An address, delivered before the Richmond and Exeter Union Society for the Promotion of Temperance : June 10, 1832 / by Charles Jewett.

  • Jewett, Charles, 1807-1879.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address, delivered before the Richmond and Exeter Union Society for the Promotion of Temperance : June 10, 1832 / by Charles Jewett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    only by wild and ferocious beasts and men as wild and savage as they; yet they ask not for a little rum to enable them to under- go the hardships to which such a situation exposes them. No, they met all those hardships, privations and dangers with no other stimulus than the love of Liberty and the pure and unde- filed religion of Jesus Christ; and would to God, my Christian hearers, we sought for no other at the present day. The experiment has been fairly tried in numberless instances within a few years to ascertain which of the two would perforin the most labor in a given time, say a week or a month, the man who drank spirits moderately, or he who entirely abstained. The result has, in every instance, been in favor of the one who did not use it, and there are now numbers of our larger farms and most extensive manufacturing establishments where there is not a drop of ardent spirits drank, yet there is the accustomed quantity of labor performed and in a much better manner, the laborers have better health, better morals, more enjoyment and more money, and are removed from the danger of becoming drunkards. If I in thus estimating the advantages to be derived from (he use of ardent spirits have come to different conclusions from many who have professed to examine the subject impartially, I think I can point them to the cause. When a subject of im- portance is to be decided, it ought to be decided according to its own intrinsic merits as ascertained by the light of reason, the weight of unimpeachable testimony and the word of God. But let me ask, is the question relative to the propriety of using or disusing intoxicating drinks decided in this manner? the obser- vation of every man must answer no. The real merits of the case are not taken into the account, the testimony of thousands of good men are cast away as a matter of no importance, the voice of reason is unheard, the word of God is disregarded, and the question at last decided by our vitiated tastes and our de- praved appetites. Fellow citizens, is this right thus to settle a question on which the present and eternal happiness of thousands may de- pend 1 But let us notice some of the injurious effects of imtem- perance upon the Moral, Intellectual and Physical powers of man. Its effects upon the moral faculties of man is generally