whole American people made miserable by the one vice of’ drunkenness

SPEECH

GERRIT SMITH,

AT THE

State Temperance Convention at Syracuse,

JANUARY 19 AND 20, 1848

ON THE

OBLIGATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT

TO PROHIBIT THE TRAFFIC IN

INTOXICATING LIQUORS.

ALBANY:

S W GREEN, PATRIOT OFFICE.

1848

Speech.

The following Resolutions were presented as a Minority Report, by Gerrit Smith to the New York State Temperance Convention, held in Syracuse, January 19th and 20th. 1848. They were adopted by that large assembly, with but one dissenting voice:

1. Resolved. That civil government, where it is of the republican form, and sustainable, therefore, only by a sober and virtuous people, must, to protect and save itself, prohibit the traffic in intoxicating drinks.

2. Whereas, Civil government is given by God for the purpose of imparting to its subjects every protection which, from its nature and design, it is capable of imparting: And, whereas, for civil government to leave the traffic in intoxicating drinks unprohibited, is to make itself responsible for leaving its subjects unprotected from one of the very greatest of earthly evils: Resolved, Therefore, that no person is fit to have any part, however humble, in administering civil government, who, whether the people do or do not choose him-who, whether the people vote “ license” or “no license”-” sale” or " no sale”-does ‘not feel-ready and bound to apply its powers to the utter extirpation of the traffic in intoxicating drinks. And Resolved, further, that we solemnly promise to each other, to the world, and to the great and good Author of civil government, that, come what will to our reputation arid interests, or to the political parties with which we are connected, we will never again vote to give civil office to any person, who is so ignorant or so contemptuous of the duties of civil government as not to favor the application of its powers to prohibit the traffic in intoxicating drinks.

3. Resolved, That, whilst we have full confidence in the wisdom of our Legislature to devise penalties so searching and so severe as effectually to suppress the traffic in intoxicating drinks; and whilst we have no wish to interfere with the selling of alcoholic liquors for other uses than drinks, we nevertheless respectfully suggest that the privileges to sell them be entirely taken away from the tavern-keeper, inasmuch as the abuse of it in his hands would be both peculiarly pernicious, and peculiarly liable to occur.

4. Resolved, That our Legislature would doubtless esteem it a favor if they, who have plans of legislative action for prohibiting the crime of trafficking in intoxicating drinks, would present them to the public.

In behalf of the first two resolutions, Mr. Smith made the following Speech:

Is there, within the sound of my voice, a drunkard ? Then, do I ask that unhappy person: “ What is it to be a drunkard ?“ Then, do I ask him, in the language, in which God asks him: “ Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath contentions? who bath babbling? who hath wounds without cause?

who hath redness of eyes ? What is his answer

It is, that, of all men, the drunkard is the most miserable.

Is there a wife before me ? I ask her: “ What is a drunkard ?" She answers me: “ Let my husband be any thing-nay, every thing-but a drunkard.”

Is there a mother in this assembly ? Of her also do I make the inquiry. And her answer is: “ Let my child grow up into any monster of vice and wickedness rather than a drunkard.”

Have I, among my hearers, a family, only one member of which is a drunkard? That family will tell me: “ Only one drunkard in a family is enough to make the whole family miserable.”

Go to your Jails, State-Prisons, Poor-Houses, Mad-Houses, and ask: “ What is a drunkard ?“ Their answer is, that lie is such as is a large share of their inmates.

Go to the Gallows to inquire what is a drunkard- and you learn that he is such, as is the great majority of its victims.

Finally, go to the Bible to ask what is a drunkard

-and you will shudder under its awful response:

“Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Such, then, is a drunkard. Now, at the lowest calculation, there are, in this nation, four hundred thousand drunkards. Group along with these four hundred thousand drunkards their husbands and wives, and parents and children, and brothers and sisters, and you have no very small share of the

whole American people made miserable by the one vice of’ drunkenness.

Four hundred thousand drunkards! In Bible language—” Who slew all these? “ The drinking usages of the country slew them. What continues these usages ? Neither reason, nor religion, can frame an apology for them. Fashion is on the side of these usages. But fashion is poor authority. She is generally irrational and absurd; often criminal. To follow her lead is to depart from common sense, and expose ourselves to ruin. Fashion ! alas, what a murderer she is! She has murdered more than have all the Alexanders and Napoleons. For one of many proofs of it, look at the drinking of wine at the dinner-table. Fashion commends it, as harmless—as a beautiful and polite usage—as, indeed, a very touch-stone of politeness. Nevertheless, it has slain its millions. So is it with the fashion of drinking liquor at the tavern-bat’, and in the harvest-field, and elsewhere.

Again, I ask—What continues these drinking usages ? Is it the drunkards ? So say the temperate drinkers. But, it is not the drunkards—it is themselves. We know, that the temperate drinkers are a very self-complacent, as well as thin-skinned, class of persons. Nevertheless, at the risk of ruffling their self-complacency, we must hold them responsible for the continuance of these drinking usages. Their motto is: “ Avoid extremes”—” In mediis lutissimus ibis.” They pride themselves in the belief, that they constitute the juste milieu; and that they are steering their course at a beautiful equl-dislance from cold water fanaticism on the ‘one hand and loathsome drunkenness on the other. It is) however, for this same loathsome drunkenness, at which they are so quick to turn up their noses, that we hold them responsible.

I said, that it is not because of the drunkards, but because of the temperate drinkers, that the drinking usages continue. In point of fact, drunkards are I not in the way of the cause of’ Temperance. They rather promote it. It is the temperate drinkers, who hang upon its wheels, and well nigh arrest its progress. Paradoxical, as it may seem, our four hundred thousand drunkards are our four hundred thousand most effective advocates for temperance— for total abstinence. Oh, that it were so, that no person could become a temperate drinker, without becoming a drunkard! For, then, who would become a temperate drinker! In that event, a person would no sooner become a drinker of intoxicating liquors, than jump into the fire, which always burns, or swallow the poison, which always kills.

Mothers! we will refer this point to your decision. When you would, most effectually, warn your children not to drink intoxicating liquors, do you not point them to this, and that, and the other, drunkard? And your children, so long as they keep their eyes on these beacons, are deterred from taking a single step in the pathway, which leads to drunken. ness. But, the danger is, that they will turn their eyes from these beacons—fix them on the long train of respectable temperate drinkers—and follow them. There is not one youth in this city, whose sobriety is perilled by the drunkards in it: whereas there is not one youth in this city, whose sobriety is not perilled by the numerous and respectable temperate drinkers in it.

Once more, I ask—What continues the drinking usages of the country ? The only other, and that the most important, answer, which I give to this question, is that the laws uphold them. The laws contribute greatly to make them respectable. What is legalized is thereby made respectable. The most polluting vices and the blackest crimes are capable of deriving a measure of decency and respectability from their legalization. Even the kidnapping of persons on the coast of England would not he the most unbecoming and revolting affair in our eyes, had our Government enacted a law for it. God expresses abhorrence of the Government, “which framath mischief by a law.” Mischief, when legalized, is infinitely more ruinous, because it is sanctioned and commended by its legalization.

The keepers and frequenters of legalized gaming— houses and brothels, (for such things there are in this sin-maddened world,) soothe their consciences, and keep down their shame, by the consideration, that what they do is endorsed by the wisdom of the State, and is lawful. Men pour out alcohol, and spread the utmost wretchedness and desolation on the right hand and on the left. Nevertheless, they are not conscience-smitten, nor ashamed. Far from it. They stand up in the self-complacent consciousness, that they are acting according to law. That selfcomplacent consciousness, as impenetrable, as the seven-fold covering of the ancient shield, turns aside the arrow of truth. Is it ever penetrated? It is only when (and alas, how rare is that!) the arrow is driven by the gracious power of a superhuman arm.

Now, how manifest it is, that the laws of a people should be such, as to protect, rather than corrupt, their morals—as to afford safety, instead of inflicting ruin! The laws should not only not authorise the traffic in intoxicating drinks; but they should suppress it. Just here, however, we are met with the greatly relied on and triumphantly offered objection, that civil government has no right to prohibit it. It will much abate, in advance, the force of this objection, if we bear in mind, that the great majority of those, from whom it comes, are disqualified for judging on this point by the fact, that they either indulge in these drinks, or arc, in some other way, interested in the traffic in them. Having an interest in this traffic, it is not strange, that they

should regard the prohibition of it, as an unauthorised act of the legislature.

When it is proposed, in a Southern legislature, to prohibit the citizens from wearing deadly weapons, we, at the North. think the proposition a very reasonable one. But, we should not, did we ourselves wear them. We should, in that case, denounce it, as an insufferable infringement on natural rights.

Again—familiarity with an evil accounts for the toleration of it, and for the hesitation to adopt new and strong measures for its removal.

Were signs of gaming houses to he hung up along the streets of your city, your Indignant virtuous citizens would quickly call on the civil authorities to remove and punish the offence. So too, would they, were signs to he hung up of those houses, which are “ the way to Hell—going down to the chambers of Death.”

But, there are signs of drinking-houses all along your streets—displays of wine, brandy, gin, rum; and your virtuous citizens, with here and there an exception, pass them by, without emotion. Why do they? These drinking-houses slay their thousands, whilst gaming-houses and brothels slay but their fifties—and would not slay their twenties, were it not for (he maddening stimulus of intoxicating drinks. Why is it, that they can pass by these destroyers unmoved ? The answer is, because use has reconciled them to drinking-houses and their accompanying signs and displays.

From whatever cause, or causes, may spring the unwillingness to array civil government against the traffic in intoxicating drinks, certain it is, that it is an evil too great to be endured. It kills, every year, in this nation, more than forty thousand persons— sends, every year, from this nation, more than forty thousand persons to the drunkard’s grave and the drunkard’s hell. Add to this, that millions of the sober are made miserable by it; and that, to an incalculable extent, it destroys both their property and lives.

Just, at this stage of my remarks, then, do I wish to submit the proposition, that, IF CIVIL GOVERNMENT HAVE NOT THE RIGHT TO USE ITS POWER TO PROTECT ITS SUBJECTS FROM THIS WIDE-SPREAD AND HORRID RUIN, CIVIL GOVERNMENT IS NOT WORTH HAVING. And, just here too, would I submit the further proposition, that, IF CIVIL GOVERNMENT HAVE NOT THE RIGHT TO PROTECT ITS SUBJECTS FROM BEING RUINED BY INTEMPERANCE, IT, AT LEAST, HAS THE RIGHT TO PROTECT ITSELF FROM BEING

RUINED BY IT. Now, it is manifest, that if we go on multiplying our drinking-houses and drunkards, the Governments of these States must be subverted—must cease to exist. I do not deny, that despotic governments may exist though dram-shops and drunkards multiply ever so fast under them.

Nay, I will admit, that such governments may be all the stronger for such multiplication. But, in this nation, we have chosen the republican form of government; and that, as all know, can be maintained by a sober and virtuous people only. In this nation, the alternative is RUM OR REPUBLICS. We cannot have both. In this nation, therefore, the governments, as they are of the republican form, must, to sustain themselves, lay a heavy and suppressing hand on the traffic in intoxicating drinks.

We are not content, however, that government should aim to protect but itself. We demand, at its hands, all that protection of the property, liberties, and lives of its subjects, which it is capable of imparting. Protection—protection—that is what God gave government for; and that is what we demand from it. We do not ask the Government of this State to furnish banks and roads and canals for its subjects; but, only to protect them, as it now does, from frauds therein. We do not ask it to furnish its subjects with good books; but, only to protect them, as it now does, from the circulation of obscene books. We do not ask it to supply its subjects with physicians ; but to afford them, as it now does, the protection of quarantine and health-laws. We do not ask the Government to furnish us with Crotons, or other such good drinks. But, we do ask it to protect us (and this it has hitherto refused to do,) from drinks, which lay waste the publicmorals, and destroy life and property without limit. We ask it to protect us from those fiery streams, which course through our land

—which leave nothing green or unblighted of all they touch—and at which millions lie down, and drink and die.

And shall we not have this protection at the hands of Government ? How lamentably low and false are the prevailing views of the duties, powers, and responsibilitiesof Civil Government! Would, that Civil Government were restored in the minds of men to its Heaven-impressed character and Heaven-intended uses! Then would they choose worthier persons to administer it. Then would they obtain from it the protection to which they are entitled from it.

Temperance-men are calling on Civil Government for help. But, until they better understand and appreciate Civil Government, have they the right to call on it for help ? It’ we would call on Hercules for help, it should be, to let him help us in his own proper way—and not in a way, which our false and disparaging views of his Godship may prefer. So too, if we would call on Civil Government to help us, we must let it help us in its own proper way; and we must not seek to impose upon it our own perverse notions of its character and functions.

Most persons in this country look upon Civil Government to be hut a tool in the hands of the people ‘—to be but the clay in the hands of the potter. Multitudes of temperance-men so look upon it. They ask from it only that measure, or kind, of protection

which the people may be willing it should afford and they are content with no protection, in case the people say, that the Government shall give no protection. They welcome “ no license” and “ no sale” at the hands of the Government: but they find no fault with the Government, if, obeying the voice of the people, it authorises “ license” and “ sale.” Their doctrine, in a word, is that it is the duty of the Government to reflect the mind of the people, and act in accordance with the will of the people.

I read the speech, which Mr. John Van Buren made in Herkimer last fall. In that speech he says—and properly too, as, I fear, a large share of my hearers may think—that “ the principle, which lies at the basis, not only of the democratic faith, but of representative republican government, is the faithful reflection by the representative of the will of the constituent.” lie adds, that “ unless this principle is practically applied to our Governments, the system must prove a failure.” And I add—” then let it prove a failure—and let the democratic faith and the representative republican government perish.” Accursed doctrine this, that the Popular will is to be, in all things, the measure and guide of the practice of the Government. Our General Government, Under the promptings of the slave-power, wages a war against poor, unoffending, Mexico: and then, according to this accursed doctrine, it can, justifiably, continue it, provided it can get time people to vote for it. Our State Government opens the flood-gates of RUM: and, then, if it can get the people to vote ‘‘ License,’’ or “ Sale,” it has, according to this same accursed doctrine, the right to keep those flood-gates open. I thank my Father in Heaven, that He has taught me the better doc trine of the responsibility of Government to Himself—and that Government, whether the people wilt or no, is to do right.

I love Democracy. I love it, because it acknowledges to the people their own, God-given, right of select their civil rulers. But, these rulers, once selected by the people, are to rule, not in the fear of the people, but in the fear of God. ‘‘ He that ruleth over men, must be just—ruling in the fear of God.” They are to rule, not as the servants or ministers of men; but, as the Bible teaches, as the servants or ministers of God.” And I love Democracy, because it recognizes in time people the right to dismiss their rulers. Happy were it, if this right were exercised, in the ease of bad rulers only. But, the people, sometimes, dismiss good rulers also; and dismiss them too, because they are so ruling, as to preserve to Civil Government its Heaven-ordained character, and to give to It its Heaven-required effect. Woe to the people, when, for such a cause, they hurl down their rulers! it is the Lord’s anointed ones, whom they, then, hurl down.

Precious and invaluable—but fearfully responsible also—is the political power possessed by a Democratic community!

I return from this digression to answer the inquiry, what I would have Temperance-men do. I would have them scout the proposition, that Government may go tight or wrong; for rum or against rum; for God or for the Devil; as the people choose. And I would have them solemnly resolve, that they will never vote lot’ any person for any civil office, who does not give evidence, that he is heartily in favor of having Civil Government used to protect its subjects from the traffic in intoxicating drinks.

Do you ask me, whether I would have a Temperance political party ? I would not. I fully agree with my friend Mr. Delavan, in his late public letter, that political party for but one thing is inexpedient. Not’, anti-slavery man as I am, would I have an anti-slavery political party. Nor, free-trade man as I am, would I have a flee-trade political

party. Nor eager as I am to have the public lands free to the landless; and the homestead exempted from the grasp of creditors; and an end put to land-monopoly; would I have a land-reform political party. Do you ask me——what, then, is the political party I would have? Were it proper to answer time question on this occasion, I would say, that it is a party which goes, not for one political truth, but for all political truths—a party, in a word, which aims to “ fulfill all righteousness.’’ And, now, permit me, in turn, to ask a question. Does it not seem, that every true man—every whole man—would be glad to join such a comprehensive party, as I have described ? He, who goes for Temperance only, and turns his back on the slave, and the landless, and the tariff-robbed, will, of course, not join it. Nor he, who goes for the slave, and neglects all other suffering and wronged ones. Nor he, who, thus selfishly and stupidly, labors for land—reform, or free-trade, For he, and he only will join it, who is a true man—who is a whole man:—and the partial man is not a whole man; a and he, who idolises one truth, and despises every other, is not a true man. He is the true man and the whole man, whose sympathies go out in all directions—toward every class of wronged and suffering ones—and who stands ready to combine his strength with the strength of others, in carrying every righteous reform. And, here, let me say, that a political party, composed on the principle of such combination, must prevail; whilst the disunion of the friends of righteous reforms is fatal to their success. I do not ask my hearers to enter into such a party ;—for I am not yet persuaded that their minds and hearts are prepared to take such a bold, and Heaven-illuminated, and glorious, and triumphant step. Oh, if they were !—oh, if this great assembly would but say from the heart: “We go for all political righteousness: and we go, therefore, against rum, and slavery, and war, end land mono-

poly, and restrictions on commerce, and against every other form of political unrighteousness;”—oh if it would hut say this, then would an influence go out from it, which would quick shut up the dram-shops. But, I dare not hope for such a mighty utterance. I dare not hope,- that you are the men for the hour—the men to save the drunkards, arid to save the sober from becoming drunkards. I fear, that the most of you are still enslaved to party. And I hesitate not to say, that no man, who is afraid or unwilling to quit his party, be it the Whig, or the Democratic, or the Liberty, or the Land-Reform party, when that party refuses to go for alt righteous political reforms, is capable of doing the work of a Temperance-reformer, or of any other reformer.

But, I must hasten to another point. After what I leave said, it will not be supposed, that I take any pleasure in the plan to repeal all laws for regulating the traffic in intoxicating drinks, and to supply their place with laws, which shall hold those engaged in it responsible for the damages resulting from their business. This plan, although adopted by some of the most distinguished friends of Temperance, is, in my humble esteem, utterly visionary. To adopt it would be to give up our claim on Civil Government for protection; and to accept, instead of protection, a farce and a curse. Even, if the damage could 1)0 defined and traced to its responsible source, as it rarely could be, money-, nevertheless, could not pay for it. Money cannot pay for the damage done by the rumseller, any mom-c than for time damage done by the adulterer. What sum shalt be assessed upon time rum-seller foe’ having made a drunkard of a son—of’ a father—of a husband ? What sum, when a drunkard, ice the madness of his drunkenness, stabs his neighbor—his friend—his wife to the heart

Again, which of time rum-sellers shall be held responsible for time damage?—he, from whose hands time drunkard, when in the days of’ his sober and lovely youth, received his first glass; or he, from whose hands he received his last glass: or they, who lead intermediate parts in his training ? No-the duty of Civil Government is to stop the great rum—selling iniquity—to stop it short—to give it no chance to work its irreparable mischiefs. I say irreparable :—For not all the wealth of all the rum— sellers can heal the wound, which is made by a single glass of their body and soul—destroying poison. The duty of Civil Government in this matter is to lock the stable, before the horse is stolen.

Again—what would be the effect of obtaining judgments in our Courts (or the damages done by the traffic in intoxicating drinks (if, indeed, such judgments could, or should, be obtained, whilst the laws permit the traffic) what I ask, would be the effect, but to throw the traffic into time hands of persons, so ir-responsible and reckless, as to have but little fear of judgements ?

All plans for getting rid of the traffic in intoxicating drinks by means short of its immediate and absolute interdiction, spring from, or, at least, betray the want of, a sense of its deep criminality. Who would think of having the laws against counterfeiting and forgery and perjury repealed; and their place supplied with laws, which hold the offenders responsible for damages ? No one :—for every one regards these as crimes, which are to be absolutely forbidden. And I add, that no person, who assigns to the traffic in intoxicating thinks its appropriate place in the list of crimes—a place far higher than that of counterfeiting and forgery and perjury— could he reconciled to any thing short of its immediate and absolute prohibition.

But, I must close: and I do so with an “All hail” to the Temperance Reformation. Precious, blessed, Reformation! My whole heart loves it; and my whole voice is ever ready to shout its praises. It has, indeed, hut begun its work; and it cannot carry it on, much less complete it, without the help of the arm of Civil Government. Nevertheless, it has done much. It has established millions of the sober in their sobriety. It has rescued tens of thousands of drunkards; and planted their feet on the rock of total abstinence, where, through the grace of God, they may exclaim, as time bloody waters of intemperance roll, and roar, and rage, and yawn, around then-I—” a thousand shall fail at my side, and ten thousand at my right hand—but it shall not come nigh me—I am sate.” That the Temperance Reformation should be the means of saving drunkards, was mote than any of us, who participated in its beginnings, hoped for. There was hope for our friend, if he were struggling with the yellow fever, or even with the plague;—hut none if he had be— come a drunkard. To become a drunkard, was well nigh to exclude himself from the pale of our sympathies, since we believed it to be useless to do for him, and scarcely criminal not to feel for him. His vice was one, which stamped him with incurableness; and we abandoned him to his unavoidable fate. But, blessed he God! the Temperance Reformation holds out a delivering hand even to lost drunkards: and, blessed be God! vast numbers of thorn catch hold of’ it. This, more than aught else, assures me, that the Temperance Reformation is from Heaven. In the light of this, its scarcely less than miraculous salvation, I see it beaming all over, with the bright and beautiful evidences of its celestial origin. In that light no doubt can remain, that it has come down from Him, who Himself came down into our guilty, ruined world, “to seek and to save that which was lost.’’

God speed the Temperance Reformation, until all the men and women in this drunken world shall be sober. Sober! sober!!—delightful word —it is music in my ear, and joy in my heart.