VOL.. III. NO. 18. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



141 



LAWS 



"WHICH AUTHORISE TRAFFIC IN ARDENT 

 SPIRIT AS A DRINK MORALLY WRONG. 



(Continued from p. 133. J 

 So with all farmers and all merchants, and all 

 other classes of men throughout the country : The 

 traflie in ardent spirit is a enrse to the whole com- 

 munity ; a cancer on the vitals of all the sources 

 of national wealth. 



Even if the present profits of those who sell to 

 unproductive consumers were more than those 

 who sell only to productive consumers, as the 

 property of their customers diminishes, and of 

 course their ability to purchase, their future profits 

 must be less. On the other hand, the ability of 

 productive consumers, who replace what they con- 

 sume with something of greater value, constantly 

 increases; and of course their value as customers. 

 They can purchase next year, not only as much 

 as they have purchased this, hut more ; equal to 

 the value of the addition which they have acquired, 

 or a proportion of it. And thus what they con- 

 sume becomes a source continually of increased 

 reproduction, not only to them but to the nation. 



On the other hand, what is consumed hut not 

 replaced by something of a greater, or an equal 

 value, is ultimately lost — and is, to that amount, a 

 loss to the country. Whatever causes an increase 

 of unproductive consumption therefore, causes a 

 decrease of national wealth. And this evil attaches 

 in a high degree and to an enormous extent, to the 

 traffic in ardent spirit. If the property which the 

 consumers pay were burnt, all would acknowledge 

 it to be a total loss ; though the merchant and the 

 distiller and the grain grower might all have re- 

 ceived their pay. But it would in that case be a 

 loss vastly less than it is now. It is now not only 

 an entire loss, but it diminishes, as we have seen, 

 beyond almost any thing else the sources and the 

 power of future reproduction. It is therefore not 

 only a source of great present loss, but also a pre- 

 vention of vast future gain. It diminishes in both 

 ways, the wealth of the nation, and to an amount, 

 equal, 



1. To the whole sum which consumers pay for 

 ardent spirit ; estimated by those who are best ac- 

 quainted with the subject at about $50,000,000 

 annually. 



2. The loss of all the time which it occasions. 



3. The diminished productiveness of laud, labor 

 and capital. 



4. The loss of health and reason ; and all the 

 expenditures which it occasions. 



5. The cost of supporting the paupers, and pros- 

 ecuting the criminals occasioned by it. 



6. The property lost in consequence of it by 

 casualties on the land and on the ocean. 



7. The shortening of human life and the con- 

 sequent loss of human labor; amounting in all, as 

 all acquainted with the subject admit, to a sum 

 much greater than the cost of the liquor. One 

 hundred million dollars a year is a sum far less 

 than is lost to the United States by this destructive 

 traffic. And yet this, and the diminution of future 

 gain which it occasions, would in one generation 

 amount to a sum greater than the present value of 

 all the real estate in the country. And this loss, 

 to a vast extent, is borne by those who are least 

 able to bear it, the laboring classes of the commu- 

 nity. It may not be amiss to advert for a moment 

 to the beneficial uses to which this money might 

 be applied ; uses beneficial to the individuals, and 

 to the nation. It would purchase 



4,000,000 sheep at $2,50 each, $10,000,000 



400,000 head of cattle at $25 each, 10,000,000 



200,000 cows at $20 each, 4,000,000 



40,000 horses at $100 each, 4,000,000 



500,000 suit of men's clothes at $20, 10,000,000 



1,000,000 boys' do. at $10, 10,000,000 



500,000 women's do. at $10, 5,000,000 



1,000,000 girls' do. at $3, 3,000,000 



1,200,000 barrels of flour at $5, 6,000,000 



800,000 do. beef at $10, 8,000,000 



800,000 do. pork at $12 50, 10,000,000 



3,000,000 bushels of corn at 50 cts. 1,500,000 



2,000,000 do. potatoes at 25 cts. 500,000 



10,000,000 lbs. sugar at 10 cts. 1,000,000 



400,000 do. rice at 5 cts. 200,000 



and 2,000,000 gallons of molasses at 



40 cts. a gallon, 800,000 



It would also build 1000 churches at 



$5,000 each, $5,000,000 



support 2000 ministers of the gospel at 



$500 each, 1,000,000 



build 8,000 school houses, at $500, 4,000,000 

 furnish 500,000 newspapers at $2, 1,000,000 

 and establish 5,000 parish libraries at 



$600 each, 3,000,000 



— and all in a single year. This might be repeat- 

 ed, from year to year, making in one generation 

 of thirty years, thirty times the above amount. 



Who then in our land need to be poor, or 

 wretched ? And what need to hinder this land, as 

 soon as its population might wish, from becoming 

 Immanuel's land ; its peace flowing as a river, and 

 its righteousness and blessings as the waves of the 

 sea ? 



But the loss of property, great as it is, and 

 enough to stamp the laws which authorise the 

 business that occasions it with everlasting execra- 

 tion, is still among the least of its evils. 



V. The traffic in ardent spirit as a drink im- 

 pairs the health of the nation. Health depends on 

 one great law; viz. The action of certain agents, 

 upon their appropriate organs in the human body, 

 which agents and organs, "the product of the Di- 

 vine hand," are so perfectly adapted one to the 

 other, that in view of all their consequences to 

 endless being, their author himself pronounced 

 them to be "very good ;" perfect, good enough to 

 satisfy the mind of Jehovah. Light, for instance, 

 was made for the eye ; air for the lungs ; and 

 food, nourishing food and drink, for the digestive 

 organs; causing by their operations the functions 

 of vision, respiration, nutrition, and the various 

 movements on which health and life depend. But 

 for what organ in the human body was ardent 

 spirit made ? There is none. 



What organ in the human body needs its stim- 

 ulus in order to perform in the most perfect man- 

 ner, healthy action ? There is none. What gland 

 can extract from it the least portion of nutriment, 

 or any thing which can contribute to health, or be 

 in any way useful in the animal economy? There 

 is none. The anatomist, the physiologist, the 

 chemist and the physician examine with the mi- 

 nutest care every part throughout the whole body, 

 and they can find none. God has made none, and 

 there is none. Nor is there an organ whose 

 healthy action is not disturbed by ardent spirit ; 

 and which does not instinctively reject it. The 

 blood by its circulation conveys to each part of the 

 body the materials of which it is composed, while 

 each organ by its Creator is endowed with the 

 power of selecting from the mass what it needs 



for nourishment, and the performance of its appro- 

 priate functions, and of rejecting the refuse to be 

 thrown out of the system. " The blood is there- 

 fore u sort of common carrier, conveying from 

 part to part what is entrusted to it for the common 

 benefit." When obliged to carry spirit, it presents 

 it on its way, as it does other materials, to each 

 organ ; and each starts with mighty effort, not to 

 welcome and receive, but to repel it. And if not 

 crippled by the overpowering force of the enemy, 

 it succeeds ; and rejected, not suffered to stop, be- 

 cause it is worthless, the carrier, though vexed 

 with its burden, is obliged to take it on to the 

 next ; rejected by that, it must carry it on, till re- 

 jected by all as a common nuisance, " it is seized 

 upon by the emunctories, the scavengers of the 

 system, and unceremoniously excluded." This is 

 not for any want of kindness in the system to- 

 wards friends, but because ardent spirit is an ene- 

 my, a mortal enemy. It would be treason to har- 

 bor it, and suicide to use it. Nature, through un- 

 erring laws stamped by the Divine hand, true to 

 herself and her God; is incapable of such an of- 

 fence ; and till poisoned and perverted by the ene- 

 my, will never submit to it. On every organ it 

 touches, spirit is a poison ; and as such it is chased 

 from orgau to organ, marking its course with ir- 

 regularity of action, and disturbance of function ; 

 exciting throughout the system a war of extermin- 

 ation, till the last remnant of the intruder is ex- 

 pelled from the territory. Till vital power is 

 prostrated the enemy can never have a lodgment. 

 And if, through decay of organic vigor, by the 

 mighty force of the intruder, or the long continu- 

 ance of the war, and by perpetual successions (f 

 new recruits, it cannot be expelled, the work cf 

 death is done, the last citadel of life surrenders, 

 and the banner of universal ruin waves over all. 

 Thousands of such conquests are made every 

 year, and of territories more valuable than all the 

 material wealth of creation. Before, the prospect 

 was like Eden ; and after, a land of sepulchres, 

 with uncovered, putrid carcases of drunkards, 

 sending up in clouds their poisonous exhalation, 

 wafting contagion and death through the land. 



To sanction by law the recruiting and equipping 

 of such an enemy, and the sending of him out to 

 desolate the fairest portion of God's heritage, is an 

 outrage upon all principles, not only of patriotism, 

 but of humanity, which bids defiance to parallel 

 in the history of legislation. It is an outrage al- 

 most too gross for sober consultation. It would 

 seem to be hardly possible, in view of its fruits, 

 that it should be tolerated, we will not say in any 

 christian, but in any civilized State. Even pagan- 

 ism, under the first rays of civilization, lias almost 

 instinctively denounced it. And were it not for 

 the pestilential moral atmosphere which it pro- 

 duces, and the deteriorating and Stupifying effects 

 which that atmosphere occasions, its continuance 

 would seem to be hardly possible; or its removal 

 need auy thing more than its own doings.' 



NEW USE OF FIRE ENGINES. 



At the late fire in Troy, a number of fellows, 

 after applying themselves freely to the common 

 stock of rum, fell to lighting among themselves. 

 One of the engines was standing near filled with 

 water, and under the direction of a practical cold- 

 water man, who suddenly extinguished the flames 

 of war, by a single effusion from his pipe, and 

 thus separated the belligerents. 



