say. Physicians say not, except in a very few cases as a medicine; and
even in these cases it is doubtful whether they have not other remedies
as good, or better. Spirits are necessary, you say, to enable a man to
endure great extremes of heat, cold, fatigue, and in exposure to wet,
and attendance upon the sick. If this be correct, farmers will sometimes
need them. But many of the most hard-working and thorough farmers in the
land have, within a few years past, tried the experiment of laboring
without spirits; and their unanimous testimony is, that they are
stronger, healthier, and better able to bear all extremes and severe
fatigue without them. Have you ever tried the same experiment? Be
persuaded to make the trial, at least for one year, before you reject so
much substantial testimony.
If spirits are necessary for any class, we should suppose it would be
the West Indian slave. But "on three contiguous estates," says Dr.
Abbot, "of more than four hundred slaves, has been made, with fine
success, the experiment of a strict exclusion of ardent spirits at all
seasons of the year. The success has very far exceeded the proprietor's
most sanguine hopes. Peace, and quietness, and contentment, reign among
the negroes; creoles are reared in much greater numbers than formerly;
the estates are in the neatest and highest state of cultivation; and
order and discipline are maintained with very little correction, and the
mildest means."
Sailors are another class who must sometimes need spirits, if they are
needed in case of great exposure to cold and wet. But several crews have
attempted to winter in high northern latitudes, and those furnished with
spirits have nearly all perished, while those not furnished with them
have nearly all survived. When exposed to cold and wet, and partially
immersed in the sea for hours, those who have not used spirits have
commonly outlived those who drank them.
Soldiers are exposed to even more and severer extremes and vicissitudes
than sailors. But Dr. Jackson, a most distinguished physician in the
British army, asserts that spirits are decidedly injurious to soldiers
on duty, rendering them less able to endure labor and hardship. And a
general officer in the same army thus testifies: "But, above all, let
every one who values his health, avoid drinking spirits when heated;
that is adding fuel to the fire, and is apt to produce the most
dangerous inflammatory complaints." "Not a more dangerous error exists,
than the notion that the habitual use of spirituous liquors prevents the
effects of cold. On the contrary, the truth is, that those who drink
most frequently of them are soonest affected by severe weather. The
daily use of these liquors tends greatly to emaciate and waste the
strength of the body," etc.
The Roman soldiers marched with a weight of armor upon them which a
modern soldier can hardly stand under; and they conquered the world. Yet
they drank nothing stronger than vinegar and water.
"I have worn out two armies in two wars," says the Dr. Jackson mentioned
above, "by the aids of temperance and hard work, and probably could
wear out another before my period of old age arrives. I eat no animal
food, drink no wine or malt liquor, or spirits of any kind; I wear no
flannel, and neither regard wind nor rain, heat nor cold, when business
is in the way."
Those men in Europe who are trained for boxing-matches would require
spirits if they were necessary for giving bodily strength and health,
since the object of this training is to produce the most perfect health,
and the greatest possible strength. But ardent spirits are not used by
them at all; and even wine is scarcely allowed.
In protracted watching by the bed of sickness, food and intervals of
rest are the only real securities against disease and weakness. Spirits
peculiarly expose a man to receive the disease, if it be contagious, and
if not, they wear out the strength sooner than it would otherwise fail.
The most exposed and trying situations in life, then, need not the aid
of ardent spirits; nay, they are in such cases decidedly injurious. They
are not, therefore, necessary, but injurious for men in all other
situations. The distiller must, therefore, give up the necessity of
using them in the community as a reason for continuing their
manufacture.
But spirits, it may be said, do certainly inspire a man with much
additional strength. Yes; and physicians tell us how. It is by exciting
the nervous system, and thus calling into more vigorous action the
strength that God has given the constitution to enable it to resist
heat, cold, and disease. If this strength do not previously exist in the
system, spirits can never bestow it; for they do not afford the least
nourishment, as food does. They merely call into action the stock of
strength which food has already implanted is the body. Hence the
debility and weakness which always succeed their use when the excitement
has passed by. Hence, too, it follows, that spirits can never give any
additional permanent strength to the body.
But this is not all; for physicians infer from this statement, that the
use of spirits, even in moderate quantities, tends prematurely to
exhaust and wear out the system. It urges on the powers of life faster
than health requires, and thus wears them out sooner, by a useless waste
of strength and spirits. True, a moderate drinker may not notice any
striking bad effects upon his health, from this cause, for many years;
nay, the excitement it produces may remove, for the time being, many
uncomfortable feelings which he experiences, and which are the early
warnings that nature gives him that she is oppressed, for the secret
poison is at work within; and if such a man is attacked by a fever, or
other acute disease, physicians know that he is by no means as likely to
recover as the water-drinker, because the spirits have partially
exhausted the secret strength of his constitution, all of which is now
wanted to resist the disease. Let every man who indulges in the use of
spirits ponder well the declaration of a committee of one of the most
_enlightened medical societies_ in our land: "Beyond comparison greater
is the risk of life, undergone in nearly all diseases, of whatever
description, when they occur in those unfortunate men who have been
previously disordered by these poisons." Such men, too, it may be added,
are much more liable to the attacks of disease than those who totally
abstain from alcohol. In both these ways, therefore, the use of spirits,
even in the greatest moderation, tends to shorten life.
Distillers of ardent spirits, I entreat you, think seriously of these
things, as you tend the fires under your boilers. Farmers, as you drive
your load of cider or rye to the distillery, meditate upon them, I
beseech you. You have here the opinions and advice of the most able and
impartial physicians in this country and in Europe. True, you may find
here and there one, of little or no reputation and learning, who, either
because he thinks it for his interest, or is attached to ardent spirits
himself, will oppose such views of the subject. But no physician of
distinction and good moral character would dare, at this day, to come
out publicly in opposition to the principles above advanced, sanctioned
as they are by the united testimony of science and experience. O, shut
not your ears against this powerful voice.
In the third place, I would expostulate with these men _as a friend to
my country_. Can it be that they are acquainted with the extent of the
mischiefs which our country already suffers from intemperance? Do they
know that fifty-six millions of gallons of ardent spirits are annually
consumed in the United States, or more than four and an half gallons to
each inhabitant; and that about forty-four millions of this quantity are
prepared in the distilleries of our own country; that ten millions of
gallons are distilled from molasses, and more than nine million bushels
of rye are used for this purpose? Do they know that these forty-four
millions of gallons, as retailed, must cost the community not less than
$22,000,000; that they render from two hundred to three hundred thousand
of our citizens intemperate; that in consequence of this intemperance
the country sustains an annual loss, in the productive labor of these
drunkards, of not far from $30,000,000; and a loss of more than
twenty-five thousand lives, from her middle-aged citizens, who are thus
cut off prematurely? That two-thirds of the pauperism in the country,
costing from $6,000,000 to $8,000,000, and two-thirds of the crime among
us, perpetrated by an army of eighty or ninety thousand wretches, result
from the same cause; and that from forty to fifty thousand of the cases
of imprisonment for debt, annually, are imputed to the same cause? That
the pecuniary losses proceeding from the carelessness and rashness of
intemperate sailors, servants, and agents, are immense; and that the
degradation of mind, the bodily and mental sufferings of drunkards and
their families, and the corruption of morals and manners, are
altogether beyond the reach of calculation to estimate, and of words to
express?[E]
[Footnote E: In order to obtain the result in this paragraph,
the well-established estimates that have often been made,
concerning the cost and evils of ardent spirits in our
country, have been reduced about one fourth or fifth part, to
make allowance for the amount imported from abroad.]
Can it be that these men have ever soberly looked forward to see what
must be the ultimate effects, upon our free and beloved country, of this
hydra-headed evil, unless it be arrested? Can they be aware that,
judging by the past proportion of deaths from intemperance in the most
regular and moral parts of the land, one third of the six million adults
now living will die from the same cause? Do they know how the
intemperate entail hereditary diseases and a thirst for ardent spirits
upon their descendants, and how rapidly, therefore, the bodily vigor of
our citizens is giving way before their deadly influence? And can they
doubt that vigor of mind will decay in the same proportion? Corruption
of manners and morals too, how rapidly it will spread under the
operation of this poison! Nor can religious principle stand long before
the overwhelming inundation; and just in the degree in which alcoholic
liquors are used, will the Sabbath, and the institutions of religion,
and the Bible be neglected and trodden under foot. And when the
morality, and religion, and the conscience of the majority of our nation
are gone, what but a miracle can save our liberties from ruin? Corrupt
the majority, and what security is there in popular elections? Corrupt
the majority, and you have collected together the explosive materials
that need only the touch of some demagogue's torch to scatter the fair
temple of our independence upon the winds of heaven.
But admitting that this picture is not overdrawn, yet the distiller and
the furnisher of materials may perhaps say, that all this does not
particularly concern them. They are not intemperate, they force no man
to drink, or even to buy their spirits: nay, they generally refuse to
sell to the intemperate. The intemperate are the persons to whom these
expostulations should be addressed. As for the distiller and the farmer,
who manufacture the poison, they are following a lawful calling, and
have a right to the honest proceeds of their business.
The principle, then, which I understand you to advocate, is this: that
provided your employment be not contrary to the laws of the state, you
are under no obligation to inquire particularly as to its influence upon
the public happiness after the products of your labor get out of your
own hands. If this be a correct principle for your guidance, it is
certainly a correct one for others. Let us apply it to the intemperate
man.
I expostulate with him on the destructive influence of his habits upon
his country. "But have I not a right," says he, "to use my own property
in such a way as I choose, provided I do not violate the laws of the
land? If I may not employ a portion of my money in purchasing spirits,
neither have you a right to lay out yours for a carriage, or for
painting your house, or for any thing else which some of your neighbors
may regard as unnecessary. I buy no more spirits than my health and
comfort require; and I have as good a right to judge of the quantity, as
you have in respect to the needless articles of dress and furniture
which you procure."
I urge the man who keeps a licensed gambling-house to abandon a pursuit
that is ruining his country. "But I am not violating the laws," he
replies, "nor compelling any man to gamble and drink to excess in my
house. The whole responsibility, therefore, rests upon those who do it.
Expostulate with them. I have a right to my earnings."
You see where this principle leads. Is it one that a true patriot ought
to adopt? No: he alone is a true patriot who is ready to abandon every
pursuit that is injuring his country, however profitable it may be to
himself, and however tolerated by the civil law. Nor I would not attempt
to extenuate the guilt of the intemperate man, nor of the merchant who
sells him spirits; but I do say, that if those who distil, and those who
furnish the materials, were to abandon the business altogether, it would
almost put an end to intemperance in the land. For only a small
proportion of the spirits used is imported; and its price must always
continue so high that but few could afford to be drunkards were the
domestic manufacture to cease. You have it in your power, then, to put a
stop to this most dreadful national evil, and thus to save our liberties
and all that is dear to us from ruin. Your fathers poured out their
blood like water to purchase our independence, and to build up a bulwark
around our rights. But the ten thousand distilleries which you ply are
so many fiery batteries, pouring forth their forty-four million
discharges every year, to level that bulwark in the dust. All Europe
combined against us in war could not do us half as much injury as your
distilleries are doing every year. Oh, abandon them--tear them
down--melt your boilers in the furnace--give your grain and molasses to
the poor, or to the fowls of heaven--make fuel of your fruit-trees,
rather than destroy your country.
Some may say, that if they cease to manufacture spirits, others will
take up the business and carry it on as extensively as they do. And
since, therefore, the country will gain nothing by their discontinuance
of distillation, they may as well have the profit of it as others. But
what course of wickedness will not such reasoning justify? A highwayman
robs you, or an assassin invades your dwelling at midnight and
slaughters your wife and children. Now, would you think them justified,
should they plead that they knew of others about to commit the same
outrages, and therefore they thought their commission of these deeds was
not wrong, since they needed the avails of the robbery and murder as
much as any body? A man could pursue the slave-trade year after year on
this principle, with no upbraidings of conscience, if he only suspected
that the business would be carried on were he to stop. And a traitor
might sell his country for gold, could he only ascertain that some one
else was about to do it, and yet be exonerated from blame, if this
principle be proper to act upon. Oh, how can any decent man plead a
moment for a principle that leads to such monstrous results!
Some will say, however, that they sell the spirits which they
manufacture only to those whom they know to be temperate, and therefore
they are not accessory to the intemperance in the land; for they are not
accountable for the sins of those who sell spirits to improper persons.
You supply them only to the temperate! The greater the blame and the
guilt; for you are thus training up a new set of drunkards to take the
place of those whom death will soon remove out of the way. Were you to
sell only to the intemperate, you would do comparatively little injury
to the community. For you would only hasten those out of the way who are
a nuisance, and prevent the education of others to fill their places.
But let not any man think that no blame attaches to himself because the
poison goes into other hands before it is administered. _A man is to
blame for any evil to his fellow-men which he could prevent._ Now, by
stopping all the distilleries in the land, you could prevent men from
becoming drunkards. The very head and front of the offending, therefore,
lies with you. It is as idle for you to attempt to cast all the guilt
upon others, in this way, as it was for Pilate, when he endeavored to
fix the blood of Christ upon the people by washing his hands before them
and declaring himself innocent, and then going back to his judgment-seat
and passing sentence of death upon him. Good man! He did not touch a
hair of the Saviour's head. It was the cruel soldiers who executed his
orders, that, according to this plea, were alone guilty!
Some distillers will probably say that they cannot support themselves
and families if they abandon this business; and some farmers will say,
if we cannot sell our cider and rye to the distillers, the products of
our orchards must all be lost, and rye is the only article which we can
raise upon our farms with any profit. And if I were not to purchase
these articles, says the distiller, their price must be so low that no
farmer could afford to raise them. Thus to reduce a large class of the
yeomanry of our country--its very sinews--to poverty, would be a greater
evil than even the intemperance that is so common.
Is it indeed true, that in this free and happy country an industrious,
temperate, and economical man, cannot find any employment by which he
can support himself and family in a comfortable manner without
manufacturing poison and selling it to his countrymen? In other words,
cannot he live without destroying them? Is land so scarce, or so eaten
up with tithes and taxes, that he cannot thence derive subsistence
unless he converts its products into money at the expense of others'
comfort, reputation, and life? Is every honest calling so crowded, or so
unproductive, that every avenue is closed? Have the men who make this
plea tried, even for a single year, to live without the manufacture of
spirits? It may be, indeed, that for a time they will find other
pursuits less productive than this. And is not this, after all, the true
reason why they shrink from the sacrifice? But if superior profits be a
sufficient reason for continuing distillation, it is a reason that will
justify the robber, the thief, and every other depredator upon the
rights of others.
But how does it appear that the stoppage of all the distilleries in the
land will reduce the price of cider and rye? Their operation has
produced a great demand for these articles, and that demand has thrown
into the market an immense supply: the consequence is, that the prices
are reduced as low as the articles can be afforded, at a very moderate
profit, and the great complaint now among farmers is, that they are so
low. Let the distilleries cease to exist, and the special demand for
these articles will cease; and consequently the market will not be
glutted with them, because no extra efforts will be made to raise them:
the result will probably be, that in a very short time their price will
be very nearly or quite as high as it now is.
But even if we suppose the worst, that the distiller and some farmers
should be reduced to absolute beggary by the cessation of this
manufacture; no reasonable, or patriotic, or Christian man can for a
moment regard this as a reason why he should continue in any business
that is productive of immense mischief to his country. Is it not better
that he and his family should come to want, than that hundreds of
thousands should be ruined, soul and body, for time and eternity? If he
has a right to derive his subsistence from the ruin of others, then
others, as the thief, the swindler, and the robber, have a right to
obtain their subsistence from his ruin.
In the fourth place, I appeal to these men _as a neighbor and a parent,
and in behalf of the drunkard's wife and children_. When Providence cast
our lot in the same neighborhood, I considered, and doubtless you
thought the same, that a regard to our mutual welfare bound us to do
every thing in our power to make the community in which we lived
intelligent, virtuous, and happy; and to avoid every thing that would
mar its peace, degrade its character, or stain its purity. My complaint
is, that by the manufacture of ardent spirits you have violated these
obligations. The facilities for obtaining spirits, and the temptations
to their use and abuse, have been thus so multiplied, and brought so
near, that very many who were once kind neighbors and valuable members
of society are ruined, or in different stages of the path to ruin. One
has got as far as an occasional visit to the grog-shop and the bar-room:
another is rarely seen there; but the wretched condition of his house,
barn, and farm, his impatience of confinement at home, and his many
foolish bargains, tell me, in language not to be mistaken, that the worm
which is preying upon the root of his prosperity is the worm of the
still. The frequent visits of the sheriff to the house of another
neighbor, whose family is healthy and industrious; his bitter complaints
of the hardness of the times; his constant efforts to borrow money to
prevent executions from being levied; the mortgaging of his farm to the
bank; his pimpled face, and bloated body, and dry hacking cough, are
painful testimonies of his familiarity with the products of the
distillery. It is distressing to look around upon our once happy
neighborhood--did you ever do it?--and to see what havoc your
manufactory of spirits has made upon the peace, property, reputation,
intelligence, morality, and good order of the community. No wasting
sickness, no foreign or domestic war, no premature frost; no drought,
blasting, or mildew; nor any other visitation of God; no, not all of
them combined have been the tenth part as fatal to our prosperity and
happiness, as this one self-inflicted curse. And this curse we should
never have felt, had not some of you put into operation your
distilleries, and others fed them with the products of your farms: I
mean, such would have been the happy effect, had the manufacture of
spirits ceased in our land before these evils had followed: and I am now
supposing that some one in every town and neighborhood throughout the
land, where there is a distillery, is addressing the same language to
those who conduct it as I am addressing to you. We make a united and
earnest appeal to you, in view of the ruin that rises around us, that
you would stop the work of destruction and strengthen the things that
remain, which are ready to die. You stand at the fountain-head of that
fiery stream which is spreading volcanic desolation over the land. Oh,
shut up the sluices before every verdant spot is buried beneath the
inundation.