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.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    547] what they eat better, have better health, better temper, better spirits, than formerly, and experience less fatigue from labor. 3. A moderate use of intoxicating drinks, tends to make men of refined and intellectual character, and Christians too, as well as men of a different character, impatient of control, restraint, or opposition, uncharitable, and, in a greater or less degree, to im- pair their intellectual and moral perceptions. I mean that these dispositions are indulged, and are more manifest in those who use these drinks, than they would be if they abstained from them. 4. Intoxicating drinks, especially cider, beer, and wine, are exceedingly dangerous to youth, and should be avoided by them, as they would avoid a deadly serpent. When 1 was not more than twelve years of age, and subsequently, during a clerkship in New York and Albany, it was common for me, and also for my companions, to drink strong beer and wine. Cider and strong beer were daily furnished at our homes and boarding houses. On recalling the names of the companions of my youth, more than half have gone down to premature and dishonored graves—of the remainder, full half live dishonored lives. The few that have been spared to any degree of honor and useful- ness, have reason to bless God, who interposed for them, for they were equally exposed. 5. Parents and employers, who use intoxicating drinks tem- perately, contribute to sow the seeds of intemperance, and to form a taste for alcoholic stimulants in their children, and the youth under their care ; and, I fear, in the great day of retribu- tion, many a youth, whose hopes for this life and another have been destroyed by alcohol, will remind his parent, or employer, that he first put the cup to his lips. 6. Cider, strong beer, and wine, are at the bottom, they are the foundation of intemperate drinking. In the country, particu- larly in New England, cider, rather than water, has been the common beverage. Until within a few years, 1 believe I may safely say, in a majority of the families of New England, the water pitcher was never placed upon the dinner table; and I may add, the mug of cider had its place, on a majority of the tea and breakfast tables. A love for stimulating drinks was thus formed, and a supposed necessity for such drinks with food, was thus created, in youth, and almost in infancy. What wonder then, that diunkenness has so lamentably prevailed, even in fa- vored New England ? What wonder, that her sons, as they emigrated to other regions, where their favorite cider could not be obtained, should substitute beer, and wine, and brandy ? In cities, and indeed in many families in the country, children have been regularly taught, both by precept and example, to drink