USA > Indiana > Early Indiana trials: and sketches. Reminiscences > Part 42
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In the course of his demonstrations, the Doctor explained the principles upon which the stomach became diseased from the use of alcohol, its blood-vessels engorged, and its coats inflamed and ulcera- ted. He demonstrated the change from disease to health which takes place in the stomach of the reformed drunkard, and illustrated the principle upon which this change is effected upon one's ceasing to drink. He gave the physiological reason why total abstinence from all that intoxicates is the only means by which the inebriate can be reformed, and the temperate rendered secure from the vice of drunk- enness. He demonstrated the safety and necessity of adopting the practice of total abstinence at once, even by the far-gone drunkard, instead of tapering off by degrees, or of winding up a life of debanch- ery by substituting one form of alcoholic drink for that of another. The Doctor then observed : "But it should be borne in mind that while alcoholic drinks make their first and strongest impression upon the stomach, their morbid effects are not limited to this organ ; the whole of the intestinal canal participates more or less in their influ- ence. The internal coat becomes irritated, inflamed, softened, and ulcerated, and occasionally affected with those other organic changes
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delineated in the drawings of the stomach. Nor are the consequences of intemperance confined to the digestive eanal alone. The distant parts of the body become in time affected also. The liver, the brain, the heart, the lungs, and the kidneys, become the seat of alcoholie influ- ence-an influence which is transmitted to them in two ways. The first is upon the principle of sympathy ; the second is through the medinm of absorption and of the circulation, and the immediate action of the alcoholic principle upon the organs as it passes through them, mingled with the blood. Both may be illustrated by familiar exam- ples. The individual who has become exhausted by labor and fast- ing, finds his muscular power diminished and his whole system enfeebled. Upon partaking of his food, his strength is immediately restored-restored long before his food is digested, or any nourish- ment can be derived from it. This effect is produced by the stimulus of the food upon the stomach, which impression is transmitted to all the other organs of the body through the medium of the nervous sys- tem, upon the principle of sympathy. The second mode, that through the medium of absorption and of the circulation, may be shown by two facts. The odor of the drunkard's breath furnishes us with one of the earliest indications of intemperance. This is occasioned by the exhalation of the alcoholic principle from the bronchial vessels and air-cells of the lungs; not of pure alcohol, as taken into the stomach, but as it has been absorbed and become mingled with the blood, and subjected to the action of the different organs of the body ; and, not containing any principle which contributes to the nourish- ment or renovation of the system, is cast out with the other excretions as poisonous and hurtful.
" Magendie long since ascertained, by experiment, that diluted alco- hol, when subjected to the absorbing power of the veins, is taken up by them, mingled with the blood, and afterward passes off by the pul- monary exhalants unchanged. The case of a drunkard is mentioned, who used to amuse his comrades by passing his breath through a nar- row tube, and setting it on fire as it issued from it. But time would fail me were I to attempt an account of half the pathology of drunk- enness. Dyspepsia, jaundice, emaciation, corpulence, dropsy, ulcers, rheumatism, gout, tremors, palpitation, hysteria, epilepsy, palsy, leth- argy, apoplexy, melancholy, madness, delirium tremens, and premature old age, compose but a small part of the catalogue of the diseases produced by alcoholic drinks. Indeed, there is scarcely a morbid affection to which the human body is liable, that has not, in one way or another, been produced by them ; there is not a disease but they have aggravated, nor a predisposition to disease which they have not
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called into action ; and, although their effects are, in some degree, modified by age and temperament, by habit and occupation, by cli- mate and seasons of the year, and even by the intoxicating agent itself, yet the general and ultimate consequences are the same.
" But there is another principle on which the use of alcohol predis- poses the drunkard to disease and death. It aets on the blood, im- pairs its vitality, deprives it of its red color, and thereby renders it unfit to stimulate the heart and other organs through which it circu- lates-unfit, also, to supply the materials for the different secretions, and to renovate the different tissues of the body, as well as to sustain the energy of the brain-offices which it can perform only while it retains the vermillion color and other arterial properties. The blood of the drunkard is several shades darker in its color than that of tem- perate persons, and also coagulates less readily and firmly, and is loaded with serum-appearances which indicate that it has exchanged its arterial properties for those of venous blood. This is the cause of the livid complexion of the inebriate, which so strongly marks him at the advanced stage of intemperance. Hence, too, all the fune- tions of his body are sluggish and irregular, and the whole system loses its tone and energy. If alcohol, when taken into the system, exhausts the vital principle of the whole, it destroys the vital princi- ple of the blood, also, and if taken in large quantities produces sud- den death, in which case the blood, as in death produced by light- ning, by opium, or by violent and long-continued exertion, does not coagulate."
MR. GILMORE'S REMARKS.
" I can not suppose that it is necessary at this time, or in this coun- try, to employ arguments to prove the evils of intemperance, or the advantages of temperance. We have had to-night the experience of those who can speak of what they have suffered in one condition, and enjoyed in the other-an experience which is now not more useful to others than it is honorable to themselves. We have seen the effects of drunkenness on the physical system, as in a mirror. The human stomach is exposed in the plates before us, in all the horrible and unnatural aspects which it is made to assume by the use of alcohol ; and, if we could see as plainly its effects on the brain, on the heart, on the mind, the memory, the affections, the faculties, the feelings, the character of the man, the picture would be more than mortal eyes could endure. Who that has seen the drunkard, requires proof of the effects of intemperance, on its victim and on society ? He reels and staggers before you, an animated corpse, a breathing automaton, who has banished reason from her throne, and invited a demon to usurp
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the place of his immortal spirit. Life has no luxury for hitu. Exist- enee is a burden, which he seems scarcely able to endure for the brief space allotted to him on earth. What relief then, can he find in death -what repose in eternity ? It is gratifying to turn from the contem- plation of the evils of this degrading vice, and to regard the means of reformation, as well as the strongholds of defense, against its insidious approaches, which modern philanthrophy has provided.
"Conspicuous among these moral trophies of an age abounding in triumphs of 'peace and good will toward men,' stands this society which holds its first meeting in this Hall to-night. We assemble, sir, under auspicions circumstances-circumstances which warrant the hope, that a work so well begun, will be happily consummated. It becomes us, the Representatives of this great Republic, to appeal to the youth of our country, by our language and our example. The free institutions which we so dearly cherish, are founded on the hypothesis, that man is capable of self-government. We are the depositories of a very high trust, involving all the good and all the evil of government to ourselves, and to many millions of our country- men. Self-government is the essence of freedom. Without that power of self-control which makes man the master of his own spirit, whatever his condition in life may be, he is the slave of some passion -the vietim of a cruel bondage, which destroys his own independence and renders him, more or less, unfit to regulate the destinies of others. The victory over one's-self-the discipline of those evil propensities, those imperfections of our nature, which sometimes render the best of us dangerous to himself and to others ; is necessary to elevate man to the true standard of freedom and independence."
HON. THOMAS F. MARSHALL,
Rose and addressed the auditory nearly as follows :
" There is no danger that a man of lofty mind, a high-spirited, well- edncated gentleman, will stoop to other vices which sink and degrade humanity. He will not lie ; he can not steal ; he is incapable of dis- honor. Death itself can not drive him to the perpetration of baseness. Poverty, want, starvation may assail him; he is proof against them all. This alone can drag his virtue down ; and against it, what genius can guard, what magnanimity can shield us ? Who has not seen the most towering, the most majestic sink, vanquished beneath its powers ? Who has not seen genius prostrate, courage disarmed, manhood with- ered, before the march of this fell destroyer of all that is great and bright and beautiful. It seems, indeed, as if, with the cunning maliee of tyranny, and the ambitious policy of a conqueror, this grim king
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selects the loftiest victims, and from those who otherwise are formed to he the ornament and the strength of their land and race. Certain it is, that political ambition or elevation, is of itself no safeguard. I have been told, that the last ghastly spectacle exhibited to us to-night -the ruined stomach of a dead inebriate, once the living receptacle of God's good and healthful gifts, and so by him intended to remain ; was part of the frame of a distinguished statesman and member of this House ; a man of genius and eloquence, whose mind led once the councils of his own State, and whose voice has often resounded through this Hall, while listening thousands hung with rapture upon its accents. Look on that picture, and imagine, if you can, the horrors which must have preceded a fate like that.
" But, sir, this poison stops not with physical destruction ; it is over the intellectual and moral man that it achieves its greatest triumphs. The erect form, the muscular limb, the taper wrist-Oh ! how they change under the transforming touch of this monster magician. But it is not the trembling limb, the bloated body, the bleared and dimmed eye, the sluggish car, the blotched and ulcerated skin, the poisoned breath, the destruction of strength and cleanliness and beauty, which most effectually test the power, and mark the wrecks with which the demon strews his path - it is the overthrow of the moral principle, the extinction of conscience, sensibility to what is right and wrong, charity, domestic affection ; all, all that makes us men-the utter dis- persion of the moral elements which hold the world together, and the entire implication of the weak and the innocent; the mother, the wife, the infant, in suffering for crimes of which they are the most wretched, yet the guiltless victims.
" These are the proudest trophies, the most splendid fruits of the victories of the wine-cup. Other vices, other crimes, leave the phys- ical, the intellectual, the moral man capable of repentance, of amend- ment, and of action ; but this destroys him throughout-body, mind, and conscience-yet leaves the wretch survivor of himself. Would, sir, that some of the thrilling confessions and narratives disclosed in those homely associations of ours, in a distant part of the city, could be heard by this audience, as I have heard them-the confessions and narratives of men whom the indefatigable benevolence of the Vigilant Society of Total Abstinence, has rescued from the very kennel. They are not your stately, refined, educated gentlemen, who quaff their rich and costly Madeira, old, and mild, and fragrant, and spark- ling, and redolent of the true flavor of the cork-nectar fit for gods to sip, taken down bottle after bottle, from day to day, till their com- plexions are purple as the crushed grape whose juice they drain-
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till their trembling hands can scarce conduct unspilled the fluid to their lips-till their feet are swollen and agonized with gout, while untold horrors fill the region whose ruin has been to-night laid open to our view. And yet they are no drunkards ! Oh, no, no, no, no. Drunkards ? Not they ! It is not from such men that we hear in our humble ward meetings; no. They are the once wretched, but now rescued victims of what, in our Western world, is called ' white- faced whisky,' children of the lowest intemperance, who there appear. This tyrant alcohol, like him of whom it is no unapt representative, can suit its temptations to men of every grade and fortune; and to every diversity of human condition. He holds ont an appropriate lure to every taste, and draws within his fatal snare the high and the low, the learned and the unlearned, the vulgar and the refined. It is to the story of the humbler and the poorer, who have been reformed by means of that society, with which I was first connected, that I have listened with keenest interest."
MR. WISE,
Rose, and addressed the assembled auditory in a speech, the outline of which is here presented :
" There is one object which this society ought especially to aim at, and that is to break up the prevalence of a degrading vice among the politicians of our land; I mean the vulgar, base, degrading habit of treating at elections. To prove that there is no necessity for the con- tinnanee of such a practice, let me here state that I have been five times in succession elected to Congress without it, and in open oppo- sition to it. I have served now in Congress for ten years, and I began my course, as a candidate, as soon as I was Constitutionally eligible ; and I was as anxious to get here, and as proud of my seat, as my friend from Kentucky declares that he is. I told the people-yes, the people even of old-mint-julep Virginia, that I never would consent to treat any one of them-(applause)-I never had need to do it. I have never asked any thing from them-from a commission of a cap- tain of cavalry to that of a member of Congress-that they refused me; and I never gave one of them a drink to procure his favor. (Renewed applause.) I have said to them, in alluding to the practice, and the offers of liquor first pressed upon me, 'Gentlemen, this is a { war of the many against the few ; worse than that, it is a war of many against one. I can not stand it. If I drink with one of you, I must drink with all; and that will keep me pretty thoroughly soaked throughout the whole campaign. You will destroy me; you will totally unfit me for the task for which you eleet me as your Repre-
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sentative. It is physically and intellectually impossible that I should possess a well-balanced mind, after passing through a canvass in which I must drink at the rate of a thousand to oue. And, more than this, if my body could stand it, my purse can not; and if you are to be represented by the mere power of money and of liquor, you must select some other agent to serve you in Congress. I propose, if chosen, to represent you merely by the personal gifts which nature has bestowed upon me.' Such was my reasoning with my constituents, and I have never lost a vote by it. When they offered me the can of grog, my answer has been, 'I will drink with you in one of the ingredients, and you shall drink with me in the other; I will take the water, and leave the brandy to you.'" (Applause.)
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YOUTHFUL EXCURSION.
. THIS sketch is intended for the eye of my young readers. My father died in the year 1813, when I was nineteen years of age. I had seen very little of the world ; thirty miles was the furthest I had ever been from home. I longed to see beyond the river hills of the Delaware, where I had been raised. With a few dollars in my pocket, I left, on foot, to see the world ; a few days up the river brought me in sight of Easton, the junetion of the Delaware and Lehigh, then a small village, now ca city ; there I first saw a mountain, the blue mountains, in the distance, towering to the skies; crossing the Dela- ware, I passed Schooley's mountains, the highest ridges in New Jersey ; stopped at Morristown a few days, passed on to New York, gazed up and down the city, with astonishment and delight; soon tired with the dullness of the place, sat down at the wharf on the North river, thinking what I would do next; saw a sloop bound for Newburg, went aboard, engaged a passage, for a dollar, finding my own board, laid in a stock of crackers and dried beef for the trip. There were but two steamboats at that time on the North or Hudson river, the " Car of Neptune " and the " Fire Fly." They were small boats, and were engaged at the time in bringing down troops from the towns up the river. We were to sail the evening I went aboard, but the wind blew strongly down the river, and we lay by until morning, when we ent loose from the dock, and for the first time I was a passenger on a sail vessel ; the wind still blew against us, and we were compelled to heat up by running across the river, and shifting our sails upon the tack. It was a very interesting trip to me, the scenery on the Hudson was picturesque and grand, the river was filled with sailing vessels, of all sizes, passing up and down by us. Sing Sing, Tappan, the Butter- milk falls, were soon left behind; as our little sloop sped through the water, dashing the white foam from her prow, West Point, near the foot of the Highlands, was in full view : this spot was consecrated to my youthful mind, here waved the nation's flag. I asked the captain to stop and let me see Fort Putnam. He at once consented, and we landed. I now stood on Revolutionary ground, my heart beat quick and joyons, I ran up Mount Independence, where stood old Fort Put- nam, venerable in its ruins, stern monument of a sterner age; it had survived the assaults of tyranny, and the attempts of treason. I stood at the rock from which the chain was stretched across the nar- row channel of the river in the time of the Revolution, to prevent the passage of the British vessels. While I stood upon old Fort Putnam, and cast my eye far down the majestie river toward New York, the
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scenes of the Revolution, the treason of Arnold, the capture and execu- tion of Andre, with a thousand associations, rushed upon me. I could have lingered there through the day, but the Captain reminded me that it was time to leave. I thanked him for his kindness, went aboard, and we sailed up the river with the Highlands in full view. We soon entered the narrows, and passed "St. Anthony's Nose," a prominent rock of a mountain cliff. Our good sloop was sailing beautifully before the wind. The captain and myself were standing near the mast, when we were struck by a gust of wind from an open- ing between the spurs of the mountain, and in an instant she rolled over on her side, and we were standing in the water on her deck, our hats overboard; but she righted, and on she sped at high rates. Night came on, dark and rainy, we anchored in a cove, took supper, and slept till morning. The sun rose, we weighed anchor, and soon passed the narrows, near Madison, and then Newburgh and Fishkill landing came in sight.
Here was the end of my voyage. The sloop was made fast to the wharf, I paid my fare, took leave of my captain, stepped upon the wharf, and, in a few minutes was ranging the streets of Newburgh, looking for what might be seen. Stepping into a tavern to get my dinner, I met a youth, like myself, looking at the world. We soon agreed to be companions. Dinner over, he proposed that we should cross the river and ascend the Fishkill mountain to Solomon's Porch, and take one grand view of the country. Right to my hand; over we went in the ferry-boat, landed on the long Fishkill wharf, that reached to the middle of the river. The mountain appeared to be close by, but after a walk of seven or eight miles we found ourselves, hungry and tired, at its base, where we staid till morning. It was a beautiful day ; we had an early breakfast, and with buoyant spirits started up the narrow road that led to the Porch, on the top of the mountain. The distance was about a mile and a half, the road rugged and steep. We soon reached the top ; there stood Solomon's Porch, on the top- most peak of a spur of the mountain, a small center frame building, surrounded on all sides by a porch, with light railings. We walked around the circle again and again; the view in every direction was grand, magnificent; on the west, seemed to lie under our feet, New- burgh, and the country beyond ; a few miles lower lay New Windsor ; the Hudson river, like a small creek to the eye, stretched its serpentine length for many miles before us ; to the south lay West Point, in full view in the distance ; to the north Poughkeepsie; to the east the vil- lage of Fishkill, and the plains. We felt more than compensated for the fatigue of the morning. A gentleman, on the Porch, suggested
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that we should see the Natural Iee-house before we left the mountain, and proposed to conduet us to it. Following our guide, winding around the mountain top, over the rocks, descending to the north- west some quarter of a mile, over a narrow, dangerous path, our guide stopped at the mouth of a eave where the sun had never shone, the spurs of the mountain rising from the south and east, and overhanging the spot where we stood. "There," said our guide, " is the Natural Ice-house ; it has never been empty since water froze in this elimate," and so it appeared to us. The ice looked solid and firm, in large masses ; it was then the first of July. We returned to the Porch, descended the mountain, and slept soundly at the same house we had the night before. The next morning, highly delighted with the excursion of the previous day, we returned to Newburgh, where great preparations were being made for the celebration of the fourth of July. The battle between the Chesapeake and Shannon, off Boston harbor, had been fought, Capt. Lawrence and Lieut. Ludlow had fallen, the dying words of the brave Lawrence, " Don't give up the ship," were in every mouth. Lieut. Ludlow was a citizen of Newburgh, the nation was in the midst of war. Newburgh was filled with officers on the recruiting service, the morning of the Fourth was ushered in by the firing of cannon and martial musie, the streets were filled, the whole country was there. Much was to be seen, but one object engrossed the attention of all eyes : in the centre of Main street, drawn by ten pair of splendid greys, beautifully harnessed, moved along a model war- ship, with sails set, the stars and stripes floating from one masthead, and from the other a magnificent white banner, inseribed in large golden letters, "Don't give up the ship," with "Capt. Lawrence," " Lieut. Ludlow," below. It was a beautiful representation of the Chesapeake - a solemn memento of those brave officers. The huzzas of the multitude rent the air. The day passed off not to be forgotten.
We went down to the wharf, stepped aboard a sloop bound to New York, and next morning, under full sail, we passed West Point, home- ward bound. There came on a calm, the tide was running against us, when our vessel ceased to move, elose by the city as we supposed. We became impatient, left the sloop, walked out to the highway, there stood the milestone-" 16 miles " to New York. The day was hot, the road dusty, but there was no faltering about us; we traveled on to the city, which at that time did not extend above Canal street. There were no Astor, St. Nicholas, Metropolitan then ; we stopped for the night at one of the best houses in the city, inferior in every respect to the most common country hotels now. In a few days I was home again.
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HORACE GREELEY AND ERASTUS BROOKS.
As Richard M. Johnson, Vice President of the United States called the Senate to order at twelve o'clock, one day of the session, I looked up to the front gallery, where the corps of reporters were seated. Near the south end of the table, I noticed two young men, pen in band, ready to write down whatever might be said or done. The one was Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, and the other Erastus Brooks, of the New York Express, as I learned from a Senator that sat by me. These distinguished young men in appearance presented a wide contrast. Mr. Greeley was small, and slim, white flaxen hair, white eye brows, and light grey eyes ; head large, inclined to baldness ; high retreating forehead, wide mouth, prominent features, pleasant countenance. Mr. Brooks was also below the medium size, his hair, eyes, and whiskers, coal black, his forehead square and capacious, his complexion dark, his countenance sober. I noticed them daily at their desk, their pens in constant motion. I observed the fidelity of their brief reports, in their respective papers. There was nothing in their appearance at the time, to foreshadow their future distinction. not only at the head of the corps editorial of the United States, but as the leaders through their respective columns, of the great free soil, and American parties in the recent excited political contest, that resulted in the success of Mr. Buchanan over Millard Fillmore and John C. Fremont. There is perhaps no man now living, who occu- pies a larger share of the public mind as a writer than Horace Greeley. I atttribute this to the fact, that he has devoted so much of his talents and time, to the laboring classes, who largely appreciate his motives and services. The extensive, almost unbounded eirculation of the New York Tribune, is mainly owing to the intelligent power of the pen of Mr. Greeley. ITis talents of the highest order, combined with an energy that never tires, and a knowledge of facts and occurrences, by weight and measure, give to his pen a power seldom found in the writings or addresses of others. As a speaker Mr. Greeley is plain, smooth, intel- ligible, distinct, unostentatious ; at times, beautiful, sublime, eloquent, without a seeming effort. I have thought his manner and style more like those of Edward Everett than any other speaker I have heard. Mr. Greeley will always be read with interest, through his editorial col- umns, even by those who differ from him politically on account of his anti-Slavery sentiments, while his prepared public addresses, abound- ing in useful information, will be treasured in our libraries. He is now in the full vigor of life, active, energetic, daily infusing his thoughts into the public mind, in America and Europe.
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