able
opportunity to dispose of my stock on hand, and it is a part of my
business to avail myself of all favorable circumstances in the community
to make money." Who would not have been struck with the cold-blooded and
inhuman avarice of such a man? And yet there was not _half_ the moral
certainty that those fire-arms would have been used for purposes of
blood, that there is that ardent spirits will be employed to produce
crime, and poverty, and death.

I have no time to notice other objections. Nor need I. I have stated the
_principle_ of all. I just add here, that the excuses which are set up
for this traffic will apply just as well to any other business as this,
and will fully vindicate any other employment, if they are to be
sustained. Apply these excuses to the case of a bookseller. The question
might be suggested, whether it was a moral or an immoral business to
deal in infidel, profligate, and obscene pictures and books. True, it
might be alleged that they did evil, and only evil continually. It might
be said that neither the love of God or man would prompt to it. He might
be pointed to the fact, that they _always_ tended to corrupt the morals
of youth; to blight the hopes of parents; to fill up houses of infamy;
to blot out the hopes of heaven; and to sink men to hell. But then he
might with commendable coolness add, "This traffic is not condemned in
the Bible. If _I_ do not engage in it, others will. It contributes to my
livelihood; to the support of the press; to the promotion of business;
and I am not responsible for _their_ reading the books, nor for their
desire for them. I am pursuing the way in which my fathers walked before
me, and it is _my living, and I will do it_." Wherein does this plea
differ from that of the trafficker in ardent spirits? Alas, we have
learned how to estimate its force in regard to other sins; but we shrink
from its application in regard to this wide-spread business, that
employs so much of the time and the wealth of the people of this land.

Here I close. The path of duty and of safety is plain. These evils may
be corrected. A virtuous and an independent people may rise in their
majesty and correct them all. I call on all whom I now address, to exert
their influence in this cause; to abandon all connection with the
traffic; and to become the firm, and warm, and thorough-going advocates
of the temperance reformation. Your country calls you to it. Every man
who loves her welfare, sh