George Barrell Cheever: Deacon Giles' distillery (1844)

Let it not be imagined that I am alone or extreme in these opinions. "It cannot be denied," says the Nova Scotia Baptist Association, "that distillers, venders, and purchasers of ardent spirit, are accessories to the crimes of drunkenness. It is an unhallowed traffic, and like that in human blood, should receive the reprobation of the Christian world."

"Where," asks the Rev. Mr. Pierpont, " does this responsibility rest? It must be somewhere. It can be nowhere else than upon the dealer in ardent spirit. I am deeply convinced that the evils of intemperance can never cease, till the virtuous in society shall unite in pronouncing the man who attempts to accumulate wealth by dealing out poison and death to his neighbor, as infamous." Here we go a step farther than I believe I have ever gone in any address or effort on this subject. Here we have a respected clergyman, declaring not merely the traffic to be infamous, but the man who engages in it.

Again: " To make or sell ardent spirit for common use," says Judge Daggett, " is as wicked as to make or sell poisons for the same purpose. It being admitted that the use of this article is destructive to health, reputation, and property (and the proof on this point is overwhelming), it follows conclusively that those who make it sin with a high hand against God and their fellow-men. The blood of murdered souls and bodies will be required at their hands."

"I challenge any man," says Dr. Beecher, "who understands the nature of ardent spirit, and yet, for the sake of "gain, continues to be engaged in the traffic, to show that he is not involved in The Guilt Of MURDER."

I have introduced these opinions, from men of different religious persuasions, simply to show that mine is not uncommon. I will add but one more. "I know," says Judge Cranch, "that the cup is poisoned; I know that it may cause death; that it may cause more than death; that it may lead to crime, to sin, to the tortures of everlasting remorse. Am I not, then, a murderer, worse than a murderer, as much worse as the soul is better than the body!"