Year: 1869

rest


Sumptuary Laws in Massachusetts.


THE State of Massachusetts has law
fOrbiding the sale of all intoxicating G
drinks, and confscating goods Of this
character when exposed for sale. The
adoption Of the law was the result of a
fierce and long continued political agita-
ton, and the attempt to enforce it has
now produced a social agitation still
more violent, before which, we are told,
the officers hesitate, and the law itself is
in danger Of public contempt from their
acquiescence in its general violation.


The Boston Herald sums up the prac-
teal results in these words:


"Lager beer is the only beverage the
sale of which is practically restricted in
Boston. Whisky, brandy, rum, gin and
wines of all sorts can be obtained with
as little trouble as ever; but beer, which
is mOae bulky, and mOut be drawn in Il
certain way to be good, can only be OBJ
tanned in few places. The consequence
is that while a large amount of this mild
and wholesome beverage is liable to be
wasted, thousands who used to drink it
and wanted nothing more, are now driv-
en- to drink the fiery spirits which, from
their concentrated form, are more easily
kept in closets and corners. The effect
is already apparent in large average of
drunkenness


The Advertiser adds another feature or
two to the picture. It says:


"The sale of spirituOus liquors at open
bars has been much interfeTed with
The public sale Ofmalt liquors was stop
ed for Il few days. Large quantities of
adulterated and fiery compounds have
accumulated in the cellars of the State
Constable. Suits have been begun in
large numbers, to be determined by the
courts hereafter. But, on the other hand
drinking clubs have been revived on all
sides; cOncealment and hypocrisy have
taken the place of the effrOnteTy of pub
lie drinking; the hotels and eating
houses continue to supply their guests
without interruption; grOcers and drug
gists find their trade stimulated by the
change in the current; and the friends
of the law have the satisfaction of see
ing a fierce and angry cOmmOtiOn pre-
cipitated upon the State without ap-
preaching as yet the results they conf
IDENTIFY promised themseIves.N


These results can surprise no one
they have followed similar laws where
ever they have been adopted. 1t is to
be supposed that they were anticipated
by the Legislature; and that some end
in view was regarded as important
enough to justify incurring such evils.
Nothing unnatural has occurred there
is no astonishing outbreak of new social
forces; there is, inshOrt, no plausible eX-
cuse for failure to execute the law rigid
ly and to the letter. 1t is only by thus
e. i,
tested, and that its inevitable cOnse-
quances can be 50 impressed upon the
minds of those who frame laws that
hereafter they will always remember
them.


1t should be borne in mind that far
more important interests are at stake in
this question than those Of the trades
directly concerned; the druggists and
grOcers benefited by the law, or the 9TH
cr dealers injured by it; more important
interests even than those of the persons
it would deprive of their customary in
diligence, or those Of the branch of Dri-
vate morality it is supposed to protect
The temperance reform is indeed at
stake; when legislation is relied on to
promote it, the movement ceases to be
q moral, and becomes avOWedly a legal
reform its moral life is taken out of it,
and the inevitable result is a decline in
the tone of the public conscience on the
temperance question. No close Observ-
er needs to be told that in this respect
public morality steadily advance in the
country until the Maine Law agitation
began, and steadily declined ever since.


But there is still a larger interest at
stake than the temperance question. In
q free nation the security Of all institu-
tiOns lies in the general reverence for
law, as the formal and highest express
sion of the public conscience. The hab-
it of steady obedience to the law, be-
cause it is the law, is the first condition
of Self-gOyeTnment by the people. a
law which is freely disObeyed by thOus-
ands, which is slighted, scOTned and viO-
lated without Odium, which the people
expect to see broken, and do not wish to
enforce, is terrible power at work un-
dermining that habit destroying that
reverence, and working directly to make
popular government impossible. We
do not wish to magnify the evil which
one such law can do; but there are
enough influences in our unsettled socie-
ty of to-day to weaken that old power
Of law over the popular conscience which
is the glory Of our country, without
needlessly adding others by Unwise leg
islatiOn.


Massachusetts is in trouble, then; she
has a wretched law, which all must see
ought never to have been passed It
cannot be repealed until the Legislature
meets. There is but one honorable
course for her government, for every
officer of it, for every citizen; that is, to
enforce the law strictly according to its
terms, in all its Odiousness; to claim for
it, because it is law, general reverence
it; and thus sustain the honor of law
itself; and, at the earliest day possible,
to repeal it. The enforcement of it for
a few months will Of itself ensure, not
its present repeal only, but an end of
the agitation for making men virtuoUs
and temperate by acts of the Legisla-
turc; and will throw moral reforms up
on their true and sufficient support in
moral forccs-Nc'r York Evening" Post