Excerpt from The History of the Tread-Mill: Containing an Account of Its Origin, Construction, Operation, Effects as It Respects the Health and Morals of the Convicts, With Their Treatment and Diet; Also, a General View of the Penitentiary System But intemperance is an evil of much greater magnitude than is generally imagined, and spares no rank or condition of persons in the community; being equally destructive to the happiness of its votaries, whether they wallow in af fluence, walk in the middling spheres of life, or be sunk in indigence and obscurity. It fills our prisons with debtors, our alms-houses with paupers, our Bridewells, Peni tentiaries, and state-prisons, with criminals and our cemeteries, With many tenants, who, it is greatly to be feared, were ill prepared to meet their God, and who in point of number, exceed those, who have fallen victims to all other diseases put together. With respect to our state-prison and Penitentiary in this City, I fear there is too much truth in the assertion, which has been made by some, that there are more than seven eights of their re spective inmates, who have brought themselves into their present situation, by the inordinate use of Ardent Spirits. Of all the calamities, which ever befell the United States, this is, by far the most dreadful. Of war and pestilence it may be said, that they slay their thousands; but of ia temperance, that it destroys its tens of thousands. Ye ministers of the blessed gospel ye representatives of the people, whether in our national or state legislatures! Ye governors and judges ye patriots, philanthropists, phk losophers, and sages arouse from your lethargy and unite your exertions, in removing this indelible degrace of our beloved country, this fell, this ruthless destroyer, and if you should be so fortunate as to succeed in the enter prise, you will achieve more real glory, than if, by your united wisdom, you had planned the destruction of some terribly powerful fleets and armies. Then there will be a reformation of morals, which will render our Peniten tiary system as complete as the friends of humanity could reasonably expect, in this state of imperfection, and many hundreds of those, who are now the pests of society, would find themselves much more happy, in being able, by their honest industry, to provide for themselves. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.