Newspaper Page Text
FRIEND.
Rj turning So-Called Ku-Klux
Prisoner. — The Richmond Enbnirer of
Tuesday, the 21st instant, says;
Mr. Jos. F. Price, of Union county, Soutn
Carolina, arrived in this city Saturday
evening on his way to the South from the
Albany Penitentiary, in which prison he
was confined for twelve months. In 1872
he was convicted at Columbia with a num
ber of others, of making a raid upon the
Union county jail and assisting in lynching
teu negro murderers. Ihe evidence against
him was scarcely sufficient to couvict him
of any connection with the Ku-Klux, yet
he was found guilty and sentenced to twelve
months’ imprisonment. Having served
out his time, he was turned out of prison
in a most destitute condition, and only
reached this city through the benevolence
of some kind gentlemen of New York.
Some gentlemen who felt deeply for him in
his misfotnnes, got him quarters here, and
the Chief of Police secured a railroad pass
for him to a city far on the course of his
rout. Mr. Price said he left about seventy
three Ku-Klux and other Southern prison
ers at Albany, nearly all of whom are
in a suffering condition, much needing the
comfort and remembrance of their South
ern friends.
Mi
The Pay of Congressmen to be in
creased. —A special dispatch to the Chi
cago Tribune says for some time past the
question has been discussed very quietly
among both Senators and Representatives
as to the propriety of increasing the salaries
of the members of both Houses to ten thou
sand dollars a year, the proposition being
for the law to include the present Congress,
thus reverting nearly two years. The move
ment is said co have been started in the
Senate by Hamilton, of Maryland, and that
a canvass is being quietly taken with a
favorable result, to ascertain the probable
success of the undertaking. The attempt
is a ver}’ earnest one, and it is sought to
take advantage of the present auspicious
time when enough members will go out of
Congress with the present term to carry the
increase. The correspondent says such a
proposition might go through the Senate,
but were it not that the terms of more than
a majority of the present House will expire
March 4, it would certain!}’ fail in the latter
body, for those going out do not regard the
responsibility as highly as those who re
main in Congress.
Debts of the Southern States. —The
following are the debts of the Southern
States as the minority Ku Klux report
makes them out. The contingent indebt
is added to the present indebted
ness :
Alabama —Thirty-eight and one-third
millions—ati increase of thirty two millions
since the war.
Arkansas —Nineteen and three-quarter
millions —an increase of fifteen millions
since the war.
Florida—Fifteen and three-quarter mill
ions— wholly incurred since the war.
(leorgia—Forty-four millions —an increase
of forty-one millions
Louisiana—Forty-one millions—an in
crease of thirty-one millions.
North Carolina—Thirty-five millions—an
increase of twenty-four millions.
South Carolina—Twenty-nine millions
an increase of twenty-five millions.
Mis-issippi—One and three-quarter mil
lions—wholly increase.
Tennessee —Forty-live and a half millions
—nn increase of fourteen millions.
Virginia—Forty-five million.,—an increase
of fourteen millions.
Removal of the ('apitolto Millf.dg-
VlLl.e.— The Macon Telegraph of yesterday
Say< ■ r ,
“Ac are intormed on authority that sel
dom make mistakes that a decided majori
ty of the Legislature is strongly in favor of
the removal of the Capitol to the old and
rich’, ful seat of government, Millcdgville.
We do not know what will be the result of
this opinion on the part, of the members of
the tieral A-sembly, but we are assured
that if the question could be brought to a
direct vote n or, there would Ik? no sort of
d.iubt as to the result. Would it not he
we’l, byway of testing the sense • f the
re: resentatives of the people on this ques
tion, that a vote should be taken? We
shall never rest easy until the last vestige
■ f 3u!locki<m has been buried in a deep
an ’ dish jnored grave.”
We heartily second the motion and en
dorse the views of the Tdegraph in refer
ence to the removal of the State Capitol to
Milledgeville, its time honored seat. N’o
ranruft Anr*.
i
The Columbus Sun, in speaking of that
city, .-ays; In May, 1 St'»s, the people hard
ly knew where to look for substance. Some
ten millions of property were destroyed by
the Federal.-, and in addition, our slaves
were treed Since, we have rebuilt all that
was burned, and now stand the first of any
Southern city, in point of manufactures.
From nothing, in 1865, Columbus is run
ning 32.UU0 st indies, several thousand
1 Un-, and Ler iron works are estimated at
s9?.Our progress has been steady
and sure, and the tendency is still upward
and onward Every investment has been
made with Southern capital.
The Importance of Establishing an Inebriate'Asylum in the State
of Georgia.
AN ADDRESS BY
REV. L. GWALTNEY,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE GRAND LODGE I. O. G. T. OF THE STAEE OF GEORGIA, AT ITS
ANNUAL MEETING, HELD IN ROME, GA., OCTOBER, 1872, AND
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE GRAND LODGE.
Grand Worthy Chief Templar, Members of the Grand Lodge, and Fellow Templars:
I earnestly desired that the address on this subject should be prepared by
some one whose position and ability would gain a more favorable hearing than I
may hope to receive. For the duty assigned me I can claim but one qualification,
the deepest sympathy for the unfortunate victims of intemperance and an
abiding faith that many of the most hopeless might be saved through the
agency of a home, where they could be treated as their unhappy condition
demands.
Deeply impressed with the conviction that an asylum for inebriates would
confer priceless blessings on those who might seek its beneficent aid, and at the
same time would increase the productive industry, and promote the material
and moral welfare of the entire State, I regard with interest any movement
in that direction. It was my privilege, two years ago, to prepare a memorial on
this subject which has received the endorsement of this body and of the Georgia
Medical Association, and which I trust will yet receive the favorable consideration
of the Georgia Legislature. It is my present aim to advocate the views set
forth in that memorial.
Many are accustomed to denounce drunkenness as only a crime, to regard
the inebriate as a foolish devotee to a course of sinful indulgence by which he
injures society, ruins himself and inflicts unutterable anguish upon those who
love him. Any other new of his conduct, they say, excuses his offence and relieves
him of personal responsibility. Hence, in proposing for him a refuge and a treat
ment in which sympathy, kindness, and remedial agents rather than abuse and
punishment, are recognized as the only means of cure, it is necessary that we dis
seminate correct view of his true condition; a condition demanding a temporary
home, removed from the temptations and surroundings of his former life, to
which he can go for physical, mental, and moral recovery.
When this wretched man pleads for help, we must not steel the heart and
embarrass the judgement by the effort to determine what may have been his
antecedent moral character, or what degree of moral turpitude attaches to his
present conduct. He may have committed a great wrong against himself and
great crimes against society, may have forfeited all claim to the regards of the
pure and good, may deserve unsparing censure, and severe punishment, but
our first duty is not to sit in judgement upon these issues. While we vainly
discuss a most intricate moral problem, a thousand similar cases multiply on
all sides, to the public as well as private detriment. The physician does not stop to
.consider whether his patient, suffering from poison, was a good or a bad man,
whether he was in part excusable/)!’ wholly culpable in taking the poison. Leav
ing these points to be settled at a different time and a different tribunal, he
works faithfully and perseveringly to relieve the sufferer. Every man honors
him for thus doing. This question of the inebriate’s moral guilt was
wisely and resolutely set aside in the last meeting of the “American Associa
tion for the cure of inebriates” by the following pertinent resolution:
“Resolved, That we have no controversy with the dogma of criminality
as applied to the act of drunkenness.”
Putting aside, then, the question of moral turpitude, we must look upon the
inebriate as a diseased man, experiencing in the various stages of his disease the
umnistakeable and painful results of his past indulgence, whatever may have
been the cause or the guilt of that indulgence. • .
The medical profession long ago decided that alcohol is a poison, whose
habitual use will certainly cause many distressing and fatal diseases. Such
writers as Orfila, Christison, Lees, Chambers, Mudge, Fletcher, and Carpenter
have established this by an array of experiments, facts, and arguments, posi
tively unanswerable. Their views are further confirmed by more recent wri
ters, as Moore, Hall. Parker, Dodge, and others. But the position that inebri
ty itself is a disease, demanding the wise use of remedial agents is not so old,
and has not been so readily received. Yet even this is by no means a late
discovery. “Nearly sixty years ago, the celebrated Dr. Rush referred drunk
enness to a morbid state of the will,” and “recommended the establishment of
a hospital in every city and town in the United States for the exclusive recep
tion of hard drinkers.” He thus writes, “they are as much objects of humani
ty and charity ns mad people.” Dr. Robert Jamison, of Aberdeen, speaks of
prospensity to drunkenness “as a morbid impulse, forming a variety of moral
insanity, referred to under the name of dypsomania, (thirst-craziness). In
1833, Dr. Woodward, of the Worchester, Mass., Insane Hospital, maintained
that intemperance was a disease, amenable to treatment. He says, “a large
proportion of the intemperate, in a well conducted instution could be radically
cured, and would again go into society with health re-established, diseased ap
petites removed; with principles of intemperance well grounded and thorough
ly understood, so that they would be afterwards safe and sober men.” Such
were the views of the ablest physicians of a former generation. “Under the
names of dypsomania, (thirst-craziness) or methomania, (an irresistible desire
to drink) inebrity has found a recognizt d place in the catalogue of diseases.”
But these conclusions of medical science should not be confined to the medical
profession. The people generally should know them, and feel their sad reali
ty. It is the common opinion that, social drinking is simply a pleasant indul
gence, which can be continued or abandoned, as circumstances or judgement
may dictate. It is high time for those who cherish this delusion to learn that
they are gradually but surely fastening upon themselves a disease whose hold
is stronger than fever and as deadly as the plague, when suffered to run its
course; a disease from which, in its latter stages, there is no hope of recovery
except through the merciful agency of an Asylum that shall separate them for
a time from all former associations, and constrain them to the abandonment
of long continued habits.
As set forth in the memorial referred to. such an Asylum, with the experi
ence of its inmates, would be a centre ot light to flic people, tending to the rap
id dissemination of correct views on a subject so little understood.
The condition of the system, called “alcoholism' by medical writers, involves
“organic changes” and “fundamental derangements” which have been care
fully studi< I and can be easily recognized by the intelligent physician. It is not
nocessarv that we discuss the “pathology” of the disease, that we determine
the question “whv do men drink?” that we ascertain “the secret of that ter
rible propensity. The fact of its existence start -us in the face. The obscure and ig
norant an- not' its onlv victims. The loveliest and the most gifted yield to its
power in spite of every consideration that can appeal to a rational and immortal
lieiny. Its phases are various. Some men seem to be all the time under the sway
of this irresistible propensity—are always drunk, except when under restraint.
Others have “paroxvsms of drunkenness. Sober and trusted for one, three,
or six mouths, thev are suddenly overpowered, and nothing short of absolute
intoxication will satisfy them. The manifestations are various. Some show
a silly but harmless exultation of spirit.-; others sink into pitiable brutes; oth
ers exhibit uncontrollable propensities, as “pyromamia,” “kleptomamia.' and
‘’homicidal mania. All these are but the consequences of the pre-existing
mania,—the unconquerable propensity to drink.
With the great majority inourday, this morbid appetite is inherited. Ttisan
admitted fact that propensities, as well as features and desires, are transmitted
through successive generations. These are developed not at once, but at cer
tain periods, and with marked gradations. The expressions of countenance, the
physical peculiarities, as well as the individual features of the son. become in
creasingly like those of the father with advancing years. So. hereditary diseases,
as blindness, consumption, and others, are developed gradually, and make
their apjiearanee at certain periods of life. In like manner the inherited thirst for
liquor is gradually a-tly developed to a certain wli-n it assumes a
dominant and dreadful power. The innocence of childhood and the piety of
youth do n-’t constitute a sure guarantee of exemption from this law of entail
ment. Says Dr. Burr. “the critical period at length arrives, and suddenly,
like the fatal cancer, there is developed the morbid propensity.” The man
seems completely changed, his organism appears to undergo an entire trans
formation. Uncontrollable appetites are arou.-wl. Drunkenness blights the .
promise of former years. A life, pure and joyous in its morning, early finds !
an evening of shame and voiceless woe. Thus deteriorated physically, with
intellect weakened, moral sensibilities blunted, the self-determining power of the
will paralyzed, what can the miserable inebriate do ? What can his dispairing
family do ? Left to himself, or with such aid as they alone can render, he
must inevitably perish. Regarded with contempt by the community, an outcast
from all pleasant and hopeful associations, expelled the church, given up as
beyond rescue, a burden to those who have loved and cherished him, and final
ly abandoned by them; yet conscious of his condition; at moments, the sad
victim of a remorse as bitter and as consuming as ever tortured the soul on eiji’tli,
groaning under the tyrranny of an organization he cannot correct, and of hab
its he cannot break, doomed to a life which lias no aim, no sun, no star; “not
one ray of cheerful hope,” his is indeed a pitiable condition. Alas! alas! poor,
lost, wretched man, how I compassionate thy miserable doom, fraught with
an anguish so singular and so unspeakable!
What has the State done for these unhappy inebriates? Some one replies;
what do they desevre ? Have they not forfeited all claim to sympathy and re
lief ? Is not the jail a place of confinement for those who disturb the peace
by violence, or who become a nuisance as common vagabonds ? And is not
the penitentiary a suitable place of punishment for those who will commit
crime under the influence of liquor ?
True, the jail can confine, and the penitentiary has a penal discipline, but
neither can benefit the confirmed inebriate, or banish the crimes for which he
is imprisoned. In jail, he is for a time confined at an expense to the county.
When released, he returns to his former habits of drunkenness, vagrancy and
disorder. He grows in vice, while the public is at a constant expense to re
strain or punish him. In the case of those sent to the penitentiary, the same
holds true, with the additional disadvantage that many who go there for one
crime, committed in drunkenness, come away more hopelessly corrupted, by
contact with criminals of every shade, and schooled for the commission of ev
ery crime. Precisely this view, based upon facts of constant occurrance, has
induced the English Parliament to give its favorable consideration to a Bill,
introduced by Earl Dalrymple, whose object is the establishment of Institutions
in England for the treatment of drunkards, similar to those already in opera
tion in America. English Statesmen, as well as American Legislators are be
coming convinced that while jails and penitentiaries have their appropriate
sphere, they do but little towards diminishing the vagrancy and crimes of
which intemperance is the instigating cause. It has been repeatedly affirmed
by the most intelligent and fearless jurists that three fourths of the' vagrancy,
vice and crime o c the land can be directly traced to this cause. Our Legislators,
then, may well cc ns Ider the question whether there may not be a better and
more successful treatment for those whose offences spring from intemperate
habits. May it not be wiser and more humane to attempt the cure of the ine
briate, while restraining him from the repetition of his crimes.
But there are many inebriates who are not criminals. They injure only
themselves and grieve only their kindred and friends. From various causes
they have gone so far that they cannot of themselves return. The gate has
closed behind them that shuts them out from the land of sunshine and joy, of
bright skies, and sweet sounds, and scented breezes, the land of faith and
hope.
. They have no faith in themselves, no hope for themselves. Friends have
ceased to hope for them. Though loving them still, they are powerless to save
them. Vows the most solemn have been taken and speedily broken. A few
days of sobriety, under the influence of a still lingering sense of honor, have
been followed by a raging thirst and mental unrest before whose power con
jugal love, parental affection, professional standing, kindred ties, riches, honor,
all- have been dashed aside, their strength but as “the green withs” which
yielded to the arm of Samson,” as a thread of tow, when it toucheth the fire.”
Their number is not small. Many of them have gifts and graces that would
adorn any position, while all of them, if sober, would be useful citizens. One
by one they sink into the untimely grave, lost to their families, lost to society,
lost to the State. Many such have been saved through the agency of Inebriate
Asylums in other States; many could be saved by a similar agency in our own
State.
If it be said that it is inconsistent in the State to legalize the traffic which
makes inebriates, and then establish an Asylum for their cure, I grant that the
inconsistency is great. My reply is briefly this: Because our fathers had not
the wisdom, or the nerve, to legislate for the prevention of intemperance, shall
we have no pity for its wretched victims? The evil is upon us. The diseased
and dying are in our midst. Their number increases with each succeeding
generation.
With no Asylum for the intelligent treatment of their condition, they are as
surely doomed as the maniac, or plague-smitten would be, if cast out from all
pity and help. Hereditary taint, deep-seated disease, and the long indulged
“thirst for drink” are not subdued by simple legal enactments, cither prohibi
tory or penal. These minister not to a mind enfeebled, a soul polluted and
debased, a body saturated with alcohol and sinking into the grave. The en
slaved and miserable victim of “alcoholism” needs something more. He should
be removed from scenes of temptation, should be subjected to firm but gentle
restraint, should receive judicious .sanitary treatment, should be separated from
all depressing and exciting associations, should have quiet rest and ample time
for regaining his lost energies of mind and body. Such treatment, combining
the requisites necessary for his recovery, he cannot receive either at his own
home, or in any public institution now existing in this State. If possessed of
ample means, he can go to Asylums in other States, but the expense to those
who are non-residents of these States is so great, that but few* can afford it.
Seven such institutions have been in successful operation for a number of
years.
They are:
The N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum, Binghampton, N. Y., Established ISG7.
The Washingtonian Home, Boston Mass., “ 1857.
Inebriate’s Home, Long Island, N. Y., “ 1866.
Washingtonian Home, Chicago, 111., “ 1867,
Pennsylvania Sanitarium near Philadelphia
Greenwood Institute, near Boston, Mass., “ 1856.
Harlem Asylum for Inebriates, Baltimore, Md., “ 1867.
The reports from the Superintendents of these Institutions, as far as I have
been permitted to read them, are full of encouragement and hope. They show
the great need of such Asylums, the special position they occupy, what they
aim to do ami what they have actually accomplished; the unreasonable preju
dices to such institutions, and the solid considerations which should shame and
banish these prejudices; their material benefit to the State in the restoration of
laborers, artizans and professional men to the various weal th-producing and
wealth-distributing employments; their advantage to the State in the diminu
tion of crime, and improvement of morals, so far as affected by the inebriates
who have been cured: the good accomplished by them through the personal
labors of the many who have gone forth, redeemed from a blighting curse, to
live for the deliverance of others from this curse, the home comfort and
unspeakable joy they have produced in the families of restored inebriates, and
last, though not least, they exhibit the hopeful results of those religious influ
ences brought to bear upon their patients; influences which, lost upon the
inebriate, affect the heart after tiie demon has been cast out, and lead him to
the Cross, to peace on earth, and to a glorious immortality in Heaven.
Much that relates to the successful working of these Institutions, may be
found in the annuid reports of the “American Association for the cure of Ine
briates,” to which I am chiefly indebted for the facts here presented.
If we succeed in directing the attention of our legislators to this important
subject, I trust they will give these reports a careful reading, for they fully
elalx.rate the views which I can but briefly suggest, in the time allowed to this
address.
Objections to this movement may be readily found, but they are trivial in
comparison with the solid arguments in favor of it. Reasons, numerous and
most weighty, plead for the establishment of an Inebriate Asylum in Georgia.
I can but indicate these reasons. They relate to the questions of productive
industry, of crime, of morals, of education, of the elevation and advancement
of all classes, for all class’ s are intimately ami inseparably linked with this
blighting evil.
Thev relate to social tranquility and domestic happiness; to the living who
rnav he restored, saved for time and eternity, and to the unborn who, if nothing
be done, are doomed to the entailment of a drunkard’s appetite and a drunk
ard’s woe.