Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-09


Some curious incidents occurred in these
early days of the struggle. During the
cholera visitation of 80 the Board o
Health of Washington, under direction of
the famous VIM. Writ, Attorney General,
declared that 'sthe vending of ardent
spirit, in whatever quantity, is considered
nuisance, and as such is directed to be
discontinued for the space of ninety
days." Lewis Cass, as Secretary of War,
in 1882, ordered spirit to be no longer
issued in any fort, camp or garrison, nor
sold by any sutler TO troops; and as sub
stitute. with every hundred rations eight
pounds of sugar and four pounds of coffee.
When the cholera ragged in many towns 1t
absolutely put an end to the sale OF intox-
| icants, for the rumseilers ran away to a
man. The statement was made, and at
least in part verified, that while one IN
sixty died of those who habitually used
| liquors, only one in twenty-five hundred
died of total abstainers. This show Of fig
| ures was not based probably on suffi-
GENTLY wide collection of data, but 1t was
not far from correct. In Albany, with
population then of $4,000, there were but
two deaths of members of the temperance
societies, but 336 others. The earliest
public speech of Benjamin L. Butler with
which | am acquainted was delivered in
| favor OF the abstinence movement III 1854.
He said: ''Our aim is not to save one, nor
| fifty, but thousands, and tens Of thousands,
| from the drunkard's fate. Shall We not,
one and all, henceforth and forever, deem
it not merely 3 duty, but happiness and
honor, to be fellow-laborers in work so
| benevolent and sublime :"
In 1885 the following address from
thirty mechanics who were drunkards was
issued in Great Britain: ''Tipplers, drunk
ards and backsliders Friends You are
miserable and wretched, both in body,
soul and circumstances. Your families
and friends are suffering through your
folly. You have no peace here and can
! have no peace hereafter. And all this
proceeds from the delusiye, maddening
habit of drinking Intoxicating liquors.
You are told that these liquors do you
good. 1t is a falsehood, invented and
propagated for the purpose of getting
your money. Judge of the good they
have done by the effect which they have
produced ON yourselves and others.
Friends We were once drunkards. We
are now happy. Our wives are comforla-
| BILE; our children are provided for; We
are better in health, better in circum-
stances. We have seen our delusion, and
we now drink neither ale, wine, gin, rum
nor brandy. Thee is no safety for you,
nor US, but in giving it up entirely"
! The argument for abstinence was so Ear,
universally, that moderate drinkers could
not safely go half way and be sure OF stop
ping there; that drunkards were not safe
with even a drop, and, as for temperance
people in general, they should abstain as
| an example and encouragement to the
weaker. The argument was fair, manly
and noble. 1t stands good forever that a
good citizen viii do nothing-even drink
| wine or eat meat if it make his brother
offend"
But by this time, 1885, the cause began
to be overloaded with cranks and conceited
| fanatics; and among the lecturers were all
the scamps with glib tongues who found it
an easy way to make money. Lecherous
scoundrels, and men far from being honest
or temperate, paraded the country either
as reformed drunkards or as laborers in the
cause. 1t was not easy to sift them out or
| get rid Of them. These men set the ex-
| ample of retailing very disgusting details,
| and exaggerations and lies. Their statis-
| tics were manufactured to order They
| assailed every one who did not do their
| bidding and aid them in fleeing the peo-
pie. Their vituperations were horrible
and created reaction. Whisky-selling was
decent by contrast The reformed drunk
ard as lecturer and postulant has al
| ways been asuspieious character and almost
always a fraud.
About this time, also, the work took an
| other turn-or, rather, somewhat before
| this. The American Temperance Society
| at the start took the ground that to drink
ardent spirits was morally wrong. The
next position taken by the society was
| that it is wicked to make ardent spirit or
| to furnish it to be drunk by others. Both
| these points were successfully sustained,
| and the public opinion of all the land was
with them. Whole counties put an end to
the sale. Churches were very generally
| won over, and there were already 5000
| temperance societies, with over 100000
members. 1t was plumply put down as
sin to tempt our neighbor TO drink that
which would injure him. In 1888 the
societies came, as they said, TO the next
point: "The next thing to be accom-
plished is by the universal diffusion of in
| formation, and the exertion of kind moral
influence to produce throughout the COM
mumity the conviction that the laws which
| authorize the traffic in ardent spirit
as a drink, by licensing men to pursue it,
are morally wrong. As such laws are
morally wrong, they never can be politi-
cally right, or beneficial, or expedient.
| The authorizing Of men by law to traffic
! in ardent spirits as drink is inconsistent
| with the temperance of the community.
Laws which authorize the licensing of men
| to traffic in ardent spirits violate the first
principles of political economy, and are
highly injurious to the wealth of ma
| tion." This was the tone of the first eff
! fort made to modify laws and influence
| legislation. 1t was temperate, Just aud
judicious. 1t looked to education, and an
appeal to the moral sense. 1t kept the
ranks together.
| But the road was opened, and the rag
tag of frauds rushed in to lay schemes,
| abuse and violate all laws of common
sense. Fortunately at this point began
the great crusade of Father Mathew In
1888 he organized the first society at Cork,
| and then went to and fro over Ireland and
| England, and III 1871 over America,
! preaching the gospel of temperance with
astonishing power He was not out of the
field when John B. Cough, in 1913, COM
menced his famous career. For forty
years Cough was public advocate of abb
stinence; but for half that time he was
not solely devoted to that work. From
1885 to about 1850 the question of prohi-
bition was in allegiance. But there a vast
deal of local legislating on the subject. In
1851 Maine passed her famous Maine
liquor law" prohibiting the sale Of intoxi-
eating liquors as a beverage. Has the
cause of abstinence from that day gained
| all inch? Several States have passed pro-
hibitory laws, and in most cases they have
been aorogated or constantly quarreled
over. Ii has been found impossible to
literally enforce them, although in some
sections they have been measurabIy
successful in closing bars, if not en-
tirely abolishing the sale. The State of
New York passed Law of the sort, and in
1854 elected a temperance Governor by a
majority of 200. The law was defied and
broken down by Mayer Wood in New
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