Permanent temperance documents, of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Permanent temperance documents, of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    AMERICAN TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. Similar testimonies began to multiply. The evils of using, and the benefits of abstaining from ardent spirit, became more and more conspicuous , and also the necessity, as well as the encouragement to make more systematic, general and persevering efforts on the subject. Individuals not only abstained, but, in some cases, agreed together, that they would not use or furnish to others that destruc- tive posion. But there was no system, no plan of operation, to cause such a union to become universal; and it was evident that unless something more universal, efficacious and persevering should be done, our country would be ruined ; the gospel would never have its legitimate influence over the human mind, and the reign of dark- ness and sin would be perpetuated to the end of time. Past efforts, though they had on some spots, and in some cases, done good’ had not struck at the root of the evil. Their object was, to regu- late the use of ardent spirits, not to abolish it. Those who made them admitted, and most of them practised, the fundamental error, that men in health might, without injury, and, of course, without sin, use the poison, if they did not use too much. This was the case with members of Societies for die Suppression of Intem- perance. Thus, while they only retarded the growth, or clipped off a few of the top twigs of this poisonous tree, the roots were con- stantly nourished, and daily struck deeper and deeper. While the friends of temperance were reforming one old drunkard, their own habits, if followed, would make a hundred new ones. They were, indeed, sounding the alarm, but were treading in the footsteps of the lost; denouncing intemperance, and encouraging the use of strong drink; bewailing the effect, and perpetuating the cause; warning men not to be drunken, and urging them to drink. Many were enraged, almost to madness, at those who represented the use of ardent spirit to be a sin; and, though they had followed a promising son to the drunkard’s grave, and were expecting soon to follow another, and another, they would denounce as enthusiasts, and treat as enemies, those who urged them not to drink. The husband, who had lost his wife by intemperance, would, for the sake of money, furnish that which lolled her to all who would purchase, and even give it, as a token of kindness, to his nearest friends. The wife, who had seen her husband die by this poison, would use it herself, and give it daily to her only son. And it was perfectly evident that, unless a new movement could be started, on a new plan, and one which should be commensurate, in place and time, with the evil,—one which should strike it at the root, and exterminate it,—drunkenness could never be done away. The people would never become “ all righteous,” nor the day of millennial glory ever break on the world. A meeting of a few individuals was therefore called, to consider the following question, viz.
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