The Ohio organ, of the temperance reform., September 02, 1853, Page 261, Image 5

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THE OHIO ORGAN OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORM.
,261
men who have a feeling for thorn ;
who seek to bolster up their smother
ed reason by starving into subjection
their debauched, unruly passions.
But to return' to the subject from
which we have a ' little digressed.
That man certainly cannot be con
sidered otherwise than a poor thirty, a
bubbling, noisy pert upon society, who
is eternally trumpeting his feeble and
vaporous objections to every enter-1
prise that comes up, however impor
tant, when his own brainless cranium j
is not the mother of one iota of origin
ality, not even enough to concoct the
meanest and most trivial enterprise.
But unfortunately we have such men
amongst us; and they seek to barb
their exasperated opposition to the
modern temperance, reform with' a
double-edged pretence. You ask one
of thm his views on this subject, and '
he will very piously say, "Oh I I am
heartily in favor of temperance re
formation, as a moral movement, but
am opposed to legal enactment upon
the subject." Yes, they are willing
to, see the angel of the moral law
standing upon the mount of God, with
outstretched arms, beckoning, forever
unheeded, the children of men ; they
are willing to see thattholy image flout
ed and desecrated still, by the bloody
wrongi ana torments of the liquor
traffic, but are shocked, Oh I bow
shocked, at the strange idea of at
tempting to regulate this parent sin by
human law. But in the name of all
reason, if the laws of man' ever oper
ated in holy conjunction with the laws
of heaven, who, let us ask, Would not
consider this case a parallel to any in
the history of the world? Itwquld
seem as though human legislation had
blocked up every other loophole of
iniquity, as though it had presented a
bold bosom to all the other crimes of
man, but left this wild, infernal chasm,
yawning from the very depths of hell,
to swallow up the ever-flowing tides
of humanity as they sweep down its
purgatorial steeps. 7 And those men
who profess to be in favor of the tem
perance reform, as a moral movement,
but are opposed to having this main
passage, from earth to . the regions of
death, blockaded by human law, are,
in our opinion, the most dangerous
instrumentalities that now obstruct
the temperance cause ; for in the case
of those who avow open hostility to
temperance in all its forms, their in
fluence is completely identical ; it ex
tends not beyond themselves ; other
wise with the former class. The
"Commercial," we regret exceedingly
to say, has turned out to be one of the
men of only half faith ; and among
the numerous objections he has con
jured up to defeat the Maine Law, ap
peared the following in an issue of
last week. He says in the first place
'The law deters some from crime by its
threats of punishment j but it it not con
clusive that they are thereby reformed. It
punishes others ; but the cases of decided
reformation resulting from the infliction of
- jegal penalties, are exceptional rather than
-common. It would teem from this that the
, law haa its province, within which it is
' available for the good of mankind, and that
outside of that province it has little effi
' ciency. To Invoke it illegitimately, is to
tax its powers to an extent to which it can
not respond, and it is not Impossible that
, injury rather than good will be the effect."
, Well, now that argument is cer
junly very futile and inconclusive as
to a prohibitory law. Does any one
suppose that the whisky population of
our State would hanker eternally after
a beveisge, were it removed from
their reach ? Would they not become
entirely weaned b a very short time ?
Most assuredly they would. And even
the trafficker in liquors would,, after a
time, settle down in new business, and
remember his old trade only wiifi
feelings of profound horror and regret.
But so far as he is concerned, no mat
ter whether he reforms or not, if he
persists in his nefarious business, it is
the very design of a prohibitory law
to make him suffer for the injury he
does society, the same as the black
leg, the hprse-thief and robber. The
"Commercial" should remember that
it is the liquor consumer and society
at large, that are the sufferers in this
matter, and that nearly every drink
ing man in the State would be glad, ;
from his very soul, to have the cause
of all his wretchedness removed from
him. In regard to his latter clause,
we have said so much hitherto, that
we will now leave it with the good
sense of every individual, and the un
mistakable evidence he may gain in
respect to that part of the subject from
those States where a prohibitory law
is in operation. Let us examine an
other of his objections. He says
' "It Is the destiny of man to exist by the
side of temptations, which assail him
through every one of his senses, and seek
to obtain control of him by means of each
of his appetites. These appetites and
senses are to remain the property of the
race, so loner as it exists, and under the
constant pressure of their Influences, the
course or humanity is to be completed. To
divest him of these attributes might ensure
a rigid observance of the letter of the laws
of the aecond table, and give great temper
ance at well as uniformity to his habits and
practices ; but it would, at the same time,
deprive him of hit free agency, and leave
no opening lar tne exercise or his moral
being."
True enough, man is destined to
struggle with temptation until he quits
this earthly scene, and in his power
to resist it, rests his hope for the eter
nal world ; but if be neglects to call
into requisition all the means within
his reach to narrow the dominion of
temptation, he becomes accountable
for that neglect of duty.
If our citizens were to permit gam
bling dens, and houses of ill-fame to
flourish in this city without the re
straint of law, and the penalty thereof,
they would most ' certainly commit a
flagrant sin. But according to the ar
gument of Mr. "Commercial," to re
move these devil tempters from our
midst by law, would destroy our free
agency. Alas 1 society would indeed
present a sad spectacle if all men were
so scrupulous about encroaching, by
human regulations, upon the free
agency of man, as you are, Mr. "Com
mercial." 1
JtW In noticing the appointments
of Speakers by the State Executive
Committee, the Piketon "Journal"
says : "In addition to this, almost
the entire press of the State is raising
its million-tongued voice for a pro
hibitory law. The result of all this
movement cannot be doubtful. The
cause of humanity, morality and reli
gion will be triumphant, and the mil
lennial dawn will be upon us. Who
can withhold his influence in the ad
vance of such a glorious cause ?"
Our Editor. ;
A few weeks ago, the Editor of the Cin
cinnati Enqtirer made an unjust asaault on
the character of the Editor of the Organ,
which was fully In keeping with the past
history of the man. 1 The charges have all
been refuted in the Organ, to the entire sat.
isfaction of every honorable man in the
State. 1 '
True to their instincts, all the little euri
of the Whisky Press of Ohio have taken
up the charges, and paraded them to their
readers in CAPS, shall caps and Ualict,
at something terrible and revolting. A
citizen of Ohio, an honest man. and one
that does not couutenanerthe liquor traffic,
aspires to a seat in theUnited States Senate,
or the Gubernatorial chair 1 1 ThU is a se
rious charge, or would be, if true 1 1 Now,
suppose Gen. Cary does have political aspi.
rations, whose bnsiness U it f Is it not
praiseworthy in every American citizen to
be ambitious of honorable fame, if he pos
testes sufficient talent to sustain himself f
Which would reflect the moat honor on a
man the elevation to office on strictly tem
perance principles, or solely by the influ
ence of the liquor traffic, as a large majority
are ? But there is no probability that Osn.
Cary will ever fill any political station ; he
does not desire it, and he should be allowed
to speak for himself. The secret of the
whole matter is, these little eurt are all op
posed to the Maine Law and having failed
to convince the people that the Law U un
just, oppressive, unconstitutional, and, if
adopted, can not be enforced, they have
commenced an onslaught against the leaders
of the temperance hosts, hoping to gain by
vituperation what they could not by argu
ment. But It will not answer. Farmers,
merchants, mechanics and laboring men
are too intelligent now-a days to have the
" wool pulled over their eye;." by any such
attempts. How patriotic and democratic
would it be, if these " mighty men " "the
tentiuels of freedom" would gracefully
yield to the known wishes of three-fourths
of the people of Ohio I
Whenever the advocates of a cause com
mence slandering private citizens, who have
the confidence and esteem of alt who know
them, their cause is hopeless, and thus it
is with the opposers of the Maine Law.
Here it a sample taken from the Marietta
Republican :
" A few weeks since, S. F. Cary, editor of
the "Unto Urgan or tne Temperance Re
form." took occasion to attack Lester Bliss,
the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant
Governor, and at the tame lauded Isaac J
Allen, the Whin candidate for that office.
The pretext for his course is that Mr. Bliss
is not known to be in favor of the Maine
Law ; but it it well known that he Is a tem
perance man. It is a notorious fact that
many of the Whig nominees fur State offi
ces are not temperance men ; yet tnis " no
party" temperance Urgan does not point
then out as special objects for the opposi
tion of its readers. The truth of the mat
ter is, Mr. Cary cares less for temperance
than he does for whlggery and self-aggrandizement,
and uses it as a means of gaining
political distinction."
This article was written by the Junior
Editor, the Senior being absent. The fact
that he is just from the wildt of Virginia,
and belongs to that class known as the
Cohea, (who do not, of course, belong to
the "first families,") alone excuses him
from a severe castigation at our hands.
The Editor of the Athens Messenger com
meats on the article in this wise ,
" Now, it requires a degree of- boldness
not often met with for a man to undertake
to say that Lester Bliss Is 'well known to
be a temperance. man'! '"The pretext it
that Mr. Blis is sot known to be In favor
of the Maine Lawbut it is well known
that he it a temperance man" I Now. Mr.
McCormick,you had better go right straight
back to Virginia, and grind your organ to
a community more in accordance with your
taste and intelligence, than you will be
likely to nod in unio. taster hum a tem
perance man I If tor were to tell, such
stuff to a stable of horses, they arould kick
ut to death for lying. Why, dear air, this
same Lester Bliss, when in the Legislature
last winter, with mora than two hundred
thousand petitions before him from the men
that he now expects to vote for him for
Lieutenant Governor, praying and suppli
cating for the Maine Law, made a speech
in favor of an insulting amendment to the
bill, providing that iust such liquor-loving
men at himself might be permitted to in-
J.dulge i by virtue of Jaw "on sheep-washing
occasions i , . .
Neither is it true that " many of the Whig
nominees for State .offices are not temper
ance men," nor is it true that Gen, Cary,
as editor of the Organ, neglects or refuses
to point out as special objects for the op
position of it readers " those of the Whig
candidate! on the State ticket who are not
temperance men. We are a constant reader
of the Organ, and know what we assert. ' '
Neither is it true that Gen. Cary "cares
leu for temperance than he does for Whig
gery and self-aggrandizement." The world
will write that declaration false without a
moment's Hesitation. When Mr. Can first
entered the temperance field it was an un-
pujjumr measure witn me masses, ana du
ring the past ten years be hat been spend
ing his lime, talents and fortune ia the
cause, without a deaire or expectation of
any other reward than that which belongs
to every philanthropist and benefactor the
Consciousness Of havinir linen Inilniirunhl
In bringing about a moral triumph that will
uj-iiTo uj puuutu preiermeni, ana tnat
will place his name high among the great
and good of earth." , .
-
Delegates to Hamiltoa County Tem
perance Convention. . '
The friends of a prohibitory law in
this county, similar to that in Maine,
met in the various wards and town-.
ships on Saturday night, and appoint
ed the following named delegates to a
Convention to nominate candidates for
the General Assembly, pledged to en
act a Prohibitory Liquor Law in Ohio,
to be held at Smith & Nixon's Hall,
on Wednesday, the 14th day of Sep
tember. 7
First Ward E. M. Gregory, J. F.
Cunningham, J. S. Crouse, Jos. Her
ron ; Third Ward R. II. Stevenson.
John Kinnan, B. F. Stewart, Thomas
Casey ; 4th Ward H. H. Martin, W.
W. Higbee, Wm. A. Willshire, Geo.
W. C. Johnson ; Sixth Ward Alex
ander Webb, R. B. Moore, Dr. Coop
er, Horace G. Bigelow ; Eighth Ward
Ebenezer Hulse, Archibald M. HUT,
Dr. J. Wadsworth, HortonEnsjgnj
Ninth War3CoirArM7Robinson,
A. M. Garout, Ira French, A. Pea
cock; 13th Ward J. W. F. Smith,
Israel T. Moore, John Elliott, S. Mil
ler ; Fourteenth Ward D. B. Lupton,
John Hilton, Geo. A. Wheeler, Samu
el Trevor; Fifteenth Ward Caleb
Clark, Rev. J F. Conrey, J. H. Hoole,
Ira S. Center; Sixteenth Ward .
James Murray, Willard Coleman,
Alexander Seal, Wm. B. Fisk; Ful
tonThomas Morse.A braham Clark,
Samuel Free, Edward Jones ; Spring
field township J. G. Allen, Dr. E. S.
Close, P. Dom, E. R. Glenn.
Carroll County.
Oen. E. E. Eckley has received the nom
ination for Representative In this county.
He it an able man, and will do good service
in the Legislature for the Maine Law.
Warren County.
.We learn from a friend just returned from
this county, that a Maine Law ticket for
Senator and Representative is in the field,
with every prospect of a triumphant elec
tion. .
E7 The members of Fulton Temple of
Honor feeling disposed to aid in the glori
ous campaign now going on in Ohio, order
ed 500 Tracts for gratuitous distribution in
their village. We learn from that devoted
friend of the cause, Samuel Free, that quite
a number of their best temperance men be
long to Fulton Temple. , . ; .
We are happy to learn that, Losantville
Temple it doing effective work for the
Maine Law. They hold meetings every
Sunday morning at one of their ship-yards,
which are well attended. ' Fulton will, as
heretofore, come out the banner town.
BT We expect our Editor to be at Us
post about the 12th Inst.