HV 5090 
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 Copy 1 
 
y 
 
 RESURRECTION 
 
 -^ OF 
 
 THE BLUE-LAWS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 MAINE REFORM IN TEMPERATE DOSES. 
 
 BEING A DISCUSSION OF THE PRINCIPLES, MORAL, POLITICAL, 
 
 AND CONSTITUTIONAL, INVOLVED IN THE PROVISIONS OF 
 
 THE LIQUOR BILL, BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 LEGISLATURE DURING THE SESSION OF 1852. 
 
 BY A PRIMITIVE WASHINGTONIAN. 
 
 Tell 
 
 "Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, 
 Have burst their cerements ! Why the sepulchre, 
 Wherein we saw thee quietly iuurned, 
 Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws 
 To cast thee up again ! What may this meau, 
 That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, 
 Pcvisit'>t thus the glimpses of the moon, 
 Making night hideous?" — Shakspeare. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CHADWICK, 
 
 1852. 
 
AVV- 
 
 „T1 
 
" RESIST WITH CARE THE SPIRIT OF INNOVATION UPON THE PRINCIPLES OF 
 YOUR GOVERNMENT, HOWEVER SPECIOUS THE PRETEXT." 
 
 Washington's Farewell Address. 
 
 THE MAINE LIQUOK LAW. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Assumption of Arbitrary Power as an Instrument of Reform. 
 
 The advent of this child of fanaticism in Massachusetts, and 
 several other States, is another striking evidence that political wis- 
 dom is not easily taught from history or coeval example, but still 
 is, and forever must be, the result of experience. Notwithstanding 
 the vital sacrifices which have attended its growth, and the fiery bap- 
 tism which must await its adoption every where, this Upas of the 
 back-woods seeks to plant itself here upon the very grave of defunct 
 Puritanism, that the ashes of bigotry may nourish and sustain it. 
 The enormity of this example is more to be deplored, as it comes from 
 a quarter whence we might have anticipated enlightened and practi- 
 cal legislation, We did not expect a stab at our liberties from Brutus, 
 and our sister State has already placed us under many obligations, 
 which this evil example may operate in some measure to cancel. We 
 confess, with lively gratitude, to her numerous favors. To her people 
 and productions, Massachusetts owes much of its prosperity and domes- 
 tic happiness. Among the most enterprising and intelligent of our cit- 
 izens may be found her sons, and among the most beautiful and ac- 
 complished of our females, her daughters. She is a mine of native 
 beauty and intelligence, and her gems are scattered — " shining with 
 conspicuous light " — not only along the shores of Massachusetts Bay, 
 but far and wide throughout the sunny South and the far West, con- 
 stituting a fraternal tie, more potent than our Federal Union, and 
 uniting her in bonds indissoluble with every member of the confed- 
 eracy. But ambition as a law-giver can never add to her laurels, 
 nor increase our obligations, and we can only hope that she will 
 hasten to retrace the false step, which has fastened the imputation 
 of anti-republican legislation upon her character, and thus make 
 the only honorable reparation to herself and sister States. 
 
In common with many others, who believed that a Massachusetts 
 Legislature, elected under whatever party auspices, could not fail 
 to possess the candor and independence to decide upon the merits 
 of any measure of public policy which might be submitted to them, 
 irrespective of party or personal considerations, we have been pained 
 to observe the persistence which has been generally manifested, in 
 blending this question with party issues and destinies, in which the 
 interest of some of our legislators is evidently too deep to be less 
 than personal. But since the debates upon the bill have had refer- 
 ence, in a great measure, to objects foreign to those contemplated 
 by the petitioners for the law, the necessity of full and general in- 
 formation in regard to a measure so important in all its bearings 
 upon the rights and interests of society, renders it the duty of the 
 press to diffuse all possible light upon the subject, so that, if our 
 representatives have not the moral courage to meet the question 
 boldly and unconditionally, on the merits of this law, as a fit and 
 practicable remedy for the evils of intemperance, their constituency 
 may at least be able, when the functions and responsibility of legis- 
 lation shall be imposed on them, to decide it intelligently for them- 
 selves, — and whether they will surrender, even to the demands 
 of misguided philanthropy, those social rights which alone distin- 
 tinguish them as intelligent freemen from the serfs and vassals of 
 despotism. And if, in what may follow, an humble individual, who 
 has fought in the ranks of the Washingtonian army, may now ap- 
 pear arrayed on the side of the opponents of the Maine liquor law, 
 it is hoped his position may not be misapprehended, inasmuch as it 
 is not because he loves the cause of temperance and sobriety less, 
 but that he loves the cause of civil liberty more, and will not con- 
 sent to open a door to legislation, whereby that liberty may be in- 
 definitely abridged, or perhaps ultimately subverted. 
 
 " Can the provisions of the Maine liquor law be enforced in Mas- 
 sachusetts ? " was the first question asked in our Legislature, upon 
 the reception of the " mammoth petition," and its consideration has 
 engrossed a large share of the discussion upon the bill, since it was 
 reported in the Senate. This question implies at least a doubt or 
 misgiving in regard to the popularity of the measure, which, if well 
 grounded, must be .a fatal objection to its enactment. But the ques- 
 tion cannot be regarded as material to the argument, since a law 
 which may be enforced is not necessarily a popular or efficientione. 
 It is the province of true legislative policy to ascertain, not 
 merely whether public sentiment will sustain a proposed law, but, 
 first of all, whether the public interests demand it, and further to 
 understand that these interests can never be advanced by partial 
 legislation, or by the sacrifice of individual rights, however small, 
 to subserve moral ends, however great. It is not enough to be satis- 
 fied thatthe sentiment of a community will endure the operation of 
 a law, without complaint or revolution"; nor is the ascertained fact 
 of a popular majority in favor of any moral principle, a conclusive 
 
evidence of its popularity as a law. A popular and efficient statute, 
 (especially in criminal jurisprudence,) must harmonize with the 
 great aggregate of the intelligent public mind, and must do no vio- 
 lence to the private rights or moral principles of any respectable 
 portion of the community. 
 
 What though it were already demonstrated, that a majority of the 
 people are in favor of the provisions of this bill as first reported, 
 unpruned of the least of its enormities — would this fact, abstractly 
 considered, be sufficient reason for its enactment ? If so, why have 
 we constitutions for the limitation of law, and the protection of 
 individual rights ? Our Legislature is not invested with the law- 
 making prerogative merely to consult the will of the majority ; they 
 have higher purposes to subserve, in attaining the ends of justice 
 and equal rights, in protecting the interests of the weak as well as 
 of the strong, and in guarding the rights of the minority from pop- 
 ular innovation. The minority, however meagre, have rights which 
 may not be wrested from them ; the majority are neither absolute 
 in power, nor infallible in judgment. Tyranny is equally odious 
 and unjust, whether exercised by the imperial despot, or the popu- 
 lar majority. The principle which lies at the foundation of this 
 bill — the absolute right of government to control the appetites, 
 opinions and occupations of the free citizen, is the same in essence, 
 and exercised for the same general purposes, as that against which 
 the popular masses of Europe have long struggled in vain, and 
 against which the American people, in the last century, struggled 
 successfully — the principle of absolute power, exercised for the 
 attainment of an assumed necessary object. Say the despots of the 
 Old World, " We cannot govern our subjects as the best interests of 
 the nations require, unless we govern absolutely, and without refer- 
 ence to popular rights." So say the fanatics who would thrust this 
 sumptuary law upon us, — " We cannot subdue intemperance as 
 effectually as the public interests require, unless we exercise the 
 absolute power of prohibition, without reference to incidental pro- 
 scription, or the necessary infraction of individual rights." The 
 people of Europe, as far back as the record of history extends, have 
 struggled against absolutism, for limitations of monarchy, and 
 for chartered rights. How humiliating the spectacle — how little it 
 speaks of human progress — that, in the maturity of the nineteenth 
 century, the people pf New England are called to resist so bold an 
 innovation of the same principle, upon our constitutional rights ! 
 
 The friends of this bill, not content with the slow and laborious 
 process of moral suasion, for the suppression of intemperance, have 
 determined upon a summary experiment for reaching the evil, and 
 are apparently regardless of consequences, so long as their ends are 
 even partially attained ; however dear the victory, it must be achiev- 
 ed at any price — even if, in the strife, our civil liberties are tram- 
 pled in the dust. What though the use of ardent spirits is a custom 
 time-honored, interwoven with all our social relations, and sanction- 
 
ed by the honest convictions of a large and respectable portion of the 
 community — though their manufacture and sale are closely blended 
 with other industrial interests which, if this fall, must fall with it — 
 though private property must be confiscated and destroyed without 
 remuneration — though homes are outraged, places of business haunt- 
 ed by legal spies, neighbors set at enmity, intemperate passions stir- 
 red up, hostility and contempt for the laws engendered, and social 
 strife and civil discord reign — though virtue bleed with vice, and 
 friend fall with foe, still the blow must be struck. " We will root 
 out the tares," say they, " and if the wheat is torn up with it, why, 
 that is but an effect incidental to necessary reform, and the end 
 must justify the means ! " They start in this career of legislation 
 upon the well-grounded presumption, that the evil lies too deep in 
 the constitution of society to be eradicated by compulsive remedies 
 which are not harsh and indiscriminating ; strictly prohibitory laws 
 will not reach it, unless framed and enforced in a spirit of tyr- 
 anny which must infringe the plainest principles of civil liberty. 
 Hence, to effect something in the way of reform, they aim in this 
 bill to be tyrannical. As one of its most zealous advocates in the 
 Senate has significantly urged in debate, the law must be tyrannical 
 to effect its object ; and he deprecates any amendment which shall 
 divest the bill of this potent characteristic, as impairing its efficiency. 
 He undoubtedly thinks, the more of this tyrannical spirit is infused 
 into it, the better it will operate, — and we would respectfully sug- 
 gest for his consideration, whether an amendment, substituting capi- 
 tal punishment for the breach of its provisions, would not be an 
 important improvement upon his plan of legislation. 
 
 But we have yet to learn that arbitrary laws, whether emanating 
 from a monarch or a popular majority, may ever prove an efficient 
 instrument of moral reform. Unrestrained volition listens to the 
 voice of conscience and reason, but shrinks from compulsion, and 
 snatches the forbidden fruit. Unsuspected integrity seeks no oppor- 
 tunity to do wrong, but under a surveillance which attaches suspicion, 
 it hastens to verify the implication of guilt. Sumptuary laws have 
 been repeatedly prescribed in England and other foreign countries 
 for the same specific purpose, and as often repealed, after a disastrous 
 experience, which has proved them worse than useless — an experi- 
 ence by which we may profit, unless we choose, at a price greater 
 than the evil of intemperance, to purchase it for ourselves. Even 
 the history of legislation in our own country and State furnishes 
 illustrations of the fact, that, even when exercised within constitu- 
 tional limits, the popular will (so often mutable and impulsive,) is 
 no unerring guide for legislation, and that the majority may be 
 unjust, even to themselves, and may sacrifice their own cause, how- 
 ever meritorious, by indiscreet efforts to compel their fellow-citizens, 
 who sincerely differ from them in matters of conscience, to come up 
 to the standard of their convictions. Such a majority, which abuses 
 its privileges, are soon supplanted in their prescriptive career ; but 
 
they fall not alone — their cause falls with them, and it falls lower 
 than the level at which unaided puhlic sentiment sustained it. The 
 odium of such legislation reacts with tenfold energy upon the oppos- 
 ing principles of vice and virtue, and while virtue is degraded and 
 despised for the errors of her misguided champions, proscrihed vice, 
 like a canonized martyr, is exalted to the heavens, and reigns and 
 rules triumphant over the passions of the people. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Prostitution of the Total Abstinence Cause to the Subserviency of Party 
 Purposes. 
 
 Again, the humiliating attitude in which the friends of total ab- 
 stinence are placed, by bringing their cause within the sphere of le- 
 gislation, would seem to be a sufficient argument against the expe- 
 diency (not to say the propriety) of mingling questions so purely 
 moral and delicate in their nature as that of total abstinence, with 
 the issues, plots and counter plots, which constitute the machi- 
 nery of partisan tactics. Legislators, with few exceptions, are po- 
 litical aspirants, acting not merely with reference to the permanent 
 welfare of society and the State, but especially the approbation of a 
 constituency upon whose favor is based their hopes of future ad- 
 vancement. Political ambition, with its canvas spread to catch the 
 changing breeze of popularity, is at best a perilous craft to bear the 
 interests of moral reform, and the folly which would confide them 
 to such guardianship hardly deserves a better fate than the ship- 
 wreck which is but too sure to await it. It is not the province of 
 the statesman or law-giver to guard the morals or chasten the appe- 
 tites of the people — these delicate offices are confided to other and 
 peculiar hands — his study is political economy, and the conserva- 
 tion of those civil rights which the indiscreet philanthropy of the 
 advocates of this law seek to infringe and violate. No matter how 
 sublime the principles, or how divine the objects of a moral ques- 
 tion, if brought into the political arena, (as every question must be 
 when submitted to the legislative function) it is at once bereft of 
 its lofty attributes, and the height and grandeur of its moral aspect 
 is but the measure of its political degradation. 
 
 Thus the total abstinence reform, seeking compulsive aid at the 
 hand of our Legislature, becomes (alas ! for the dignity and purity 
 of its objects) reduced to the level of a political element — it is new 
 stock for the manufacture of political capital — a new instrument to 
 subserve party purposes. No member will give a vote or say a word in 
 its favor, to the prejudice of his party or his personal popularity. 
 
Party tests are at once applied to it — it is weighed, measured and 
 gauged, not according to its moral, out its political advantages, and 
 Senators ask, not what will be its effect upon the public welfare, in- 
 dependently of us ? but, how will it affect our constituency towards 
 us ? And thus, chained to the car of demagogueism, it is apparently 
 doomed, either to perish at once in its degrading predicament, or to 
 perform for a season the miserable drudgery of party service. 
 Those who have heard or read the recent debates in the Massachu- 
 setts Senate upon this bill, will not fail to appreciate the truth of 
 these observations, and the votes given upon the main question, in 
 the Senate, (with a few most honorable exceptions), show conclu- 
 sively the rigid adherence to party interests which governs the ac- 
 tion of our Legislature upon this bill. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Bangers of Irresponsible Legislation. 
 
 As an illustration of this subserviency to party purposes and per- 
 sonal popularity, I need only refer to the amendment which has 
 been adopted in the Senate providing for a suspension of the law, 
 by a popular vote, which is in effect merely shifting the responsi- 
 bility of its adoption from the legislature to the people, and must 
 have the effect of securing more votes for the bill than its unaided 
 merits would otherwise command. Whether it is constitutional or 
 not, whether sanctioned by precedent or not, the amendment is at 
 best a cunning but cowardly device to evade legislative responsibil- 
 ity, and establishes a precedent which is liable to the gravest ob- 
 jections. By enacting it with this proviso, should the law meet with 
 popular favor, our legislators will appropriate to themselves the 
 meed of popular approbation, but otherwise they will avoid the 
 odium which would attach to its unconditional passage ; and if 
 ever, hereafter, its reminiscences shall arise, like Banquo's ghost, 
 to haunt their troubled spirits, they will exclaim, in faltering accents, 
 "Thou canst not say J did it! Never shake thy gory locks at 
 me ! " 
 
 But wherein consists the propriety of referring this question to 
 the people ? It is not the province of the people to legislate ; 
 they have delegated this power to their representatives, who have 
 superior facilities for understanding their interests, and in whose 
 judicious action and public spirit they generously confide. Every 
 year they enjoy the opportunity of reviewing the acts of their pub- 
 lic servants. Why, then, if the principle of" enforcing total abstin- 
 ence be a fair and legitimate subject of legislation, and such legal 
 
compulsion is deemed requisite to the public welfare — why provide 
 for this extraordinary precaution of submitting the question to the 
 people ? Or, if the element of popularity is the only thing to be con- 
 sidered in framing laws for the government of our Commonwealth, 
 why not refer every bill, without regard to its abstract merits, to 
 the same tribunal ? As one of the people, we earnestly protest 
 against this irresponsible mode of legislation, both in general and in 
 particular. Its general effect must be to convert our Legislature 
 into a school of fawning sycophants, studying, not the public interest, 
 but solely the art of pleasing their constituents, who, in their turn, 
 would be justly led to distrust both the intelligence and patriotism 
 of their representatives. Its particular effect in this case must be, 
 to impose upon the community an infamous and impracticable 
 statute, without due consideration of its merits or consequences. 
 The very anxiety of our legislators to shuffle off the responsibility 
 of enacting this bill, plainly implies their doubt as to its being a 
 subject within the ordinary scope of legislation. Indeed, one Sena- 
 tor, the other day/ (in the simplicity of his mind, but the corruption 
 of his heart,) while declaring his firm conviction that the bill was 
 unconstitutional, at the same time avowed his willingness to vote 
 for it, provided it should be referred to the people for ratifica- 
 tion — in other words, he was willing to sacrifice the most sabred 
 rights of the minority, by imposing on them an unconstitutional 
 law, provided he might thereby please and gain the approbation of 
 the majority. By adopting this amendment, a full investigation 
 of the subject, in its manifold bearings upon our social economy, 
 either by the Legislature or the people, is at once precluded, and we 
 shall perceive, perhaps too late, that the question has been decided 
 irrespective of its merits. Many of our honest representatives, 
 (not to mention those who are ready to sacrifice their better judg- 
 ment at the shrine of popularity,) will thus heedlessly be led to 
 support the bill — who would otherwise oppose it, upon mature in- 
 vestigation — presuming the people will investigate the subject for 
 themselves ; while the people, confiding in the fidelity of their rep- 
 resentatives, and presuming the subject has received all due con- 
 sideration in the Legislature, will be led to sanction the law, regard- 
 less of its ultra and revolutionary character. And thus, between 
 a misplaced confidence on the one side, and an unmanly evasion of re- 
 sponsibility on the other, the people are in jeopardy of being over- 
 ridden by a legal monster, paralelled only by the Eoman Inquisi- 
 tion, by which their dearest civil rights are to be violated, the 
 sanctity of home invaded, +he pleasures and courtesies of social 
 intercourse abridged, the citizen persecuted for opinion's sake, and 
 hunted to his very fireside for evidences of his heresy, as were the 
 Scottish Covenanters to their caves, for their blood and their Bibles. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Constitutional Objections to the Liquor Bill. 
 
 The principle of equal rights is distinctly recognized, and care- 
 fully guarded, in the provisions both of our State and Federal Con- 
 stitutions. It is not in accordance with the spirit of our institutions 
 to legislate solely with reference to the good of a particular class, 
 or to withhold privileges from one, which are, without preeminence 
 of claim, extended to another. Special or class legislation, not only 
 renders government odious and burdensome, but defeats the end for 
 which it was instituted. The right to use and traffic in alcoholic 
 liquors, whether it be a privilege or otherwise, should not be made 
 an exclusive one, and, if the Legislature of a State does not possess 
 the constitutional power to restrict this right in all cases, and 
 among all classes, it has no right to restrict it in those particular 
 cases which fall within its jurisdiction. Although this bill pretends 
 to regard all the express provisions of the Federal laws, it conflicts 
 wholly with their spirit ; and, by stooping to the most pitiful eva- 
 sion, it proscribes a portion of the community, who are within the 
 reach of its arbitrary power, while the remainder are suffered to 
 escape under the protection of a higher law. It assumes to do what 
 it is impotent to do, but in particular cases, which form no excep- 
 tion to the general principle, in regard to the expediency or right of 
 prohibition. 
 
 The Federal laws authorize the importation and sale of ardent 
 spirits and wines, in certain quantities ; but, under all other cir- 
 cumstances, this bill assumes the power of unconditional prohibition. 
 Hence, imported liquors, in the original packages, may be bought 
 and sold under its operation, while those of domestic production, 
 even of the same quality and in the same quantity, can neither be 
 bought, sold, or held as property. Thus, the products of foreign 
 industry are poured into our market without restraint, while the 
 like products of home industry are proscribed as contraband arti- 
 cles, and are liable to be confiscated and destroyed, without remu- 
 neration to the owner, wherever they may be detected. " But," say 
 the friends of this measure, " we have prohibited the retail of these 
 imported spirits, by the pint or the glass." And this is the great 
 objection to the passage of this bill — while it prohibits the sale of 
 spirits in small quantities, it cannot prevent the sale of casks and 
 packages, nor of wine imported in bottles, and is thus obnoxious to all 
 the objections urged against the " Fifteen Gallon Law." It operates 
 to the exclusion of the mass of the people from the privilege of traf- 
 ficking in, and the luxury of using, such liquors, while those who 
 can afford to import them, or purchase in specific quantities, may 
 traffic or consume at pleasure. 
 
It not only makes this odious and senseless distinction between 
 imported and domestic spirits, and is thus partial and unjust in its 
 operation, but it permits even the seizure and destruction of the 
 imported article, unless the holder shall prove (and by evidence other 
 than the Custom House marks upon the casks or packages) the facts 
 of its importation, and of its being contained in the original parcels. 
 If he cannot do this, his property, that which the General Govern- 
 ment has taxed and guarantied as property, is "wrested from him and 
 destroyed without remedy. (Private property cannot now be taken 
 for public uses without full compensation, but, under this sumptuary 
 law, such property may be taken for no use, and without recom- 
 pense.) Upon the same principle, the government may, without 
 proof on its part, dispute the title to all sorts of private property, 
 and compel the holders to account for their rightful possession, other- 
 wise it shall be forcibly taken from them. Are the people of Mas- 
 sachusetts, or any other State, prepared for such interference with 
 the rights of property ? 
 
 Again, the bill expressly reserves the right to manufacture for 
 export, in quantities not less than thirty gallons, (which is particu- 
 larly gracious, since, under the Constitution, Congress possesses the 
 sole power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and between 
 the States, leaving the latter no authority whatever to interfere 
 with exports,) so that, though our distillers cannot manufacture for 
 home consumption, they may manufacture any quantity to send 
 abroad ; we may reciprocally supply other States, while other States 
 supply us ; we must not make drunkards within this Commonwealth, 
 but we may make as many as possible among our fellow-citizens of 
 neighboring States, and in foreign countries ; we may use alcohol 
 for sacramental purposes at home, and missionary purposes abroad, 
 and if the heathen will consume all we manufacture, we shall suffer 
 nothing from abolishing the home market. 
 
 Further, this bill makes the act of selling ardent spirits a crime, 
 but attaches no criminality whatever to the act of drinking, and is, 
 in this view, grossly partial and unjust. It makes an invidious dis- 
 tinction in favor of the consumer, who is not only particeps criminis, 
 but in reality princeps criminis, since he presents the strongest temp- 
 tation to violate the law — the temptation of money. Now, the sale 
 of alcohol can only be deemed a crime, on the ground that the use 
 causes evil ; but if the use, which is the direct cause of evil, is not 
 a crime, as the law presumes, then the sale can by no fair construc- 
 tion be made a crime, and our Legislature has no right to punish it 
 as such, unless it also punishes the use. It has no more right to 
 organize a corps of spies and informers, to watch over the citizen's 
 place of business, to see if he does not sell ardent spirits, than it 
 has to set a guard over him at his meals, to see if he does not drink. 
 " But," say the supporters of the law, " we need not make drinking 
 a crime, for if we suppress the traffic, there will be none to drink.'' 
 We answer, neither if you suppress drinking, will there be any for 
 2 
 
10 
 
 sale. We repeat, therefore, that the law in this respect is invidious 
 and unjust. 
 
 Further, it allows searches and arrests to be made, in shops and 
 tents, on suspicion of intent to sell ardent spirits, Avhich is a presump- 
 tion of crime neither sustained by reason nor common law. It 
 allows officers to seize and hold property in custody, pending decis- 
 ions under it, without giving bonds for its security ; and if they 
 choose to destroy the external proofs of its being bona fide property 
 under the Federal laws, or even to destroy the property itself, the 
 owner has no legal remedy. As it cancels all debts predicated upon 
 the illegal sale of spirits, it hence annuls all contracts and inter- 
 change of commodities involving such sale, and thus interferes with 
 the titles to all kinds of property, except real estate. While the sec- 
 ond section of the law pretends to guaranty the right of export, in 
 another section it makes the act of delivery on board any vessel or 
 steamboat a proof of illicit sale, and the basis of prosecution — being 
 hence inconsistent in itself, and in direct conflict with the supreme laws 
 regulating commerce with foreign nations and between the States. 
 
 The bill, as reported, requires excessive bonds, in cases of appeal 
 from the primary decisions under it, before a Justice of the Peace, 
 (not allowing even the alternative of commitment,) so as effectually 
 to preclude the trial by jury, whenever the defendant is too poor or 
 friendless to produce the required bail in twenty-four hours. It also 
 disfranchises the citizen, by disqualifying him to serve as a juryman 
 in cases arising under it, if, upon being interrogated as to his being 
 himself a violator of the law, he shall admit the fact, or refuse to 
 answer — a stretch of extra-judicial authority unheard of, and unpar- 
 alelled in enormity, and which, if engrafted in principle in our judic- 
 ial system, would, in all criminal cases, require the arraignment of 
 the jury as violators of the law, before they would be qualified to try 
 the criminal ! Though the first of these provisions of the bill has 
 been essentially modified in the Senate, and the latter stricken out, 
 it is quite probable that the champions of the Maine law in the 
 House, who hold, with its champions in the Senate, that the more 
 arbitrary and tyrannical the law can be made, the more efficient 
 it will prove as a moral reform agent, will insist upon their restora- 
 tion. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Principle of Compulsive Total Abstinence. 
 
 We contend that the Maine liquor law is based upon a wrong 
 principle, and violates the fundamental rights of the citizen, inas- 
 much as it proscribes a custom which is neither conceded, nor can be 
 
11 
 
 demonstrated, to be founded in error. It totally prohibits the man- 
 ufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, and is there- 
 fore based on the presumption that such drinks do not in any 
 measure admit of harmless indulgence — that they are wholly 
 pernicious, and should therefore be wholly prohibited. [And, even 
 admitting the presumption to be correct, if it is conceded, as a 
 sound principle of legislation, that the government may totally 
 prohibit any article or custom, on the ground of its injury to 
 public health and morals, then it becomes equally its duty to pro- 
 hibit every pernicious article or indulgence, whether affecting the 
 welfare of the body or mind, and whether pertaining to food, drink 
 and raiment, or literature and religious faith — the following out of 
 which principle must have the effect to prescribe legal rules for all 
 the minutise of taste and fashion.] 
 
 But this presumption is far from being tenable by any process of 
 demonstration ; and, as there are conflicting opinions in regard to 
 it, we appeal to reason, if this proscriptive legislation is not, contrary 
 to the spirit of our institutions, taking every man's conscience into 
 the keeping of the State. If there are but six individuals in the 
 Commonwealth who can consume ardent spirits moderately, without 
 physical or moral injury, (the contrary not being demonstrable) the 
 government have certainly no right to prevent them from thus 
 using it, or supplying it to each other, whatever may be its effect 
 upon the rest of the community. No matter how small the minority 
 whose rights are violated ; in infringing the rights of one, the rights 
 of the whole people are sacrificed. Not even a solitary member of 
 society, however insignificant, without actual crime, or criminal 
 intent, can be shorn of his civil rights, in mitigation of any social 
 evil, nor immolated as an offering upon the altar of the public weal. 
 We do not deny that total abstinence is a virtue — that it is com- 
 mendable, magnanimous, and patriotic, even in those who hold 
 the mastery of their appetites. We glory in the success of the 
 total abstinence cause, as its moral triumphs have been achieved 
 by the Washingtonian advocates, and believe it a noble end when 
 thus attained by noble means. But, in enforcing it by law, we not 
 only fail to produce any genuine reform in society, but violate the 
 plainest principles of civil liberty, guarantied by our constitutions — 
 the right, in eating or drinking, to consult our own tastes and indi- 
 vidual welfare ; the right, in morals, of being guided by our own 
 consciences ; and the right to hold and transfer that which the Fed- 
 eral laws recognize not only as property, but as merchandize. 
 
 But let us inquire whether this presumption, embraced in the pro- 
 posed law, that all alcoholic drinks are wholly pernicious, is ground- 
 ed upon fact or imagination. True, it has been a matter of much 
 scientific speculation among physiologists, who generally agree that 
 pure alcohol, when taken into the stomach, is not assimilated from 
 the circulating fluids, and contributes nothing to the nourishment of 
 the system ; but this is equally true of many alimentive condi- 
 
12 
 
 ments which are not actually pernicious, hut often "beneficial in their 
 action, as correctives of the various hodily functions. But, throwing 
 aside scientific abstractions and fine-spun theories, let us appeal to 
 the test of experience and ocular demonstration for a solution of 
 the problem. Shall we, for proof of this presumption, look to the 
 sturdy New England farmer, who, perhaps, for half a century, has 
 quaffed his mug of hard " old Orchard" at every daily meal ? Does 
 he, in body or mind, illustrate the baneful effects of alcohol ? Shall 
 we observe the brawny Englishman, who tosses off his draught of 
 "brown stout" at almost every mouthful of roast beef? Shall we 
 appeal to the portly Bavarian, who philosophises alternately over his 
 meerschaum and sparkling ale ? or, shall we visit the happy peasant 
 on the vine-clad hills of France and Spain, and the luxuriant fields 
 of Champagne and Burgundy, where, 
 
 " Annual for him the grape, the rose renew 
 The juice nectarian, and the fragrant dew 1 " 
 
 What argument, from the banks of our own Connecticut to the 
 classic banks of the Bhine, do we derive in favor of the presump- 
 tion involved in this bill ? Is it not wholly presumption, and of 
 the most unwarrantable description ? It was a saying of the an- 
 cient Greeks, — " -EV diva eanv aA^eta," — in wine there is truth, — 
 and, although this saying does not always hold good, in our 
 time and country, while we have a pernicious substitute of rum and 
 logwood imposed on us, yet, under a well regulated, and, if you 
 will, severe system of licenses, these spurious and poisonous liquors, 
 which in reality produce almost the sum total of the evils of intem- 
 perance, may be entirely driven from the market, and the truth of 
 the ancient proverb become once more verified. Indeed, we find but 
 few cases of drunkenness which have originated from the moder- 
 ate use of simple, unadulterated distilled spirits. If, then, this 
 presumption is unfounded, what must be the effect of such a sump- 
 tuary law ? It treads upon forbidden ground, and inculcates a 
 principle, which, if carried out, must surely overthrow both our 
 civil and religious liberties. Are the people of Massachusetts pre- 
 pared to follow out this principle of legislation in all its conse- 
 quences ? The question is but one of moral opinion, upon which 
 the community are honestly divided. All erroneous opinions in re- 
 gard to moral subjects are undoubtedly pernicious, but who shall 
 say which opinion, in regard to this question, is erroneous ? Shall 
 A, who thinks wine hurts him, pronounce B, who thinks wine does 
 him good, a heretic ? and, for this opinion's sake, shall A, being the 
 strongest party, not only thus denounce B, but, if he refuses to ab- 
 jure his opinions, despoil him of his rights, brand him as a criminal, 
 and cast him out from society ? His principles are thought to be 
 pernicious — so were thought to be the principles of the Protestants 
 
13 
 
 of the fifteenth century, in the days of the Reformation. We have 
 an instinctive dread of proscription, and our hearts thrill with hor- 
 ror as we look hack upon the hloody records of religious intoler- 
 ance and persecution. But now we would tread in the very foot- 
 steps of the Holy Mother Church, we use her own arguments to 
 sustain our cause, we arraign our fellow citizens for the selfsame 
 offence — they are guilty of heresy — they differ from us in an im- 
 portant doctrinal point — and we shall take hut few steps in this 
 path of higotry and intolerance, "before the same unhallowed zeal 
 which consumed our fathers, stretched our mothers upon the rack, 
 and crucified our Saviour, will again erect the stake and enkindle 
 the fires of persecution. Shall we not profit hy the example of the 
 Puritans, who, having escaped from religious persecution, "became, 
 in their turn, the vindictive persecutors of their weaker brethren? 
 Shall we, instead of illustrating their virtues, go hack to copy the 
 dark shades of their character, and revive in principle that infamous 
 code of blue-laws, which the progress of enlightened public senti- 
 ment has almost swept from our statute books, and the results of 
 which every true son of the Pilgrims would wish were expunged 
 from our historic page ? We may make martyrs to the cause of 
 total abstinence, by this bill, but never proselytes ; but if we do 
 thus make martyrs, depend upon it, we, in our turn, shall be sacri- 
 ficed, and the ruin of the temperance cause, with the blood of thou- 
 sands, who will hence go down to the drunkard's grave, will be 
 upon our heads. 
 
 " But," say the friends of this bill, "moderate draughts deprave the 
 appetite, and we shall never be able to subdue drunkenness until 
 this moderate drinking is prohibited." Admitting this to be true, 
 still there is no principle of law or justice which authorizes the 
 punishment or prohibition of an act which is not criminal in itself, 
 on the presumption that it leads to crime. Jealousy and envy may 
 lead to murder or suicide ; yet, neither he who indulges, nor he who 
 excites these passions, is obnoxious to the law, unless the overt act 
 of violence is committed. If the law is to suppress every tendency, 
 and punish every act and appetite which leads to drunkenness, it 
 must go back to take cognizance of first causes, and suppress, not 
 only the manufacture and moderate use of alcohol, but the vegeta- 
 ble products which spontaneously produce it, and punish the physi- 
 cal and moral instincts which are gratified by its excitement. Dis- 
 tilling must not only be abolished, but the laAvs of nature must be 
 arrested ; molasses and grain must not be allowed to ferment, or 
 they must also be prohibited. Moderate drinking depraves the ap- 
 petite, and leads to drunkenness — so does avarice deprave the 
 heart, and moderate gains lead to avarice, which has more victims, 
 and produces more misery, than alcohol. The miser starves in the 
 midst of his hoarded treasure, and the glutton dies of surfeit — are 
 not these, also, subjects of legislation ? The unbridled passions of 
 men engender strife, envy and hatred, which are demoralizing in 
 
14 
 
 their influence, and lead, to crime — shall we thence establish a 
 legal measure for our passions and affections ? 
 
 When the rich man died — "and in hell he lifted up his eyes, 
 being in torments " — he besought father Abraham, who was afar off, 
 (and between them there was a great gulf, so that he could not send 
 him a " mammoth petition,") to send, one from the dead, to warn 
 his five other brethren against the danger of falling into those in- 
 fernal flames ; but Abraham replied, that his brethren already had 
 the warnings of Moses and the prophets, to shun his miserable 
 doom, and if these were unheeded, still they would not believe 
 though one should arise from the dead. So we would have the 
 fathers of the Commonwealth reply to the petitioners for this law. 
 Those who are in danger of becoming drunkards have the benefit 
 of both precept and example ; they have illustration piled upon ar- 
 gument, to guard them from excess ; and, if moral suasion will 
 not prevent them from becoming sots, no laws which human inge- 
 nuity can frame can save them from perdition. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. . 
 
 The True Policy of Moral Reform. 
 
 Numa Pompilius, the second king of Kome, who, like Cincinnatus, 
 was called from retirement to exercise regal authority, and who prob- 
 ably effected more than any other of her rulers in diffusing civiliza- 
 tion and morality among the people of that barbaric age, held as a 
 favorite maxim, that popular vice could best be suppressed by 
 encouraging the cause of virtue ; and this principle he carried out, 
 with the happiest effects, in all his civil policy. Though really an 
 absolute monarch, he governed the turbulent Eomans, not as a 
 tyrant ; and, though a pagan, his devotion to what we style the 
 Christian virtues and graces would have done honor to any prince of 
 Christendom. His criminal code embraced only the gravest politi- 
 cal offences, while his laws for the encouragement of private and 
 social virtues were numerous, and based upon the moral and relig- 
 ious sentiments of the people. He deified truth and honesty, and 
 instituted the worship of the god Bona Fides, (or good faith,) and 
 such was the salutary effect of this institution, that the Eoman citi- 
 zen needed neither note nor bond to legalize his business obliga- 
 tions ; he could traffic without danger of fraud, and expose his 
 treasures without fear of plunder ; and, such was the popular regard 
 for truth, that, in cases of dispute or litigation, a mere ex parte 
 examination — the testimony of either party, was reliable data for 
 legal decisions. He first established territorial boundaries, which 
 
15 
 
 were solemnly dedicated to the gods Termini, and such was the sanc- 
 tity of a Eoman landmark, even if hut a stick or a stone, that the 
 displeasure of the gods was sufficient to deter the most reckless from 
 disturbing it. " Erect altars," said the heathen monarch, " to those 
 virtues which carry us up to heaven, and fear not the infernal gods." 
 His was a model government, worthy of modern imitation ; and who 
 shall say his was not the " golden age ? " It was eminently a relig- 
 ious age, and if, in ages after, the Eomans became a licentious and 
 intemperate people, it was because they lost that respect for virtue, 
 and that reverence for religion, which gave place to the modern 
 improvements in jurisprudence and theology ; which substituted the 
 scaffold, the gibbet and the dungeon, for promoting the ends of jus- 
 tice, and the Inquisition, with its paraphernalia of torture, for attain- 
 ing the aims of religion. 
 
 Why is it, that in the progress of time, the moral improvement 
 of society has not kept pace with the march of popular intelligence ? 
 Why is it, that, while the great mind of the world has apparently 
 arrived at such a degree of maturity, its morals still remain in lead- 
 ing-strings, and the ponderous volume of its criminal code is still 
 swelling with enactments for the repression or regulation of every 
 human sense, appetite and passion ? Shall it be said that the pro- 
 gress of civil liberty has multiplied penal laws ? Or is it because, that, 
 while the mind of man is expansive, his moral nature is irreclaima- 
 ble? The moral sentiment, as well as the mind, of every genera- 
 tion is the same, and, but for false principles in social economy, 
 public virtue would undoubtedly keep pace with public intelligence. 
 Human nature, abstractly, can never be modified by human laws ; 
 its- instincts are immutable ; and would modern lawgivers, like 
 Numa Pompilius, (instead of endeavoring to reform human nature) 
 be content to lead its current into true channels, and, instead of 
 seeking merely to repress its morbid tendencies, should give its nat- 
 ural functions full scope and healthy action, they would produce 
 moral results worthy of an enlightened age. 
 
 It is not our purpose to extenuate the evils of intemperance — 
 they are too great to be easily exaggerated. But we wish to inves- 
 tigate the radical cause of these evils, and to inquire if the total 
 prohibition of intoxicating drinks is the proper remedy for them. 
 Why do men drink alcoholic liquors to excess ? " To gratify a 
 depraved appetite," will be the ready answer — or, more properly, 
 from a temporary physical necessity for its stimulus. But this 
 physical necessity is itself tbe result of inebriation, and drunken- 
 ness, in its first stages, must be the result of wantonness, and is 
 therefore properly regarded as a moral delinquency. But why do 
 men drink moderately? From custom, prompted by those social 
 feelings which are enhanced by it. The custom, then, has its foun- 
 dation in those social qualities which are inherent in human nature, 
 in that instinctive conviviality, which is heightened and strengthen- 
 ed by alcohol, and which no laws, however penal, no discipline, how- 
 
16 
 
 ever severe, can eradicate from the human "breast. Its manifesta- 
 tions are coextensive with the human race. All nations have their 
 social stimulants — the Indian his council pipe, the Chinese his tea, 
 the Turk his opium ; and, to seek to repress the convivial tendency 
 of human nature in this channel, without opening to it other sources 
 of healthful excitement, would he hut a transition from one species 
 of intemperance to another, or perhaps to many others, equally 
 deplorable. It would be like lopping off the twigs of a pernicious 
 tree, while its roots remained vigorous and undisturbed ; or, like 
 Hercules demolishing the hydra heads, which sprang out more fierce 
 and terrible at every blow. 
 
 There are, moreover, other influences than those of appetite or 
 conviviality, (and more potent and extensive than the superficial 
 observer might suppose,) which lie at the foundations of intemper- 
 ance. The public eye does not fathom the depths of the drunkard's 
 heart, nor does the public ear take cognizance of his silent grief; 
 but trace him in his most delicate relations, look into the bosom of 
 his family, and, too often, you will find that the absence of that 
 kindly influence which alone renders home attractive, and hallows 
 its charmed circle, is the sad cause of his devious career. Such 
 causes, neither legislation, nor hardly philanthropy, can reach ; and 
 when you compel him to abstinence, what relief do you bring the 
 sufferer ? 
 
 An excellent illustration of this general principle is afforded in 
 the answer of an emigrant, who was recently brought before one of 
 our municipal courts, charged with gross inebriation. When asked if 
 he had any plea to offer in his defence, he declared that he was by 
 no means addicted to this habit, — that in the old tountry, without 
 incurring any expense, the common people could attend the races, 
 cock-fights, dances, &c, which afforded them all necessary excite- 
 ment ; " But, faith !" says the Hibernian, " here I can find nothing 
 to do to amuse meself, sure, but jist to git dhrunk ! " Alas ! for 
 ennui. European society, notwithstanding its defects and abuses, 
 may be credited for some peculiar advantages in the way of cheap 
 popular amusements, and this may account in some measure for its 
 comparative exemption from the evils of intemperance, even in 
 those districts where alcoholic drinks are the spontaneous and abun- 
 dant product of the soil. Could these features be engrafted in 
 American society, they would undoubtedly effect more in eradicat- 
 ing intemperance, than legislation upon the subject ever did, or ever 
 can do, to that great end. 
 
17 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Operation of the Liquor Law in Maine. 
 
 " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good " — is a maxim 
 as excellent in the mouth of a politician as that of an Apostle. 
 True, experiments upon the hody politic, trenching, as they are apt 
 to do, upon the fundamental principles of liberty and popular rights, 
 like quackery in the practice of medicine, are hazardous to its gen- 
 eral welfare, and often leave the patient with a worse distemper than 
 the malady they undertake to cure. This proposed legal compul- 
 sion to total abstinence, as a theory, has long been talked of; its 
 practicability has been discussed, though ably, yet not to a generally 
 satisfactory conclusion. The experiment has been viewed with 
 mingled anxiety and distrust. But, thanks to the sufferance of the 
 good people of Maine, the experiment has at length been tried ; the 
 power of legal suasion, in the operation of a strictly prohibitory law, 
 has been fairly tested. The advocates of this bill, instead of answer- 
 ing our objections to its glaring atrocities, point us to the State of 
 Maine, and exultingly exclaim, " Lo, the triumphant success, the 
 grand illustration of our scheme ! The thing works to a charm ; 
 behold and believe ! " But when we look for this modern miracle, 
 we perceive only an exhibition of political legerdemain ; instead of 
 ocular proofs of the efficacy of legal suasion, we find additional 
 and overwhelming evidence of its absurdity and unfitness as applied 
 to the cause of abstinence. 
 
 As a law-abiding people, the citizens of Maine have ever present- 
 ed a most happy example. Devoted to productive industry — indus- 
 try, always patient — and the quiet pursuits of rural life, the popu- 
 lar excitements, to which more densely-settled communities are 
 prone, have rarely disturbed the placid bosom of "down-east" soci- 
 ety. The people of that locality are proverbially amiable, and dis- 
 tinguished for the social quality in Yankee parlance termed clever- 
 ness; nothing less than an attempted excision of a large slice of 
 their State territory, by John Bull, has of late years aroused in 
 them a spirit of resistance. What, then, must have been the pro- 
 vocation which has caused that forcible resistance to the laws and 
 civil authorities, those specks of civil war and revolution, which we 
 have been pained to Avitness, in carrying out the provisions of the 
 Maine liquor law? They are provocations which cannot be duly 
 estimated in the distance ; they must come home to our own doors 
 and firesides, to be realized in all their bitterness and severity. 
 They consist in the violation of those private rights which the Amer- 
 ican people hold most sacred and dear — to establish which they have 
 braved dangers and death, and to preserve which they will always 
 3 
 
18 
 
 struggle against tyranny, whether in the shape of a foreign or domes- 
 tic foe. They consist, not only in an abridgment of constitutional 
 rights, in regard to the possession of property, the pursuit of indus- 
 try, the interchange of hospitality, and the gratification of taste and 
 social feeling, hut in the imposition of a system of public espionage, 
 as annoying to the observers as to the violators of law, and more 
 odious and oppressive to the citizen than any like system ever 
 invented by Austrian or Eussian despotism, for the detection and 
 punishment of treason. It renders the citizen, both in his business 
 transactions and his social intercourse, an object of foul suspicion ; 
 it places his private mansion in the light of a presumptive criminal 
 resort, and exposes even the sanctity of his domestic retirement, 
 upon the most trivial pretences, to the intrusion and vulgar scrutiny 
 of the minions of the law. 
 
 But where will these evils end ? Will a law, already failing of 
 peaceful observance, and never approximating to a fulfillment of its 
 ends, finally subdue opposition ? Will the people of Maine ulti- 
 mately yield up their rights and convictions, and, by tame submis- 
 sion, put an end to the strife which has thus far marked its sanguin- 
 ary operation ? When this strife shall terminate, it will not end in 
 the triumph of law, but in the triumph of public sentiment over 
 law. Ic must continue until the law either is expunged from the 
 statute-book, or stands there, like the vestiges of the defunct Puri- 
 tan code of blue-laws among our own criminal statutes, as a relic 
 of barbarism, a monument of the folly and bigotry of its projec- 
 tors. Failing, as it has, to secure the respect of the intelligent pub- 
 lic — violated, as it is, generally and with impunity, its demoralizing 
 influence must extend to all the relations and institutions of society, 
 and sap the very foundations of government. The reverence for 
 the laws, with which the public mind is imbued, must depreciate 
 with every breach of its provisions, and the most essential and 
 wholesome statutes must ultimately share in the popular contempt 
 for legislation which this has generated. 
 
 Had all the violations of law and order, which have occurred in 
 enforcing its observance, been caused by intemperance, what a fruit- 
 ful theme of criticism would have been afforded to the agitators 
 and fanatics who concocted the Maine liquor law ! What out- 
 pourings of indignation, what bursts of eloquence, would have com- 
 memorated the facts ! The day of doom might, perhaps, have heard 
 the last of it, but our generation never would. But, what though 
 these outrages were brought about by the operation of law, instead of 
 intemperance, are they less to be deplored, or less demoralizing in their 
 influence ? If the law produces strife, as well as intemperance, 
 what advantage has the law over the vice which it prohibits ? The 
 law is but substituting one evil for another, and is itself but one of 
 the worst and most aggravated forms of intemperance. 
 
 Let us now inquire how successfully this wondrous, labor-saving 
 machine of moral reform has performed its functions, in abolishing 
 
19 
 
 the sale and consumption of ardent spirits in the State of Maine. 
 The school of the drunkard, its advocates tell us, (and which, for 
 argument's sake, we will take for granted,) is not the low groggery, 
 where tipplers " most do congregate," hut the luxurious drawing- 
 room and the elegant sideboard, where the neophyte sips his social 
 glass for fashion's sake, or good fellowship. But while, by this law, 
 a few of the low groggeries have, perhaps, been swept out of exist- 
 ence, (or, not actually out of existence, but merely driven from the 
 face of day, into some subterranean rendezvous, where the spies of 
 this modern Inquisition cannot penetrate,) the high places and 
 strongholds of intemperance — the fashionable hotels and club- 
 rooms — "the school of the drunkard" — remain unscathed by its 
 besom of destruction, and the students and graduates of these flour- 
 ishing institutions are every day growing more numerous under the 
 operation of the law. What care they for spies and prohibitions? — 
 these are but intended to put down the groggeries — " Let the 
 galled jade wince — our withers are un wrung ! " 
 
 The public bars of the hotels in Maine are, indeed, abolished ; 
 but in their cellars is stored an abundance of the choicest liquors, 
 ostensibly for culinary purposes, and their Epicurean guests, some 
 of whom are remarkably fond of these agreeable condiments, are 
 allowed to season their dishes according to their own taste. The 
 writer has travelled extensively in the State of Maine, since the 
 adoption of the liquor law, and his own observation, corroborated 
 by the testimony of every eastern trader and traveller whom he has 
 consulted, attests to the fact that intoxicating liquors are as readi- 
 ly obtained, (except by suspected informers,) and as extensively con- 
 sumed, in all places where the article is usually procured, under 
 the present prohibitory system, as when the traffic was unrestricted. 
 The only perceptible difference in the order of things, is, that where 
 formerly the traffic was open and undisguised, it is now clandestine ; 
 that where there were then voluntary honest men, there are now 
 involuntary knaves and hypocrites ; that those who formerly ab- 
 stained from alcohol, now use it as a beverage, from sheer roguery, 
 and those who formerly drank but moderately, now drink to excess, 
 to show their contempt for the law. Every conceivable stratagem 
 which human ingenuity can devise has been put in requisition to 
 effect the sale of alcohol in defiance of the government. It is dealt 
 out as camphene, served up as coffee, done up as confectionery, put 
 up as medicine, perfumery and mineral water, and a hint has lately 
 been thrown out in regard to the invention of a little domestic 
 utensil, the cost of which is less than a dollar, by which, with a 
 simple lamp and alembic, and a quantity of any kind of fermented 
 liquid, any thirsty toper may distil alcohol enough in a few hours 
 to keep him drunk for a whole week. The druggists of Maine, 
 probably, more than any other class, have been instrumental in 
 evading the liquor law ; the past year has been a season of har- 
 vest to the knights of the mortar; drugs and medicines were never 
 
20 
 
 in such demand, and many poor valetudinarians have apparently- 
 subsisted on medicines alone. Their drugs, however, are generally 
 quite harmless, and when made into tinctures, of ominous colors 
 and occult names, are really " not had to take." A short time 
 since, sundry casks of "rice" were shipped from Boston to a respec- 
 table down-east firm, and arrived at their destination in safety ; but, 
 on landing them at the pier, the Argus eyes of a police officer dis- 
 covered a suspicious liquid oozing from one of them, and remarked 
 that the rice must be damaged, as it was very "wet." But a keen- 
 scented wag suggested that perhaps the cask contained rice-pudding, 
 cooked to order, and that this oozing liquid was the brandy-sauce 
 with which it was to be served up. Upon this suggestion, the 
 esurient official, who had not dined, eagerly opened the cask, and 
 found, to his disappointment, raw rice ; but, on fathoming the 
 mystery still deeper, he hit upon a concentric cask of genuine 
 " Kasteau Charruyer," imbedded in the grain, and, upon making a 
 similar experiment on the others, with a like result, they were all 
 taken in custody by the authorities, who left the disconsolate im- 
 porter merely his " pudding," without the "sauce." 
 
 An intelligent citizen of Maine was asked, while recently in 
 conversation respecting the operation of the liquor law, why the 
 venders and consumers, in that State, were not more urgent and 
 clamorous for the repeal of such an oppressive statute. He re- 
 plied, "Because they can sell all they please, and buy all they 
 want, in spite of the law." But there is reaction in Maine, in refer- 
 ence to this law, as the result of another popular election will de- 
 monstrate. The people have had* enough of the experiment, and 
 are beginning to writhe under the yoke of despotic sway. Petitions 
 are in circulation, and the press boldly contends for its repeal. 
 
 Notwithstanding these occasional seizures of spirits, the amount 
 thus confiscated is but as a drop of the bucket, compared with 
 that which passes securely to its destination, and is sold and con- 
 sumed in spite of the vigilance of the government. The people of 
 Maine, under this law, have become (and we say it with no feelings 
 of disrespect for them) literally a community of smugglers ; and 
 while, as we are assured by those who have the best means of informa- 
 tion, the actual consumption, as a beverage, has not at all diminished, 
 and, while the consumption for medicinal, mechanical and sacramen- 
 tal purposes, (whether legitimate or not we will not undertake to de- 
 cide,) has more than doubled — being, in the city of Portland alone, al- 
 ready estimated at $20,000 worth — the profits of the trade have been 
 increased in the same proportion as the difficulty and hazards in car- 
 rying it on. The demand in the Boston market from that quarter 
 has been materially increased since this law has been in operation, 
 and the same is probably true in regard to other domestic markets 
 frequented by eastern traders — while the importation of foreign 
 spirits, under the protection of the Federal government, has re- 
 ceived an unusual impulse. Hence, not to mention the serious 
 
21 
 
 evils incident to and. inseparable from the operation and enforcement 
 of the liquor law, it has, at the least calculation, cost the State 
 of Maine $100,000 more for ardent spirits, during the past year, 
 than in any previous year when the traffic was unrestricted. So 
 much for the glorious triumph of this ne plus ultra of fanaticism in 
 Maine ! 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Pauperism and Crime — Commercial and Industrial Interests — The 
 License System. 
 
 It has been asserted and reiterated by those who have more zeal 
 for total abstinence than they possess knowledge of the causes 
 which affect the social conditions of men, that the intemperate use 
 of alcohol is chargeable with nearly all the pauperism and crime 
 with which society is afflicted. So far from this being true, we 
 assert, (and have already shown in Chapter 6,) that the very con- 
 verse of this proposition is nearer the truth — that pauperism, 
 crime and misfortune, are strictly responsible for nearly all the ex- 
 cess in the use of stimulating drinks. The criminal who has lost 
 his self-respect, the victim of seduction who has lost her caste in 
 society, the poor man, who can afford no higher indulgence of his 
 social and convivial propensities than the bar-room affords, — all 
 resort to the bottle, because society affords them no other alterna- 
 tive; and when society prescribes sumptuary law to cure the 
 malady of intemperance, we would say to it — "Physician, heal 
 thyself!" First, endeavor by legislation to mitigate the condition 
 of the poor, the unfortunate and the erring, and then you have done 
 more to subdue intemperance than the framers of this law ever 
 thought of doing, and have actually obviated the necessity of all 
 legislation upon the subject, whether prohibitory or regulative. 
 But the statistical philanthropist tells us, that out of so many pau- 
 pers, in such a charitable institution, a large proportion were habit- 
 ually intemperate, and jumps at the conclusion that they were re- 
 duced to pauperism by this habit — whereas, the truth is, that, in 
 most cases, the habit is but the result of their condition, and they 
 were literally paupers before they became drunkards. What, then, 
 has caused the rapid increase of pauperism in our community 
 within the last half century ? We answer — immigration — the 
 influx of foreign, ready-made paupers — the victims not only of 
 oppression and poverty, but of disease and imbecility. The pris- 
 ons and almshouses of England and Ireland, periodically, when 
 crowded to excess, vomit forth their loathsome horde, which is 
 generously transported, at the government expense, to free-hearted, 
 open-handed America, as a precious boon for our public guardian- 
 
22 
 
 ship and our prison discipline. These are the foul materials which 
 glut our public institutions ; but still the sin of causing all this 
 human misery is laid at the door of intemperance, and its burden 
 of guilt most wrongfully laid upon the shoulders of our fellow- 
 citizens engaged in the manufacture and traffic in ardent spirits, 
 whose occupations have really nothing more to do with it, nor in- 
 deed half so much, as the ship-builders' who construct the vessels 
 which bear them to our shores. True, some of these immigrants, 
 (if they keep out of police custody long enough,) become drunkards 
 among us ; in default of employment, they loiter about the Broad 
 street groggeries, where a liquid, more vile and pernicious than the 
 " weird sisters" ever concocted, is dealt out by the cent's worth, and 
 produces not only drunkenness, but insanity. Under a system of 
 licenses which should prevent such abuse, by confining the sale of 
 spirits to respectable and responsible dealers, these infamous dens 
 would be entirely swept out of existence. 
 
 As to the causes of crime, however multifarious, pecuniary mo- 
 tives are well known to be the principal. 
 
 But, supposing we might, by the aid of penal statutes, entirely 
 suppress the manufacture of ardent spirits as a beverage in this 
 Commonwealth, how far would this step subserve the purposes to 
 be attained by such legislation ? In the first place, it could not. as 
 we have shown, prevent the traffic in imported spirits, as author- 
 ised by the Federal laws, and the importation would increase in 
 proportion to the demand created by the deficiency of home pro- 
 duction. What advantage do we gain by crushing the distilleries 
 in our own State, when, not only, the old world (now only a ten 
 days' passage distant from us) stands ready to supply us, but the 
 States on our south, west and north, with their distilleries in full 
 blast, have every facility to supply us with what we are forbidden 
 to supply ourselves ? Are the people of Massachusetts the gain- 
 ers by such a policy ? If our distillers are allowed to manufacture 
 spirits for mechanical and medicinal purposes only, they of course 
 cannot compete with those, in other States, who supply them as a 
 beverage also: while the business of the former is, to a great ex- 
 tent, curtailed and crippled by this law, the business of the latter 
 is vastly extended by it, in giving them the exclusive control of 
 our own market. The distilleries of the Middle States at present 
 manufacture an article (of damaged grain, and other partially de- 
 cayed vegetables, more proper for nourishing the growth of vegeta- 
 tion than for distilling) which is cheaper than any made in Boston, 
 and much viler than it is cheap. It is dealt out to immigrants in 
 Broad street, and to abandoned characters in Ann street, where its 
 damning qualities have obtained for it a well-known and signifi- 
 cant soubriquet; and this pernicious article must supply the place, 
 in our community, of that now distilled in Boston, from pure mo- 
 lasses, provided the provisions of this law are carried into effect. 
 
 But what must be the effect upon our trade, commerce and inter- 
 nal prosperity, of prohibiting the manufacture of spirits in Massa- 
 
23 
 
 chusetts? In the first place, the domestic trade which now comes 
 to ns — for alcohol to be used in the arts and in medicine, among 
 other things — will be diverted to New York, where it can obtain a 
 complete assortment ; our trade with the West Indies, whose ports 
 now afford an extensive market for many of our domestic manu- 
 factures and agricultural products, in return for their molasses, 
 (a large portion of which becomes sour on its way hither, and suit- 
 able only for distilling) must be essentially diminished, or carried 
 on through the medium of other domestic ports; our capital must 
 be diverted, as business forsakes us, into other channels, and seek 
 investment in other States; our industrial as well as commercial 
 interests must suffer ; real estate must depreciate in value, and the 
 wonted activity and thrift of our towns and cities must give place 
 to idleness and premature decay. So intimately is this branch of 
 productive industry (employing a capital of many millions in our 
 State) blended with the various interests of commerce, manufac- 
 tures and agriculture, that it cannot be (and why should it be?) 
 outlawed, without seriously affecting the prosperity of our whole 
 community. 
 
 But while we deny the right or expediency of unconditionally 
 prohibiting the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits, for any pur- 
 pose, we also admit the necessity of regulating the traffic in them 
 as an article of beverage, in such a manner as to prevent abuses in 
 its sale, as well as the equal necessity of providing against abuses 
 in its consumption. As the latter abuse is not only the most fre- 
 quent, but generally the most wanton, so it should be regarded by 
 the laws as the most criminal, and punished with greater severity. 
 If it is the right of individuals to drink alcoholic liquors, without 
 abuse, (as we have endeavored to show,) it is also the right of 
 others to sell them; but it is not the right of any individual to 
 injure himself or offend society by drunkenness. Hence, while 
 selling alcoholic beverages, is, under general circumstances, justifia- 
 ble, and, with proper restrictions, should be tolerated, inebriation is, 
 under all circumstances, a violation of the rights of society, and 
 should be dealt with accordingly. 
 
 In regulating the traffic in ardent spirits, there are several great 
 advantages to be attained, as well as difficulties to be avoided. 
 While we aim to confine the trade in responsible and conscientious 
 hands, and to throw around it such guaranties as will secure the 
 public health against the imposition of noxious drugs and spuria 
 ous mixtures, we must not create a monopoly, as this law does, by 
 taking away from the poor man what it has not the power to deny 
 to the rich. Licenses must be granted, not only with a view to 
 public security, but with due regard to equal rights. Their prin- 
 ciple should be general, like that of our Corporation Act, but strin- 
 gent in its requirements of integrity and responsible conduct. In 
 short, we need such a license law as shall require dealers to guar- 
 anty the quality of their sales, give bonds for the quiet and orderly 
 conduct of their business, be responsible for whatever inebriation 
 
24 
 
 may occur upon their premises : and, (as incidental abuses are 
 liable to any license system, however carefully guarded,) such 
 sums should be paid for licenses — to go into the county or town 
 treasuries, as a reserved fund, to be applied to this specific purpose — 
 as may be sufficient in the aggregate to relieve whatever pecuniary 
 distresses may be caused directly by intemperance. 
 
 Such a law, which should neither take away the prerogatives of 
 the citizen, nor uphold him in abusing them, must prove the only 
 effectual, as it is the only constitutional, code of legislation which 
 can be adopted for promoting the ends of total abstinence. It is 
 the mean between the two extremes of inaction and overaction; 
 if we seek to do less good than may be attained by this rational 
 medium, we do nothing ; but if we attempt to do more than this, 
 by adopting the ultra and intemperate provisions of the Maine 
 liquor law, we do worse than nothing — positive, unmitigated, 
 incalculable evil. 
 
I 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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