of this generosity, because we have had so much occasion to witness,
that, so great is their zeal in behalf of our infant States, (robust,
and a little unmanageable perhaps, but still infant) they are wont, in
the warmth of their ardour, to reform Cis-atlantic sins, to overlook
not a few backslidings of their own. Numberless are the moral
missionaries that the mother country, for instance, has sent among us,
on these pious and benevolent errands. We can only regret that their
efforts have been crowned with so little success. It was our fortune to
be familiarly acquainted with one of these worthies, who never lost an
opportunity of declaiming, above all, against the infamy of the
particular practice to which we have just alluded. Indeed, so broad was
the ground he took, that he held it to be not only immoral, but, what
was far worse, ungenteel, to swallow any thing stronger than small
beer, before the hour allotted to dinner. After that important period,
it was not only permitted to assuage the previous mortifications of the
flesh, but, so liberal did he show himself in the orthodox indulgence,
that he was regularly carried to his bed at midnight, from which he as
regularly issued, in the course of the following morning, to discourse
again on the thousand deformities of premature drink. And here we would
take occasion to say, that, as to our own insignificant person, we
eschew the abomination altogether; and only regret that those of the
two nations, who find pleasure in the practice, could not come to some
amicable understanding as to the precise period, of the twenty-four
hours, when it is permitted to such Christian gentlemen as talk English
to get drunk. That the negotiators who framed the last treaty of amity
should have overlooked this important moral topic, is another evidence
that both parties were so tired of an unprofitable war as to patch up a
peace in a hurry. It is not too late to name a commission for this
purpose; and, in order that the question may be fairly treated on its
merits, we presume to suggest to the Executive the propriety of
nominating, as our commissioner, some confirmed advocate of the system
of “juleps.” It is believed our worthy and indulgent Mother can have no
difficulty in selecting a suitable opponent from the ranks of her
numerous and well-trained diplomatic corps.
With this manifestation of our personal liberality, united to so much
interest in the proper, and we hope final, disposition of this
important question, we may be permitted to resume the narrative,
without being set down as advocates for morning stimulants, or evening
intoxication; which is a very just division of the whole subject, as we
believe, from no very limited observation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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