an important office under the general government of these United States. He is your postmaster, and his fellow-citizens must have their business communications—ay, more, their messages of love and friendship from distant parts of the country all come through that polluted channel. The mothers of the vicinity, whose sons are daily being poisoned at that establishment, must go there to get news from another son in some distant part of the country, who is, perhaps, being poisoned in the same way by some other titled villain. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is in the town of Manchester, in the Christian state of Connecticut, abounding in schools, colleges, and churches; and we live in the nineteenth century! Now, it would seem that to have deliberately poisoned to death the father of that poor boy might have been enough in the way of wickedness for your fellow-citizen Captain Risley. [A voice from some one in the audience, " Squire Risley!"] Ay, he is also a justice of the peace, or, I should say, rather, a piece of a justice and a very small piece too. [Laughter and applause.] The wretched mother of that thoughtless young man declared to me, last evening, while standing by the bed on which the insensible body of the boy was lying, that her husband had often obtained from that very establishment the intoxicating poison that, within the last year, had laid him in the grave; and “O sir," said she, "was it not enough that I have been made a widow by the traffic of that wicked man, and left with the care of a large family resting on me alone, and must he now go to work and ruin my sons? While listening to the bitter complaints of that widowed mother, as she paced the apartment to and fro, wringing her hands in agony, while the tears were streaming down her cheeks, I felt, Mr. President, that we had all of us been too remiss in the discharge of our duty-that this infamous traffic should be brought to an end. And, sir, without the slightest hesitation, I here declare, that, in view of its palpable injustice and cold-blooded cruelty, I would, if possessed of despotic power, protect the weak, the innocent, and defenceless, who

are thus made to suffer by it, from further wrong, or I would give the heartless wretches engaged in that traffic an opportunity to obtain their light and air through iron window-sashes. What is a government good for that can go into spasms if one individual shall deprive another, without his consent, of property to the value of five dollars, and yet does nothing, or worse than nothing, for the prevention of such outrages on the weak, the innocent, and defenceless, as we have witnessed in this town during the last twenty-four hours. If an individual applies a torch to a human dwelling, made by the carpenter and mason, of timber, boards, laths, lime, &c.,—inanimate materials, with no soul, no spirit, and no gentle affections, the officers of the law drag him before a court of justice. He has his trial, and is locked up in prison; and when the bolt of his cell goes home to its fastenings, there comes up from the community whose laws he has outraged a universal “Amen,” as it were. "His punishment is well deserved," is the universal declaration. But an individual, directly in the heart of your community, can put his torch of liquid fire to your children, your pride, your boast, and, according to your own estimate, the richest of your earthly possessions, day after day, until they are scorched, seared, blasted, ay, literally burnt up, before your eyes; and, instead of sending the wretch to his proper place, in the state prison, you make him a justice of the peace, and a postmaster! In the particular case of wrong and outrage I have commented upon, the principal sufferers were a widow and a number of fatherless children; but, fellow-citizens, how soon it may fall to my lot, or to one of you, to have our hearts wrung with anguish as we survey the ruin of some dear child, God only knows. The curse is abroad, and none of us are secure. Our children are of the same flesh and blood as the children of those who have thus been made to suffer from this scourge; they partake of the same depraved nature, and, if exposed to the same temptations, they may fall, as have others. Let us, therefore, not only out of regard to the general welfare of society, but for

the security of our own families, labor to put an end to the traffic and use of intoxicating drinks. Let no one presume to declare that he has a just and proper regard for the children God has given him, if he be unwilling to assist in removing the snares which are spread, on every hand, for their inexperienced feet.

INTEMPERANCE AS A VICE OF INDIVID

UAL MAN.

REPORTED BY THE AUTHOR, FROM MEMORY.

MR. PRESIDENT, AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:

I HAVE frequently, in my public discourses, attempted to convince those whom I have had the honor to address that Intemperance is the giant curse of the civilized world; that, as a source of mischief and misery to human society, it may claim a decided preeminence over any other evil influence which curses the world. On the present occasion, I shall ask your attention, for a brief period, while I shall consider intemperance as a vice of individual man ; and among the long, black catalogue of vices to which men are addicted, I think it can be made to appear that intemperance has also claim to the preeminence. I do not wish to magnify this particular subject beyond the degree of importance which properly and justly belongs to it; but the conviction has long been settled in my own mind that, with the mass, even of those who are, on the whole, friendly to the temperance cause, the tremendous power of this vice to enslave and ruin those who yield themselves to its influence has been sadly underrated.

Intemperance has found means to adapt itself, as no other vice has ever done, to both sexes, all ages, classes, and conditions of men. There are none so high that it may not drag them down. There are none so low but it will, with great condescension, stoop to their humble condition, and contrive to sink them lower. The educated and the ignorant, the rich

and the poor, the civilized man and the savage, the delicate female and the brawny backwoodsman, the aged man and the beardless boy, the master and the slave, each and all are within the reach of this master vice of man. There are vices which exhibit themselves among the rich, who live in luxury and indolence, which are not found to any considerable extent among the hard-laboring poor. There are others, found among the poor, and uneducated, which would not find toleration among the wealthy and more refined. There are vices which do not begin to show their power in early youth, but wait until the attainment of manhood for their full development, while avarice is peculiarly a vice of age or advanced life. The vice we are considering makes no distinction, but has found means to adapt itself to all ages, sexes, and conditions. If the wealthy and the fashionable are just now to be the subjects of power, it at once adapts itself to their condition. The old enemy slips into a cut glass decanter, or silvertopped bottles of a fashionable construction, in the form of old particular madeira, hock, or champagne, and takes his place on a fashionable sideboard, and where can be found a more genteel and fashionable character, just now, than Mr. Devil. Our genteel friends dally with the tempter. They sip and sip again and again, in the most delicate manner imaginable, and some, before the hour of parting arrives, are "as tipsy as a lord." O, yes, he has a way to do up the fashionables. Nor is he particularly awkward when we find him at the other extreme of society. If it be Tom, Dick, and Harry, the ignorant and vulgar, that just now demand the old enemy's particular attentions, he will search them out in the dirty hovels which they call home, or in the still dirtier grog-shop, and, taking the form of New England rum, potato whiskey, strong beer, or hard cider, in an old stone jug, or a black junk bottle, he can make himself exceedingly familiar and cozy with his hard-handed, and perhaps ragged and shoeless, acquaintances. Oaths grow louder, obscene jests still more obscene; vile songs are bellowed forth with increasing