PROSPECTIVE RESULTS OF THE TRAFFIC IN

INTOXICATING DRINKS.

REPORTED FROM MEMORY, BY THE AUTHOR.

MR. PRESIDENT, AND FELLOW-CITIZENS :

WITHOUT any special inspiration from above, or the gift of prophecy, men may often, from a careful consideration of the past and the present, reason to what lies in the future. We may not attain to that precise and particular knowledge of the future which observation and history furnish of the present and the past, but we can estimate general results with sufficient accuracy to guide us in the practical duties and concerns of life. I propose, in the present discourse, with such aid as we may derive from history, and our own observation of what has been passing in the world around us, to look forward to the inevitable results of the traffic in strong drink, if it shall be continued in this community. Such an exercise may aid us in settling the question of individual duty in reference to an important subject, which, at the present moment, is exciting much discussion in almost every part of our country. That discussion is not confined to private circles. It has found its way to the pulpits of the land, to the lyceums and legislative halls, and more than once has engaged the attention of our highest judicial tribunals. Let us, therefore, with what ability and calmness we may bring to the task, pull aside the veil which separates us from the future, and let the light of history and reason stream in, and show us the inevitable consequences of continuing, in this community, the traffic in the means of intoxication.

In every part of the world, where the manufacture and traffic of intoxicating compounds have been tolerated, a considerable proportion of its inhabitants have been hurried, by them, to untimely and dishonorable graves. There have been no exceptions in favor of communities where the arts of civilized life, education, refinement, and Christianity have done most for the elevation of our race. We may then, from this uniformity of result, set it down as a fixed fact, that if the traffic in intoxicating liquors be continued, it will doom to early and dishonorable graves a certain and no inconsiderable number of our fellow-citizens. Now, if no other injury to society were to be reasonably anticipated from the continuance of that traffic, and it could be made to appear that the traffic could safely be`dispensed with, our duty—the duty of all men-would be plain in the premises. Why should we tolerate the certain and unnecessary destruction of our fellowmen? Is it a matter of no moment that the period of human life should be wantonly abbreviated? Why should not a man be hanged as soon for producing death by alcohol as by arsenic? These are questions for those who sustain the rum traffic to answer. There are, doubtless, in this community, a number of men who have contracted habits of intemperance, and an artificial appetite, which seems to have gotten the mastery of their wills. Efforts have been made for their rescue. Good counsel has been given them. Friends have gathered around, and earnestly and kindly exhorted them to save themselves from ruin. Perhaps they have been persuaded to attend meetings of the friends of temperance, and the hearts of their relatives and friends have been gladdened by seeing their names appended to a pledge of abstinence. But with some it has availed nought. They have broken such pledges repeatedly, and returned to their cups. Where now is your ground of hope for such? You have but one.

Place the cup

of poison beyond their reach, or they die. Let this inevitable conclusion dwell in the mind of every one whom I now address. Whatever language the lips of those wretched

victims of intemperance may utter, the language of their condition is, "Save me, or I perish." The hearts of thousands who have come to the light on this subject respond to the call, and they stretch forth their hands, and, with fraternal and proper feelings, lift up their fallen brethren, and place them on their feet. But another hand seizes them, and drags them back into the pit from which they had escaped for a time; and that hand is the hand of the dealer in intoxicating drinks. While we see the benevolent and good thus putting forth efforts to save from complete ruin, body and soul, some of their unfortunate fellow-men, O, it is melancholy to see others take upon themselves the awful responsibility of frustrating their designs, and preventing the accomplishment of the good they aim at. If there be any truth in that old maxim that actions speak sometimes even louder than words, then the language of those who are determined to perpetuate in community the traffic in strong drink is by no means equivocal. We must read it thus: "Gentlemen, temperance men, and you ladies who are engaged in this temperance movement, put forth your united strength and influence, get up meetings of the citizens, organize societies, adopt and circulate your pledges, expend your time, and employ your funds in efforts to save the drunkards of this community from the fate that threatens them; and when you have done all, you shall fail in the accomplishment of your object. We stand here to frustrate your designs. The drunkards of this community seem desirous of the privilege of destroying themselves, and we are determined they shall enjoy it. You throw water on the fire that threatens to consume them, and we will rekindle it. You pull them out of the current which is sweeping them toward the cataract below, and we will push them from the bank as soon as their feet rest upon it." Such is the language of their acts, if not of their lips. If they shall deny that they will such a result, then I reply, that whoever wills the continued operation of a cause which he knows, and all past experience shows, to be attended with one uniform result, wills that result, whatever he may

say to the contrary. The sane man, who puts a lighted torch to the hay-mow in my barn, wills to burn my barn; and no sophistry, however ingenious, can, as it appears to me, mislead an honest mind in relation to the matter. He who wills the continued existence of the traffic in intoxicating drinks, wills the production of its inevitable results; and those are poverty, disease, and death, to some of his fellow-men.

Mr. President, I have never studied the logic of the schools, but the argument I have just employed seems to me consistent with the logic of common sense. If a single citizen of this community were arraigned, and put on his trial, for a capital offence, the penalty of which is death, and twelve men were selected from these before me to sit as jurors in the case, with what intense interest they would listen to every particle of evidence tending to prove the guilt or innocence of the prisoner! Why is this? A human life is at stake; and human life is too sacred to be trifled with. In such a case as the one I have supposed, when the evidence and the pleadings in the case are closed, and the judge has concluded his charge to the jury, what intense anxiety is depicted in every countenance during the period of their consultation on the subject! And, when the foreman of the jury rises to declare the guilt or innocence of the accused, the most profound silence reigns in the apartment, and each individual seems intent on catching the first syllable which can make him acquainted with the fate of the prisoner. So sacred do we regard human life. Now, sir, do you, and do my brethren here assembled, realize that, while settling the question whether the sale of intoxicating poisons shall be continued in this community, you are settling the question of life or death for a certain number of your fellow-citizens? Let that traffic be discontinued, and they live. Let it be continued, and they will go down to untimely graves, a bloated mass of rank, unwieldy woe."

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Sir, while we are endeavoring to obtain as correct a view as may be possible of the prospective results of this wicked. system, we must not confine our thoughts to the few in this

particular community whose fate the continuance of this traffic will settle. Every community, town, or village of the land can number its quota, and the aggregate swells to thousands and tens of thousands. Some years since, after circumstances which I need not name had compelled me to reflect on the character and influence of that horrid system, my thoughts and feelings found expression in the following lines: —

"Tis sad to see the drunkard's wretched home,
Despoiled by poverty, and wrapped in gloom;
To see the shattered roof, the crumbling wall,
The wretched inmates, and to hear the call
Of famished children for their ruined sire,
Blasted and scorched by rum's consuming fire.
But when, in sad array, before our eyes

The thirty thousand annual victims rise,

The warm blood chills - we almost curse the clan
Who wage a war alike with God and man;
Trample on justice, mock at misery's tale

And mercy's tears, till even fiends grow pale ;
Afflict the wretched poor, insult the good,

And fatten on the price of human blood.

But, Mr. President, the certain destruction of the lives of a vast multitude who are now intemperate, is not, by any means, all we may anticipate of evil from the continuance of this traffic. As the ranks of reeling, bloated men are thinned by death, a further draught will be made on community to fill their places; and O, sir, let us consider for a moment from what source this accursed agency is to draw its supply of future victims. Drunkards cannot be made from wood, stone, or other inanimate matter. No, sir; the raw material which is to be worked up by this terrible system into a future army of drunkards, must be sought among the children and youth of the country. Some of the little ones who now play their childish gambols in your streets, and who, with their artless prattle, as they climb on the laps of parents,

"Do all their weary, carking cares beguile,

And make them quite forget their labor and their toil,"