xn. 



THE FAVORITE POISON OF AMERICA. 



November, 1850. 



ONE of the most complete and salutary reforms ever, perhaps, 

 made in any country, is the temperance reform of the last fif- 

 teen years in the United States. Every body, familiar with our man- 

 ners and customs fifteen or twenty years ago, very well knows that 

 though our people were never positively intemperate, yet ardent 

 spirits were, at that time, in almost as constant daily use, both in 

 public and private life, as tea and coffee are now ; while at the pres- 

 ent moment, they are seldom or never offered as a means of civility 

 or refreshment at least in the older States. The result of this 

 higher civilization or temperance, as one may please to call it, is that 

 a large amount of vice and crime have disappeared from amidst the 

 laboring classes, while the physical as well as moral condition of 

 those who labor too little to be able to bear intoxicating drinks, is 

 very much improved. 



We have taken this consolatory glance at this great and saluta- 

 ry reform of the habits of a whole country, because we need some- 

 thing to fortify our faith in the possibility of new reforms ; for our 

 countrymen have, within the last ten years, discovered a new poison, 

 which is used wholesale, both in public and private, all over the 

 country, till the national health and constitution are absolutely im- 

 paired by it. 



" A national poison ? Do you mean slavery, socialism, abolition, 

 mormonism ? " Nothing of the sort. " Then, perhaps, tobacco, 

 patent medicines, or coffee ? " Worse than these. It is a foe more 



