s from ruin? Corrupt
the majority, and what security is there in popular elections? Corrupt
the majority, and you have collected together the explosive materials
that need only the touch of some demagogue's torch to scatter the fair
temple of our independence upon the winds of heaven.

But admitting that this picture is not overdrawn, yet the distiller and
the furnisher of materials may perhaps say, that all this does not
particularly concern them. They are not intemperate, they force no man
to drink, or even to buy their spirits: nay, they generally refuse to
sell to the intemperate. The intemperate are the persons to whom these
expostulations should be addressed. As for the distiller and the farmer,
who manufacture the poison, they are following a lawful calling, and
have a right to the honest proceeds of their business.

The principle, then, which I understand you to advocate, is this: that
provided your employment be not contrary to the laws of the state, you
are under no obligation to inquire particularly as to its influence upon
the public happiness after the products of your labor get out of your
own hands. If this be a correct principle for your guidance, it is
certainly a correct one for others. Let us apply it to the intemperate
man.

I expostulate with him on the destructive influence of his habits upon
his country. "But have I not a right," says he, "to use my own property
in such a way as I choose, provided I do not violate the laws of the
land? If I may not employ a portion of my money in purchasing spirits,
neither have you a right to lay out yours for a carriage, or for
painting your house, or for any thing else which some of your neighbors
may regard as unnecessary. I buy no more spirits than my health and
comfort require; and I have as good a right to judge of the quantity, as
you have in respect to the needless articles of dress and furniture
which you procure."

I urge the man who keeps a licensed gambling-house to abandon a pursuit
that is ruining his country. "But I am not violating the laws," he
replies, "nor compelling any man to gamble and drink to excess in my
house. The whole responsibility, therefore, rests upon those who do it.
Expostulate with them. I have a right to my earnings."

You see where this principle leads. Is it one that a true patriot ought
to adopt? No: he alone is a true patriot who is ready to abandon every
pursuit that is injuring his country, however profitable it may