The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-11-20
TEMPERANCE READING.
INSANE DRuNKARpS.

Away from the Rum-Lover the Re-
sponsibility for His Cranes.
In an article on inebriate maniacs,
in the November number of the
Popular Science Monthly, DIR. T.
D.. Crothers calls the attention
of the public to a new division
of the army of the insane, the in
ebriate maniacs, the victims of alco-
hol, choral, opium, ether and chloro-
form, whom public opinion obstinately
refuses to recognize as such, and as
therefore irresponsible to law, because,
at intervals, they are perfectly sane in
act and conduct. Waving, for the
present, the discussion of the import
ant question whether, in this matter,
the public is right or wrong, we notice
three of the reasons assigned by DIR.
Crothers for the sudden appearance of
this new and alarming army of inebri-
ate maniacs: First, The moral failure
of the age and the increasing wicked
ness of the times; Second, The in
crease of the manufacture of alcohol
and other drugs, and the facility with
which they are procured; Third, They
are the outgrowth of bad inheritance,
bad living, and are about to be thrown
out of the struggle for ''the survival of
the tttest. To what extent any of
these causes are true, or whether
all are true in part, it is I'M
necessary now TO inquire. Neither
is it necessary, for the purpose of this
article, to follow DR.. Crothers through
his somewhat extended and very inter
esting classification of these freshly
arrived maniacs. To this we may re-
turn hereafter. What we wish to
speak of now is the treatment pro-
posed by DR.. Crothers for his new army
of inebriate lunatics AS, to some ex-
tent, the guardians of the public NOR
ais and of the public welfare, we pro-
test, most earnestly, against the emo
tional-insanity plea, and other artful
legal lodges, invented by legal gentle
men to secure criminals from the Just
consequences of their crimes. They
antagonize and subvert justice; they
are inimical to public morality; they
have no existence within the domain
of morals, they should have none
within the domain of law. And
this leads us to the point where
we protest with equal earnestness, and
in behalf of public order and morality,
against the teaching of DR.. Crothers
that the inebriate maniac who COM
mits murder or assault, the bank de-
faulters, forgers. swindlers and burg
lars who commit their crimes as re-
suits of the use of alcohol, opium,
chloral, or other drugs, are not respon-
sible to the law because they are sin
state of intellectual delirium and in
stability" and with brain-cent-
ers so damaged as to prevent
healthy, consistent and uniform BRAIN
action-that such men, instead of
being punished, should receive
careful restorative treatment by the
use of well-directed remedies, and
along the line of exact laws and
forces" Such practice would be to
pay premium for crime which no
country could endure. The idea is, as we
believe, the unhealthy outgrowth of
sickly, maudlin sentimentalism, and
one for which we have no use
whatever. Our contention is in oppo-
sition to the theory of DR.. Crothers,
that the inebriate maniac, having made
himself such step by step and by his
own voluntary acts, should bear the re-
sponSibilities of those acts as other
criminals are made to bear it. Moral
ly and socially voluntary criminal,
he should be made to feel the conse-
quences of his crime as other criminals
do, both for the protection of the pub
lie welfare and as hopeful means of
his own reformation. What those con-
sequences should be is question to be
carefully and humanely considered in
full view of the facts already stated.
Certainly the inebriate maniac-and
we heartily concur in the position
of DR.. Crothers that all inebriates are
maniacs-can not be safely intrusted
with the rights OF citizenship. He
should not be allowed to hold
property, and, recognizing this
fact, the civil law already, in
some cases, wisely and Justly puts his
property beyond his control. And vet
those laws are defective. They do not
reach backwards as far as the Justice
and necessity of such cases Imperative
ly require, and, on the ground which
they are intended to cover, they too
frequently lack efficiency. Again, the
responsibilities incident to the elective
franchise peremptorily demand that
the inebriate, or the inebriate maniac,
If that synonymous designation is pre-
ferred, should in all cases be deprived
by law of the right to vote. This is
one of the most pressing needs of the
hour. Such law, rigidly and impair