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ADDRESS ON INTEMPERANCE.*

Gentlemen of the Massachusetts Society for suppressing Intemperance,

STRONGLY impressed with the conviction, that a deep interest ought to be excited on the present occasion, I rise under the disheartening consciousness of being able to say nothing, which has not been already presented to your reflections.

On the subject of intemperance, obvious facts first excited alarm; alarm produced inquiry; and inquiry served but to increase the alarm. These facts, together with calculations founded upon them, have been, in various ways, laid before the public, that the excitement, so justly produced, might not only be maintained, but lead to such counsels and systematical efforts, as the occasion demands. All mention of these facts, notwithstanding their present notoriety, I know not how to avoid. Like the great disclosures made by revelation, they must be perpetually displayed, as motives to action and perseverance. They are among the reasons, which led to the establishment of this society. They are of such a kind, as to justify us in what we have done; and to condemn us, I fear, for what we have neglected. Facts are of a nature, imperishable and immutable; they can neither be annihilated nor changed. Whatever inferences fairly result from them, may, under like circumstances, be a thousand times drawn, and will forever be entitled to the same regard.

* This Address was delivered before the Mass. Society for suppressing Intemperance, at their Annual Meeting, May, 1816.

The extent to which intemperance prevails in our country, can scarcely now be considered a subject of conjecture; it having been ascertained, with sufficient exactness, from well authenticated documents. From such documents it has been made to appear that, unless a reformation has been effected within a few years, by coalitions for the suppression of vice, or by the circumstances of the nation, the yearly expenditure for ardent spirits in our country, will, at a moderate estimate, amount to thirty-three millions of dollars. Should it be granted that eight millions of this sum are necessarily expended, there will still be a yearly waste of twenty-five millions. The resources of that nation must indeed be ample, in whose finances so enormous a loss would not be sensibly felt. Regarding the subject then merely in relation to political economy, the suppression of intemperance imperiously claims the attention of the statesman and patriot.

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But this diminution of wealth, vast as it really is, may be regarded, perhaps, as among the most moderate even of the political evils, resulting from the vice, whose suppression we are attempting. If we estimate this enormous sum merely as a loss, our calculation will be materially incorrect. That mass of ardent spirits for which it is paid, becomes a subtle and powerful agent in relaxing the morals, and prostrating the physical strength of its consumers; in which number are many, from whom the country might expect useful labors in peace, and honorable services in war.

Again, it must be considered that the strength of a nation does not consist merely in sinews, bones, and muscles. The same quantity of physical power, will be more or less efficient in proportion to the confidence, union, and wisdom, with which it is exerted. A small number, well united, will accomplish more, than a much greater number under the influence of mutual jealousy. But union and confidence can be supported on no other foundation, than that of moral principle. This is the potent ligature, by which the various parts are reduced to the most advantageous and beautiful order, and preserved in their

respective places. Now, as intemperance is the voluntary subjugation of reason to appetite, it deadens moral sensibility, and obliterates all distinction between virtue and vice.

Three ways have now been specified, in which, as a nation, we are enfeebled by an intemperate use of ardent spirits; first, in the term of four years, it produces a waste of property, to the amount of a hundred millions; secondly, powers, whether bodily or intellectual, are enfeebled by it to such a degree, as to be rendered incapable of those services and efforts, which might otherwise be calculated upon with confidence; thirdly, by corrupting the public morals, it relaxes or dissolves the only bond, which can retain in one compact, well organized mass, the discordant materials of which society is composed. The last is probably a greater evil, even in a, political point of view, than either of the preceding.

Hitherto we have not contemplated the effect which intemperance has in shortening human life. On this subject it is indeed impossible to make an accurate calculation. But if we consider that variety of ways, in which it occasions death, the whole number of victims will appear great. Need I mention that broils and affrays, resulting from inebriation, often result either in mortal wounds or immediate death-that many who suffer capital punishment, under the hands of public justice, committed their crimes when liquor had subdued their reason, and inflamed their passions? Need I attempt to enumerate all that variety of fatal casualties, from which persons in this condition are never secure? They may be consumed by the fire, plunged in the water, stiffened by the cold, trampled on by their own domestic animals, which they are no longer able to command, or crushed by the carriage of the unobserving passenger.

In all these instances, the attack made by death, is furious and the conquest is soon gained. Others he subdues by regular, gradual advances. By these, liquor is first taken incautiously, next intemperately-the habit is fastened upon them; the whole system is disordered and debilitated; the mental powers decay somewhat more rapidly than those of the body; and,

therefore, the animal, neither human, nor wholly brutal, may, for a short time survive the man.

Among those who die thus sinfully and dishonorably, may be found, as has been already suggested, many on whom their friends and society in general had high claims-men, who once had it in their power to serve their families and their country, and, perhaps, for a time, yielded such service, not only by bodily strength and activity, but by intellectual powers of no ordinary worth. In this number are found not only some of the lowest forms, that human nature ever assumes, but merchants, scholars, physicians, counsellors, statesmen; and, it is painful to add, some, who once presented the oblations of Christian assemblies before the throne of the Eternal.

When we consider how various are the ways in which intemperance shortens human life, and reflect on the enorinous consumption of ardent spirits in our country, we shall hardly consider that computation as immoderate, by which the yearly victims of this vice are estimated at six thousand. In addition to this, it has heen often observed, that many of the deaths, which in bills of mortality, are attributed to other causes, were indirectly the result of intemperance; as hereby the animal system was predisposed to be acted upon by ordinary maladies. By the intervention of these, the patient is saved the discredit of dying in consequence of habitual inebriation. The remark which the Psalmist makes in regard to transgressors in general, has therefore peculiar emphasis, when applied to the drunkard : Evil doers shall be cut off. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be ; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. He shall fly away as a dream; yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

Let us next consider the difficulty of reclaiming those who have already formed habits of intemperate drinking.

We were, indeed, shown at our last anniversary, by the exhibition of some very interesting facts, that reformation is not impossible. I rejoice that this point is capable of being so satisfactorily established. I am grateful to any person who collects

and communicates remarks on such a subject. We are hereby taught that intemperance and reprobation are not precisely the same, and that he who is guilty of the one, is not quite as certain of perdition, as he who has already been sentenced to the other. Even this should prevent absolute despondency. Even this should induce the benevolent, assiduously and perseveringly to use, for reclaiming the intemperate, every means which may be suggested by religion, science, or worldly prudence.

But, while we are gratified at being assured that the condition of the intemperate man is not perfectly desperate, it is impossible not to be struck with the paucity of those facts, which show it to be otherwise. Much inquiry, joined to critical observation, will indeed, furnish us with a few instances in which reason has resumed her empire over debauched appetite. But it requires no strong powers of recollection, no ingenious investigation, to find facts of an opposite description. Unsought, they present themselves to the mind in frightful abundance.

The difficulty of subduing a propensity to immoderate drinking, is known by painful experience to many persons, in capacity of parent, brother, or friend. Parents may view with more indulgence than alarm, occasional irregularities in a favorite son. By a repetition of these, some uneasiness is produced in spite of parental partiality. They begin with suggesting cautions, rise to mild remonstrance, and as the case becomes more urgent, they make warm and reiterated appeals to his regard to interest, his love of character, his affection for them, his sense of moral obligation, and the well known effect of irregular habits in shortening human life. They flatter themselves, that all these efforts are not abortive. Some tender emotions, some ingenuous relentings are perceived. These are gladly hailed as the witnesses of penitence, and the harbingers of reformation. Hopes thus suddenly formed, are found to be premature. The anxiety of the parents is renewed and augmented by recent evidence of profligacy in the son. To reclaim him, their affection prompts them to make new exertions-to repeat arguments, which have hitherto been found ineffectual-to exhibit these in new and vaVOL. II.

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