the consumers at two dollars a year,--one quarter at five,--one quarter
at eight,--and one quarter at ten dollars a year. Then the several items
will stand thus:--
Half a million at two dollars, is $1,000,000
Half a million at five dollars, is 2,500,000
Half a million at eight dollars, is 4,000,000
Half a million at ten dollars, is 5,000,000
_________
Total, $12,500,000.
Again: the amount of tobacco annually consumed in France, as appears
from authentic documents, is about seven millions of pounds; which is
about one pound to every four persons. The amount annually consumed in
England, as appears from authentic documents, is about seventeen
millions; which is about one pound to every man, woman and child, in
that nation.[A] In the United States, probably there are eight times as
much used as in France, and three times as much as in England, in
proportion to our population. If so, the quantity used in this country
cannot fall short of thirty-five millions of pounds;[B] which, at thirty
cents a pound, amounts to ten and a half millions of dollars; not
including cigars and snuff, which cost half as much more; making the
total sum fifteen and three fourths millions of dollars. And this
enormous sum is doubtless _below_ what the article actually cost the
consumers.
[A] The tobacco imported and used for home consumption in Great Britain
and Ireland in 1832, amounted to 20,313,651 pounds--the duty on which
was 15,300,000 dollars.
[B] 1,765,000 pounds of tobacco passed up the Erie Canal in seven and a
half months in 1834.
From these _three_ results, we believe there cannot be a doubt that the
actual expense of tobacco, in its various forms, to the consumers in
this country, may safely be set down at _ten millions of dollars a
year_.
The amount of _time_ lost by the consumers of tobacco, is another item
of no inconsiderable moment. Some spend two, three, and four hours a day
in this vile indulgence. To all who use the article, in any way, it
occasions the loss of more or less time. If we put down the average
amount at half an hour a day; and reckon the time thus lost at four
cents an hour, it will amount--not reckoning Sabbaths--to six dollars,
twenty-six cents a year, for each individual; which, for the whole
company of consumers, is an amount of $12,520,000.
The _pauperism_ which tobacco occasions, is another fearful item.
Multitudes who are scarcely able to procure the necessaries of life,
will shift, by sacrificing health and comfort, to procure the daily
_quantum sufficit_ of tobacco. Many very poor families use tobacco, in
all ways. Now suppose a poor family use twenty-five cents' worth of
tobacco a week; it will amount to twelve dollars fifty cents a
year,--and in fifty years, reckoning principal and interest, it will
amount to three thousand five hundred and fifty-two dollars.
Just look at this tax for snuff and tobacco, in a single aspect more.
Many think it will make _no_ man the poorer, to pay six cents a day for
this indulgence. It will make _every_ man the poorer. Let any young
mechanic, or farmer, or merchant, consume six and a quarter cents' worth
of this drug a day--beginning at twenty years of age, and continuing
until he is sixty years old--and the sum total, reckoning principal and
interest, will amount, in these forty years, to three thousand five
hundred and twenty-nine dollars, thirty-six cents.
If the _cost_ of tobacco,--the _neglect of business_ which it
occasions,--the expense of the _pipes_ and the _boxes_, and the various
_apparatus_ which the use of it involves,--and the _intoxication_ to
which it leads,--all be reckoned up, the amount of _pauperism_ which
this weed brings upon the nation, cannot be less than one quarter of the
sum total of all our pauperism. And the sum total of the pauperism in
this nation, has been shown, again and again, to be not less than twelve
millions of dollars, annually. Hence the pauper tax, occasioned by the
use of tobacco, may be set down at three millions of dollars, annually.
Here we have, then, the _expense_ of tobacco, $10,000,000
The _time_ lost by the use of it, $12,520,000
The _pauper tax_ which it occasions, $3,000,000
___________
Total, $25,520,000
To this sum should be added one-tenth of the waste of property, which
strong drink occasions; inasmuch as one-tenth of the rum-drinking must
be charged to tobacco. Now, it has been estimated that the whole cost of
strong drink used annually, in this country, amounts to one hundred and
twenty-five millions of dollars; a tenth of which is twelve and a half
millions of dollars. If this tithe be added to the above estimate, it
will make the sum total thirty-eight and a half millions. But as I
intend my estimates shall be _moderate_, I will say nothing of the waste
of property which tobacco occasions in connection with strong drink. I
will put down the sum total as above twenty-five millions of dollars.
Twenty-five millions of dollars, consumed by the use of tobacco, in this
Christian nation, annually; and not a little of it by professors of
religion, and ministers of the gospel, who are required by their Lord
and Master to deny themselves,--to take up their cross,--to let their
light shine before men, that they may see their good works, and glorify
our Father in heaven. Nearly the whole of this twenty-five millions of
dollars is a _dead loss_ to the nation; yes, it is infinitely _worse_
than a dead loss; it not only does no good, but it actually goes to make
fools and beggars, idlers and sots,--to purchase dyspepsia, early graves
and everlasting shame. And what would this vast amount of property
accomplish, if saved and devoted to useful purposes.
Twenty-five millions of dollars annually, if applied to the improvement
of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and to the advancement of
the arts, sciences, and true religion, would accomplish everything for
this nation, that the enlightened patriot and true Christian can ask
for.
Twenty-five millions of dollars, annually, would soon furnish canals,
and rail-roads, and all other desirable facilities for
intercommunication throughout the nation. Twenty-five millions of
dollars, annually, would sustain all our colleges, academies and other
schools, and all the religious and benevolent institutions of this whole
country. It would rear seminaries of learning in every State where they
are needed; and it would plant a Sabbath school, with a sufficient
library in every school district.
Twenty-five millions of dollars, annually, if applied in all feasible
and suitable ways, would give freedom, with all the blessings of
Christianity to the colored race in our own country, and throughout the
continent of Africa in a very few years: and would terminate slavery and
the slave-trade in every part of the world.
Twenty-five millions of dollars annually, would send forth to the
nations now perishing in heathen darkness, ten thousand missionaries,
and five millions of tracts, every year, provided the men could be
found.
Twenty-five millions of dollars, annually, would, in five years, furnish
all the money necessary to carry into complete execution, that noble
purpose of the American Bible Society, of giving a copy of the Bible,
within a specified time, to every accessible family on the earth. And
what friend of man is there among us,--what patriot is there,--what
Christian is there,--who can look at these truths, and not make up his
mind to abandon all use of tobacco, _forever_; and to exert the whole
weight of his influence and example to persuade others to do the same?
I am aware, indeed, that it may be said, if the whole company of
tobacco-chewers, smokers, and snuffers, should at once abandon all use
of this weed, and thus withdraw their whole patronage, this twenty-five
millions of dollars, which now gives wealth to many a man engaged in
growing, manufacturing, and vending the poison, would be so much capital
unemployed; and the means of living would be cut off from many a
family,--and bankruptcy, and wretchedness would be the consequent
portion of many an individual. This may be true. And it may be true,
too, that the like consequences would follow the universal abandonment
of intoxicating liquors. But what then? Shall one sixth part of the
nation continue to use this poison, because, forsooth, the _producers_
and _venders_ of it will lose their profits if it be abandoned? Shall
the _intellect_, and _health_, and _comfort_, and _wealth_, and _lives_
of hundreds and thousands of our fellow citizens, be sacrificed yearly;
and widows and orphans be multiplied by scores and fifties, in every
section of this wide-spreading country; and one of the prominent
auxiliaries of _intemperance_,--and consequently of _crime_, and
_insanity_, and _eternal woe_--be cherished; and twenty-five millions of
dollars be _wasted_, and worse than wasted; and all this, that the
_producers_ and _venders_ may feed and fatten on the gains? This
objection lies equally against the temperance reform and every other
reform, where cupidity and avarice are involved.
As to the producers, it is affirmed on good authority, that hemp and
corn, and other useful articles may be substituted without loss, and
even with advantage. As to the venders, their capital may all be
profitably employed upon valuable merchandise, without damage. But if it
were not so; where _health_, _life_, and _happiness_ are involved, no
good man can hesitate. The path of duty is plain. We are bound to walk
in it, even though it run counter to the gains of those engaged in
unlawful commerce.
I maintain my position,
VI. From a consideration of the _mortality_ which tobacco occasions.
Some of my readers may be startled at this consideration. They may not
have dreamed, even, that tobacco _kills_ any body. So insidious are the
effects of this poison, and so insensible have the community been to its
abominations, that very few have regarded the use of tobacco as the
cause of swelling our bills of mortality. But though appalling, it is
nevertheless true, that tobacco carries vast multitudes to the grave,
all over our country, every year. Says Dr. Salmon, "I am confident more
people have died of apoplexies, since the use of snuff in one year, than
have died of that disease in an hundred years before; and most, if not
all, whom I have observed to die, of late of that disease, were extreme
and constant snuff-takers." The late Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper, of Boston,
by constant use of snuff, brought on a disorder of the head, which was
thought to have ended his days. A very large quantity of hardened Scotch
snuff was found, by a _post mortem_ examination, between the external
nose and the brain. The late Gov. Sullivan, speaking of Gov. Hancock,
the early President of Congress, says, "Gov. Hancock was an immoderate
chewer of tobacco; but being a well-bred man, and a perfect gentleman,
he, from a sense of decorum, refrained from spitting in company, or in
well-dressed rooms. This produced the habit of swallowing the juice of
the tobacco, the consequence of which was, his stomach became inactive,
and a natural appetite seldom returned; the agreeable sensations of
hunger could not be experienced but by the use of stimulants, to satisfy
which he swallowed more food than his digestive powers could dispose of.
This derangement in chylification increased his gout, his stomach became
paralytic, and he died at the age of fifty-eight."
Again, says Governor Sullivan, "My own brother, the active General
Sullivan, began early in life to take snuff. It injured essentially a
fine voice which he possessed as a public speaker. When he was an
officer in the American army, he carried his snuff loose in his pocket.
He said he did this because the opening of a snuff-box in the field of
review, or on the field of battle, was inconvenient. At times he had
violent pains in the head; the intervals grew shorter and shorter, and
the returns more violent, when his sufferings ended in a stroke of
palsy, which rendered him insensible to pain, made him helpless and
miserable, and lodged him in the grave before he was fifty years of age;
and I have no doubt [says the Governor,] but all this sprung from the
use of snuff." He adds, "I have known some persons live to old age, in
the extravagant use of tobacco; but they bear a small proportion to
those who, by the habit of using tobacco, have been swept into the grave
in _early_ or _middle_ life."
Professor Silliman mentions two affecting cases of young men, in the
Institution with which he is connected, who were carried to an early
grave by tobacco. One of them, he says, entered college with an athletic
frame; but he acquired the habit of using tobacco, and would sit and
smoke by the hour together. His friends tried to persuade him to quit
the practice; but he loved his lust, and would have it, live or die: the
consequence was, he went down to the grave, a suicide.
One of the German periodicals says, the chief German physiologists
compute, that of twenty deaths of men between eighteen and twenty-five,
ten, that is, one half, originate in the waste of the constitution by
smoking. They declare, also, with much truth, that tobacco burns out the
_blood_, the _teeth_, the _eyes_, and the _brain_.
To this unequivocal testimony, which is confirmed by the observation of
every intelligent person who has turned his attention to this matter,
much more might be added; but it is unnecessary. How large a proportion
of the twenty thousand deaths--reckoning one death to a hundred
souls--which occur annually, among the two millions of tobacco consumers
in this country, are to be charged to the use of this deadly narcotic, I
am unable definitely to determine. If we suppose one quarter of these
deaths to be caused by tobacco, it will give us the number of five
thousand. Five thousand deaths in these United States, every year from
the use of tobacco! and this is doubtless far below the actual number.
Five thousand valuable lives sacrificed in this enlightened land,
annually, in the use of a dirty plant, that no living creature, except
man and the tobacco worm, will touch, or taste, or handle. Five thousand
men and women carried to the grave, yearly, by a poisonous weed, which
does _no good_, and which, for filthiness and disgust, scarcely has its
parallel in the whole vegetable kingdom. Is there a _Christian_,--is
there a _patriot_,--is there a _friend_ of humanity,--is there an
_individual_, that values his own probationary existence,--who can look
at the sweeping mortality which tobacco brings upon the nation, and
longer indulge his attachment to his quid, his pipe or his snuff-box? Is
there one who will pause and look at this matter, and not resolve that
he will, _forthwith_, _entirely_, and _forever_, abandon a practice
which does so much to people the grave?
I maintain my position,
VII.--From a consideration of the _apologies_ of the lovers of tobacco.
I call them _apologies_. They cannot be considered _reasons_. Almost
every lover of the dirty weed, feels that he needs an apology. One will
tell us he has a cold, watery stomach, and he thinks that tobacco, by
promoting expectoration, relieves the difficulty. Another will tell us
he is very much troubled with indigestion, and he thinks tobacco
relieves the difficulty; though, in truth, tobacco is the very worst
drug he could use to relieve that disease, and is among the primordial
causes of inducing it. Another will tell us that he is afflicted with
the rising of his food after eating, and he thinks tobacco gives
immediate relief; not suspecting, perhaps, that this rising of the food
is occasioned by over eating. Another will tell us he has a distressing
difficulty in the head, and brain, and he thinks a little good Scotch
snuff affords relief; as though the filling the pores, and cavities of
the head, and clogging up the brain, with this dirty stuff, would remove
a disease which in most cases it originates.
Others use tobacco to preserve the teeth; and this, though it is a
solemn truth, that many a one loses his teeth by smoking and chewing
the poisonous plant. Others, again, use tobacco to excite the mind to
more vigorous intellectual effort. But when and where do we find great
lovers of tobacco great students, and intellectual giants? Dr. Rush
says, "I suspect tobacco is oftener used for the _want_ of ideas, than
to excite them." There are some whose apology for using tobacco is, that
it guards them against the power of contagious diseases. But Dr. Rees
affirms that tobacco does not contain an antidote against contagion, and
that, in general, it has no antiseptic power; and is therefore of no
special use. There is another class still, who use tobacco because it
soothes the irksomeness of life. They fear solitude; and to prevent
self-examination, and to while away their probation time, they fly to
the _pipe_, _quid_, and _snuff-box_; and soon, by an easy transition, to
the wine-glass and brandy-bottle.
These are the _usual apologies_ of the devotees to tobacco. And what do
they amount to? In truth, the common opinion that tobacco is good for
the head-ache,--weak eyes,--cold and watery stomachs,--the preservation
of the teeth,--and the like, is sheer delusion. Let every man and woman,
who would live long, and usefully, and happily, awake from this
delusion; and let no one, as he values health, life, and salvation,
_taste_, _touch_, or _handle_, the filthy poison.
I maintain my position,
VIII, AND LASTLY.--From a consideration of the _eternal ruin_ which
tobacco occasions. On this point, a word or two only, will suffice. That
tobacco carries many a soul down to the pit of eternal woe, is manifest
from its connection with drunkenness, and from its inducing disease and
death. Every man who dies a drunkard, and every man who, knowingly and
recklessly, brings upon himself disease and death through the influence
of tobacco, is a _suicide_. And drunkards and suicides cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. How many will at last, ascribe their eternal ruin to
alcohol and tobacco, cannot now be told.
That it will be a great multitude, (perhaps a great multitude which no
man can number,) we have no reason to doubt.
What then, I ask, _ought_ to be _done_? What _can_ be done? What _must_
be done? If this poisonous narcotic be of _recent_ origin; if it be
ruinous to the _health_ and _constitution_, and _intellect_, and
_public_ and _private morals_; if it occasions an amazing _waste of
property_,--and a multitude of _deaths_,--and _eternal ruin_ to many
precious souls; and if it do no good,--and there be no _apology_ for
using it, which will bear examination; then _something ought to be
done_, and it ought to be done _immediately_. And, _only one_ thing need
be done. And that _can_ be done, and it ought to be done. It is
this:--_tobacco can be abandoned_. And if moral influence enough can be
enlisted, it _will_ be abandoned.
TOTAL ABSTINENCE is the only sure remedy. TOTAL ABSTINENCE will deliver
us from all the evils which this weed has brought down upon individuals
and families, and the nation.--Nothing else will do it. And total
abstinence can be adopted and practiced. True; in some cases, it may
cost an _effort_; but, in every instance, three weeks' perseverance will
overcome the habit. Three weeks' _total abstinence_, will disenthrall
every victim, and give him the prospect of _freedom_, _plenty_,
_health_, and _happiness_. And shall this effort be made? A _mighty_
effort it must be, to liberate and save this whole nation--and
especially our young men and maidens--from the curses of the _quid_, the
_pipe_, and the _snuff-box_.
I appeal to my fellow citizens. I appeal to the _nation_, and the _whole
nation_. _Shall_ the effort be made?
I appeal to _patriots_. Patriotism forbids the man who loves his
country, to shrink from any personal sacrifice, if he can thereby arrest
some great national evil. That the use of tobacco is a great national
evil, appears from the considerations which have been laid before you.
It has been shown that tobacco is weakening the physical and mental
energies of this nation,--that it is depraving our morals, and
destroying the public conscience,--and that it is causing an amazing
waste of property, and health and life. I ask every patriot to look at
this portentous evil. Every true patriot, who will examine the length,
breadth, and depth of this evil, cannot but feel that it claims his
attention. And he will enquire what efforts, what sacrifices, can
deliver us from the curses of this narcotic? The answer to this inquiry
is an _easy_ answer,--the effort is an _easy_ effort,--the sacrifice is
an _easy_ sacrifice. Let every true patriot in our country abstain from
the poison, _immediately_, _entirely_, and _forever_; and let him use
the whole weight of his influence and example to persuade others--and
especially the young men and maidens of this republic--to practice
entire abstinence; and the work will soon be done. We put the question
to every true patriot: _will you do it_?
I appeal to _Christians_. Your religion requires you to abstain from the
very appearance of evil. It requires you to deny yourselves, to take up
your cross, and to follow Christ through evil, as well as through good
report. Is there no appearance of evil, in the use of tobacco? Can the
Christian deny himself and follow Christ, with the quid, or pipe in his
mouth, or the contents of the snuff-box in his nose? If Christ himself,
were here on earth, in this age of action, when six hundred millions of
men, for whom he died, are perishing for lack of vision--think you he
would waste a single cent of _property_, or a single moment of _time_,
or a single ounce of health and mental energy, in the habitual use of
this narcotic? Would he _handle_, _touch_, or _taste_, the poison? And
will _you_, whose names are written in his book,--_you_, who have been
bought with his blood, and sanctified through his grace, and made heirs
of all the riches of his kingdom,--_you_, whom he requires to be
_examples_ in all things,--will you _handle_, or _touch_ or _taste_ it?
Let every Christian in our country, abstain from this poison,
_immediately_, _entirely_, and _forever_; and let him use the whole
weight of his influence and example, to persuade others to practice
_entire abstinence_; and this work of reform will soon be done. We put
the question to every true Christian: _will you do it_?
I appeal to the _youth_ of both sexes. You are the flower and the hope
not only of this nation, but of all nations struggling for freedom. The
destinies of this republic are about being placed, under God, in your
hands; and inasmuch as all the friends of freedom, everywhere, are
looking up to our institutions for light and aid, the destinies of the
world will rest with a mightier weight of responsibility upon your
shoulders, than upon any other generation that has come forth upon the
stage of action, for twenty centuries. The importance of sound and
enlightened principles--of pure and elevated examples, and independent
and decided action in _you_, is above all estimation. You are placed in
the moral Thermopylæ of the world. The evils arising from _alcohol_ and
_tobacco_, which you have it in your power to avert from your country,
are more dreadful than the invasion of Xerxes with his millions. The
cause of moral reform, in the use of the latter of these articles, which
we urge upon you with deepest and sincerest solicitude, is far more
urgent than that in which the Bruti and the Gracchi offered up their
lives. Some of you have not yet handled or tasted the fatal drug. Let
all such stand firm henceforward, and never yield to the power of
custom, temptation and lust. Some of you, on the other hand, have
permitted yourselves to become the victims of this drug. Let all such be
urged by the voice of patriotism, religion, self-respect, reason,
conscience, and duty, to _abstain_ from this poison, _immediately_,
_entirely_, and _forever_. And then every young man, and every young
woman, in the republic, shall be free from all the calamities attending
the use of this narcotic; and love, and peace, and joy, will run through
the land, and flow over the world. We put the question to every youth:
_will you do it_?