ADVERTISEMENT. THE Secretary of the MAINE LAW STATISTICAL SOCIETY hereby presents his grateful acknowledgments to the contributors who have kindly assisted in the preparation of the present work; to the subscribers who have cheerfully promised to aid the Society by purchasing its publications; and to those editors who have been pleased to notice the Society and its operations in a favorable manner. The further co-operation of the friends of temperance in promoting the interests of the Society and the cause, by the contribution of facts and purchase of its publications, is earnestly solicited. Editors favoring this work with a notice, and desiring the future publications of the Society, will please to forward the paper containing such notice to the Secretary of the MAINE LAW STATISTICAL SOCIETY, care of Messrs. FOWLER AND WELLS, 308 Broadway, New York city. NEW YORK CITY, September, 1855. INTRODUCTION. PROHIBITION has been recognized as a principle of law ever since laws have been known to exist. The very first law recorded is prohibitory, and it relates to human aliment: And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, THOU SHALT NOT EAT OF IT; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.* The use of wine and strong drink was prohibited to the priests during all the time they were in the tabernacle and employed in the service of the altar. Nine of the Ten Commandments are literally prohibitory laws. Wine was prohibited to the Nazarites. These, among others, are instances in the laws of Moses where the principle of prohibition is recognized, and in many cases its direct application to the drinking customs is also exemplified. Speaking of the laws of God, Judge BLACKSTONE says: "They are in obligation superior to any other. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to them." The laws of JONADAB, the son of RECHAB, also were prohibitory liquor laws of the most direct and personal character; not forbidding the sale or purchase, but Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons forever.§ Among the Hindoos there is a law of their Deity BUDDHA which is still observed by the Buddhists. It formed the fifth of the laws of Buddha : Not to use intoxicating liquor or drugs.] The date of this law is believed to be about 550 years before Christ. *Genesis ii. 16, 17. + Leviticus x. 9. Numbers vi. 3. MOHAMMED also prohibited the use of intoxicating liquors, and regarded it as a great sin as well as gambling; both of which he admits to be of some use to man, but that" their sinfulness is greater than their use."* Among the tribe or nation called Suevians, of the ancient Germans, some two thousand years ago, there was a law prohibiting the bringing of wine into their territory. Their reason was, that it enervates the mind and unfits the body for exercise or labor. The Society of Friends, fifty years ago, enacted a law by which a member is disowned who persists in importing, distilling, or vending ardent spirits, or in selling grain or other produce for the purpose of distillation. The Congress of the United States, in 1802, passed a law authorizing the President to use whatever means in his judgment might seem best to prohibit the sale of spirits to the Indian tribes. This was amended in 1815, and again in 1822. These laws are still in full force. The search and seizure clause not only authorizes search on suspicion, but it requires a forfeiture of all liquors found, and of all the other goods in possession of the trader, as well as imposing a heavy penalty. These are a few of the precedents for the Prohibitory Liquor Laws of Maine and other American States and provinces. A careful examination of them will lead to the conclusion that they are all not only the same in principle, but in purpose or design, and that the movement, of which this work is a history, is the natural result of the enlightenment of the present age, in applying to the masses of mankind principles which before have been observed only by the few. It is, in fact, the embodiment of the moral and political convictions of Society in the laws which are enacted for their mutual protection and defense, and for the personal and moral security of themselves, their children, and posterity. * Koran, p. 39. |