of those whom you thus entice and destroy, be upon your own
head. Whether you will hear, or whether you will forbear, I shall not
cease to remonstrate; and when I can do no more to reclaim you, I will
sit down at your gate, in the bitterness of despair, and cry, _Murder!_
Murder!! MURDER!!!

RETAILER. (Pale and trembling.) "Go thy way for this time; when I have a
convenient season, I will call for thee."

BARNES
ON THE
TRAFFIC IN ARDENT SPIRITS.

There are some great principles in regard to _our_ country, which are
settled, and which are never to be violated, so long as our liberties
are safe. Among them are these: that every thing may be subjected to
candid and most free discussion; that public opinion, enlightened and
correct, may be turned against any course of evil conduct; that that
public opinion is, under God, the prime source of security to our laws
and to our morals; and that men may be induced, by an ample and liberal
discussion, and by the voice of conscience and of reason, to abandon any
course that is erroneous. We are to presume that we may approach any
class of American citizens with the conviction that if they are
_convinced_ that they are wrong, and that their course of life leads to
sap the foundation of morals and the liberties of their country, they
will abandon it.

Our present proposition is, that THE MANUFACTURING AND VENDING OF ARDENT
SPIRITS IS MORALLY WRONG, AND OUGHT TO BE FORTHWITH ABANDONED.

We _mean by the proposition_, that it is an employment which _violates
the rules of morals that ought to regulate a man's business and
conduct_. The doctrine proceeds on the supposition, that there is
somewhere a correct standard of morals--a standard by which a man's
whole conduct and course of life is to be tried; and that _this_
business cannot be vindicated by a reference to that standard. Or, for
example, we mean that it is man's duty to love God, and seek to honor
him, and that this business cannot be vindicated by a reference to that
standard. That it is man's duty to love his fellow-men, and seek to
promote their welfare, and that this business cannot be vindicated by
that standard. That it is man's duty to render a valuable compensation
to his fellow-men in his transactions with them, and that this business
cannot be vindicated by that standard. That every man is bound to pursue
such a course of life as shall promote the welfare of the entire
community in which he lives, as shall