oichecq) and palatable fermented liquors, the evil of intemper-
ance could have been lessened. Taking for granted the
sincerity of such utterances as those of Benton in reference to
the superiority of whiskey over rum, the taxing of molasses,
almost to the amount of its value, might be construed as having
a moral purpose ; but there is this fact in conflict with such
construction, that up to 1S42 the import duties on spirits
manufactured from molasses were lower by from four to
fifteen cents per gallon, than those upon spirits manufactured
from grain. Had a moral purpose prompted the tax on
molasses, it would, for the sake of consistency, have also
dictated an increase of duties on spirits made from this
article. The fact that it was not done, that, in truth, a differ-
ence in the protective duties existed in favor of spirits from
grain, reveals the true animus of the utterances alluded to.
The description of the state of affairs, contained in this
chapter, leaves no uncertainty as to the extent to which the
liquor question, in all its various aspects, was made a veritable
football of an intricate complication of conflicting interests, of
contradictory opinions and sentiments — all tending, however, to
the encouragement of agriculture, which, calling the thing by
its right name, meant the protection of the whiskey distilleries.
From 1818 to 1846, in fact to 1857, whiskey was thoroughly
protected against competition from without, while its manu-
facture was wholly unrestricted within the United States.
Under such circumstances, a miracle only could have shielded
the land from the results of excessive indulgence.
That these results were, nevertheless, not as disastrous as
in other countries, similarly situated in the matter of cheap-
ness of ardent spirits and facilities of obtaining them — as,
for instance, in Sweden and Denmark — is to be ascribed
first, to the counteracting agencies, whose genn the wis-
CHAPTER VIII. 179
dom of patriotic statesmen liad sown in the early days of
the Eepublic ; secondly, to the large influx of emigrants of
moderate drinking habits ; thirdly, to the influence of civiliza-
tion and refinement, and, lastly, to that temperance agitation
which for its success depended entirely upon moral suasion
and the formative power of good example.
CHAPTER IX.
RESULTS OF THE " FKEE WHISKEY " POLICY. INEBKIETY IN THE
RURAL districts; clergymen, WOMEN AND CHILDREN AD-
DICTED TO THE VICE. TESTIMONY OF TEMPERANCE AUTHORS.
WORK OF TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES ; THEIR MORAL EFFORTS
DIRECTED AGAINST ARDENT SPIRITS ; BENEFICENT INFLUENCE
OF THEIR AGITATION. STRUGGLE BETWEEN MODERATES AND
EXTREMISTS. SPLIT IN THE TEMPERANCE PARTY IN 1836.
THE AGITATION TRANSPLANTED FROM THE DOMAIN OF MORAL
SUASION TO THE LEGISLATIVE FIELD. FERMENTED DRINKS
CLASSED WITH ARDENT SPIRITS. ABSURDITY OF MEANS AND
ENDS. VARIOUS AGENCIES COUNTERACTING THE EVILS OF
DRUNKENNESS '. PROGRESS OF THE NATION ; INFLUX OF
EMIGRANTS ; GROWTH OF BREWING INDUSTRY AND WINE
CULTURE. WALKER, IN 1845, PROPOSES A TARIFF FOE
REVENUE ONLY ; MEXICAN WAR PREVENTS ADOPTION OF ALL
HIS PROPOSITIONS ; HIS PRINCIPLES ACTED ON. CONTINUFD
OPPOSITION TO EXCISE ON SPIRITS. REVENUE TARIFF OF
1857, SUPPLANTED BY MORRILL TARIFF. STATE OF THE
DRINK QUESTION IN 1860.
The condition of things which led to the agitation in favor
of temperate drinking usages has not yet found an impartial
historian, and it is questionable whether this generation, or
even the next, will produce that marvelous being who could
succeed in writing a history which one side or the other would
not indignantly reject as wholly unworthy of confidence and
belief. Yet a few facts there are, which neither master-
logician nor master-orator can possibly explain away or ar-
gue out of existence — facts whose repositories are the statute
books and legislative records of the country. One of these
CHAPTER IX.
181
facts is, that whatever misery our population had to endure in
consequence of drunkenness is due to the selfishness of a great
part of the rural population, in whose favor political opportun-
ism dictated those laws and revocations of laws which made
whiskey almost as free as water. Another fact, growing out
of the first, is, that from the beginning the rural districts were
the hot-beds of intemperance, the scenes of the wildest drunken
revelries as well as of the greatest demoralization, consequent
upon unbridled intemperance ; and a third fact is, that, by a
natural reaction, the same localities became the birthplace
and, subsequently, the strongholds of the temperance agitation.
"Where the evil was greatest, there the crisis must of necessity
have been most acute, the reaction most complete. Hence
we find the earliest traces of this agitation in the rural
districts, where the vice of drunkenness had fullest sway. It
is almost impossible to form a correct idea of the drinking
habits prevalent in those days, without knowing the manner
of life, the occupation and surroundings of the people living
in the most infected localities. Farm life was not then the
refined state of existence which the dweller in crowded cities
of to-day has so much reason enviously to admire ; it was a
life of continuous hardships, of few comforts and fewer recre-
ations — a condition calling forth all the aggressive qualities
of sturdy manhood, but in nowise appealing to, or cultivating,
the finer sensibilities of man. Even the few persons who, by
their education and calling, were enabled to lift themselves to
a higher level, succumbed to the force of their environment,
living up to the homely proverb, that being among wolves one
must howl with them. We have it on the authority of Leb-
beus Armstrong, of Coxe, of Eush, of John Marsh* and
others, that, in the country, clergymen drank as hard as their
* " The Temperance Reformation," by L.Armstrong. "Temperance
Recollections," by John Marsh.
182 LIQUOR LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES.
parishioners ; that women and children joined in the revels ;
and that it was no more uncommon to meet a tipsy clergyman
than to see a woman or a half-grown boy staggering under an
overload of spirits, or a farm-hand lying "blind-drunk" by
the road side. In his " Temperance Kecollections," Marsh, de-
scribing the mode of life of the people of Haddam, a little vil-
lage in Connecticut, where he had pastoral charge of the Con-
gregational Church, says that they were " a staunch, well-in-
formed, but plain people, whose labors were in ship-yards,
coasting, fishing, quarrying and farming ; labors in which ar-
dent spirits was a daily ration at elerven and four as regularly
as food was provided at other hours. A pitcher of water, as a
part of table furniture was unknown. No one, not the most
delicate female, used it." At his ordination, in 1818, the
council, composed of some thirty ministers and delegates, as-
sembled in a large tavern chamber ; among that respectable
number of good men there was just one " who had thrown off
the dominion of King Alcohol," and he, of course, with the
zeal characteristic of converts, delivered himself of a dreadful
admonition, as often as a glass of brandy was raised to the lips
of one of the company. " At length," says Marsh, " one of
the Fathers, provoked beyond measure, by this stop put to the
drinking custom, said, with a loud voice : ' Mr. C, do you let
Brother K. alone and let him have his drink ; you are a real
pest, a genuine blackguard.' " This forcible reprimand put
an end to Brother C.'s exhortations. As an illustration of the
prevalence of intemperance the same author cites the fact,
that in his church " seven-eighths of the cases of discipline were
for the sin of drunkenness." Not to drink and give drink was
deemed a violation of good manners, exposing the infractor to
the suspicion either of haughtiness or of unsoundness of mind.
Thus Marsh tells us that " two respectable members of the
church had planted themselves on the doctrine of abstinence,
and they would not give strong drink to those they employed;
CHAPTER IX. 183
but their action was viewed as a singular freak," It must
iiave been viewed as worse than a freak, inasmuch as it was
supposed to militate against the prosperity of the small commu-
nity, for Marsh says, '' a large distillery was considered a
great blessing, and stores, kept by church members, freely
dealt out the poison without rejjroach or sense of wrong-do-
ing." In this small place, having a few hundred inhabitants,
fifty-two hogsheads of New England rum were consumed in a
single year (1818).
In the lumber regions of New York, the home of the
first American temperance society,* drunkenness prevailed
to as great an extent as in the lumber regions of Maine,
where economic considerations conspired with the mode
of life of the people to render drinking almost a neces-
sity. Armstrong, although his zeal frequently overreaches
its object whenever, in his readable work, he endeavors to
draw general conclusions from personal experiences, may yet
safely be relied on as a truthful narrator of episodes coming
under his observation ; and some of these serve as a good in-
dex to the state of affairs in the rural districts of New York.
He tells of the half-grown son of a laboring man, who, when
asked what would be his choice between a good education and
a hogshead of whiskey, decided in favor of the latter, in these
words: "I would take the whiskey if I could have it for a
wish rather than all the larnin in the world ; for dad loves
whiskey, and mam loves whiskey, and I love it, and if we
can only have anuf on it, who cares for anything else ! 'â– *
That women were addicted to hard drinking in this author's
rural home, is manifest from the fact that temperance exhor-
tations were sometimes especially addressed to them. Shortly
before the delivery of one of his lectures m East Line school-
* The " Temperance Society of Morean and Northumberland " was or,
ganized as early as 1808, m Morean, a town in Saratoga county, its mem.
bars pledged themselves to total abstinence from distilled spirits.
184 LIQUOK LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES
house, in 1833, Armstrong had attended the funeral of a female
drunkard, who was burned to death, and this event, recaUing
to his memory many similar occurrences, formed part of
the subject of his discourse. He there spoke of the " awful
spectacle, when women have surmounted a sense of shame
and disgrace and every other obstruction to the gratification
of their appetite for strong drink, till they not only become
drunkards, but under the influence of their besotted habit,
have poisoned their husbands, killed their children, murdered
their souls and left the world in despair."
The illustrations here quoted are typical of the descriptions
fiirnished us by the temperance authors of the time, and no
good reason exists for doubting them. There was unquestion-
ably even then, though the evil was at its height, a good share
of exaggeration, a tendency to surcharge facts, horrible enough
in themselves, by blood-curdling hyperbolism ; but to all of it
there surely was a broad foundation of melancholy actuality,
scarcely understood at present. Unlike the counterfeit thing
of our days — counterfeit, because in the absence of any real
need for it, it serves selfish ends — the agitation of the past
has a ring of sincerity that cannot be mistaken. The agitators,
no doubt, made mistakes, often confounded cause and effect,
experimented with remedies more destructive in many in-
stances than the malady ; but they were sincere, and did what,
in the light that was given them, they thought would rescue
the country from a great social evil. More than foolhardy and
unjust would it be to assert that they have not accomplished
inestimable good, so long as they contented themselves with
moral suasion. One may, indeed, smile at the fiery, over,
wrought eloquence of a Gough,* but one cannot withhold from
* A popular lecturer of tlie cause, whose style of oratory will be under-
stood from the following extract from one of his discourses :
What brings yon trembling wretch upon the gallows ? It is drink. And
we might call upon the tomb to break forth. Ye mouldering victims 1 wipe
CHAPTER IX. 185
the spirit that dictated it a tribute of sincere admiration, nor re-
frain from lauding the ends it achieved. It is said f that in
May, 1831, no less than nineteen State societies, embodying
3,000 local associations, were reported as having been foruied
on the basis of total abstinence from the use of ardent spirits
as a beverage. In the State of New York, $6,250,000 were
said to have been saved to the population in the same year in
the diminished use of ardent spirits; the societies claimed "to
have rescued 3,000 drunkards and more than 10,000 men who
had been on the road to habitual drunkeness. " More than a
thousand distilleries had been stopped," says Marsh, and to
consummate all this no other means were used than the power
which the eloquence and sincerity of good men are apt to exer-
cise over the masses. It must be remembered that the agita-
tion was not confined to this country ; in the British Isles and
some parts of the European continent, a veritable crusade had
been inaugurated against what the Germans called the Braiint-
wein-Pest. It was supported by eminent men of all classes.
It is not, then, to be wondered at, that in 1831 the so-called
Washingtonian Band found such men as Attorney-General
William Wirt, Daniel Webster, John Sargent, Theodore Fre-
linghuysen and others, willing to lend their cause moral aid,
tte grave dust crumbling from your brow ; stalk forth in your tattered
shrouds and bony whiteness to testify against the drink ! Come, come from
the gallows, you spirit-maddened man-slayer, give up your bloody knife,
and stalk forth to testify against it ! Crawl from the slimy ooze, ye drowned
drunkards, and with suffocation's blue and livid lips speak out against the
drink ! Unroll the record of the past, and let the Recording Angel read out
the murder indictments, written in God's book of remembrance ! aye ! let the
past be unfolded, and the shrieksof victims wailing be borne down upon the
night blast! Snap your burning chains, ye denizens of the pit, and come
up sheeted in the fire, dripping with the flames of hell, and with your
trumpet tongues testify against the damnation of the drink.
f By John Marsh, who as secretary and editor of the Temperance
Union, had good opportunities of knowing. See his " Recollections " p. 36.
186 LIQUOR LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES.
nor that, with such assistance and the help of the public press,
a deep impression was made on the public mind. No loftier
examples of Christian charity can 1)e conceived than the deeds
of those earlv temperance apostles, who, without any other
aim than the welfare of their fellow-beings, gave their time^
their labor and means for the good cause. Would that their
wisdom had at all times been equal to their good intentions !
Up to 183-i the movement generally remained within the
bounds prescribed by reason, sound judgment and the lessons
of experience ; at the first National Temperance Convention,
held in May, 1833, ardent liquor was still the only stimulant
against which the joint efibrts were directed ; " the sale of none
other," says Marsh, " was considered morally wrong." The
means contemplated to be employed appear from the following
extract from the resolutions adopted at that convention :
Resolved^ That the object of this Union shall he, hy the
diffusion of information, and the exertion of kind moral
influence, to promote the cause of Temperance throughout
the United States.
Unfortunately this spirit of moderation soon gave room to a
form of zeal which rapidly degenerated into zealotism of the
most dangerous order. The slow process of reforming the
habits of men by appealing to their reason, their pride and
manhood, no longer satisfied a great portion of the friends of
temperance. They conceived the idea of a legal enforcement
of their doctrine of abstinence, and in this they soon in-
cluded the very beverages which, here and elsewhere, men of
talent and experience had, from the beginning, relied on as a
means of eradicating the evils of intemperance. As early as
1835 Albany brewers felt constrained to sue for libel a wealthy
zealot, who, unable to contradict the assertion that beer was
virtually a temperance drink, published a statement to the
effect, that deleterious materials and filthy water were used in
the manufacture of beer. In the Saratoga Convention (1836)
CHAPTER IX. 187
these allegations found a strong echo, and were hotlj discussed
and stubbonilj combatied, so stubbornly, indeed, that a re-
solution, classing fermented beverages with ardent spirits
and enjoining total abstinence from both, brought on a
rupture, which in a short time grew into a permanent
schism, dividing the society into two wings — one composed
of moderate, rational temperance advocates, and the other
composed of extremists, the precursors of the prohibitionists
of our day. The latter wing at once initiated a series of
movements favoring the enactment of laws prohibiting the
manufacture and sale of ardent spirits. In 1838 Maine took
the lead in this agitation, a committee of the Legislature of
this State recommending, " that the law giving the right to
sell ardent spirits should be repealed, and a law prohibiting,
except for the arts and medical use, be passed." Massachusetts
followed with the so-called Fifteen Gallon Law, which prohibi-
ted the sale of ardent spirits in less quantity than the name
indicates. Afterwards the question of licensing retailers of
Spirits was ventilated in various ways, and, singularly enough,
in some instances the retailers failed to see, that a license system
would have the effect of a dam against the torrent of pro-
hibitory efforts of their opponents. A body of Massachu-
setts spirit-venders appealed to the Supreme Court againstthe en-
forcement of a law of their State making it a criminal offense for
any person to sell without license. The action became a cause
ceUhre^ no less because of the constitutional question involved,
than on account of the prominence of the jurists engaged on
both sides — Webster and Choate for the appellants, Asabel
Huntington for the State. Enraged at the opposition thus
offered, the ultras at once agitated uniformly for : No License.
It was in the course of this movement, that the people of the
State of New York (in 1846) decided by a popular vote not to
license venders of intoxicating drinks. The succeeding year
brought the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States
188 LIQUOR LAWS OF THE TNITED STATES.
in the Massachusetts case, acknowledging the right of the
States to regulate the liquor traffic. At about the same time
an event transpired which proved a serious blow to personal
liberty as well as to true temperance, viz : the enactment of
a prohibitory law by the Legislature of the State of Maine,
which was superseded in 1851 by Neal Dow's law.
As a detailed description of the liquor laws of the various
States, the spirit in which they were conceived and the manner
in which they operated, is to be given hereafter,* it is unneces-
sary to present more than the foregoing rough outline of the
temperance movement in the Union. From the time, when the
sound principles upon which the Wasliingtonian Band began
its operations, were abandoned, the cause of temperance was
endangered more seriously by its alleged friends than by its
enemies. The aim of the extremists was absurd ; necessarily,
their means were no better ; and if in the whole agitation for
prohibition there is anyone feature more strikingly absurd than
the others, it is the readiness with which the empiricism of ambi-
tious quidains was elevated to the dignity of scientific maxims.
Nothing was too ludicrous, too absurd, to be employed in fur-
therance of prohibition, and thus it became possible that men,
who under ordinary circumstances would have been declared
monomaniacs, became the guiding minds of the new departure.
Nothing could be more revolting to a true Christian mind than
the rautings of those extremists who had conceived the scheme
of clothing their teachings in a theological garb ; indeed, the
blasphemous spirit in which religious sentiment was profaned
throws a strong light on the character of the agitation. One
can scarcely believe what abominable nonsense the American
people — eminently practical and clear-headed as they are de.
servedly reputed to be the world over — were in those days sup.
posed to be accessible to. As a sample of the stuff that was
* See Preface.
CHAPTER IX. 189
dished lip for them, the following may be quoted from J.
Root's The ho7'rors of deliTium tremens^' The author relates
how, a few days after a drunken revel, he loitered in his room,
'perfectly sober^ cogitating on the injuries he was doing him-
self and others by drinking to excess :
" While I was occupied there with these reilections, some being ap-
peared to address me in a very familiar manner, as if we were old acquaint,
ances. I could hear the language very distinctly, though it was uttered in a
low whisper, as if he were afraid some others might hear, and I soon found
that if I made any remarks in the same low voice, they were perfectly un-
derstood and a reply given immediately. A conversation was then com-
menced, and my strange visitor seemed to know many of the transactions
which had taken place during my life, with which I supposed no one but
myself acquainted. I did think it was very singular and strange that a
being whom I could not discern, should not only have the power to con-
verse with me, but also a better knowledge and recollection of some events
in my life than I had myself. But though I was at some loss to account
for the information which he so evidently possessed, yet I was not in the
least frightened ; my only feelings so far as I can now recollect, were won-
der, and a desire to find out who or what it was that addressed me. After
conversing with my mysterious visitant for some time on diflferent subjects,
all of which he appeared to understand remarkably well, I made some in-
quiry with a view to find out with whom I was conversing. He replied by
saying that he was one of a large company, that were going through the
country for the purpose of making some money, but by what means he did
not distinctly explain. He represented the business as being very lucra-
tive, and asked me if 1 would not like to join them and have a share in
whatever they made. My answer was, that I should not have the least ob-
jection, as I wanted to make some money, and should like to know in
what kind of business they were engaged. But he did not say what they
were doing, and only remarked that it was profitable.
Up to this time, our conversation had been carried on in the same
manner that any two persons would converse on ordinary topics or busi-
ness. Singular as it may appear, instead of being either annoyed or
frightened, I was perfectly at ease, or rather relieved ; my mind was taken
oflF from reflecting, and taken up with his conversation, which appeared
like that of a very well informed gentlemen, on all subjects about which
we conversed. His knowledge was indeed wonderful, for he appeared not
only to know everything but also everybody whom I had either heard of
* Published by Josiah Adams, New York, 1844.
190 LIQUOR LAWS OF THE UJflTED STATES.
or known ; some of the persons lie told me were dead, others were alive
and in such and such business, and he seemed to be quite as well ac-
quainted with them as he was with me.
I was much pleased with his address, which was easy and courteous,
for there was nothing rude or improper excepting his familiarity, and that
he seemed to be rather entitled to use, on account of his knowledge respect-
ing my affairs ; but both the address and the language soon changed, after
I professed my willingness to become one of the company ; he then re-
quested me to step into the next room, which I accordingly did, supposing
he would there disclose their business and let me know what they were
doing.
But I had no sooner entered the room, than there appeared to be quite
a number of them, just over my head, all talking at once, and addressing
me in the most opprobrious language, which was now as profane and vin-
dictive as can be conceived. Instead of that courteous treatment, and the
information which I expected to receive, they were now all upbraiding me