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 THE LAW AND THE OFFENCE: 
 
 ^ 
 
 LECTURE 1 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 
 PROHIBITORY LAWS, 
 
 • 
 
 I IN KEGAU!) TO THE USE OF 
 
 INTOXICATING bETOS,:,:,, 
 
 EY 
 
 REV. J. C. L0VEJOY, ' 
 
 1 C A M B n I D G E P R T . 1 
 
 ! !■ 
 J'rice ^^) J >') ]><■/■ loO — sinf/le copy 8 cents. i 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 i PRINTED BY CHARLES C. P. MOODY, OLD DICKINSON OFFICE. j 
 ; No. 52 Washington street. 1 
 
 . i ■ 1852. . ' i 
 
THE LAW AND THE OFFENCE 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 
 PROHIBITORY LAWS, 
 
 BEGARD TO THE USE OP 
 
 INTOXICATING DRINKS, 
 
 REV. fff Co^ LOVEJOY, 
 
 CAMBRIDGEPORT. 
 
 Price $5.00 pe?' 100 — single copy 8 cents. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRINTED BY CHARLES C. P. MOODY. OLD DICKINSON OFFICE, 
 
 No. 52 Washington Street, 
 
 1852. 
 

 JN ^.v/ H'^ NUB 
 
 ^ 
 
 Camlridge, March 18, 1852. 
 Dear Sir, — 
 
 The undersigned, who were among the few who were permit- 
 ted, by the inclemency of the weather, to listen to the discourse which you 
 delivered on Sunday evening last, upon the proposed law, known as the 
 "Maine Liquor Law," now under consideration in the Legislature of Massachu- 
 setts, being desirous that both sides of the question may be fully presented, 
 respectfully request a copy of your discourse for publication. 
 Your obedient serv'ts, 
 
 JUSTIN A. JACOBS, 
 J. LIVERMORE, 
 S. P. HEYWOOD, 
 A. CHAMBERLAIN, 
 G. W. LIVERMORE, 
 FRANCIS HUNT, 
 JOHN MANNING. 
 Rev. J. G.LovEjoY. 
 
 tdPYRIGBt SECVREt). 
 
LECTURE 
 
 "Moreover THE Law entered that the Offence siight abound." 
 (Romans 5; 20.) 
 
 This is the invariable influence of law upon a corrupt mind. It 
 makes the offence abound. Restrictions upon the manifestations of an 
 inward desire, inflame that desire. Parricides, said Seneca, began by 
 law. So Chrysostom, " where we covet anything, and are hindered 
 from obtaining it, the flame of our inordinate desire is the more aug- 
 mented." If there is nothing in the prohibition to subdue the inward 
 desire, that desire presses against the barrier, and resisted, recoils with 
 irritation upon itself, summons new strength to break forth, if it can. 
 Now one of two things must happen ; you must have power enough in 
 your penalty, to maintain the law against the original desire, and these 
 augmented forces of the desire, or your law is prostrate. Or else 
 when you find this newly developed power prostrating the law, and 
 trampling on the penalty, you must resort to some new expedient. 
 
 The impotence of the Law of God on moral beings, is met by God 
 by the potver of the gospel. 
 
 " For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the 
 flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
 sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might 
 be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 
 The gospel bi-ings men up to the mould of the law, by penetrating 
 to the heart, and working there. It sends pardoning love home to the 
 soul, and causes it to thrill with the joys of forgiveness, and then leads 
 it easily in the path of holiness, the way of eternal life. 
 
 The depraved heart of man, and therefore the uneasy and restless 
 heart, generates within itself corrupt and inordinate desires ; those desires 
 flame forth in diseased appetites, and set on fire the whole course of 
 nature, and are set on fire of hell. These inward burning desires give 
 all the force and the strength to temptation, spread death within, and 
 crime and woes without. 
 
 When you introduce a new law, you must look to it, that you have 
 power, not only to crush whatever opposition may now exist, but also 
 all that may be excited by the irritation which your law will produce. 
 
 And now I know very well the condiiions under which I speak in 
 regard to the proposed Prohibitory Law upon the subject of intoxica- 
 ting liquors, and I accept those conditions. If I do not make out a rea- 
 sonable ground of opposition, I must be condemned. I know very well 
 the excitement that now prevails, and will increase upon this subject, 
 and in the midst of that flame, I must stand, and perhaps be consumed, 
 and perhaps not. I would have avoided it if I could ; but neutrality 
 
I 
 
 1 
 
 upon any subject where you have formed a definite opinion, is a posi- 
 tion only for a coward, and one that no man can long occupy, without 
 forfeiting his own self-respect, and doing violence to his moral nature. 
 
 We are apt, however, to comfort ourselves some way, and I remem- 
 ber truth has been in the fire before, and never came out the worse 
 for it. One thing should console those who are opposed to what I say; 
 there are multitudes upon the other side to answer it. And then 
 when you have nailed your colors to the mast, and written " Prohibitori/ 
 Laio" upon them, and I have written the old motto, " Light and Love," 
 we will launch our temperance barks upon the great ocean of the future, 
 and sit down by the shore as ti'ue philosophers, and see which escapes 
 the ice bergs, which the rocks, and which goes down as the model for 
 future ages. And if you feel that the case is made out against the law,^ 
 and you are determined not to yield it up, why, then you can get vexed, 
 say hard things, let your indignation flame up, — holy indignation of 
 course, — but just remember that holy indignation is sometimes a little 
 hot. " Friend of publicans and sinners," was written on the raiment of 
 him, whose shoes and whose name I am not worthy to bear. 
 
 But to the subject. I shall tell you the history of my opinions upon 
 this matter, what they are, and the reasons for them. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago, when an under-graduate in Bowdoin College, 
 Maine, I travelled fifteen miles on foot, to give my first lecture upon 
 the subject of temperance, availing myself largely of statistics from an 
 address by Chas. Sprague, Esq., of Boston, and I think also from a 
 sermon by Dr. Humphrey. 
 
 From that time up to the year 1840,1 gave repeated temperance lec- 
 tures in vai'ious places, all gratuitous ; travelling commonly at my 
 own expense. In 1840 and '41, I was employed by the State Society 
 of Maine, to lecture upon the subject through the State. During that 
 period, I made the whole subject a study, according to the best of my 
 abilities, and arrived at some fixed and definite conclusions. I convers- 
 ed personally and freely, I presume, with more than one thousand' 
 drinking men ; got at, so far as possible, the cause, the progress, the 
 temptations to this vice, and the reason for continuing the habit. The 
 causes were various : some outspoken, square-faced fellows, said they 
 drank because they loved it ; some to bury sorrow, some because they 
 were social, and were in the company of drinking men. I found that 
 if drinking or drunkenness is the only vice of which a man is guilty,, 
 there is hope of him ; but very frequently the whole foundation of 
 moral character, is in such cases gone. Not only is the breath corrupt^ 
 but the lungs are rotten. Corruption within works out in drunkenness 
 as one of its most terrible forms, but is by no means the cause of all' 
 other crimes, but almost always the chosen companion. It is commonly 
 a sign of inward wo, and a sign too, that " all is lost." The process 
 generally is, corruption running to excess in some form, and not rum 
 generating corruption. The leprosy lies " deep within." 
 
 The subject of a prohibitory law was discussed in Maine from 1836 
 to 1841, with a great deal of earnestness, and my opinions were then, 
 as now, that the thing is absui'd, impossible, and unjust. 
 
 Now let us for a moment glance at the history and phases of the 
 
temperance cause itself, up to the present time. From 1827 to 1833, 
 the war was against ardent spirits. The weapons were, facts, argu- 
 ments, pledges of total abstinence. In the favorite language of that day 
 " Light and Love." And never were seven years more fruitful of good 
 than those seven years. Never in so short a time in any country was 
 such a change in the social habits and customs of any people. The angel 
 of mercy came down and stirred the pure fountains of water, and multitudes 
 were healed. There was perfect union among all classes, agreement in 
 opinion, one object constantly before the mind, and that steadily pur- 
 sued. Believers were every where added to the ranks of temperance, 
 both men and women. The angel of temperance with the pledge of 
 total abstinence in her hand, wore her robes without a spot or blemish. 
 Nothing could be said against the cause. The call was for voluntary 
 efforts, willing sacrifices, chosen self-denial. Again and again, were 
 coercion, threats, and penalties repudiated. It was the triumph of rea- 
 son, kindness and love, over habit, custom, and appetite. The effort 
 every where showed the qualities of mercy, it was twice blessed. " It 
 blesses him that takes, and him that gives." It bore such fruit on all 
 its branches, that it seemed the harbinger of the day of universal love. 
 So it was with the gospel of Jesus Christ, during the first three hundred 
 years of its history upon earth. Her weapons were not carnal, but 
 mighty — and as soon as they became carnal, they were no longer mighty. 
 
 The first decree of Constantine, in 313, was an act of to?erai^o?^, mak- 
 ing the Christian religion equal as to civil privileges, with idolatry. 
 The former gained constantly, but slowly upon the latter. The friends 
 of the pure faith became impatient ; they saw clearly the absurdity of 
 idolatry ; besides it degraded, shockingly degraded its worshippers ; it 
 lead them into all sort of crimes — idolatry was a dreadful temptation to 
 some of the best minded people in the world, — they always, when 
 accused, charged their sins over to their gods. " Abolish the idols," 
 said the Christian sages of that time ; " let us have a prohibitory law." 
 And they at once had it ; heretics Avere banished, idolaters put to the 
 sword, and the sword of the church, in the hand of the Roman empe- 
 ror, drank blood, and she herself drank the cup of weakness and tremb- 
 ling, and the martyrs fell on the wrong side, and their blood was the 
 seed of idolatry, which sprang up in sacred relics, images of the saints, 
 and the transfusion of the pagan philosophy through the entire doctrines 
 of Christianity. Such was the effect of a prohibitory law introduced 
 to accomplish a moral and spiritual end. That was the first prohibitory 
 law, intending to change by law, the habits, customs and opinions of a 
 large portion of the community, wielded by the hands of Christian 
 men. There have been plenty of them since, and they commonly des- 
 troy their authors, after inflicting incredible evils upon society. 
 
 In 1833, the wine question was introduced, and brought conflicting 
 opinions in contact with each other, in temperance societies and conven- 
 tions. The early signers of the ardent spirit pledge, however, mostly 
 concurred in the exclusion of wine. On this subject there was a great 
 deal of bad argument and worse exegesis, in trying to show that the 
 wine spoken of in scripture, was not real wine. Of course the attempt 
 failed. " Some," says the historian of that period, "who had delivered. 
 
6 
 
 public addresses, and stood foremost in the rank of reformers, were 
 thrown into the back ground, and stood as silent spectators of passing 
 events." (Davis p. 139.) 
 
 At or about this time, there was an attempt to promote the cause of 
 temperance by patronage. Temperance taverns were opened all over 
 the country. With some few exceptions, the attempt was a complete 
 failure. It ended in mutual recriminations and hypoci'isy. The land- 
 loi'ds complained that they did not receive the encouragement held out 
 by the resolutions of the temperance conventions. The friends of tem- 
 perance on the other hand, complained that the landlords carried the 
 matter farther than they intended, and gave them not only harmless drinks, 
 but also set before them tables without any temptations upon them. 
 
 In 1840 the whirlwind of Washingtonianism passed over the country. 
 This did some good, brought a few up from the depths of sin, and led 
 them to the Lamb of God, and they have become pillars in his temple. 
 Too many of them, however, gloried in their shame. "Without a single 
 qualification save that they were not then drunkards, they became pub- 
 lic teachers of a new philosophy, that all the force of sin was in the 
 temptation, all the guilt of sin was in the person next behind the tempta- 
 tion, and the poor suffering sinner was the innocent victim of these double 
 wiles. This philosophy has swept upward into legislative halls. It is one 
 of the leaves from that tree of knowledge, from which we learn that all 
 sin is the result of the wicked organization of society. The effort to 
 legislate upon this subject, is the first time that society has consented 
 to make itself responsible for this doctrine. 
 
 And now we come to the law — the law which attempts to outlaw 
 all intoxicating liquors as a beverage. This result must be reached as 
 I affirm by choice, and not by compulsion — by conviction and not by 
 legislation. And if you attempt to reach it by legislation, and fail, then 
 you become simply ridiculous, and the cause in whose name you ope- 
 rate is dishonored ; and not only dishonored, but its friends discouraged, 
 and its enemies will triumph openly. 
 
 A prohibitoiy law upon this subject, to my mind, is just as impos- 
 sible, in any part of the civilized world, as it is impossible to make a 
 broom that will sweep all the stars out of the sky every night ; or to 
 remove the ocean by dipping a sponge into it and then squeezing it 
 out upon the shore. 
 
 An early and constant friend of this cause, says of all partial efforts, 
 "As well might the ocean be poured upon the Andes and its waters 
 be stopped from violently rushing down their sides." 
 
 "The reformation of a town, or even of a State, is but emptying of 
 its waters the bed of a river, to be instantly replaced by the wateri? 
 from above ; or like the creation of a vacuum in the atmosphere, which 
 is instantly filled by the pressure of the circumjacent air." 
 
 But logic, and not rhetoric is wanted upon this subject. Take aUjmst ex- 
 perience — put that down as tlie first reason. It is not for the want of 
 attempts at this kind of legislation that there is not such a law now. 
 Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois, and Massachusetts passed prohibitory 
 laws on this subject thirteen years ago, and they immediately became 
 a dead letter, or were repealed. The historian of that period, now says ; 
 
" From 1836 to IS iO, the cause advanced slowly. The subject of Li- 
 cense Laws was discussed largely in legislatures, and some unwise 
 laws were enacted, which diverted the public mind from the great 
 w^ork in which they had been successfully engaged." (Davis, Half Cen- 
 tury, page 140.) What were the license laws here spoken of? Pro- 
 hibitory laws ! During all this time the legislatures of half the States, 
 have been trying to improve the laws upon this subject so as to stop 
 or diminish the traflic in intoxicating drinks. 
 
 Some twenty thousand men have had their minds directed to the 
 matter, as legislators, and have tried their best, and no prohibitory 
 law has yet been found. The truth is, no man can see through tliis 
 subject, — take the circumstances into his eye, and absorb them into his 
 law, so that it will work in practice. A man that can make a good law, 
 entering into and permeating society ; touching all parts of the body pol- 
 itic, pressing not to break here, nor letting aught escape there, is a great 
 man. Laws are the most delicate machinery that happens to be in this 
 Avorld. A man who makes and perfects a good law, pays the world 
 a thousand times for living in it. Laws are the fruits of past centuries 
 — the seeds of all future years, springing up around every generation 
 Avith fresh blessings. Always spending themselves, and yet ever grow- 
 ing stronger — the older they are, the quicker their perceptions — the 
 more quietly they sleep, the more certainly they watch. The less they 
 say, the more they do — the less they are known, the more worthy of 
 fame ; their obscurity is their honor — the fewer their victims, the more 
 complete their victories. You would think it a very ditficult task to 
 introduce a new nerve into the human body, so that it shall perform its 
 own functions and not disturb the functions of other members of the 
 body. It is likewise a very difficult thing to introduce a new organic 
 law into society. 
 
 That past attempts at legislation have failed, is proved from the re- 
 port of the committee who brought forward the Bill. They say " exist- 
 ing laws have proved a failure." That this is so, so far as the pres- 
 ent laws pretend to specify for what purposes liquors shall be sold, is 
 true, I have no doubt. But that the Laws of this State have done 
 great good by limiting and restraining the traffic, there can be no doubt. 
 And if they were not denounced, and were executed, as they would be 
 if they were not denounced, they would do a great deal more good. 
 But one exception remains against this otherwise universal experience. 
 " Maine, it is believed," says the report, " has struck the true principle." 
 
 This belief was soon shaken in the minds of honorable Senators ; 
 for at the close of the debate, one Senator, a friend of the law, says : — 
 " this is no Maine Law since your numerous amendments to it ; and the 
 Maine Law was what the people asked for. This has none of the 
 vitality of that laio." Here you are again, afloat on the tide of endless 
 experiment — trying to do an impossible thing. "K the mind," 
 says McCosh, one of the best of Scotch metaphysicians, "If the 
 mind can be brought to philosophical humility, in no other way, let it be 
 by its being driven on that wall of adamant, of which Sir James 
 Mcintosh speaks. " The wall of adamant which bounds human inquiry, 
 has scarcely ever been discovered by any adventurer, until he hasbeen 
 
8 
 
 roused by the shock that drove him back." The wall of adamant in the 
 line of prohibitory laws, can be found in no other way probably. 
 But the Maine Law has worked well in Maine. What are nine months 
 in the life of a law ? It shows no more what the law is, nor what it will 
 do for society, than an infant nine months old, shows what kind of 
 man he will make. Almost any scheme in the hands of its originator, 
 filled with enthusiasm, working with a zeal that never sleeps, will pro- 
 duce great apparent and immediate results. New plans of heal- 
 ing the diseases of the body are often proposed, and proved too, by 
 actual success. In second hands the thing nearly fails. Six months in 
 cold water does not soak out total depravity ; and while there is a 
 depraved heart there will be depraved appetites ; and with these, crimes 
 and diseases. 
 
 Jonathan Edwards, — preaching original sin at Northampton, and 
 God's method of healing it by the salt of his grace, carried to the foun- 
 tain, the heart, by his Spirit, — did more to heal all manner of diseases 
 and prevent all manner of crimes than any number of Round Hill 
 Baths or prohibitory laws. " Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must 
 be born again." If you can do that work, then work away to enact 
 laws to make men better ; but till then you had better punish overt acts, 
 and let intentions alone. Let men be tried for acts done, and not 
 arraigned because some person, ever so good or ever so bad, ever so 
 discriminating or ever so hasty, says " he believes, and has reason to 
 believe " that such a person intends to commit an offence. 
 
 This leads me to an analysis of the law, and the circumstances under 
 which it is to operate. The end and aim, professedly, of the law, is to 
 prevent ci-ime, by taking away from those who use intoxicating drinks, 
 this temptation to crime. Can you reach it by legislation ? Suppose 
 the Law passed and executed. All the liquors manufactured in this 
 State and in this Country are out of the hands of drinking men. The 
 ocean, on every wave and from every port in the civilized world, brings 
 it to our ports, in all quantities, from puncheons down to pint bottles. 
 The importers can sell it to every body, and every man can buy it, and 
 those who cannot buy it in the measures furnished can club together, 
 and then divide it. And every man for whom you spill one barrel of 
 rum, which he believes is property, and which you have sanctioned as 
 property by your law, and license, and sale, will buy ten barrels and 
 give it away ; and intoxicating drinks will then become a temptation, 
 as they never have been before. Then you have Canada on the north, 
 and every railroad will become a river of death to the community. 
 
 But suppose you could carry legislation a great many steps farther, 
 and get Congress to forbid its importation ; have you banished the arts ? 
 Have you stopped the sun from shining ? Wherever there is seventy 
 degrees of heat falling upon the juice of almost any vegetable, there is 
 fermentation, and fermentation is the mother of alcohol ; and I should 
 just as soon think to make a law against fermentation, except for certain 
 purposes, as to make a law to regulate the use of the result of fermenta- 
 tion. Or, you may carry it one step farther. The sun is the cause of 
 fermentation, as I " have reason to believe and do believe," — put him 
 for sixty days into the arctic zone. 
 
Every vegetable on eartli that has one particle of saccharine matter 
 in it, has only to be put in water till it ferments, and you have alcohol ; 
 five dollars or less will put a distillery into the house of every man who 
 wants it. England put a very heavy duty upon whiskey carried into 
 Ireland. Private distillation, concealed distillation went on all over the 
 kingdom. The British Government had not power to stop it by pains 
 and penalties. Where drinking abounded, introduced and regulated by 
 law, it did much more abound against the law, — over the law. 
 
 Besides, you admit by your law that intoxicating liquors must be 
 made — must be sold — -for certain purposes ; that they must, in short, be 
 within the reach of every man in the community. But you say, for cer- 
 tain purposes, which you define by law, and which I say must be forever 
 settled by the voluntary fiat of the man who buys. Here is a point 
 which, unless you are omniscient, you can never settle. You can never 
 go one step beyond the discretion of the seller, and the moral sense of 
 the buyer. The seller of an article so liable to abuse, so constantly 
 abused, should certainly be a man of integrity, and sell only for the 
 public good. You say he shall sell for certain purposes only. Suppose 
 he is honest, upright, and intends to do so. Will not those very persons 
 who abuse the article make false pretences ? The very men from 
 whom you need no declaration, will make a true one ; and those who 
 ought not to have it, will make a false declaration. 
 
 Suppose two men, — neighbors, — both standing precisely alike as to 
 character in the community. Each says to the other, " I must have 
 some liquor;'' both want it to drink, and they avow it to each other. 
 Both go to the public store ; one tells the truth and does not get it, the 
 other tells a lie and does get it. Very well, you say, men often get 
 things under false pretences, — that cannot be helped. Certainly not. 
 But what effect will this operation have upon the mind, the passions, 
 the appetites of this man who told the truth, and lost his dram by it ? 
 Is his desire abated, his purpose changed ? So far from it, that what 
 was before incidental, and subordinate to other purposes in life, becomes 
 ascendant ; it takes possession of him. He has now not only an appe- 
 tite for drink to be gratified, but he has, what he at least considers, an 
 injustice to be avenged ; and he will do it by seeking in other channels 
 the gratification of his appetite, and by hating this law. He will oppose 
 it — overthrow it — if he can. Let us see how that stands. Look at the 
 number of victims of this law, and see whether it is probable you can 
 execute it. I do not know the proportion of a community who may be 
 habitual oifenders of any law, and yet that law, in some cases, may be 
 executed. But I think the number must be very small. 
 
 A very large majority of laws are kept by most citizens from their 
 respect to the principles of the law. And when, for any reason, a con- 
 siderable portion of the community are, openly or secretly, violators of 
 any law, in spirit or in form, you cannot execute it. A proprietor of 
 land in one of the Western States sued for rails taken from his land by 
 one of the neighboring citizens. The case was proved by an eye 
 witness, — no doubt was on the mind of the court or the bar. Verdict, 
 " not guilty." When the jury were set free, the astonished proprietor 
 asked one of them the reason of so strange a verdict. '* Why," said he, 
 
10 
 
 " there were six men on the jury who fence their farms in the same way." 
 Now this law reaches fairly, in its moral bearings, every man wlio 
 drinks, as well as he who sells intoxicating drinks as a beverage. You 
 need tell me nothing about the sympathy of the hard drinkers with tliis 
 law, so that temptation shall be moved out of their way. That may be 
 the feeling for a moment, and at times, and it is a good excuse to cheat 
 you and sometimes themselves with. It seems you dare not trust a man 
 who sells, on the jury ; will you trust a man who drinks ? Whatever 
 an individual might do on the bench or in the jury-box, every man who 
 buys intoxicating liquors as a beverage will feel that whatever the guilt 
 of the man who sells to him or the like of him is, his own is just equal 
 to it, and deserves the same punishment, whether it can have it or not. 
 Would a Senator debase his moral sense by voting for such a law, to 
 press hard upon others, when he did not intend to keep it himself ? 
 Would a Governor sign a bill exposing a man to sixty days in prison 
 as a felon, when he meant to persevere in both buying and drinking ? 
 Would not a Judge hesitate to sentence a man to prison who had sent 
 him, that very day, three bottles of wine from an imported cask ? But 
 you say all these men, if they continue to drink, will get it by the cask, 
 and in lawful ways. Will that lead you to respect them, or will they 
 respect themselves any more for that ? Will they make or execute a 
 law upon others, the burdens of which they will not take upon them- 
 selves ? The farmer who makes a barrel of cider on his own farm, 
 from his own orchard, and keeps it thirty days till it ferments, and 
 then sells it, is, by this law, subject to a fine of $100 for the first oifence 
 and imprisonment for sixty days if the fine is not paid. For the second 
 offence the penalty is doubled ; and for the third offence the fine is $200 
 and imprisonment four months in the common jail ! Now I do not know 
 but the people of Massachusetts are ready to execute such a law as 
 that ; but in the language of another, " there may be those who think 
 that such an extreme system of legislation wiU work oiit a moral refor- 
 mation." " If you think so, I confess you are too strong for me. You 
 are the victor in the debate. But before lean say that you are not ike 
 victim of a strong delusion, God, in his great mercy, must cure me of 
 mine " 
 
 It may be said, in answer to this, that the line between what are and 
 what are not intoxicating drinks is not very clearly defined, and that, 
 probably, the law will not be construed to cover cider and house beer. 
 The answer is, these are covered by the words and a fair interpretation 
 of the words of the Bill. Besides, previous legislation shows precisely, 
 so far as certain things are concerned, what it must mean. In the Re- 
 vised Statutes there is a distinction made between fermented and dis- 
 tilled liquors. Rum, brandy, and other spiritous liquors are named in 
 one class ; wine, beer, ale, cider, and other intoxicating drinks are put 
 in another class. In a law additional, and passed in 1850, the word 
 spiritous is stricken out, and intoxicating substituted for it ; so that the 
 word intoxicating becomes a generic and common name for both distilled 
 and fermented liquors. This proposed law specifies nothing, but says ; 
 " spiritous or intoxicating," by which they rnust mean all that have 
 been named in previous statutes, and to which these words have been 
 applied. 
 
11 
 
 It ■will certainly be news througliout the civilized world, that a man 
 may be imprisoned four months in Massachusetts, for making and sell- 
 ing the very article which Christ made and gave away at Galilee. Of 
 all the wines on earth on which men get intoxicated, I know of none 
 worse than the icine of self-righteousness. This turns the most quickly 
 into the acetous fermentation. 
 
 It will be said, again, that it is not the intention of the law-makers 
 to execute it upon cider and small beer. "Why not say so in your Bill 
 then ? Besides, if you do not intend to imprison men or women for mak- 
 er selling small beer, as most certainly may be done under this law ; yet 
 will persons consent to live under such a liability ? Are you sure no 
 envious or revengeful neighbor may be found, who will watch for such 
 an opportunity ? If you knock in the head of your neighbor's barrel 
 of wine or gin, will he not find an opportunity to avenge himself on you, 
 or some friend of this law, who exposes himself to its penalties by 
 delivering any where in the Commonwealth, except in his own house, 
 three bottles of beer, wine, or cider ? "Will such a law as that be tol- 
 erated ? will it spread light and love ? will it be for the peace, good 
 order, and happiness of the people of this Commonwealth ? 
 
 But the biU goes farther. If any three persons, voters in any town, 
 shall make complaint under oath, that they have reason to believe, and 
 do believe that intoxicating drinks are kept and intended for sale — then 
 the justice shall issue his search warrant. No discretion is here left 
 to the Judge. The premises of every man are subject to search, if three 
 men, (as amended,) one man affirms that he believes liquors are 
 there intended for sale ; and his dwelling house, if he believes they 
 have been sold. The person complaining need not afiirm that it is so, 
 but only that he believes it is so. Now some persons believe on a very 
 small amount of evidence, and the less the evidence, the stronger the 
 faith. The imagination can multiply evidence as fast as the microscope 
 living creations on the waving leaves of the forest. 
 
 Some persons believe the glorious and happy spirits of the dead are 
 sent under tables to answer silly questions and enrich knaves, but do 
 you want the search warrant to be at the mercy of persons of so easy 
 faith? 
 
 Another feature of the bill, looks to me a little like vengeance — a 
 feature that will neither promote morals, good feeling, nor temperance — 
 a feature which will exasperate and sting for years to come, wherever 
 this law shall have been executed. I refer to the destruction of the 
 liquors. This is said to be essential to the law ; if so, it only shows 
 how absurd the attempt is to frame a prohibitory law. While the 
 law provides for the destruction of gin or brandy, by the ofiicers of a 
 city or town ; another officer of the same city or town is buying another 
 barrel for the public store. Why this Avanton waste ? Why not confis- 
 cate your seized liquor, and save buying a barrel ? Is it for the moral 
 effect ? The only effect that I can see it is likely to have is a very 
 immoral one. It will sting to madness every man you treat in this 
 way. However it may seem to you, it will look to hun like the wanton 
 exercise of power. Justice has no such attribute as this. All laws 
 are, or ought to be, to establish and maintain justice. The foundations 
 
12 
 
 of her throne are too deep, she sits too calm and serene upon it, to in- 
 dulge in this apparently spiteful and revengeful proceeding. This 
 destruction, has been compared to the destruction of the instruments of 
 gambling and counterfeiting. If the same government kept a store to 
 sell gambling and counterfeiting instruments, the cases would be par- 
 allel. The United States seize and sell contraband goods — why not 
 Mse rightly, what was intended for a wrong use, and save the distillation 
 or the importation of just that quantity ? Or why not send it out of the 
 State ? You allow the distiller under this very law to send it out of 
 the State, in any quantities, and for any purposes, to which the pur- 
 chaser may think best to apply it. Why not be consistent, and allow 
 them to send it only to the States where a prohibitory law will cover it, 
 and keep it from mischief. This is not doing by your neighbors as 
 you do by yourselves. And if other States do the same, then the citi- 
 zens of one State can be supplied from another, to any amount, and for 
 any purpose except for sale. 
 
 This shows, clearly to my own mind the absurdities into which men 
 plunge, when they try an impossible thing. Error is always contradict- 
 ing itself, and so is folly. Under which epithet this law shall 
 range itself, belongs to its friends to decide. 
 
 It attempts impossibilities, and is therefore crowded with absurdities. 
 It would take away temptations, and offers a bribe to hypocrisy. It 
 wets the streets of this State with rum, and then sells it freely to its 
 neighbors. It sells Avith one hand what it wastes with the other. It 
 groups everything together under generic terms, and defines noth- 
 ing. It sells for specific purposes, but marks no boundaries, makes no 
 limits — Chemical purposes ! and when a man has mixed brandy and 
 water in equal parts, and find they combine perfectly, has he not tried 
 a chemical experiment ? And when he drinks it, and tries its effect 
 upon the animal economy, he has carried the chemical experiment one 
 step farther". Don't chemists often try their drugs upon themselves ? 
 Then medicinal ! ! What man that wants to drink, that cannot feel 
 just sick enough to need such medicine. He knows what will cure him, 
 and he tells you it does so, it goes right to the spot. Who can gainsay 
 it ? Who can disprove it ? Xerxes flung chains into the angry Helles- 
 pont. Canute commanded the tide. Legislative folly has its succes- 
 sive incarnations. 
 
 There are two other objections, in my mind, to this law, and those 
 are : it is a violation of the early professions of temperance men upon 
 this subject ; and is really an attempt to do one thing, under pretened of 
 doing another. 
 
 If these objections are sustained, tolerant and honorable men, it seems 
 to me, ought to pause. 
 
 You honor pirates for one thing ; they hoist the black flag and sail 
 under their own colors. 
 
 Now all, or nearly all the early advocates of this cause, gave public 
 assurances, that they did not then, nor ever intend to make temperance 
 a political engine, nor -would they attempt to coerce men in their 
 opinions. They did not say, that the law should not be used, but 
 they did say, that as temperance men, they would not grasp political 
 
13 
 
 power "and use it technically for the cause of temperance. These 
 pledges were given in good faith, by men, some of whom are dead, 
 and some of whom are yet alive. Will you falsify this pledge ? Do 
 you deny that it was made ? No one I presume will do this. 
 
 But it will be said that this law is to prevent crime and pauperism, 
 and has nothing to do with temperance, in a technical sense, nor any 
 intention of a moral bearing other than what every good law has. 
 Can honest and fair minded men say this ? Are not the temperance 
 cause technically so called, and this law identical f 
 
 What is the pledge of the temperance societies ? " Total ahstinence 
 from intoxicating drinks as a beverage." Is not that the very central 
 point — the heart — the life blood of the law ? If the Senators had 
 told any temperance society in the State, to bring in a bill, could they 
 have done any more than put their pledge right square into it ? But 
 this you say, is the movement of a spontaneous uprising of the people ; 
 is not specific legislation for temperance men, nor brought forward by 
 them. Did the venerable prosecuting officer for Suffolk County, sug- 
 gest this bill ? Plave the prosecuting officers throughout the State asked 
 for it ? Has one Grand Jury petitioned for it ? Have the Bar 
 seen their way through it, and do they tell you it can be executed? 
 When the people move spontaneously on a subject, and that subject 
 the suppression of crime, a voice will be heard from some one or 
 all of these sources. Whence comes the law then ? Whence the 
 influence that urges it forward. From the most active temperance 
 men in New England. What says the writer who introduces this law ? 
 and the statistics accompanying it, into Massachusetts ? This is done in 
 in a small pamphlet of sixty-four pages, containing an introduction, the 
 law itself, and statements from different persons about the operation of 
 the law. This is the pamphlet which has turned the head of Mas- 
 sachusetts, and driven her back to re-enact the folly of 1838. 
 
 In the preface, the writer says : " The Law constitutes an era, and is 
 fast producing the most important revolution on the subject of Tempe- 
 rance, not only in this State, but throughout the Union, and in all civil- 
 ized countries." Again he says, this Law is " serving as the instruct- 
 ress of the world." " Instructress of the world." Yes, it will teach the 
 world — and what will it teach the world ? Why that " light and 
 love," mean law and force. That is the lesson to go forth to the 
 world from this law. That men have no faith in light, or are too im- 
 patient to wait for it, and have just love enough to make all other men 
 do as they want them to do, when they have the power Again : " It 
 substantially compassess the whole subject, and deserves to be entitled 
 the MODEL TEMPERANCE LAW." 
 
 That writer told the truth. It is a Temperccnce Law. Why not then 
 call your Bill, " An Act to promote Total Abstinence." That would 
 be the exact truth, that is its objects; but it would not sound well. It 
 would look as though the temperance society had taken the reins of 
 government into its own hands for its own purposes. Good purposes 
 of course. All intolerant laws originate in good purposes. But good 
 purposes will not compensate for the violation of solemn pledges, nor 
 for the destructive eifects of bad laws. 
 
14 
 
 Look into the Senate. What says one of their own number ? There 
 is " a want of honesty in some men on the subject ; they held one 
 doctrine and jDursued another ; pointed in one direction with the finger, 
 and another with the heart. If there was no pretence on this subject, 
 there would hardly be a majority in the Senate." (Hon. M. Lawrence.) 
 
 Is that spontaneous ? is that the voice of the people ? is that the 
 wisdom of calm deliberation and a clear eye to the public good ? And 
 wlio make Senators dodge on this subject, — speak one way and vote 
 another, — and hide themselves under the fig leaves of a proviso to send 
 it to the people, just as their ancestors in the garden of Eden hid them- 
 selves in the case of another prohibitory law ? I say, what makes 
 them do so ? Because the flaming sword of temperance men looks 
 every way at them, and they " tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as 
 a dove out of the land of Assyria." And sure enough, — well they may 
 tremble. Are not the pains and penalties already prepared ? And has 
 not the eloquent young Senator from this city been told that he had 
 woven his political winding sheet, by his speech and his vote ? Does 
 any one charge that he did not vote and speak according to his convic- 
 tions ? that he did not seek the public good, as he saw it ? Certainly 
 not. What is the charge ? He did not vote to enact ike pledge of 
 Total Abstinence into a law ! I honor him for it. And if he should 
 be ostracised for this vote, he can be consoled by the saying of a very 
 shrewd man ; " The Athenians sent their best men into exile ; ive, more 
 humane^ only remove them from office." The Athenians were also, I 
 think, in the habit, in all times of difiiculty, very soon to recall their 
 banished men. 
 
 Here you have it, moved by temperance men, with the total absti- 
 nence pledge in the law, and to be followed by political proscription. Is 
 not that political action ? Bringing temperance square into politics, and 
 violating yjour own pledges ? And is this pohtical proscription and 
 this law right? Have you a right to pass it, according to all the 
 established laws of toleration in the civilized world ? To this question 
 I say NO, most distinctly. 
 
 Five years before the commencement of the temperance reform in 
 this country, some American Missionaries went to the Sandwich Islands, 
 in the Pacific Ocean, to carry them the Gospel. In a very short time 
 the king, many of the chiefs and nobles, and a large number of the 
 people became Christians, — many really so, some nominally. The 
 obscene rites of idolatry were abolished, and the law of nature and 
 Christianity in regard to marriage was restored. Some of the chiefs — 
 some of the people — still clung to idolatry. The king has a Christian 
 for his counsellor — the whole administration is intended, indirectly, in 
 all ways that it can, to favor the new religion. But out of the idola- 
 ters, there are taken plenty of criminals, — it is expensive to try them, 
 — many of them sink down into poverty, and die miserably. To the 
 Christian mind, surveying this picture, idolatry is the cause of the crime 
 — it is against the State — the public good requires that idolatry shall 
 cease — we must banish it with pains and penalties. In any age but 
 this the thing would be done at once, and directly. But suppose the 
 advisers of the king do not touch any man's faith at all, do not legislate 
 
15 
 
 for religion, but make a prohibitory law, forbid the manufacture or the 
 traffic in idols, and then appoint a public agent to manufacture, and 
 another public agent to sell idols, only as specimens of the arts, and as 
 models of mechanic skill. Would such a law stop idolatry ? Have the 
 Christian portion of the Sandwich Islands the right to deny an idol to an 
 idolater"^ Every obscene rite they may, they ought to punish: have 
 they a right to go farther ? 
 
 Again, suppose the Missionaries to Turkey succeed in converting a 
 majority of that Mahomedan kingdom. A large minority is left. The 
 Koran is their faith and their practice. But the Koran, as Christians 
 believe, is injurious to good morals. Touch not the faith of the Ma- 
 hometan, but forbid the Koran to be printed, except on public types, — 
 to be sold, except at the public store, — and that to be used for Literary 
 purposes only, — outlaw it as a beverage to faith : — have you a right to 
 doit? 
 
 Have you a right to change by coercivemeasm-es the habits and usages 
 of one half the people of this Commonwealth ? I doubt it. And if you 
 have the right, I am certain you have not the power to do it ; and you 
 will come out of this conflict with wet feathers and trailing arms. The 
 voice of all experience is on the other side of this question. Every 
 thorough examination of the whole subject will bring the mind to this 
 result. The people, wish to promote temperance, they are assured this 
 law will do it, therefore they petition for it. Let them examine it — 
 put the other side to them, and if they do not reject it then ; a year or 
 two of strife, a net-work of lawsuits all over the State, alienation of 
 feeling, a whole community demoralized and debased by violence of 
 language, and the flames of retaliation will convince them, and convert 
 them from all attempts at prohibitory legislation upon this subject. 
 
 But what can be done ? First I say better to bear the ills Ave have, 
 than fly to others we know not of. One great reason of the intemper- 
 ance in this country, is the intensity of life here. When the steamboat 
 races, the oil will be poured on. A log cabin and a mug of cider made 
 one man president. The excitement under those mottoes, burnt up ten 
 thousand temperance pledges ; and would have swept your prohibitory 
 laws into the ocean. The excitement in California, has not so far sub- 
 sided, that the temperance pledge has much power there. If you 
 want to do more to destroy temperance in one year than you can regain 
 in five, pass this law : and the excitement and the strife which it will pro- 
 duce, are the very soil in which intemperance in drinking, finds its most 
 numerous and easy victims. Society has been stimulated, till it has 
 been strained. It asks repose and reflection. 
 
 And now in conclusion, permit me to enrich your minds by an extract 
 from a review, on this subject, written by one of the most learned 
 divines, and philosophic minds in this Commonwealth — one of the 
 earliest and one of the strongest friends of the cause — the Rev. Mr. 
 Withington, of Newburyport. 
 
 " If any person can devise a plan for prohibitory legislation on the 
 sale of intoxicating drinks, not involving the greatest inconsistency even 
 in the very scheme, then I will acknowledge he has done what sur- 
 passes the utmost flights of my imagination. His very plan must be a 
 
16 
 
 square wheel made to roll. But how absurd it is to expect success in 
 the execution, where you cannot even devise consistency in the design ! 
 You launch a vessel full of holes, and expect her not to sink. Some of 
 ihe sages of our day have actually proposed that the sale of ardent 
 spirit for a beverage should be placed on a level with counterfeiting 
 money, and subject a man to durance in the state prison ; and they 
 expect such a law to be executed ! If we are to reason from rhetoric, 
 rum is poison, selling it is murder, and hanging is the punishment. 
 Yes, send them all to the gallows ! I desire to bear my solemn testi- 
 mony, and to say though I have seen frequent attempts, I never knew 
 any good to come from such legislation. I have seen men exasperated 
 by it, but never reformed. 
 
 So it ever has been, and so it ever will be, until nature itself is 
 changed. I was in Connecticut when attempts were made to enforce 
 the observance of the Sabbath by law. I saw hypocrisy, power, passion, 
 haughtiness, indignation, force, threats, and cursing ; but I saw no pro- 
 motion of meekness among Christians, or repentance among sinners. 
 The contest was long, and the fruits were bitter. Laws are intimately 
 connected with manners. Depend upon it, if such a system of legisla- 
 tion is once adopted and sustained, there will spring up a system of 
 manners hateful and dreadful in the extreme. It is common to meet 
 such remarks as these with pathetic descriptions of the evils of drunk- 
 eness ; the brutal husband — the weeping, starving children — the thrill- 
 ing facts, as they are called — which, if they do not subdue our reason, 
 ought'to melt our hearts. It is true, drunkenness is a great evil. God 
 forbid that I should say aught to diminish it ! It is one of the sorest 
 curses that a fallen world has been doomed to feel. But the question 
 is not, among sober men, whether vice is an evil, but what are the best 
 means to remove it ; and I venture to prophesy that it wiU never be 
 done by prohibitory legislation." 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 029 827 266 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 029 827 266