THE TRUE BASIS OF PROHIBITION.
By Gerrit Smith
The friends of temperance—I mean of prohibition—can not be at too great pains to disabuse the public mind of the impression that they are in favor of sumptuary laws. I would that they all confined the province of government to the sole duty of protecting persons and property, for then they would be able to argue the rightfulness of prohibition. How clear is it that the government which licenses or tolerates the dramshop grossly and wickedly fails of protecting the persons and property of its subjects! The dramshop—call it hotel, or by any other name—is a manufactory of paupers and madmen. A heavy burden for the sober to bear are these paupers. And what vessel, or car, or stage-coach, or building, or precious life is safe from the destructions which rum-made madmen are dealing so constantly and thickly all around them? It is not alone when they have drunk enough to stagger that men are dangerous. The preternatural excitement which the captain, engineer, or driver derives from but a single glass may be sufficient to peril all the lives intrusted to his care. Now, to say nothing of the duty of government to shield the industry of the sober from this burden of pauperism—how manifest its duty to suppress this manufacture of maniacs! Were shops to be opened for making madmen with exhilarating gases, or by means of some other temptations, government would promptly shut them up. Why then does it not shut up the dramshops?—Because it is accustomed to protect them, and the people are accustomed to the protection. Nothing so much as custom has the power to sanction and to blind.—Gerrit Smith, 1854.