The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-01-18
A Few First Principles

A Few First Principles.
1. Prohibitory law has relation to the
liquor traffic. From time immemorial the
right Of law to regulate, restrain or forbid
traffic has been exercised. Our tariff laws
are based on that right All embargoes are q
recognition of the right. The laws relating
to the traffic in poisons, in explosives, in
tainted or adulterated foods, and all Sunday
laws are an express declaration that law has
the right to interfere with traffic which en-
dangers society's welfare, and to whatever
degree is necessary for the public safety.
2. The evils Of fnt.m9erance are not con
fined to the drinker. Grant that the drunk
ard is responsible for his own degradation
any misery; that his drinking is voluntary
act, and his punishment the penalty Of nature
granting all that, there remains the fact
Vulnerable evils and dangers to society nj
large, which includes all innocent members a.
we'll as the guilty ones, and Of vast burdens
upon all taxpayers Ali law owes debt ol
protection to the weak-the women and
children-when they are powerless to protect
themselves. The saloon is menace to the
health and lives Of these weaker members OF
society from which they are pewerless ade.
quately to protect themselves Tneir right
to lega, protection is recognized, therefore,
by the law that makes drunkenness u crime,
and sales to drunkards and minors q crime.
But these laws, while they recognize that
right, are proven wholly inadequate to pro-
tect it.
s. When personal liberty infringes on per
sonal rights it must be curtailed. AH law.
every statute framed from the days Of Sinai
down, is based on the truth behind the prop,
ositi0n. 1t is impossible to. grant the right
OF personal liberty without assailing the very
foundation Of law, for all law is curtailment
Of some mans personal liberty In behalf OF
some other mans personal rights. Persona!
liberty means anarchy-the abrogation OF all
law. No one has. apersonal right to do what
infringes Oh another mans personal rights.
A man may with some show Of reason, claim
the right to crafty his, private appetite for
drink in @ way that interferes with no one
else. But he cannot claim as his right, Tor
the sake Of his private qualification, that Law
shall legalize and tolerate public traffic that
inflicts on others inestimable wrong. He
NAV like tainted meat, and, if it agrees with
him, he. may reasonably claim the right to
eat it; but when hs claims, as right, that
the law shall legalize and uphold the sale OF
tainted meat in public mart for the sake OF
his appetite, he is going tso far. Yet the
wine drinkers Of our day are committing this
absurdity continually.
4. No law forbids an act for the sake OF the
man who wants to commit it, but for the
sake Of the man who would be wronged
thereby. The idea that prohibitory law IS
for the purpose Of saving the man who drinks
Is an entirely wrong idea: Its purpose is to
protect the innocent victims OF his drinking
The law against theft does not have in view
the salvation of the would.be thief, but the
= ptotection of others in their property rights.
So of all Laws against vice. Their Object IS
net to keep men from the commission OF sin,
but to protect others from the consequences
that would come from such commission.
Here is an important distinction between the
province of law and the province Of the
Gospel. The Gospels aim is to prevent the
commission Of vice primarily for the sake OF
the man who is impelled to its commission:
$. The saloon is not only an effect, but
cause The very first thing it does is to pre-,
sent inducements to vice, II IS a continual
temptation. Ii is not merely scavenger
las has been said), removing the weak, vicious
and corrupt clements from society, but it is
itself the cause and creator, in very
large degree, of their weakness, vicious.
ness and corruption. It takes the boy
without q taste for liquor, and by
its insidous attractions plants the seeds OF an
appetite that finally masters his VIII, deadens
his affections and stiles his conscience. 1t Is
more than conduit of evil; it is = fountain
as well, and out of it come vice, crime, dis
order, pauperism, insanity, idiocy, diseases,
and political corruption that defeats justice,
makes law a farce, debauches public con-
science and threatens every institution
founded on the intelligence and virtue OF the
masses
In view Of these considerations, the moral
right as well as the legal right of prohibitory
law seems to us as unassailable and as obvious
as that of any law ever put on the statute
books 1t is in no proper sense revolution,
but an evolution instead. Every court in the
nation before which the question has come,
including the Supreme Court Of the United
States has decided in favor Of the right OF
the State to protect itself by a prohibitory
law. By the highest authority in the land,
therefore, it is decided not to be an invasion
of the "inalienable rights" guaranteed by the
Federal Constitution. On the contrary, 1t Is
an absolute necessity to the protection OF
those rieht.-The Voice.
TemDerance Lecture in q Few Lines.
The New York Sun gives temperance
lecture in few lines, In recent issue. Inc
lecture is brief and the lines are so few that
they might be cut out by many young man
| of bright prospects and pasted il the lnslds OF
his watch case. Here they are:.
"Whisky sometimes gets the best OF tnose
who too recklessly play with 1t. Ihls s the
| case with Mr.. John j. Wilson. q lawyer, VINO
recently walked into Justice klldredtns court
room at the Tombs and desired to oe Gonnie-
ted for contempt for so doing. Mnen the ne
| Justice asked Mr.. Wilson it be desired TO be
committed, he saldi ,
eyes, want to be kept away from nquor'
| 1t has been my ruin.
at is not easy to deliver more eloquent
and nathetic temperance lecture than this.
| And after the poor victim has been confined
| in prison for month the appetite for drink
viii control him as effectually as before he
WAS locked up.p