Chapter 3

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.[A] 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;[B] 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.

[A] The tobacco imported and used for home consumption in Great Britain and Ireland in 1832, amounted to 20,313,651 pounds--the duty on which was 15,300,000 dollars.

[B] 1,765,000 pounds of tobacco passed up the Erie Canal in seven and a half months in 1834.

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_?