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mortality, are inscribed there by the hand of this fell destroyer? Shall we go from grave to grave, in the fields of the dead, and ask tomb-stones how many victims of ardent spirits, lie beneath them? Ah! if tomb-stones might tell the truth, how affecting would be their report!

Let us take another view of this subject. It will not be questioned that health and life are often destroyed by strong drink, in many ways which have not yet been mentioned. Who, saith the royal preacher, hath wo? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Hard drinking is the parent of almost every crime that can be named, and exposes its votaries to dangers and deaths wherever they go. How many have been dragged from the grog-shop to prison, and from prison to the gallows? How many, in fits of drunkenness, have had their limbs broken, and been miserably crippled for life! How many, in attempting to return from the tavern, have reeled from their horses into eternity! How often is the drunkard found stretched by the way side, on the cold and damp earth; exposed to the wheels of the hasty traveller; wet with the dew of heaven; shivering under the piercing blasts of winter, or perhaps lying stiff in the iron slumber of death!

2. The enormous consumption of ardent spirits in this country involves an incredible waste of property. When the Marshals took the census in 1810, they were directed to collect and return to the Secretary's olice, the amount of all domestic manufactures, of any considerable importance, in the United States. From these returns it appears, that no less than 25,499,382 gallons of ardent spirits were distilled that year; of which were exported 133,843 gallons, leaving 25,365,529 gallons to be consumed at home. The same year about 8,000,000 gallons of rum and

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other foreign distilled liquors were imported to this country, which being added to the above 25,365,529, produces an amount of 33,365,529 gallons, for our home consumption in a single year!-Since 1810 it admits not of a doubt, that there has been a steady and rapid increase. But not to insist on this, let the aggregate of domestic and foreign spirits, stand as above at 33,365,529 gallons; and let it be made the basis of a few plain calculations. Now 33,365,529 gallons, is 248,932 hogsheads, (at more than 134 gallons the hogshead,) which, supposing one team to carry two hogsheads, would load 124,466 waggons. These, allowing only three rods for each team, would reach more than 1,166 miles, or nearly the whole length of the United States, from north to south! The number of hogsheads necessary to contain the liquor, must, upon a moderate computation, cost 600,000 dollars, and would, if placed so as to touch each other, reach more than 178 miles. Or, to present the subject in another light, the quantity of ardent distilled spirits, which is annually drunk in the United States, is sufficient to fill a canal 42 miles long, 10 feet wide and 2 feet deep; affording convenient navigation for boats of several tons burthen!

Now let us, for a moment, view the subject, in connection with the population of this country. According to the census of 1810, the number of inhabitants in the United States and their territorial governments, was 7,230,514. If 33,365,529 gallons were divided equally among the whole population, the process would give not far from 4 gallons and a half to every man, woman, and child-bond and free, in the nation! But here two things are to be considered.

In the first place we have in the United States, 1,185,223 slaves, and as it is their enviable privilege to be denied the use of ardent spirits, they must be taken from the grand total of our population; and

then we shall have left, a little more than 6,000,000 of people to drink more than 33,000,000 gallons of rum, brandy, whiskey, &c.

In the second place, children are to be subtracted. In the state of Connecticut, there are about 73,000 children under ten years of age. Now calculating that the proportion of children under ten years is the same in all the States, we have about 1,670,000 to be subtracted from the 6,000,000 above; leaving not far from 4,330,000 persons to consume between 33 and 34 million gallons of ardent spirits in a single year; and making an average of more than 7 gallons and a half, for each consumer!

Here, probably, some readers will stop short, and exclaim, "It is impossible! There must be some grand mistake in the preceding calculations. The result is too alarming, too humiliating to be admitted as correct." But facts and figures are stubborn things.

Few think how soon a small bottle will drain a hogshead; or how soon a very small glass will exhaust a bottle. Many may be surprised to hear, that only one half gill of spirits, taken daily, amounts at the year's end, to more than 5 gallons and a half; a gill to more than 11 gallons; two gills to 22 gallons, and a pint to the enormous quantity of 45 gallons!

From the quantity, let us now turn our attention to the annual cost of ardent spirits to the people of this country. When we take into consideration the high price of all imported liquors; when we consider what quantities of domestic spirits are disguised and sold for French brandy, Holland gin, &c.; when we recollect that every retailer must make a profit on what he sells; that thousands of hogsheads are sold in taverns and tippling shops at from two to five or six dollars a gallon, and that the original quantity is greatly increased by the many liberal dilutions which it undergoes, before it reaches the consumer;

when all these things are considered, the average expense cannot be less than one dollar a gallon, or 33,365,529 dollars annually! But not to insist on a few hundred thousand dollars, we will let the sum stand in round numbers at 33,000,000. Thirty-three millions of dollars paid out in one year for strong drink! The weight of this sum in silver dollars would exceed 970 tons. Supposing each of two men to count 60 dollars a minute, during twelve hours of every day, they would not supply the drain. One fourth part of the sum, if levied upon the inhabitants of the United States by direct taxation, would revolutionize the government. How much good might be done with this money, the greatest part of which is now so many thousand times worse than wasted. How surprisingly would it change the face of our country; how largely might it contribute to the convenience and prosperity of the nation; if it were expended in making roads, building colleges, hospitals, alms houses, bridges, and churches; encouraging useful manufactures, forming canals, fortifying our sea-ports, augmenting our navy, instructing the poor, distributing the Bible and other religious books, in our new settlements, establishing libraries, and sending out missionaries.

To illustrate and enforce these considerations, let us descend to particulars: 33,000,000 of dollars would establish 110 public seminaries, giving to each, a fund of 300,000 dollars; which fund would be amply sufficient to erect the necessary buildings, purchase libraries, and support instructors. Or, if expended in the education of young men, it would handsomely support more than 100,000, in such seminaries. Less than the fifth part of 33.000,000 of dollars, would support 7,230 ministers of the Gospel with an average salary of 700 dollars; and this would furnish one clergyman to every thousand inhabitants, (including slaves,) in the United States. Much less than half of what is now expended for

strong drink, would support 43,360 schools, allowing cach instructor a yearly salary of 300 dollars; which would be six schools for every thousand inhabitants. The simple interest of 33,000,000 of dollars, is more than half sufficient to pay the interest of the national debt, as it stood in 1810; and the principal would totally extinguish that debt, in less than two years. According to an estimate submitted to Congress, by the Secretary of the Navy, last winter, 33,000,000 dollars would build no less than NINETY-NINE ships of the line, so that by appropriating to this grand national object what is expended for ardent spirits, we might, in five years, have a navy superior to that of Great Britain!

Half the sum which is made the basis of these calculations, would maintain more that 25,000 missionaries among the heathen; and the other half would print, for gratuitous distribution, more than 20,000,000 Bibles. Estimating superfine flour at 12 dollars a barrel, the whole sum would purchase 2,750,000 barrels, which, allowing five barrels to a family, would supply 550,000 families with bread through the whole year. With coarser bread the same sum would supply 1,000,000 families. It would also, if appropriated to that object, make 55,000 miles of turnpike road, at 600 dollars a mile; a distance more than twice the circumference of the globe; or it would complete 20 canals, each 100 miles in length, at an expense of 16,500 dollars a mile. Or to present the subject in a little different light, two millions of the thirty-three, would build 200 churches, at an average cost of 10,000 dollars; 5,000,000 would pay nearly one fifth part of the national debt, as it stood in 1810; 10,000,000 would feed and clothe 100,000 poor children, at 100 dollars each per annum: 8,000,000 would establish 8,000 of our industrious young men on farms, each worth 1,000 dollars, in our new settlements, and after all we should have no less than 8,000,000 left, for other public and charitable contributions.

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