g from
this cause, are generally imputed to other causes; and as many as this
would escape if arsenic were used, in moderate quantities, instead of
spirits.

Farmers and distillers, whom I address, pause, I beseech you, and
meditate upon this fact. It is poison into which you convert your rye
and apples; it is poison which, under the name of whiskey and
cider-brandy, you put into your cellars; it is poison which you draw out
from the brandy and whiskey casks for drink, and which you offer your
children and friends for drink; it is poison which you sell to your
neighbors; it is producing the same effects as other poisons upon you
and upon them; that is, it is undermining your constitutions, and
shortening your lives and happiness. You would not dare thus to
manufacture and distribute among the community calomel or arsenic, if
these were in use, leaving it to every man to determine how large doses
he should take. Yet it would not be half as dangerous for men of all
descriptions to deal out and administer these substances to themselves
and others, for there would be none of that bewitching temptation to
excess, in the case of calomel and arsenic, which attends ardent
spirits. But if by carelessly distributing calomel or arsenic in
society, you had destroyed only one life, your conscience would be
exceedingly burdened with the guilt. And who is to bear the guilt of
destroying the thirty or forty thousand who are cut off annually in this
country by intemperance? Suppose the distilleries were all to stop, how
many would then die from hard drinking?

But if alcohol is poisonous in a degree, yet it is often necessary, you
say. Physicians say not, except in a very few cases as a medicine; and
even in these cases it is doubtful whether they have not other remedies
as good, or better. Spirits are necessary, you say, to enable a man to
endure great extremes of heat, cold, fatigue, and in exposure to wet,
and attendance upon the sick. If this be correct, farmers will sometimes
need them. But many of the most hard-working and thorough farmers in the
land have, within a few years past, tried the experiment of laboring
without spirits; and their unanimous testimony is, that they are
stronger, healthier, and better able to bear all extremes and severe
fatigue without them. Have you ever tried the same experiment? Be
persuaded to make the trial, at least for one year, before you reject so
much substantial testimony.

If spirits are n