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Editorial April 11, 1849

The Hillsborough Recorder

Hillsboro, Orange County, North Carolina

What is this article about?

The editorial criticizes societal hypocrisy in prioritizing personal liberty and decrying taxes while permitting the alcohol trade to ruin finances, charities, and lives. It urges rulers and citizens to protect the innocent from alcohol's pitfalls, condemning government inaction as mockery and inhumanity, and calls for conscience-driven remedy.

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OCR Quality

95% Excellent

Full Text

There is a Crude Wrong somewhere, and it falls with peculiar weight upon the innocent on every side. Men talk of their liberty as above all price and they are throwing it away, and stripping others of it day by day. They groan above taxes, and they tax themselves and the whole community enormously year after year, or suffer dealers and drinkers to tax them, for the consumption of that which they do not need, and which brings ruin to their revenue, their charities, and all their resources, a burden to which every other is light. We pay largely, and resign no little of our freedom for the protection which government extends over our property and lives. But when we implore rulers or citizens to protect us and our children from the decoys and pitfalls that are thick spread around us, or help us to match our brother from the merciless fangs of a monster in human shape, they tell us they cannot interfere with a man's business, they will not curtail his liberty, they must not hazard an election, they dare not enforce an unpopular law: and so they dig another pitfall at our very door, and multiply the lures all along our streets, and extend over them that same defence which they refuse us and ours! O, it is miserable mockery. It is black sophistry. It is dreadful inhumanity. Where peculiarly the guilt lies, or what is the remedy, it is for others and all to consider. That there is guilt, every conscience that is alive feels. That there must be a remedy, every believer in God and Christianity knows.

What sub-type of article is it?

Temperance Moral Or Religious Social Reform

What keywords are associated?

Alcohol Harms Temperance Advocacy Government Inaction Societal Hypocrisy Moral Remedy Liberty Sacrifice Tax Burden

What entities or persons were involved?

Rulers Citizens Dealers And Drinkers

Editorial Details

Primary Topic

Societal Hypocrisy In Allowing Alcohol Trade Despite Its Harms

Stance / Tone

Strong Moral Condemnation And Call For Protective Action

Key Figures

Rulers Citizens Dealers And Drinkers

Key Arguments

Men Value Liberty But Sacrifice It Through Alcohol Consumption Alcohol Imposes Heavy Taxes And Ruins Revenue, Charities, And Resources Government Protects Property But Refuses To Shield From Alcohol's Dangers Officials Cite Liberty And Elections To Avoid Enforcing Anti Alcohol Laws Allowing Alcohol Endangers Innocents And Multiplies Societal Pitfalls The Situation Is Hypocritical, Sophistical, And Inhumane Guilt Is Evident To All Consciences A Remedy Is Required By Believers In God And Christianity

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