IN

CHAPTER VII.

THE DUBIOUS STRUGGLE.

N 1814 the Councilors of the Massachusetts Temperance Society sent out a circular, in which they stated that "their design meets with encouragement in every part of the Commonwealth," that it had "obtained a large accession of members, among whom are many gentlemen whose high standing in society promises efficient co-operation." Appended to this circular is "a series of thirty questions," "soliciting facts and statistics calculated to increase the amount of knowledge on the subject and form a basis for future action." The successive reports of the Society present answers to these inquiries in judiciously arranged summaries, which were very helpful to the cause, drawing public attention to the magnitude and appalling character of the evil of intemperance, and directing their own endeavors for its removal. During the same year communications were published "on the evils from furnishing ardent spirits at funerals," and "as an article of entertainment especially to ministers of the Gospel," it being then "regarded as a token of respect for the office." A marked effect was produced, and many individuals were led to abandon the use of ardent spirits altogether.

The report for 1815 says: "There is an unusually deep sense of the evil of intemperance, and a disposition to attempt its correction."

Many interesting incidents are told concerning the early heroic efforts of the clergy for reform. To stem the tide required courage, decision, and firmness, for every sideboard was furnished with intoxicating beverages, and the best must be offered to the pastor in all his calls. Dr. Ide, a sharp, discriminating clergyman, settled at this early period in West Medway, Mass., was not long in apprehending the

danger, and decided to decline the customary beverage. Probably ten or fifteen or fifteen years before any total abstinence society was formed, he adopted for himself the principle of entire abstinence. He carried his views into the pulpit and, for three successive Sabbaths, preached upon the perils of the drink-customs, and the necessity of abstinence for personal and public good. It was "a new thing under the sun," and there was intense excitement. Some said he was "cracked;" others, that he was "ignorant of the ways of the world;" others, that he "meant well but lacked judgment."

One of those Sabbath mornings, when the sexton went to open the church, he found a barrel of New England rum on the steps of the meeting-house. Some of the angry ones had rolled it there for effect; and it was both instructive and impressive. It taught the young preacher how great need there was of reform, and nerved him to increased fidelity to remove the curse. He was not scared, and he did not flinch. He bore down upon the evil in the pulpit, and went from house to house to convince his Church members that the drink-customs were unchristian and heaven-provoking. The result was that his society was the first to adopt the total abstinence principle, and for many years the foremost of all religious societies in the temperance cause.

1

Rev. James B. Finley, one of the most eminent Methodist ministers in Ohio at this time, was incessant in efforts for reform. He found the manufacture, sale, and use of ardent spirits every-where, in the membership of the Church and out of it. Great laxity prevailed. His outspoken and incessant advocacy of temperance aroused great opposition from liquor manufacturers and venders. But he suffered no opportunity to pass without portraying the physical, social, and moral evils resulting from intemperance. Frequently he would pledge whole congregations, standing upon their feet, to the temperance cause; on one circuit at least one thousand persons solemnly taking the pledge of total abstinence. This was before a half a dozen temperance societies existed anywhere.'

1 Rev. Wm. M. Thayer.

"Life of Finley," pp. 248-252.

2

Bishop Asbury was a total abstainer. Traveling through the South, he said: "A prophet of strong drink would be acceptable to many of these people. I believe the Methodist preachers keep clear, both by precept and example; would to God the members did so too!"

In the year 1816 another name re-enforces the list of temperance champions, destined, at a later period, to become very conspicuous in the annals of great reforms. Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D., pastor of the Congregational Church in Andover, Mass., on the day of the annual fast, preached to his own people two plain and powerful sermons on intemperance. He portrayed the woes brought upon the country by the use of intoxicating liquors, and then said:

"I speak as unto wise men." What shall be done? Shall this enemy be continued among us, or shall we declare a war of extermination and root it out? But one says, "It is a very useful thing. It will do no hurt if men do not take too much; they must be on their guard." No; "Be on your guard" has been the motto for thirty years; and shall we go on and perpetuate its evils on this generation, and fasten them on the necks of posterity? It is not drunkards nor intemperate men who control this business. It is temperate mén, useful men, honorable men. Let them forbear to use it, and show that it is not necessary, and the evil will die; for

JUSTIN EDWARDS, D.D.

"Journal," vol. ii, p. 261.

they shut the door through which all intemperate men and all drunkards have entered. Those men were once where temperate men now are, in the temperate use of strong drink; and temperate men, if they continue this course, will many of them be where the intemperate men now are.

We are now reduced to one point: Shall temperate men continue the temperate use of strong drink, and thus keep open the door to intemperance, idleness, dissipation, drunkenness, poverty, wretchedness, and death; or shall they forbear, and thus shut the door against these evils forever? "I speak as unto wise men."

The "Christian Disciple," in 1816, published a series of articles on the "Causes, Delusions, and Cure of Intemperance," and other articles followed, in subsequent years, ably discussing this great theme, and urging on the work of reform. The fourth Annual Report of the Portland Society, in 1816, indicates research, zeal, and energy. It proposed an amendment to the license laws, so that there should "be posted up in the houses and shops of taverners and retailers a list of the names of all persons reputed common drunkards, or common tipplers, or common gamesters, misspending their time or estate in such houses, and forbidding said taverners and retailers to sell spirituous liquors to them."

The Pastoral Address of the General Association of Connecticut, in 1817, expressed the conviction that "the evil of intemperance, for a season checked in its progress, is now gaining ground," and recommended "that continual and increased exertions be made by associations and otherwise, . . . that a check be given to the very great and extended evil of vending ardent spirits in small quantities by licensed houses contrary to law."

In 1817 Rev. Samuel Worcester, D.D., of Salem, delivered the annual discourse before the Massachusetts Society, in which he estimated that there were 80,000 drunkards in the United States; that every drunkard in each five years will corrupt and draw five other persons into drunkenness; that the direct cost of spirituous liquors in the State of Massachusetts was two millions of dollars annually; that seven hundred drunkards

annually died in Massachusetts, and closed with an eloquent appeal to the people of the Commonwealth.

At a meeting of the select men, overseers of the poor, tithing-men, and retailers of the town of Northampton, Mass., held April 8, 1818, it was voted:

Whereas, The evil of intemperance and pauperism has become extensive and alarming; and whereas, It is to a great extent imputable to the facility with which spirituous liquors are obtainable; therefore,

Resolved, That those of us who are retailers will not sell, nor cause nor permit to be sold or drank in our respective stores, any spirituous liquors, whether mixed or unmixed, in violation of the law, and that we will all of us, so far as it may be in our power, exert our influence to encourage and promote among our fellow-citizens habits of industry, sobriety, and temperance; and that we hold it to be the duty of all public officers, and pledge ourselves, as individuals, to see the laws executed in this respect, and to inform of any intentional violation thereof to the prosecuting authority of the government. (Signed.)

The temperance societies organized as auxiliaries to the Massachusetts Society, from 1813 to 1818, numbered forty, mostly in counties in the vicinity of Boston, where distillation and intemperance fearfully abounded.

It

The report of the Massachusetts Society for 1818 is a valuable document. It affords evidence of progress in some localities, but it expresses regret that, on the whole, intemperance was increasing, and calls for more stringent legislation. declares that in Boston, where there was one licensed place for every twenty-one male inhabitants sixteen years old, one fifth of all the deaths enrolled were caused by intemperance. It expresses little faith in the reformation of drunkards, but hopes to check their excesses, to prevent the contagion of their example, and to impress an abhorrence of the vice upon the young. It also declares that there had been a great increase in the number of licensed houses, that "in the year 1817 there were (Suffolk County) three times as many authorized places of resort where spirituous liquors might be bought, mixed, and drank upon the spot, as in the year 1808."