The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-04-15
Nearly Three Centuries
of Temperance Agitation and Legislation
in Manifestation.
BY FRANK w. GOWEN.
GOV. MoRRILL'S MESSAGE.

The journal readers Governor Lot M.
Morrill's very able message to the Maine
Legislature in the winter of 1857, touch
ing upon the issue of prohibition, and
herewith append it. 1t deserves wide
reading:
Governor Morrill, in his message spoke
at length upon prohibition, one OF the
questions uppermost in the minds OF the
people, as follows:
The people of the State view with
deep solicitude the subject of the traffic
in Intoxicating drinks. The prevalence
of intemperance consequent upon the
nearly unrestricted traffic, is just cause
for public alarm The sentiment is near
ly universal as to the common danger
from this source, and the demand for
some adequate remedy is equally uni
verSal. The sentiment as to the best
method of relief is not equally concord
ant, and from this want of harmony
there is reason to apprehend that the
cause of temperance, which all right
minded citizens desire to promote, may
suffer harm.
1T is contended that in this great re-
form, reliance must be placed in efforts
strictly moral, and that all legislative
penalties are unwise and injurious-t
men cannot be reformed of their habits
by penal enactment. There may be
more or less truth in this position; its
fallacy, however, consists in assigning to
the Legislature a province essentially
foreign to it. The Legislature assumes
TO deal with the traffic, as it is supposed
to affect injuriously the we'll being Of the
State, and does not address itself co the
e ~, II 10, hat
is right or wrong in moral conduct mere
ly. The legislator takes cognizance OF
the prevalence of the traffic, which af-
fiicts the State with crime, pauperism
and disorder, and according to his obser-
walton is injurious to the public morals
health and general prosperity, and for
these reasons we seek to suppress it.
Upon this, as upon other subjects,
there may be Incorporate legislation,
which will react against the salutary OBJ
ject sought to be promoted; but upon
this, as upon all other important sub
jects, there may be found, it is to be
hoped, a common principle or basis upon
which intelligent and we'll disposed men
may unite for the promotion of com
mon object.
with the lights of experience, and
sense of the magnitude of the evil, and
with a general feeling among the people
that this whole subject is re-eminently
moral question, the times, it is believed,
are favorable to calm deliberation and
united effort with the common purpose of
enacting the most efficient and expedient
law possible-the most efficient because
the most eXpedient.
That the evil falls within the powers
of legislation, and that the exercise of
its powers is eXpedient, is sustained by
the legislation of this country from its
earliest settlement. The right of this
exercise of the legislative power over the
subject conceded, it only remains, as a
practical question, to determine the eX
tent of the power, and how far it is eX
pedient to exercise it. All would agree
that it is eXpedient to exercise so much
conceded, or ascertained, power as may
be required to accomplish the object.
Happily, the extent of the conserva-
kindred subjects, has been clearly de-
fined and settled by the Judiciary of this
country, both Federal and State
The present chief justice of the Su-
preme Court of the United States, in
pronouncing the opinion of the court in
case involving this right of the States,
says: Every State may regulate its
internal traffic according to its own judg
ment, and upon its views of the interest
and well being of its citizens. If any
State deems the retail and traffic in ar
dent spirits injurious to its citizens, and
calculated to produce idleness, vice and
Gebauchery, | see nothing in the Consti-
tuition of the United States to prevent it
from regulating and restraining the
traffic, and prohibiting it altogether, if it
thinks proper. The acknowledged police
power of the State extends often to the
destruction of property; everything pre-
judicial to the health and morals of the
community may be removed. If the
foreign article be injurious to the health
and morals of the country, a State may,
III the exercise OF that great and conser-
VatIve police power, which lies at the
foundation of its prosperity, prohibit the
sale of it. y
1.-The decisions of our own State court
are equally comprehensive and explicit.
The late chief justice employed this
enactments, acting prospectivey, NAV
determine that articles in furious to pub
lie health and morals, shall not constitute
property within its jurisdiction. it may
come to the conclusion that spirituous
liquors, when used as beverage, are
productive of great variety Of ills and
evils to the people, both in their individ-
nal and in their associate relations; and
the least use of them for such purpose
is injurious, and suited to produce, by
greater use, serious injury to the COM
fort, morals and health; that the COM
mon use of them for such a purpose
operates to diminish the productiveness
Of labor, to injure the health, to impose
upon the people additional and unneces-
sary burdens, to produce waste of time
and of property, to introduce disorder
and disobedience of the law, to disturb
the peace, and to multiply crimes of
every grade. Such conclusion would be
justified by the experience and history of
man. If Legislature should declare
that no person should acquire any proper
ty in them, for such purpose, there
would be no occasion for complaint that
it had violated any provision of the con-
stitution.
The same doctrine prevails in Massa-
chusetts: 1.-The legislature may declare
the possession Of certain articles of prop
erty, either absolutely, or in particular
places and under particular circumstances
to be unlawful because they would be in
furious, dangerous or obnoxious, and may
provide for the seizure or confsca ton, or
destruction thereof, by due process of .
law