SHOULD PROHIBITORY LAWS BE ABOLISHED? 227 



Puritans for over a hundred years were struggling to prohibit 

 the sale of liquor under certain conditions, and colonial and later 

 laws regulating who should sell spirits, and when, and to whom, 

 and under what conditions, would fill a volume. Volumes of ser- 

 mons preached during this time will show that prohibition was a 

 very serious topic ; one of the reasons held was that intoxication 

 was due to direct Satanic influence. 



The reiteration that the various statutes against the selling of 

 liquor are not for the general good, and do not come from a de- 

 mand for protection or public peace, or from cause of necessity, 

 or expediency, or in a community where the evil of the sales is 

 apparent or experienced, and that not a single proposition for the 

 policy of prohibition arises from demand for relief, sound like 

 Rev. Jasper's declarations : " The Sun he do move ; the Earth he 

 do stand still." 



The admission that "if laws preventing the sale of liquors 

 should be demanded by the users, and purchasers who desired to 

 be relieved of the temptation of buying it, a wise policy might 

 decree the prevailing of the petition," is followed by a statement 

 that " the non-users and non-purchasers who are in the majority, 

 and those who have never suffered, need protection for which 

 they have not asked." Any careful study will show that a large 

 proportion of the most enthusiastic supporters of prohibitory 

 laws are persons who have either suffered personally or in their 

 families, or socially or financially, from the evils of spirits. 

 Very few persons urge an unpopular cause unless from some 

 strong conviction based on an experience that has a personal 

 bearing. While any new movement always attracts a certain 

 class of irregulars and camp followers, they soon drop out, and 

 seldom continue attached to it very long. The rank and file who 

 are honest in their theories and proposals for relief keep on until 

 their ideals are realized, or some new way gives new form and 

 direction to their efforts. 



The earliest liquor law Mr. Morgan could find grew out of 

 some letters appearing in a paper in 1832. At that time there 

 were twenty States in the Union, with a great number and va- 

 riety of prohibitory laws on their statute books. Many of these 

 States had laws enacted half a century before ; even some of the 

 Territories had very stringent laws regulating the liquor traffic. 

 The colony of Georgia for nine years was under a strong pro- 

 hibitory law passed by the English Parliament in 1735. The 

 early laws prohibiting and restricting the sale of spirits in this 

 country would fill a small-sized volume, even before 1832, and 

 from that time on several volumes would be required to contain 

 them. 



The statement that the State of Maine before 1832 was almost 



