he community. This is
palpably unjust, and utterly immoral. Of 1,969 paupers in different
almshouses in the United States, 1,790, according to the testimony of
the overseers of the poor, were made such by spirituous liquor. And of
1,764 criminals in different prisons, more than 1,300 were either
intemperate men, or were under the power of intoxicating liquor when the
crimes for which they were imprisoned were committed. And of 44 murders,
according to the testimony of those who prosecuted or conducted the
defence of the murderers, or witnessed their trials, 43 were committed
by intemperate men, or upon intemperate men, or those who at the time of
the murder were under the power of strong drink.

The Hon. Felix Grundy, United States senator from Tennessee, after
thirty years' extensive practice as a lawyer, gives it as his opinion
that four-fifths of all the crimes committed in the United States can be
traced to intemperance. A similar proportion is stated, from the highest
authority, to result from the same cause in Great Britain. And when it
is considered that more than 200 murders are committed, and more than
100,000 crimes are prosecuted in the United States in a year, and that
such a vast proportion of them are occasioned by ardent spirit, can a
doubt remain on the mind of any sober man, that the men who know these
facts, and yet continue to traffic in this article, are among the chief
causes of crime, and ought to be viewed and treated as immoral men? It
is as really immoral for a man, by doing wrong, to excite others to
commit crimes, as to commit them himself; and as really unjust
wrongfully to take another's property with his consent, as without it.
And though it might not be desirable to have such a law, yet no law in
the statute-book is more righteous than one which should require that
those who make paupers should support them, and those who excite others
to commit crimes, should pay the cost of their prosecution, and should,
with those who commit them, bear all the evils. And so long as this is
not the case they will be guilty, according to the divine law, of
defrauding, as well as tempting and corrupting their fellow-men. And
though such crimes cannot be prosecuted, and justice be awarded in human
courts, their perpetrators will be held to answer, and will meet with
full and awful retribution at the divine tribunal. And when judgment is
laid to the line, and righteousness to the plummet, they will appear as