In this age of benevolent action, when much is being done to drive
away the darkness and delusions of many generations, and to diffuse
light and truth through the earth; it excites the liveliest joy in every
philanthropic bosom to witness the triumphant results already achieved.
Recent efforts to banish the use of intoxicating drinks, have
brought well nigh half the civilized world to a solemn pause: and the
work of reformation in this matter of spirit-drinking has gone so far,
and is yet making such sure progress, that many are rejoicing in the
lively hope that the day is nigh, even at the doors, when drunkenness,
with her burning legion of evils, will cease from the earth; and the
gospel of the grace of God will have free course and be glorified, and
the whole family of man become temperate, holy and happy. The
God of our salvation hasten that day apace; that our eyes may see it,
and rejoice and be glad in it, before we go to the grave.
But ere that day shall fully come, there is much land to be possessed.
Many a battle must yet be fought,—many a victory must
yet be won. Much light must yet be poured forth,—much darkness
must yet be driven away. The world is not yet half reformed. The
majority in the best portions of the earth—in this country even—are
on the side of free indulgence in every thing that pleases the appetite.
Intemperance in the use of intoxicating drinks,—and intemperance
in the use of tobacco, in the several forms of smoking, snuffing and
chewing; together with several other evils, which I need not here
specify, are even now predominant.
By intemperance in the use of tobacco, I mean all use of this drug
except that which is under the direction of enlightened, judicious
medical advice. With this exception, entire abstinence from this narcotic
substance constitutes the only safe and genuine temperance.—This
principle has been adopted extensively, in its application to intoxicating
drinks; but before it shall be universally adopted in that
application, it must be applied, and applied universally, to the quid,
and the pipe, and the snuff-box. Rum-drinking will not cease, till
tobacco-chewing, and tobacco-smoking, and snuff-taking, shall cease.
Though all who are attached to the quid, the pipe, or the snuff-box,
are not attached to the bottle; yet a vast multitude become attached
to the bottle, and this attachment is continued and increased, through
the poisonous, bewitching, and debasing influence of tobacco.
Moreover, the use of tobacco involves a train of evils, superadded
to its influence in perpetuating drunkenness, which cries aloud for
immediate and universal reformation. It is my present purpose to
consider these evils. And I wish to premise that, in this consideration,
I shall urge; that it is the duty of every friend of humanity—of
every lover of his country—of every Christian—and of every minister
of Christ, to abstain, himself, immediately, and forever, from all
use of tobacco, whether by chewing, smoking, or snuffing, except it be
medicinally; and to use the whole weight of his influence and example
to persuade others—and especially the young men and maidens
of this nation—to practice entire abstinence.
I am fully aware that the topic which I have selected, the position
which I lay down, and the purpose at which I aim, are not popular.
But what then? Did Clarkson and Wilberforce abandon the cause
of the enslaved African, when they found that abolition was unpopular
in the British Senate? Did Columbus abandon his purpose
of attempting to discover a new world, when he perceived that the
noble project of his noble soul was unpopular, with princes and people,
learned and ignorant? Did Jesus Christ abandon his purpose
to redeem a world lying in wickedness, when it became manifest that
his doctrines, and the pure benevolence of his holy soul, were unpopular.
And has it ever been seemly for one of his true and faithful
disciples to abandon the cause of human happiness, and the soul's
everlasting salvation, because the work of saving mercy is unpopular?
The theme of our present consideration, is doubtless unpopular.—But
we should not, we will not, therefore abandon the purpose of exposing
the evils of smoking, and chewing, and snuffing, that dirty
weed, which is so hostile to animal life, and so offensive to every creature
on earth, that no living being but man—and a loathsome worm,
called the tobacco-worm—will taste, or touch, or handle it.[A]
Though it be unpopular to expose the evils of using tobacco; these
evils are so appalling, it will not do to slumber over them longer.—We
must look at them; we must lay them open—we must raise our
voice against them; (we would gladly raise it so high that it should
reach every family in the nation.) Yes, we must cry aloud and
spare not; or give up our claim to patriotism, and benevolence.
In approaching this subject, I am not unmindful of the pertinacity
with which men adhere to old habits. Dr. Rush speaks of a venerable
clergyman who closed a long sermon, in which he had controverted
what he supposed an heretical opinion, with these words: "I
tell you—I tell you, my brethren, I tell you again, that an old error
is better than a new truth." There are few who will assent to
this proposition in plain terms; but there are thousands upon thousands,
who act up to the very letter of it, constantly.—The history of
man is extensively a history of folly, delusion, and sin.
No error has been so absurd as not to find advocates—no habit has
been so foolish, or so deadly, as not to find martyrs. But of all the
delusions, which have prevailed among civilized men, there have been
few—perhaps none, but that of intoxication—so disgusting, so inexcusable,
so destructive to health, and wealth, and life, as the habit
which we now ask you to consider.
It will be borne in mind that my position is this; it is the bounden
duty of every man and every woman to abstain, immediately, and
forever, from all use of tobacco, whether by chewing, smoking, or
snuffing except it be as a medicine. This position I maintain,
I. From a consideration of the history of this loathsome weed.—The
tobacco plant is a native of America. It was unknown in Europe
until some time after the discovery of America, by Columbus. It was
first carried to Europe by Sir Francis Drake, about the year 1560,
less than three hundred years ago. The natives of this continent
called it petun; the natives of the islands called it yoli. The
Spaniards gave it the name of tobacco, from Tobaco, a province of
Yucatan in Mexico, where they first found it, and first learned its
use. Its botanic name is Nicotiana, which it received from John
Nicot, then Ambassador from Francis II. to Portugal, who brought
it from Lisbon, and presented some of it to the Queen Catharine de
Medicis, and to the Grand Prior of the house of Lorraine; whence
it was sometimes called the Queen's herb, and the Grand Prior's herb.
The practice of smoking it in England, was introduced by Sir
Walter Raleigh, about the year 1584.
The cultivation of it is not uncommon in various parts of the globe;
but the seat of its most extensive culture is Virginia and Maryland,
in this country. In England its cultivation was forbidden—and we
believe is still forbidden—on penalty of forfeiting forty shillings for
every rod of ground planted with it.
James I. wrote a treatise against the use of it, which he called his
"Counterblast to Tobacco." Pope Urban VIII. issued a Bull, to excommunicate
all who used tobacco in the churches. The civil power
in Russia, Turkey, and Persia, was early arrayed against it. The
King of Denmark, who wrote a treatise against tobacco, observes
that "merchants often lay it in bog-houses, that, becoming impregnated
with the volatile salts of the excrements, it may be rendered
brisker, stronger, and more fœtid." It is said to be a fact, that in
manufacturing tobacco, it is frequently sprinkled with stale urine.
The use of tobacco never was general in Europe; and within the
last fifty or one hundred years, it has been banished from all the polite
circles of that part of the world. John Adams, the former President
of the United States, speaking of his own use of tobacco, and
referring to his residence in Europe, says: "Twice I gave up the
use of it; once when Minister at the Court of Hague; and afterwards
when Minister at the Court of London; for no such offensive
practice is seen there."
But although the cultivation of tobacco has been forbidden in many
countries of Europe; and though the manufacture of it is frequently
attended with circumstances so disgusting and offensive, that the
modesty of this paper will not permit me to detail them,—and though
the use of it is abandoned by all the respectable and polished circles
of Europe; yet in this nation, and among the lower orders abroad,
tobacco has triumphed: and the only hope of expelling it from our
land, lies in enlisting against it the power of enlightened public opinion—a
mightier power than any eastern despot wields.
Now from this brief sketch of the history of tobacco, it appears that
it was unknown to all the civilized world, till within three hundred
years; and that even now, all the polished and enlightened portion
of community abroad—and we add, a very respectable portion at
home—have no fellowship with the filthy weed. And can any man
justify himself in the daily use of a disgusting plant, against the
practice, opinion, and remonstrances of so large a portion of the civilized
world? Can he be discharging the obligations of his duty, and
enjoying the full amount of his privilege, while he suffers himself to
be a bond-slave to his quid, his pipe, or his snuff-box? Either an
important article of the vegetable kingdom, lay hid from the civilized
world nearly six thousand years; or since its discovery, the lovers of
tobacco have formed an entirely erroneous opinion of its properties.
In the sequel, I trust it will appear, that so far from possessing valuable
properties, it is one of the most noxious weeds that grows; that,
as an article of medicine, it possesses scarcely a redeeming quality;
and that, though it was not made in vain, if the world had remained
ignorant of it six thousand years longer, no cause of regret would
have been occasioned.
I maintain the position I have laid down,
II. From a consideration of the ruinous effects of tobacco upon
the health and constitution of men.
In considering this point, let us examine the properties of this weed,—the
prominent diseases which the use of it induces,—and the experiences
of unprejudiced observers. The properties of tobacco are decidedly
poisonous. In proof of this assertion, I appeal to ample and
unquestionable authority.
Professor Hitchcock says, "I group alcohol, opium and tobacco together,
as alike to be rejected; because they agree in being poisonous
in their natures." "In popular language," says he, "alcohol
is classed among the stimulants, and opium and tobacco among the
narcotics, whose ultimate effect upon the animal system is to produce
stupor and insensibility." He says, "Most of the powerful vegetable
poisons, such as hen-bane, hemlock, thorn-apple, prussic acid, deadly
night-shade, fox-glove and poison sumach, have an effect on the
animal system scarcely to be distinguished from that of opium and
tobacco. They impair the organs of digestion, and may bring on fatuity,
palsy, delirium, or apoplexy," He says, "In those not accustomed
to it, tobacco excites nausea, vomiting, dizziness, indigestion,
mental dejection, and in short, the whole train of nervous complaints."
Dr. Rees, in his Cyclopedia, says; "A drop or two of the chemical
oil of tobacco, being put upon the tongue of a cat, produces violent
convulsions, and death itself in the space of a minute."
Dr. Hossack classes tobacco with opium, ether, mercury, and other
articles of the materia medica. He calls tobacco a "fashionable
poison," in the various forms in which that narcotic is employed.—
He says, "The great increase of dyspepsia; the late alarming frequency
of apoplexy, palsy, epilepsy, and other diseases of the nervous
system; is attributable, in part, to the use of tobacco."
Dr. Waterhouse says that Linnæus, in his natural arrangement, has
placed tobacco in the class Luridæ—which signifies, pale, ghastly,
livid, dismal and fatal. "To the same ominous class," he adds,
"belong fox-glove, hen-bane, deadly night-shade, lobelia, and another
poisonous plant, bearing the tremendous name Atropa, one of the
furies." He says, "When tobacco is taken into the stomach for
the first time, it creates nausea and extreme disgust. If swallowed,
it excites violent convulsions of the stomach and of the bowels to eject
the poison either upward or downward. If it be not very speedily
and entirety ejected, it produces great anxiety, vertigo, faintness, and
prostration of all the senses; and, in some instances, death has followed."
The oil of this plant, he adds, is one of the strongest vegetable
poisons, insomuch that we know of no animal that can resist its
mortal effects. Moreover, says Dr. Waterhouse, after a long and
honorable course of practice, "I never observed so many pallid faces,
and so many marks of declining health; nor ever knew so many
hectical habits, and consumptive affections, as of late years; and I
trace this alarming inroad on young constitutions, principally to the
pernicious custom of smoking cigars."
Professor Graham says "Tobacco is one of the most powerful and
deadly poisons in the vegetable kingdom." "Its effects on the living
tissues of the animal system," he adds, "are always to destroy life;
as the experiments made on pigeons, cats, and other animals abundantly
prove."
The Editors of the Journal of Health say, "Tobacco is in fact an
absolute poison. A very moderate quantity introduced into the system,
even applying the moistened leaves to the stomach, has been
known very suddenly to extinguish life. In whatever form it may be
employed, a portion of the active principles of tobacco, mixed with
the saliva, invariably finds its way to the stomach, and disturbs or
impairs the functions of that organ. Hence most, if not all, who
are accustomed to the use of tobacco, labor under dyspeptic symptoms.
Our advice is to desist immediately and entirely from the use
of tobacco in every form, and in any quantity, however small. A
reform, to be efficacious, must be entire and complete."
Dr. Warren says, "The common belief that tobacco is beneficial
to the teeth, is entirely erroneous; on the contrary, by its poisonous
and relaxing qualities, it is positively injurious." Says another
physician, "Though snuff has been prescribed for the head-ache,
catarrh, and some species of opthalmia, and sometimes with good
effect; yet in all cases where its use is continued, it not only fails of
its medical effect, but commits great ravages on the whole nervous
system, superinducing hypochondria, tremors, a thickening of the
voice, and premature decay of all the intellectual powers."
As a diuretic, Dr. Fowler, and others, have found it in some
cases to be valuable. Its narcotic properties have sometimes assuaged
the tooth-ache; but it always hastens the destruction of the
teeth. But of all substances in pharmacy, there seems to be a general
agreement among medical writers, that tobacco, though occasionally
beneficial, is the most unmanageable, and used with the least
confidence.
A multitude of cases, confirming these views, have actually occurred;
two or three of which I will cite. A clergyman, who commenced
the use of tobacco in youth, says, "that no very injurious
consequences were experienced till he entered the ministry, when
his system began to feel its dreadful effects. His voice, his appetite,
and his strength failed; and he was sorely afflicted with sickness
at the stomach, indigestion, emaciation, melancholy, and a prostration
of the whole nervous system. All this," says he, "I attribute
to the pernicious habit of smoking and chewing tobacco." At
length he abandoned the quid and the pipe. His voice, appetite,
and strength were soon restored; all aches subsided, and in a little
time general health was enjoyed.
Another clergyman writes, "I thank God, and I thank you, for
your advice to abandon smoking; my strength has doubled since I
relinquished this abominable practice."
A respectable gentleman in middle life, who commenced chewing
tobacco at the age of eighteen, was long afflicted with depression
of spirits, great emaciation, and the usual dyspeptic symptoms.—All
attempts to relieve him were fruitless, till he was persuaded to
dispense with his quid. Immediately his spirits revived, and he soon
regained his health.[B]
Cases of reform and cure are occurring by thousands, every year,
all over the land. Let every lover of tobacco, who is afflicted with
dyspepsia, and nervous maladies, reform, immediately and entirely;
and let him adopt a simple and rational system of diet, regimen,
and employment; and in nine cases out of ten, he may hope to enjoy
good health, and live long to bless the world.
The conclusion from all this evidence is established, that tobacco
is an active poison; that its constant use induces the most distressing
and fatal diseases; and that, as a medicine, it is rarely needful,
and never used, even medicinally, with entire confidence. This
loathsome weed, then, should not be used, even medicinally, except in
extreme cases, and then in the hands of a skillful physician. For every
man—and especially for every boy, who has hardly entered
his teens—to take this poison into his own hands, and determine
for himself how much he will use, is as preposterous, as if he were
to take upon himself to deal out arsenic, corrosive sublimate, or calomel.
No man can devote himself to the pipe, the quid, or the snuff-box,
without certain injury to his health and constitution. He may not
perceive the injury at once, on account of immediate exhilaration;
but complicated chronic complaints will creep upon him apace, making
life a burden, and issuing in premature dissolution. And just so
certain as it is our duty to do no murder,—to use all lawful means
to preserve our lives, and the lives of others; as certain is it our duty
and our privilege to practice entire abstinence from the use of tobacco.
I maintain the position I have laid down,
III. From the consideration of the ruinous effects of tobacco upon
the intellect.
Here, again, let Professor Hitchcock speak. Says he, "Intoxicating
drinks, opium and tobacco, exert a pernicious influence upon
the intellect. They tend directly to debilitate the organs; and we
cannot take a more effectual course to cloud the understanding,
weaken the memory, unfix the attention, and confuse all the mental
operations, than by thus entailing upon ourselves the whole hateful
train of nervous maladies. These can bow down to the earth an intellect
of giant strength, and make it grind in bondage, like Sampson
shorn of his locks and deprived of his vision. The use of tobacco
may seem to soothe the feelings, and quicken the operations of the
mind; but to what purpose is it that the machine is furiously running
and buzzing after the balance wheel is taken off?"
The late Gov. Sullivan, speaking of the use of tobacco, says, "It
has never failed to render me dull and heavy, to interrupt my usual
alertness of thought, and to weaken the powers of my mind in analyzing
subjects and defining ideas."
The actual loss of intellectual power, which tobacco has hitherto
occasioned, and is still causing, in this Christian nation, is immense.
How immense, it is impossible accurately to calculate. Many a man
who might have been a giant, has not risen above mediocrity; and
many a man who might have been respectable and useful, has sunk
into obscurity, and buried his talents in the earth. This is a consideration
of deepest interest to every philanthropist, patriot, and
Christian in the land, and especially to all our youth. We live at
a time, and under circumstances, which call for the exertion of all
our intellectual strength, cultivated, improved and sanctified, to the
highest measure of possibility. Error, ignorance, and sin, must be
met and vanquished; they must be met and vanquished by light and
love. The eye of angels is upon us,—the eye of God is upon us,—and
shall we fetter, and palsy, and ruin our intellectual capabilities,
for the paltry pleasure of using one of the most poisonous, loathsome,
and destructive weeds found in the whole vegetable kingdom? Let
us rather shake off this abominable practice, and rise, as individuals
and as a nation, in all our intellectual potency,—and let us go forth
from day to day, to the noble purposes of our destiny, untrammelled
by the quid, or the pipe, or the snuff-box; and before another generation
shall lie down in the grave, our efforts and our example may
cause the light of human science, and the light of civil and religious
liberty, and the light of Bible truth, to blaze through all our valleys,
and over all our hills, from Greenland to Cape Horn,—and with a
lustre that shall illumine the world.
I maintain my position,
IV. From a consideration of the ruinous effects of tobacco upon
public and private morals.
The ruinous effects of tobacco upon public and private morals, are
seen in the idle, sauntering habits, which the use of it engenders,—in
the benumbing, grovelling, stupid sensations which it induces,—but
especially in perpetuating and extending the practice of using intoxicating
drinks.
Governor Sullivan has truly said, "that the tobacco pipe excites a
demand for an extraordinary quantity of some beverage to supply the
waste of glandular secretion, in proportion to the expense of saliva;
and ardent spirits are the common substitutes; and the smoker is often
reduced to a state of dram drinking, and finishes his life as a sot."
Dr. Agnew has truly said, that "the use of the pipe leads to the
immoderate use of ardent spirits."
Dr. Rush has truly said, "that smoking and chewing tobacco, by
rendering water and other simple liquors insipid to the taste, dispose
very much to the stronger stimulus of ardent spirits; hence [says he]
the practice of smoking cigars, has been followed by the use of brandy
and water as common drink."
A writer in the Genius of Temperance, says that his practice of
smoking and chewing the filthy weed, "produced a continual thirst
for stimulating drinks; and this tormenting thirst [says he] led me
into the habit of drinking ale, porter, brandy, and other kinds of spirit,
even to the extent, at times, of partial intoxication." He adds,
"I reformed; and after I had subdued this appetite for tobacco, I
lost all desire for stimulating drinks."
Now the fact that some chew, and smoke, and snuff without becoming
sots, proves nothing against the general principle, that it is
the natural tendency of using tobacco to promote intoxication. Probably
one tenth, at least, of all the drunkards annually made in the nation,
and throughout the world, are made drunkards through the use
of tobacco. If thirty thousand drunkards are made annually in the
United States, three thousand must be charged to the use of tobacco.
If thirty thousand drunkards die annually, in the United States, three
thousand of these deaths must be charged to the use of tobacco. If
twenty thousand criminals are sentenced to our penitentiaries in
twenty years, through the influence of strong drink, two thousand
must be charged to the use of tobacco. If fifty-six millions of gallons
of ardent spirits have been annually consumed in this country,
five and a half millions must be charged to the use of tobacco. And
of all the Sabbath-breaking, profanity, quarrelling, and crime of every
description, caused by the use of intoxicating drink; a tithe must
be charged to the use of tobacco. And what friend of good morals,—what
friend of man,—what friend of his country,—what friend of
Christ and true religion,—and especially, what friend of the temperance
cause,—can look at these results with the eye of candor and
compassion for his fellow-men, and then not deliberately resolve that
he will never chew another quid, nor smoke another whiff, nor snuff
another pinch of the dirty weed?
I maintain my position,
V. From a consideration of the amazing waste of property, which
the use of tobacco involves. On this point I have been unable to obtain
the means for making out a perfectly accurate statistical result.
I can only approximate a definite calculation. This approximation,
however, will serve all the purposes of this argument.
We will examine three items: the cost of the article,—the time wasted
by the use of it,—and the pauperism it occasions. From a statement
lately furnished me from the Treasury department of our National
Government, exhibiting the quantity and value of cigars and
snuff, exported from and imported into the United States, annually,
from 1st October, 1820 to 30th September, 1832, it appears that the
value of cigars imported into the United States in 1821, was $113,601.
In 1827 it was $174,931. In 1832 it was $473,134; while
from the same document it appears that the value of cigars exported,
in each of those years, was about one quarter the value of imports.
Hence it appears that, in 1832, about half a million of dollars were
paid for imported cigars; while in 1821, only $113,601 were paid;
being more than a four-fold increase in eleven years. Whether
there has been a corresponding increase in the value of domestic cigars
consumed, I have no means of determining. From the fact of
so prodigious an increase of imported cigars, I am led to fear that
the evil of cigar smoking has increased in this country within ten
years, far more rapidly than the increase of population. From this
treasury document, it appears also, that in 1824, the value of unmanufactured
tobacco exported from the United States, was
| |
$4,855,566 |
| Of manufactured tobacco, the value was |
2,477,990 |
| Of snuff, |
203,789 |
| Making a total of |
$7,537,345 |
In 1832, the value of unmanufactured tobacco exported, was
| |
$5,999,769 |
| Of manufactured tobacco, |
3,456,071 |
| Of snuff, |
295,771 |
| Making a total of |
$9,751,611 |
| for 1832, and an increase from the year 1824, of |
$2,214,266 |
Whether the quantity consumed in this country equals the quantity
exported, or exceeds that quantity, I have no data enabling me to
give a definite answer. But from the fact that large quantities of tobacco
are raised in various other parts of the world, for foreign consumption;
and from the fact that the people of this country are,
above all other people under the sun, a chewing, smoking, snuffing
people; I have very little doubt that the amount used in this country
is double that exported. If so, the sum total paid annually, for this
vile weed, in this christian country, is $19,503,222. But as I wish in
this examination, to put the estimate below rather than above the truth,
I will set down the value of tobacco, cigars, and snuff, consumed annually
in this nation, as equal to the amount exported; that is, in
round numbers, $10,000,000.
That this is a very low estimate, will appear by another conclusive
calculation.
According to the census of 1830, the population of the U. States,
over twenty years of age, is about six millions. Suppose one in four
of our adult population, use tobacco in some form; (and this is a
very moderate supposition,) it gives one million, five hundred thousand:
and suppose one in twelve of those who have not reached the
age of twenty, use it; it gives five hundred thousand more: making
a total of two millions—or one sixth of our population—who use tobacco
in some form.
Now suppose the expense to the consumers of this noxious drug,
varies according to the quantity, and mode of using it. The expense
to some is two dollars a year, to some it is five, and to others
ten, twenty, and even fifty dollars a year. A laboring man, of my
acquaintance, who did not use tobacco extravagantly, and only by
chewing, told me that it cost him five dollars a year. A young lady
of my acquaintance, says her snuff costs eight dollars a year. If
a man pay three cents a day for cigars, it amounts to ten dollars,
ninety-five cents a year. If he pay six cents, it amounts to twenty-one
dollars, ninety cents a year. If he pay twelve and a half cents,
it amounts to forty-four dollars, sixty-two cents a year.
It is the opinion of good judges, that very many, who smoke freely
and use Spanish cigars, pay more than fifty dollars a year for
this foolish gratification.
King James, in his "Counterblast," says, "Some of the gentry
of this land, bestow three, some four hundred pounds a year, upon
this precious stink."
It will certainly be a moderate calculation to put down one quarter
of the consumers at two dollars a year,—one quarter at five,—one
quarter at eight,—and one quarter at ten dollars a year. Then
the several items will stand thus:—
| Half a million at two dollars, is |
$1,000,000 |
| Half a million at five dollars, is |
2,500,000 |
| Half a million at eight dollars, is |
4,000,000 |
| Half a million at ten dollars, is |
5,000,000 |
| Total |
$12,500,000. |
Again: the amount of tobacco annually consumed in France, as
appears from authentic documents, is about seven millions of pounds;
which is about one pound to every four persons. The amount annually
consumed in England, as appears from authentic documents,
is about seventeen millions; which is about one pound to every man,
woman and child, in that nation.[C] In the United States, probably
there are eight times as much used as in France, and three times as
much as in England, in proportion to our population. If so, the
quantity used in this country cannot fall short of thirty-five millions
of pounds;[D] which, at thirty cents a pound, amounts to ten and a
half millions of dollars; not including cigars and snuff, which cost
half as much more; making the total sum fifteen and three fourths
millions of dollars. And this enormous sum is doubtless below what
the article actually cost the consumers.
From these three results, we believe there cannot be a doubt that
the actual expense of tobacco, in its various forms, to the consumers
in this country, may safely be set down at ten millions of dollars a
year.
The amount of time lost by the consumers of tobacco, is another
item of no inconsiderable moment. Some spend two, three, and four
hours a day in this vile indulgence. To all who use the article, in
any way, it occasions the loss of more or less time. If we put down
the average amount at half an hour a day; and reckon the time thus
lost at four cents an hour, it will amount—not reckoning Sabbaths—to
six dollars, twenty-six cents a year, for each individual; which,
for the whole company of consumers, is an amount of $12,520,000.
The pauperism which tobacco occasions, is another fearful item.
Multitudes who are scarcely able to procure the necessaries of life,
will shift, by sacrificing health and comfort, to procure the daily
quantum sufficit of tobacco. Many very poor families use tobacco,
in all ways. Now suppose a poor family use twenty-five cents'
worth of tobacco a week; it will amount to twelve dollars fifty cents
a year,—and in fifty years, reckoning principal and interest, it will
amount to three thousand five hundred and fifty-two dollars.
Just look at this tax for snuff and tobacco, in a single aspect more.
Many think it will make no man the poorer, to pay six cents a day
for this indulgence. It will make every man the poorer. Let any
young mechanic, or farmer, or merchant, consume six and a quarter
cents' worth of this drug a day—beginning at twenty years of
age, and continuing until he is sixty years old—and the sum total,
reckoning principal and interest, will amount, in these forty years,
to three thousand five hundred and twenty-nine dollars, thirty-six
cents.
If the cost of tobacco,—the neglect of business which it occasions,—the
expense of the pipes and the boxes, and the various apparatus
which the use of it involves,—and the intoxication to which it leads,—all
be reckoned up, the amount of pauperism which this weed
brings upon the nation, cannot be less than one quarter of the sum
total of all our pauperism. And the sum total of the pauperism in
this nation, has been shown, again and again, to be not less than
twelve millions of dollars, annually. Hence the pauper tax, occasioned
by the use of tobacco, may be set down at three millions of
dollars, annually.
| 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 tithe 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 shine 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 canals,
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 institutions 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 perishing 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
noble 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 substituted 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 multitudes
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 quantity 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. Hancock, the early
President of Congress, says, "Gov. Hancock 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 appetite 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 Institution 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 lust, 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 constitution
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.
I call them apologies. They cannot be considered reasons. Almost
every lover of the dirty weed, feels that he needs an apology. One
will tell us he has a cold, watery stomach, and he thinks that tobacco,
by promoting expectoration, relieves the difficulty. Another
will tell us he is very much troubled with indigestion, and he thinks
tobacco relieves the difficulty; though, in truth, tobacco is the very
worst drug he could use to relieve that disease, and is among the
primordial causes of inducing it. Another will tell us that he is afflicted
with the rising of his food after eating, and he thinks tobacco
gives immediate relief; not suspecting, perhaps, that this rising of
the food is occasioned by over eating. Another will tell us he has
a distressing difficulty in the head, and brain, and he thinks a little
good Scotch snuff affords relief; as though the filling the pores,
and cavities of the head, and clogging up the brain, with this dirty
stuff, would remove a disease which in most cases it originates.
Others use tobacco to preserve the teeth; and this, though it is a
solemn truth, that many a one loses his teeth by smoking and chewing
the poisonous plant. Others, again, use tobacco to excite the
mind to more vigorous intellectual effort. But when and where do
we find great lovers of tobacco great students, and intellectual giants?
Dr. Rush says, "I suspect tobacco is oftener used for the
want of ideas, than to excite them." There are some whose apology
for using tobacco is, that it guards them against the power of
contagious diseases. But Dr. Rees affirms that tobacco does not
contain an antidote against contagion, and that, in general, it has no
antiseptic power; and is therefore of no special use. There is
another class still, who use tobacco because it soothes the irksomeness
of life. They fear solitude; and to prevent self-examination,
and to while away their probation time, they fly to the pipe, quid, and
snuff-box; and soon, by an easy transition, to the wine-glass and
brandy-bottle.
These are the usual apologies of the devotees to tobacco. And
what do they amount to? In truth, the common opinion that tobacco
is good for the head-ache,—weak eyes,—cold and watery stomachs,—the
preservation of the teeth,—and the like, is sheer delusion.
Let every man and woman, who would live long, and usefully, and
happily, awake from this delusion; and let no one, as he values
health, life, and salvation, taste, touch, or handle, the filthy poison.
I maintain my position,
VIII, and lastly.—From a consideration of the eternal ruin
which tobacco occasions. On this point, a word or two only, will
suffice. That tobacco carries many a soul down to the pit of eternal
woe, is manifest from its connection with drunkenness, and from
its inducing disease and death. Every man who dies a drunkard,
and every man who, knowingly and recklessly, brings upon
himself disease and death through the influence of tobacco, is a
suicide. And drunkards and suicides cannot inherit the kingdom of
God. How many will at last, ascribe their eternal ruin to alcohol
and tobacco, cannot now be told.
That it will be a great multitude, (perhaps a great multitude which
no man can number,) we have no reason to doubt.
What then, I ask, ought to be done? What can be done? What
must be done? If this poisonous narcotic be of recent origin; if it
be ruinous to the health and constitution, and intellect, and public
and private morals; if it occasions an amazing waste of property,—and
a multitude of deaths,—and eternal ruin to many precious souls;
and if it do no good,—and there be no apology for using it, which
will bear examination; then something ought to be done, and it ought
to be done immediately. And, only one thing need be done. And
that can be done, and it ought to be done. It is this:—tobacco can
be abandoned. And if moral influence enough can be enlisted, it will
be abandoned.
TOTAL ABSTINENCE is the only sure remedy. TOTAL
ABSTINENCE will deliver us from all the evils which this weed
has brought down upon individuals and families, and the nation.—Nothing
else will do it. And total abstinence can be adopted and
practiced. True; in some cases, it may cost an effort; but, in every
instance, three weeks' perseverance will overcome the habit.
Three weeks' total abstinence, will disenthrall every victim, and give
him the prospect of freedom, plenty, health, and happiness. And
shall this effort be made? A mighty effort it must be, to liberate and
save this whole nation—and especially our young men and maidens—from
the curses of the quid, the pipe, and the snuff-box.
I appeal to my fellow citizens. I appeal to the nation, and the
whole nation. Shall the effort be made?
I appeal to patriots. Patriotism forbids the man who loves his
country, to shrink from any personal sacrifice, if he can thereby arrest
some great national evil. That the use of tobacco is a great national
evil, appears from the considerations which have been laid before
you. It has been shown that tobacco is weakening the physical
and mental energies of this nation,—that it is depraving our morals,
and destroying the public conscience,—and that it is causing an amazing
waste of property, and health and life. I ask every patriot to
look at this portentous evil. Every true patriot, who will examine
the length, breadth, and depth of this evil, cannot but feel that it
claims his attention. And he will enquire what efforts, what sacrifices,
can deliver us from the curses of this narcotic? The answer
to this inquiry is an easy answer,—the effort is an easy effort,—the
sacrifice is an easy sacrifice. Let every true patriot in our country
abstain from the poison, immediately, entirely, and forever; and let
him use the whole weight of his influence and example to persuade
others—and especially the young men and maidens of this republic—to
practice entire abstinence; and the work will soon be done.
We put the question to every true patriot: will you do it?
I appeal to Christians. Your religion requires you to abstain
from the very appearance of evil. It requires you to deny yourselves,
to take up your cross, and to follow Christ through evil, as well
as through good report. Is there no appearance of evil, in the use
of tobacco? Can the Christian deny himself and follow Christ, with
the quid, or pipe in his mouth, or the contents of the snuff-box in
his nose? If Christ himself, were here on earth, in this age of action,
when six hundred millions of men, for whom he died, are perishing
for lack of vision—think you he would waste a single cent of
property, or a single moment of time, or a single ounce of health
and mental energy, in the habitual use of this narcotic? Would he
handle, touch, or taste, the poison? And will you, whose names are
written in his book,—you, who have been bought with his blood,
and sanctified through his grace, and made heirs of all the riches of
his kingdom,—you, whom he requires to be examples in all things,—will
you handle, or touch or taste it? Let every Christian in our
country, abstain from this poison, immediately, entirely, and forever;
and let him use the whole weight of his influence and example, to
persuade others to practice entire abstinence; and this work of reform
will soon be done. We put the question to every true Christian:
will you do it?
I appeal to the youth of both sexes. You are the flower and the
hope not only of this nation, but of all nations struggling for freedom.
The destinies of this republic are about being placed, under
God, in your hands; and inasmuch as all the friends of freedom,
everywhere, are looking up to our institutions for light and aid, the
destinies of the world will rest with a mightier weight of responsibility
upon your shoulders, than upon any other generation that has
come forth upon the stage of action, for twenty centuries. The importance
of sound and enlightened principles—of pure and elevated
examples, and independent and decided action in you, is above all
estimation. You are placed in the moral Thermopylæ of the world.
The evils arising from alcohol and tobacco, which you have it in your
power to avert from your country, are more dreadful than the invasion
of Xerxes with his millions. The cause of moral reform, in
the use of the latter of these articles, which we urge upon you with
deepest and sincerest solicitude, is far more urgent than that in which
the Bruti and the Gracchi offered up their lives. Some of you have
not yet handled or tasted the fatal drug. Let all such stand firm
henceforward, and never yield to the power of custom, temptation
and lust. Some of you, on the other hand, have permitted yourselves
to become the victims of this drug. Let all such be urged
by the voice of patriotism, religion, self-respect, reason, conscience,
and duty, to abstain from this poison, immediately, entirely, and forever.
And then every young man, and every young woman, in the
republic, shall be free from all the calamities attending the use of
this narcotic; and love, and peace, and joy, will run through the
land, and flow over the world. We put the question to every
youth: will you do it?
I appeal to the friends of temperance. You have enlisted your energies
to expel intoxicating drinks from common use throughout the
world. Go on, and prosper. But, as you go, remember, that complete
success will not crown your exertions unless you are consistent,—unless
you abandon all use of tobacco, the companion and sister
of alcohol. As you go forth to the noble work you have undertaken,
you will be met at every corner, with the declaration of A. B.
and C., I am ready to abstain from alcohol when you do from tobacco;
and how effectually will this declaration shut your mouth, and
destroy your influence. Be consistent. Carry your principles into
all your evil habits, and a moral potency will be diffused through
what you say and do, that nothing can resist. We put the question
to every friend of temperance: will you do it?
I appeal to American females. As mothers, wives and daughters,
you have it in your power (without turning aside from your appropriate
duties) to put an end to the use of this disgusting weed. The
children and youth of this nation, to say nothing of the young men
and fathers, are almost exclusively under your control; and may be
moulded at your pleasure. You know how filthy, disgusting, ruinous,
is the practice against which we ask you to set your faces. Only
practice ENTIRE ABSTINENCE yourselves, and urge this
practice upon all within your reach; and in less than twenty years,
this reformation will be completed. We put the question to every
mother, wife, daughter: will you do it?
I appeal to the medical profession. You are the guardians of the
health of the republic. You are acquainted with the deadly properties
of the drug in question. You can understand the necessity, and
appreciate the importance of reform. You know that entire abstinence
is urged by paramount considerations. In the work of reform
from spirit-drinking, you have acted in a manner that reflects honor
upon your profession. In the work of reform now urged upon your
notice, we calculate upon your active, hearty co-operation. If you
put your hand to this work, by precept, and by example; if you abstain
entirely, and forever, from all use of this plant, and inculcate
entire abstinence, as you have opportunity; the work which now
bespeaks your attention will soon be done. We put the question to
every medical man: will you do it?
Finally—I appeal to ministers of the Gospel. You are stationed
on the watch-towers of Zion, as guardians of the public morals.
Against every abomination your great Master requires you to cry
aloud and spare not; to lift up your voice like a trumpet; to show
the people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.
He requires you to be examples to the flock, in all things, that, while
"You allure to brighter worlds,"
you "may lead the way." I ask you to look at the influence of tobacco
upon the health, wealth, morals, and lives of this republic; and
then to decide, as in the fear of God, whether the blood of souls may
not be found on your garments, if you do not abstain yourselves
from all common use of this drug, and warn every man around you
to do likewise.[E] Suffer us to point you to Him who went about doing
good, and pleased not himself, and set a pure and perfect example in
everything; and also to that early servant of his, who would abstain
from things good and lawful, rather than prejudice the interests of
Zion. What reception would the Apostles have met, when they
went about to enlighten and reform the world, if they had carried
with them their snuff-boxes, pipes, cigars, and pig-tail tobacco? But
a word to the wise is sufficient. Let all who minister in holy things,
abstain from this poison, immediately, entirely, and forever; and
let them use the whole weight of their influence, and example, to
persuade others—and especially our youth—to practice entire abstinence;
and this good work will soon be done. We put the question
to every minister of Christ: will you do it?
