r> HE TEMPERANCE ISSUE IN NORWICH, DELIVERED IN BREED HALL, JANUARY 14th. 1878. REV. L T. Pastor of Broadway Church. The Rev. L. T. Chamberlain Dear Sir : The undersigned, citizens of Norwich, believing that your masterly appeal in behalf of tenr-erance in Breed Hall on the 14th inst., contains facts and statistics of the greatest interest to all the inhabitants of this city and town, specially affecting our moral, sociaf and political condition, would most respectfully request a copy of the same for publi- cation, that it may be put in the hands of every person in the community. F. Nichols, John Mitchell. L. Blackstone, Win. M. Williams, Chas C. Haskell, Henry Bill. Charles King, E. N. Gibbs, A. W. Prentice. L. W. Carroll, J. H. Cranston, Robert Brown. Norwich Conn.. Jan. 17, 1878. To F. Nichols. John Mitchell. L Blackstone, Wm. M, Williams and others : Gentlemen ; Your request for the publication of the address delivered in Hreed Hall is re- ceived. I will prepare it for the printer at the earliest possible moment consistent with other duties. With highest regard, yours sincerely, L. T. CHAMBERLAIN. Norwich, Jan. 18. 1878. AND G-ENTI-K.VIKN, FKLJ,OW CITIZENS : I thank you for the greeting which you give me. I am not insensible to the personal kindness winch is implied in your thronging welcome. It, is a joy to me and I confess it to cherish the hope that every face into which I look to-night, is the face of a friend. I know, however, that your comir.sj; | hither has reference to the cause rather than to me. Indeed, I have invited you to listen respecting a matter whose im- portance dwarfs all personal considera- tions, and which may rightfully claim for itself the foremost place 1 deliber- ately request you to forget the speaker, and to think only of the things he speaks. This shall be your platform as well as j mine. If you agree with the words ut . tered let the assent be manifested. If ! you disagree with them, or even condemn them, let there be no hesitancy in making* known your verdict. I appeal to none of | the timid courtesies to-night. I tell you frankly that, so far as I am concerned, I shall utter my convictions, whether you i hear or whether you forbear. Though 1 had known that I must meet here those who would he angry at my words. I should have cherished the same purpose to de- clare my utmost mind. 1 am for what 1 believe to be the truth, and hisses even are not the things which I have been taught to fear. This is the hour for free dom of expression, and I accord it to you. even as I claim it for myself ! Fellow-citizens, how shall we measure the importance of the case before us? At what mark shall we set the magnitude of the Temperance cause V Letting pass, for the moment, all reference to methods of procedure, what stands as the computable urgency of the issue which convenes us to-night ? For one. I own to the jtiog- ment that the cause takes rank 'amrng the foremost that ever appealed to your interest. I know something of the vari- ety and seriousness of municipal affairs. 1 understand something of questions of finance and police. 1 sun aware that safe- guards against lire and pestilence are not to be reckoned as trivial. I can see that law and order, in their general signifi- cance, are things which are almost syn- onymous witli property and life. I can imagine that were any of these great in- terests to be brought into direct issue ; were anv of them fundamentally and openly to be decided, you would hold most things else in abeyance until the de- cision had been made. You would say that it were folly itself which should .counsel anything save a public awakening >' and a public unanimity of action ! But, my friends, this matter of Temper- ance or Intemperance is more than ques- tions of mere finance. In the comparison, it evidently were not much whether your taxes were nine mills or nine cents. It were not relatively much, whether you had police, or slept, every man as his own sentinel and defence. It were compara- tively unimportant whether the flames found a fire department trained to sub- due them, or whether they raged against the unorganized efforts of the citizens at large. In the contrast, it were not of moment whether there were health laws or health anarchy. Measured by results, it were not so essential that courts should enforce the rights of personal liberty and proprietary pos-ession. or that the city government should uphold the statutes which specify the things of ordinary con cern. I venture that never, except in such a crisis as came on us and the na- tion in 18*51, has this generation of citi- zens discussed so great an issue as that which concerns itself with intoxicating drink. The things of so-called politics are trifling compared with it, and Ihe matters of trade and traffic are not to be mentioned in its presence. The affair is so momentous that it were becoming for the citizens to assemble. It were fitting that counsel should be taken, and the common safety considered. I know not h,ow any one whose mind thinks or whose heart beats, can be unconcerned and inactive. Look at it, good friends ! Take your fair Norwich for the last fifty years. Write only the history which can be coi- roborated by the testimony of men still living. Set down nothing to guesswork. Draw the outline according to exact sta- tistics. Lay the picture's colors with his- toric precision. And then tell me if you know aught else in our midst that is half sourgent'or half so terrible. Why, the march of Intemperance in this community has been tracked in blood. The results of its working, could they be painted on ihe canvas, would make the whole head sick and the whole heart faint. Sometimes the demon of drink has laid his hand on the rarest, an.l men have fallen as fell Lucifer, son of the morning ! Sometimes the victim has been one unobserved by the multitude, and the tragedy has been enacted in that silence over which only God bends in pity. Sometimes woman has been plucked from the throne of her womanliness; and sometimes tender childhood has been slain, as when Herod made mourning in Bethlehem. By scores and by hundreds, the worse than deaths have taken place, and the record is still repeating its terrors. Go with me to- night, and I can show you where the in- toxicating cup makes hell on earth. I can show you where it still is true to its nature, and bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. By day and by night, as it were alongside your home and mine, the old-time scene is repeated : the man or woman gradually losing the best of the former possessions ; the wonted gen- tleness passing into harshness ; the ac- customed delicacy of feeling and demean- or giving place to grossness ; conscience deadened ; reason unpaired ; the dcsiivs degraded ; friends grieved and alienated ; business neglected ; poverty necessitated; the family made wretched ; self resprcl surrendered ; marriage vows dishonored ; parental affect ion destroyed ; decency outraged; crime committed ; .'hame and despair brought on ; disease of every kind incurred ; idiocy made to alternate with madness; until, at last, a death <!' stupor or frenzy closes the ghastly -cvnc ! Am I dipping my brush in fancy's colors? Am I declaiming the rant of a visionary ? No ! I have not lived among von v TV many months, but I have nv.d ii re long enough to know this wiieivot' I nave spoken ! If you doubt the facts. I will prove them to yon by in sij; it of your eyes and the hearing of your ears ! Some of you, sitting in your shel.ereit homes, may not have seen the reality ' Po-siMy you would choose to avoid lit- >igni. But, for all that, the closed eye does not put out the sun ! The passing iy on ihe other side does not change the fact that the wounded traveler is moaning and dy- ing there in his pain ! The t hi jigs ol In- temperance, in all their liideo i-ne-s, are tremendously real, and you must consider that they are on every side of you ! And now that I am speaking of the evil itself, let me call } - our attention lo the truth that this which takes place here is taking place throughout ihe land. One reason why you are to a^ake as a Sam- son startled at tidings of the enemy. i> that Intemperance here is a part of In- temperance everywhere. Unopposed, its reign here will be an encouragement 10 its dominion there. Tne evil example of this city set on its hills, will repeat itself in the townships round aboui. \\hile, contrariwise, the re>oluic, successful grappling with the evil here, will be to many a struggling band anno>t as a token UCSB LIBRARY in the heavens. Like the watch-fires in the earlier days of freedom, the signal will be flamed from height to height, and the STATE will be moved toward her re- demption. Remember, then, that in this land which has kept its proud Centennial, this land which we love, there are, at the lowest estimate, seventy-five thousand deaths annually by the direct cause of In- temperance ! The funeral processions are a solid year in passing a given point. Five hundred thousand confirmed drunk- ards! A column of one hundred and fifty miles, marching in close ranks, two abreast ! Five millions of men and wom- en who daily go to the saloons for intoxi- cating drinks as a beverage ! Though they march twenty miles a day, it will take them a month to pass our door! One hundred and forty thousand licensed liquor-saloons in the United States ! Though you allow but the minimum of space for each saloon, they would fill both sides of a street two hundred and fifty miles long ! One hundred thousand drinking criminals convicted of crime by the testimony of legally examined witnesses ! From eighty to ninety per cent, of all statutory crime connected with Intemperance ! In Connecticut, reckoning every state, county, and mu- nicipal prison, more than ninety per cent. >)f the inmates addicted to strong drink ! Surely he of the pale horse rides and blood flows to the very bridle. It is strong drink which peoples our houses of correction and jails ; and after all that, leaves society infested with lawlessness and crime. On the criminal side it is like a contagion ! And what shall we say of the economic waste '! Enough, here in Norwich alone, to make us feel that on thafslde too, the Temperance cause is the cause of the common welfare! I could point you, if I chose, to fortunes wasted for the reason that the inheritors were drunkards ! Es- tates lost, because the owners were the victims of intemperance ! But let that pass. Take the laboring men the men and women who get their living by the sweat of the brow Take the families of those who rely on their daily wages. And what is the waste to them 1 You can't estimate it. It is beyond specific calcu- lation. None but the gathered victims themselves, or the owners of the places where the destroyer is sold, can give us even the approximate figures. In the last ten years it has been enough to give a comfortable house and garden plot to every toiling family in the city. It is more than has been spent on your church- es and schools combined. The current loss would to-day pay all your city taxes., and support all your deserving poor. For, my friends, when you come to the eco nomic waste, you must reckon all ales and beer, as well as the stronger drinks ! You will hear it said that ale and beer are nutritious, and that the hard working man who spends his ten and twenty cents a day for such drinks is not wasting it ! That such beverages are in sonic insian ces a healthful stimulant and tonic, is true. They might, in themselves, be ap- propriate as mild forms of medicine. But as for nutriment, the talk is non- sense ! " We can prove," says Baron Liebig, prince of chemists, "we can prove vith mathematical certainty, that as much flour as can lie on the point of a table knife, is more nutritious than eight quarts of the best Bavarian beer : "that a person who is able to consume that amount of beer daily, obtains from it in a whole year, in the most favorable ease, exactly the amount of nutritious constit- uents, which is obtained in a five pound loaf, or in three pounds of meat." In other words, and still speaking with mathematical precision, if you drink fourteen hogsheads of ale, you can get. the amount of two large loaves of bread ! Every dollar spent for even ale or beer is, accordingly, ninety-nine hundredths waste And in this relation of material loss. Norwich does not stand alone. Seveniy- five million gallons of alcoholic liquors annually consumed in I he 1'iiited Slates! Add wine and beer, and one hundred mill-ion gallons, at a cost to the consumer of six hundred million dollars! And this is one-seventh of all our manufactures for the year, and more than one fourth of all farm productions, betterments and stock ! Enough to buy two and a half barrels of flour for every man, woman and child in this broad land ! As shown by the sworn returns of internal revenue, it is less than the truth to say that since 1860, we have destroyed in drink more than twelve billion dollars! More than five times the amount of the national debt, and two-and-a-half times the whole cost of the War of the Rebellion to all sections of the country ! In every twen- ty years, we as a nation, drink ourselves out of the value of our whole country, real estate and personal property includ- ed ! It is then against such a national waste, that we set ourselves when we lift the standard of Temperance in the citv of Norwich. We are a part of the great whole. Redeem this city from such ectncmic ravage, and you have don ( > something toward n denning <vuy ( .j lv and village in the land ! Manifestly it is fitting that in all the relationships of this cause, we should remember that we are part of a community whose boundaries are only fixed by the boundaries of our Republic and the world ! Well, then, what do you say about the reasonableness of a public gathering to consider what can be done for Temper- ance ? What do you say about the dan ger of getting too excited with reference to it ? Too excited '? Yes, if one loses his head, and under the pressure goes insane ! But otherwise his excitement is justified. His danger is only such as might be that of one who should set him- self to the rescue of the dying, or the sending of deliverance to the famishing and the enslaved ! Would to God that more men and women were " beside them- selves " in this great issue ! Would that all men and women might resolve that they would give neither sleep to their eyes nor slumber to their eyelids, until they had done their utmost to check the appalling evil which is in our midst and in the land ! There was once a crusade of women against the saloons and rum-shops. Their souls were so enkindled that they could not rest. They prayed to the God above them, and then clad, like Joan of Arc, in the armor of their pure intent, they went to their fellow-men who were dealing out the deadly thing, and begged of them to desist. Pleaded with them in the name of God and humanity to find and employ some other means of livelihood and wealth ! I believe that that crusade was inspired of the Lord. It had in it more of the anointing which is of the Holy Ghost and of fire than has belonged to any other philanthropic movement of our times. It accomplished a glorious result. Yet, in one sense, how pitiful the sight! Woman, and otten-times she who was clothed in the garments of beauty and gentleness and culture, kneeling on the side-walk and in the dens of wickedness, entreating for those who were dear to her, her husband and little ones, or the hus bands and little ones of her sisters at her side ! Oh, what must the angels have thought of us fathers and brothers! Did they think that the tenderness and strength of Christian manhood had clean gone from the world ? Did they think that chivalry was dead, like Lycidas, and that moral courage found none of the sons of earth with whom it might dwell ? Why did not men take the place of mediation, and stand between the living and the dead, between the destroyer and his victim ? Why will not a hundred of our noblest citizens, before this week has passed our ministers, our lawyers, our physicians, our editors, our manufacturing princes, our bank presidents and cashiers, our mer- chants, our so-called laboring men, why will they not go in a body, and confer in tremendous earnest, with the liquor- sel- lers of this city ? Why will they not go. and in the name of society and the com- mon weal, in the name of earth and heaven, ask them to cease the accursed trade ? They certainly would do that, or something which should be its equivalent, if they were rightly aroused! If their own skirts were clear, their own hands clean, and their hearts right, they would organ- ize a new crusade, and themselves stand in the front ! Do you think that any oppo- sition could long resist such an attack ? I tell you, Norwich can be redeemed, whenever the noble men and women of Norwich shall decree it, and employ the means ! But it will never be done unless we move! So long as we sit, either in listlessness or despair, the evil will defy us, and remain. We must resort to a moral suasion which shall at once be calm with the calmness of reason, and vehement with the vehemence of love ! And when I speak thus of moral suasion, of reason and of love, I speak of what must forever be the supreme method and inspiration of the Temperance cause. For voluntary Total Abstinence is the ideal at which we aim. It is " touch not, taste not, handle not." It is each person saying, " I will have nought to do with it. Save for purely mechanical and medicinal ends, I will no more have dealings in it, than in the plague. I will abjure it, for my own sake, and for the sake of souls about me." To that choice we wish to bring every intemperate person, and every seller of intoxicating drink. On the van- tage-ground of that resolve, we wish to maintain every soul on whom the evil lias not yet come. You see at once, then, that there can be no means adequate, without moral suasion inspired by reason and love. There is nothing else which is nearly enough omniscient and omnipotent. There is nothing else whose combined gentleness and power are sufficient to the end. Total abstinence can't be secured by prohibition alone. It can't be secured by denunciations of occasional and mod- erate drinkers : by opprobrium visited on those who partake of wine and beer. It can only be done by pleading the tendency ot even such moderate use, and by point- ing out the effort of such ej-ample. I know that there is a middle course which is pos- sible to some. I see a few walking in it. But I count it, on the whole, a dangerous thing which they are doing. There are moderate drinkers, and yet somewhere a'ong the line which diverges from total abstinence, lie death and hell. If to any one who thinks of the power of habit, and the influence of example, it seems best to walk along that diverging line, defending himself by the plea that he can maintain his foothold while others are continually tailing, his heart is made differently from mine. I abjure whatever is connected with Intemperance. The suggestion, the association, the possibility, is enough to turn me against it ! Therefore " with malice toward none, with charity toward all." let us inscribe MORAL SUASION on the banner of our cause! That as the first and final watchword, and then PROHIBITION next and alongside ! For, as I formerly said on this platform, the rightfulness, both constitutional and moral, of a prohibitory Temperance law, is beyond successful question. No one denies that society, government, may regulate the traffic in intoxicating drinks, may impose conditions and restrictions. But in the eye of civil-rights, of juris- prudence, the power to regulate is the power to prohibit. In other phrase, the body-politic has a constitutional and moral right to pass whatever laws are deemed to be for the highest common- good. Is bound, indeed, to pass such laws. May say, for instance, if that is judged to be for the highest welfare, that that you and I shall eat no more meat and drink no more cold water ; shall ride no more in carriages, nor wear aught save home-spun and sackcloth ; that we shall build houses of no more than specified dimensions, and go from those houses at only specified hours. The only question is " What does the actual, large, funda- mental public-welfare demand ?" Set- tle that at the tribunal of reason and love, and then write on the statute-book the word which is in keeping. Believe it, constitution and moral law both are your support in so doing. As for myself, I wish not only that liquor-selling for other than mechanical and medicinal purposes, were prohibited in Norwich, and in every town and city of Connecticut, but I wish that the very manufacture and importa- tion of ardent spirits, save for the uses mentioned, were prohibited from sea to sea and from the lakes to the gulf. I wish that by an enactment as solemn and sovereign as that by which they declared their political independence, the people, the citizens of the Republic, would pre- vent the existence of intoxicating liquors, except for the arts of mechanics and med icine. And yet, when I publicly avow my choice of prohibition, I do not for a mo- ment forget what I have said concerning moral suasion It is enough to secure my advocacy and vote, if it can be shown that prohibition is even helpful. I know it cannot take the place of personal, sympa- thetic, unremitting effort. That ought not to be proposed. But if, on I he whole, it will aid the good cause of Temperance by so much as a hair's breadth or a feath- er's wight. I am for it now, here, always, everywhere. If instead of having every third door on our frequented streets heck oning our fellow citizens to ruin ; enticing them with the attractions of sight and sound ; we can make the evil difficult of access, so that he who seeks it shall he obliged to go over and around and through the restraints of law, it is suffi- cient to warrant the statute. And that, and far more, fellow-citizens.can be done! The universal verdict is that prohibitory laws sustained by the will of a faithful majority, are vastly helpful. They tend greatly to diminish drunkenness and pau- perism and crime. The records of statis- ticians and the common observation con- firm that statement. '1, therefore, am for prohibitory laws. I say to you to-night, let us leave no stone unturned, no legiti- mate influence unemployed, until in this city the sale of ardent spirits as a beverage has been put under the ban of law. If we can't carry itat the next election, 1 believe we can, then at the election after! We won't rest until it is accom- plished 1 And here let me say that what especially needs to be settled in this city of Norwich, is that whatever law is passed, the law is to be enforced! That when the people, af- ter discussion, and at the ballot-box, de- cide, the decision is to be enforced to the letter. Fellow citizens, is not that the the- ory of every government, which is "of the people, by the people, and for the people"'/ Do citizens consider and confer, and leave their homes and business on days of elec- tion, simply to play with words? Is it to be thought that he is officious and unreason- able, who sets himself to the execution of what has been enacted ? Is he, forsooth, the disturber of the public peace, and one to be looked upon askance '? Must he walk among us, as one threatened and hated '.' Thank God, there is at least one man in Norwich who, whatever may be said of the felicity of all his methods, honors law and the community that passed the law, by acting on the supposition that statutes are to be executed.* One man who laughs at threats, and fears God rather than God's enemies ! What shall be done unto him? *Rev. Hugh Montgomery. In the name of the people, for they are king, let this he done ! Let a civic crown 'be placed on his head ; let robes of honor he cast about his shoulders ; and let him he home through the midst of the city, with the proclamation, " Thus shall it be done to I lie man whom the king delight- eth to honor." Nor should I be sorry, though I myself were commissioned to be the king's herald therein. 1 confess that I am amazed as well as troubled, when 1 see the state of public opinion here with regard to the carrying out of what has been chosen by the people. I have heard it said, it seems incredible, but it is true, I have heard it said, that to he active in enforcing even the pres- ent license-law, was to subject the man of business to a loss of patronage! And the air has borne certain whispered words dep recated indeed by the rum-sellers about having one's buildings burned, if he didn't mind his own affairs ! Ah, well, my fel- low citizens, you had best settle that issue once for all. For the sake of yourselves and your children, you had best meet that question now. And settle it, I pray you, by the proof of trial. Meet it by the test of facts. Execute the present license-law, from Norwich Town to Gretneville. Exe- cute it conspicuously, openly! Some- times the air can be cleared by nothing less than a thunder-storm. Here there- fore let the lightnings of public opinion flash, and the thunders of fearless action roll. Then, perchance, the atmosphere will be healthful, and we shall understand that law means law, and that this is a law-executing people. I am in earnest about this, and I am ready to be consistent. I can understand the defensibleness of the action of even the present board of Selectmen, in granting additional licenses. I am not surprised that to the three or four score already is- sued, they are making increase. 1 am not by any means certain that I would not do the same, provided I remained on the board. For the will of the majority of the voters of this city, as legally expressed, was in favor of license. They meant that unless there was some peculiar per- sonal reason to the contrary, all those who chose to engage in the liquor-traffic should do so, upon the payment of the stipula- ted fee. Is it altogether clear that an ad- ministrative officer, even though he be clothed with the possible power, is requir- ed so to act as to defeat the fundamental will of the people V If the majority say li- cense, they have a legal right to the reali- zation of their choice ! 1 tell you, my Temperance friends, if we want to win in the statutory conflict, we must win at the open polls ! Certainly, if any are to- be licensed to sell ardent spirits as a bev- erage, all who care for it, and comply with the full specification, should share in the permission. I don't believe in li- censing the wealthy and so-called respect- able rumseller, and withholding a license from the man or woman who keeps a bar in some filthy cellar. It is all alike. The true theory of license is, in general, to give licenses to all who will buy them That is democratic. And, on the basis of a license-law, that only is fair. I repeat, therefore, that I do not com- plain of the fact that under our present statute, licenses are granted. What I ask now is that when the licenses are granted, their clear provisions be observed. I ask that the plain stipulations he complied with. And that is the public question which, in the providence of God, we first of all must settle. We have small right to think that we deserve anything better than the present statute, until we have settled it ! Fellow-citizens, either I was a mistaken observer of the last Temperance contest in this city, or one great cause of the defeat, was the failure To give valid assurance that a prohibitory law would be executed, if voted. The no-license law it is true was weighted with the oppressive fea- ture of allowing no authorized sale of ardent spirits, not even for mechanical or medicinal purposes. A feature which I venture wasn-yer put there by the friends of Tempeiance ! I have no question that the alternative was made thus severe and unreasonable, to the precise end of practi- cally defeating no-license. At any rate, it is a feature which ought to be repealed. And before the close of this meeting, 1 trust a resolution may be offered, request- ing the legislature and our representatives therein, to amend the no-license-law so as to allow of the sale of ardoit spirits, by proper persons, for strictly mechanical and medicinal purposes. I can understand that that single unrea- sonableness of the no-license law cost it many votes. But still it would have won the day, had it not been widely believed that its friends would not efficiently sup- port it, when passed. There was something said, indeed, by the advocates of prohibition about the city au- thorities being bound to execute a prohib- itory law, but it was rather intimated that the citizen, in general, though he voted no- license, was not to feel obligated to take special trouble or incur special risk. I believe that that word, or the absence ot a different word, cost us our defeat. If the fifty, or even the five. courageous, wise. trusted men could have been found, who would say, "We will see that a prohibitory- law is executed, if enacted, " the law would have been put on the statute-book last October. I believe as strongly as any one in holding our officials to the duty of a taithfnl effort to carry out whatever the people decree. That is their business. That is why we have mayor, common council, prosecuting attorney, and police. And if mayor, common council, prosecut- ing attorney, police, one or all, are not willing to accept the duty, andenterzeal ously on its performance, then say to them that you only await their resignation in order to put others in their place. Tell them that they are but your servants, and that your commands for them are on the statute-book. Aye, tell them to execute, as far as in them lies, every law that is passed, or they themselves shall be indicted and condemned ! At the same time, charge yourselves also with the common welfare. Keenforce the effort of the city officials by your own eternal vigilance. Remember, it is only the people who have eyes enough to trace out crime, and the people who have hands enough to strangle it. I have listened to words in this community which seemed to imply that if a citizen voted a gainst a certain enactment, he had no re- sponsibility for its execution. It has been said of this license-law, jjf It is no law of mine." Fellow citizens, every law is your law and in a sense too serious to be evaded. That license-law is where it is, by the will of the people. You are a permanent part of the body-politic. You can't divest your selves of your citizenship. But it inheres in the very idea of citizenship, that you help to execute the will of the majority, unless you believe that the will of the ma- jority calls you to absolute wrong. So far as the administration of statutes is in general concerned, they may be consid- ered as passed by unanimous vote. Add to that, moreover, that the issue of Tem- perance is one of those issues which so concern the most serious interests of the community, that you cannot, on any ground, be justified in lukewarmness. Does the passing of thid statute or that, I ask, affect 3'our bounden duty in regard to the essential well-being of your neigh- bor V In the face of that consideration, are you at liberty to enlist and resign whenever you please V No ! Well, ans- wer me this : Would it not be better for this community, better for the bodies and souls of men, that the restrictions of even the license-law slu.iild be enforced, than that the rum-liiiffic should be without let or hindrance '! Then let us hear no more about disowning responsibility. Every man is responsible for securing the good which is the highest possible under the circumstances. Change the circumstan- ces, if they be not favorable, and you have the power. But always and every- where toil for the highest good ' Above all things, teach the lesson that law, and, in general, crcrt/ law, is to be executed, here in Norwich, and through- out, the Republic ! We have a license-law on the subject of intoxicating liquor, ale, beer and Rhine- wine. When the wise Solon was asked if he. had given the Athenians the best possible laws, he answered, " Yes, of such as they would receive. '' Our license- law shows the mark of our present prog- ress. We shall go higher by and by ! But we have, at present, a license-law. That you knew before. Yet how many of you know what the license-law is V 1 . own that when I first examined it, 1 was astonished at the general manifoldness and stringency of its provisions. And the more was I astonished to read that any violation of the provisions of the law should, besides the specific penalty, work the revocation of the license itself at tin- hands of the County Commissioners. Bear that in mind when, a little later, 1 come to the restrictive sections. See un- der what tremendous and antecedent lia- bility the rum-seller stands ! Bear in mind, too. that -every application for li- cense must be in writing, signed by the applicant in person, and a copy be left in the office of the Town Clerk, subject to public inspection for two weeks previous to the granting thereof. Have you in- spected any such applications to see if they were made by persons who are spec- ially untrustworthy ? And just at this point, let me show you what provision is made for bringing the whole traffic under the restrictions of the license-law. Provision for putting it where we can make it amenable to some sort of restraint. Putting it when- we can, at least, say to the vender, " If you persist in the traffic, there is a prescribed way. See that you walk in it. Mind that you put your feet on that "marl of hell." for if you do not, then, in the name of law, we will see that you are punished. " I quote: "Any person, without a li- cense therefor, who shall sell, or exchange, or offer or expose for sale or exchange, or own or keep with intent to sell or ex- change any intoxicating liquor ; and any person licensed to sell ale, lager beer and Rhine-wine only, who shall keep, sell, or give away in the saloon, store, or room where he is so licensed, any other intoxi- cating liquor ; shall be fined not less than fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. " And, as if that were not enough, listen to this section of the clear statute. " Every person who shall keep a place in which it is reputed that intoxicating liquors are kept for sale, without having a license therefor, shall be fined not less than twenty dol'ars nor more than fifty dollars, or imprisoned not more than sixty days, or both." And, as if even that were still insuffi- cient, the statute declares that all intoxi- cating liquor intended by the owner cr keeper to be sold in violation of law, shall, with the vessels in which it is con- tained, be a nuisance; and upon proof, it shall be utterly destroyed. Do you say that the enforcement of those provisions would inure to the gain of the licensed dealers ? Grant it, yet it is the statute, and should be enforced ! It is, moreover, better so, than, to have free rum ! It is, then, for you to see to it forthwith that all unlicensed sale of liquor is stopped in this city! Why, the official annotation of the statute says that it is not necessary to prove that liquors were kept for sale without license. The honest, current opinion of the neighborhood is enough to convict. The law says virtually that if a man not having a license, does* not con- duct his affairs so as to escape even hon- est suspicion, he shall be fined, or im- prisoned, or both. Does not that, on that head, put sufficient power into your hands ? And here I linger for another moment, to point you to certain legislation con- cerning adulterated liquors. I quote. " Every person who shall manufacture, sell or keep for sale, any intoxicating liquor, or any made or compounded in imitation thereof, which is adulterated with any deleterious or poisonous ingre- dients, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned not more than one year, or both." The statute proceeds : "When any prosecution shall be pending for the manufacturing, selling or keeping any intoxicating liquor with intent to sell the same, and a sample of such liquor shall be presented in coutt, it may order such sample to be conveyed to a State Chemist for analysis, and may ad- journ the trial of such prosecution a rea- sonable time for such purpose. " ' ' Copies of records of any analysis of liquors made by a State Chemist, certified by him, shall be legal evidence of the facts stated in such records." Am I not right in judging that the enforcement of that leg- islation would virtually destroy the liquor- traffic of Norwich ? Do you suppose that there is a liquor-dealer in this city who can stand the test ? And yet how many prosecutions have we had for adulterated liquors ? What use have you made of the power which the statute places in your keeping ? And now we come to the restrictive regulations. Listen to this. I still quote from the statute. " When any person shall complain to any of the Selectmen of any town, that his or her father, mother, husband, wife or child, is addicted to the use of intoxicating liquor, and request said Selectmen, in writing, to notify the licensed dealers in said town not to sell, exchange, or give any intoxicating liquor to such father, mother, husband, wife or child, such Selectmen shall forthwith no- tify, in writing, every licensed dealer in said town that such request has been made, and the sale of intoxicating liquor, ale, lager beer and Rhine- wine to such father, mother, husband, wife or child is forbidden by law." Do you not observe how the statute arms the hand of every suffering woman and child even, with the means of self-defense ? Mark you, there is no technical and substantiated proof required as the preliminary. There is no oath exacted. The affiant makes the alle- gation in writing that the person standing in specified relation is addicted to the use of intoxicating drink ; not to excess necessarily, but addicted ; and forthwith the Selectmen must notify, in writing, every licensed dealer in the city that the sale, exchange or gift of liquor to that person so addicted and named is forbid- den bylaw. It is possible, then, that the vigilance of the people, and the encour- agement of the suffering ones to avail themselves of their statutory privilege, shall bring it to pass that by the solemn, specific act of the Selectmen, each licens- ed dealer in this city shall be warned not to sell, exchange or give intoxicating liquor, ale, beer or Rhine-wine, to any drinking man or woman in Norwich ! There is prohibition for you, if you care to take the trouble ! The full carrying out of that one provision would close every licensed liquor-saloon in the municipality. Why don't you see to it that, so far as possible, it is carried out ? Listen again. "Any licensed person who shall sell intoxicating liquor to any minor or intoxicated person, or to any hus- band after notice from his wife not to sell to him, or to any wife after notice from her husband not to sell to her, or to any ha- bitual drunkard, knowing him to be such; and uny person who shall procure or fur- nish any intoxicating liquor to another, af- ter notice from the Selectmen as provided by law, shall be fined not less than twenty dollars, nor more than fifty dollars, or im- prisoned not more than sixty days, or both." By this section the suffering wife or husband may go directly to the licensed seller, and file the valid warning. Will the husband or wife dare to do it V Yes, I think so, provided there is a public opinion which actively sanctions and com- mends it. But, even apart from that, the sale to minors and intoxicated persons and habitual drunkards, is positively pro- hibited under pain of fine and imprison- ment Are you doing all you can to make this section operative ? Yet once more. ' ' Every person licensed to sell intoxicating liquors, who shall be- tween twelve o'clock at night, and four o'clock of the following morning, keep open any place, apartment, store, or room, where such liquors are sold, or exchanged, or kept or exposed for sale or exchange, shall be fined not more than fifteen dollars nor less than seven dollars." What arj you doing about that ? " And every person who between the hours of twelve o'clock Saturday night, and twelve o'clock Sunday night next fol- lowing, should keep open any room, place orinclosure, or any building,or any struct ure of any kind or description, in which it is reputed that intoxicating liquors are exposed for sale, shall be fined forty dol- lars, or imprisoned thirty days, or both." Again, " Whoever shall sell intoxicating liquor to any person who thereby becomes intoxicated, and while so intoxicated shall, in consequence thereof, injure the person or property of another, shall pay just damages to the person injured, to be re- covered in an action on this statute; and if the person selling such intoxicating li- quors is licensed, the recovery ofjjudgiLent for such damages shall be conclusive evidence of a breach of the bond." Again. " If any person found intoxi- cated, or arrested for intoxication, shall fully disclose to the prosecuting officer, at his request, from whom and when, where and how, he procured the liquor which produced his intoxication, and shall, in the opinion of such officer, testify fully and freely on the trial of the person accused of selling him such liquor, such disclosure or the evidence given by biro on such trial, shall not be used against him on any prosecution for suchintoxica tion." And finally. "The County Commission- ers of each county shall appoint one or more persons residing therein, to be pros- ecuting agents, who shall diligently in- (/nire into, and prosecute all violations of the law relating to the sale of intoxicating liquors, and shall have and exercise in any town or city in said county the powers of grand jurors of said town, or prosecuting officers of said city, in prosecutions for such violations. And they shall render monthly reports of their doings to said Commissioners, who shall remove them for cause and appoint others in their stead." Have you taken any pains to as- certain whether our prosecuting agent is thoroughly in earnest, and to commend whatever fidelity he displays V Fellow-citizens, you have most urgent need. to rouse yourselves for the execution of the license-law. Why, in the manifes- toes of the liquor-dealers of this city, you have been counseled to that very course ! In one document which you will not wholly have forgotten, they said : " The question for the electors of the town to determine, is whether they will exercise their better judgment in a faithful and rigorous enforcement of the present license-law." "Faithful and rigorous" those are the words ! They spoke of "impartial enforcement." They declared that they desired to " obey the law implic- itly." And in still another document not less memorable they said: "Enforce the law rigorously. Compel all to observe its entire provisions." They said that to you and me ! We will heed the advice. It is justifiable to learn from an enemy ! Fas est ab hoste doceri! But what about the sincerity of the rum-sellers themselves? Their published language meant, if it meant anything, that the liquor-dealers themselves stood pledged thenceforth to the maintenance of the license-law in all its length and breadth. It signified, if it signified aught that was sincere, that they would there- after take front rank among those who were determined to make the statute a liv- ing, practical thing. It implied, so far as language could imply, that in cooperation with others, or, if need be, alone, they would see to it that no person sold liquor without a license ; that no untrustworthy person should receive a license; that proved violation of the law should be car- ried to the result of a forfeiture of the license itself ; that no liquor should be sold to any one respecting whom due protest had been made ; that no such sale or gift should be made to any minor or intoxicated person or habitual drunkard ; that no place for the dispensing of liquor should be open between the hours of twelve o'clock and five o'clock of the night, nor between midnight of Saturday and midnight of the Sunday next follow- ing ; that if any person sold liquor and it caused damage through intoxication, the 10 seller should be made to reimburse the loss ; that all persons arrested for intoxi- cation should be encouraged in making a full and free statement " from whom and when, where and how" they procured the liquor; and that the public prosecu- ting officer should be commended in mak- ing diligent inquiry into, and in vigorous- ly prosecuting, all violations of the law. In short, that they themselves would sus- tain the law, and that they would cordially approve all effort put forth to that end ! Was that the truth? Was that the fact ? History says that when the tyrant Robes- pierre was pleading for his life before the National Assembly, and invoking that mercy which he had refused to others, he paused for an instant in his plea ; a voice in the gallery cried, " See, he can't speak ! The blood of Danton chokes him !" And, at that word recalling the past, the Assembly decreed his death. I wonder that the deeds of their doing, and the intentions which at the very moment they were cherishing, did not choke the utterance of the rum-sellers of Norwich, when they said that they were for the observance of the law ! We are told that in the days of Rome's supremacy, there was set in the forum, the statue of the god of each subject province ; and that when any province was meditating trea son, the statue for that province rang the bell which was in its right hand. Fellow-citizens, I go to-night into the forum of our municipal history and, lo, the clangor of treason's signals simply fills the air ! Nor do I judge alone by what I have seen. I do not render the verdict simply on the strength of the present evi- dence which comes to me. I point to the record. Never, so far as I can learn, an open prosecution of either licensed or unlicensed rum-seller, which was institu- ted by one himself engaged in that traf nc ! Never a public meeting called or a manifesto put forth, save at the crisis of election ! Never so much as a whisper of such things, when the immediate crisis was past! So far as can be learned, not a hand raised to punish any infraction of the law ! Not the faintest plaudit for the one who seeks to secure its practical en- forcement ! What, then, shall we think of the sincerity of the rum sellers' procla- mations when they invoke the execution of the license provisions ? Are we not right in thinking that, even despite their vehement protests, we hear the bells in our forum striking the signal of purposed and perpetual treason ? I tell you, good friends, you cannot look to the liquor- dealers for the maintenance of the statute. You can look only to the constituted authorities and to yourselves. In reliance on divine aid, for the sake of law, for the sake of the material well-being of the greatest number, and for the sake of im- mortal souls, you are to see to it that the four score licensed places for the sale of intoxicating drink, and the half as many unlicensed, are made to conform to the statute ; the one class at their peril to live up to their pledges ; the other class to . disappear from the limits of this town ! If you rightly value your municipal inter- ests, and the interests of humanity you will do it ! Do you ask me more specifically how it can be done ? I answer, and I weigh my words. By fostering an enlight- ened public opinion which shall require it. By arousing a public conscience which shall demand it. By securing or creating a daily press which shall advo- cate it. By yourselves becoming the avowed, unwearied apostles ot it. By strongly encouraging all those who go for- ward in the work. And by forming an organization which shall include all the anti-rum citizens of this city ; an organi- zation which shall provide" funds, shall engage able counsel, shall employ special police if need be, and shall know no fear and show no favor ! How shall it be done '? Do as you did in the time of our War of the Rebellion ! Associate your- selves for it. Count no needed sacrifice too great to be made ! Decree, in the name of the people that it must and shall be accomplished ! When Napoleon would cross the Alps with his army, his generals said it could not be done. He sent his engineers to examine. They re- ported '" Sire, it is very difficult." He quietly asked, " Is it possille?" "Sire, it is possible." And then unhesitatingly from the thin, determined lips came the word 'Forward!" When Alexander would have a railway from St. Peters- burgh to Moscow, the surveyors planned a line which turned to this hand for one reason of convenience and to that hand for another. The Emperor examined the plan, took a ruler, drew a straight line from St. Petersburg!! to Moscow, and said, "Build me that." Ah, my friends, you have the power. Fifty determined men. men of standing and of means, could settle this question, if only they would ! The might is not in numbers, necessarily ! Followed, as it is said, by two millions of men, Xerxes the descend- ant of Cyrus invaded Greece. Thirty thousand soldiers under the command of Alexander the son of Philip, who was entrusted by the Greeks with their glory and revenge, were sufficient to sub- 11 due Persia. How can il be done ? Do it ! And now I turn once more to the thought that this contest against the ravages of Intemperance in Norwich, this contest by both moral suasion and law, is not for this city alone ! It is for the county, and the state, and tlie land. Fellow-citizens, God has been giving us a terrible lesson, in illustration of the truth that we are our brother's keeper.and that the brotherhood is not bounded by even the corporate lim- its. In a neighboring town, but a few weeks ago, was a family consisting of hus- band, wife and children. When sober, the husband was quiet and kind. When intoxicated, he was like a tiend. It was therefore needful that liquor should be kept, if possible, beyond his reach. There was no liquor-shop in the town of his abode. None licensed in the adjoin- ing towns. But there were in Norwich, and he knew it. He knew that if he could reach this city, he could find intoxicating drink on every hand. He ihcrefore made his way past Ledyard, through Preston, and entered our streets. He purchased two quarts. He drank He returned home. EL' abused his family. lie cursed the children of his loins He sought the life of her whom iie had sworn to love and cherish. He raged in his demoniacal fury until in self-defence he was slain The end of it, was his blood bespattering the floors and walls of his own house; his wife a wretched widow; his poor children fatherless; his slayer heart-broken; and his own soul apparently lost forever ! The end did I say y No, not thus the end ! For the man lives and walks the streets of Norwich who provided him with the fatal draught. There are those here to- night, I suppose, who can write the name of that man on these wall.-, for all to sec;. I don't ask that it be done He himself knows ! God knows ! I will only s;iy this; that, as for myself, I would rather be, save as repentance and the divine for- giveness may yet be applied to the heart, ! I would rather be the poor drunkard who I sleeps to-night on the wintry hills of North Stonington, than to b;; the man who, for money, sold him the drink. Together those 'men will stand at the judgment- seat of Christ! Which, think you, is the guiltier? Ah, even that is not the end! I feel the fine drops of a bloody mist which spatters itself on my f ce lean see an ensanguined hue on your brow ! Even the hand of my dainty lady is just a little stained with the crimson which Lady .Macbeth found it so dilticult to wash away! For it may be, that had 1 done my whole duty; had you done yours; had the most sheltered ones done theirs ; it may be, I say, that that horrible tragedy had not been enacted. It is, accordingly, for you and me to repent and make atonement. The truth is that we are members one of another. The solidarity of the race is not a mere dream. It is something which we must realize, or we shall be taught it to our cost. Do you remember the story of the daughter of England's premier ? For her birthday, her noble father had or- dered a magnificent riding-dress. It was delivered on her birthday morning. She rode with her gallant sire through Hyde Park ! Splendid girl ! Star of the ar- istocracy ! Yet in a few days she sickened of malignant disease and died ! And then it was found that the dress had been made in an attic in that neglected far East of London, of which Sir Robert took but lit- tle note, by a seamstress who had used it to cover her poor husband as he lay in the alternating chills of his terrible fever ! Neglect your duty to your fellow-men, and it will come back to plague your own house ! By every consideration, therefore, a- wakeand be in earnest. Enforce the pres- ent license provisions. Settle it thai law is law ! For ti.cn it will come to pass that when, next October, you write no- license on your statute-book, it will mean practical, actual prohibition. Above all, give yourselves to that personal, lifelong effort which shall aim at the />< rxituxiim of all the intemperate. That personal ef fort which includes in its love both the rum-seller and his victims, and which builds the safeguards of those who now are pure. Fellow-citizens, thus I haVe spoken. Said Lord Bacon, in concluding one of his speeches in the House of Commons : " I have told you my opinion. I know it had been more sale and politic to have been silent, but, it is more honest and loving to speak. When a man speaketh, he may be wounded by others. But as he hold's his peace from good things, he woundeth himself." And may God speed the day of your great success! It will surely come! I may say to every Temperance worker, as Wordsworth writes of Toussaint L'Ou- verture: " Thou hast great allies, Love, and the unconquerable mind of man." God himself is for \ on, and therefore they who are with you are more than all they who are against you. I can see, indeed, that the cause is advancing. Here a reflu- ent ripple, and there a backward eddy! But the- great tide is steadily onward! In the coming of morning to the the Arctic lands, the kindling dawn sometimes dis- appears for hours together; yet it returns and every return is with mightier and sweeter power. I anticipate no future defeats Yet, even if they occur, we may be assured that beyond the darkness, the dawn is advancing. Even now the "jocund day Stands tip-toe on the misty mountain-tops." LIBRARY Believe it, it shall kiss the hills and illu- mine the valleys. It shall lie like a shaft of light across the land. If we are faith- ful that day shall be our great reward! To all the people it shall be like the touch of the millennium, the unveiling of the New Heavens and the New Earth!