Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

I - wwvvw g£ llrsi JfnmE® SfojKw: SfcSwWW U Smjrosimir, I Yol. II No. 32.] an be PCBUSIIED EVERY SATURDAY morning, by JAME* McCAFFERTY, At the low price of one dollar per annum, for a single subscriber, five dollars for a club of six or ten dollars for a club of twelve sub scribers payment, in advance. All Communications, by mail, addressed to the publisher, must be post paid to receive atten tion. By the rules of the Post-Office Depart ment, Post masters may frank subscription money for Newspapers. | will be inserted at the follow ing reduced rates:—For one square, not rx -1 ceeding twelve lines, 50 cents for the first insertion, and twenty-five cents for eacli con tinuance, if published weekly; if semi-monthly t 3*i; and if monthly 43| cents, for each con -1 tinuance. I Yearly advertisers 10 per ct. discount. From the Temperance (Penfield) Banner. ADDRESS TO THE CITIZENS OF GEORGIA. The Committee appointed by the Ealonton Con vention, to Address the Citizens of the State on the subject of Temperance, submit the folloit ing: It is a fact beyond dispute, that morali ty is the very essence of civil liberty | under free institutions. The reason is I simply because, that under such institution ■ all power proceeds either directly or indi- I rectiy from the people. If, therefore, the: I people arc generally moral, they will al | ways exercise the [rowers and privilege? | which they enjoy with a disinterested -1 ness of patriotism only equal to the un- I hesitating promptitude of their obedience I to the laws. On the contrary, it is equally a fact, a? I fully verified by the history of the past. I as it is striking to the common sense of [ every reflecting mind, that a loose mor- I ality, by a law as unvarying and invaria [ hie as the law of gravitation, must result [ in the decline and final destruction of | republican institutions. If these tacts are admitted, what, let us inquire, is the moral condition of our ■country? It is to us a matter of gravest I import and deserving our most serious | consideration. From one end of the country to the other, we have heard of | nothing so much for the past few years, | ws the mobs, the riots, the thefts, the tnur- I ders, and every thing, in a word, which ' could indicate the general immorality and corruption of our people. The press has been so crowded with the shocking de tails of crime, that we can hardly take up x newspaper which does not contain an account of some new outbreak against law and good order, or some tale yet un told of theft or bloodshed. Never was there a period in the history of our gov ernment, say our statesmen, so fraught with corruption as is the present. Hence proceeds the gloom which settles and gathers thick and heavily over all their speculations concerning the future. In addition to these facts, are not the disorders consequent upon the recent j monetary depression fresh in the recollec j tionofusall? Was there ever a plainer | demonstration than was then afforded of the inefficiency of mere parchment re strictions when unsustained by the salu tary restraints of a sound morality ? Re sistance to the peaceful administration of justice, was in many places openly dis cussed, and too often successfully carried out. There was hence a general feeling of insecurity, and a felt uneasiness and anxiety among all law-abiding men, as to the course of those who seemed disposed to set aside the supremacy of the laws. Suck is and has been the moral condi tion of our country. We presume not to trace the causes which have combined to 1 produce such a state of things; vet it may not be unimportant to notice among ma | nv others, one or two facts which most certainly exist, and which will operate as I an aggravation of the present evils in time to come. According then to the best estimates ; "’hich have been made, our population doubles itself every 23£ years. We have i now a population of seventeen millions. If the immorality of the country is enough I to excite the alarm of the patriot now, what may we expect in the next 23£ I our population will be 34 [ millions ? What in the next half century, when we shall number 68 millions of‘in-' i habitants. The causes which operate to ! demoralize our people now, besides being vastly multiplied in number, will act with much more power. The people will be collected in greater masses throughout the country, and whatever is inflamma tory of passion and prejudice will be the more easily enkindled and spread withj the greater rapidity. AUGUSTA, GA. SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1844. 1 The collection of large numbers of per sons together, has always been found to favor the growth and development of our worst passions. The same man is alto gether a different creature under the dif ferent circumstances of solitude and soci ety. In the one case, he is more apt to yield to the suggest ions of his reason and the disinterested goodness of his heart. In the other, he is the creature of an un thinking, unreasoning impulse : And thus, it is, that in the calmness of solitary re flection, we are often surprised, when we recur to our association with a crowd, and recall the iudiscreetness of our re marks, or the heedless Impetuosity of ourj actions. Under these various circum stances, men are not unlike the electric fluid, which, in its general diffusion over the earth, gives calm and repose and sun shine to the world, but concentrated it seems to loose the lnw of its being, and to follow no other law hut that of death and destruction to every thing within the sphere of its influence. I The increased and increasing facilities of communication by means of the steam car, are bringing the most distant parts ot . the country into the same neighborhood. . The vices of the large cities will thus , spread through the country, and the mor als of the people must certainly deterio rate. It then appears, that we are grossly j immoral now', with a certain prospect, from causes now in operation of becom ing w'orse in time to come. Arc these , facts, or are they hot? If they are, it must be admitted, that our country may Jhe ruined by her vices. In the lax moral ' tty of our people we have a foe arrayed I against us, more to be feared for its mini* Jbers, more insatiable in its hostility, and more insidious in its attacks, than the whole army against which we battled for [•our independence. Against the latter though against the most powerful odds, we have fought victoriously. Who cun . -ay that we Shall he equally victorious [ over the more formidable enemy, which , is now silently, yet not the less certainly, , sapping the foundations of American lib p erty ? The noble oak which has been torn, and wrung, and riven by the light nings of heaven, has sometimes flourished j!on* green and unwithered in its glory, as j J if in defiance of the thunders of the tem j pest; yet, after all, it has fallen beneath the attack of an unseen enemy at its ) heart. God grant that such may not be , the type of our destiny ; hut victorious in t arms, that we may also he able to control and to conquer our passions. $ Are you not prepared, then, fellovv-citi . zens, to aid in the moral reformation of t|your country? Are you not prepared to . wage a war of extermination with the | moral corruption of our people. Let us • then attack the enemy in the very cita ded of its strength. Let us rase that to • its foundation, and the victory is ours. ( That citadel is Intemperance. Hence . issue the legions of evils, which under rjdifferent names are constantly sallying [lforth upon society, leaving nought but .1 famine and universal desolation to mark . the track of their invasion. We cannot present a more condensed f view, or a more graphic description of the ■ evils of intemperance than one which has l|been given by a writer in the State of ' Ohio. We gladly substitute it in the ij place of any thing from ourselves, and > ask lor it a careful and thoughtful ncru- I sal. “And yet its march of ruin is onward ■ still. It reaches abroad to others, invades i the family and social circle, and spreads iwo and sorrow all around; it cuts down ■ youth in its vigor, manhood in its strength, and age in its weakness; it breaks the father’s heart, bereaves the doting moth > er, extinguishes natural affection, erases iconjugal love, blots out filial attachment, iblights parental hope, and brings down mourning age with sorrow to the grave. ;It produces weakness, not strength ; sick ness, not health; death, not life. It | makes wives widows; children orphans : fathers fiends, and all of them paupers and beggars. It hails fevers, feeds rheuma tism, nurses gout, welcomes epidemic, | imparts pestilence, and embraces con sumption. It covers the land with idle ness, poverty, disease and crime; it fills jour jails, supplies our alms-houses, and idemands our asylums; it engenders con troversies, fosters quarrels, and cherishes iriots; it contemns law,spurns order, and loves mobs; it crowds your penitentia ries, and furnishes victims for your scaf folds ; it is the life-blood of the gambler, [the aliment of the counterfeiter, the prop !of- the highwayman, and the support of the midnight incendiary; it countenan- ; ces the liar, respects the thief, and es- I teems the blasphemer; it violates obliga- < tions, reverences fraud, and honors info- < my ; it defames l>enevolence, hates love. < scorns virtue and slanders innocence; it I incites the fatherto butcher his offspring, < helps the husband to massacre his wife. : and aids the child to grind his parricidal < axe; it burns up man, consumes woman, I detests life, curses God, and despises i Heaven; it suborns witnesses, nurses perjury, defiles the jury box, and stains the judicial ermine; it disqualifies voters, corrupts elections, pollutes our institu jt’ons, and endangers our government; it degrades the citizen, debases the legisla tor, dishonors the statesman, and disarms ■ the patriot; it brings shame, not honor; ■ terror, not safety; despair, not hope; : misery, not happiness. And now, as with > the malevolence of a fiend, it calmly sur i veys its frightful desolations,and insatiate ' with havoc, it poisons felicity, kills peace, | ruins morals, blights confidence, slays - reputation, and wipes out national honor, , I then curses the world and laughs at its | I ruin. It is stated, too, upon the highest' | and most unquestionable authority, that s not less than a half a million of drunk . ards have existed at any one time in the . United States for the last twenty years. That one million and a half have died - since the acknowledgment of our inde , pendence; that at least a quarter of a . million in the same time have been put to > death by murder and manslaughter from I drunkenness; another quarter of a mil r lion have been executed lor murder and . sentenced to public prisons; making in } all, the appalling number of two millions . since wc have been a free people.” I If, therefore, the evils which have been “ enumerated in the following extract, do naturally result from intemperance, is it ; surprising that we hear and read so much ■I of the^mmorality and corruption of our 1 people, when it is considered, too, that ■ intemperance, the great cause of causes. 1 numbers so many among its votaries? • Ought not. then, every patriot to engage • in the effort which is now making to rc -1 move intemperance, this dreadful enemy ■ of our peace, our happiness, and our lib ' erties, from the land. Are we worthy ' of the noble heritage ofour rights and our liberties, if we make no effort to preserve ' them? Yet after all, it is to he feared s that there are hundreds amongst us who ‘ —because we have not yet been destroy. 1 ed by our vices—either cannot or will I not see any danger, unless they see the redcoat of the British soldier or hear the - booming of a British gun. They do not f seem to consider that we can suffer harm 3 except from the artillery, the infantry i and the cavalry of some foreign foe. To s such persons we would say, if you will - give the ‘go-by’ to the teachings of rea -3 son, go and consult the history of the Re . publics which are now no more. You 3 will find, if we mistake not, that in every r instance, the insidious, the ever active. I the destructive enemy of their own vices t had enslaved them, long before they ever i yielded submision to any foreign power. That already conquered by their own ex ] cesses, an invading army had nothing to j do but take possession of their territory, s It is at once our glory and our danger, f that all power emanates from the people. . because we are the authors 1 and preservers ofour own rights. We do . not take them as a boon from anv man or set of men. And in the exercise of vir ] tue directed by an enlightened view of 3 our best interests, we shall perpetuate a 3 free government to the latest generation, j Our danger, because the people may bc t come corrupted. They may cease to ex . ercise their powers in accordance with . the dictates of a virtuous and enlightened j patriotism ; until yielding only to theim ( pulsive madness of passion and the preju i dices of ignorance, every measure that is corrupt, may find its sanction in law— . every man who is ambitious mnv estab lish his honor by elevation. The legisla tion of the country necessarily partaking of the capricious passions which direct it. the rights of the people may become un stable and fluctuating; until passing from one stage to another, civil war may final ly ensue, and the people at last find thern ; selves writhing under the yoke of the most galling despotism. Among the evils of intemperance, we have barely noticed its tendency to cor rupt the purity of elections. We will here add, that in this respect it is a most dangerous engine in the hands of the demagogue. By the power which it gives him, the government is practically subverted ; for the powers of the people are transferred from them to those who have a mind to impose upon them. The government no longer becomes the gov ernment of the many, hut the government ot the few. The demagogue may thus, through the agency of intemperance, carry whatever he pleases. If he has any selfish object to attain, be it merely his; own elevation, or, what is worse, to filch by legislative spoliation, the hard earn- 1 ings of his more honest and industrious) neighbors, ho may successfully employ j this engine in its attainment. Who hasj not seen hundreds of our fellow-citizens! ihe veriest slaves of those who would! treat at elections; thus ignobly parting 1 with their rights of suffrage, the most "lorious right of American freeman.— Whatever may have been our past offen ces upon this subject, whether they have been to treat or be treated, let us not per petuate an evil which may he such a pow erful instrument in the hands of bad men. Let us look with suspicion upon men who, wanting the courage to command our suffrages by their merits, would insidious ly steal them by liquor. Let us watch all candidates, particularly on our days of election. If they offer to treat us then we are hound to suspect them, however plausible the pretexts of their kindness. And so suspecting them, we are bound to feel the deep, the stinging insult, which is implied in the attempt to control the dearest right of an American freeman by the bottle. From nothing let us turn so indignantly away. Nothing should so stir up the resentment of every man who rejoices in his freedom. Whatever be comes corrupted, let us preserve the puri. ty of the ballot-box. Whatever sacrifi ces we make, let us never sacrifice that right which makes us free, and which in dependently maintained will keep us so. If intemperance produces so much evil, temperance on the other hand will pro duce a corresponding amount of good.— Temperance is the mother of industry. Industry is itself the parent of a host of virtues. Temperance strengthens the bonds of society ; it loves order and res pccts the laws; it promotes education ;it cherishes the social feelings, and thus al leviates the burdens and the sorrows of life by the charm which it diffuses over all the various relations. It keeps men alive to their rights, and confers the abil ity to maintain them. It weakens the motives to do wrong and strengthens the motives to do right. It makes men good citizens, good husbands, and good fathers. It helps the poor man to wealth and se cures the possessions of the rich. It re gards obligation and speeds us forward in the discharge of duty. In a word, it pre serves the clue subordination of the pas ! sions and the supremacy of reason; evol ving all thatisgood and which will make us happy, suppressing all that is had and which will make us unhappy. It is our duty, then, fellow citizens, to promote the cause of Temperance. We owe it to ourselves, to our families, and to ; society. We owe it, above every thing, to the government under which we live, and which can only he sustained by the . virtue and morality of its citizens, i Up to the time of the origin of the Tem perance reform, America had been called , a nation of drunkards by some of the States of Europe. The charge could ; not then be denied, for the drinking class i of our citizens constituted no small part of our whole population. Since that time, the cause of Temperance has pro gressed with a rapidity far beyond the calculation of its warmest friends. Hun dreds and thousands find millions have en listed under its banners. America, once taunted with the drunkenness of her pop ulation, has been the first to set about the correction of the evil; and Europe, ani mated by a noble emulation of her suc cess, now acknowledges by her reformed millions, the worthy example of once drunken Amorim. T-Tnw shnnlrl tho thought swell the bosom of every Ameri can patriot, when he reflects, that if we were first to be called a nation of drunk ards, we were also first to set the example of sobriety. There is something about this which we may fairly trace to the good old blood of the revolution. It savors much of the spirit of those great men, who, convinced of their errors, always deemed it nobler to retrieve them, than persist obstinately in their defence. To America belongs the honor of giv ing the example of a free people and free institutions to the world. Her example was felt in the honest but ill-fated attempt of France, to establish similar institu tions upon the mins of her fallen throne. It spread thence throughout the Rations [One Dollar a Year. of Europe. And although none of them have as yet adopted her form of Govern ment, yet, the spirit of liberty is still in creasing among their people to such an extent, as to leave very little doubt that there is a gradual and an irresistible ten dency of all the governments of Europe :to the equal rights and privileges of our jown glorious rcjmhlic. But if America had stopt here, if she had been content •Kyith the achievements of her illustrious j founders, her work, though confessedly •jgreat, hud been hut half done; Greece ■ jand RAme had flourished and with the de feline of virtue they had fallen. France, [ infuriated under a Sense of the most gall -1 >ng oppression, had thrown off the chains ■ of feudal vassalage, and upon the ruins ■ of her ancient institutions had founded a ; Government which was to confer equal • rights upon all; yet, unprejiared for the transition, and maddened with the enjoy. • | menl of a liberty which before had exist eel only in the dreams of her Poetry or in the wild abstractions of her Philoso phy, her passions had risen into the storm, under the violence of which, her liberties had been prostrated. Such too had been the file of our South American neigh bors. 6 , she conclusion, therefore, of thefrionds of the institutions of Europe, had been that such too must and will be the fate of Republican America. But thanks to the enlightened patriotism of those who could see m immortality and vice, the deadliest enemies to our institutions* our country has been aroused to a sense of its dan ger, and not content with the mere pos session of free institutions, we are now showing to the world that we know how to preserve them. In our Temperance Societies we have the guaranty ot an enlightened and a vir tuous population for generations tb come. Thus shall our liberties be preserved ; for, with such a population, our laws will be planned in wisdom, administered with impartiality, and carried most faithfully into execution. May we not contemplate with proud satisfaction, the contrast between Ame rica and all of the Republics of the past. They perished from the excesses of a loose morality. Such cannot be her fate if we succeed, as we confidently believe we will, in the efforts which we arc now making for our moral improvement. But if such reflections may inspire us with pride, may we not feci prouder when we reflect that we are fast shutting the mouths of our transatlantic enemies when they point to ‘-drunken America,” and argue from her excesses that her days will soon be numbered—and that she too, will pe rish as have the Republics which have gone before her. What an impulse shall we give the cause of freedom throughout the civilized world. How triumphantly shall the ' friends of liberty appeal to our example in all time to come. It was a great work I to plant our Institutions. It is no less a ' work to preserve them. The former was the work of our father—the latter is ours. Let us see to it that we have equal suc cess. Posterity shall then award us e qual honor. We therefore invite you, fellow-citi \ zens to enlist with us in the great work ! of moral improvement which is now go ; ing on. Let us advance the Temperance Reform. A broad field is here opened for your patriotism and your philanthro py. You are called on to make no sa crifice of principle either in religion or politics.—Our cause stands by itself. It will succeed upon its own merits. The evils which it is designed to remove need only to be brought before the attention of the people to insure its most distin guished success. It therefore needs no alliance with any thing else. We claim it as our own peculiar privilege that we unite all parties and ail churches in the common cause of removing the ilfs of intemperance. We neither ask you to make any sacrifice of health, of reputa tion, or honor, or indeed anv sacrifice or privation which would be even aldust in the balance compared with the real ser vice which you may render your country. We only ask you not to drink ardent spirits, i hat is easily enough done. You make no sacrifice in thal which will not benefit you , whilst at the same time you are doing great service to your country. \ou are neither- called .on to set your selves up in the opposition ofdistanceand coldness and reserve to old friends be cause they drink. On the contrary, in accordance with the dictates of humani ty and our own glorious principles, we (Concluded on the 4 th page.)