Cherokee phoenix, and Indians' advocate. (New Echota [Ga.]) 1829-1834, June 24, 1829, Image 1

Georgia Historic Newspapers

Cherokee phoenix, and Indians' advocate., June 24, 1829, Image 1

About Cherokee phoenix, and Indians' advocate. (New Echota [Ga.]) 1829-1834 | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1829)

Page of 4

Prev Issue Next Issue

Text PDF JP2 (3.5 MB) Clip/Print Image

Page of 4

Prev Issue Next Issue

Return to Top

Newspaper Page Text'PRINTED UNDER THE PATRONAGE, AND FOR TilE BENEFIT OF TRE CHEROKEE NATION, AND DEVOED TO THE GAUSE OF INDIANS —iE. EGUDINGTT, EDIFCK. VOL. IN, PRINTED WEEKLY BY JOHN F. WHEELER, At $250 if paid in advance, $3 in six fnonths, or $3 50 if paid at the end of the year. T'o subscribers who ean read only the Cherokee language the price will be $2,00 4n advance, or $2,50 to be paid within the year, i) Every subscription will be considered as £ontinued unless subseribers give notice to the contrary before the commencement of a new year,and all arrearages paid. R Any person procuring six subscribers, and becoming responsible for the payment, Bhall receive a seventh gratis, Advertisements will be inserted at seven ty-five cents per square for the first inser tion, and thirty-seven and a half cents for each continuance; longer ones in propor ®/idn. I \ll letters addressed to the Editor, post paid, will receive due attention. AGENTS FOR 'THE CHEROKEE PHENIX. The following persons are authorized to peceive subscriptions and payments for the Cherokee Pheenix, Messrs, Perrce & WiLriams, No. 20 Market St, Boston, Mass, Grorge M. Tracy, Agent ofthe A. B, L. F.M. New York. v ; Rev. A. D. Evpy, Canandaigua, N, Y. ‘T'roMas HAE;NGS, Utica, N 2 Y. ’V s SkARS X LOATES Richmond, Va. &é%:ﬁﬁ% ME BELL, Beaufort,; 8. C, WioLiam MovrTrie Rem, Charleston, S. C. Col, Georce SurrH, Statesville, W. T. WirLiam M. Couss, Nashville, Ten, Rev. Bexner RoserTs, Powal Me. Mr. Tros, R. Gorp, (an itinerant Gen tleman.) Jeremian AvusTin, Mobile, Ala. Rev. Cyrus Kinessury, Mayhew, Choc taw Nation. ‘ L ° Capt. WiLLiam Rosrrrson, Augusta, -Georgia, . Col. James 'Turk; Bellfonte, Ala. INTEMPERANCE. An Address on JArdent Spirit, read be fore the New Hampshire Medical Socie ly, at their annual Meeting, June, 5, 1827. By R. D. Mussey M. D., at that time President of the Sociely, and Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, in Dartmouth College. More than nine hundred years ago, an Arabian Chemist discovered by distillation, a pungent and warning h quor, to which was given the name of Alcohol, & which we call ardent spirit. This, a modern writer asserts, is the aqua divina, or water of the Elysian fields, invented by Democritus, and he maintains that the term alkohol has nearly the same import with gold en liquor, applied by some of his countrymen to the precious invention of the Greek philosopher. This li tuor was brought into Europe at the {ime of the Moorish conquest, soon came into general favour, and now exerts an important influence over a great part of the civilized world. It is the object of the follow?ug pe marks to examine the claims of this article to the extensive pa'ronage and confidence it has acquzced. b When taken in small quantity into the stomach, it diffuses its influence over the whole body; a fresh impulse is given to the living powers, the coun tesance lights up with pleasure, and the mind acts with new interest and wivacity. ‘ Under the influence of a larger dose of the exhilarating fluid, sensibility and sympathy unfold themselves.— Tears fall, as a pensive association crosses the mind, or a tale of common suffering is told, the benevolent af fection flow out upon all surrounding objects, and the whole world is not NEW ECHOTA, WEDNESDAY JUNE 24, 18329, too large a sphere for the exercise of{ ‘e generous sentinents which swell the bosom. 'The mind disburthened »f care, and disregarding the past and the future, sees no impediment to the boldest and most exiravagant enter prises, and rioting in the luxury of oresent existencze, scarcely acknowl edges a superior in the universe.— Here the distinctions of society begin to disappear. The idle and half starved vagrant is transformed into a lord, andssurroundad with pomp and plenty; and the miserable outcast, who has tenanted a prison for his crimes, imagines himself on a throne, clothed with power suflicient to di rect the destinies of a nation or of the world. Tho lovar of alkohol sometimes re sorts to poetry and song in the ex pression of his ecstacies, but as the effect of the ethereal liquor deepens, he - sings or shouts inariiculate re sponses to music or voices which seem to come to him fiom a distance, but which are occasioned by a violent ‘beating of the arteries of his own brain. If the corporal part of man, in this happy condition, be inspected, it pre sents phenomena which correspond with those of the mind. The wiole face is swollen, the forehead and tem-, ples patched with red and white, the cheeks of a deep crimson, the nose tipped with ruby, the corners of the mouth drawn down, and the under lip inclining to drop, the eyes blood shot and glassy, roll upwards under their lids, and the body and limbs, no longer subjected to the arbitrary control of the will, assume that position which is dictated by the power of gravitatioa; ina word, the whole man, declining nal nature, retires within himself, &, heedless of the material creation a round him, remains for hours, as if in a trance. If such be some of the effects of alkohol, who can wonder that it has been cilled the golden drink, or that poets have chanted its praise. This, however, is not all. It pos- | sesses, more than any other invention | of man, the power of transforming ] character; but what is worthy of par- | ticular notice, is, that its good trans formations are transitory, and nearly | all its bad ones, permanent. Does it give: momentary strength to the fee- | ble, its habitual use makes the strong - man weak. Does it inspire the cow ard with desperation,it can break down | the heart of courage, and reduce the manly spirit to the imbecility of child-- hood. Does it make the poof™man rich in imagination, it makes the rich | man poor in reality. If it occasions | ally ~excite a flood of sympathetic ‘ tears, and unclench the fist of avarice, | it relaxes benevolent exertion, and renders the mind habitually less sen sible to the sufferings of others. What permanent influence does it | exert on the social affections and the | moral feelings? Was it ever known f to increase conjugal attachment ar? | kindness, parental tenderness. oy filial fove and obedience? Pas it ever } given a spur to wdstry, inthe farm- | = the.tradf:'sman, the merchant, or PL"°fes’llcnal man, Dy urging upon him e claims of a dependent family, or a suffering friend? Who was ever inspired by alkohol with lofty moral sentiments? Who has felt its influ ences directing his thoughts reverent ly upwards towards the Author of his being, and prompting him to sincere confession of departure from duty, to submission to his will, and obedience to liis commands? On the contrary, who has not seen its effects in poison ing the fountains of social and mioral feeling, and in transformiing the affec tionate, kind, and hopefully devout man, inte a savage or a brute? ‘ . You have seen gyouth of fine tal _ents and promise, coming into life en circled with the highest parental hopes and expectatihs, and making regular and rapid progress towards a sphere of usefulness and respectabili- ty. You have seen him betake him sel{ to the bottle; soon the relish for study or business is lost; industry, ambition, character, and family rep utation, virtuous society, are all un meaning things; the high considera tions they present, he regards not, but waaders about, the asgociate of idlers and thieves, the butt of vulgar inso lence, and the abhorrence of his for mer virtuous and intellectual compan ions. His parents weep for him in secret places. You have seen the man of “talents, industry and extensive usefulness, who in the exercise of his. vocation, had acquired high public confidence, thrown down by the magic power of alkohol, from the pinnacle of his ele vation, to become the object of popu lar derision and abuse. Was he a physician or a lawyer, had he sat in the high seat of public justice, or had his voice been heard in the council of the nation, or had he borne messages of grace to guilty men; you have seen him barter the luxury of doing good, or grow regardless of the law and of Justice, or despise the insignia of office and public confidence, or voluntarily tear off his priesthy vestments, and ex tinguish with his own hand the flame | of that altar, before which he had ministered year after year; and all this for what? for distilled spirit: for the privilege of being the companion of fools and drunkards. What is the secret of this witche ry which strong drink exerts over the whole man? 1 will try to tell yeu. After being received into-the stomach, it is sucked up by absorbent vessels, is carried into the blood, and circu lates through the alimentary organs, through the lungs.'muscles, and brain the body. Nota blood vessel how ever minute, not a thread of -nerve in the whole animal machine escapes its influence. What is the nature of this influence? It disturbs the func tions of life; it increases for a time, the action of living organs, but lessens the power of that action; hence the deep depression and collapse which follow preternatural excitement. By habitual use it renders the living fibres less and less susceptible to the heal thy operation of unstimulating food and drink, its exciting influences soon become incorporated with all the living actions of the body, and the di urnal sensations of hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, are strongly associated with the recollection of its exhilara ting effects, and thus bring along with them, the resistless desire for its repi tition. Is evidence required of its being absorbed, and pervading the different organs of the body? Approach with in a few feet of the rum or Lrandy drinker, and the odour of lis breath will quickly derionstzate, that the lungs, loaded with the foul liquor, are (discharging it wiih all the ecnergy in l their powver. ; b | 'When taken by the nursing mother, it enters into the delicate food pre pared by nature for the nourishment | and growth of helpless infaney, and in this way, as may most rationally be supposed, produces a relish for an ar ticle naturally disgusting, and lays thus early, in some iustances, a foun dation for intemperance in after life. What physician has not known a nurs ing mother give a fretful child a good night’s sleep, by taking, herself, a %ose ; of brandy at bed time? 1 Other organs than those destined for the formation of milk, manifest the| presence of this article when it is combined with peculiar odours; those organs especially, which are set as waste gates to the system, soon show how foreign it is, and ill adapted tof | the real wants of thre animal economy, by separating it from the klood and taking it out of the general circula tion as fast as possible. ' 'fl}é brain, that most delicate and wonderful organ, which’ forms the mystericus link between the other forms of matter and mind, the healthy functions of which are essential -to vigorous intellectual operation, is ca pable of imbibing alkohol, and h..ving ‘all its actions suddenly arrested. In point, is the case of the man who was picked up in London, soon after hav | Ing drank a quart of gin upon a wager. | He was carried to the Westminster | hospital and there dissected. “‘ln the ~veniricles of the brain was found a considerable quantity of limpid fluid, distinctly impregnated with gin, both 1o the sense of smell and taste, and euen to the test of inflammability.— The liquid appeared, to the senses of the eyamining students, as strong as one third gin to two thirds water.” | We know that alkohol, even when | diluted, by long contact after death, _ hardens the brain, as well as the other | sofl textures of the body which contain | altimen; & although the vital principle | | ma enable the brain to resist in a great | mensure, and for-a long time, this es- I4ed of alkohol, when brought into it fron the stomach by the general cir culition, the fact, as alleged by many andas [ am strongly induced to be li_evF from the limited means I have hadlof observing, viz. that the brains oi;dSunkard\é are literally harder at death, than those of the temperate, may be considered in strict accord ance with the eflects of intemperance upon the intellectual functions. If this organ be in any degree hardened by the circulation of diluted alkohol through its minute and most delicate- Jygm-ﬁmised parts, it might well be smf)pésed to be less susceptible of those exquisitively balanced. actions, wﬁ ich we can hardly help believing do exist in the impressions made by % xternal objects, and the vari&tg of ations of them, produced by | the more abstract, and retired opera tions of the mind. That a large pro portion of tipplers early discover an unnatural obtuseness of intellect, and that frequently a mind originally quick and vigorous, becomes slugglish and imbecile, need not be told to an assembly of physicians who have had the common opportunities of observing the effects of intemperance. The stomach and liver of drunkards are generally found to be discrdered, the stomach frequently contracted, and the liver much harder than nat ural, exhibiting an unnatural colour both upon its surface, and throughout | its interior texture. 'This, perhaps, is what might be expected. The stomach recetves the Qiquor, in the most conceptrated and active form, in which it is taken into the body. From the stomach and the alimentary canal below, most, if not gll of it, is prob ably carried through the liver in a state less dilute than when distributed among the remaining organs of the body. The texture of the liver too, which consists merely of vessels and nerves with enough cellular mem 'brane to hold them together, may ‘show why it is more obviously affect ed than the alimentary canal, inasmuch 'as this canal has a distinet, and ir .some places, a thick muscular coat, independently of its vessels. ~The skin of the inebriate is always more or less affected. Its fair colour soon fades urider the withering influence of ardent spwit: and from being smooth, soft and elastic, it becomes uneven, wrinkled and flaLby, if the subject be somewhat advanced in life; or if young, the skin of the face is bloated, uneven, and frequently purple, and very often in middle life and after, a large emop of red pimples is the only ornament the face exhibits. ) : The eye, that window of the mind, loses its pearly whiteness, its trans parency, its quiek and significant mo tious, and becomes dim, slugglish and unmeaning. v s ; The various pheromena exhibited in the different stages of alkoholic in fluence, including its immediate and more permanent effects, and modified by age and constitutional tempera- | ment, weuld occupy more time in (hg enumération, than can be spared on the present occasion, The case of | him who has made iree with his cupsy ~till they have produced the follow ing train of symptoms, is not unfrequent= ly submitted to the consideration of a physician. The,forehead and checks are swollen; pale and lightly tinged with yellow, the lips leaden coloured or pale, the eye yellow, dim and va# cant;"the lower eyclid loose and hangs ing, the upper lid several times itg natural thickness, disaphanous and drooping, the body twice its natural circumference, the limbs tottering and swollen, the breath insupportably fetid, respiration difficult and wheezs |ing, accompanied with a short dry cough. ‘“T'hrow medicine to the dogs” in such a case. The bodies of some few drinkerg have been so thoroughly steeped iw spirit, as literally to consume to ashe es. It is-said that no case of spontar neous combustion Las ever occurredy except among hard drinkers, and it is altogether probable that in every sucly ease, an inflammable air has exhaled from the lungs or skin, or both, and has been kindled by the too near ape proach of a lighted taper, or some igs nated substance. A French Chemist it is said, after drinking a pint of cthes during the day, use to amuse himself in the cvening, by lighting up hig breath, directed in a very small streans upon the flame of a lamp. Alkoho taken in large quantities, would probe ably in some constitutions at least, ocs casion a similar vapour to be throwi from the lungs; and there is doubtless more danger than has been hinagined, ina deep drinker’s bringing his moutly or.uose close to a lights rateves ning. - s The numerous and weighty consids erations, some of which have been hinted at, and which a reflecting man must surmount, before he can make up his mind to be regarded as a drune kard, place ina striking view the strength of the appetite, whichis cre« ated by a long and habitual use of spirit. Instances might be referred to, which set this in a painfully strong light. ; A few years ago, a tippler was put into the alms house ina populous towiy in Massachusetts. Withinja few days he had devised various expedients to ‘procure rum, but failed. At lengthy however, he bit upen one which prove ed successful. He went into the wood yard of the establishment, plac« ed his hand upon a bleek, and with an axe in the other, struck it off at a sins gle blow. With the stump raised and streaming, he ran into the house, crye ing, ‘‘get some rum, get some rumy my hand is off.” - In the confusion, and bustle of the oécasion, a bowl of rum was bx{)ught, into which he planged the bleeding member of his body, thed raising the bowl to his mouth, drank freely, and exultingly exclaimed,‘‘now I am satisfied.”, In another populous totvn iin the same state there lived an habitual drinker, who in an interval of reﬂ(.ec tion, made a vow that he would drink¢ no more spirit for forty ‘years, not doubting at the time, that forty years would place him 4n his grave. He faithfully kept his vow, andat the exs piration of the stipulated }?erlod, vens tured to take a little liquor, as it | seemed no more than a friendly sale utation given to an old acquaintance, and in no very long time died a sot. I once knew a man, who had been for some time in the habit of intems perate drinking,and who had, at times, strong remonstrances of consclence.— These admonitions, together with the motives and encouragements keld up to him by his kind and good wife, ins duced him to make a solemn vow, ¢‘that by the{elp of ng, he would nevs er again dvink any thing stronger than beer, unless prescribed for him as a medicine by a physician.” He res garded the vow, became sober and aps .N 0- 12. ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ ᎯᎠ ᏂᎦᎥᏧᎬᏩᎶᏗ. ᏈᎧᏁᏖᏆᏍᏗ ᎢᎪᎯᏛ ᏌᏉ ᏧᏂᎴᏴᎪᏗ ᎨᏎᏍᏗ. ᏴᏫᏁᎬ ᏗᏂᏬᏂᏘᏍᎩ ᏦᎢᏁ ᎠᏰᏢ ᎤᎾᎫᏴᏗ ᎮᏥᏎᏍᏗ ᎢᏳᏃ ᎢᎬᏪᏅᏛ ᎠᎾᎫᏱᏍᎨᏍᏗ. ᎢᏊᏅᏃ ᎤᏑᏓᏢ ᎢᏯᏅᎪ ᎢᏴ ᎠᎾᎫᏱᏍᎨᏍᏗ), ᏦᎢ ᏴᎭᏎᎸ ᎤᎾᎫᏴᏘ ᎨᏎᏍᏗ. ᎠᎸᏄᏘᏱᏍᎬᏃ ᎢᏴ ᎩᎳ ᎠᎾᎫᏱᏍᎨᏍᏗ; ᏅᎩᏁᎢ ᎠᏰᎵ ᎤᎾᎫᏴᏗ ᎨᏎᏍᏗ. ᏣᎳᎩᏃ ᎤᏩᏒ ᏗᏂᏬᏂᏘᏍᎩ, ᏔᎵᎹᏉ ᎠᏕᎸ ᎤᎾᎫᏴᏗ ᎨᏎᏍᏗ ᏑᏕᏗᏴᏛ; ᎢᏳᏃ ᎢᎬᏪᏅᏛ ᎠᏮᎾ” ᎫᏱᏍᎨᏍᏗ. ᏦᎢᏁᏃ ᎠᏰᏢ ᎾᏍᎩᏉ ᎤᏕᏗᏴ” ᏌᏗᏒ ᎠᎾᎫᏱᏍᎨᏍᏗ,. :