The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1884-08-07
Delendanest Carthage.

| ne OF Ltlc Stdlc uOcs uOl
authorize the manu- acture and sale oi
Intoxicating beverages nor does it ex-
pressly invest the legislature with pow
er to authorize their manufacture or
sale. But because the constitution does
not expressly prohibit the traffic the
| legislature assumes the right to author
jze it. If the traffic is public good, the
legislatures have the right to authorize
It. Ii il is a public evil then legi-la-
lures have no constitutional right to
authorize it; for the constitution is in
tended for the conservation OF public
good and the aversion of public evil.
Legislatures. therefore, have no right,
! expressed or implied, to authorize the
traffic.
The constitution expressly gives ieg-
islative authority for the suppression OF
public nuisances. Hence we have laws
Tor the suppression of gambling houses,
houses OF ill-fame, laws forbidding the
carrying OF concealed weapons, their
manufacture, importation and sale; also
laws authorizing quarantine. That the
liquor traffic is an evil, nuisance
thousand fold greater than any one OF
those above named, no sane man it is
presumed would for momentE deny.
Our legislature has very wisely prohib-
tied these lesser evils; but, marvellous
to tell, has legalized this greatest of all
evils subject to legis. alton. In the first
instance it assured to the people their
natural and constitutional rights, but
absolutely authorized their violation OF
these rights.
To suppress the smaller nuisance and
to license the 9 eater one is worse than
to strain at the gnat and swallow the
camel, because while il very properly
sf.tlr flaea. nf Loo he
camel in the cup but compels the peo-
pie TO swallow il.
All human rights have an ethical
basis, and any legislation that ignores
this tact is essentially unjust aud Oper-
ates evil to some individuals or cOmmu-
mites.
All laws authorizing the sale ofintOx-
icating beverages are of necessity OF
this kind. They sacrifice the natural
aud constitutional rights OF individuals |
and communities to the interest of a |
few. No legislature has any right to |
pass any such law, even if nine-tenths |
of the people desired it. For no man
has right, natural or constitutional,t to |
esta blish nuisance, and every man and |
every community has the right, natural |
and constitutional, of protection from |
nuisances. But for the legislature to |
natural and constitutional right of one |
party and to bestow, not a right, but a |
privilege upon the other party. This |
the legislature has no more right to do |
than il does to take one mans property |
and give it 10 another, who has no J
rightful claim upon 1t.
Every law authorizing the sale of rum /
operates to the irreparable injury in va
rious ways of individuals and commu-
mites.
Under it's sanction a whisky shop
may be opened at the door of a family |
residence and the family subjected by |
day and by night TO annoyance by the
presence, blasphemy, the ribaldry and
OF the vulgar rabble.
In such cases the property value as well
as the comfort OF the family is lessened,
perhaps quite destroyed. This is an
injustice. The legisla-
ture has just as good right to confis-
cate the property of good citizens. as it
mas to treat them in this way. But it
may be said that the law does not au-
thorize bad conduct. 1t does not in
intention authorize it but it does in fact |
provoke it and is the responsible cause
If it, for every law is answerable for its
Again, in spite of protest, a rumshop
nay be opened next door to a dry
: ,ods house or any decent business
iouse. The natural cOnsequenc9is trade
lritts away to other locations, and
egtima bu-iness is sacrificed by the
whisky law But worse still, because
# frunshops open by day and by night,
t is exceedingly difficult to raise a bov
n our cities and towns tree from
drunkenness and other bad habits.
1t is notorious that city-raised boys
re, as lule, salOon-raised boys, be-
ause adopts in saloon slang, and ad-
licted to all the current vices of the i
lay There are some honorable exeep- j..
ions to this rule, but it is a well-known
act that the men that rule the world
nd dignity humanity were raised out
ide of cities and towns. Why is this
The answer is found in the operations |
# the whisky license. The remorseless
Ogic of facts proves beyond the posi- +,
'ility OF decent denial that licensed rum
) an unmitigated evil, consequently
u ght to be abolished. S
COMMON SENSE. 8