CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EVIL OF INTEMPERANCE, AS SEEN IN ITS EFFECTS ON COMMUNITIES, STATES, AND NATIONS.

A DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT MANCHESTER, CONNECTICUT, DECEMBER 31, 1848.

REPORTED PHONOGRAPHICALLY, BY H. E. ROCKWELL.

MR. PRESIDENT, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

THOSE who are engaged in the traffic in intoxicating drinks, and many others, who, with them, labor to sustain and perpetuate it, often complain that the friends of temperance, in their efforts to promote the enterprise in which they are engaged, misrepresent the character of that traffic; that they do not keep themselves within the bounds of truth, but make exaggerated statements; and that, in their denunciations of the traffic, they use language unwarrantably harsh, &c. That individuals have, in connection with this subject, as well as all others, sometimes uttered what was not strictly true, or warranted by the facts in the case, I have no doubt; but the very nature of the subject will, as it seems to me, forever preclude the possibility of any very grievous error, on our part, of the character complained of. When we have thoroughly explored the language used among us, grouped together its strongest terms, and, with all the ingenuity and skill with which any man ever employed language, have endeavored to express the injustice and vileness of that traffic, and to describe the hor

rible results of it on all the great interests of society and man, we shall have fallen infinitely below the reality. All we can hope to do is, from time to time, to present particular aspects of this giant curse of the world—to roll it round, as it were, and present to the gaze of an injured and suffering community one of its phases to-day, another to-morrow, and so on. It is only by looking at detached portions or particular points of this Aceldama that we shall ever be able to form any tolerable estimate of the dreadful whole. We can make no approach to a proper understanding of the subject in any other way. It was never given to mortal man to take in at one view all the features of this terrible curse. An angel from heaven could not do it. The most exalted of created beings, if on earth, and permitted to see all that might be seen in connection with the curse of intemperance, could not, with the exercise of his angelic powers, portray to the mind all which should be added to make the picture complete. The infinite mind and eternity can alone unfold the whole truth. Nor would it be desirable to give utterance to the whole truth, did we possess the power; for if such portions of it as we may and can present will not excite men to detest and abhor the system which produces such havoc with whatever is sacred or dear to our race, we may well despair of moving them by any considerations drawn from heaven, earth, or hell. I would not, if I possessed the power, present to the minds of those whom I now address a full view of all the results of the rum traffic which have occurred in this town of Manchester for the last twenty years. It would subject many of those before me to absolute torture. It would overwhelm their sensibilities, and drive them to madness. And yet we are charged with exaggeration, with presenting a distorted view of the subject. But, sir, so far from the truth are such charges, that, for one, I confess that I am often surprised that men can talk so coolly in relation to the matter, and that they can content themselves with such meagre and imperfect views of the subject as many seem to entertain. Why is it that the mass of the citizens of this town remain so uncon

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cerned and inactive in relation to this subject? I believe that it is because they have formed, as yet, no just conception of the magnitude of the evil; and I have little hope of being able to induce many of your citizens to take hold of the work of reform in earnest, unless we can succeed in impressing their minds with sounder views of the subject. You cannot pursuade a sane and sensible man to wield a sledge-hammer of twenty pounds' weight to knock in the head a mouse which may have been caught in his cupboard. Put such an instrument in his hand, for such a purpose, and he will laugh at your folly. But let him be placed in a room beside a sleeping but unchained tiger, and let him distinctly understand that there is no safety for him but in the destruction of the animal, and he will not think your sledge-hammer too heavy. contrary, he will concentrate whatever physical power possess in a single blow, and when the sledge shall come in contact with the head of the beast, it will not be surprising if it should disturb, at once, his slumbers and his recollection of past events. Employ an individual to pump the water out of your well, if you shall find it necessary to do so, and contract to pay him a dollar a day and his board; and, although he may toil through the day, it is doubtful whether, at any particular time, he will move the pump break so rapidly that you shall be unable to count the strokes, and you may even have cause to think him a little wanting in energy. Now, put that same individual on board a ship, and let him be informed by the officers that the ship has sprung a leak, and is fast settling into the water, and that, if they succeed in keeping her afloat for a certain length of time, they may be able, by the help of their sails, to reach the shore, and that otherwise they must all go to the bottom together; - under such circumstances, station that man at the pump, and, though he be, by nature, the most lazy fellow in Manchester, he will work, and that with energy. He will move that pump brake as though he was working by the job. And this is natural enough. Men do not put forth all their powers to obtain what they esteem a slight advantage, or to

avoid some slight evil. Their efforts generally bear proportion to their estimate of the good to be obtained, or the evil to be avoided.

Hence the feeble efforts put forth by many who profess attachment to the temperance cause; and hence their readiness to discontinue their efforts, whenever difficulties or obstacles present themselves.

When such men as Edwards, Sargent, and Pierpont, who have investigated this subject carefully and thoroughly, give utterance to their convictions of the truth concerning it, you are startled, and sometimes half inclined to conclude that a generous enthusiasm carries such men into the region of extravagance, and that they draw largely on their imagination, when they are merely stating the result of their actual investigations, and the conclusion which sound logic has drawn from the facts before them. I shall not soon forget the astonishment depicted in many countenances, when John Pierpont uttered, before a congregation of the people of Worcester, the following great truth: Fellow-citizens, there must be no compromise with this dreadful enemy. We must kill it, or it will kill some of us, or our dear children." This was uttered, to be sure, in the most impressive manner imaginable. But what was there in the sentiment to excite surprise in any individual who had studied the subject, or had his eyes fully open to see what was passing in the world around him? Absolutely nothing.

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When lived there a generation of men, in any civilized land under heaven, of which a very considerable portion was not, by the system we are considering, doomed to all the miseries of a drunkard's life, and to all the hopelessness and infamy of a drunkard's death? It will be found a difficult matter, I apprehend, to put a man to sleep over this evil who has taken its gauge and dimensions. Hence, in my public discourses, and with my pen, I have enjoined it upon those I have labored to enlist in the temperance enterprise, not only to observe closely the practical workings of the rum traffic in their particular

communities, and to reflect long and earnestly upon them, but also to read much on the subject, and thus enlarge and correct their own views of it, and be better prepared to perform intelligently and energetically the duties which may devolve upon them in connection with it. But I am devoting too large a portion of our time to preliminaries, and will hasten to the consideration of the subject I have selected for this evening's discourse the characteristics of the evil of intemperance, or those features which distinguish it from other evils afflicting community, and which may claim for it the appellation of the giant curse of the civilized world!

The curse of intemperance was peculiar in its origin. After God had cleansed the earth from its pollution by the deluge, drunkenness was the first sin committed, of which we have account in the sacred record. The part which Satan had acted before the flood, the intoxicating cup reenacted afterward; which very naturally suggests a relationship between those two agencies. For myself, I believe they are much nearer related than second cousins. They are both insidious in their attacks — obtain their influence over men by large promises of goodwhile they bestow evils incalculable. They have both promised to make men like gods, by large accessions to their wisdom; and yet both have taught us only evil.

If I were disposed to run the parallel further, I might suggest, that the animal into whom Satan originally entered, for the purpose of accomplishing his work of death, bears, in some of his attitudes, a striking resemblance to the worm of the still. I will not, however, waste our time, and exhaust your patience by further speculations in that line; remarking, merely, before we take our leave of this topic, that, in my opinion, the history of the first vineyard and its products is eminently calculated to afford mankind more instruction than they seem to have derived from it. With my view of the subject, I would as soon plant my acres with nice cuttings of the Bohon Upas, as with the vine, if the products of my vineyard were to be employed in the production of fermented wines. May God, in great mercy,