Whither are We Drifting

Williamstown is rapidly acquiring an unenviable reputation for lawlessness and wickedness unsurpassed by any town her size in the state. To what cause or causes is this state of affairs to be attributed? In our humble judgement it is to be attributed to the fact that the law is not rigidly enforced. The scenes enacted on our streets last County Court were sufficient to blush every law-abiding citizen, not only of Williamstown, but of the entire county. Citizens from every part of the County, as well as from adjoining counties, assemble here on County Court days for the transaction of legal, official, and private business, while many persons congregate here for the sole purpose of making the occasion hideous by their drunken brawls and affrays. They swarm in and out of our saloons like so many bees in a hive.

Of the fifty drunken revelers on our streets last Monday, not a single one was lodged in jail. But two were arrested, and they were only arrested after much difficulty. Many of our citizens lay all the blame on the saloons. This is not just. It is true the saloons should come in for their share. If the keepers of saloons strictly followed the law there would not be half as much drunkenness. They lift up their hand and appeal to the high heaven that they will not allow persons topple or get drunk in their saloons and enter into a solemn covenant with the Commonwealth of Kentucky that they will not sell liquor contrary to the law. And to this covenant they obtain the signatures of one or two substantial citizens. In what estimation do they hold and regard the solemn oaths they have taken? How do they keep the covenants they have entered into? For answer, we point to the half dozen, the dozen, and two dozen reeling, cursing, blaspheming, rude, noisy drunkards that may be found in and around our saloons from 10 o'clock a.m. on County Court day until midnight: to the bloody noses, bleeding hands, and the graves of the men who have been murdered in the streets of Williamstown.

Blood has flowed like water in our streets, and always in the vicinity of our saloons. The blood of these victims cries out to heaven for vengeance, and upon whom shall this blood be avenged? Upon the officers charged with the execution of the law? Or shall it be upon those who, in their drunken frenzy shed the blood of their fellow man? Or shall it be upon the saloon keeper, who, in disregard of his solemn appeal to the Lord of hosts and his covenants, permits the homicide to take place at his bar until his brain is on fire and all the nobler feelings of his being are drowned, and the beastly, fiendish impulses of his nature are roused in him? Settle this question among yourselves, gentlemen. Stifle your conscious if you can, and say all is well with you, if you can. But, there is a time in the future when a just judge will sit in inquisition upon your souls and will enter up a just and righteous judgement, from which there will be no appeal.

from a Facebook post by the Grant County KY Historical Society, reprinting from the Williamstown Courier, March 3, 1881.