Investigation Into the Fifteen Gallon Law of Massachusetts, Before a Joint
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INVESTIGATION INTO THE FIFTEEN GALLON LAW OF MASSACHUSETTS, BEFORE A JOINT COMMITTEE OF THE LEGISLATURE WHICH BEGAN JAN. 39 AND CLOSED FEB. 30, 1839, UPON TH1 MEMORIAL OF HARRISON GRAY OTIS AND OTHERS FOR THE REPEAL OF THE LAW: WITH THE ARGUMENTS OF FRANKLIN DEXTER & B. F. HALLETT, As Counsel in support of the Memorial. 7*"*- PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE MEMORIALISTS. BOSTON : PRINTED BY J. H. BUCKINGHAM, OFFICE OF THE NEW-ENGLAND GALAXY. 1839. s INTRODUCTION. It was not the intention original of the Committee who had charge of he Memorial of Harrison Gray Otis, Thomas H. Perkins, John barker, Thomas Dennie, Nathaniel Goddard and forty-eight hundred others inhabitants of Boston to ; present to the public a detail of the proceedings before the Committee of the Legislature to whom that subject was but the referred; repeated misrepresentations made of the views ol the Memorialists by those who in this unhappy division in society,—created a by busy few, the most intolerant and the least dis- creet,—have sunk the original benevolent purposes of this moral .re orm into a mere partizan struggle for a triumph in the experiment of cstaohshing an over the inquisition consciences and appetites of their ellow-c.tizens, aid of an by obnoxious law; seem to render it a lic pub- duty to the as well as to present, future generations, to embody in a permanent the form, grounds of the objections to the law and the incontestible facts which were substantiated in the investigation. It becomes the more important to discharge this duty because this great question is still before the open public for their further action, in consequence of the failure of the Legislature to repeal or the law at the last modify session, although repeated votes in both branches demon- ^ WaS a d ded ma rit a ainst k ' in its rese"t fnrl th \ J° ^ S P form, and that itfwas not f repealed because this solely majority, at the close S n an " the dlF6rS °f inions caused h ^ °P > y a "um- ber ofNdifferent?° ; were S^ projects, unable to agree upon a substitute. It is also important, that while so much is published in support of the the re law, ason S it should against be equally accessible to an in- he. quiring pub The of this law opponents object to it on the highest fundamental principles of the Constitution ; viewing it as much than a reaching deeper temperance reform and in ; as, fact, an entering wldge, a, plausible pretext for an experiment upon popular to°tert 686431 forbearance, how far fanaticism and bigotry can go in getting the sanctions of law in tnis State to enforce particular creeds, and in reviving the long ex- ploded dogma of persecution for opinion's sake, by virtue of pains and penalties. They wish, therefore, to have their views fairly presented, and not distorted through the medium of prejudice and intolerance, which the advocates of the law attempt to place before the eyes of the people, whenever they are called on to look at this subject. These views will be found in the following pages, as stated in the Memorial, and in the arguments and evidence by which it was sustained before the Commit- tee. To these positions, deliberately taken, and which will be firmly and perseveringly sustained, is now asked the candid attention of that enlightened and liberal portion of the people who have not lost their clearness of perception by looking at a single object through the nar- row orifice of sectarianism and party spirit, until they can see nothing else nor have learnt to the end in view as a sufficient ; regard professed justification of any means, however arbitrary and inexpedient, that may be resorted to by heated partizans, to sustain it : forgetting that tem- perance in legislation, temperance in the social relations, temperance in language and opinions, temperance in moral reform, and temperance in the enforcement of favorite theories, with becoming charity toward all who differ in opinion from the promulgators of new creeds and doc- trines in meats and drinks as well as morals and religion, are quite as emphatically enjoined upon all good citizens as is that temperance which they suppose can be enforced only by a legally enjoined abstinence, under pains and penalties, from the temperate use of a par- ticular beverage. In a word, the opponents of this law, as will be seen by a candid examination of the grounds taken before the Com- coercion as to in form mittee, oppose applied voluntary morals, every ; and their arguments against law temperance, are precisely the same in principle as have been urged in this Commonwealth, from the per- secution of Roger Williams to the present time, against law religion. The flippant retort of the temperance zealots, which is their most ready and efficient argument, that the opponents of this law want rum lib- erty, is just as sound, and no sounder, as was the like argument of the persecuting bigots who prayed for laws to hang Quakers and banish Anabaptists, that the opponents of those detestable laws wanted athe- istical liberty. We want, that Liberty wherewith God and the Consti- tution have made us free, and he who surrenders it at the call of fanati- cism, in a single point, be it in meat or drink, mind or matter, body or faith soul, is recreant to the principles and of those who won it, and is prepared to surrender the whole, whenever the tyranny of despotism or the intolerance of bigotry demands the sacrifice. Boston, August 1839. INVESTIGATION INTO THE FIFTEEN GALLON LAW OF MASSACHUSETTS. The law the against which Memorialists protested, was passed the 19th of April, 1838, and is as follows: Act to An regulate the sale of Spirituous Liquors. Be it enacted the by Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and the by authority of the same, as follows : Sec. 1. No licensed innholder, retailer, common victualler, or other person, except as herein after provided, shall sell any brandy, rum, or other spirituous liquors, or any mixed of liquor, part which is spirituous, in a less quantity than fifteen gallons, and that delivered and carried away all at one time, on pain of forfeiting not more than twenty dollars, nor less than ten dollars, for each offence, to be recovered in the man- ner and for the use provided in the twenty-sixth section of the forty-seventh chapter of the Revised Statutes. Sec. 2. The Count)' Commissioners in the several counties, may license for their respective towns, as many apothecaries or practising physicians as they deem neces- to be retailers of sary, spirituous liquors, to be used in the arts, or for medicinal pur- and the poses only ; mayor and aldermen of the several cities may, in like manner, and for like purpose, license apothecaries, as retailers for their respective cities; and the of Court Commen Pleas in the County of Suffolk, in like manner, and for like purposes, may license apothecaries or practising physicians, as retailers in the town of Chelsea which ; licenses shall be granted in the same manner, and under the same restrictions now provided by law for licensing retailers: Provided, That the number of persons so licensed shall not exceed one for every two thousand inhabitants, and in towns containing less than two thousand inhabitants, one person maybe licensed: And provided, further, That in such cities and towns where there is no apothecary, or practising physician, such other person or persons may be appointed as aforesaid, as be deemed may proper by said County Commissioners; and no person, so licensed, shall sell any spirituous liquor to be drunk in or about his premises, on pain of the for- feiture provided in the first section of this Act. Sec. 3. All licenses hereafter granted to innholders, retailers and common victual- shall be so framed lers, as not to authorize the licensed persons ta sell brandy, rum, or other and no excise or fee shall any spirituous liquors ; be required for such a license. Sec 4. The provisions of all laws now in force, inconsistent with this Act, are hereby repealed. Sec. 5. This Act shall take effect on the first day of July next, but shall have operation upon any licenses granted previous to that time. [Approved by the Governor, April 19, 1838.] MEMORIAL To the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled : When a law has been enacted involving a new and dangerous principle in legisla- infffi- tion, unequal in its operation, at best of extremely doubtful constitutional right, moral cTent in promoting its professed end, and tending to endanger a good cause, by that exciting opposition and stirring up division as to the means for promoting cause, in communities where all good citizecs were desirous to have a thorough leform in it becomes the as well as habit, and appetite effected by moral persuasion ; duty, right of the people to ask of their public agents, the repeal of such law. For these general reasons, the undersigned respectfully ask for the repeal of the law " passed at the^last session, entitled An Act to regulate the sale of Ardent Spirits." The title of that Act, we submit, is a misnomer, for instead of regulating, as all acts on this subject have hitherto assumed to do, it entirely prohibits, in any form or under any circumstances, to be used except in the arts or for medicine, the sale of any liquid, " part of which is spirituous," unless sold to the extent of fifteen gallons, to be all delivered and carried away at one time The question is not whether this law, if enforced, might or might not promote tem- perance, but whether in its application to a particular description of property and to the free agency of the citizen, it does not contravene all" sound principles applicable to the possession, use, and enjoyment of property as a whole, and the exercise of plain personal and domestic rights that lie at the foundation of free Government.