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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.