WARFARE AGAINST INTEMPERANCE.

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of millennial purity, peace, and prosperity, revealed in the Bible. The warfare against intemperance is hence to be understood to be of God. Its origin was evidently Divine. Its commencement in the early part of this century, was unquestionably under the superintendence of Divine Providence. And all its various epochs, to the present time, have been signalized by providential interpositions, evincing clearly a train of Divinely appointed instrumentalities combining to shed light, and impart increasing importance to the work of Divine mercy in the extermination of the alcoholic power of intoxication from its strongholds for the destruction of mankind.

And hence it has come to pass, that hundreds of thousands of petitions from male and female subscribers are now [Feb., 1852] before the Legislature of the State of New York, praying for the legislative enactment of the statute Liquor Law of Maine. Full confidence is reposed, that if obtained, it will be carried into effectual execution after the example of Maine. And that liquor manufacturers, venders, and consumers, with their wives and children, and all connected with their business and customs of living, will constitute the principal portion of the general community, who would be the most essentially benefited by such a law; notwithstanding they constitute at present a vast proportion of the most virulent opposers of the Temperance Reformation. Such is the power of the fell destroyer to prevent mortals of the human race from a discovery of their danger and remedy, by closing their eyes, ears, understandings, and consciences against all the instrumentalities and power of moral suasion.

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THE RUMSELLER'S MIGHTY PLEA!

It is no less astonishing than true, that one single plea of manufacturers and traffickers in intoxicating liquors, proves to be an overmatch, in many instances, for all the powers of moral suasion. And it is as evident, that nothing but LEGAL POWER can effectually remove that paralyzing plea, which stands, like the impregnable walls of ancient Babylon, in bold defiance against all temperance instrumentalities or power to storm the citadel of intemperance, or elude its volunteer inmates from their stronghold. Now, let all other subjects have a respite till the proposition before us be analyzed, illustrated, proved, and confirmed.

The mightiest of all pleas against the Temperance Reformation may be summed up in a single or compound word, or a single or compound sentence; either of which, by liquor dealers, comprises an amount of more important valuation in the plea against the Liquor Law of Maine, than all the advantages of such a law would be, or could be, to the State of New York, were it enacted by the Legislature and executed by the people as faithfully and effectually as the law requires. The plea, in single words, is cash, GAIN, MONEY; in compound words, SELF-INTEREST, SELF-LOVE, i. e., selfishness. In a single sentence, thus, The passage of the Maine Law will destroy all my business plans; or, The passage of the Maine Law will bring my family to beggary. One or two compound sentences will furnish the amount of examples. Thus, my CRAFT is to manufacture and traffic in various kinds of liquors, by wholesale or retail, by exportation or importation, to any extent, any place or places, without limitation, and in any

THE RUMSELLER'S PLEA.

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such quantities or qualities as may best accord with my business calculations, without being confined to time, place, quantity, quality, or circumstances. Such is my CRAFT.

By my craft, I have accumulated real estate, estimated at some millions of dollars, for which I pay taxes for the support of government, and of the poor in the land. As a freeman, I have chosen the city of New York for my residence and place of business thus far through life; am now extensively engaged in business; and my ships of the ocean, hotels, various liquor manufactories, houses of entertainment, and places where I furnish liquors for sale at many corners and cellars, every day and night in the week, as may easily be seen, and will show that I furnish both business and pleasure to hundreds of poor families, and perhaps thousands of persons, who are furnished at home and abroad with any and all kinds of liquors, through my means and instrumentality.

Now, the sum of the whole matter is, that if the Liquor Law of Maine should be enacted by the Legislature, and become a statute of the State of New York, my whole business calculations would be overthrown-all my dependents would be beggared, and all customers would be reduced to the necessity of quenching their thirst on cold water, the very element that beasts of the field and all other "inferior animals" make use of to quench their thirst, just as though human beings were brutes! And this is not all; but thousands of others, of less ability to bear the loss than myself, would be thrown out of business, and their comforts of a social glass would be lost, if the Liquor Law of Maine should become a statute of the Empire State.

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THIRD REASON OF REMONSTRANCE.

Now, that such is the amount of the plea of REMONSTRANCE against the passage of the Maine law, as a legislative STATUTE of the State of New York, must be evident to all who consider and understand the import of Twelve Reasons, which have been respectfully presented to the Hon. Legislature of the State, A. D. 1852, in a remonstrance against the petitioned enactment of the law of Maine as a statute of the State of New York. We shall now attempt to analyze the TWELVE REASONS OF THE CELEBRATED REMONSTRANCE OF CITIZENS OF NEW YORK.

THIRD REASON OF REMONSTRANCE.

The third reason of said remonstrance is founded on the assumption of the baseness of the confederate character of petitioners to the Legislature of New York, for a law to prevent drunkenness. The following extract from their third reason is first presented to consideration for the better understanding of the other eleven reasons to sustain the remonstrance in question:

REASON THIRD.-" We regard the proposed law [Maine Law] as the audacious and fanatical project of certain conventional associations, known as temperance or total abstinence societies. We believe that these societies have justly incurred the indignation, and the political resistance and hostility of every enlightened freeman of the land, as the instigators and abettors of a despotic usurpation, more degrading to the dignity of a free people, and more atrocious in its political character than any which history records."

Now, it is worthy of special notice, that hundreds of thousands, male and female, in the State of New York.

THIRD REASON OF REMONSTRANCE.

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in A. D. 1852, have respectfully petitioned the Hon. Legislature of their State, for the enactment of a law to suppress drunkenness and its woes, comprising evils that are drowning our whole country in ruin. And that New York

city gentlemen, if they all may be so called, to the number of ten, twenty, or thirty thousand names of gentlemen, with not the name of one female among them, have signed a remonstrance to the passage of said law. And yet, doubtless, many of those gentlemen have wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, and other female relatives and friends, many of whom belong to temperance societies. And, from the wretchedness which those females daily witness among the gentlemen of their own households or neighborhood, resulting from the fumes of intoxicating liquors; the bloated faces which they daily see, the staggering gait which they witness, the profane oaths, curses, wrangling, clamor, tumults, poverty, children in tatters crying with cold or for bread, and thousands of other indescribable scenes of the most horrid wretchedness, even among such New York city GENTLEMEN, who prefer various kinds of intoxicating beverages for common drink, instead of cold water, may, for aught any body knows, have prevented females from subscribing a remonstance, backed up with no less than Twelve Reasons to prevent the enactment of a law to suppress drunkenness !

Doubtless, among the vast number of "RESPECTABLE GENTLEMEN" subscribers to the remonstrance in question, some are immensely rich men, and have become so by their tact and prosperity in the business of their craft of liquor manufacture or traffic. But it is very doubtful if not a ten or