Mexico weekly ledger., 1888-03-15


lumber, were nulasssa and Jan,ai.
ca rum, and much of the former
WAS converted into rum in the dis
tilerles of Maine As a consequences of
that liquor became almost as cheap
as milk and was i'm about as general
use in Maine, Malt liquors were
practically unknown there, and
everybody drank the fiery rum un-
til drunkenness became more conf
mon there than it has ever been
anywhere else in this country.
The Maine Temperance Union,
the Washingtonians and other
total abstinence movements of a
later period had thus fine field in
Maine and We're wonderfully sue
cessfui there. They aroused the
people to consciousness of the
terrible vortex about to engulf
them, and great temperance re-
form spread over the State. Rum
was almost entirely banished from
the rural districts. According to a
natural law, the reaction for tenn
peranee was almost equal to the
former State of drunken demorali-
za!ion. And, as the majority had
themselves quit drinking, they be-
gan, Puritan-like, to search for
some means of compelling every
body else to do likewise. In 1916
they passed an act in the legisla-
ture of Maine, to prohibit the sale
of liquor, but, being defective, it
was allowed to stand as dead let
ter. In fact, public opinion was
not yet quite ripe for such a law;
when it became SO, the law was no
longer needed, for public opinion
will control the drink question bet
ter than can be done by any pro-
hlbitory law.
The speaker then reviewed the
prohibition movement of the fifties,
when even greater interest was
manifested in the question than
now. He showed how the prohibi-
tory law in the States of Iowa.
Minnesota, New York, Connect
cut and Rhode Island was adopted,
received by the people, declared
unconstitutional and invalid and
finally repealed.
We contend that prohibition
should not prevail for three gener-
al reasons. First, because is vio-
lates personal liberty. Second,
because it is contrary to the teach
ings of the Bible, and third, because
it is impracticable and delusive as
a temperance expedient, in other
words, is dead failure and moral
fraud.
| These reasons must be consider
ed by us as citizens, Christians and
as philanthropists or lovers of our
race.
| Now, what is personal liberty ?
1t is the exercise of those inaEena-
bic rights with which all men are
endowed by their Creator, among
which are '1ife, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness" and which
cannot be surrendered by man
| when he enters into the compact
| by which a State is formed, be-
cause they are.
| PERSONAL AND INALIENABLE,
nor can they be assumed, or in any
way interfered with by the State
for that same reason, and, there
fore, and therefore, all attempts by
the majority, or in other words, by
the State, to interfere with them
are only naked usufpations.
| Laws are enacted to carry out
these primary purposes of gov
ernment and to limit the exercise
| Of the private rights of the citizens
in the respect that | have named
And all other pretended laws are
mere usurpations, having the form,
but lacking the vail dity of law.
1 "All laws which assume to in.
terfere in the mere mortal conduct
of man, or with the material inter
ests of the community, are baset
on pridciples that are thoroughly
unsound, as tending to the pater
nal, centralized form of govern
ment, and to the multiplication o
offices, and the creation of boards
which interfere with the rights o
the citizen and burden him with
unwelcome taxes. Such laws tam
per with the moral freedom ant
, personal rights of the individual
and tyrannize over the minutia O
, his daily life, in the attempt t.
: mould him by legislation int
! virtue. They are the expression 0
the ignorant fervor of those VIII,
have vastly more power than ex
. perience; whose zeal is not accord
F ing to knowledge, and whose sym
pathies for the frailties and self-im
, posed ills of the weak are not quail
r flied by any considerations for tn
: rights which the strong and tn
, weak alike possess"
We no longer hang, burn or i'm
, prison people for the "glory o
God," but we place them unde
, legal restrictions and limitations
; and still dog, and sometimes i'm
, prison them. and in many way
hamper and harass them, all fo
, their own good and the "genera
> welfare of the people,"
a Ofall the laws growing out c
this assumed paternal relation c
the state to its citizens, none are S
, obnoxious as those which attemp
q to
- SUPERVISE THE MORALS
y and direct the personal habits c
t the people, because they make
S direct assault upon the inalienabl
s rights of personal liberty, whic
= are SO much dearer to every free
e man than are those pertainin
: merely to property. And, whethe
b limiting the cost of dinner, pre-
e eEscribing the cut of coat, or Pre-
: hibiting the use of certain article
81 of food and drink, such laws ar
j alike and unwarranted in the yer
+ constitution and nature of man
: relation to his fellow-men and al
a impertinent, offensive and tyranni
it cal in fact.
Ell There is, in enacting statutes whic
n have for their only sanction tn
~