Throughout the city and State there was silence "for half an hour." Men of all parties were impressed with the vastness of the change that would come over the community and the sacrifices which many heavy dealers must be called to make. The general feeling in the city and throughout the State was, that the law would become the governing rule of the State. Scarce any were to be found among the venders themselves who were of a contrary opinion.

In a short time questions were arising relative to the constitutionality of the law; and some judges of inferior courts had given opinions on the subject adverse to the law, which were at once seized upon by its enemies. Some distinguished men in New York city, also, eminent lawyers, had expressed themselves strongly and adversely on some points of the law. the result of which was that the mayor not only refused to exert any positive influence for the enforcement of the law until its constitutionality was settled in the courts, but warned his police of the penalties which would be visited upon them should any of them make mistakes in arresting any, in the performance of duty, for violation of the law. The entire power of the city government was at once neutralized. So was it also at Albany; but not so in other cities.

In his message at the opening of the Legislature, January, 1856, Governor Clark said: "The Act for the Suppression of Intemperance, Pauperism, and Crime, passed by the Legislature, in accordance with the clearly expressed demands of the people, went into operation on the Fourth of July last, notwithstanding it has been subjected to an opposition more persistent, unscrupulous, and defiant than is often incurred by an act of legislation; and though legal and magisterial influence, often acting unofficially and extrajudicially, have combined to render it imperative to forestall the decision of courts, wrest the statute from its obvious meaning, and create a general distrust in, if not hostility to, all legislative restrictions of the traffic in intoxicating liquors, it has still, outside of our large cities, been generally obeyed. The influence is visible, in a marked diminution of the evils which it sought to remedy."

The autumnal elections in the State were favorable to the law. But little could be expected by its opponents from the new Legislature. Two judges of one judicial district had pronounced it unconstitutional and void. Some distinguished lawyers, in New York, had given their private opinion on the same side. This had drawn out some of the best talent of the State: Judge Edmunds, Chief-Justice Savage, Judge Shankland, Judge Conklyn, and others, in its support. As it was known that the

whole subject would be brought before the Court of Appeals in March, all eyes were upon that, to see what its decision on the constitutionality of the law would be. That court was composed of eight judges. By that court, on the 29th of March, the law was pronounced unconstitutional; five of the judges united in the decision, namely: Denio, A. S. Johnson, Comstock, Selden, Hubbard; and three dissenting: Mitchell, Wright, and T. A. Johnson.

After various struggles for a new law, the Legislature adjourned, leaving the State without any law touching the sale of intoxicating liquors. Thus were all the hopes of temperance men in the State of New York of legislative aid baffled and scattered to the winds.

The decision of the Court of Appeals was received with great exultation by distillers and venders, and with approbation by many highly respectable gentlemen, strong political partisans, (for prohibition was viewed as a child of the Republican party,) and many men of wealth who "drank wine in bowls and cared not for the affliction of Joseph;" but it filled with anxiety and concern nearly all the patriotic, philanthropic, self-denying, and religious men of the State, and drew tears from many a victim of the cup, who daily prayed LEAD ME NOT INTO TEMPTATION.

The State of New York subsequently adopted an "Excise Law" on the principle of license.

Copious facts in regard to the good effect of the law in other States might be produced, but would only encumber our pages. For five years the law stood well in the "Dirigo" State, without any political change. Breweries and distilleries were

1 A most tragic event followed the decision of the court, in the death of Benjamin F. Harwood, the long-beloved and honored clerk of the court. The prohibitory law was his only hope of escape from that terrible death which followed the cup. On the morning of the decision he entreated one of the judges to spare the law. Said he, "Sir, you know I am addicted to drinking; but you do not know -no living person can know-how I have struggled to break off this habit. Sometimes I have succeeded; and then, these accursed liquor bars, like so many man-traps, have effected my fall. For this reason I have labored for the prohibitory law. Your decision is, with me, a matter of life and death." When the decision was handed him to record, he felt it to be like signing his own death warHope failed him; despair seized him; amid the horrors of delirium-tremens our men could not hold him, he sunk away; and in less than four days more. All Sunday and Monday it was the topic of conversation in DEATH BY THE TRAFFIC IN THE COURT OF APPEALS.-Prohibitionist.

all swept away from the State, and but little drunkenness existed, except near the borders of other States. In the election of 1855, '56 a new political party came into power. Financial questions and personal animosities were involved, and Maine, after enjoying her celebrated statute five years, becoming an asylum where reformed men might safely pursue their avocations without exposure to temptation, and the admiration of all nations, experienced a political reverse, and her famous law was repealed. But Maine did not long remain under a cloud. A new prohibitory law was enacted early in 1858, and submitted to the people in June, whose verdict was, for License, 5,912; for Prohibition, 28,864. Such a popular expression greatly enhanced the moral power of the statute.

CHAPTER VI.

RESULTS GAINED.

(1826-1860.)

nothing else had been accomplished by the immense efforts which had been put forth in the cause of temperance, from its beginning down to 1850, but to demonstrate the impracticability of ev

ery measure short

of total abstinence, as a means of reform, enough would have been gained. to compensate for all the ex

penditures of mon

of the land. Crime and pauperism were gradually diminishing, there was a perceptible improvement in public order and morality, and many households had been blessed. This movement, originating with the most distinguished ministers and members of the churches, and chiefly sustained by them, had in turn greatly blessed and purified the churches themselves. The habitual use, and the traffic in intoxicating liquors also, had formerly been considered compatible with good standing in the churches; but, under the new developments of facts and principles, there had been a great change of sentiment. The agitation of this question, and the administration of discipline

which was consequent upon it, occasioned great commotion in some churches, but the result was a higher moral elevation and an increased spiritual power.

These good results were visible in all classes of society. As early as 1834 a distinguished gentleman from Washington wrote, "Every day I mark in the various classes of society, from the highest departments of the General Government to the lowest mechanic and laborer, the strong, irresistible influence of the Temperance Reformation."

At this time the directors of the Worcester and Boston Railroad had voted not to employ any man who used ardent spirits; many stage proprietors had done the same; and on many steam-boats, in different parts of the country, ardent spirits were not allowed. On more than 1,000 ships it had been discontinued; and in foreign ports temperance sea-captains from America obtained freight in preference to others.

In 1835 it was reported that in the counties of Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable, constituting what was called "Old Colony," in a population of about 120,000 inhabitants, no licenses for the sale of ardent spirits had been granted for three years, and at sessions of the courts in those counties, after a vacation of three months in one, four in another, and seven in the other, there were but two indictments in the whole of them, and these not for aggravated offenses.

In the year 1835 "more than 8,000 temperance societies had been formed in the United States, embracing more than 1,500,000 members. Twenty-three of these societies were State societies, being one in every State, except one, throughout the Union. More than 4,000 distilleries had been stopped, and 8,000 merchants had ceased to sell ardent spirits. More than 1,200vessels sail from our ports in which it is not used."

There had been a great diminution in the quantity of distilled spirits imported into the country. From 1822 to 1829 the total importation was 35,486,218 gallons. From 1830 to 1837 the total number of gallons imported was 22,050,604. During this time, in which the consumption of distilled liquors