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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1942

AN

ORATION
DELIVERED JULY 4, 1839,

AT MEDFIELD, MASS.

A TEMPERANCE CELEBRATION,

IN WHICH

THE CITIZENS OP MEDFIELD AND EIGHT OP THE SURROUNDING
TOWNS UNITED WITHOUT DISTINCTION OP PARTY.

By JOHN A. BOLLES.

BOSTON:
WHIPPLE AND DAMRELL, 9 CORNHILL.
1839.

ORATION.

Fellow-Citizens, —
We have just been summoned, by the voices
of sweet music and immortal song, to "celebrate this
happy day." * We could not have responded to that
call under happier auspices. No lovelier or more appro
priate spot could have been selected for our meeting, than
this temple of nature. No orator could wish a brighter
day, a more glorious occasion, or a more inspiring audience.
I see before me my fellow-citizens of all ages and of both
sexes. I behold grave and reverend old age, breathing
almost the atmosphere of heaven, yet assembled once
more on earth to celebrate their country's birth day. And
I see, also, the rosy faces and careless smiles of childhood,
impressed with, yet not fully comprehending, the solem
nities and the joys of this occasion. My eye reposes
alike on the loveliness of woman, and on manhood's massy
strength. Every thing around me is eloquent of peace
and joy. The carol of the uncaged birds falls, even now,
most sweetly on the ear; the wanton breeze whispers
notes of freedom in the leafy canopy above us ; and the

* The audience assembled in a cool and shady grove, where seats and a pulpit had
been neatly fitted up and adorned, with flowers. The ode that preceded the oration had^
as its refrain, the words, '* Celebrate this happy day," and was admirably sung.

4
sunlight of our national Sabbath sheds glory on the face
of a smiling land.
What more could a speaker ask, to inspire him in the
discharge of duty 1
With what feelings of dehght and enthusiasm do we
hail the return of this memorable day ! From the midst
of our toils and trials, we behold its advent with fresh and
strong emotion, and grow young again, and happy, as the
jubilee returns. Labor throws joyfully aside, for one day,
the implements of her tireless industry. Care smooths
down her wrinkled visage, and sorrow attempts a transient
smile. Selfishness grows almost patriotic under the
inspirations of the occasion. Party warfare dies away in
view of the hallowed recollections of the past ; and for
twenty-four hours, at least, of each and every succeeding
year, political and partisan strife are elevated into patriotic
fervor and fraternal affection. The joyous sounds, which.
herald in the morning, act as a gentle charm upon the
human heart. " Melancholy lifts her head ;
Slumber rouses from his bed;
Sloth unfolds her arms, and wakes ;
Listening envy drops her snakes ;
Intestine war no more our passions wage,
And giddy factions hear away their rage."
Such are the emotions with which we have met to-day
at the call of patriotism and philanthropy.
As patriots, we have come together to re-rive recollec
tions of our country's former trials and glories,  of our
fathers' labors, and sufferings, and triumphs ; to commune
together of the present, joyous and full of promise • and
from this, our Pisgah, to look down upon the bright
and glowing future, as Moses surveyed the land of
promise.

But not patriotism alone leads us to consecrate this day.
There is a yet broader and loftier principle that inspires
our celebration — I mean philanthropy. Patriotism con
fines its views within fixed, geographical limits. Philan
thropy knows no boundaries. The one regards this day
as the anniversary of our country's freedom ; the other, as
the birth-day of liberty to the world, — the jubilee of our
emancipated race. As patriots, we take pride in claiming
a special property in such men as Washington, and the
other immortal worthies of the olden time. As lovers of
our race, we venerate them as apostles of freedom to the
whole world.
It was recently declared by an eminent scholar,* in the
capital of Austria, that all the revolutions, which, for
sixty years, have been sweeping over Europe, and threat
ening to subvert her ancient thrones and dynasties, can be
distinctly traced to North America. How proudly does
patriotism, in view of such a truth, exult that our country
has become the common mother, the fountain, of liberty
to the old world ! Philanthropy, on the other hand,
rejoices, not so much that liberty was born in the West,
as that she is born, and her reign commenced ; — not so
much that reform and revolution originate amongst our
selves, as that they are abroad in the earth, on their
errand of good-will to man.
But, whether as lovers of our land, or as lovers of our
race and kind, this day is the glad signal of our convoca
tion, — and here we are, assembled to take counsel and
rejoice together. We meet as freemen, in a land of free
dom ; — as Christians, in the temple of God, not made with
hands; — as temperance men, in calmness and sobriety.
We are of all political parties. Let us forget that partisan
dissensions and divisions exist ! We surely have a field
* Schlegel.

of discussion broad enough for us all, upon whose sacred
soil the seed of discord has never been sown. In our
common creed, we have a hundred political tenets, wherem
we all agree. The waters of temperance shall be to us
the Lethean flood, to wash into oblivion the records of
divided opinion.
One of the most delightful features of the great reform
in which we are engaged, has been the union of the
benevolent and patriotic of all political sects and of all
religious denominations. Its worshippers, like those who,
in olden times, congregated at Jerusalem, are of all the
kindreds, and tongues, and tribes of opinion. Our tem
perance assemblies are, like the passover, resorted to in
the spirit of love, by political and religious "Parthians,
and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopota
mia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Phrygia, Pamphylia, Libya, Cyrene, and Rome, Jews,
proselytes, Cretes and Arabians." The fact, that this
reform is most intimately associated with both national
prosperity and the good of mankind, has secured for it
the hearty cooperation of those who love either their
country or their race.
On this particular occasion, it will be most proper for
us to take the narrower view of our subject, — to think and
speak of temperance, rather as patriots than as philan
thropists. First, because the day is a sort of national
festival, and next, becai-ise the moral and more general
aspect of our cause is usually presented at our ordinary
assemblies. If, then, as patriots and politicians, — not partisans  we
direct our attention to the subject of temperance identified
as that subject now is with existing laws, we shall cit
once find ourselves surrounded by a multitude of topics
and questions, of pressing and extraordinary interest- the
discussion of one half of which, on this occasion would

be impossible ; and to select from which is a task no little
embarrassing. Among these, we may name the true end of civil gov
ernment ; — the true source of political authority ; — the
extent of power that may be conferred on governments ;
how far the majority may protect themselves against the
minority ; the limit of legislative power in this Common
wealth, and how far the law may intermeddle with
individual wills; what obedience must be rendered to
law ; whether our license law is, in the nature of things,
right or wrong ; whether it be in conflict with our fed
eral or state constitutions ; and whether it be wise and
practicable. These, and a hundred kindred questions, are of a polit
ical nature, and of great importance, and some of them
laid at the foundation of that memorable revolution which
gave us our national existence.
It was because, in their opinion, the king and par
liament of Great Britain mistook, in both theory and
practice, the true intent of civil government, — the true
fountain of civil authority, and the just limit of their own
power and rights, — that our fathers shook off allegiance,
sent forth the glorious Declaration, which has just been
read to us, and after a long and bloody war, became a
nation of themselves, and framed for themselves systems
of government upon other principles.
It is pertinent to my subject, to look a little more nar
rowly at the views of our revolutionary fathers.
In their opinion, the welfare and happiness of the
people constitute the true end of government; in other
words, the protection of the people against the usurpations
of power, against the violence and wrong of individual
or associated wrong-doers, — against all trespassers on
common rights. In their opinion, the people are the
fountain of civil authority, and the good of the people

8
furnishes the theoretical limit, as certainly as a written
Constitution prescribes the express limit, of the authority
of government.
The American Revolution was the first grand triumph
of these truths over long-established wrong. That Revo
lution proclaimed the doctrine, that the people alone can
rightfully organize governments, frame constitutions, and
enact laws ; that the welfare of the many must not suffer
for the benefit of the one, or of the few, and that the in
dividual and the class of individuals, who build up their
own power, or rank, or wealth, upon the sufferings,
poverty, degradation or slavery, of the many, are wrong
doers, enemies to good government, and blots on the face
of society.
These are sound and saving doctrines ; and in their
application, as in the administration of the laws of God,
there is no respect of persons ; but whether it be kings
that tyrannize, or an aristocracy that usurps and mis
rules; — whether an individual trespasser, robber or mur
derer, or a riotous mob; — whether a rascal without a
trade, or a rascal with and by means of one ; — whether
men who grow rich by poisoning their fellow-men,
or by impoverishing and brutalizing them, or men
who get gain by stimulating general disorder, vice and
crime ; — no matter who or what may be the offender, —
these grand and glorious principles condemn them all;
and over them all, from the tyrant upon his throne, to the
dram-seller in his den, these principles must, sooner or
later, and every where, triumph.
Thus we see, that temperance needs no better friend
than sound and republican doctrine.
It is the practical adoption of this fundamental truth of
the people's right to provide for their own welfare as a
people, which distinguishes our government from all
others. Nay, it is this which constitutes freedom.

In all other governments, particular regard is shown to
individuals, to families, to classes and ranks of men, or
to particular professions, ofiices and modes of employ
ment. In all other governments, wrongs may be, and
are, done to the mass of society, in order that some favor
ite may fatten and flourish ; monopolies of iniquity are
created and conferred ; special licenses to plunder or to
kill are sold or given away, and practices of general
mischief are tolerated or sustained, under the patronage of
unjust authority.
All this is at war with the spirit and principle of our
own government. No such political iniquity can be tol
erated here. Every man's individual interest, and the
interests of every particular set, class, calling, or profes
sion, are rigidly subordinated to the good of the whole
society. It is true, that even here, under a mistaken view
of facts, some abuses may be permitted by common con
sent, and even fostered by legislation, until, in process of
time, those who have made profit of them, begin to
imagine themselves possessed of a prescriptive right to
do mischief But whenever the truth is brought to
light, whenever the people discover the wrong which
they have suffered, and find out that they have been
warming in their bosoms a nest of vipers, — unaware of the
deadly venom of the cherished reptiles, — it is certain, that
they will speedily put forth their power to crush the
poisonous brood. They would be grossly unfaithful to
duty, if they did not thus assert the doctrines of freedom.
The bearing of these remarks is apparent; but they
maybe made still more clearly applicable to our cause.
An established abuse of this sort, whose existence has
been permitted from generation to generation, because its
real character was hardly suspected, has been somewhat
recently brought to light in our midst, and subjected to
the reforming operation of the true democratic principle.
2

10
The history of this event furnishes a delightful proof that
the old revolutionary doctrines have not relaxed their
strong masculine grasp on the American heart.
A few years' inquiry have discovered, and a few years'
active effort have made known, the enormous evils which
are generated by the direct agency of a certain trafiic,
that has been carried on amongst us, from time immemo
rial, and always more or less under the sanction of law.*
It has been found and proved, that there is, in the com
munity, no interest, whether individual or collective,
whether private or public, whether physical, intellectual,
social, moral or political, with which this trafiic does not
come into direct and deadly hostility ; and that, with
perhaps the exception of the slave trade (which was long
ago declared to be piracy by act of Congress), there is
no known form of human enterprise so disastrous to the
human family. It was, moreover, perceived that the
laws not merely endured, but actually protected, this vast
system of wrong, and that, under the broad buckler of the
law, a certain class of individuals converted this system
into a fountain of wealth, and grew rich on the general
suffering. Is it matter of just wonder, that such a discovery, the
truth of which even the intemperate dare not deny— as
it became more and more known, roused to indimant
thought and action a republican community ?— that the
people began to frown upon a trade so hostile to the
spirit of freedom, and on laws so foreign to the public
good? Can we feel surprised that anxious multitudes
asked and repeated, with prophetic emphasis, the question
" Shall the general loss and misfortune be used as th '
ital and stock in trade of a few misery mon-er!^'
dealers of destruction? Shall we, the peopfe, leave
* The retail trade in ardent spirit.

11
unrepealed, laws which permit or nurture this enormous
political grievance ?"
These inquiries, originating in a few active and observ
ing minds, spread rapidly from heart to heart, and voice
to voice, until they had rolled over the land. The evil
became a matter of universal regret, and the remedy a
matter of common discussion. As when the old Scotch
border was invaded, the alarm was sounded by Avatch-
man's horn and warder's trumpet, and beacon fires
blazed up from every hill-top, to announce the presence
of the foe, and the eager cry was every where raised,
" To arms ! to arms !" So on this occasion of common
danger, the alarm once given, it ran, and spread, and
swelled onward, until the cry was every where heard,
" To the polls ! to the polls !" In other words, a disposi
tion to legislate, — to reform the old system of laws, and
to make it conform to fact and principle, — became every
where prevalent.
This disposition has manifested itself in every variety
of form, from simple suggestion, up to decided legislative
action ; and in almost every section of our country, from
the disputed territory to the Texan frontier. We cannot
but be struck by the suddenness and universality of this
moral illumination ; with the deep-toned and many-voiced
thunders of the popular will, echoing from every quarter
of the land, and reminding one of the poet's description
of a storm among the Alps :
" From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,
Leaps the live thunder ! Not from one lone cloud,
But every mountain now hath found a tongue ;
And Jura answers, from her misty shroud,
Back to the joyous Alps that call to her aloud !"
Every social phenomenon of this sort, especially in a
land like ours, where the popular sentiment records itself

12
in the form of laws, is an object of profound interest to
the philosophical observer. The throbbings of the vast
public heart may well be watched with intense anxiety,
and cannot be studied too deeply. But we have not time
to dwell on considerations of this general character.
must come nearer home.
The result of this movement, thus far, has been a
great legal reform, not only in our own State, but in the
sister States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois, Rhode
Island and Connecticut. Unfinished legislative action
has been had in Maine, New York, Vermont, Pennsyl
vania and Kentucky ; and from nearly every state, dis
trict and territory, we have the expressions of large
bodies of citizens, of the public press, and of some branch
of the government. Before so overwhekoing a manifes
tation of the tendency of public opinion, — an opinion
springing, as we have seen, from the pure fountain of
benevolence, and inspired by genuine love of liberty and
country, — how poor and impotent appears the resistance
of the sordid few whose craft is endangered! As well
might " the gay motes that do people the sunbeams,"
wrestle with the laws of light, and attempt to turn back
the glories of the god of day !
Let us now look somewhat more closely at the law of
Massachusetts, that has thus grown out of the old and
familiar doctrine of 1776.
That law, — the statute of 1838,— strikes a fatal blow
at the mischievous trafiic which has been already named.
It affects injuriously a considerable pecmiiary interest,
and is inconvenient to those who wish the free indulgence
of a certain pernicious appetite. It has, therefore, pro
voked the opposition of the trade, and of that portion of its
customers who regard the power of procuring liquor in
small drams as their dearest political right. Beyond this

13
small minority of our fellow-citizens, the law has found
few opponents, save now and then some hungry lawyer,
" Who to contention, as a trade, is led,
And strife and quarrel are his daily bread,"
who is eager to foment discord and encourage litigation,
for the sake of increasing his fees by a business too dis
graceful for competition; — or of some base, intriguing
politician, who, disgusted with a subordinate part amongst
decent men, and believing, with Satan, that
" 'Tis better to reign in hell
Than serve in heaven,"
is ready to seize any opportunity of heading a political
faction, as whose leader he may at once gain the "bad
eminence " of infamous notoriety, and a ready market
value in the eyes of any party that may bid highest for
himself and his disciples. It may, also, be supposed, that
with these, there are, for a while, associated some few
persons of higher and more disinterested motives, and of
a purer character, who are mistaken as to the facts and
principles on which the law is founded, and who will be
speedily divorced from their unfortunate companionship
by increased knowledge and clearer discernment.
From an opposition thus constituted, it is easy to
imagine what treatment the law and its friends must
receive. By them the law has, as was anticipated, been
assailed by every argument, sophism, and form of abuse,
that perverted ingenuity could supply.
Before noticing any of these arguments, I cannot forbear
commenting upon the extraordinary fact, that the recent
"Liberal Convention" in Middlesex county, composed
of some hundred and fifty members, adopted a resolution,

14
declaring this law a disgrace to the State, and recommend
ing its opponents to observe this day of national jubilee
as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer for the repeal
of the law !
Let us, for a moment, imagine a veteran rumseller
complying with this resolution,— teaching his unpractised
stomach the lesson of abstinence,— denying himself his
customary modicum of spirituous comfort, — and bending
the rigid muscles of his knees before Almighty God. We
may fancy that he will thus address the throne of infinite
love: " Father of Spirits ! and Giver of all good gifts ! Thou
art perfect in holiness, in benevolence, and in love. Thou
hast commanded me to love my neighbor as myself, and
to do good unto all men, in thy fear. Thou hast com
manded me to 'love mercy, and to walk humbly, — to
visit the widow and the fatherless,' — to feed the hun
gry and clothe the naked, to avoid all offence against
both God and man, and eschew even the very appearance
of evil. And now, O Lord, I confess before thee, that I
have snatched the bread from the hungry, and stripped
his last garment from the poor. I have led my neighbor
into temptation, and have turned him into a brute. I
have done all in my power to poison the body, and
degrade the mind, and corrupt the heart, and destroy the
soul of my customer. I have hurled ' firebrands, arrows
and death ' into many a household ; I have brought down
grey hairs in sorrow, and bright locks in disgrace, to the
grave. My hands have been wet with the tears of a
mother's agony, crying to me, in vain, to refuse the cup
of perdition to her son. My ear has been deaf to the
harrowing wail of the broken-hearted, and my eye has
looked coldly on the sad spectacle of wretchedness pro
duced by my trade. My coffers are full of the wages of
iniquity, wrung from trembling hands, and extorted

16
from the weak and the wicked. I have stimulated the
lusts of the brutal, and inflamed the passions of the
hard-hearted and remorseless, and drowned in intoxica
tion the consciences of those who shrunk from doing evil.
I have made war against virtue, and purity, and industry,
and peace, and happiness. I have fomented the strifes of
families, polluted the social altar, extinguished the light
of comfort on the domestic hearth, and the light of hope
in the breast of the disconsolate, and have armed with
deadly weapons the uplifted hand of the malefactor. I
have hurried the famished into our almshouses, and have
peopled our prisons, and crowded our hospitals, and sent
many a maniac to the cell and the chain. I have done
all in my power to corrupt public virtue and extinguish
the light of general intelligence, and thus to render my
fellow-citizens unfit to govern themselves and unworthy
the gift of freedom. I have done all this for my own
profit, and because thy servant, 0 Lord, has assured us
that 'he who provideth not for his own household is
worse than an infidel.' And now, behold, all my labors
are like to be in vain by reason of this abominable and
disgraceful law of the temperance fanatics.
"I acknowledge, that this law will do good to the
people, but it will ruin me ! O, let me not be sacrificed
to the good of the many ! I know it is said in Scripture
that it is good for one man even to die for a whole nation ;
but this was said by a weak and fanatical old Jewish
high priest. I know and confess that the people have a
right to rule ; but, O Lord, I have a right to sell rum !
and what are the rights or the interests of a thousand in
comparison with my own ? Let not this law, I pray thee,
any longer disgrace this Commonwealth. Help me to
disobey it : aid me in my open, and conceal me in my
secret, violations of its commandments. Save me from
its penalties : assist my witnesses in swearing me out of

16
its reach : give me a barouche and four white horses to
carry me from court or jail in triumph.* Prosper all my
endeavors to do violence to the friends of this law, o
hang them in efiigy, tar and feather their houses, an^
defame and destroy their good name. But, above a ,
grant that this abominable statute maybe repealed, so
that rum shall run down our streets in a never-failmg
stream, and our good Commonwealth be delivered from
the disgrace which now hangs over her fair fame .
thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory tor
ever. Amen.'' "
Such would be the heaven-outraging prayer of a genu
ine enemy of the law, under the resolution of the Liberal
Convention !
Let me now direct your glance towards some of the
arguments against the law, to which I propose to give a
brief reply, not so much because of their intrinsic value,
as of their ready currency.
The first and most sweeping argument is, that rumsel-
lers, and, of course, men of all trades, have an mdefeasible
right to carry on their business, and use their property,
according to their own will ; and that the Legislature can
not interfere in this matter. Nothing less than this grand
sweeping heresy will serve these liberal gentlemen as a
corner-stone to their political temple.
This is denying to the law the right even of regulating
trades, which has, for more than two hundred years, been
freely exercised in Massachusetts, and which these very
persons are, at times, ready and anxious to admit. It is
saying, that, although the owner of property may be
using it for the destruction of the whole community,
there is no mode of protectmg the public against his
outrages. * The devotee seems to refer to events which recently occurred in Boston.

17
Strange as it may seem, this doctrine has found advo
cates amongst professed democrats.* But the argument
is suicidal. It says that I may use my goods so as to
injure my neighbor, and that he, in turn, may so use his
as to ruin me. Here, then, are conflicting rights, and
who or what but the law can decide between and harmo
nize them ? Pope says,
" Self-love forsakes the path it first pursued.
And finds the private in the public good."
But for this reigning, paramount power of society , men
would become mere Ishmaelites, or fall under the tyranny
of the strongest.
Perceiving the destructive tendency of this broad propo
sition, the enemies of the law have foolishly qualified and
limited it, by saying that the law may forbid the use of
property for purposes which are intrinsically wrong or
inwnoral. But this is rushing into a worse and grosser
absurdity, by establishing a standard of political authority,
which has, in all ages, been found intolerable. It is
saying, that the Legislature may discuss, and determine

* The notions of liberty cherished by those who consider this statute an unwarrant
able infringement of the citizen's rights, remind me of the address to the people of
Massachusetts, made by the venerable Winthrop. " Nor would I have you to
mistake," said he, " in the point of your own liberty. There is a liberty of corrupt
nature, which is atfected both by men and beasts, to do what they list ; and this liberty
is inconsistent with authority, impatient of all restraint ; by this liberty * swmus omnes
deteriores ; ' 'tis the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are
bent against it." He says, further, that there is a liberty which is the true end of
government, — "a liberty for that only which is just and good," which "liberty is
maintained in a way of subjection to authority, which will be obeyed by all but such
as have a disposition to shalte ofC the yoke and lose their true liberty, by their murmur
ing at the honor and power of authority."
The true question in regard to the law of 1838 is a a question of fact, and not of doctrine.
There are no honest men in the community who will deny the power, the right, or the
duty of the law to punish a trade which is a great public nuisance and evil. Are there
any hardy enough to deny that such is the true character of the retail trade in spirit ?
3

18
by vote, the morality and immorahty of conduct, and forbid
this or that thing, not as injurious to society, but as, in
their opinion, immoral, or intrinsically wrong; thus con
verting that body into an ecclesiastical synod or council,
with power to bind the conscience, and impose spiritual
fetters and chains. The rights of conscience are thus
thrown away in a needless panic about the rights oi
property ; a conduct which precisely resembles that of the
traveling miser, who begged a highwayman "for Gods
sake, to spare his money and take his life! "
The most valuable lesson of political truth which
modern times h,ave learned from the sufferings of the
past, is, that government has no right to command or
forbid any act because moral or immoral: but that the
simple question for the law to consider, relates to the
influence of any particular act upon the welfare of society.
Morality is between man and God. Government looks
not to motives and moral qualities, but to external
influences and results.
But, were it true that the law can forbid an act because
immoral, we would silence our antagonists by their own
arguments ; for, as civil society is an institution of God,
every act which, like this noxious traffic, endangers that
institution, is an offence against God, and, therefore,
intrinsically wrong, and may, of course, be rightfully
forbidden. The true doctrine is, as already stated, that the great
end of government is the welfare of the people at lar^e. and
that the people may adopt any course of policj-, or system
of legislation, which the public wants require. This
general authority is indispensable to the very existence of
society; and, although it may be specially limited and
defined by those frames of government and constitutions
which the people may adopt, it cannot be wholly relin
quished without the utter and immediate dissolution of
the civil compact.

19
Not satisfied with arguments which are thus fatal to
the existence of civil society ; — not satisfied with having
chopped off, as an excrescence, from the tree of liberty the
very branch of political power on which alone they stand,
— the enemies of the law denounce it as a violation of the
constitutions, both of the general government, and of this
Commonwealth, although they are compelled, in so doing,
to reject the decisions of both reason and authority.
Let us look, for a moment, at the objection. These
worthy gentlemen declare the Massachusetts law to be a
law, not oi regulation, but oi prohibition. There is really
no sense in this distinction. It is like the ridiculous
definition given by the clown, in Hamlet. " An act,"
says that learned logician, "hath three branches; it is, to
act, to do, and to perform ! " But we will adopt the
distinction, for the purpose, at least, of scourging its
inventors, if possible, out of their folly.
Admit, then, that regulation and prohibition are differ
ent in principle, and that the law is a law of prohibition.
Now, as the federal constitution confers on Congress the
mere power of regulating commerce, and as that instru
ment reserves to the several States the various powers not
thereby conferred upon the general government, it is clear
that the power to prohibit is one of the reserved powers,
and that its exercise by the States is not unconstitutional.
So, by their own showing, the law of Massachusetts is not
in conflict with the Constitution of the United States.
Take them on another tack. These gentlemen admit
and assert that the Legislature of Massachusetts have what
they call the power to regulate our internal trade. Now
Congress has but the regulating power over commerce.
The Constitution of the United States expressly uses the
word regulate, and no other. In the exercise of this
power, just before the last war, Congress passed the
embargo and non-intercourse acts, by which the whole

20
foreign trade of the Union was cut off, and when the
question of power was raised, the Supreme Court of the
United States decided that these prohibitory acts were
within the regulating power. If, then, the federal power
of regulation includes the power to prohibit, why is not
the regulating power of the State equally comprehensive ?
And if it be, then this law, call it what you will, does not
conflict with the State Constitution.
Again, as to the State power. Whence comes the
admitted right of regulation ? Not by express grant
contained in the State Constitution. It is to be inferred
from the general power and duty of the Legislature to
enact wholesome laws for the common good. The de
mands of the common good create the right to regulate
trade, and the extent and character of the regulation must
keep exact pace with the general necessity, so that, at
last, if the existence of the trade be found wholly incom
patible with the prosperity of the Commonwealth, its
existence must be terminated by a regulation amounting
to a prohibition, and the law, in such case, is no infringe
ment of the Constitution of the State. We thus clear
their decks with their own guns.
Again. It is falsehood to assert that Congress have the
unquaUfied right to regulate commerce or trade. The
words of the Constftution expressly limit the jurisdiction
of the federal Legislature to foreign commerce, commerce
between the several States, and with the Indian tribes.
No commentator or judicial expounder has ever pre
tended to carry this power so far as to interfere with the
strictly internal trade of the States. The highly rectified
federalism of the rumselling politicians is entitled to the
credit of a construction of the Constitution so latitudi-
narian. A grant of such overwhelming authority to
the general government would never be made by a
true republican. It might emanate from some ardent

21
demagogue, professing the democratic faith, but mad
dened by the delirium, tremens of a desperate ambition.
Nothing less anomalous than some such "delicate
monster," — a strange compound of Caliban and Trinculo,
professing one creed but practising another, — some noisy
prater of " the law's supremacy," who does and says his
utmost to incite and inflame violent resistance to the law ;
some sturdy denier of long-proved truth, and equally
sturdy advocate of new-fangled heresy, — nothing less
removed from the common track of humanity could have
begotten on the brain of democracy a doctrine so ultra-
federal, so fatal to state sovereignty.
But let us take one more plunge into the muddy pro
found of sophistry in which the assailants of the law
have buried this constitutional question.
It is gravely argued that, because this law tends to
diminish the consumption of imported spirits, it is,
indirectly, in conflict with the importation acts of Con
gress, and therefore unconstitutional. Sagacious logic,
which robs our State government of the power to pass
any act whose consequences may be a diminution of the
consumption of any foreign commodity ! By this rule
all license laws, all regulations, all bounties on native
industry, all charters of incorporation, all laws concern
ing hawkers, pedlers and auctioneers, are void and
unconstitutional. Nay, every temperance society, pledge
and lecture, and all acts of self-denial and habits of
abstinence, even the fasting, recommended by the Mid
dlesex Convention, all are unconstitutional !
It may answer well for a Southern slaveholder,
enraged by the free discussion of the northern press,
and fearing the consequences of that discussion on
candid minds, to argue that a law or an effort is wrong
whose indirect results may be such as could not right
fully be attempted by direct means. But out of the

22
meridian of the slave-driver's lash, such sophistry is
unpardonable. Let the rumseller apply this doctrine to his own trade,
the tendencies and consequences of which are so ruinous
and deadly, and unless it be lawful and proper to commit
robbery, rape and murder directly, then his traffic is, on
his own principles, illegal and unconstitutional.
If he will be consistent, let him denounce all distilleries
as affecting the use of imported liquors. Let him put an
end to tippling American gin, and New England rum ;
nay, let him discountenance the use of peach brandy and
cider brandy, ale, beer, cider, and cold water, as dimin
ishing the consumption of Hollands, St. Croix and old
Jamaica ! Or, carrying the rule a little farther, let him
root up our orchards, demolish our hop yards, and brew
eries, and soda fountains, fill up our wells, forbid the
manufacture of pumps and water buckets, — in short,
suppress every trade which encourages the use of any
beverage but the imported liquor.
Such would be the legitimate results of this argument
of indirect unconstitutionality !
It seems a waste of labor to reply to such arguments ;
but their constant repetition renders it necessary. No
man-of-war would think of making a cruise against a
solitary gun-boat, but if such a petty craft were perpet
ually crossing his track he would at last run her down or
blow her out of water with a broadside.
Not to dwell too long on the various objections made
to the law, it is worth while, perhaps, to notice the
questions that are raised in regard to its wisdom and
practicability. Sometimes the value of an argument may be most
readily tested by ascertaining whence it comes. In a cer
tain convocation of foxes, one grey-bearded old Reynard
gravely proposed to the astonished assembly, the project

23
of cutting off all their tails, and discoursed very eloquent
ly upon the great inconvenience of wearing that useless
appendage. But all his eloquence was lost, the moment
it became known that he had lost his own tail in a trap !
When the wisdom of a law, intended to discourage the
sale of liquor and promote the cause of temperance, is
loudly called in question by the liquor sellers and liquor
drinkers, — men whose appetites and whose interests are
in peril, it is fair to infer that their clamor is something
like that of the fox in the fable.
Especially noticeable is the origin of this clamor, when
we consider, also, that those who make it, as if ashamed
of their genuine character, demand to be heard and
treated as temperance men I Yea, verily, the whole
tribe of them, — importers, and distillers, sellers by whole
sale, sellers by the glass,
"  the little dogs and all,

Tray, Blanch and Sweetheart,"
and all their customers, from him who gets decently and
genteelly excited at home, with his feet under his own
mahogany, down to him who daily exhibits his full-
jewelled nose in the kennel,— they all profess to be stout
and zealous temperance men.
When such men, instead of objecting to a law enacted
by the genuine temperance men, shall eulogize and speak
well of it, it will be high time for our legislators to
exclaim, as did Dr. Johnson, on receiving a bow and a
smile from some worthless fellow, " For heaven's sake,
let me know what folly of mine has entitled me to your
civihty?" But is the law practicable ? Will it be obeyed, or can
it be enforced ?
These questions are often asked : they relate to an
existing statute of this Commonwealth, — a statute enacted

24
by the people of this State through the agency of their
representatives ; — not to the edict of a despot ; — not to a
rule of action imposed on us by a Parliament of foreigners
in which we were not represented ; — but to the act of our
own chosen lawgivers. If a law thus originated, cannot
be enforced, our capacity for self-government is lost, and
the repubUc is at an end. If it be not substantially
obeyed, then is the popular character at a very low ebb.
It is admitted, on all hands, that the intent of the law is
wholesome, and that its enforcement would be a vast
public benefit. We have seen that its principles are
sound and right, — that it harmonizes with all our institu
tions, and is liable to no political objection. It is, also,
an unquestionable fact that a large majority of the people.
of this Commonwealth are in favor of the law.
Under these circumstances, it is a libel on the general
intelligence and probity of our citizens, to express a doubt
whether or not the law will be enforced and sustained.
The people can yet perceive, and they do, thus far, value,
their highest interests, and the last kind of aristocracy in
the universe to obtain their support, will be an aristocracy
of rumsellers, — an alcoholic aristocracy ! And yet, if the
law cannot be enforced, it will be because the minority
must rule, — and this is oligarchy, — aristocracy,  the
political supremacy of the few over the many !
In great cities, where the standard of morals and good
order is always below that of the country, where disor
derly men most readily effect their evil designs, where
vice is kept in countenance by companionship, and where
the pecuniary interests identified with all kinds of iniquity
are stronger than elsewhere, it will always be found more
or less difficult and dangerous to enforce any new police
regulation, however salutary. In such places, and in
such cases, combinations will be formed and funds raised
to oppose the law, and corrupt counsel may always be

25
hired to defend the guilty and inflame the bad passions
of the base ; efforts will, for a while, be made to intim
idate complainants, witnesses, and even courts of justice ;
and culprits will be borne about, from court or from jail,
in triumphal procession.
Especially easy will such irregularities become, if the
municipal officers are either timid or treacherous, or
opposed to the law. If the mayor predict disorders and
riots, they will be pretty certain to arise ; and if he, from
cowardice or any other motive, shrink from his duty as
an executive officer, and leave the enforcement of the
law in private hands, it will, of course, be more and
more difficult to compel the obedience of the unruly.
But even in cities, and with municipal authorities of
this time-serving and feeble description, provided the
judiciary retain their firmness and integrity, a good law
will ultimately and speedily acquire its just ascendency
and become the common rule of conduct. If its friends
are active and zealous in bringing offenders to justice,
offences will gradually diminish. Decent and prudent
men, as their excitement subsides, will, from a regard to
their own interests, the welfare of society, and their
good name, abandon their illegal trades and become
friends of the law.
Every new outrage committed against public peace
and private rights, — every new heresy preached by the
insane leaders of disobedience, — proselytes new adherents
for the law, and thins out the respectable from the ranks
of the besotted and violent; so that the very rulers
who prophesied bloodshed, and who .refused to enforce
the law, will desert and come over to the side of good
order. If proof be needed to sustain these propositions, it has
been most abundantly furnished within a few months, by
the history of the law in Boston. Under the greatest
4

26
disadvantages, the friends of the law, if true to themselves,
may always carry it into effectual operation.
But the experience of the Commonweath at large, is
answer sufficient to all these questions : and the informa
tion received from all parts of the country gives good
evidence of the high moral and patriotic tone of feeling
by which the people, as a whole, are inspired. There is
no spectacle more delightful to the eye of the patriot or
philanthropist, and none more full of moral sublimity,
than that of a great people, rising in their might to sup
press a vast public evil, and terminate the existence of a
mischief which for centuries has preyed on the vitals of
society, sacrificing to their virtue long-cherished habits of
indulgence and long-established and wide-spread pecu
niary interests. Such is now the attitude of the old Bay
State, and we may well feel proud of our citizenship.
Before leaving this subject, I feel that I ought to call
your attention to the plan of operations marked out by
the enemies of the law for the ensuing political campaign.
A regular "striped pig" party is in process of organ
ization, under the auspices of individuals experienced in
such mancBUvres. The prospectus of their newspapers
has already appeared. Hostility to the law will be the
sole tenet in the creed of the new faction, swallowing up
all minor questions, with a voracity like that of Aaron's
rod. The leaders of this movement know and confess that
a majority of the citizens of Massachusetts are friendly
to the law, — but they feel confident that this majority
will not act in concert. They expect, nearly balanced
as the regular political parties now are, to interpose a third
hiterest, recruited alike from both whigs and democrats,
the accession of which to either host of the great political
combatants, will give that side the victory. They hope
to grasp the balance of power, and be able to drive a

27
sharp bargain in one quarter or the other. The price of
their vote will be the hated law. In plain terms, however
hard the saying may sound, they will be in the shambles,
marked and labelled " for sale," to be carried away by
the first or the highest bidder.
To ensure success in this movement, two things will be
requisite, viz., 1st, That the regular parties of whigs and
democrats will, with open eyes, continue their old contest
for state officers on the barren field of national politics ;
and, 2d, That one of these parties, in its anxiety to gain
or keep the ascendency in Massachusetts, will be corrupt
enough to purchase " the pig," by surrendering to him
the law of 1838.
The plan is a shrewd one. Will it prosper ? Will the
friends of the law, or, in other words, the friends of
temperance, when they see its enemies, both whigs and
democrats, abandoning their old and thread-bare strife
about National Bank and Sub-Treasury, and rallying
strongly on a question of State policy, a question of vast
importance and of tremendous interest, retain their old
hostility, and thus reduce their strength by division, or
will they in such emergency, leave national politics to the
national elections, and join heartily, and hand in hand,
in conducting the State elections with a single eye to
State policy ?
One would suppose that a crisis might, now and then,
arrive in the history of the State, when federal politics
could be for a while forgotten, and when our State officers
might be nominated and elected, without regard to that
great central power, the shadow of whose vast bulk
darkens perpetually the State horizon. It is, certainly, an
outcrying evil that the general government has acquired
a predominance so absolute and an influence so all-
devouring as to absorb and annihilate all questions of
State and municipal policy, so that every candidate,

28
from the chief magistrate down to the town constable
or crier, must be selected with exclusive reference to
his vote in federal elections; and democratic swine
cannot be impounded by whig hog-reeves, — nor whig
corpses be driven to the grave by a democratic hearse-
driver ! If such indeed have become the relations be
tween the federal power and the State governments, it
becomes all lovers of their country to take the alarm and
sound it aloud, and rouse the people to reassert the
sovereignty of the States as in the good old times. If such
indeed is to be and remain the towering supremacy of
the central power, it is time for the States, in the spirit of
Cassius, to denounce that power, and say as did that great
and noble Roman, when complaining to his friend of the
monstrous tyranny of Caesar,

" Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world,
Like a Colossus ; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves !"

Will the friends of the law, in this matter, allow them
selves to be out-generaled by their enemies, — who, very
properly feeling that the national policy has no possible
bearing upon the State elections of the coming autumn,
will arrange their forces upon the simple question of the
support or repeal of the law? — will they madly and
foolishly keep alive a useless and impertinent quarrel
about a matter which has no real connection with the cause
on trial, and surrender the game into their antagonists'
hands? Or, on the contrary, will they learn wisdom
from their enemies, and in self-defence, adopt a policy
which will secure victory to the cause of righteousness
and truth ?

29
Upon the answer that shall be given in practice to these
questions depends, for at least one year, the fate of the law.
For I feel confident that the "liberals" will effect their
object, if national politics retain in this contest sufficient
interest to keep alive with us alone the old party distinc
tions ; inasmuch as the same spirit that would separate
and divide ourselves, would also induce the one party
or the other to negotiate with the "striped pig faction;"
for if, in the event supposed, the law of 1838 does not
possess value enough in our eyes to bring us into amicable
relations, it will not be deemed valuable enough to occa
sion the loss of that faction which is arrayed against it,
and a compromise will be effected between either the
democrats, or the whigs on the one side, and the enemies
of the license law on the other, the result of which will
be a repeal of the law.
Such ought not, in any event, to be the result. Every
friend of the law should be fully resolved to sustain it,
until it be found of evil tendency ; and in his support of
it should say with Brutus :
"If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honor in one eye, and death in the other,
And I will look on both indifferently !"
But if we be found divided against ourselves when
the elections arrive, I have no doubt that we shall be
defeated. The leaders of the new movement are confident of our
division ; are sure, in their own opinion, of creating a
warm competition between the two factions of temperance
men. They expect that bids will run high for their aid ;
and some of them who are now enacting subordinate
parts in the regular political drama, are already rehears
ing the leading characters for the great tragedy of the

30
" Striped Pig ; or the Law overthrown." If the friends of
the law perform their parts wisely and well, these greedy
expectants of political garbage will be driven in disgrace
from the stage to the stye, by the voice of an indignant
people. Thus have I, fellow-citizens, as I was able, presented
to you some reflections, not wholly inappropriate to this
occasion, upon the crisis, in which, as temperance men,
the day has found us. Somewhat rambling and discon
nected as these remarks have been, their result may,
nevertheless, perhaps possess a greater unity and clear
ness. If what I have said, shall render you more
cheerful and strong in your faith, or more zealous and
united in your action, touching our great and holy
enterprise, the end which I aimed at will have been
attained. Let us now, with all warmth and sincerity of heart, —
in this grand and goodly temple of God's own architecture,
— with the roof of heaven above us, and the calm and
beautiful works of nature around us, — the sun of freedom
lighting up the landscape and illuminating every coun
tenance, — upon this simple altar, once more consecrate
ourselves as temperance men, to the good of our
country and our race, — and then, again, go on our way
rejoicing.

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