Prohibition Fallacies. (PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENTS).
Man feara the lion's kingly tread ; i Man fears the tig«r's fangs of terror : But man himrelf is most 30 diead Whea mad with social en or. The following is an address by the Hon C. W. Goddard, Portland, Maine, at tlie aunual meeting of the Congregational House in 1888. These may ■be regarded as the last public utterlances of a man, who, having lived m the oldest prohibitory state of the union, and devoted many years of bis 'life, to the study of the question ', found and pronounced prohibition to be worse tb.au a complete failure. ' Mr Pbesident, and Ladies an» gentlemen of the Club ; — I iear that my answer may not be an agreeable one, and I am not unaware that — The hunger of unwelcome aews Hath but a losing office j put, as you have done me the honour I to make a plain inquiry, I trust that ! you will pardon me tor making a frank j and honest reply, with my reasons, J Reaving you to judge whether I am i justified by the facts. My answer is, that if I were dicta- 1 \ tor, I' should be inclined to issue a ukase to ouv various national reformers, reminding them of the Divine test i " By their fruits ye shall know them," and demanding of each how much, if anything, his special reform has accomplished toward the promotion of peace, good order and safety of society. The first reform which I would enforce, were it in my power, would be — adequate protection for the lives and limbs of peacenble, law-abiding citizens ; security against the incendiary, the robber, the ravisher, the anarchist and the assassin. The undeniable fact which prompts this answer is the enormous multiplication of crimes of violence in our midst during the lifetime of most of you, and within the memory of many lof us. I pronounce it an undeniable 1 fact, because the evidence is incon1 trovertible and manifest, but tune foebids nic to spread the details before you on this occasion. I confine myself to a few plain facts and figures — to documentary evidence from our own State. I will compare the prssent generaation with the last. Going back thirtyfaix years, we find a population of nearly 600,000 in Maine. 1 bold m my hand the Warden's Report for 1851, showing the whole number of felon? iv our State prison at that time to, be 83, of whom 4 were murderers, and 10 othershad been sentenced ior dangeious crimes ,oi violence. So much for the year 1851. Smce that time we aie only t,oo well aware that our population ha 3 been nearly stationary, having gained only about 11£ per cent for three decades, although our wealth has increased 135 per cent., and our public expenditure for educa- , tional puiposes has been immensely augmented during that period. Here is our last State Prison Report (for 1887), and what do I read ? An actual reduction in the number of its inmates as the fruit of advancing wealth and reform ? Unfortunately not. Do Aye find even that, under the inii'uence of our legislation and other causes at work duiing the past tbirtys.ix years in the moral, social, religious, political, educational and financial world, murdoi and other crimes of violence, and high crime in general have been so far' restrained as merely to keep pace with population, increasing only 11 per cont.? Far otheiwjsj. At the close of 1887, we find no ' less than 165 felons within the walls of that dungeon, besides a laige number of other felons distributed among the five work-jails which, it was 1 found necessary to build, some fifteen years ago, to receive the overflow from, the prison. lam not aware of the present number of such work jail felons, but in 1878 a legislative inquiry elicited the information that they amounted to 68. .Unless they have diminished during the past decade, we must liave> now in Maine 238 felons undergoing the^punishment of their crimes, while our dangerous criminals now amount to Wj Mlfk our xwi'derer's, vow stretches
out to 33. During the ' present year weh&vehad a homicide monthly,' so that we have now in our jails 5 more murderers who have been found guilty j by a jury, (or are sure to be as> soon* as ■ they can be put on trial), to say nothing of tv sixth who blew out liis own brains, after assassinating hia "three children** ' « ' '! : Adding these last cases, we shall ; soop have 38 murderers, 65 dangerous I criminals and 238 felons, indicatmg an i increase of 174 per cent, in felony, 807 per cent, in dangerous crimes of vio-' le.nee, and 850 per cent, (in "murder/ Christian fellow-citizens, is it not .appalling that in the face of our boasted progress in education, art, refinement, TEMPERANCE-LEGisLATiON and reforms geuerally, such a 'frightful increase of lawlessness and brutality should have •proceeded almost in geometrical ratio, filling the state with violence and recalling the lurid prophecies of Iho last days ? But, more amazing still is the apparent indifference of our moral and religious community to this decadence of,public morals, this dissolution of public order. ■It really makes very little difference whether our reformers are accomplishing their specific professed objects or not. i i If not, then they have confessedly failed ; but, if successful, such success is but Jhtle better than failure, because it demonstrates its impotence to check the influx of high crime and the disintregation of the social fabric. For every right minded man -will admit that a government which 'cannot or 'will not effectually punish and restrain violence and assasiuation is a hopeless failure. I confess, my friends, that it sometimes seems to m& that too many of our refoimers are seated far out on 'the branches of the tree of sin and crime, clipping off a blossom here and a twig there, and occasionally, perchance, sawing off their own perch and coining down with it, while few axes are laid at the root, in the good' old vigorous fashion of John the Baptist. - Do you not agree with me that it is high time for our reformers to render an account of their stowarships; to explain why public morals have been going down while jbheir particular reforms have" been' going up ; how it happens that all their efforts for the general good have been neutralised, and worse than neutralised ; to give us a solution of this " mystery of iniquity ?" Do you [ understand, me to attribute the nmlti- | plication of murder and other high crime in our community to the exist--i "ence of reformers or to the progress of ' their lefonns, although I am inclined to believe that if there ,had been an i equal diminution of violence and lawlessness, .they would have been disposed to take a large share of the credit to themselves ; I only maintain that they /have proved themselves powerless to resist or check it. In my opinion this malign aspect of modern society is largely attributable to the pernicious influence of scepticism, materialism and religious indifference. Too many men, and too many women, hnve ceased to fear God, or even to believe in His personal existence. Others have been so afraid of forming an erroneous conception of His Being or Attributes, that they have gradually accustomed themselves to dis- ! miss Him almost altogether from their | minds : '• God is not in all their | thoughts." Erroneous beliels in reference to the Deity are safer than indifference or disbelief. When the [ minister ashed a woman of his congre- | galion if her husband feared God', i truth compelled her to hesitate ; but I one of their urchins came to her relief I with the prompt reply, " Yes, he does ; | for although dad never goes to meet- | ing,, he always takea his gun when he goes out Sundays." Men, nowadays, are getting in the habit of going out og j Sundays, jwithoat taking their guvs, j and, ,not going to meetiog, either. ' I ■ am afraid that there* may be too much | truth.. in the reproaches at the* Roman !'Cotholie* clergy that we are giving our children education. What tendency Jhas mere intellectual enlightenment io, elevate > the- mprala' of ,,'a community? Is it not, "on the contrary, liable ; to lower them by' disturb-' ing the noxnaal balance fwjd> equipoise
of the faculties ? ' Vainglorious a boasting of the superiority of our refinement, culture and, civilisation over ttiat bf'bux dncfestovs, is 1 a cheap but notWery' manly or wise exhibition of complacency and vanity, especially when we forget to keep truth on ofirteide. I confess that my gorge rises fyben I hear degenerate sons of noble ' progenitors "stigmatise '^ the founders of our State and of New Bngland-aa a " nation of drunkards.'' I never believed 1 the accusation to be just ; ' it must have been a gross exaggeration. But, true or false, I am nod ashamed to assert in this presence (and I chal- ; Slenge contradiction- here or elsewhere) i that the first two hundred years of i ■flew England history, from 1620 to 1820, were' more glorious in achievement in every department of human progrress, were tnove fruitful in material, -moral, intellectual, political and religious advancement, than any two centuries in any other country since fbe apostolic age; that 6ur 'Pilgrim and Puritan forefathers did more to build up integrity, manhood,righteousness, sound morality and sound piety (>not forgetting, meanwhile, to multiply wealth and their own numbers too)', to establish law and liberty, to make life safe, prosperous and desirable for themselves and their' posterity, than any equal number of men ever did in the same length of time and under similar perils, trials and disadvantages. ' To thorn, under God, we owe all that we have and are; for us they I braved the fury of the wintry ocean, I the barbaiities of the savages and the terrors bf the wilderness ; for us they planted the church, the schoolhouse, the college and the Courthouse ; for us I they ednquere'd national independence and established a free republican government from the great lakes to the gulf, and fiorn the Atlantic to the Pacific ; they secured and maintained almost perfect and absolute security of life and limb throughout the length and breadth of New England. If such " a race of men were "a nation 'of drunkards," let us, too (on the principle laid down by President' Lincoln in regard to General Grant's whiskey), become a'natkm of just such drunkards as soon as- possible, provided that there is no other means of regaining their sterling and priceless vhfcues, against which their failings, magnify them to our hearts' content, are but as " the small dust of the balance." It is not my purpose to antagonize art, refinement, culture, estheticism, manners, style, and all tfce inmimerable graces of polite life ; education and temperance are not to be under- 0 valued, and are not, in my opinion, likely to be ; but, after all, what are any or all of them really worth without the • cardinal virtues of honesty, love of liberty, righteousness and reverence for law ? " These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Let us hope that our community is beginning to learn that nothing can save from perdition a people which forgets God, sympathises ■ with crime, dishonours the family relations, and fails to protect from mm dor or outrage the" persons of its law abiding sons and daughters. Whatever may have been the fault of our aocestors, these were not among them, " their enoiuies being their judges." Pardon me for suggesting that this age needs more' preaching upon the exceeding sinfulness of sin and less refeience to the ornamental parts of it. The public conscience needs to be thoroughly aroused to the fundamental requirements of the law of God and the law of man. the iridispensable condition of, life in this age or in any age.
The Shah has in his palace at Teheran a favplve-inoh globe, upoa which Jhe^arts of the world are set in jewels of various' colamp— England with, rubies, India with diamonds, the sea with emeralds, and bo oj)r Nautical men are hitching up their pantsand Baying the Marine Department might as'weii hayo sent out a pair-oar dingy to W & the Perthshire, as to send 'the Tv :
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Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 9, 17 June 1899, Page 4
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2,047Prohibition Fallacies. (PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENTS). Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 9, 17 June 1899, Page 4
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