DR. spofford's address. 21 



when it was resisted by a seven years' war. But what is worst 

 of all is, that this tax is not like the tax on tea, merely collected 

 and carried out of the country, but it returns in another form to 

 curse the payer and make him an idiot and a slave. Here some 

 will object, and say they still use spirits, and have neither spent 

 their property, nor destroyed their intellects. I allow the truth 

 of the assertion, some can bear the expense without serious em- 

 barrassment, and regulate their appetites so that they are never 

 drunken. But to such T would say, you incur a useless expense, 

 and encourage by your example your neighbor, who can neither 

 bear the expense, nor regulate his appetite. Let me entreat 

 such to change their example to the other side of the question, 

 and lend their aid in drying those tears of heart-rending anguish 

 which flow without mixture, where a husband and a father is 

 spending his estate, wasting his time, and converting himself in- 

 to an idiot or a savage. We have all seen those that thought 

 the same — that they knew what did them good, and could gov- 

 ern themselves ; that they were in no danger of being drunkards, 

 and resented even the suspicion of danger. But still they are 

 lost, their business neglected, their property spent, their farms 

 mortgaged, their families ruined ! I would that this were only 

 imagination ; but 1 know, and you all know, that it is the truth, 

 and that in numerous instances. 



But some say this is a land of liberty, and they scorn to be 

 even persuaded not to exercise it, in every particular. 



What a glorious liberty it is for a man to exercise, to leave 

 his business, travel four miles and back, under a burning sun, to 

 vindicate his right to spend twenty cents for rum ! to tickle his 

 palate, intoxicate his brain, and burn up his liver — hiding his 

 bottle, and hanging his head like a thief, when he meets those 

 whom he owes and cannot pay. My friends, I paint from real 

 life ; but I hope such farmers are scarce. 



Now, who enjoys real liberty ? He who consumes only the 

 produce of his farm, or drinks pure water from the cooling spring, 

 and returns to his labour, sober, thriving, and independent ? — Or 

 he whose every shilling is mortgaged to the retailer before it is 

 earned — who is too head-strong to be persuaded, and too kigone 



