CHAPTER XII.

THE LIQUOR TRAFFICK,

The Congress of '78, on the 16th day of October, passed the following resolution: "Whereas, frequenting play-houses and theatrical entertainments has a fatal tendency to divert the minds of the people from a due attention to the means necessary for the defence of the country and the preservation of its liberties, Resolved, That any person holding an office under the United States, who shall act, promote, encourage or attend such plays, shall be deemed unworthy to hold such office, and shall be accordingly dismissed." This resolution was based upon a principle laid down in one passed four days previous, viz: "That true religion and good morals were the only solid basis of public liberty and happiness," and that men who regarded the best interests of the na

tion, should not only avoid, but do all they could to suppress every thing which had a tendency to "promote idleness, dissipation, or depravity of principles and manners."

What would these tried men have thought if they could have lived to see the havoc which the liquor traffick is making, not only of principles and manners, but of every thing that is lovely and of good report among us? Would they not conclude that the theatre, corrupting, dissipating, and ruinous as it has always been to the temporal and eternal well-being of its votaries, is quite harmless in comparison to those human slaughter-houses in which intoxicating li quor is sold as a beverage? What would they have thought of the prospects of that country for the independence of which they had pledged their "lives, their property, and their sacred honors," if they could have looked down the vista of time, and have, in the last ten years, seen what we have seen, the nation taxed by the dealers in intoxicating drinks, six hundred millions of dollars directly, and six hundred millions more, indirectly, for sending three hundred thousand of our citizens to drunkards' graves, one hundred thousand to the different

poor houses, and one hundred and fifty thousand to our jails and penitentiaries, besides making two hundred and ninety thousand widows and one million orphans, and instigating one thousand five hundred murders, two thousand suicides, and the burning of ten millions worth of property?

I repeat the question. What would that venerable body have thought of the prospects of their beloved country, if they could have seen, by prophetic vision, these costly sacrifices made by our citizens upon the altar of this Moloch? Would they not have united drinking-houses with theatres and horse-racing, and earnestly recommended to the people of the several states to suppress them? Is not the drinking house more destructive to human happiness, to religion, to morality, and to true patriotism, than the theatre with all its demoralizing accompaniments? And would those men who resolved to dismiss from the service of the United States officer who should in any way promote an any attendance upon the latter, consider it inconsistent with good morals or true patriotism for men to license the former? And yet the nation, with the feelings of these fathers of our

republic spread out before them, and with the widow's tears, and the orphan's cries, appealing to their sympathies, are sleeping over this threatening abomination. The manufacturing and vending of this deadly beverage is so profitable, and the appetite of those who have been beguiled into the use of it, is so uncontrolable, that the sober part of community are too much afraid of injuring, their party organizations to assail it.

But it is my principle design in the present chapter to call the reader's attention to the danger to which our civil institutions are exposed from this traffick. An eminent political writer remarks, that "men of intemperate habits cannot be free, their passions forge their chains." This is true of intemperance in any thing, but above all, of intemperance in the use of strong drink. The drunkard can no more be governed by law than the maniac. Just in proportion as the appetite for strong drink is formed, the man is demented, and the mind becomes weak and imbecile, and all the amiable sympathies of our nature become deadened and torpid as this appetite gains strength. To gratify this worse than brutal appetite, he will bring the

gray hairs of his aged parents with sorrow to the grave, break the heart of a kind and affectionate wife, beggar his children, and bring his own bloated body to a premature and dishonored grave. Can such a creature be governed by law? Is such an one competent to exercise the elective franchise? Many of the states now treat the habitual drunkard as they treat the maniac; put him under the care of guardians, who are to take care of his property and his family, and yet, in these very states, this class of men is permitted to go to the polls and cast their votes for those who are to make laws for, and govern the nation. And when politics run high, and the two great parties are nearly divided, these men, and those who minister to their depraved appetite, hold the balance of power, and actually control our elections.

Under these circumstances it is not strange that "men of intemperate habits" are sometimes found in our national and state legislatures, deliberating and voting under the dementing and demoralizing stimulus of intoxicating drinks. That such cases have occurred is too true for the honor of the nation, and if we are not