liquors as drink; while, in fact, drunkenness is only the last and the smallest of the evils resulting from the desolating cause, which is destroying the virtue, the happiness, and the lives of a vast portion of the human race. This cause is to be found in the habitual use of those liquors, without any reference to the fact of intoxication. The moderate drinker daily takes into his stomach a quantity of those liquors, when, from the warmth of the body, they undergo the process of distillation, and the subtle poison finds its way to the brain, where, by its consuming power, all the finer sensibilities of that most delicate organ are destroyed. While yet he is regarded as but a moderate drinker, all the desolations of mind and character, which result from the use of those liquors, stand out in bold relief; and when this destructive habit shall complete its work by an occasional fit of intoxication, it adds but little to the catalogue of evils which it had before inflicted upon him. So long as men supposed that no evil resulted from moderate drinking, relying upon the strength of their good resolutions to abstain from taking so much as to make themselves drunken, they continued to indulge in the destructive poison; and the fact that, when the moral and intellectual deterioration was effected, they crossed the line of demarcation which separates between the condition of the moderate drinker and that of the drunkard, was the very reason why the ruinous result of drinking, short of intoxication, was not understood. Men saw all around them the misery and the crime which are always seen among people who use fermented and spirituous liquors as drink, but they saw these evils principally in connexion with drunkenness, and they heard the public voice mistakenly charge them upon drunkenness, instead of charging the drunkenness itself, and all its attendant evils, to the destructive power of alcohol upon the mental and moral energies of man. Here was the grand mistake which lulled to a fatal ideal security the devotees of Bacchus, with all the host of cider, beer, and spirit drinkers, who vainly imagined that they might safely indulge in mo. deration, and yet stand firm on the temperate side of the line of demarcation. It is evident that no man would ever cross this line, unless his resolution, his moral perception, his self-respect, and the affections of his nature, were first greatly impaired; and yet it is an appalling fact, that one-third of the adult males in the United States do cross this line and die drunkards; and let it ever be remembered and often reiterated, that it is that use of fermented and spirituous liquors which is not accompanied with intoxication, that brings them up to and actually puts them over this dreadful line. This fact being now admitted, let it be proclaimed to the world in tones of thunder, that alcohol in any form, or in any quantity, when taken into the human stomach, is a corroding poison, and that its habitual use produces a diseased state of the system, which ultimately exhibits itself in an utter disregard of all the moral and social obligations of man, accompanied with the positive exhibition of all the vices and miseries which afflict our race. And let it also be remembered that these miseries and vices are no more chargeable to drunkenness than drunkenness is to them; they are all exhibited together, as the inevitable result of the position in which moderate drinking has placed its hapless victims. Moderate drinking has put them over that line of demarcation which separates between resolution and prostration-between virtue and vice-between soberness and drunkenness; and all the desolation, and all the ruin of the mortal frame and the deathless mind, are the natural result, not of drunkenness, but of the use of fermented and spirituous liquors as drink.

Behold, then, the thousands of polluted streams which, flowing from the brew-house, the cider or wine press, and the distillery, and by means of the license system, spreading through every city, town, and hamlet in the land,

are involving in mighty ruin the fairest hopes of heaven; and raising high the standard, let a line of demarcation be drawn between the friends of the temperance reformation and its opposers. On virtue's side will stand, encouraged with hope, all who enlist under the banner of total abstinence; on the other side, far down the vale of misery, will be seen, descending into the drunkard's grave, the notoriously intemperate; in their rear, and following in the same broad way, will appear the host of unreclaimed moderate drinkers. From the drunken leader of this numerous band, to the last follower who takes his glass but once a month, will be one unbroken chain; not a link will be wanting to render the connection plain, and the succession sure.

Suppose the temperance societies should discontinue their exertions, and the temperance reformation should cease to go forward, when the thousands of drunkards who now curse our land, shall have been summoned to the bar of God, by whom will their places in iniquity and wretchedness be supplied?—when they shall be crying for one drop of cold water, to cool the tip of their tongues, by what class of persons will the army of drunkards be filled? Come, ye moderate, temperate drinkers, who say that a little is good, and that in moderate drinking there is no harm-come, tell me, if ye can, in a few fleeting years, when death shall have arrested the career of those that have crossed, before you, the line which separates between the moderate drinker and the drunkard, who but yourselves will then be seen tottering on the brink of the eternal world, with reddened eyes, bloated face, and carbuncled nose-with despairing wife and famished children— with a body full of disease, and a soul full of guilt-without the comforts of this life, and without the hope of the future?

Have you ever seriously contemplated the origin and progress of the disease of intemperance?-have you marked the gradations by which the drunkard has been brought to his wretched condition? Perhaps, when he was in his mother's lap, a smiling innocent lamb, fit for the purity of heavenly joy, his unsuspecting mother, in some pleasant cordial, administered the first seeds of that loathsome disease wherewith he is now afflicted; as he grew to be a fine boy, his father may have given him a little from his own glass, and he may have heard both his parents say that a little is good, and that in moderate drinking there is no harm. When he became a man, he often found occasion to remember this saying,-if he was cold, a little warmed him; if he was hot, a little cooled him; if he was wet, a little would dry him; and if he was ill, a little would cure him; at any rate, on all occasions he thought he was quite sure that a little would do him no harm. Sometimes, to be sure, in an unguarded moment, he would take a little too much, but then he would most manfully resolve never to do so again. But, alas, the drunkard's resolution is written on the sand, and one glass of rum will wash it away; the disease of intemperance was now preying upon his vitals; his constitution had undergone a decided change; without the aid of artificial excitement, his spirits would droop and his limbs would tremble. When he arose in the morning he found a little was very good, and he still thought it could do him no harm,-it braced his nerves, gave vigor to his mind, and very much strengthened his emaciated frame; at nine o'clock his system was again exhausted, and again required excitement; again at twelve, and again at four. Poor miserable victim of fermented and spirituous liquors, now a confirmed drunkard and outcast from society,-his children are growing up in ignorance and vice, his wife has gone down, with a broken heart to the grave, he stands tottering on the brink of eternity, without comfort and without hope. Is this a picture of an euthusiastic imagination only, or is it but a faint representation of the sad reality? Reflect for a

moment, and you will call to your recollection cases, perhaps among your near and dear connections in life, of a more aggravated character than it is possible for the tongue to describe; and tell me, ye moderate drinkers, what has the pleasures of the flowing bowl to give,—what the joys of hilarity and mirth,-what the scenes of revelry and riot-to compensate for the forfeited enjoyment of sobriety and virtue? Even should you feel strong enough in resolution, in virtue, or in religion, to continue to indulge an occasional glass without danger to yourselves, consider, I entreat you, the powerful influence of your example upon those around you, and especially such of you as are parents, upon your own children. Everywhere we see the sons of moderate drinkers become intemperate; the father took a little because it was good, and because a little would do him no harm; the sons, being more early initiated into the baneful habit, it grew upon them with their growth, and strengthened with their strength, until they have fallen miserable victims to this ruthless destroyer.

Even the wives and the daughters of moderate drinkers are exposed to an infectious atmosphere, which not unfrequently proves fatal to the fairest portion of the creation of God. She who was made to comfort and cheer the lonely condition of man, and with the hand of affection to wipe from his brow his sorrows and his cares, through the baneful example of a loved husband or father, falls a victim to intoxication, and, from a smiling angel of love, becomes a demon of confusion, of wickedness, and shame. Oh! ye fair daughters of Columbia, shall it ever be told that ye too have become the victims of intemperance? Will ye part with all that is amiable and lovely for the maddening bowl? No, we hope better things of you, and on you we rely as the most efficient and enduring promoters of the temperance reformation; you form the minds of our children in helpless infancy, and on you it devolves to implant in their bosoms an abhorrence of evil and a love of virtue. But let not your efforts in this good work be confined exclusively to your children; perhaps, some of you have a husband, a father, a brother, or a friend who indulges himself with just a little when he thinks it will do him no harm. When you return to your respective homes, such of you as have some dear friend who is in this dangerous practice, tenderly invite him, in the endearing language of love, to allow you to plead with him for his own safety; if he be a Christian, call upon him in the name of religion; if a patriot, in the name of his country; if a philanthropist, in the name of his fellow men, to set an example such as he would wish the world to follow. If he be a father, call upon him in the name of his children; gather them around his knees; hang them upon the skirts of his garments; call forth all the sensibilities of his soul, and implore him, with the irresistible persuasion of nature's language, to set a good example before his offspring, that he may leave to them the inheritance of virtue, infinitely more valuable than the richest inheritance of gold and silver. Entwine your endearments around his heart, if he have any sensibility left, and plead with him, for the love he bears you, to fly from this all-conquering enemy, before whom kings and emperors have fallen, stripped of all their glory.

A few there are among the professed friends of morality, virtue, and religion, who strenuously maintain that they have no occasion to unite with a temperance society, they can take care of themselves without being bound by a written pledge,-they can take a little when it will do them good, or they can let it alone. To such, I must say, you are the chief obstacle to the complete triumph of this blessed cause; the example of one such drinker is productive of more evil, than that of a hundred drunkards; you give respectability to a custom which is spreading death and desolation

all around you; you uphold the manufacturers and the venders of the souldestroying poison; you alone are answerable for the continuance of the licensing system; the disease of intemperance is already making its ravages upon you; it has weakened your resolution, and closed your eyes to your own danger, and is conducting you on to the brink of a precipice, from which thousands as wise, as virtuous, and as loved, have miserably fallen before you.

Were the friends of temperance to follow your example, the temperance reformation would be arrested in its course; the streams of moral pollution, of wretchedness and wo, would continue uninterruptedly to roll on, and in ten years the disease of intemperance would hurl five hundred thousand of our countrymen down to the drunkard's grave; and five hundred thousand more, by acting on your principle, would be transformed into confirmed drunkards, and many of yourselves would be found among them.

There is yet another class who, though strictly temperate themselves, and wishing well to the temperance cause, think it would be degrading for them to sign a written pledge to abstain. Many of these think themselves too good to associate with such men as are most active in the temperance reformation, and therefore they stand aloof from all co-operation in that great moral revolution, which God, by the hands of his servants, is now carrying forward for the renovation of the world. To such I can only say: you are acting the part of the priest and the Levite, who passed by a fellow creature in distress, on the other side. You behold thousands around you whose families are made wretched, and who themselves are going down to endless wo, for want of the healthful influence of your active and persevering efforts to reclaim them; you hold, under God, their destiny for time and for eternity in your hands; you have talents committed to you to improve for their good, but you bury them in the earth; you are like the fruitless fig tree, which only encumbered the ground; you are of those that know to do good and do it not, and to you it is sin; and when the glorious day shall arrive in which there shall be joy in heaven for those who, by the instrumentality of others, have been plucked as brands from the burning, and they shall be united in singing the praises of Him who has redeemed them by his blood from the pit of pollution, where then will be those feelings of arrogance and pride which are now exhibited in thanking God that you are not as other men are. He whom you profess to serve, has manifestly put forth his hand in this great work; his truth is pledged that it shall prosper, and shall not fail; it is one link in the great chain of events which is to prepare the world for the universal reign of the Prince of peace; and will not you be persuaded to contribute your share to the promotion of this glorious cause?

Reverently should we send up our orisons of thanksgiving and praise, that the Father of mercies has been graciously pleased to open our eyes to the necessity of one great and united effort in opposing that torrent of ruin, which, as a mighty deluge, was threatening to sweep all that was fair and lovely from this chosen land of his heritage.

Reverently should we bow in humble adoration of his goodness, that he has been pleased to put forth his own Almighty arm to stay the flood; and that in the thick and dark cloud which has so long overshadowed our land, he has permitted us to see the dawning of a bow which gives the promise of a brighter and a better day.

6

ADDRESS OF THOMAS P. HUNT.

THE DUTY OF TEMPERANCE MEN AT THE BALLOT BOX.

The traffic in intoxicating drinks is dangerous to the morals and to the prosperity of the country, and must be prohibited.

It is not necessary to enumerate, in detail, the evils which have resulted from the traffic in poisons, to sustain this proposition. The proof relied upon, at present, is this: every state and kingdom in Christendom has given it as a reason for attempting to control the traffic, by, what is called, the license system. In seeking to place the trade in the hands of good men, and excluding it from the morally incompetent, the object is to guard the public from the abuse and nuisance of the trade. How far this object has been attained, is seen in the characters and doings of most of those who are recommended and licensed. If to beat a wife, to curse and swear, and adulterate liquors with poisons, to violate the Sabbath, encourage gambling, allure the young, and destroy the old, be qualifications required by law to obtain a license, then verily most of the grogmen are not found wanting in their attainments. The object of the law, however, is defeated. It is high time that the license laws be repealed, and the retail traffic be prohibited. Those nuisances, over which are hung caricatures of Washington, Franklin and Penn, are a disgrace to the land, and an offence against heaven. They ought to be uprooted and destroyed.

Some objections against the repeal of the license laws will be attended to. 1. We must provide places where travellers can be refreshed.-Poisons and refreshments are not necessarily united; and the traveller may be more comfortably accommodated without the miserable concomitants of grogshops, than with them.

2. But travellers have a right to select their own refreshments.—Admitted. But they have no right to demand that the public shall provide them. Has the gambling and libertine traveller the right of demanding legalized accommodations for his sensuality and crime? By what right, then, does the drunkard claim it?

3. But we plead only for the moderate drinkers, and not for drunkards.-The experience of ages proves that moderate drinkers can do without drink for a short period, without inconvenience. And there is not one of them who would not regard the contrary affirmation as an insult. Besides no vender would engage in the business, if the gain were to be derived solely from the strictly moderate drinker. But, be this as it may.-The existence of a rum hole, has always been the nursery of idleness and crime. No traveller, who, without inconvenience to himself, can do without such places, and he who cannot, is not moderate,—has the right to demand that every cross road, and lane, and corner in the land shall be filled with nuisances for his use.

4. But regulate them properly.-This cannot be done. If they are proper and safe, like other good institutions, they will regulate themselves. If unsafe, they cannot be made useful. The moral tendency of licensing a dangerous evil, must always be unfriendly to virtue. Such a system can never, never make vice promotive of morals nor safe to the country. If in days, when good men, even ministers of the word, and rulers in Zion, and communicants of the church, distilled and sold and bought and used the poison, the expressions came in use, "sober as a parson,' "drunk as a deacon,' ""fuddled as a churchman ;"--if where respect was paid to law