Orin Fowler

“ It has been shown that tobacco is weakening the physical and mental energies of this nation,—that it is depraving our morals, and destroying the public conscience,—and that it is causing an amazing waste of property, and health and life. I ask every patriot to look at this portentous evil. Every true patriot, who will examine the length, breadth, and depth of this evil, cannot but feel that it claims his attention. ”

“ Many a battle must yet be fought,—many a victory must yet be won. Much light must yet be poured forth,—much darkness must yet be driven away. The world is not yet half reformed. The majority in the best portions of the earth—in this country even—are on the side of free indulgence in every thing that pleases the appetite.
Intemperance in the use of intoxicating drinks,—and intemperance in the use of tobacco, in the several forms of smoking, snuffing and chewing; together with several other evils, which I need not here specify, are even now predominant. ”

“ Whether, then, we consider the folly and indecency of the habit, or the waste of property, health and life which it occasions, it is time for the Patriot, the Philanthropist and the Christian, to put forth united, vigorous and systematic efforts to banish this injurious and disgusting habit from the community.
It is a fact, that one reform not only prepares the way for another, but often so depends upon it, that the complete triumph of the one cannot be effected without that of the other. ”

“ The actual loss of intellectual power, which tobacco has hitherto occasioned, and is still causing, in this Christian nation, is immense. How immense, it is impossible accurately to calculate. Many a man who might have been a giant, has not risen above mediocrity; and many a man who might have been respectable and useful, has sunk into obscurity, and buried his talents in the earth. This is a consideration of deepest interest to every philanthropist, patriot, and Christian in the land, and especially to all our youth. ”

“ Just look at this tax for snuff and tobacco, in a single aspect more. Many think it will make no man the poorer, to pay six cents a day for this indulgence. It will make every man the poorer. Let any young mechanic, or farmer, or merchant, consume six and a quarter cents' worth of this drug a day—beginning at twenty years of age, and continuing until he is sixty years old—and the sum total, reckoning principal and interest, will amount, in these forty years, to three thousand five hundred and twenty-nine dollars, thirty-six cents. ”

“ And drunkards and suicides cannot inherit the kingdom of God. How many will at last, ascribe their eternal ruin to alcohol and tobacco, cannot now be told.
That it will be a great multitude, (perhaps a great multitude which no man can number,) we have no reason to doubt.
What then, I ask, ought to be done? What can be done? What must be done? If this poisonous narcotic be of recent origin; if it be ruinous to the health and constitution, and intellect, and public and private morals; if it occasions an amazing waste of property,—and a multitude of deaths,—and eternal ruin to many precious souls ”

“ And he will enquire what efforts, what sacrifices, can deliver us from the curses of this narcotic? The answer to this inquiry is an easy answer,—the effort is an easy effort,—the sacrifice is an easy sacrifice. Let every true patriot in our country abstain from the poison, immediately, entirely, and forever; and let him use the whole weight of his influence and example to persuade others—and especially the young men and maidens of this republic—to practice entire abstinence; and the work will soon be done. We put the question to every true patriot: will you do it? ”

“ How large a proportion of the twenty thousand deaths—reckoning one death to a hundred souls—which occur annually, among the two millions of tobacco consumers in this country, are to be charged to the use of this deadly narcotic, I am unable definitely to determine. If we suppose one quarter of these deaths to be caused by tobacco, it will give us the number of five thousand. Five thousand deaths in these United States, every year from the use of tobacco! ”

“ These can bow down to the earth an intellect of giant strength, and make it grind in bondage, like Sampson shorn of his locks and deprived of his vision. The use of tobacco may seem to soothe the feelings, and quicken the operations of the mind ”

“ As the use of tobacco is injurious to health, it is the duty of physicians to exert their influence against it. Their authority upon such subjects is generally respected, and is therefore very important.
To the ladies, it would hardly seem necessary to say a word, in order to secure their aid in a reform that so intimately concerns themselves. In this matter, as in the vice of intemperance, woman, though comparatively innocent, is by far the greatest sufferer. With what a melancholy prospect does a young lady marry a man who uses the filthy plant in any form. ”

“ Cases of reform and cure are occurring by thousands, every year, all over the land. Let every lover of tobacco, who is afflicted with dyspepsia, and nervous maladies, reform, immediately and entirely; and let him adopt a simple and rational system of diet, regimen, and employment; and in nine cases out of ten, he may hope to enjoy good health, and live long to bless the world.
The conclusion from all this evidence is established, that tobacco is an active poison; that its constant use induces the most distressing and fatal diseases ”

“ That tobacco carries many a soul down to the pit of eternal woe, is manifest from its connection with drunkenness, and from its inducing disease and death. Every man who dies a drunkard, and every man who, knowingly and recklessly, brings upon himself disease and death through the influence of tobacco, is a suicide. ”

“ For ourself we are convinced that the suppression of intemperance in spirituous liquors will never be effected while the agents and advocates of our Temperance Societies, lecture with a pinch of snuff in their fingers and a huge tobacco quid in their mouths. Tobacco slays its thousands, and doubtless one tenth of the drunkards in our land have become so by first indulging in the use of the dirty plant, and thus creating an unnatural thirst that called for liquid fire to quench it. ”

“ No error has been so absurd as not to find advocates—no habit has been so foolish, or so deadly, as not to find martyrs. But of all the delusions, which have prevailed among civilized men, there have been few—perhaps none, but that of intoxication—so disgusting, so inex [Pg 11] cusable, so destructive to health, and wealth, and life, as the habit which we now ask you to consider. ”

“ The amount of time lost by the consumers of tobacco, is another item of no inconsiderable moment. Some spend two, three, and four hours a day in this vile indulgence. To all who use the article, in any way, it occasions the loss of more or less time. If we put down the average amount at half an hour a day; and reckon the time thus lost at four cents an hour, it will amount—not reckoning Sabbaths—to six dollars, twenty-six cents a year, for each individual; which, for the whole company of consumers, is an amount of $12,520,000. ”

“ Almost every lover of the dirty weed, feels that he needs an apology. One will tell us he has a cold, watery stomach, and he thinks that tobacco, by promoting expectoration, relieves the difficulty. Another will tell us he is very much troubled with indigestion, and he thinks tobacco relieves the difficulty; though, in truth, tobacco is the very worst drug he could use to relieve that disease, and is among the primordial causes of inducing it. Another will tell us that he is afflicted with the rising of his food after eating, and he thinks tobacco gives immediate relief ”

“ But when and where do we find great lovers of tobacco great students, and intellectual giants? Dr. Rush says, "I suspect tobacco is oftener used for the want of ideas, than to excite them." There are some whose apology for using tobacco is, that it guards them against the power of contagious diseases. But Dr. Rees affirms that tobacco does not contain an antidote against contagion, and that, in general, it has no antiseptic power; and is therefore of no special use. There is another class still, who use tobacco because it soothes the irksomeness of life. ”

“ We, the subscribers, believing that the use of Tobacco, in all its forms, is injurious to health, and knowing it to be a slovenly, sluttish, and disgusting habit, do pledge ourselves that we will not smoke it, chew it, nor snuff it ”

“ It is time for those who love the purity, the well-being and the most interesting relations of human society, to speak out upon a vice which is dangerous in proportion to the secrecy and silence in which it has been involved. ”

“ The Editors of the Journal of Health say, "Tobacco is in fact an absolute poison. A very moderate quantity introduced into the system, even applying the moistened leaves to the stomach, has been known very suddenly to extinguish life. In whatever form it may be employed, a portion of the active principles of tobacco, mixed with the saliva, invariably finds its way to the stomach, and disturbs or impairs the functions of that organ. Hence most, if not all, who are accustomed to the use of tobacco, labor under dyspeptic symptoms. ”

“ Sullivan, speaking of the use of tobacco, says, "It has never failed to render me dull and heavy, to interrupt my usual alertness of thought, and to weaken the powers of my mind in analyzing subjects and defining ideas." ”

“ If the cost of tobacco,—the neglect of business which it occasions,—the expense of the pipes and the boxes, and the various apparatus which the use of it involves,—and the intoxication to which it leads,—all be reckoned up, the amount of pauperism which this weed brings upon the nation, cannot be less than one quarter of the sum total of all our pauperism. And the sum total of the pauperism in [Pg 20] this nation, has been shown, again and again, to be not less than twelve millions of dollars, annually. ”

“ In this age of benevolent action, when much is being done to drive away the darkness and delusions of many generations, and to diffuse light and truth through the earth; it excites the liveliest joy in every philanthropic bosom to witness the triumphant results already achieved. ”

“ All interested should exert themselves. Clergymen can do much by lecturing and other means. Churches should form Anti-Tobacco Societies, circulate information [Pg 4] and induce as many as possible to take a stand against the evil, by enrolling their names on a Pledge.
Teachers should speak on the subject, and endeavor to prevent the formation of so vile and tyranical a habit, by those under their influence; for it is a fact that lads in many of our public schools try to hasten their claims to manliness, by learning to chew, smoke or snuff. ”

“ He says, "When tobacco is taken into the stomach for the first time, it creates nausea and extreme disgust. If swallowed, it excites violent convulsions of the stomach and of the bowels to eject the poison either upward or downward. If it be not very speedily and entirety ejected, it produces great anxiety, vertigo, faintness, and prostration of all the senses; and, in some instances, death has followed." The oil of this plant, he adds, is one of the strongest vegetable poisons, insomuch that we know of no animal that can resist its mortal effects. ”

“ A writer in the Genius of Temperance, says that his practice of smoking and chewing the filthy weed, "produced a continual thirst for stimulating drinks; and this tormenting thirst [says he] led me into the habit of drinking ale, porter, brandy, and other kinds of spirit, even to the extent, at times, of partial intoxication." He adds, "I reformed; and after I had subdued this appetite for tobacco, I lost all desire for stimulating drinks." ”

“ The abominable filthiness of the practice of using tobacco, is a sufficient argument to induce all decent people to wage war against it. Stage coaches, rail cars, steamboats, public houses, courts of justice, halls of legislation, and the temples of God, are all defiled by the loathsome consumers of this dirty, Indian herb. ”

“ The theme of our present consideration, is doubtless unpopular.—But we should not, we will not, therefore abandon the purpose of exposing the evils of smoking, and chewing, and snuffing, that dirty weed, which is so hostile to animal life, and so offensive to every creature on earth, that no living being but man—and a loathsome worm, called the tobacco-worm—will taste, or touch, or handle it. ”