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THE WASHINGTONIAN:
AUGUSTA, OCT. T, 1843.
Washington Total Abstinence Vltdgt.
IVc, whose names arc hereunto annexed, desirous
of forming a Society for our mutual benefit,
and to guard against a pernicious practice,
which is injurious to our health, standing and
families, do pledge ourselves as Gentlemen.
not to drink any
Spiritous or Malt Liquors, Wine or Cider.
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE.
R ‘v. W. T. Biiantly, Dr. F. M. Robertson,
“ W. J.Hard, Dr. D. H..ok,
“ C. S. Dod, S. T Chapman, Esq.
Geo. F. Pierce, James Harper, Esq,
Col. John Miu.eikje,
(SO“ To Distant Subjcribkrs. —Post Master; are au
thorized by law to remit money to the publishers of
newspapers and periodicals in payment of subacrip.
tions. Subscribers to the Washingtonian can therefore
pay for their papers without subjecting themselves or
the publisher to the expense of postage, by handing the
amount to the Post Master, with a request to remit it.
&C7" We have passed another grand
election day. But dear as the right of
suffrage is, incalculable as are the bless
ings of free institutions, and essential as
the ballot box may be to the perpetuity of
freedom in a republican government, who
that loves lii.s country can repress the
sigh that rises unbidden to his lips, as he
looks out upon the abominations commit
ted annually on the first Monday in Oc
tober? Wc refer not now to political
corruption—to party tactics—to election
eering intrigues, though these aggravate
the evils oF which we complain, and for
the consummation of their iniquitous
schemes, connive at if thoy do not direct
ly promote them. Leaving politics to
others, we confine ourselves within our
legitimate sphere, the advocacy of Tem
perance.
As connected with these remarks, we
propose a grave question for the consider
ation of the county—Ought a man to be
allowed to vote when drunk ? Those who
regard the right to drink and to be intoxi
cated at will, as one of the fruits of our
glorious Revolution, will of course take
the affirmative side of the question. But
we take the negative, for the following
reasons:
First, it is vain to declaim upon the abuse
of the ballot-box, or to talk of the purity of
elections, while drunken men have equal
ity of privilege with the sober. Second
ly, because such men are tools, ready
made for the hands of the demagogue
and the scavengers of party, tempting
both to the work of fraud and corruption.
Thirdly, because, bereft of sense—not
knowing what they do, they are incompe
tent for the time being to exercise the
rights of freemen. Fourthly, because
they defeat the very design of an election
the obtaining the mind of a majority of
tne people. An act performed under the
stupefaction of liquor, when the misera- ■
hie man would not recognize his own ,
name, cannot be considered as expressive
of his real opinions. In nine cases out
of ten he votes, or rather is made to vote,
in accordance with neither his first or his
“second sober thoughts,” but at the will
of his temporary friend- Fifthly, it is
not equitable that men who have forfeit
ed their title to be considered rational
who have disqualified themselves for eve- ,
ry social duty and for every civil right,,
should be allowed (as may and often has
happened,) to neutralize by their votes,
the votes of the intelligent and the sober.
Sixthly, because, in this aspect of the
subject, the law virtually disfranchises a
portion of the sober people, equal in num
ber to the drunkards, voting in a drunken ,
state, a-ml we might add, ministers to the
evil ot intemperance, by continuing to i
the drunken man a liberty, which he does ,
not deserve aud which he cannot use for ,
his own advantage or the benefit of the i
country.
Let us not be misunderstood. We are
not for the suppression of intemperance
by law. Far from it. There is in our
conception of the subject, a broad distinc- <
tion between interdicting drinking or i
drunkenness, and denying to a man if r
drunk, once in the year, for a brief peri- c
od, the privilege of a sober freeman 1
! Nay, the opinion we advocate denies him
j necessarily no privilege—let him vote,
| but let hitri be sober when he votes. Let
him drink all the year, if he will, but on
\ the first Monday in October, especially,
let him be sober till or when he votes, and
then, let him return like “the dog to his
vomit again, or as the sow to her wallow
jing in the mire.”
The community of this country, in all
' its divisions, suffers great deterioration of
its morals and sad interruption of its
-i peace and order about the time of its an
nual elections, inconsequence of drunk
* enness. We have known men put up, not
!’ in pens, exactly, but in rooms, and fed
i and drenched on Sunday and Sunday
’ night, and on Monday morning wheeled
• to the polls in style quite above their sober
- experience, and propped on either hand
by their careful keepers, made todeposite
their votes for whom or for what they I
never knew, and then give in their names
by proxy, too drunk to stand and too stu
■ pid to talk. Such a scene is an outrage
f upon freedom, a desecration of the very
• name of patriotism, a disgrace to parties
r and a blot upon the country, broad, dark,
s deep.
Let the law guard the purity and the!
freedom of election. Is he a freeman
I'who, inveigled by his appetite and some
■ political tempter, is shut up, a prisoner,
5 guarded and kept— made drunk— carried
f to the polls and directed to do he knows
* not what ? No, then let the law protect
' these victims from imposition and fraud,
' and maintain them in the expression of
their free opinions.
I 03” The Chronicle & Sentinel of the
29th ult., endorses the advice of the Fort
Gaines Whig, that the Banner and the
. Washingtonian “ take a drink and be
, friends, and keep sober for the future.”
Did our brother of the Chronicle pur
sue this course some two months since ?
We heard, about that time, certain ru
mors of hostile thundering louder than (
the pop of the champaign bottle, and
fiercer than the rattle of the printing ,
press,—though happily as harmless.— |
“They who live in glass houses should
not throw stones.” Let our brother of
the Chronicle tread softly when he touch
, es on such matters.
One of the Editors.
COMMUNICATED.
Last Sunday afternoon, in passing toj
the hill, we witnessed a scene of drunken-;'
ness and disorder, in anticipation of the;'
election of the succeeding day, which we '
had hoped that, neither Augusta nor its 1
vicinity could present. A small house *
at the foot ot the hill was crowded with 1
voters engaged in loud political discus-!'
sion, while a few stragglers were outside I
reeling and cursing as if “election” were f
synonomous with drunkenness and pro- *
sanity. What was the character of the 1
libations within we take to be just that;'
which the displays without would indi- 1
cate. <
Is it possible that men of respectability! I
can stoop so low as to buy a few votes at 1
such an expense:—The holy Sabbath
shamefully profaned, drinking encour- 5
aged, and drunkenness with its accompa- <
nying profanity countenanced ! The 1
whole scene with its confusion and stench *
of rum, made yet worse by the contrast : 1
ot the peaceful calm of the holy day and| :
the going and coming hard by of those!*
who went up to the house of God, was 1
revolting to a degree that ought to have 1
driven away any person who was not I
entirely lost to a sense of propriety, or *
who was capable under any circumstan- -
ces of a feeling of degradation. Talk 1
not of the necessity of violating the Sab- 1
bath in preparation for the election just 1
at hand; —there was no such necessity.
Let the free citizens of Georgia form their 1
own opinions and deposite their unbought 1
votes—let them not be plied with liquor '
till they have no sense or reason left, and 1
then persuaded to vote for they know not 1
whom. This is not the way to make the *
ballot box the fair interpreter of the will '
of the people. D. -
r
For the Washingtonian.
Messrs. Editors —lt gives me pleasure i
of no ordinary kind, to inform yon, that
another of our fellow beings has been ;
redeemed from the most wretched and I
degrading slavery’ of Prince Alcohol.— i
Yes, Mr. , heretofore one of the most t
i devoted of tie Tyrant’s vassals, has man
, fully declared his independence, and as
: the first act as freedom, has enlisted un
i der the great Washington’s temperance
, banner. Let the Cold Water Army re-
I joice—he is said to be noble-minded, in
! dustrious, and manly—he will therefore
.be true and faithful to the pledge. Let
| them rejoice, too, because a worthy man
I I has been saved from a vice which render
fed his industry and other good qualities
s unavailing to himself and his country —
which made him the victim of the base
. and la£y loafers who hang about the
t doggeries to pick the pockets of those
1 who drink more than they can carry
away.
r In his last debauch, he was basely rob
• bed of the last rarnings of his industry.
I and when awalened to conscientiousness.
: he found himseFwithout the means to re
new his potafitns, or to procure the ne
! cessaries of fife. At first he resolved to
wander away from the scene of his folly
and mortification, but finally necessity
land prudence guided him into a wiser
; course of conduct. He applied—not to
the rum-seller—aot to his pot companions
| —ah, no ! too well he knew he could find
! neither sympathy nor relief among these.
! No! hfe applied to a ‘good Samaritan,’ who
gave him food, lodging and employment,
and now, thank God for putting it into
the hearts of men to love and serve one
another, he is doing well.
But, Messrs. Editors, I cannot stop
! with the nv;re facts of this case—l must
’ask, why it it that decent men can lend
: their countenance to a traffic which, as
long as water runs, and grass grows,
I will destroy virtue and promote vice and
|crime? I must ask, how men of pro
perty can reconcile it to prudence, to suf
fer a nuisance, which saps the founda
tions of prosperity in every community,
ahd sooner or later must render their pro
perty valueless i Can Augusta flourish,
if, instead of industry and economy, in
dolence and robbery are encouraged ?
Will property here continue valuable, if
the industrious arc made drunkards, rob
bed and driven away ? Can a city ex
pect blessings from on high, that licenses
vice, and thus encourages crime!
A M AN.
For the Washingtonian.
To Young I.a(tfes.
Last week 1 advised you to call on me
i to learn the character of your suirors, as
|it regards their habits of temperance or
intemperance, and now, fearing that you
may unjustly flatter yourselves that your
charms will suffice to reform even an in
ebriate, I address you again, to tell you
[what has been the result of such an ex
pectation in others. I will confine my
self at present to two cases—one, where
the greatest beauty and the most fascin
jating manners have entirely failed to pre
sent a temperate drinker from becoming
a brutal sot—and the other, one where
even Courtship cannot save a lover from
beastly drunkenness. To save you from
ruin I must speak plainly.
There is a lovely lady, the mother of
some most interesting children, now pale,
disconsolate and broken-hearted, because
neither her charms, nor the sweet prattle
of her children, has succeeded to save
the husband and the father from a drunk
ard’s name and character. She was once
the most lovely in the Georgian galaxy of
beauty, the admired of every beholder,
the charm of every circle, the object of
pursuit of every Celebs, of almost idola
trous adoration of the favoured suiter.
Little did she dream that stinking rum,
notwithstanding its fruits of horror, suf
fering and mania, would ever exercise a
more powerful control over her devoted
lover than her charms of person, mind
and manners. But, alas! this is now
I her sad experience. Let it warn you,—
none of you can be more beautiful, more
amiable, more fascinating, than this un
fortunate lady. The appetite for liquor in
some is stronger than beauty,stronger than
honor, stronger than any thing human !
Nothing but divine power can control it.
Then fly the embrace of a wine-bibber,
as you would that of the Anaconda. It
is escape,—or misery and death !
The other case I shall only briefly hint
at for the present. A is a lady’s man,
blessed, it is said, with a wonderful favour
among the fair sex, and actually about
to succeed in winning from all competi
- tors, the highly prized Miss B .
s'Well, notwithstanding this favour and
- success, he is a drunkard, and even with
e the prospect of a speedy union with this
- deceived, or most unwise lady before
- him, he gets so exceedingly drunk as to
e fall down in the shops or the streets, and
t is indebted to passers by, for being pla
n ced out of the sight and contemptuous
- jeers of the little boys. If such is the
s fact now, what will it be when the ex
- citement of pursuit, and the novelty of
e love, ceases to influence his debased
e mind—when her means are added to his,
e to procure the materials of his low, swin
y ish indulgence.
If with these pictures drawn from life
. before you, you can marry a rum-drinker,
, then vain are all the labours of your
s, friend Obed.
From the Pentield Temperance Banner.
J TEMPERANCE CONV r ENT!OX.
! Eatonton, Sept. 11, 1843.
' At a meeting of the Eatonton Total
1 Abstince Society, held in the Courthouse
r on Monday evening the 11th inst. it was
o Resolved, That the Committee ap
pointed by the recent Temperance Con
tention at Pentield, to whom was refer
red the propriety of holding another Con
' vention of the friends of Temperance,
3 some time during the ensuing fall, be re
quested to select Eatonton as being the
almost eligible place for holding the same
J —and appoint such time as they may
deem most suitable.
Resolved, That the citizens of Eaton j
Pi ton freely extend an invitation to all the
t delegates, of said Convention, and that
fthey will throw open their houses tor their
s ! reception and entertainment.
Resolved, That we request said Com
’ mittee to publish the above resolutions,'
together with their report and address.
WM. A. HOUGHTON,
President. \
Robert F. Trippe, Sec. pro. tem.
In answer to the above invitation, andj
" in behalf of the recent Pentield meeting,
’ the undersigned Committee do invite a
• Convention of the friends ofTemperance,!
?: to assemble at Eatonton, on the forenoon
f of Thursday, the 23d of November next.
It is earnestly hoped that Societies in all
parts of the State will be represented in
' that meeting.
5 P. H. MELL.
J. M. ASHURST.
J. H. CAMPBELL. j
O. L. SMITH,
Sept 13th, 1843. G. M. PAINE.
03” Editors in the State favorable to'
the cause of Temperance will confer aj
’ favor, by giving this a few insertions, and
» noticing it editorially.
[*
Temperance iu Mississippi*
1 The following letter of Bishop As- 1
r drew in the S. C. Advocate, will be read
. with much interest.
, “Mississippi has taken a very decided
stand for the suppression of intemperance
which has, for a few years past, been
prosecuted with so much rigor, by the
J friends of good order. All will remem
- her the passage of the celebrated gallon
. law, which prohibited the sale of ardent
r spirits in any less quantity than one gal
lon. In Georgia we attempted some
thing of the same kind, but we were so
’ democratic that we carried the matter to
1 the people first, intending, through them,
|to bring it into the halls of legislation:
I but this extreme respect for the sovereign
people, (as might have been foreseen)
’ thwarted all our schemes. We gave our I
enemies notice that we intended to at-1
tack them, and thus put them completely!
5 1 on their guard ; hence, the tocsin was!
.|sounded, and rallied to the rescue every!
,|friend and retainer of King Alcohol.
j. 1 First came the grog-sellers, a formidable
band (whose craft was in danger,) and
• each one of them mustered a band of
I well-trained menials, who belonged soul
- and body to their masters, and were ready
. for any service. To be sure, they could
'not be much accounted of, so far as in
telligence was concerned ; but then they!
' were all the more valuable for that, as
1 they would not likely be troubled with'
1| many scruples. And then came the
l office-holders and ojfice-seekers. These
. formed common cause with the grog
men; and where men w r ere not seeking
office themselves, their sons, or brothers,
’ or cousins, or some particular friend was
• very likely looking up. The leaders of
i the great political parties of the State,
! | after watching the wind a short time,
i took ground against it. The partizan
press took the key note from their mas
ters, and the united wisdom of these far
’ seeing rabbis made certain sage discover
t ies, for which they were certainly enti
tled to a medal —such as that this right
[ of selling liquor and getting drunk, was
i the dearest of all constitutional rights,
’Wnd that any attempt to change it was,
therefore, an invasion of the rights of
1 conscience, and that, consequently, if
■ Would be sin against God and man; but
, j the grandest discovery of all was, that
| grog-shops were important for the pro
( motion of true temperance principles,
and for the increase of virtue and good
’ morals; and this the whole clique en
dorsed as sound philosophy,—capital,
>!good, moral doctrine. Well, the legis
-1 lature were elected in view of these inat-
Jters. But such a legislature !
| “The people of the West enacted the
law first, and carried it to the people
: afterwards. Thus there was an oppor
■ tunity afforded to test the good law; and
’ the result was that although every effort
1 was made to procure its repeal, yet it
maintained its ground for at least two or
three years, and wrought immense good
" for the State; finally, however, the ene
mies of the good cause prevailed so far as
to procure a chance in the law; which,
, although it is in our judgment very far
r !inferior to the original law, is still great
ly better than the statutes of many States
on the subject. If we understand it, the
present law leaves it with the proper au
thorities of the county to grant license to
. retailers, and they are allowed to charge
for the license, not less than fifty, nor
* more than a thousand dollars. The re
sult is, that where temperance is in the
■ ascendant in any county, they can lay
' such a tax upon it as to prohibit the re
tailing ardent spirits ; and such, I think,
■ was the case last winter when I passed
through Okatibaba county ; and, I think
’ also in Noxubee. But where intemper
' ance prevails, the people enjoy the glori
ous constitutional right of selling liquor,
} getting drunk, and cutting each other’s
throats, according to the laws, ordinan
: ces, and usages, therefore provided, as is
the case in other parts of these glorious
free States. But the Washingtonians
have, under God, done much for Missis
sippi, and the South-West generally.
The clergy of the country, generally,
are, I think, on this subject, good men
and true; who go in heart and soul fir
the glorious tetotal reform, and God has
blessed their efforts greatly. The Wash
ingtonian movement, so far os I have
been able to learn, has been almost al
ways the precursor of glorious reviva's
of religion, in w hich an unusual number
of old men have been converted to God.
This was remarked to me by more than
one Presiding Elder during my late tout.
, Many of these had been men of respec
table standing, but they had been inac
cessible to the influences of the Gospel,
jbecaose of their three or four drams a
day. But they took the pledge, the de
canter vanished, and their hearts were
'prepared to listen to the voice of God.”
I will sign the Pledge w hen I’m in Danger.
Such was the reply of a gentleman of
lofty feelings to a reformed drunkard,
who, in the smplicity and kindness of his
heart, asked him to sign the pledge.—
“I will sign when 1 am in danger.”
‘And when are you in danger?” said
the reformed man. “and who is to be
the judge? If you look out of your own
eyes, you may not perceive that you are
in danger; but if you were to look out
iof mine, you might see that you are. 1
once stood where you stand and did not
think that I was in danger. But my
opinion made no difference as to the fact.
It would have been well for me if I had
known the truth.”
But all the experience and reasoning
of such men seems to be lost upon the ,
self-esteemed prudent drinker. He rush
es on until he has passed that fatal boun
dary (when and where it is he knows not)
and then be cannot stop. The only hold
we can have of such gentlemen, and it is
a strong one if they are philanthropists
and Christians, is the good of others. If
the reformed man had said to him—“ Sir,
in view of the wide-spread evils of in
temperance, of the number of the reform
ed, of their need of the power of example
and sympathy in such as yourself, and in
prospect of saving thousands on thou
sands of children and youth who are yet
unscathed bv the destroyer, will you not
, forego the pleasure of drinking intoxica
ting drinks; and, as the pledge is the
only platform on which we can stand,
are you not willing to unite with os in
this bond of fellowship and secure our
rescue?” he might have met with suc
cess ; for surely he must have been want
ing in the Urst principles of benevolence
to have done otherwise than given his
name, and united with him his destiny
“ Knowing,” says a gentleman of high
standing, and who is himself a practical
teetotaler, and one, therefore, who, for
himself, could not seem to need the
pledge—“knowing that I can be doing
no wrong, and believing that I may do
much good, I am going myself to sign the
temperance pledge.” May every reader
who has not done it come to= the same
conclusion! He may be instrumental
in saving some, he knows not who or how
many, from inevitable ruin. Come, gen
tlemen, and sign the pledge!
(fir A law of Virginia allows spiritous
liquors to be sold at proper places. The
magistrates of one of the counties have
decided that there is no proper place for
{such a business within the county.