heir surroundings, by their education, by their objects and
aims in life, by the people they love, by the people who love them.

No one will deny the evils of intemperance, and it is hardly to be
wondered at that people who regard only one side--who think of the
impoverished and wretched, of wives and children in want, of desolate
homes--become the advocates of absolute prohibition. At the same
time, there is a philosophic side, and the question is whether more
good cannot be done by moral influence, by example, by education,
by the gradual civilization of our fellow-men, than in any other
possible way. The greatest things are accomplished by indirection.
In this way the idea of force, of slavery, is avoided. The person
influenced does not feel that he has been trampled upon, does not
regard himself as a victim--he feels rather as a pupil, as one who
receives a benefit, whose mind has been enlarged, whose life has
been enriched--whereas the direct way of "Thou shalt not" produces
an antagonism--in other words, produces the natural result of "I
will."

By removing one temptation you add strength to others. By depriving
a man of one stimulant, as a rule, you drive him to another, and
the other may be far worse than the one from which he has been
driven. We have hundreds of laws making certain things misdemeanors,
which are naturally right.

Thousands of people, honest in most directions, delight in outwitting
the Government--derive absolute pleasure from getting in a few
clothes and gloves and shawls without the payment of duty. Thousands
of people buy things in Europe for which they pay more than they
would for the same things in America, and then exercise their
ingenuity in slipping them through the custom-house.

A law to have real force must spring from the nature of things,
and the justice of this law must be generally perceived, otherwise
it will be evaded.

The temperance people themselves are playing into the hands of the
very party that would refuse to count their votes. Allow the
Democrats to remain in power, allow the Democrats to be controlled
by the South, and a large majority might be in favor of temperance
legislation, and yet the votes would remain uncounted. The party
of reform has a great interest in honest elections, and honest
elections must first be obtained as the foundation of reform. The
Prohibitionists can take their choice between these parties. Would
it not be far better for the