Part 2

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 f[oe]tid." 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 Linnaeus, in his natural arrangement, has placed tobacco in the class _Luridae_--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.[A]

[A] Extracts in point might here be given from numerous letters received by the Author, since the publication of the first edition; but it is unnecessary.

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.