ed to this subject for ten years in
this land, and the details have been laid before the American public. It
is believed that no vice has ever been so faithfully gauged, and the
details so well ascertained, as the vice of intemperance in this nation.
It is far better understood than the extent of gambling, of piracy, or
robbery, or the slave-trade. It is established now, beyond the
possibility of debate, that ardent spirits is a poison, as certain, as
deadly, and destructive, as any other poison. It may be more slow in its
effects, but it is not the less certain. This is established by the
testimony of all physicians and chemists who have expressed an opinion
on the subject. It is not necessary for the welfare of man as an
ordinary drink. This is proved by the like testimony, by the example of
many thousands who abstain from it, and by the fact, that before its
invention, the Roman soldier, the Scythian, and the Greek, were as hardy
and long-lived as men have been since. Its direct tendency is to produce
disease, poverty, crime, and death. Its use tends to corrupt the morals,
to enfeeble the intellect, to produce indolence, wretchedness, and woe
in the family circle; to shorten life, and to hurry to a loathsome
grave; to spread a pall of grief over families and nations. It is
ascertained to be the source of nine-tenths of all the pauperism, and
nine-tenths of all the crimes in the land. It fills our streets with
drunkards, our almshouses with loathsome wretches, our jails with poor
criminals, and supplies our gibbets with victims. It costs the land in
which we live more than 100,000,000 of dollars annually, and renders us
no compensation but poverty, want, curses, loathsomeness, and tears.

In any single year in this Union, could the effects be gathered into one
single grasp, they would present to the eye the following affecting
details. An army of at least 300,000 drunkards--not made up of old men,
of the feeble, but of those in early life; of our youth, of our men of
talents and influence; an enlistment from the bar, the bench, the
pulpit, the homes of the rich, and the firesides of piety; the abodes of
the intelligent, as well as the places of obscurity, and the humble
ranks--all reeling together to a drunkard's grave. With this army
Napoleon would have overran Europe. In the same group would be no less
than 75,000 criminals, made such by the use of ardent spirits; criminals
of every grade and dye, supported at the ex