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Governor of Massachusetts against license

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@ Boston Public Library

MassachusettsGeneral CourtHouse of Representatives

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Holograph, signed.Manuscript is a typeset, unsigned reproduction of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Talbot's (who briefly served as acting governor of Massachusetts following the election of Governor Washburn to the United States Senate in 1873) address to the Massachusetts House of Representatives vetoing the liquor license bill, published by the National Temperance Society and Publication House at No. 58 Reade Street, New York.Acting Governor Thomas Talbot responds to the Massachusetts House of Representatives concerning the liquor license bill with his official veto, arguing that there exists no "more important question" than "that concerning the traffic in intoxicating liquors". Talbot argues that even in the admission of "guarded and temperate" use of alcohol, there reamins the "unanimous verdict of the civilized world" that the use of alcohol is the "cause of much the largest proportion of the crime and degradation and misery" afflicting humanity.Talbot states that in light of this, the two courses of action presented to them remain the regulation of the sale of alcohol, or prohibition of alcohol, and argues that the latter course is "in harmony with the methods" adopted toward "other offenses against public morals". Talbot argues that social changes, including increased urbanization, quickened pace of life and increased toil that "rapidly wears and wastes", and sundry "demoralizing influences inseperable from civil war long continued", coupled with irregular enforcement of previous legistlation, have rendered regulation and licensure inadequate to deal with intemperance, and offers his opinion that the "only safe and sound position for a Christian community to take...
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Text
Format:
Correspondence
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