Edward Johnson

“ THE liquor question, like the poor, we have always with us; and at present, as at almost any time for many years past, the best method of dealing with it is being actively discussed in many parts of the country. Public opinion seems to be divided between repressive and restrictive legislation; and, in view of this fact and of the efforts of those who favor the prohibitory system to introduce it in localities where other methods have hitherto prevailed, the experience of Vermont, which has had a prohibitory liquor law for more than thirty years, furnishes an instructive lesson. ”

“ It is that the world can not be dragooned into virtue. The supporters of the prohibitory law are well-meaning men and women, who are sincerely desirous of benefiting their fellow-human beings and advancing God's kingdom upon earth: but not even by these will humanity suffer itself to be driven to loftier heights of thought and action. The people of Vermont are not singular in this matter ”

“ Such cases are very common, but as only the lowest class of liquor-dealers is concerned in them, generally speaking, and as the prosecution is invariably for a "first offense," no effective purpose is served in repressing the liquor-traffic. In the larger towns, an effort to enforce the law is occasionally made, but such efforts have invariably proved short-lived, and in almost every instance the people have, at the earliest opportunity, rejected at the polls the officers who have attempted to enforce the law. ”