Two hundred fifty-five citizens of Farmville ask that the legislature "to put a stop to the traffick" of liquor. They state that, in their vicinity, there is a large population of people of color "who give way to the temptation to drunkenness whenever it is presented." The residents further suggest that halting the trade should not be done by taxation--"to impose a tax however small on the vending of intoxicating liquors, implies the right to impose one, however large, amounting even to a total interdiction"--but rather through legislation as had been done in Tennessee and Massachusetts. The petitioners purport that such legislation will free Virginia's "sons from the deadly influence of this common enemy to freedom, to religion, to morality, and happiness."
Result: Rejected.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
