness.
He has drawn away our young women
from the paths of virtue to dens of in
fanny and frightful depths of degrada-
ton. s..
He is responsible, directly or indirectly,
for three-fourths of all the crimes COM
milted, and four-fifths of all the muir
ders done.
He has dragged down the gifted and
noble of all classes from positions of
honor, trust and usefulness, and with
ruined regulations, and names dis
graeed, has consigned them to drunk
ard 3 grave and q drunkard's doom.