etched victims who have fallen in Cedarville
during the last ten years? Time does not permit. It would take hours
for the enumeration! No; I will not throw additional darkness into the
picture. Heaven knows it is black enough already! But what is the root
of this great evil? Where lies the fearful secret? Who understands the
disease? A direful pestilence is in the air--it walketh in darkness,
and wasteth at noonday. It is slaying the first-born in our houses, and
the cry of anguish is swelling on every gale. Is there no remedy?"

"Yes! yes! There is a remedy!" was the spontaneous answer from many
voices.

"Be it our task, then, to find and apply it this night," answered the
chairman, as he took his seat.

"And there is but one remedy," said Morgan, as Mr. Hargrove sat down.
"The accursed traffic must cease among us. You must cut off the
fountain, if you would dry up the stream. If you would save the young,
the weak, and the innocent--on you God has laid the solemn duty of
their protection--you must cover them from the tempter. Evil is strong,
wily, fierce, and active in the pursuit of its ends. The young, the
weak, and the innocent can no more resist its assaults, than the lamb
can resist the wolf. They are helpless, if you abandon them to the
powers of evil. Men and brethren! as one who has himself been well-nigh
lost--as one who, daily, feels and trembles at the dangers that beset
his path--I do conjure you to stay the fiery stream that is bearing
every thing good and beautiful among you to destruction. Fathers! for
the sake of your young children, be up now and doing. Think of Willy
Hammond, Frank Slade, and a dozen more whose names I could repeat, and
hesitate no longer! Let us resolve, this night, that from henceforth
the traffic shall cease in Cedarville. Is there not a large majority of
citizens in favor of such a measure? And whose rights or interests can
be affected by such a restriction? Who, in fact, has any right to sow
disease and death in our community? The liberty, under sufferance, to
do so, wrongs the individual who uses it, as well as those who become
his victims. Do you want proof of this? Look at Simon Slade, the happy,
kind-hearted miller; and at Simon Slade, the tavern-keeper. Was he
benefited by the liberty to work harm to his neighbor? No! no! In
heaven's name, then, let the traffic cease! To this end, I offer these
resolutions:--

"Be it resolved by the inhabitants of Cedarville, That from t