Farewell to the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, Conn. (bound with other addresses)

long time they know it not. The next stage finds them at times pros- h-ated in drunkenness, while they vainly attempt by various represent- ations to conceal it from their friend?. Alas, the folly to think that such things can ever be concealed I Then comes the last stage, when they have acquired the character of drunkenness, and have given themselves up in despair. Now, the disease has overpowered every faculty, and tainted all their blood. They are swollen and bloated ; their breath is fetid with the sour effluvia of strong drink ; their hand trembles ; their tongue faltere ; and if left to their own resources, their clothing is filthy, rags. Nothirig remains to them but sorrow and death. The community is never without some specimens of these be- fore their eyes ; as if the Lord, in his providence would be perpetually saying to those who trafiBc in the poison, " Behold your work 1" One you shall see filthy, haggard, enfeebled in body and mind, with blood-, shot eyes and tottering gait, driving a petty traffic in roots and herbs, to gain his pittance of drink, apparently without means or energy sufficient to carry himself ofi' by one full and final -debauch. Another you shall see, regular as the morning returns, bent with premature weakness, with feeble shuffling gait, wending his way to the Bridge, glad of the privilege of doing, irregularly, the most menial offices for his morning dram. The evening sees him with difficulty stumbling and reeling home, only to repeat the same ^Jsmal round on the next succeeding day. Who sells these miserable men their rum ? Who that has the heart of a man, or the conscience of a man, can be guilty of so much base- ness, as well as of so much wrong ? Methinks that one who can do it, would sell the very bones* of his father for gain ! 1 know not who does it, I care not to know. But I stand in amazement, that in a civ- ilized and Christian community, such things are sufiered to be done. Nor would they be suffered, year after year, were it not, that by too long familiarity with such scenes, the public sense of decency is lost, and the public conscience seared as with a hot iron. I know not who is base enough to sell such miserable creatures rum. I care not to know, I would rather that they would repent, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Human laws may slumber, or be impotent ; but let not such men think that th^ey shall escape the just judgment of God. " A few such specimens of the last stage of ruin by strong drink we have always before us. Once they were respectable, and lived in honor and comfort, Once they drank moderately; then habitually; then were occasionally drunken ; but such is their end. These stand in the front rank for death. Longer than we had supposed it possible, they endure these efliects of debauchery, and bear up against the poi- •sons which avarice mingles with strong drink in these modern days ; then they perish in the watei-s, or in the snow, or come to some other violent end. We continue to hope that' when these are gone there will be no more such specimens ; but othei'S are preparing, and fill up 8 A LAMENTATION FOE THE SLAIN. their places. The succession continues like the stream of a river ; the fountains send forth an unceasing supply. Who works the gi-eatest mischief among them who traffic in strong drink ? the keeper of the respectable resort, where the drunkard, rag- ged and filthy, is not suffered to come, or the remorseless keeper of the low dram-shop, where the work of death is completed ? If compelled to strike the balance between them, I am unable to assign the palm of evil to the latter. If the former did not begin the work, the latter could not end it. If the former were to cease, the succession of drunk- ards would at length die out ; for no man, till he is already half ruined, will condescend to visit the latter. The latter may be more atrocious in appearance, but the former is the more dangerous ; for here the steps of the unsuspecting begin to slide. If one of the former should, in extenuation of his guilt, say to me, " I sell not to the drunkard ; I suffer not the miserable objects to Knger within my doore," methinks I should feel bound in conscience to reply to him, " O, then, in the name of mercy, change your practice, Say to the sound and respecta- ble, I sell not to you. Go home ; forbear to enter within the Mael- strom of death. Escape while you may. Few whose steps enter upon this path return. I sell not to the sober, but only to the drunk- ard. To this he has been brought by moderate drinking, and now the fire is in his bones ; he must die, I sell only to quench his raging thirst, which can torment him a little longer. I sell to him because he is already ruined. Let me never be the occasion of- leading a healthy man into this path of disease and crime, and death. No, sober, respectable young man, go home — ^I sell only to the drunkard, who is already unfit to live either in the present world, or in the world to come." Having now considered the slain, let us II. Consider why there is cause for such lamentation over them. 1. On account of the vast extent of the slaughter. We average one such violent death in Norwalk in a year. This would make, in all the United States, an annual slaughter of six thousand men. Add- those destroyed by diseases, either engendered or rendered fatal by the same cause, and no war in which, this country ever engaged has destroyed so many, year after year, as are hurried down to the gi'ave by intemperance. 2. If these had been simply slain in war, the grief would not be so inconsolable. But they die in shame ; the victims of vice, they are not cut off in a career of honor and usefulness, but after having been lost to the community, after having been a living grief to parents, to wives, to children, and after having entailed upon all the kindred, and friends a giief, over their character and end, which the heart can hardly endure. 3. There is cause for grief in consideration of the vices and crimes' which the use of intoxicating drink engenders. This fills our ?,lms- A LAMENTATION FOB THE SLAIN. 9 houses and prisons. This stimulates nearly all the more horrible crimes ; especially the murders. The sorrows, the suffering, the woes which rise to view as we contemplate this aspect of the case, are abso- lutely incalculable. 4. There is cause for lamentation, since there is no hope concerning these victims in the eternal world. Their sentence is recorded before- hand : Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who have helped to ruin them here, and who have put into their coffers the price of blood, have helped to ruin them for ever. O there must be sorrow over such, more than over those perishing in prison, or falling by the sword ! But take a little, the guage of temporal mischief, which must be set over against the gains of the very few who will consent to traffic in the poison ; and ,who, as they amass all the gains, ought surely to bear all the burdens resulting from the traffic. In the year 1832, the number of poor assisted by the town of Nor- walk, was thirty-nine. The late Judge Isaacs showed me a Kst, and marked with his own hand, those brought to pauperism by intemper- ance, either of their own, or that of their husbands or fathers. Out of ^ the thirty-nine who received the aid 'of the town, thirty-two were reduced to pauperism by intemperance. In the year 1833, the whole number assisted by the town was forty. All, save four of these, wei'e . brought to pauperism by intemperance. In the year 1832, the amount paid by the town for paupers, brought to that condition by intemperance, was $485 85, and for the poor brought to that condition by all other causes, was $32 10. In 1833, out of $557 paid for the poor, all but twenty dollars was paid for those brought to that condition by intemperance. But how rapidly has the evil increased. In 1840 a committee, con- sisting of Matthias Hubbell, James Quintard, Matthew Wilcox, A. E. Beard, George St. John, and George Hoyt, made a careful examina- tioTi, and certified under their own hands, that they had, with the assistance of the First Selectman of the town of Norwalk, carefully examined the accounts of the town for the year 1838 and 1839, and ' found that in 1838 the tax of the town amounted to $1137 06 ; of which there was expended for the poor $1066 28 ; and of this, $782 25 for those whose pauperism was caused, either directly or indirectly, by intemperance ; that is, nearly eight dollars out of every eleven dol- lars of the town tax, went to support the poor brought to that condition by intemperance. The account for 1839 was nearly the same. They stated also their belief that other sums ought to be added to this list, but that they had carefully excluded every case concerning which there coUld be the least doubt.* * NoKWALK is not much worse oflf in this respect than most of the neighhor- ing towns. About the time here mentioned" the author of this sermon gavp addresses in many of these towns, and made jt a condition that those who 10 A LAMENTATION FOE THE SLAIN. What the profits of the traffic may hare been I know not. But judging from these data, the taxes thrown upon the people, if reckoned as annuities in arreare, during the last twenty years, would amount to more than twenty-four thousand dollai-s. Quite as much has been thrown upon private chaiity. The cost of the prosecution of crimes, and the maintenance for criminals from the same cause, we have not included. The waste by idleness and di'unkenness is not reckoned. The suffering from hunger and cold, from grief and shame, from op- pressed and broken hearts, no arithmetic can compute. All this is in our midst, and the river of desolation and death is rolling on. There is cause for lamentation indeed, if it must continue to roll on. Some tell us that it is wrong to attempt to stop it by. law. Some tell us plainly that they will submit to no law. Others say that no adequate law can be executed. If this be so, then I can only say that the peo- ple ai'e sunk very low, in a worse than Egyptian bondage. I am no lawyer — I am no statesman. Bpt somehow I feel an instinctive desire to demand whether the people have no rights ? It may be that there i^ no remedy, but they must stand by and see so many perishing in the flames, and in the watere, with no power or right to, interfere. PeAaps they have no right to interfere in behalf of so many sorrowing. ■ and suffering wives and children. Perhaps, for all this, those who drink and those who sell, have rights to work such evils at their plea- sure, and poor suffering humanity may plead for protection in vain. It may be so : I am no lawyer, I cannot tell. But there is one ground, on which, though it is a very low and unworthy one compared with others, and one which I am almost ashamed to be obliged to mention — on which it seems to me the People have a right to stand ; I refer to the enormous taxes which this drinking and traffic impose on others,. who hold both the traffic and the drinking in utter abomina- tion. To me it seems that if eveiy other ground fails, the People may stand here, and say, If you will drink and sell, then keep all the burdens and taxes to yourselves ; and if you do not, we shall see to it that you so use your liberty and property as not to injure ours. Our fathers waged a war, which periled their existence, against the mightiest nation on earth, rather than submit to an unrighteous taxa* invited him, should previously furnish him with authentic statistics. The fol- lowing are specimens, viz : Wilton in 1839.— Town tax $112.5 ; expended for the poor, $1093 13 ; for those brought to pauperism by intemperance, $512 49.