The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-01-01
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
ALCOHOL AND MORALS.

Habit That Never Adds Anything 10
Character.
DR. T. L. Wright, in considering the
influence of alcohol on the moral con-
stitution of man, remarks:
The influence of alcohol on morals
is immediate. 1t is perceptible to OBJ
se"~ation quickly after alcohol is taken
into the system; but it varies greatly,
both in kind and intensity, with the
stage of drinking.
I'm general terms it may be said
that no instance has been recorded
where the influence of alcohol upon a
good man, when carried to its full ex-
tent has failed to faint his moral ma
ture. Nor has any instance ever been
known of a character so base, so
bestial and inhuman, that alcohol
could not sink it still lower. 1t seems,
in fact, true, as far as the worlds ex-
perience extends, that the depth of de-
pravity into which alcohol may plunge
the human soul has never yet been
sounded. In its position as wrecker
of good morals, alcohol stands proud
ly eminent Few things are so bad as
from certain properties available in
therapeutics, alcohol seems in its i'm
pressions on the human organism to be
singularly bad. In all its long and
dreary history it has never been known
to add anything whatever to q mans
real character for piety, or sympathy,
or love to his family. or kindness to
his fellow-man.
"Alcohol deadens the conscience of
anyone who partakes of it, let his mo-
tives in drinking be what they may.
The casual drinker often partakes of
alcohol without any clearly defined
purpose, certainly without the slightest
intent of committing an unlawful act.
Yet the poison affects him as it does
others; it paralyzes his conscience, the
acuteness of his sensibilities is blunted,
and he is peculiarly liable to be led
into improper and unlawful conduct
The drinlSer is deprived Of intellectual
soundness as well as of moral capacity;
and yet the law says: Drunkenness is
no excuse for crime
Shakespeare knew the deadly spell
that alcohol casts on morality:
If can fasten but one cup upon him
With that which he has drunk tonight al
ready.
He'll be as full OF quarrel and onense
AS my young mistress dog
saith honest Iago'
at appears to be potential quality
of drunkenness to depress the moral
capacities and thus foster the assaults
of tempta ton, whether it comes in the
guise of folly or of criminality. The
corruption of the moral system may
be observed in the small vices of drunk
enness as Well as in the surprising tur-
pitude of its conspicuous outrages. The
crimes of drunkenness are not COM
monty the outcome of premeditation
and brooding malevolence. The nat
ural defense against their exhibition
and activity, the nervous basis of the
moral constitution. is disabled. While
this nerve defect in drunkenness may
to some extent be Inconsistent with
generalization and malice in the COM
mission of crime, yet the very defect is
the more dangerous to society from the
fact that it is withdrawn from the SUE
pervision of the rational mind
"A person intoxicated will commit
offenses in thought, in speech and in
conduct which in his sober moods he
would view with adherence. The ten
dency OF drunkenness is inevitably to-
wards crime. "-Demorest's Magazine