Part 3 (1/2)

Here we have, then, the _expense_ of tobacco, $10,000,000 The _time_ lost by the use of it, $12,520,000 The _pauper tax_ which it occasions, $3,000,000 ___________ Total, $25,520,000

To this sum should be added one-tenth of the waste of property, which strong drink occasions; inasmuch as one-tenth of the rum-drinking must be charged to tobacco. Now, it has been estimated that the whole cost of strong drink used annually, in this country, amounts to one hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars; a tenth of which is twelve and a half millions of dollars. If this t.i.the be added to the above estimate, it will make the sum total thirty-eight and a half millions. But as I intend my estimates shall be _moderate_, I will say nothing of the waste of property which tobacco occasions in connection with strong drink. I will put down the sum total as above twenty-five millions of dollars.

Twenty-five millions of dollars, consumed by the use of tobacco, in this Christian nation, annually; and not a little of it by professors of religion, and ministers of the gospel, who are required by their Lord and Master to deny themselves,--to take up their cross,--to let their light s.h.i.+ne before men, that they may see their good works, and glorify our Father in heaven. Nearly the whole of this twenty-five millions of dollars is a _dead loss_ to the nation; yes, it is infinitely _worse_ than a dead loss; it not only does no good, but it actually goes to make fools and beggars, idlers and sots,--to purchase dyspepsia, early graves and everlasting shame. And what would this vast amount of property accomplish, if saved and devoted to useful purposes.

Twenty-five millions of dollars annually, if applied to the improvement of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and to the advancement of the arts, sciences, and true religion, would accomplish everything for this nation, that the enlightened patriot and true Christian can ask for.

Twenty-five millions of dollars, annually, would soon furnish ca.n.a.ls, and rail-roads, and all other desirable facilities for intercommunication throughout the nation. Twenty-five millions of dollars, annually, would sustain all our colleges, academies and other schools, and all the religious and benevolent inst.i.tutions of this whole country. It would rear seminaries of learning in every State where they are needed; and it would plant a Sabbath school, with a sufficient library in every school district.

Twenty-five millions of dollars, annually, if applied in all feasible and suitable ways, would give freedom, with all the blessings of Christianity to the colored race in our own country, and throughout the continent of Africa in a very few years: and would terminate slavery and the slave-trade in every part of the world.

Twenty-five millions of dollars annually, would send forth to the nations now peris.h.i.+ng in heathen darkness, ten thousand missionaries, and five millions of tracts, every year, provided the men could be found.

Twenty-five millions of dollars, annually, would, in five years, furnish all the money necessary to carry into complete execution, that n.o.ble purpose of the American Bible Society, of giving a copy of the Bible, within a specified time, to every accessible family on the earth. And what friend of man is there among us,--what patriot is there,--what Christian is there,--who can look at these truths, and not make up his mind to abandon all use of tobacco, _forever_; and to exert the whole weight of his influence and example to persuade others to do the same?

I am aware, indeed, that it may be said, if the whole company of tobacco-chewers, smokers, and snuffers, should at once abandon all use of this weed, and thus withdraw their whole patronage, this twenty-five millions of dollars, which now gives wealth to many a man engaged in growing, manufacturing, and vending the poison, would be so much capital unemployed; and the means of living would be cut off from many a family,--and bankruptcy, and wretchedness would be the consequent portion of many an individual. This may be true. And it may be true, too, that the like consequences would follow the universal abandonment of intoxicating liquors. But what then? Shall one sixth part of the nation continue to use this poison, because, forsooth, the _producers_ and _venders_ of it will lose their profits if it be abandoned? Shall the _intellect_, and _health_, and _comfort_, and _wealth_, and _lives_ of hundreds and thousands of our fellow citizens, be sacrificed yearly; and widows and orphans be multiplied by scores and fifties, in every section of this wide-spreading country; and one of the prominent auxiliaries of _intemperance_,--and consequently of _crime_, and _insanity_, and _eternal woe_--be cherished; and twenty-five millions of dollars be _wasted_, and worse than wasted; and all this, that the _producers_ and _venders_ may feed and fatten on the gains? This objection lies equally against the temperance reform and every other reform, where cupidity and avarice are involved.

As to the producers, it is affirmed on good authority, that hemp and corn, and other useful articles may be subst.i.tuted without loss, and even with advantage. As to the venders, their capital may all be profitably employed upon valuable merchandise, without damage. But if it were not so; where _health_, _life_, and _happiness_ are involved, no good man can hesitate. The path of duty is plain. We are bound to walk in it, even though it run counter to the gains of those engaged in unlawful commerce.

I maintain my position,

VI. From a consideration of the _mortality_ which tobacco occasions.

Some of my readers may be startled at this consideration. They may not have dreamed, even, that tobacco _kills_ any body. So insidious are the effects of this poison, and so insensible have the community been to its abominations, that very few have regarded the use of tobacco as the cause of swelling our bills of mortality. But though appalling, it is nevertheless true, that tobacco carries vast mult.i.tudes to the grave, all over our country, every year. Says Dr. Salmon, ”I am confident more people have died of apoplexies, since the use of snuff in one year, than have died of that disease in an hundred years before; and most, if not all, whom I have observed to die, of late of that disease, were extreme and constant snuff-takers.” The late Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper, of Boston, by constant use of snuff, brought on a disorder of the head, which was thought to have ended his days. A very large quant.i.ty of hardened Scotch snuff was found, by a _post mortem_ examination, between the external nose and the brain. The late Gov. Sullivan, speaking of Gov. Hanc.o.c.k, the early President of Congress, says, ”Gov. Hanc.o.c.k was an immoderate chewer of tobacco; but being a well-bred man, and a perfect gentleman, he, from a sense of decorum, refrained from spitting in company, or in well-dressed rooms. This produced the habit of swallowing the juice of the tobacco, the consequence of which was, his stomach became inactive, and a natural appet.i.te seldom returned; the agreeable sensations of hunger could not be experienced but by the use of stimulants, to satisfy which he swallowed more food than his digestive powers could dispose of.

This derangement in chylification increased his gout, his stomach became paralytic, and he died at the age of fifty-eight.”

Again, says Governor Sullivan, ”My own brother, the active General Sullivan, began early in life to take snuff. It injured essentially a fine voice which he possessed as a public speaker. When he was an officer in the American army, he carried his snuff loose in his pocket.

He said he did this because the opening of a snuff-box in the field of review, or on the field of battle, was inconvenient. At times he had violent pains in the head; the intervals grew shorter and shorter, and the returns more violent, when his sufferings ended in a stroke of palsy, which rendered him insensible to pain, made him helpless and miserable, and lodged him in the grave before he was fifty years of age; and I have no doubt [says the Governor,] but all this sprung from the use of snuff.” He adds, ”I have known some persons live to old age, in the extravagant use of tobacco; but they bear a small proportion to those who, by the habit of using tobacco, have been swept into the grave in _early_ or _middle_ life.”

Professor Silliman mentions two affecting cases of young men, in the Inst.i.tution with which he is connected, who were carried to an early grave by tobacco. One of them, he says, entered college with an athletic frame; but he acquired the habit of using tobacco, and would sit and smoke by the hour together. His friends tried to persuade him to quit the practice; but he loved his l.u.s.t, and would have it, live or die: the consequence was, he went down to the grave, a suicide.

One of the German periodicals says, the chief German physiologists compute, that of twenty deaths of men between eighteen and twenty-five, ten, that is, one half, originate in the waste of the const.i.tution by smoking. They declare, also, with much truth, that tobacco burns out the _blood_, the _teeth_, the _eyes_, and the _brain_.

To this unequivocal testimony, which is confirmed by the observation of every intelligent person who has turned his attention to this matter, much more might be added; but it is unnecessary. 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! and this is doubtless far below the actual number.

Five thousand valuable lives sacrificed in this enlightened land, annually, in the use of a dirty plant, that no living creature, except man and the tobacco worm, will touch, or taste, or handle. Five thousand men and women carried to the grave, yearly, by a poisonous weed, which does _no good_, and which, for filthiness and disgust, scarcely has its parallel in the whole vegetable kingdom. Is there a _Christian_,--is there a _patriot_,--is there a _friend_ of humanity,--is there an _individual_, that values his own probationary existence,--who can look at the sweeping mortality which tobacco brings upon the nation, and longer indulge his attachment to his quid, his pipe or his snuff-box? Is there one who will pause and look at this matter, and not resolve that he will, _forthwith_, _entirely_, and _forever_, abandon a practice which does so much to people the grave?

I maintain my position,

VII.--From a consideration of the _apologies_ of the lovers of tobacco.