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 AN* 
 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 
 
 
 ON TEMPERANCE, 
 
 
 
 BY 
 
 
 i 
 
 WILLIAM E. CHANNING. 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 WEE.KS, JORDAN & COMPANY, 
 BOSTON, 1837. 

 
 UCSB LIBRARY 
 
 AN 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 ON TEMPERANCE, 
 
 WILLIAM E. CHANNING. 
 
 Delivered by request of the Council of the Massachusetts Temperance Society, 
 at the Odeon, Boston, February 28, 1837, the day appointed for the Simul- 
 taneous Meeting of the Friends of Temperance throughout the world. 
 
 WEEKS, JORDAN & COMPANY, 
 BOSTON, 1837.
 
 Published by the Council of the Massachusetts Temperance 
 Society, the avails to be devoted to the circulation of temperance 
 publications. 
 
 CASSADY AND MARCH, PRINTERS. 
 
 [Third Edition.]
 
 ADDRESS.
 
 The author was obliged to omit several passages in 
 delivering the following address. In some of these, 
 perhaps, opinions may be found in which all the friends 
 of temperance do not concur. The Society at whose 
 request the address is published, is, of course, not res- 
 ponsible for what it did not hear. The author wishes 
 to be understood as speaking in his own name alone.
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 I SEE before me the representatives of 
 various societies for the promotion of tem- 
 perance. It is a good and great cause, and 
 1 shall be grateful to God, if, by the service 
 now allotted me, I can in any degree en- 
 courage them in their work, or throw new 
 light on their path. The present occasion 
 may well animate a Christian minister. What 
 a noble testimony does this meeting bear to 
 the spirit and influences of the Christian faith. 
 Why is this multitude brought together ? Not 
 for selfish gratification, not for any worldly 
 end, but for the purpose of arresting a great 
 moral and social evil, of promoting the vir- 
 tue, dignity, well being of men. And whence 
 comes this sympathy with the fallen, the
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 guilty, the miserable ? Have we derived it 
 from the schools of ancient philosophy, or 
 from the temples of Greece and Rome. No. 
 We inherit it from Jesus Christ. We have 
 caught it from his lips, his life, his cross. This 
 meeting, were we to trace its origin, would 
 carry us back to Bethlehem and Calvary. 
 The impulse which Christ gave to the hu- 
 man soul, having endured for ages, is now 
 manifesting itself more and more, in new and 
 increasing efforts of philanthropy for the re- 
 demption of the world from every form of 
 evil. Within these walls the authority of 
 Christ has sometimes been questioned, his 
 character traduced. To the blasphemer of 
 that holy name, what a reply is furnished by 
 the crowd which these walls now contain ! 
 A religion, which thus brings and knits men 
 together, for the help, comfort, salvation of 
 their erring, lost fellow creatures, bears on its 
 front a broad, bright, unambiguous stamp of 
 Divinity. Let us be grateful that we were 
 born under its light, and more grateful still if 
 we have been, in any measure, baptized into 
 its disinterested and divine love.
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 I cannot hope, in the present stage of the 
 temperance effort, to render any important 
 aid to your cause by novelty of suggestion. 
 Its friends have thoroughly explored the 
 ground, over "which I am to travel. Still 
 every man, who is accustomed to think for 
 himself, is naturally attracted to particular 
 views or points in the most familiar subject ; 
 and, by concentrating his thoughts on these, 
 he sometimes succeeds in giving them a new 
 prominence, in vindicating their just rank, 
 and in securing to them an attention, which 
 they may not have received, but which is 
 their due. 
 
 On the subject of intemperance, I have 
 sometimes thought, perhaps without founda- 
 tion, that its chief, essential evil was not 
 brought out as thoroughly and frequently as 
 its secondary evils, and that there was not a 
 sufficient conviction of the depth of its causes 
 and of the remedies which it demands. With 
 these impressions, I invite your attention to 
 the following topics the great essential evil 
 of intemperance the extent of its tempta-
 
 8 ADDRESS. 
 
 tions its causes the means of its preven- 
 tion or cure. 
 
 I. I begin with asking, what is the great, 
 essential, evil of intemperance ? The re- 
 ply is given, when I say, that intemperance 
 is the voluntary extinction of reason. The 
 great evil is inward or spiritual. The intem- 
 perate man divests himself, for a time, of his 
 rational and moral nature, casts from himself 
 self-consciousness and self-command, brings 
 on phrenzy, and, by repetition of this insan- 
 ity, prostrates more and more his rational 
 and moral powers. He sins immediately 
 and directly against the rational nature, that 
 divine principle, which distinguishes between 
 truth and falsehood, between right and wrong 
 action, which distinguishes man from the 
 brute. This is the essence of the vice, what 
 constitutes its peculiar guilt and wo, and 
 what should particularly impress and awaken 
 those who are laboring for its suppression. 
 All the other evils of intemperance are light 
 compared with this, and almost all flow from 
 this ; and it is right, it is to be desired, that
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 all other evils should be joined with and fol- 
 low this. It is to be desired, when a man 
 lifts a suicidal arm against his highest life, 
 when he quenches reason and conscience, 
 that he and all others should receive solemn, 
 startling warning of the greatness of his guilt ; 
 that terrible outward calamities should bear 
 witness to the inward ruin which he is work- 
 ing ; that the hand writing of judgment and 
 wo on his countenance, form, and whole 
 condition, should declare what a fearful thing 
 it is for a man, God's rational offspring, to 
 renounce his reason and become a brute. It 
 is common for those who argue against in- 
 temperance, to describe the bloated counte- 
 nance of the drunkard, now flushed and now 
 deadly pale. They describe his trembling, 
 palsied limbs. They describe his waning 
 prosperity, his poverty, his despair. They 
 describe his desolate, cheerless home, his 
 cold hearth, his scanty board, his heart-bro- 
 ken wife, the squalidness of his children ; 
 and we groan in spirit over the sad recital. 
 But it is right, that all this should be. It is
 
 10 ADDRESS. 
 
 right, that he, who, forewarned, puts out the 
 lights of understanding and conscience with- 
 in him, who abandons his rank among God's 
 rational creatures, and takes his place among 
 brutes, should stand a monument of wrath 
 among his fellows, should be a teacher where- 
 ever he is seen, a teacher, in every look and 
 motion, of the awful guilt of destroying rea- 
 son. Were we so constituted, that reason 
 could be extinguished, and the countenance 
 retain its freshness, the form its grace, the 
 body its vigor, the outward condition its 
 prosperity, and no striking change be seen 
 in one's home, so far from being gainers, we 
 should lose some testimonies of God's paren- 
 tal care. His care and goodness, as well as 
 his justice, are manifested in the fearful mark 
 he has set on the drunkard, in the blight 
 which falls on all the drunkard's joys. These 
 outward evils, dreadful as they seem, are but 
 faint types of the ruin within. We should 
 see in them God's respect to his own image 
 in the soul, his parental warnings against the 
 crime of quenching the intellectual and moral 
 life.
 
 ADDRESS. 11 
 
 We are too apt to fix our thoughts on the 
 consequences or punishments of crime and 
 to overlook the crime itself. This is not 
 turning punishment to its highest use. Pun- 
 ishment is an outward sign of inward evil. 
 It is meant to reveal something more terrible 
 than itself. The greatness of punishment is 
 a mode of embodying, making visible, the 
 magnitude of the crime to which it is attach- 
 ed. The miseries of intemperance, its loath- 
 someness, ghastliness and pains, are not seen 
 aright, if they do not represent to us the more 
 fearful desolation wrought by this sin in the 
 soul. 
 
 Among the evils of intemperance, much 
 importance is given to the poverty of which 
 it is the cause. But this evil, great as it is, 
 is yet light in comparison with the essential 
 evil of intemperance, which I am so anxious 
 to place distinctly before you. What mat- 
 ters it that a man be poor, if he carry into 
 his poverty the spirit, energy, reason, and 
 virtues of a Man ? What matters it that a 
 man must, for a few years, live on bread and
 
 12 ADDRESS. 
 
 water f How many of the richest are re- 
 duced by disease to a worse condition than 
 this ? Honest, virtuous, noble-minded pov- 
 erty is a comparatively light evil. The an- 
 cient philosopher chose it as the condition of 
 virtue. It has been the lot of many a Chris- 
 tian. The poverty of the intemperate man 
 owes its great misery to its cause. He who 
 makes himself a beggar, by having made 
 himself a brute, is miserable indeed. He 
 who has no solace, who has only agonizing 
 recollections and harrowing remorse, as he 
 looks on his cold hearth, his scanty table, his 
 ragged children, has indeed to bear a crush- 
 ing weight of wo. That he suffers, is a light 
 thing. That he has brought on himself this 
 suffering by the voluntary extinction of his 
 reason, this is the terrible thought, the in- 
 tolerable curse. 
 
 We are told, that we must keep this or 
 that man from drunkenness, to save him from 
 " coming on the town," from being a burden 
 to the city. The motive is not to be over- 
 looked ; but I cannot keep my thoughts fixed
 
 ADDRESS. 13 
 
 for a moment on the few hundred or thou- 
 sand dollars, which the intemperate cost. 
 When I go to the poor house, and see the 
 degradation, the spiritual weakness, the ab- 
 jectness, the half-idiot imbecility written on 
 the drunkard's countenance, I see a ruin 
 which makes the cost of his support a grain 
 of dust in the scale. I am not sorry that so- 
 ciety is taxed for the drunkard. I would it 
 were taxed more. I would the burden of 
 sustaining him were so heavy, that we should 
 be compelled to wake up, and ask how he 
 may be saved from ruin. It is intended, 
 wisely intended by God, that sin shall spread 
 its miseries beyond itself, that no human be- 
 ing shall suffer alone, that the man who falls 
 shall draw others with him, if not into his 
 guilt, at least into a portion of his wo. If 
 one member of the social body suffer, others 
 must suffer too ; and this is well. This is 
 one of the dependencies, by which we become 
 interested in one another's moral safety, and 
 are summoned to labor for the rescue of the 
 fallen. 
 
 2
 
 14 ADDRESS. 
 
 Intemperance is to be pitied and abhorred 
 for its own sake, much more than for its out- 
 ward consequences. These consequences 
 owe their chief bitterness to their criminal 
 source. We speak of the miseries which 
 the drunkard carries into his family. But 
 take away his own brutality, and how light- 
 ened would be these miseries. We talk of 
 his wife and children in rags. Let the rags 
 continue ; but suppose them to be the effects 
 of an innocent cause. Suppose the drunk- 
 ard to have been a virtuous husband, and an 
 affectionate father, and that sickness not vice 
 has brought his family thus low. Suppose 
 his wife and children bound to him by a 
 strong love, which a life of labor for their 
 support and of unwearied kindness has awak- 
 ened ; suppose them to know that his toils 
 for their welfare had broken down his frame ; 
 suppose him able to say, " we are poor in 
 this world's goods, but rich in affection and 
 religious trust. I am going from you ; but I 
 leave you to the Father of the fatherless and 
 to the widow's God." Suppose this, and how
 
 ADDRESS. 15 
 
 changed these rags ! How changed the cold 
 naked room ! The heart's warmth can do 
 much to withstand the winter's cold ; and 
 there is hope, there is honor in this virtuous 
 indigence. What breaks the heart of the 
 drunkard's wife? It is not that he is poor, 
 but that he is a drunkard. Instead of that 
 bloated face, now distorted with passion, 
 now robbed of every gleam of intelligence, if 
 the wife could look on an affectionate coun- 
 tenance, which had for years been the inter- 
 preter of a well principled mind and faithful 
 heart, what an overwhelming load would be 
 lifted from her. It is a husband, whose touch 
 is polluting, whose infirmities are the wit- 
 nesses of his guilt, who has blighted all her 
 hopes, who has proved false to the vow which 
 made her his ; it is such a husband who 
 makes home a hell, not one whom toil and 
 disease and providence have cast on the care 
 of wife and children. 
 
 We look too much at the consequences of 
 vice, too little at the vice itself. It is vice, 
 which is the chief weight of what we call its
 
 16 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 consequence, vice which is the bitterness in 
 the cup of human wo. 
 
 II. I proceed now to offer some remarks 
 on the extent of temptations to this vice. 
 And on this point, I shall not avail myself of 
 the statistics of intemperance. I shall not 
 attempt to number its victims. I wish to 
 awaken universal vigilance, by showing that 
 the temptations to this excess are spread 
 through all classes of society. We are apt 
 to speak as if the laborious, uneducated, un- 
 improved, were alone in danger, and as if 
 we ourselves had no interest in this cause, 
 except as others are concerned. But it is 
 not so ; multitudes in all classes are in danger. 
 In truth, when we recal the sad histories of 
 not a few in every circle, who once stood 
 among the firmest and then yielded to temp- 
 tation, we are taught, that none of us should 
 dismiss fear, that we too may be walking on 
 the edge of the abyss. The young are ex- 
 posed to intemperance, for youth wants fore- 
 thought, loves excitement, is apt to place 
 happiness in gaiety, is prone to convivial
 
 ADDRESS. 17 
 
 pleasure, and too often finds or makes this the 
 path to hell ; nor are the old secure, for age 
 unnerves the mind as well as the body, and 
 silently steals away the power of self-control. 
 The idle are in scarcely less peril than the 
 over-worked laborer ; for uneasy cravings 
 spring up in the vacant mind, and the excite- 
 ment of intoxicating draughts is greedily 
 sought as an escape from the intolerable 
 weariness of having nothing to do. Men of 
 a coarse, unrefined character fall easily into 
 intemperance, because they see little in its 
 brutality to disgust them. It is a sadder 
 thought that men of genius and sensibility 
 are hardly less exposed. Strong action of the 
 mind is even more exhausting than the toil 
 of the hands. It uses up, if I may so say, 
 the finer spirits, and leaves either a sink- 
 ing of the system which craves for tonics, 
 or a restlessness which seeks relief in de- 
 ceitful sedatives. Besides, it is natural for 
 minds of great energy, to hunger for strong 
 excitement; and this, when not found in 
 innocent occupation and amusement, is too
 
 18 ADDRESS. 
 
 often sought in criminal indulgence. These 
 remarks apply peculiarly to men whose gen- 
 ius is poetical, imaginative, allied with and 
 quickened by peculiar sensibility. Such 
 men, living in worlds of their own creation, 
 kindling themselves with ideal beauty and 
 joy, and too often losing themselves in 
 reveries, in which imagination ministers to 
 appetite, and the sensual triumphs over the 
 spiritual nature, are peculiarly in danger of 
 losing the balance of the mind, of losing 
 calm thought, clear judgment and moral 
 strength of will, become children of impulse, 
 learn to despise simple and common pleas- 
 ures, and are hurried to ruin by a feverish 
 thirst of high wrought, delirious gratification. 
 In such men, these mental causes of excess 
 are often aggravated by peculiar irritable- 
 ness of the nervous system. Hence the 
 records of literature are so sad. Hence the 
 brightest lights of the intellectual world have 
 so often undergone disastrous eclipse ; and 
 the inspired voice of genius, so thrilling, so 
 exalting, has died away in the brutal or idiot
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 cries of intemperance. I have now been 
 speaking of the highest order of intellectual 
 men ; but it may be said of men of education 
 in general, that they must not feel themselves 
 beyond peril. It is said, that as large a pro- 
 portion of intemperate men can be found 
 among those, who have gone through our 
 colleges, as among an equal number of men 
 in the same sphere of life, who have not en- 
 joyed the same culture. It must not, how- 
 ever, be inferred, that the cultivation of the 
 intellect afford no moral aids. The truth is, 
 that its good tendencies are thwarted. Ed- 
 ucated men fall victims to temptation as 
 often as other men, not because education is 
 inoperative, but because our public semina- 
 ries give a partial training, being directed 
 almost wholly to the developement of the 
 intellect, and very little to moral culture, and 
 still less to the invigoration of the physical 
 system. Another cause of the evil is prob- 
 ably this, that young men, liberally educated, 
 enter on professions which give at first little 
 or no occupation, which expose them, per-
 
 20 ADDRESS. 
 
 haps for years to the temptations of leisure, 
 the most perilous in an age of inexperience 
 and passion. Accordingly, the ranks of 
 intemperance are recruited from that class 
 which forms the chief hope of society. And 
 I would I could stop here. But there is 
 another prey on which intemperance seizes, 
 still more to be deplored, and that is Woman. 
 I know no sight on earth more sad, than 
 woman's countenance, which once knew no 
 suffusion but the glow of exquisite feeling, 
 or the blush of hallowed modesty, crim- 
 soned, deformed by intemperance. Even 
 woman is not safe. The delicacy of her 
 physical organization exposes her to inequal- 
 ities of feeling, which tempt to the seductive 
 relief given by cordials. Man with his iron 
 nerves little knows what the sensitive frame 
 of woman suffers, how many desponding im- 
 aginations throng on her in her solitudes, 
 how often she is exhausted by unremitting 
 cares, and how much the power of self-con- 
 trol is impaired by repeated derangements of 
 her frail system. The truth should be told.
 
 AD DRESS. 21 
 
 In all our families, no matter what their con- 
 dition, there are endangered individuals, and 
 fear and watchfulness in regard to intemper- 
 ance belong to all. 
 
 Do not say, that I exaggerate your expos- 
 ure to intemperance. Let no man say, when 
 he thinks of the drunkard, broken in health 
 and spoiled of intellect, " I can never so fall." 
 He thought as little of falling in his earlier 
 years. The promise of his youth was as 
 bright as yours ; and even after he began his 
 downward course, he was as unsuspicious 
 as the firmest around him, and would have 
 repelled as indignantly the admonition to be- 
 ware of intemperance. The danger of this 
 vice lies in its almost imperceptible approach. 
 Few who perish by it know its first accesses. 
 Youth does not see or suspect drunkenness 
 in the sparkling beverage, which quickens 
 all its susceptibilities of joy. The invalid 
 does not see it in the cordial, which his 
 physician prescribes, and which gives new 
 tone to his debilitated organs. The man of 
 
 thought and genius detects no palsying poison 
 3
 
 22 ADDRESS. 
 
 in the draught, which seems a spring of in- 
 spiration to intellect and imagination. The 
 lover of social pleasure little dreams, that the 
 glass, which animates conversation, will ever 
 be drunk in solitude, and will sink him too low 
 for the intercourse in which he now delights. 
 Intemperance comes with noiseless step, and 
 binds its first chords with a touch too light 
 to be felt. This truth of mournful expe- 
 rience should be treasured up by us all, and 
 should influence the habits and arrangements 
 of domestic and social life in everv class of 
 
 * 
 
 the community. 
 
 Such is the extent of the temptations of 
 this vice. It is true, however, that whilst 
 its ravages may be traced through all con- 
 ditions, they are chiefly to be found in 
 the poorer and laboring portions of society. 
 Here its crimes and woes swell to an amount 
 which startles and appals us. Here the evil 
 is to be chiefly withstood. I shall, there- 
 fore, in my following remarks, confine myself 
 very much to the causes and remedies of 
 intemperance in this class of the community.
 
 ADDRESS. 23 
 
 III. Among the causes of intemperance 
 in the class of which I have spoken, not a 
 few are to be found in the present state of 
 society, which every man does something to 
 confirm, and which brings to most of us many 
 privileges. On these I shall now insist, be- 
 cause they show our obligation to do what 
 we can to remove the evil. It is just, that 
 they, who receive good, should aid those who 
 receive harm from our present social organ- 
 ization. Undoubtedly, the primary cause of 
 intemperance is in the intemperate them- 
 selves, in their moral weakness and irresolu- 
 tion, in the voluntary surrender of themselves 
 to temptation. Still, society, by increasing 
 temptation and diminishing men's power to 
 resist, becomes responsible for all wide spread 
 vices, and is bound to put forth all its energy 
 for their suppression. This leads me to con- 
 sider some of the causes of intemperance 
 which have their foundation in our social 
 state. 
 
 One cause of the commonness of intem- 
 perance in the present state of things is the
 
 24 ADDRESS. 
 
 heavy burden of care and toil which is laid 
 on a large multitude of men. Multitudes, 
 to earn subsistence for themselves and their 
 families, are often compelled to undergo a 
 degree of labor exhausting to the spirits 
 and injurious to health. Of consequence, 
 relief is sought in stimulants. We do not 
 find that civilization lightens men's toils ; as 
 yet it has increased them ; and in this effect, 
 I see the sign of a deep defect in what we 
 call the progress of society. It cannot be 
 the design of the Creator, that the whole 
 of life should be spent in drudgery for the 
 support of animal wants. That civilization 
 is very imperfect, in which the mass of 
 men can redeem no time from bodily labor 
 for intellectual, moral, and social culture. 
 It is melancholy to witness the degradation 
 of multitudes to the condition of beasts of 
 burden. Exhausting toils unfit the mind to 
 withstand temptation. The man, spent with 
 labor, and cut off by his condition from higher 
 pleasures, is impelled to seek a deceitful 
 solace in sensual excess. How the con-
 
 ADDRESS. 25 
 
 dition of society shall be so changed as to 
 prevent excessive pressure on any class, is 
 undoubtedly a hard question. One thing 
 seems plain, that there is no tendency in our 
 present institutions and habits to bring relief. 
 On the contrary, rich and poor seem to be 
 more and more oppressed with incessant toil, 
 exhausting forethought, anxious struggles, 
 feverish competitions. Some look to legis- 
 lation to lighten the burden of the laboring 
 class. But equal laws, and civil liberty have 
 no power to remove the shocking contrast of 
 condition which all civilized communities 
 present. Inward spiritual improvement, I 
 believe, is the only sure remedy for social 
 evils. What we need is, a new diffusion of 
 Christian, fraternal love, to stir up the pow- 
 erful and prosperous to succor liberally and 
 encourage the unfortunate or weak, and a 
 new diffusion of intellectual and moral force, 
 to make the multitude efficient for their own 
 support, to form them to self-control, and to 
 breathe a spirit of independence, which will 
 scorn to ask or receive unnecessary relief.
 
 26 ADDRESS. 
 
 Another cause, intimately connected with 
 the last, is the intellectual depression and 
 the ignorance to which many are subjected. 
 They who toil from morning to night, with- 
 out seasons of thought and mental improve- 
 ment, are of course exceedingly narrowed in 
 their faculties, views, and sources of gratifi- 
 cation. The present moment, and the body, 
 engross their thoughts. The pleasures of 
 intellect, of imagination, of taste, of reading, 
 of cultivated society, are almost entirely de- 
 nied them. What pleasures but those of the 
 senses remain ? Unused to reflection and 
 forethought, how dim must be their percep- 
 tions of religion and duty, and how little 
 fitted are they to cope with temptation. Un- 
 doubtedly in this country, this cause of in- 
 temperance is less operative than in others. 
 There is less brutal ignorance here than 
 elsewhere ; but, on the other hand, the facil- 
 ities of excess are incomparably greater, so 
 that for the uneducated, the temptation to 
 vice may be stronger in this than in less en- 
 lighted lands. Our outward prosperity, un-
 
 ADDRESS. 27 
 
 accompanied with proportionate moral and 
 mental improvement, becomes a mighty im- 
 pulse to intemperance, and this impulse the 
 prosperous are bound to withstand. 
 
 I proceed to another cause of intempe- 
 rance among the poor and laboring classes, 
 and that is the general sensuality and earth- 
 liness of the community. There is indeed 
 much virtue, much spirituality, in the prosper- 
 ous classes, but it is generally unseen. There 
 is a vastly greater amount in these classes 
 of worldliness, of devotion to the senses, 
 and this stands out in bold relief. The 
 majority live unduly for the body. Where 
 there is little intemperance in the common 
 acceptation of that term, there is yet a great 
 amount of excess. Thousands, who are never 
 drunk, place their chief happiness in pleas- 
 ures of the table. How much of the intellect 
 of this community is palsied, how much of 
 the expression of the countenance blotted 
 out, how much of the spirit buried, through 
 unwise indulgence ! What is the great lesson, 
 which the more prosperous classes teach to
 
 28 ADDRESS. 
 
 the poorer ? Not self-denial, not spirituality, 
 not the great Christian truth, that human 
 happiness lies in the triumphs of the mind 
 over the body, in inward force and life. 
 The poorer are taught by the richer, that 
 the greatest good is ease, indulgence. The 
 voice which descends from the prosperous, 
 contradicts the lessons of Christ and of sound 
 philosophy. It is the sensuality, the earthli- 
 ness of those who give the tone to public 
 sentiment, which is chargeable with a vast 
 amount of the intemperance of the poor. 
 How is the poor man to resist intemperance ? 
 Only by a moral force, an energy of will, a 
 principle of self-denial in his soul. And 
 where is this taught him? Does a higher 
 morality come to him from those whose con- 
 dition makes them his superiors? The great 
 inquiry which he hears among the better 
 educated is, What shall we eat and drink, and 
 wherewithal shall we be clothed ? Unceas- 
 ing struggles for outward, earthly, sensual 
 good, constitute the chief activity, which he 
 sees around him. To suppose that the poorer
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 classes should receive lessons of luxury and 
 self-indulgence from the more prosperous, 
 and should yet resist the most urgent temp- 
 tations to excess, is to expect from them a 
 moral force, in which we feel ourselves to be 
 sadly wanting. In their hard conflicts, how 
 little of life-giving truth, of elevating thought, 
 of heavenly aspiration, do they receive from 
 those above them in worldly condition. 
 
 Another cause of intemperance is the want 
 of self-respect which the present state of so- 
 ciety induces among the poor and laborious. 
 Just as far as wealth is the object of worship, 
 the measure of men's importance, the badge of 
 distinction, so far there will be a tendency to 
 self-contempt and self-abandonment among 
 those whose lot gives them no chance of its 
 acquisition. Such naturally feel as if the 
 great good of life were denied them. They 
 see themselves neglected. Their condition 
 cuts them off from communication with the 
 improved. They think they have little stake 
 in the general weal. They do not feel as 
 if they had a character to lose. Nothing
 
 30 ADDRESS. 
 
 reminds them of the greatness of their na- 
 ture. Nothing teaches them, that in their 
 obscure lot they may secure the highest 
 good on earth. Catching from the general 
 tone of society the ruinous notion, that wealth 
 is honor as well as happiness, they see in 
 their narrow lot nothing to inspire self-re- 
 spect. In this delusion, they are not more 
 degraded than the prosperous ; they but 
 echo the voice of society ; but to them the 
 delusion brings a deeper, immediate ruin. By 
 sinking them in their own eyes, it robs them 
 of a powerful protection against low vices. It 
 prepares them for coarse manners, for gross 
 pleasures, for descent to brutal degradation. 
 Of all classes of society, the poor should be 
 treated with peculiar deference, as the means 
 of counteracting their chief peril ; I mean, the 
 
 i 
 
 loss of self-respect. But to all their other 
 evil is added peculiar neglect. Can we then 
 wonder that they fall ? 
 
 I might name other causes in our social 
 constitution favoring intemperance; but I 
 must pass them, and will suggest one char-
 
 ADDRESS. 31 
 
 acteristic of our times which increases all 
 the tendences to this vice. Our times are 
 distinguished by what is called a love of ex- 
 citement ; in other words, by a love of strong 
 stimulants. To be stimulated, excited, is the 
 universal want. The calmness, sobriety, 
 plodding industry of our fathers have been 
 succeeded by a feverish restlessness. The 
 books that are read are not the great, stand- 
 ard, immortal works of genius, which re- 
 quire calm thought, and inspire deep feeling ; 
 but ephemeral works, which are run through 
 with a rail-road rapidity, and which give a 
 pleasure not unlike that produced by exhila- 
 rating draughts. Business is become a race, 
 and is hurried on by the excitement of great 
 risks, and the hope of great profits. Even 
 religion partakes the general restlessness. 
 In some places, extravagant measures, which 
 storm the nervous system, and drive the 
 more sensitive to the borders of insanity, 
 are resorted to for its promotion. Every 
 where people go to church to be excited 
 rather than improved. This thirst for stim-
 
 32 ADDRESS. 
 
 ulants cannot be shut up in certain spheres. 
 It spreads through and characterises the 
 community. It pervades those classes, who, 
 unhappily, can afford themselves but one 
 strong stimulus, intoxicating liquor ; and 
 among these, the spirit of the age breaks 
 out in intemperance. 
 
 IV. I have now set before you some of 
 the causes of intemperance in our present 
 social state ; and this I have done that you 
 may feel that society, in all its ranks, espec- 
 ially in the highest, is bound in justice to 
 resist the evil ; and not only justice, but be- 
 nevolence pleads with us to spare no efforts 
 for its prevention or cure. The thought that 
 in the bosom of our society, are multitudes 
 standing on the brink of perdition, multitudes 
 who are strongly tempted to debase and de- 
 stroy their rational nature, to sink into brutal 
 excess, to seal their ruin in this world and in 
 the world to come, ought to weigh on us as 
 a burden, ought to inspire deeper concern 
 than the visitation of pestilence, ought to
 
 
 ADDRESS. 33 
 
 rouse every man, who has escaped this deg- 
 radation, to do what he may to rescue the 
 fallen, and still more, to save the falling. 
 
 The question now comes, how shall we ar- 
 rest, how suppress this great evil ? Such is 
 our last enquiry, and to this I answer, there 
 are two modes of action. To rescue men, 
 we must act on them inwardly or outwardly. 
 We must either give them strength within to 
 withstand the temptations to intemperance, 
 or we must remove these temptations with- 
 out. We must increase the power of resist- 
 ance, or diminish the pressure which is to be 
 resisted. Both modes of influence are use- 
 ful, but the first incalculably the most impor- 
 tant. No man is safe against this foe, but 
 he who is armed with moral force, with 
 strength in his own soul, with the might of 
 principle, and a virtuous will. The great 
 means, then, of repressing intemperance in 
 those portions of society which are most ex- 
 posed to it, is to communicate to them, or 
 awaken in them, moral strength, the power 
 of self-denial, a nobler and more vigorous
 
 34 ADDRESS. 
 
 action of conscience and religious principle. 
 In other words, to save the laboring and poor 
 from intemperance, we must set in action 
 amongst them, the means of intellectual, 
 moral, and religious improvement. We 
 must strive to elevate them as rational and 
 moral beings, to unfold their highest nature. 
 It is idle to think, that whilst these classes 
 remain the same in other respects, they can 
 be cured of intemperance. Intemperance 
 does not stand alone in their condition and 
 character. It is a part or sign of general 
 degradation. It can only be effectually re- 
 moved by exalting their whole character and 
 condition. To heal a diseased limb or or- 
 gan, you must relieve and strengthen the 
 whole body. So it is with the mind. We 
 cannot, if we would, remove those vices 
 from the poor, which are annoying to our- 
 selves, and leave them, in other respects, as 
 corrupt as before. Nothing but a general 
 improvement of their nature, can fortify them 
 against the crimes which make them scourges 
 alike to themselves, and to their race.
 
 ADDRESS. 35 
 
 And how may moral strength, force of 
 principle, be communicated to the less pros- 
 perous classes of society ? I answer first, 
 the surest means is, to increase it among the 
 more favored. All classes of a community 
 have connexions, sympathies. Let selfish- 
 ness and sensuality reign among the pros- 
 perous and educated, and the poor and un- 
 educated will reflect these vices in grosser 
 forms. That man is the best friend to tem- 
 perance among high and low, whose charac- 
 ter and life express clearly and strongly moral 
 energy, self-denial, superiority to the body, 
 superiority to wealth, elevation of sentiment 
 and principle. The greatest benefactor to 
 society is not he who serves it by single acts, 
 but whose general character is the manifest- 
 ation of a higher life and spirit than pervades 
 the mass. Such men are the salt of the 
 earth. The might of individual virtue sur- 
 passes all other powers. The multiplication 
 of individuals of true force and dignity of 
 mind, would be the surest of all omens of the 
 suppression of intemperance in every condi- 
 tion of society.
 
 36 ADDRESS. 
 
 Another means is, the cultivation of a more 
 fraternal intercourse than now exists between 
 the more and less improved portions of the 
 community. Our present social barriers and 
 distinctions, in so far as they restrict sympa- 
 thy, and substitute the spirit of caste, the 
 bigotry of rank, for the spirit of humanity, 
 for reverence of our common nature, ought 
 to be reprobated as gross violations of the 
 Christian law. Those classes of society which 
 have light, strength, and virtue, are bound to 
 communicate these to such as want them. 
 The weak, ignorant, falling and fallen ought 
 not to be cut off from their more favored 
 brethren, ought not to be left to act continu- 
 ally and exclusively on one another, and thus 
 to propagate their crimes and woes without 
 end. The good should form a holy con- 
 spiracy against evil, should assail it by sep- 
 arate and joint exertion, should approach it, 
 study it, weep and pray over it, and throw all 
 their souls into efforts for its removal. My 
 friends, you whom God has prospered, whom 
 he has enlightened, in whose hearts he has
 
 ADDRESS. 37 
 
 awakened a reverence for himself, what are 
 you doing for the fallen, the falling, the mis- 
 erable of your race ? When an improved 
 Christian thinks of the mass of unpitied, un- 
 friended guilt in this city, must he not be 
 shocked at the hardness of all our hearts ? 
 Are we not all of one blood, one nature, one 
 heavenly descent ; and are outward distinc- 
 tions, which to-morrow are to be buried for- 
 ever in the tomb, to divide us from one 
 another, to cut off the communications of 
 brotherly sympathy and aid ? In a Christian 
 community, not one human being should be 
 left to fall, without counsel, remonstrance, 
 sympathy, encouragement, from others more 
 enlightened and virtuous than himself. Say 
 not this cannot be done. I know it cannot 
 be done without great changes in our habits, 
 views, feelings ; but these changes must be 
 made. A new bond must unite the scattered 
 portions of men. A new sense of responsi- 
 bility must stir up the enlightened, the pros- 
 perous, the virtuous. Christianity demands 
 this. The progress of society demands it. 
 5
 
 38 ADDRESS. 
 
 I see blessed omens of this, and they are 
 among the brightest features of our times. 
 Again, to elevate and strengthen the more 
 exposed classes of society, it is indispensable 
 that a Higher Education should be afforded 
 them. We boast of the means of education 
 afforded to the poorest here. It may be said 
 with truth, in regard to both rich and poor, 
 that these means are very deficient. As to 
 moral education, hardly any provisions are 
 made for it in our public schools. To edu- 
 cate is something more than to teach those 
 elements of knowledge which are needed to 
 get a subsistence. It is to exercise and call 
 out the higher faculties and affections of a 
 human being. Education is not the author- 
 itative, compulsory, mechanical training of 
 passive pupils, but the influence of gifted and 
 quickening minds on the spirits of the young. 
 Such education is, as yet, sparingly enjoyed, 
 and cannot be too fervently desired. Of 
 what use, let me ask, is the wealth of this 
 community, but to train up a better genera- 
 tion than ourselves ? Of what use, I ask, is
 
 ADDRESS. 39 
 
 freedom, except to call forth the best powers 
 of all classes and of every individual ? What, 
 but human improvement, is the great end of 
 society ? Why ought we to sustain so anx- 
 iously republican institutions, if they do not 
 tend to form a nobler race of men, and to 
 spread nobleness through all conditions of 
 social life ? It is a melancholy and prevalent 
 error among us, that persons in the labor- 
 ing classes, are denied by their conditions 
 any considerable intellectual improvement. 
 They must live, it is thought, to work, 
 not to fulfil the great end of a human being, 
 which is to unfold his divinest powers and 
 affections. But it is not so. The poor- 
 est child might, and ought to have liberal 
 means of self-improvement ; and were there 
 a true reverence among us for human nature 
 and for Christianity, he would find them. In 
 a letter, recently received from a most intel- 
 ligent traveller in Germany, I am informed, 
 that in certain parts of that country, there is 
 found, in the most depressed classes, a degree 
 of intellectual culture, not generally supposed
 
 40 ADDRESS. 
 
 to consist with their lot ; that a sense of the 
 beautiful in nature and art produces much 
 happiness in a portion of society, which 
 among us is thought to be disqualified for 
 this innocent and elevated pleasure ; that the 
 teaching in Sunday schools is in some places 
 more various than here, and that a collection 
 of books, and a degree of scientific know- 
 ledge may be met in cottages far inferior 
 to the dwellings of our husbandmen. " In 
 short," my friend adds, " I have seen abundant 
 proof, that intellectual culture, as found here, 
 spreads its light and comfort through a class, 
 that hardly exists at all with us, or where it 
 does exist, is generally supposed to labor un- 
 der a degree of physical wretchedness incon- 
 sistent with such culture." Information of 
 this kind should breathe new hope into philan- 
 thropic labors for the intellectual and moral 
 life of every class in society. How much 
 may be done in this city to spread know- 
 ledge, vigor of thought, the sense of beauty, 
 the pleasures of the imagination and the fine 
 arts, and above all, the influences of religion,
 
 ADD RE S S. 41 
 
 through our whole community ! Were the 
 prosperous and educated to learn, that after 
 providing for their families, they cannot bet- 
 ter employ their possessions and influence, 
 than in forwarding the improvement and ele- 
 vation of society, how soon would this city 
 be regenerated ! How many generous spirits 
 might be enlisted here by a wise bounty in 
 the work of training their fellow-creatures! 
 Wealth cannot be better used, than in res- 
 cuing men of vigorous and disinterested 
 minds from worldly toils and cares, in giving 
 them time and opportunity for generous self- 
 culture, and in enabling them to devote their 
 whole strength and being to a like culture of 
 their race. The surest mark of a true civili- 
 zation is, that the arts which minister to sen- 
 suality decrease, and spiritual employments 
 are multiplied, or that more and more of the 
 highest ability in the state is withdrawn from 
 labors for the animal life, and consecrated 
 to the work of calling forth the intellect, the 
 imagination, the conscience, the pure affec- 
 tions, the moral energy of the community at 
 large, and especially, of the young. What is
 
 42 ADDRESS. 
 
 now wasted among us in private show and 
 luxury, if conscientiously and wisely devoted 
 to the furnishing of means of generous cul- 
 ture to all classes among us, would render 
 this city the wonder and joy of the whole 
 earth. What is thus wasted might supply 
 not only the means of education in the sci- 
 ences, but in the refined arts. Music might 
 here be spread as freely as in Germany, and 
 be made a lightener of toil, a cheerer of 
 society, a relief of loneliness, a solace in 
 the poorest dwellings. Still more, what we 
 now waste would furnish this city, in a 
 course of years, with the chief attractions of 
 Paris, with another Louvre, and with a Gar- 
 den of Plants, where the gifted of all classes 
 might have opportunity to cultivate the love 
 of nature and art. Happily, the cause of a 
 higher education begins to find friends here. 
 Thanks to that enlightened and noble-minded 
 son of Boston, whose ashes now slumber on 
 a foreign shore, but who has left to his birth- 
 place a testimony of filial love, in his munifi- 
 cent bequest for the diffusion of liberal in-
 
 ADDRESS. 43 
 
 struction through this metropolis. Honored 
 be the name of Lowell, the intellectual ben- 
 efactor of his native city ! A community, di- 
 recting its energies chiefly to a higher edu- 
 cation of its rising members, to a generous 
 development of human nature, would achieve 
 what as yet has not entered human thought ; 
 and it is for this end, that we ought to labor. 
 Our show, and our luxury, how contemptible 
 in comparison with the improvement of our 
 families, neighborhood, and race! 
 
 Allow me here to express an earnest de- 
 sire, that our legislators, provoked to jeal- 
 ousy by the spirit of improvement in other 
 states, and moved by zeal for the ancient 
 honor of this Commonwealth, may adopt 
 some strong measures for the advancement 
 of education among us. We need an insti- 
 tution for the formation of better teachers ; 
 and until this step is taken, we can make no 
 important progress. The most crying want 
 in this Commonwealth is the want of ac- 
 complished teachers. We boast of our 
 schools ; but our schools do comparatively
 
 44 ADDRESS. 
 
 little, for want of educated instructors. With- 
 out good teaching, a school is but a name. 
 An institution for training men to train the 
 young, would be a fountain of living waters, 
 sending forth streams to refresh present and 
 future ages. As yet, our legislators have 
 denied to the poor and laboring classes this 
 principal means of their elevation. We trust 
 they will not always prove blind to the highest 
 interest of the state. 
 
 We want better teachers and more teach- 
 ers for all classes of society, for rich and 
 poor, for children and adults. We want that 
 the resources of the community should be 
 directed to the procuring of better instruc- 
 tors as its highest concern. One of the 
 surest signs of the regeneration of society 
 will be, the elevation of the art of teaching to 
 the highest rank in the community. When 
 a people shall learn, that its greatest benefac- 
 tors and most important members are men 
 devoted to the liberal instruction of all its 
 classes, to the work of raising to life its 
 buried intellect, it will have opened to itself
 
 ADDRESS. 45 
 
 the path of true glory. This truth is mak- 
 ing its way. Socrates is now regarded as 
 the greatest man in an age of great men. 
 The name of King has grown dim before 
 that of Apostle. To teach, whether by 
 word or action, is the highest function on 
 earth. It is commonly supposed, that in- 
 structers are needed only in the earlier years 
 of life. But ought the education of a human 
 being ever to cease ? And may it not always 
 be forwarded by good instruction ? Some of 
 us, indeed, can dispense with all teachers 
 save the silent book. But to the great ma- 
 jority, the voice of living teachers is an in- 
 dispensable means of cultivation. The dis- 
 covery and supply of this want would give 
 a new aspect to a community. Nothing is 
 more needed, than that men of superior gifts 
 and of benevolent spirit, should devote them- 
 selves to the instruction of the less enlight- 
 ened classes in the great end of life, in the 
 dignity of their nature, in their rights and 
 duties, in the history, laws, and institu- 
 tions of their country, in the philosophy 
 6
 
 46 ADDRESS. 
 
 of their employments, in the laws, harmonies 
 and productions of outward nature and 
 especially, in the art of bringing up chil- 
 dren in health of body, and in vigor and pu- 
 rity of mind. We need a new profession or 
 vocation, the object of which shall be to wake 
 up the intellect in those spheres where it is 
 now buried in habitual slumber. We honor, 
 and cannot too much honor the philanthro- 
 pist, who endows permanent institutions for 
 the relief of human suffering ; but not less 
 good, I apprehend, would be accomplished 
 by enquiring for and seizing on men of 
 superior ability and disinterestedness, and by 
 sending them forth to act immediately on 
 society. A philanthropist, who should libe- 
 rally afford to one such man the means 
 of devoting himself to the cultivation of the 
 poorer classes of society, would confer inval- 
 uable good. One gifted man, with his heart 
 in the work, who should live among the 
 uneducated, to spread useful knowledge and 
 quickening truth, by conversation and books, 
 by frank and friendly intercourse, by en-
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 couraging meetings for improvement, by 
 forming the more teachable into classes 
 and giving to these the animation of his 
 presence and guidance, by bringing parents 
 to an acquaintance with the principles of 
 physical, intellectual and moral education, 
 by instructing families in the means and 
 condition of health, by using, in a word, 
 all the methods which an active, gene- 
 rous mind would discover or invent for 
 awakening intelligence and moral life ; one 
 gifted man, so devoted, might impart a new 
 tone and spirit to a considerable circle ; and 
 what would be the result, were such men to be 
 multiplied and combined, so that a commu- 
 nity might be pervaded by their influence ? 
 We owe much to the writings of men of 
 genius, piety, science and exalted virtue. 
 But most of these remain shut up in narrow 
 spheres. We want a class of liberal in- 
 structors, whose vocation it shall be to place 
 the views of the most enlightened minds 
 within the reach of a more and more exten- 
 sive portion of their fellow-creatures. The
 
 48 ADDRESS. 
 
 wealth of a community should flow out like 
 water for the preparation and employment of 
 such teachers, for enlisting powerful and gen- 
 erous minds in the work of giving impulse to 
 their race. Jesus Christ, in instituting the 
 ministry laid the foundation of the intellectual 
 and moral agency which I now urge. On this 
 foundation we ought to build more and more, 
 until a life-giving influence shall penetrate all 
 classes of society. What a painful thought 
 is it, that such an immense amount of intel- 
 lectual and moral power, of godlike energy, 
 is this very moment lying dead among us ! 
 Can we do nothing for its resurrection ? 
 Until this be done, we may lop off the 
 branches of intemperance ; but its root will 
 live ; and happy shall we be if its poisonous 
 shade do not again darken our land. Let it 
 not be said that the laborious can find no 
 time for such instruction as is now proposed. 
 More or less leisure, if sought, can be found 
 in almost every life. JNor let it be said that 
 men, able and disposed to carry on this work, 
 must not be looked for in such a world as
 
 ADDRESS. 49 
 
 ours. Christianity, which has wrought so 
 many miracles of beneficence, which has 
 sent forth so many apostles and martyrs, so 
 many Howards and Clarksons, can raise up 
 laborers for this harvest also. Nothing is 
 needed but a new pouring out of the spirit 
 of Christian love, nothing but a new compre- 
 hension of the brotherhood of the human 
 race, to call forth efforts which seem impos- 
 sibilities in a self-seeking and self-indulging 
 age. 
 
 I will add but one more means of giving 
 moral power and general improvement to 
 those portions of the community, in which 
 intemperance finds its chief victims. We 
 must not only promote education in general, 
 but especially send among them Christian 
 instruction, Christian teachers, who shall be 
 wholly devoted to their spiritual welfare. 
 And here, I cannot but express my joy at 
 the efforts made for establishing a ministry 
 among the poor in this and other cities. 
 Though not sustained as it should be, it yet 
 subsists in sufficient vigor to show what it
 
 50 ADDRESS. 
 
 can accomplish. I regard this institution, 
 as among the happiest omens of our times. 
 It shows, that the spirit of him who came to 
 seek and to save that which was lost, is not 
 dead among us. Christianity is the mighty 
 power before which intemperance is to fall. 
 Christianity, faithfully preached, assails and 
 withstands this vice, by appealing, as nothing 
 else can, to men's hopes and fears, by speak- 
 ing to the conscience in the name of the 
 Almighty Judge, by speaking to the heart in 
 the name of the Merciful Father, by proffer- 
 ing strength to human weakness and pardon to 
 human guilt, by revealing to men an immor- 
 tal nature within, and an eternal state before 
 them, by spreading over this life a bright- 
 ness borrowed from the life to come, by 
 awakening generous affections, and binding 
 man by new ties to God arid his race. 
 But Christianity, to fulfil this part of its mis- 
 sion, to reach those who are most exposed 
 to intemperance, must not only speak in the 
 churches where these are seldom found, 
 but must enter their dwellings in the per-
 
 ADDRESS. 51 
 
 sons of its ministers, must commune with 
 them in the language of friendship, must 
 take their children under its guardianship 
 and control. The ministry for the poor, 
 sustained by men worthy of the function, 
 will prove one of the most powerful bar- 
 riers ever raised against intemperance. 
 
 The means of suppressing this vice, on 
 which I have hitherto insisted, have for their 
 object to strengthen and elevate the whole 
 character of the classes most exposed to in- 
 temperance. I would now suggest a few 
 means fitted to accomplish the same end, 
 by diminishing or removing the temptations 
 to this vice. 
 
 The first means, which I shall suggest of 
 placing a people beyond the temptations to 
 intemperance is to furnish them with the 
 means of innocent pleasure. This topic, I 
 apprehend, has not been sufficiently insisted 
 on. I feel its importance and propose to 
 enlarge upon it, though some of the topics 
 which I may introduce may seem to some 
 hardly consistent with the gravity of this oc-
 
 52 ADDRESS. 
 
 casion. We ought not, however, to respect 
 the claims of that gravity which prevents a 
 faithful exposition of what may serve and 
 improve our fellow creatures. 
 
 I have said, a people should be guarded 
 against temptation to unlawful pleasures by 
 furnishing the means of innocent ones. By 
 innocent pleasures I mean such as excite 
 moderately ; such as produce a cheerful 
 frame of mind, not boisterous mirth ; such 
 as refresh, instead of exhausting the system ; 
 such as recur frequently, rather than con- 
 tinue long ; such as send us back to our 
 daily duties invigorated in body and in spirit ; 
 such as we can partake in the presence and 
 society of respectable friends ; such as con- 
 sist with and are favorable to a grateful piety ; 
 such as are chastened by self-respect, and 
 are accompanied with the consciousness, that 
 life has a higher end than to be amused. 
 In every community there must be pleasures, 
 relaxations and means of agreeable excite- 
 ment ; and if innocent ones are not fur- 
 nished, resort will be had to criminal. Man
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 was made to enjoy, as well as to labor ; and 
 the state of society should be adapted to this 
 principle of human nature, France, espec- 
 ially before the revolution, has been repre- 
 sented as a singularly temperate country ; a 
 fact to be explained, at least in part, by the 
 constitutional cheerfulness of that people, 
 and by the prevalence of simple and inno- 
 cent gratifications, especially among the 
 peasantry. Men drink to excess very often 
 to shake off depression, or to satisfy the 
 restless thirst for agreeable excitement, and 
 these motives are excluded in a cheerful 
 community. A gloomy state of society, 
 in which there are few innocent recrea- 
 tions, may be expected to abound in drunk- 
 enness, if opportunities are afforded. The 
 savage drinks to excess, because his hours 
 of sobriety are dull and unvaried, because, 
 in losing the consciousness of his condi- 
 tion and his existence, he loses little which 
 he wishes to retain. The laboring classes 
 are most exposed to intemperance, because 
 they have at present few other pleasurable 
 7
 
 54 ADDRESS. 
 
 excitements. A man, who, after toil, has 
 resources of blameless recreation, is less 
 tempted than other men to seek self-obliv- 
 ion. He has too many of the pleasures of 
 a man, to take up with those of a brute. 
 Thus the encouragement of simple, innocent 
 enjoyments is an important means of tempe- 
 rance. 
 
 These remarks show the importance of 
 encouraging the efforts, which have com- 
 menced among us, for spreading the accom- 
 plishment of Music through our whole com- 
 munity. It is now proposed that this shall 
 be made a regular branch in our schools ; 
 and every friend of the people must wish 
 success to the experiment. I am not now 
 called to speak of all the good influences of 
 music, particularly of the strength which it 
 may and ought to give to the religious senti- 
 ment, and to all pure and generous emotions. 
 Regarded merely as a refined pleasure, it 
 has a favorable bearing on public morals. 
 Let taste and skill in this beautiful art be 
 spread among us, and every family will have
 
 ADDRESS. 55 
 
 a new resource. Home will gain a new at- 
 traction. Social intercourse will be more 
 cheerful, and an innocent public amusement 
 will be furnished to the community. Public 
 amusements, bringing multitudes together to 
 kindle with one emotion, to share the same 
 innocent joy, have a humanizing influence ; 
 and among these bonds of society, perhaps 
 no one produces so much unmixed good as 
 music. What a fulness of enjoyment has our 
 Creator placed within our reach, by surround- 
 ing us with an atmosphere which may be 
 shaped into sweet sounds ? And yet this 
 goodness is almost lost upon us, through 
 want of culture of the organ by which this 
 provision is to be enjoyed. 
 
 Dancing is an amusement, which has 
 been discouraged in our country by many of 
 the best people, and not without reason. 
 Dancing is associated in their minds with 
 balls ; and this is one of the worst forms of 
 social pleasure. The time consumed in prep- 
 aration for a ball, the waste of thought upon 
 it, the extravagance of dress, the late hours,
 
 56 ADDRESS. 
 
 the exhaustion of strength, the exposure of 
 health, and the languor of the succeeding 
 day, these and other evils, connected with 
 this amusement, are strong reasons for ban- 
 ishing it from the community. But dancing 
 ought not therefore to be proscribed. On the 
 contrary, balls should be discouraged for this 
 among other reasons, that dancing, instead 
 of being a rare pleasure, requiring elaborate 
 preparation, may become an every day 
 amusement, and may mix with our common 
 intercourse. This exercise is among the 
 most healthful. The body as well as the 
 mind feels its gladdening influence. No 
 amusement seems more to have a foundation 
 in our nature. The animation of youth nat- 
 urally overflows in harmonious movements. 
 The true idea of dancing entitles it to favor. 
 Its end is, to realize perfect grace in motion ; 
 and who does not know, that a sense of the 
 graceful is one of the higher faculties of our 
 nature ? It is to be desired, that dancing 
 should become too common among us to be 
 made the object of special preparation as in
 
 ADDRESS. 57 
 
 the ball ; that members of the same family, 
 when confined by unfavorable weather, 
 should recur to it for exercise and exhilara- 
 tion ; that branches of the same family should 
 enliven in this way their occasional meetings ; 
 that it should fill up an hour in all the as- 
 semblages for relaxation, in which the young 
 form a part. It is to be desired, that this 
 accomplishment should be extended to the 
 laboring classes of society, not only as an 
 innocent pleasure, but as a means of im- 
 proving the manners. Why shall not grace- 
 fulness be spread through the whole com- 
 munity ? From the French nation, we learn 
 that a degree of grace and refinement of 
 manners may pervade all classes. The phi- 
 lanthropist and Christian must desire to 
 break down the partition walls between hu- 
 man beings in different conditions ; and one 
 means of doing this is, to remove the con- 
 scious awkwardness, which confinement to 
 laborious occupations is apt to induce. An 
 accomplishment, giving free and graceful 
 movement, though a far weaker bond than
 
 58 ADDRESS. 
 
 intellectual or moral culture, still does some- 
 thing to bring those who partake it, near 
 each other. 
 
 I approach another subject, on which a 
 greater variety of opinion exists than on the 
 last, and that is the Theatre. In its present 
 state, the theatre deserves no encourage- 
 ment. It is an accumulation of immoral in- 
 fluences. It has nourished intemperance 
 and all vice. In saying this, I do not say 
 that the amusement is radically, essentially 
 evil. I can conceive of a theatre, which 
 would be the noblest of all amusements, and 
 would take a high rank among the means of 
 refining the taste and elevating the character 
 of a people. The deep woes, the mighty and 
 terrible passions, and the sublime emotions of 
 genuine tragedy, are fitted to thrill us with 
 human sympathies, with profound interest in 
 our nature, with a consciousness of what man 
 can do and dare and suffer, with an awed 
 feeling of the fearful mysteries of life. 
 The soul of the spectator is stirred from 
 its depths ; and the lethargy, in which so
 
 ADDRESS. 59 
 
 many live, is roused, at least for a time, 
 to some intenseness of thought and sen- 
 sibility. The drama answers a high pur- 
 pose, when it places us in the presence 
 of the most solemn and striking events 
 of human history, and lays bare to us 
 the human heart in its most powerful, ap- 
 palling, glorious workings. But how little 
 does the theatre accomplish its end ? How 
 often is it disgraced by monstrous distortions 
 of human nature, and still more disgraced by 
 profaneness, coarseness, indelicacy, low wit, 
 such as no woman, worthy of the name, can 
 hear without a blush, and no man can take 
 pleasure in without self-degradation. Is it 
 possible that a Christian and a refined peo- 
 ple can resort to theatres, where exhibitions 
 of dancing are given fit only for brothels, 
 and where the most licentious class in the 
 community throng unconcealed to tempt and 
 destroy ? That the theatre should be suf- 
 fered to exist in its present degradation is a 
 reproach to the community. Were it to fall, 
 a better drama might spring up in its place.
 
 60 ADDRESS. 
 
 In the mean time, is there not an amuse- 
 ment, having an affinity with the drama, 
 which might be usefully introduced among 
 us? I mean, Recitation. A work of gen- 
 ius, recited by a man of fine taste, enthu- 
 siasm, and powers of elocution, is a very 
 pure and high gratification. Were this art 
 cultivated and encouraged, great numbers, 
 now insensible to the most beautiful com- 
 positions, might be waked up to their ex- 
 cellence and power. It is not easy to 
 conceive of a more effectual way of spread- 
 ing a refined taste through a community. 
 The drama, undoubtedly, appeals more 
 strongly to the passions than recitation ; 
 but the latter brings out the meaning of 
 the author more. Shakespeare, worthily 
 recited, would be better understood than on 
 the stage. Then, in recitation, we escape 
 the weariness of listening to poor perform- 
 ers, who, after all, fill up most of the time at 
 the theatre. Recitation, sufficiently varied, 
 so as to include pieces of chaste wit, as well 
 of pathos, beauty and sublimity, is adapted
 
 AtfORESS. 61 
 
 to our present intellectual progress, as much 
 as the drama falls below it. Should this 
 exhibition be introduced among us success- 
 fully, the result would be, that the power of 
 recitation would be extensively called forth, 
 and this would be added to our social and 
 domestic pleasures. 
 
 I have spoken in this discourse of intel- 
 lectual culture, as a defence against intem- 
 perance, by giving force and elevation to the 
 mind. It also does great good as a source 
 of amusement ; and on this ground should 
 be spread through the community. A culti- 
 vated mind may be said to have infinite 
 stores of innocent gratification. Every thing 
 may be made interesting to it, by becoming 
 a subject of thought or enquiry. Books, 
 regarded merely as a gratification, are worth 
 more than all the luxuries on earth. A taste 
 for literature secures cheerful occupation 
 for the unemployed and languid hours of life ; 
 and how many persons, in these hours, for 
 want of innocent resources, are now impelled 
 to coarse and brutal pleasures. How many 
 8
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 young men can be found in this city, who, 
 unaccustomed to find a companion in a book, 
 and strangers to intellectual activity, are al- 
 most driven, in the long dull evenings of win- 
 ter, to haunts of intemperance, and depraving 
 society. It is one of the good signs of the 
 times, that lectures on literature and science 
 are taking their place among our public 
 amusements, and attract even more than 
 theatres. This is one of the first fruits of 
 our present intellectual culture. What a 
 harvest may we hope for from its wider dif- 
 fusion ! 
 
 In these remarks, I have insisted on the 
 importance of increasing innocent gratifica- 
 tions in a community. Let us become a 
 more cheerful, and we shall become a more 
 temperate people. To increase our suscep- 
 tiblity of innocent pleasure, and to remove 
 many of the sufferings which tempt to evil 
 habits, it would be well if physical, as well 
 as moral education were to receive greater 
 attention. There is a puny, half-healthy, 
 half-diseased state of the body, too common
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 63 
 
 among us, which, by producing melancholy 
 and restlessness, and by weakening the energy 
 of the will, is a strong incitement to the use of 
 hurtful stimulants. Many a case of intem- 
 perance has had its origin in bodily infirmity. 
 Physical vigor is not only valuable for its 
 own sake, but it favors temperance, by open- 
 ing the mind to cheerful impressions, and by 
 removing those indescribable feelings of sink- 
 ing, disquiet, depression, which experience 
 alone can enable you to understand. I have 
 pleaded for mental culture ; but nothing is 
 gained by sacrificing the body to the mind. 
 Let not intellectual education be sought at 
 the expense of health. Let not our children 
 in their early years be instructed, as is too 
 common, in close, unventilated rooms, where 
 they breathe for hours a tainted air. Our 
 whole nature must be cared for. We must 
 become a more cheerful, animated people ; 
 and for this end we must propose, in our sys- 
 tems of education, the invigoration of both 
 body and mind. 
 
 I am aware that the views now expressed
 
 64 ADDRESS. 
 
 may not find unmixed favor with all the 
 friends of temperance. To some, perhaps 
 to many, religion and amusement seem mu- 
 tually hostile, and he who pleads for the one, 
 may fall under suspicion of unfaithfulness to 
 the other. But to fight against our nature, 
 is not to serve the cause of piety or sound 
 morals. God, who gave us our nature, who 
 has constituted body and mind incapable of 
 continued effort, who has implanted a strong 
 desire for recreation after labor, who has 
 made us for smiles much more than for 
 tears, who has made laughter the most con- 
 tagious of all sounds, whose Son hallowed a 
 marriage feast by his presence and sympathy, 
 who has sent the child fresh from his creat- 
 ing hand to develope its nature by active 
 sports, and who has endowed both young and 
 old with a keen susceptibility of enjoyment 
 from wit and humor, He, who has thus 
 formed us, cannot have intended us for a 
 dull, monotonous life, and cannot frown on 
 pleasures which solace our fatigue and re- 
 fresh our spirits for coming toils. It is not
 
 ADDRESS. 65 
 
 only possible to reconcile amusement with 
 duty, but to make it the means of more ani- 
 mated exertion, more faithful attachments, 
 more grateful piety. True religion is at 
 once authoritative and benign. It calls us to 
 suffer, to die, rather than to swerve a hair's 
 breadth from what God enjoins as right and 
 good ; but it teaches us, that it is right and 
 good, in ordinary circumstances, to unite re- 
 laxation with toil, to accept God's gifts with 
 cheerfulness, and to lighten the heart, in the 
 intervals of exertion, by social pleasures. 
 A religion, giving dark views of God, and in- 
 fusing superstitious fear of innocent enjoy- 
 ment, instead of aiding sober habits, will, by 
 making men abject and sad, impair their 
 moral force, and prepare them for intempe- 
 rance as a refuge from depression or des- 
 pair. 
 
 Two other means remain to be mentioned 
 for removing the temptations to intempe- 
 rance, and these are, the discouragement of 
 the use, and the discouragement of the sale 
 of ardent spirits in the community.
 
 66 ADDRESS. 
 
 First, we should discourage the use of ar- 
 dent spirits in the community. It is very 
 plain, too plain to be insisted on, that to re- 
 move what intoxicates, is to remove intoxi- 
 cation. In proportion as ardent spirits are 
 banished from our houses, our tables, our 
 hospitalities, in proportion as those who 
 have influence and authority in the commu- 
 nity, abstain themselves, and lead their de- 
 pendents to abstain from their use, in that 
 proportion, the occasions of excess must be 
 diminished, the temptations to it must disap- 
 pear. It is objected, 1 know, that if we begin 
 to give up what others will abuse, we must 
 give up every thing, because there is nothing 
 which men will not abuse. I grant, that it is 
 not easy to define the limits at which conces- 
 sions are to stop. Were we called on to re- 
 linquish an important comfort of life, because 
 others were perverting it into an instrument of 
 crime and wo, we should be bound to pause 
 and deliberate before we act. But no such 
 plea can be set up in the case before us. 
 Ardent spirits are not an important comfort,
 
 ADDRESS. 67 
 
 and in no degree a comfort. They give no 
 strength; they contribute nothing to health; 
 they can be abandoned without the slightest 
 evil. They aid men neither to bear the bur- 
 den nor to discharge the duties of life ; and in 
 saying this, I stop short of the truth. It is 
 not enough to say, that they never do good ; 
 they generally injure. In their moderate use> 
 they act, in general, unfavorably on body 
 and mind. According to respectable physi- 
 cians, they are not digested like food, but 
 circulate unchanged like a poison through 
 the system. Like other poisons, they may 
 occasionally benefit as medicines ; but when 
 made a beverage by the healthy, they never 
 do good ; they generally are pernicious. 
 They are no more intended by providence 
 for drink, than opium is designed for food. 
 Consider next, that ardent spirits are not 
 only without benefit, when moderately used, 
 but that they instigate to immoderate use ; 
 that they beget a craving, a feverish thirst, 
 which multitudes want power to resist ; that 
 in some classes of society, great numbers be-
 
 69 ADDRESS. 
 
 come their victims, are bereft by them of rea- 
 son, are destroyed in body and soul, destroyed 
 here and hereafter ; that families are thus 
 made desolate, parents hurried to a prema- 
 ture grave, and children trained up to crime 
 and shame. Consider all this, and then judge, 
 as in the sight of God, whether you are not 
 bound to use your whole influence in banish- 
 ing the use of spirits, as one of the most 
 pernicious habits from the community. If 
 you were to see, as a consequence of this bev- 
 erage, a loathsome and mortal disease break- 
 ing out occasionally in all ranks, and sweeping 
 away crowds in the most depressed, would you 
 not lift up your voices against it ; and is not 
 an evil more terrible than pestilence, the ac- 
 tual, frequent result of the use of spirituous 
 liquors ? That use you are bound to dis- 
 courage ; and how ? By abstaining wholly 
 yourselves, by excluding ardent spirits wholly 
 from your tables, by giving your whole 
 weight and authority to abstinence. This 
 practical, solemn testimony, borne by the 
 good and respectable, cannot but spread a
 
 A 1) to R E S S. 6 
 
 healthful public sentiment through the whole 
 community. This is especially our duty at 
 the present moment, when a great combined 
 effort of religious and philanthropic men is 
 directed against this evil, and when an im-< 
 pression has been made on the community* 
 surpassing the most sanguine hopes. At the 
 present moment, he who uses ardent spirits, 
 or introduces them into his hospitalities, vir- 
 tually arrays himself against the cause of 
 temperance and humanity. He not merely 
 gives an example to his children and his do- 
 mestics, which he may one day bitterly rue f 
 he withstands the good in their struggles for 
 the virtue and happiness of mankind. He 
 forsakes the standard of social reform, and 
 throws himself into the ranks of its foes. 
 
 After these remarks, it will follow, that we 
 should discourage the sale of ardent spirits. 
 What ought not to be used as a beverage, 
 ought not to be sold as such. What the 
 good of the community requires us to expel, 
 no man has a moral right to supply. That 
 intemperance is dreadfully multiplied by 
 9
 
 70 ADDRESS. 
 
 number of licensed shops for the retailing of 
 spirits, we all know. That these should be 
 shut, every good man desires. Law, how- 
 ever, cannot shut them except in a limited 
 extent, or only in a few favored parts of the 
 country. Law is here the will of the people, 
 and the legislature can do little, unless sus- 
 tained by the public voice. To form, then, 
 an enlightened and vigorous public sentiment, 
 which will demand the suppression of these 
 licensed nurseries of intemperance, is a duty 
 to which every good man is bound, and a 
 service in which each may take a share. And 
 not only should the vending of spirits in these 
 impure haunts be discouraged ; the vending 
 of them by respectable men should be re- 
 garded as a great public evil. The retailer 
 takes shelter under the wholesale dealer, 
 from whom he purchases the pernicious 
 draught ; and has he not a right so to do ? 
 Can we expect that he should shrink from 
 spreading on a small scale, what others 
 spread largely without rebuke ? Can we ex- 
 pect his conscience to be sensitive, when he 
 
 o
 
 ADDRE S S. 71 
 
 treads in the steps of men of reputation? 
 Of the character of those who vend spirits, I 
 do not judge. They grew up in the belief 
 of the innocence of the traffic, and this con- 
 viction they may sincerely retain. But 
 error, though sincere, is error still. Right 
 and wrong do not depend on human judg- 
 ment or human will. Truth and duty may 
 be hidden for ages; but they remain- un- 
 shaken as God's throne ; and when, in the 
 course of his providence, they are made 
 known to one or a few, they must be pro- 
 claimed, whoever may be opposed. Truth, 
 truth, is the hope of the world. Let it be 
 spoken in kindness, but with power. 
 
 Some of the means of withstanding intem- 
 perance have now been stated. Other top- 
 ics, were there time, I should be glad to offer 
 to your attention. But I must pause. I 
 will only add, that every lover of his race 
 has strong encouragement to exert himself 
 for the prevention of intemperance. The 
 striking success of societies instituted for 
 this end should give animation and hope.
 
 7*2 ADDRESS. 
 
 But even had these associations and these 
 efforts failed, I should not despair. From 
 the very terribleness of the evil, we may de- 
 rive incitement and hope in our labors for its 
 suppression. It cannot be, that God has 
 created moral beings to become brutes, or 
 placed them in circumstances irresistibly 
 impelling them to this utter renunciation of 
 the proper good of their nature. There are, 
 there must be means of prevention or cure 
 for this deadliest moral disease. The unhappi- 
 ness is, that too many of us, who call ourselves 
 the friends of temperance, have not virtue and 
 love enough to use powerfully the weapons 
 of the spirit, for the succor of the tempted 
 and fallen. We are ourselves too sensual, to 
 rescue others from sensuality. The differ- 
 ence between us and the intemperate man 
 is too small, to fit us for his deliverance. 
 But that there are means of withstanding in" 
 temperance ; that it is the design and ten* 
 d^ncy of Christianity to raise up men fit and 
 worthy to wield these means ; and that there 
 are always some, who are prepared to lead
 
 ADDRESS. 73 
 
 the way in this holy work, I cannot doubt. 
 I see, indeed, a terrible energy in human ap- 
 petites and passions. But I do not faint. 
 Truth is mightier than error ; virtue, than 
 vice ; God, than the evil man. In contend- 
 ing earnestly against intemperance, we have 
 the help and friendship of Him who is 
 Almighty. We have allies in all that is 
 pure, rational, divine in the human soul, in 
 the progressive intelligence of the age, in 
 whatever elevates public sentiment, in re- 
 ligion, in legislation, in philosophy, in the 
 yearnings of the parent, in the prayers of the 
 Christian, in the teachings of God's house, 
 in the influences of God's Spirit. With 
 these allies, friends, helpers, let good men 
 not despair, but be strong in the faith, that, 
 in due time, they shall reap, if they faint not.

 
 NOTES. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 I was requested, just before delivering this discourse, (o* 
 point out one cause of intemperance in this city, and that 
 is, the lateness of the hours to which our evening parties are 
 continued. In consequence of this usage, a valuable por- 
 tion of the community, the hackney coachmen, are exposed 
 to the intensest cold, to the exhaustion attending want of 
 rest, and to other unfavorable influences, which too often 
 issue in ruinous habits. It is morally wrong, to subject 
 any class of society to such severe temptations. These 
 late hours are, in every view, objectionable. They do 
 much to disturb the order of families. The domestics 
 must sit up late. Of course the habit of early rising is in- 
 terfered with; domestic religion is excluded; and the 
 whole day is often yielded to languor and listlessness, a 
 just punishment of the dissipation of the preceding night. 
 Physicians condemn this custom as injurious to health, es- 
 pecially to the health of young women. This usage is the 
 more to be regretted, as it is one of the manifestations of 
 that propensity to servile imitation of the old world, which 
 exposes our country to the ridicule of foreigners, which 
 takes from it the freshness, originality, simplicity, belong- 
 ing to a new people, and which is singularly hostile to the 
 spirit of a republic. In England, where an aristocracy, 
 loaded with wealth, and disdaining labor, can afford to-
 
 76 NOTES. 
 
 spend much of the day in bed, it is not wonderful, that 
 late hours should become a badge of rank and fashion. 
 But in a country like this, where almost all must work for 
 a living, and are bound to be early at work, an imi' 
 tation of England, in this particular, is as preposterous as 
 it is culpable. We boast of national independence. Shall 
 we never have moral independence ? To return to the 
 evil complained of in the begining of this note. Coach- 
 men ought not to be exposed as they are. It should be laid 
 down as a rule, by those who attend parties, that they will 
 take leave at the moment, when the coach, agreeably to 
 their orders, arrives at the door. Their humanity should 
 plead for the men and horses shivering at midnight in the 
 street, in (he depth of a northern winter. 
 
 It is to be regretted that frivolous and fashionable people, 
 who have no comprehension of the purpose or true happi- 
 ness of life, should have so much the control of our plea- 
 sures, should dictate our dress, expenses, hours, &c. 
 How is it, that in an age of intellectual refinement, we 
 cannot have delightful social interviews without wasteful 
 show? The retrenchment of what is worse than thrown 
 away in our social intercourse, would furnish our city with 
 the noblest works of art, and with means of improvement 
 by which every class would be carried forward. 
 
 It is said, that our evening parties are open to the charge 
 of favoring intemperance. It is said on the best authority, 
 that the good habits of not a few, especially of the young, 
 are endangered by the freer use of the sparkling wines, 
 which fashion has sanctioned. I think it right and useful 
 to notice these particulars, as they have bee- suggested to 
 me by the friends of temperance. At the same time, I do 
 not rely on the exposure of particular abuses, as the chief 
 means of their cure. Evil usages deserve notice, chiefty 
 
 ' A'l'it;
 
 if o T E s. 77 
 
 fts they indicate a want of principle, a radical corruption in 
 the community; and the great means of removing them, 
 is not to denounce them singly, or in mass, but to strike at 
 their root, to lay bare the deep worldliness, sensuality, and 
 impiety from which they spring, and to regenerate society 
 by breathing more and more widely into individuals, the 
 pure, disinterested, fearless spirit of Christianity. 
 
 jfOTE B. 
 
 I have spoken of the causes of intemperance which are' 
 found in our state of society. I should wrong, however, the 
 community to which I belong, were I to leave the impres- 
 sion, that our social condition offers nothing but incite-' 
 inents to this vice. It presents obstacles as well as affords 
 facilities to it. And this ought to be understood, as an en- 1 
 couragement to the efforts, which, according to the preced-* 
 ing remarks, we are bound to make for its suppression. 
 The growth of intelligence among us, is a powerful antag- 
 onist to intemperance. In proportion as we awaken and 
 invigorate men's faculties, we help them to rise above a" 
 brutal life ; we take them out of the power of the present 
 moment, enlarge their foresight, give them the means of 
 success in life, open to them sources of innocent pleasure, 
 and prepare them to bear part in respectable society. If 
 is true, that intelligence or knowledge is not virtue. It 
 may not overcome selfishness ; but it makes our self-love 
 wiser and more reflecting, gives us a better understanding 
 of our own interests,' teaches prudence if not generosity/ 
 
 to
 
 78 NOTES. 
 
 and in this way, is a powerful guardian against ruinous ex- 
 cess. We have another defence against intemperance in 
 our freedom. Freedom nourishes self-respect, and by re- 
 moving all obstructions to exertion, by opening to men the 
 means of bettering their lot, favors an animated, hopefdl 
 industry, thus rescuing a people from depression, despon- 
 dence and languor, which are among the chieftemptations 
 to brutalizing excess. It is indeed said, that freedom gen- 
 erates all forms of licentiousness, and, consequently, intem- 
 perance. But it is, I believe, a well-established fact, that 
 this vice has decreased since our struggle for indepen- 
 dence. The habits and manners of the last generation 
 were more perilous to temperance than our own. Social 
 intercourse was more deformed by excess. Men in mature 
 life visited taverns, and the young could not meet, without 
 the danger of drowning reason in wine. It is a false no- 
 tion, that we are wholly indebted for our present reform in 
 this particular to temperance societies. These have done 
 great good, and deserve great praise ; but the influence 
 which is now carrying us on preceded them. They are its 
 effects, not causes. An important change of habits had 
 commenced before their institution, and this seems to me 
 an important view, and one of the chief encouragements to 
 joint and individual exertion for the suppression of this 
 vice. Did I believe, that our present social condition of- 
 fered nothing but materials to intemperance, that it ex- 
 cluded all contrary influences, and that our whole hope for 
 stemming this evil rested on the temperance societies, I 
 should be tempted to despond. Such societies can avail 
 little, except when they act in concurrence with causes h> 
 the condition of society. Such causes exist, and one great 
 use of temperance societies is to bring them into more 
 energetic and extensive action.
 
 NOTES. 79 
 
 NOTE C. 
 
 I have not insisted on one of the means of temperance 
 on which great stress has been laid, that is, the influence 
 of Public Opinion. To bring this to bear against intempe- 
 rance, has been regarded by not a few as the chief method 
 of subduing the evil. Too much, I think, is hoped from it. 
 One obvious remark is, that the classes most exposed to 
 intemperance are removed very much from the power of 
 public opinion. But passing over this, I think we gene- 
 rally look to this influence for more than it can accom- 
 plish. We lay upon it a greater weight than it can bear. 
 Public opinion may even work against the cause which it 
 is meant to support, when made a substitute for individual 
 exertion. A man, temperate because public opinion exacts 
 it, has not the virtue of temperance, nor a stable ground of 
 temperate habits. The remark is especially applicable to 
 these times. Opinion, in former days, was more perma- 
 nent than at present. There were few or no causes in 
 operation to unsettle general convictions. Society was 
 cast into fixed forms. Ages past away, and slight changes 
 were seen in manners, and in modes of thinking. But the 
 present is a revolutionary age. Society, breaking from its 
 old moorings, is tossed on a restless and ever-stormy ocean. 
 Opinion no longer affords that steady guidance, which in 
 former times supplied the place of private judgment and 
 individual principle. There is no truth, which sophistry 
 does not now assail, no falsehood which may not become a 
 party bond. The great work to which religion and be- 
 nevolence are now called, is not to sweep away multitudes 
 by storm, not to lay on men the temporary, brittle chains 
 of opinion, but to fix deep, rational conviction in individ-
 
 SO NOTES. 
 
 uals, to awaken the reason to eternal truth and the con- 
 science to immutable duty. We are apt to labor to secure 
 to virtue the power of fashion. We must secure to it the 
 power of conviction. It is the essence of fashion to 
 change. Nothing is sure but truth. No other foundation 
 can sustain a permanent reform. The temperance, which 
 rests on other men's opinions and practice, is not a man's 
 own virtue, but a reflection of what exists around him. 
 It lies on the surface. It has not penetrated the soul. 
 
 That opinion may exert a great and useful influence, 
 is not denied ; but it must be enlightened opinion, appeal- 
 ing to the reason and the conscience of the individual ; 
 not to passion, interest, or fear, nor proscribing all who 
 differ. We want public opinion to bear on tempe- 
 rance, but to act rationally, generously, not passionately, 
 tyrannically, and with the spirit of persecution. Men can- 
 not be driven into temperance. Let the temperate become 
 a party, and breathe the violence of party, and they will 
 raise up a party as violent as their own. The friends of 
 truth must not call passion to their aid, for the erroneous 
 and vicious have a greater stock of passion than they, and 
 can wield this weapon to more effect. It is not by num- 
 bers or a louder cry, that good men are to triumph over 
 the bad. Their goodness, their consciousness of truth, 
 and universal love must be manifested in clear, strong, be- 
 nevolent appeals to the reason and heart. They must 
 speak in the tone of the friend of their race. This will do 
 infinitely more than the clamor of hosts. 
 
 It seems to me an important remark, that public opinion 
 cannot do for virtue what it does for vice. It is the essence 
 of virtue to look above opinion. Vice is consistent with, 
 aqd very often strengthened by entire subserviency to it.
 
 NOTES. 81 
 
 It is a motive to be cautiously used, because the mind, 
 which passively yields to it, will find it a debilitating, 
 rather than an invigorating influence. The moral inde- 
 pendence which can withstand public sentiment, is men's 
 only safety. Whenever public sentiment shall be enlight- 
 ened enough to promote this superiority to itself, it will be 
 a noble spring. In proportion as it wars against this self- 
 subsistence, it subverts the only foundation of substantial, 
 enduring reform. 
 
 It is sometimes very hazardous to attempt to extirpate a 
 common vice by making it disgraceful, and passing on it a 
 sentence of outlawry. If, indeed, the vice be confined to 
 the poor and obscure, the brand of infamy may easily be 
 fixed on it ; but when it spreads higher and is taken under 
 the protection of fashion, it cannot only parry the weapon 
 of disgrace in the hand of its adversaries, but turn this 
 against them. Fashion is singularly expert in the use of 
 ridicule. What it wants in reason, it can supply in sneers 
 and laughter. Sometimes it puts on indifference as a coat 
 of mail. It has especially the art of attaching the idea of 
 vulgarity to a good cause, and what virtue has courage 
 to encounter this most dreaded form of opinion 1 
 
 NOTE D. 
 
 I have expressed in the preceding address, the senti- 
 ments of respect and gratitude due to the munificence of 
 the late John Lowell, Jr., who placed by will a large por- 
 tion of his ample fortune in the hands of a trustee for the
 
 82 NOTES. 
 
 purpose of securing the means of liberal instruction to this 
 city. In so doing he has brought fresh honor to a name 
 already distinguished among us. I was not particularly 
 acquainted with Mr. Lowell ; but his friends bear testi- 
 mony to the fidelity with which he cultivated his powers, 
 to his thirst for knowledge, and to the strength of his moral 
 and religious principles. I have been favored by the 
 trustee with some extracts from his will, and am happy to 
 lay them before the public. 
 
 The bequest will be about 225,000 dollars. 
 
 " This bequest," to use the language of the testator, " is 
 for the maintenance and support of public lectures to be 
 delivered in said Boston, upon Philosophy, Natural His- 
 tory, the Arts and Sciences, or any of them as the said 
 trustee, or his successor in said trust, shall from time to time 
 deem expedient for the promotion of the moral, intellectual 
 and physical instruction or education of the citizens of the 
 said city of Boston ; giving to the trustee or trustees, for 
 the time being, full power and authority to prescribe such 
 terms or regulations for the admission to the said lectures, 
 as they may think expedient to the public good. The 
 said trustee or trustees being in all respects governed by 
 any directions I may leave in writing." 
 
 The directions on the subject of the lectures are as fol- 
 lows : . 
 
 " 1st. In relation to the subjects. 
 
 " As the most entire and most important part of true 
 Philosophy appears to me to be that, which shows the con- 
 nexion between God's revelation and the knowledge of 
 good and evil implanted by Him in our nature ; I wish a 
 course of lectures to be given on natural religion, showing 
 its conformity to that of our Saviour. For the more per- 
 fect demonstration of those moral and religious pre-
 
 NOTES. 83' 
 
 cepts, by which alone, as I believe, men can be sure of 
 happiness in this world and in that to come, I wish a 
 course of lectures to be delivered on the historical and in- 
 ternal evidences in favor of Christianity. * * I wish 
 all disputed points of faith and ceremony to be avoided, 
 and the attention of the lecturers to be directed to the 
 moral doctrines of the gospel, stating their opinions if they 
 will, but not engaging in controversy, even on the subject 
 of the penalties of disobedience. 
 
 " As the prosperity of my native land, New-England, 
 Which is sterile and unproductive, must depend hereafter, 
 as it has heretofore depended, first, on the moral qualities, 
 and secondly, on the intelligence and information of its in-' 
 habitants ; I am desirous of trying to contribute towards 
 this second object also; and I wish courses of lectures to 
 be delivered on physics and chemistry with their applica- 
 tion to the arts, also on botany, zoology and mineralogy 
 connected with their particular utility to man. 
 
 " After the establishment of these courses of lectures, 
 should disposable funds remain, or in process of time be 
 accumulated in the hands of the trustee, (for there is a pro- 
 vision in my will touching a gradual accumulation of said 
 funds,) then the trustee may appoint courses of lectures to 
 be delivered on the literature and eloquence of our lan- 
 guage and even on those of foreign nations, if he see fit ; 
 he may also from time to time establish lectures on any 
 subject that in his opinion the wants and taste of the age 
 may demand. * * 
 
 "2d. On the appointment and duties of lecturers. 
 
 " As infidel opinions appear to me injurious to society, 
 and easily to insinuate themselves into a man's disserta- 
 tions on any subject, however remote it may be from the 
 subject of religion ; no man ought to be appointed a lee-
 
 84 NOTES. 
 
 turer who is not willing to declare and who does not pre* 
 viously declare his belief in the Divine Revelation of the 
 Old and New Testaments, leaving the interpretation thereof 
 to his own conscience. 
 
 " A lecturer may be taken on trial ; but no one shall be 
 appointed for a longer time than four years ; nor from senti- 
 ments of delicacy ought his appointment to be renewed 
 when he becomes incapable or superannuated. 
 
 " Each lecturer ought to deliver two courses of lectures 
 on the subject for which he is appointed, one popular, to 
 be delivered three times a week, at an hour convenient to 
 the public, between the beginning of November and that 
 of May; the latter more abstruse, recondite and particular, 
 to be delivered more frequently and at such times as may 
 suit the convenience of those whose wish it is thoroughly 
 to examine and understand the subject of the lecture. 
 Every lecturer, for whatever time appointed, shall be liable 
 to be removed by the trustee for incapacity, neglect or 
 omitihg to perform his engagement. 
 
 " The trustee shall prescribe such rules touching the 
 time, place and mode of delivering the various courses of 
 lectures as he thinks fit, and may change them at his dis- 
 cretion. He shall require of every person attending the 
 lectures to be neatly dressed and of an orderly behaviour. 
 The popular courses always, and the others when practica- 
 ble, are designed for females as well as males. 
 
 " It will of course be understood that by any direction 
 on the subject of infidel ideas in the former part of this ar- 
 ticle, I am far from wishing to express or encourage an in- 
 tolerant spirit. I wish to do neither ; but holding certain 
 opinions that I believe beneficial to society, I am desirous 
 of promoting them, and I leave all judgment to God, who 
 alone discerns the right at all times."
 
 NOTES. 85 
 
 It is hoped, that this munificent bequest of Mr Lowell 
 will prove the beginning of benefaction^ for spreading 
 through our community the means of higher instruction. 
 There are many objects for the patronage of men, who have 
 wealth beyond what the happiness of their families requires, 
 and who love and would elevate this city. We need 
 here an extensive collection of natural history, a mu- 
 seum, in which all the kingdoms of nature would be rep- 
 resented, and which should afford to every inquisitive mind 
 among us the means of knowledge in this department. We 
 need, too, a gallery of paintings, sculpture, &c., in which 
 by means of originals, copies, casts and models, all the 
 great works of genius in the fine arts should be placed in 
 our reach. Such a museum and gallery, if opened to the 
 public, would be thronged ; and lectures illustrating them, 
 would draw ^intelligent hearers from all classes. Estab- 
 lishments of this kind would be at once attractions to 
 strangers, and sources of increasing delight, refinement 
 and instruction to our own citizens. One of the distinc- 
 tions of Boston, is the eagerness with which such exhibi- 
 tions are visited. Is it not time to begin with spirit these 
 and similar establishments, which would shed an enduring 
 glory over our city 1 
 
 11
 
 OFFICERS OF THE 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 
 
 PRESIDENT, 
 
 JOHN C. WARREN, 
 
 VICE PRESIDENT, 
 
 HORACE MANN. 
 
 RECORDING SECRETARY, 
 
 WALTER CHANNING. 
 
 TREASURER, 
 
 CHARLES BROWN. 
 
 COUNSELLORS, 
 
 MOSES GRANT, 
 JOSHUA B. FLINT, 
 SAMUEL K. LOTHROP, 
 WILLIAM W. STONE.
 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Simultaneous Meetings of the friends of temperance 
 over the civilized world, have been held for some 
 years past, in consequence of a suggestion of the Exec- 
 utive Committee of the American Temperance Society. 
 The Council of the Massachusetts Temperance Society 
 have annually called the attention of the inhabitants of 
 this Commonwealth to this occasion, and now publish 
 the doings of the last meeting in Boston. 
 
 The Council regard these meetings with peculiar in- 
 terest. They know of none more important. What is 
 there more striking in the history of this cause, than 
 this annual coming together of its friends in all coun- 
 tries to which its doctrines have penetrated ? They 
 meet to aid each other in their common labor to min- 
 gle their congratulations and their thanksgiving for the 
 past, their hopes and their prayers for the future, to 
 manifest every where their interest in what they believe 
 to be a good work, and, by the diffusion of knowledge, 
 and light, to add to the numbers of its friends. 
 
 To aid, more especially to conduct such a reform is 
 no light undertaking. There must be in it, zeal direct- 
 ed by knowledge, energy by kindness, and independ-
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ence with respect. There must come to it deep moral 
 convictions. The motive may be from without, but it 
 must be a moral motive, the love of man, an enlightened 
 interest in his whole welfare, a self-sacrificing humanity. 
 This cause declares intemperance to be the greatest of 
 evils the means by which it is produced, as wholly op- 
 posed to human progress and happiness, and the mak- 
 ing, and the distributing these means as morally wrong, 
 On these few and now generally admitted truths, does 
 this whole reform rest, and the labors of its active 
 friends should all tend to their full development and 
 wide diffusion. For these ends are meetings called, 
 large assemblies of people collected, and the spiritual 
 nature addressed and called upon, to give to this cause 
 support and life. It is an internal reform, or rather its 
 agency is within, and declares itself by what men do. 
 External conduct is here what it always is, the outward 
 manifestation, the visible expression of internal moral 
 convictions, operating powerfully as example, and al- 
 ways doing good. 
 
 An objection of apparent weight has been frequently 
 urged by those who have not sympathized with these 
 labors. It is, that the reform has availed itself of com- 
 bination, of union among its friends, instead of finding its 
 principal means in the enforcement of the highest mo- 
 tives, and in the moral convictions which might grow 
 from them. There is truth in this objection, but not 
 the whole truth. The temperance combination has for 
 its objects to reclaim the drunkard, and to prevent in- 
 temperance. Now what so sure a method of accom- 
 plishing the first is there, as the diffusion of knowledge 
 abroad, and to every individual, that vast numbers are
 
 80 
 
 engaged in the single, unmixed purpose of restoring the' 
 intemperate man to the numberless blessings and enjoy- 
 ments which intemperance surely destroys. What bet- 
 ter, nay, what other method than this public recognition 
 of the evil, and of its remedy, which is made by uniting 
 men together under a wise organization, for the sole pur- 
 pose of giving and preserving general interest in this great 
 work. Union for such a purpose is sure to invite new" 
 friends to itself. It makes a perpetual appeal to the in- 
 temperate man to bring himself within the salutary in- 
 fluence of such a union -to enroll himself among its 
 members to be himself an element, a part in this 
 moral combination, and to pledge himself to be true to 
 its principles and a promoter of its progress. Reason 
 about it as we may$ a man's virtue is safer when in the 
 neighborhood of all other good. It gathers to itself 
 strength, and newer and stronger developments from 
 the virtue which surrounds it, or with which it may free- 
 ly sympathize. A man in such a position feels that he 
 has higher and far nobler relations than are established 
 by all outward and arbitrary distinctions. He has en- 
 rolled himself among the good, or with men deeply in- 
 terested in a good cause, and the conviction which is the 
 strongest with him is, that he is doing for his spiritual 
 and highest nature what it was the design in the gift of 
 that nature for him to do. He rejoices to be one in this 
 mighty combination for humanity's sake, for he knows 
 that he is a part in the noblest ministry. This is the 
 operation of union in a matter like this. It is not 
 a moral pressure or tyranny that will not allow a man to 
 think or act otherwise than it dictates. He learns 
 from it that his highest good consists in being good, and
 
 ?H APPENDIX. 
 
 that the strongest motive which can or does influence 
 him has its rise, and has its power in his own soul. A 
 man's responsibleness does not change places in such a 
 scheme. He does not feel that his obligation is wholly, 
 or mainly to the union of which he forms a part. He 
 retains all the responsibleness he ever had to his own 
 best nature his sense of duty the obligations of truth 
 the supreme authority of God. He finds in others de- 
 voted to the same work, important support lie gets 
 encouragement he gets sympathy, and who would de- 
 ny these to a mind so infirm, often so degraded, so 
 sunken, as that mind is which has been yielded to the 
 slavery of intemperance ? 
 
 How much of what has now been said applies with 
 equal force to the second great object of the temperance 
 union, the prevention of intemperance ! Men associate, 
 and meetings are held, for obtaining and diffusing useful 
 knowledge concerning temperance. Its principles are 
 investigated, discussed, and enforced in open assemblies, 
 and various and sometimes discordant views are exhibited. 
 All this is but a manifestation of convictions and of inter- 
 est, and what more sure to give a wise direction and to 
 secure progress to the cause itself. It is not designed as 
 a crusade against vice, but an enforcement of virtue. It 
 accomplishes its object by teaching the whole causes and 
 evils of intemperance, what intemperance is, and what 
 produces it. But it addresses itself ever to the moral 
 nature, and shows how the development, and constant and 
 active energy of this nature is the strongest defence against 
 every form of evil. Thus salutary, and only salutary is 
 union in this and all similar movements of philanthropy.
 
 APPENDIX. 91 
 
 It seeks to render virtue and good conduct a habit, be- 
 cause it knows and all men must acknowledge the truth 
 of it, that virtue is safest when in habitual exercise 
 when the every day conduct rests upon the constant 
 operation of principle. 
 
 The Council offer these views not as a defence of the 
 course they have adopted and mean steadily to pursue, 
 but as an explanation of their views in contributing what 
 lays in their power to the progress of temperance. They 
 are most anxious that these views should be every where 
 known, for they believe them to be based on truth. In 
 accordance with what has now been said they have con- 
 tinued their labors for the past year. The past winter, 
 a season always most favorable for holding public meet- 
 ings, has been a time of peculiar interest. Meetings 
 have been almost weekly held in different parts of the 
 city. The Odeon, which accornodates thousands, and 
 churches and chapels, and the remote Mission House, 
 among the rest, have been filled with people who have 
 always manifested a deep interest in the addresses and 
 discussions which have formed the exercises of the meet- 
 ings. Sunday evening has been for the most part se- 
 lected for these meetings, as a portion of time best suited 
 for such a purpose. 
 
 The Council offer their sincere acknowledgments to 
 those who have taken an active part on these occasions, 
 who have come forward openly as the friends of the 
 cause, and urged upon the assembled crowds, for such 
 they have been, its great truths, its settled principles. 
 Let the good work go on. It has made progress after 
 a manner hardly credible for its rapidity and extent. It
 
 92 APPENDIX, 
 
 is full of encouragement. The time of question or 
 doubt concerning it has gone by. It is at length felt to 
 be the cause of the whole world. Let us trust that all 
 men will feel it to be their own. 
 
 FOURTH SIMULTANEOUS ANNIVERSARY, 
 
 By the Juvenile friends of Temperance, at the Odeon, on the after- 
 noon of February 28th. 
 
 At a meeting held in this city on the 15th of Feb- 
 ruary, by delegates from the several temperance so- 
 cieties, it was voted, that, there be in addition to the 
 adult evening celebration, a Juvenile meeting in the 
 afternoon of the Simultaneous Temperance Jubilee. 
 To carry the plan into full effect, the following appli- 
 cation was made to the School Committee, and unan- 
 imously complied with : 
 
 To SAMUEL A. ELIOT, Esq., and to the gentlemen 
 of the School Committee of the City of Boston. 
 
 At a meeting held in this city, on the evening of 
 the date hereof, at which several Temperance Socie- 
 ties were represented, it was unanimously voted 
 
 That a most respectful and earnest solicitation be 
 presented to the Mayor and the gentlemen of the 
 School Committee of the city, requesting that the 
 several public schools in the city, with the exception 
 of the Primary Schools, may be dismissed on the 
 afternoon of the last Tuesday of the present month, 
 (which is the day of the Simultaneous Temperance 
 Meetings throughout the civilized world,) for the pur- 
 pose of holding upon that afternoon, a Juvenile Tem- 
 perance meeting at the Odeon. 
 
 Highly as we appreciate the intellectual and moral 
 instruction, which the children of the city are receiv'
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing at its schools, we believe that they will not be less 
 benefited by the early impressions in favor of Tem- 
 perance, they may receive by appropriating one after- 
 noon in the year to a subject, so promotiye of the 
 welfare of their whole lives. 
 
 JOHN C. WARREN, ) / ,, , 
 WALTER CHANNING, < ** ** Temp. 
 
 HORACE MANN, 
 
 M. GRANT, ) , f,. . 
 
 WM. W. STONE, \ Mass ' State 
 JOHN TAPPAN, 
 
 ,, 
 G. ODIORNE, J the 
 
 STEPHEN FAIRBANKS, ) of the Suffolk County 
 JOHN KETTELL, 5 Temp. Society. 
 
 CHARLES TAPPAN, Suffolk Co. Temp. Society. 
 BRADLEY N. CUMINGS, Young Mens' Temp. Soc. 
 Boston, Feb. 15, 1837. 
 
 The Instructors in the public Schools, on being 
 consulted, unanimously voted to attend at the Odeon 
 with the pupils under their charge, which was done 
 in a most orderly and proper manner. Places were 
 assigned each school under the immediate charge of 
 its Tnstructer. The girls occupied the lower floor, 
 and the boys the upper boxes and galleries, and a 
 more interesting exhibition has been seldom witness- 
 ed in this city. Delightful as it is at all times, to see 
 the Odeon filled with human beings, congregated for 
 some holy purpose, the present occasion was one of 
 thrilling interest, and caused tears of joy to roll down 
 the cheeks of the spectators ; for instead of parents 
 were to be seen the children. About twenty -five 
 12
 
 94 APPENDIX. 
 
 hundred children from our thirteen public schools, be- 
 ing the first and second classes, were present. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. PARKMAN commenced the exercises 
 by Prayer. 
 
 The following Hymn was then sung to the tune of 
 "America," (accompanied by the, Organ,) all the chil- 
 dren standing, and as far as practicable taking a part. 
 The effect was grand, and very impressive : 
 HYMN. 
 
 My country ! 'tis of thee, 
 Sweet land of liberty 
 
 Of thee I sing : 
 Land where my fathers died; 
 Land of the pilgrim's pride ; 
 From every mountain side, 
 
 Let Temp'rance ring. 
 
 My native country ! thee 
 Land of the noble free 
 
 Thy name I love : 
 I love thy rocks and rills, 
 Thy woods and templed hills ; 
 My heart with rapture thrills, 
 
 Like that above. 
 
 Let music swell the breeze, 
 And ring from all the trees, 
 
 Sweet freedom's song ; 
 Let infant tongues awake, 
 Let all that breathe partake, 
 Let rocks their silence break, 
 
 The sound prolong. 
 
 Our father's God ! to thee 
 Author of liberty ! 
 To thee we sing : 
 Long may our land be bright,
 
 APPENDIX. 95 
 
 With Temperance' holy light, 
 Protect us by thy might, 
 Great GOD, our King ! 
 
 The children were then addressed on the subject 
 of temperance, by Messrs. Horton, Barnard, Hague, 
 Stevens, Stow, L. G. Pray, H. Edwards, and M. 
 Grant, after which the following Hymn was sung to 
 the tune of Peterborough with fine effect : 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 ".'Tis but a drop," the father said, 
 
 And gave it to his son ; 
 But little did he think a work 
 
 Of death was then begun. 
 The " drop" that lured him, when the babe 
 
 Scarce lisped his father's name, 
 Planted a fatal appetite, 
 
 Deep in his infant frame. 
 
 " 'Tis but a drop," the comrades cried, 
 
 In truant schoolboy tone ; 
 " It did not hurt us in our robes 
 
 It will not, now we're grown." 
 And so they drank the mixture up, 
 
 That reeling, youthful band ; 
 For each had learned to love the taste, 
 
 From his own father's hand. 
 
 " 'Tis but a drop, I need it now" 
 
 The staggering drunkard said ; 
 " It was my food in infancy 
 
 My meat, and drink, and bread. 
 A drop a drop oh let me have, 
 
 'Twill so refresh my soul !" 
 He took it trembled drank and died, 
 
 Grasping the fatal bowl.
 
 96 APPENDIX. 
 
 Each of the Instructers were presented with a vol- 
 ume of the very interesting and useful work, called 
 the Temperance Documents of the American Tem- 
 perance Society. The tract of Cranberry Meadow 
 and Joe Anderson, were furnished the pupils of the 
 schools also a number of very appropriate kind of 
 Temperance medals were placed at the disposal of 
 each Instructor. 
 
 At 5 o'clock, this great congregation of "little ones", 
 retired in the same good order that they entered, hav- 
 ing behaved throughout the services with much pro- 
 priety, and reflecting honor on themselves as " Boston 
 Boys and Girls," and great credit on their Instructers, 
 in remembering the good old copy of the gone by 
 days of Masters Tileston, Carter, & Co., that " OR- 
 DER is HEAVEN'S FIRST LAW." 
 
 ORDER OF EXERCISES 
 
 For the Fourth Simultaneous Temperance Meeting, at the Odeon, 
 Tuesday Evening, February 28, 1837. 
 
 1. VOLUNTARY ON THE ORGAN. 
 2. PRAYER. 
 
 3. ORIGINAL HYMN. 
 
 Glorious day, we bid thee welcome ! 
 
 Brightly roll thy hours along ; 
 Each a blessing freely bearing. 
 
 Praise to Heaven from every tongue ! 
 
 'Tis Jubilee ! 
 Raise on high the inspiring song.
 
 APPENDIX. 97 
 
 Friends of Temperance every where, 
 
 Friends of man your anthems raise ; 
 'Tis your Annual Holyday ; 
 
 Fill its hours with heartiest praise. 
 
 All united, 
 Send through earth your sounding lays. 
 
 Nations on this day are greeting 
 
 Earth is blest by such a day. 
 The cause is glorious we have met for 
 
 Welcome, welcome, happy day ! 
 
 We labor will, 
 Till Temperance has a sovereign sway. 
 
 Who would shrink from such a labor, 
 
 While to wine our soul's a slave ? 
 Who would hug his selfish pleasure, 
 
 If the sacrifice might save 
 One brother MAN, 
 From his self-made, living grave ? 
 
 Let us each united pledging, 
 
 Give our hearts to Temperance' call. 
 The good and great our cause are greeting 
 
 True to it, be true to all. 
 
 Hear her glad voice, 
 And round her shrine devoutly fall. 
 
 4. ADDRESS. 
 
 5. ORIGINAL HYMN. 
 
 How long, O God, how long 
 
 Must thy pure eyes behold 
 This fair world blasted by the wrong, 
 
 Man does to man for gold ! 
 How long shall Reason be cast down, 
 And a fierce demon wear her crown ? 
 
 The prisoner's cell, that all 
 Life's blessed light bedims, 
 The lash that cute, the links that gall
 
 98 APPENDIX. 
 
 The poor slave's festering limbs, 
 What is this thraldom, to the chain 
 That binds and burns the drunkard's brain ? 
 
 If, then, thy frown is felt, 
 O God, by those who bind 
 
 The body what must be the guilt 
 Of such as chain the mind, 
 
 Drag to the pit, and plunge it in ? 
 
 O have not these " the greater sin"? 
 
 The mother of our race, 
 
 Whose sin brought death and wo, 
 
 Yet, in her weakness, found thy grace ; 
 The Tempter's curse we know. 
 
 Doth he who drinks, wrong most the soul? 
 
 Or he who tempts him to the bowl ? 
 
 Help us, O God, to weigh 
 Our deeds as in thy scales ; 
 Nor let gold dust the balance sway : 
 
 For good o'er gold prevails 
 At that dread bar where all must look 
 Upon the record in THY book. 
 
 6. DOXOLOGY. 
 
 From all that dwell below the skies, 
 Let the Creator's praise arise : 
 Let the Redeemer's name be sung, 
 By every land, by every tongue. 
 
 Eternal are thy mercies, Lord ; 
 
 Eternal truth attends thy word ; 
 
 Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore, 
 
 Till suns shall rise and set no more. 
 
 7. BENEDICTION.
 
 APPENDIX. 99 
 
 THE Council publish with pleasure the following very able re- 
 port made to the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, on 
 the petition of citizens of Roxbury, praying for an alteration of 
 the License Law. 
 
 The Committee, to whom was referred the petition of 
 the town of Roxbury, praying the General Court for 
 an alteration of the license law, having attended to 
 the duty assigned them, beg leave to 
 
 REPORT: 
 
 That the county commissioners for the county of 
 Norfolk, on application being made for licenses from dif- 
 ferent parts of the county, in April last, refused to grant 
 any, either to grocers or innholders, for the retail of ar- 
 dent spirits. Several individuals, however, continued to 
 sell liquors as before, and were consequently prosecuted 
 for violations of the law. This produced some excite- 
 ment in several towns of the county, and especially in 
 Roxbury. Though it has chiefly subsided in other 
 places, it continues to agitate the citizens of that town, 
 and hence the petition offered to this house. 
 
 The Committee in behalf of the town of Roxbury, 
 have presented two views of the subject in urging their 
 prayer upon the attention of the Legislature. The first 
 is, that the present law, by the mdde in which it has 
 been administered, has exerted, and is exerting, an op- 
 pressive influence upon many of the citizens of Rox- 
 bury, that it has already diminished in a serious degree 
 the business of the place ; that it has depreciated the 
 value of real estate generally, and of particular estates, 

 
 100 APPENDIX. 
 
 to a ruinous extent ; and that these evils, thus actually 
 realized, are but the beginning of more serious misfor- 
 tunes, if the course pursued by the commissioners should 
 be sustained. The other view has a bearing upon the 
 license law, as it affects the state at large. 
 
 The respectable individuals to whom the petition was 
 entrusted by the town of Roxbury, appeared in person 
 before your Committee, and endeavored to substantiate 
 by facts and arguments, the first point above mentioned. 
 Several other citizens of Roxbury were present, who, 
 by consent of parties, submitted various statements in 
 opposition to these views. A number of individuals, 
 large land holders, gave it as their opinion, that the 
 restrictions recently imposed upon the sale of ardent 
 spirits in Roxbury, had actually exerted a beneficial ef- 
 fect upon business and property in the town ; and they 
 presented such facts as to persuade your Committee, 
 that, although a few individuals may transiently suffer in 
 their business, and a few estates, occupied as taverns 
 and groceries, and hitherto devoted to the retailing of 
 spirits may be depressed in market value for a time, 
 yet the suppression of the sale of intoxicating liquors in 
 the town, is likely, on the whole, to promote its growth, 
 and increase rather than diminish the value of property 
 generally. Your Committee believe that no candid 
 person, hearing the evidence before the Committee, 
 could arrive at a different conclusion. 
 
 The other view, presented by your petitioners, is 
 contained in the written Memorial which has been pre- 
 sented to this House. They ask of the Legislature 
 " to so alter the license law, as to authorize the select- 
 men to grant such licenses in their respective towns as
 
 APPENDIX. 101 
 
 they may think expedient ; and, in case of any refusal 
 of the selectmen to license, an appeal may be had to the 
 county commissioners of the county, who shall license 
 such person or persons as they think proper, or the 
 public good may require, and that all laws inconsistent 
 with the above, shall be repealed," 
 
 The first reason assigned for this change, is thus 
 stated by the petitioners. " The county commissioners 
 in some counties construe the law to require them to 
 grant licenses to a reasonable number of suitable per- 
 sons ; and in other counties, the commissioners consider 
 themselves authorized to refuse all licenses, and thus, 
 that which is lawful, and esteemed worthy in some 
 counties, is, (strange as it may appear,} rendered un- 
 lawjul and odious in other counties." The argument 
 then, is, that owing to the different interpretations of the 
 law by different commissioners, the present system ope- 
 rates unequally upon different sections of the State. 
 But it is apparent, that the proposed substitute would 
 operate with greater and more palpable inequality. If 
 the selectmen of the several towns were authorized to 
 grant or withhold licenses, they would be granted in 
 some, and withheld in others. We should, therefore, 
 see the citizens of one town in the enjoyment of privi- 
 leges denied to the citizens of the adjacent towns, and 
 thus, the whole State would be chequered with the 
 unequal and contradictory operation of the same law. 
 If, then, there is any force in the objection against the 
 present law, that it operates unequally, it applies with 
 still greater force to the law proposed by the petitioners. 
 Nor is this all. If the power of granting licenses be 
 placed in the hands of the selectmen, the practice in the 
 13
 
 102 APPENDIX. 
 
 same town r may change from year to year, and thus, 
 beside the distinction made between one town and an- 
 other, an inconvenient and vexatious fluctuation would 
 be the inevitable result in many parts of the State. 
 
 The other argument, offered by the petitioners, is, 
 that the " municipal authorities are, by their position, 
 best qualified to determine what is required for the 
 public convenience in their respective localities." Your 
 Committee are unable to concur with the petitioners on 
 this point. They believe, indeed, that the selectmen 
 have better means of information as to the character of 
 applicants for licenses than the county commissioners, 
 and the existing law proposes that the commissioners 
 shall have full advantage of the opinion of the select- 
 men on this point. But it would seem that individuals, 
 standing aloof from local influences, would be safer 
 judges of what the public good may require, than those 
 who are of necessity accessible to the solicitation of 
 friends, the threats of enemies, and all the various ex- 
 citements which an agitating question may produce. 
 
 Nor can your Committee fail to remark, that while 
 the petitioners say that the municipal authorities are the 
 best judges of what is required for the public good, they 
 at the same time propose that the county commissioners 
 shall have power to grant licenses in all cases where 
 these authorities conceive them to be unnecessary ; thus 
 praying you to pass an act in plain contradiction to one 
 of the main arguments by which their petition is urged. 
 
 It appears to your Committee, therefore, that the law 
 proposed by the petitioners is condemned by the very 
 principles upon which they press its adoption. If we 
 look farther into the subject, other and weightier argu-
 
 APPENDIX. 103 
 
 ments are presented against the scheme. Should the 
 prayer of the petitioners be granted, the power of dis- 
 pensing licenses will be conferred on the selectmen, and 
 their election will therefore turn upon their disposition 
 to grant or refuse them. Thus, an annual battle is to 
 be fought in every town where the people are nearly 
 balanced on the question. If we wished to scatter wide 
 the seeds of dissension and discord, we could hardly de- 
 vise a happier instrument to accomplish this end than 
 the proposed law. 
 
 We may add, that should this law be carried into 
 effect, it would greatly increase the number of licenses. 
 It would, in the first place, be regarded, both by the 
 friends and enemies of the cause of temperance, as ex- 
 pressing a determination on the part of the Legislature, 
 to recede from the stand it has taken, and for years 
 maintained, in favor of a gradual extirpation of the cus- 
 tom of drinking intoxicating liquors. It would, there- 
 fore, dishearten the one, and give courage to the other. 
 Under this influence, the selectmen and county commis- 
 sioners would be irresistibly pressed into the granting of 
 more and more licenses. But suppose no such influ- 
 ence should be felt, still, let us look at the operation of 
 this scheme, when carried into effect. For the sake of 
 example, let us take the town of Roxbury. The usual 
 number of licenses for the sale of ardent spirits, granted 
 in this place, for several years past, has been twenty- 
 four. On the 24th of September last, the selectmen, in 
 obedience to a vote of the town, called upon the county 
 commissioners, and requested them to grant licenses to 
 twenty-three persons. Should the views of your peti- 
 tioners, therefore, be realized, this number of licenses 
 would be granted by the selectmen, and probably more.
 
 104 APPENDIX. 
 
 Now, the population of Roxbury may be estimated at 
 seven thousand. If we deduct three-fourths of this num- 
 ber for females and minors, whom we suppose not to be 
 in the habit of drinking spirits, we have one thousand 
 seven hundred and fifty. We may consider half of this 
 number to consist of persons who never taste ardent spir- 
 its. Thus, we have twenty-three licensed houses for the 
 benefit of eight hundred seventy-five persons, which is 
 one to every thirty-seven, supposed to be in the habit of 
 drinking intoxicating liquors. Is it not obvious, even al- 
 lowing that these persons are to be supplied with every 
 convenience for the indulgence of a pernicious habit, 
 that this number is more than is necessary ? Is it not 
 setting snares for the feet of the unwary ? Is it not 
 placing facilities, temptations, inducements, to fall into 
 crime, before the thoughtless and the young? And if, 
 as appears by the statistics of penitentiaries, pauper- 
 houses and prisons, the licensed drinking-houses are the 
 fertile parents of at least two-thirds of the crime com- 
 mitted against life and property, and two-thirds of the 
 pauperism that taxes the community, to speak of no 
 other evils flowing from the same fertile source, shall we 
 not come to the conclusion that twenty-three licensed 
 drinking-houses in Roxbury, are not only unnecessary, 
 but that they would produce extensive and irretrievable 
 mischief in the town ? If the question could come fairly 
 before the citizens of that place, your Committee doubt 
 not that a large majority would prefer the present law, 
 which excludes all licenses for the retail of spirits, to 
 to that proposed by the petitioners, attended, as it would 
 be, by pernicious consequences.
 
 APPENDIX. 105 
 
 It is perhaps unnecessary to pursue this subject far- 
 ther ; but as some of the citizens of Roxbury and other 
 towns in the county of Norfolk have been persuaded, 
 that the plan proposed in the petition, should it be 
 adopted, would prove beneficial to the State, we will 
 endeavor to trace its consequences in other parts of the 
 Commonwealth. Let us take some of those towns, 
 where a majority of the people are opposed to licenses, 
 and where, at present, none are granted. Yet in these 
 places, there are persons, no doubt, who would be glad 
 to obtain them. If the selectmen refuse, these persons 
 may appeal to the county commissioners, and they may 
 grant their request. Thus, in opposition to the wishes 
 of a majority, in opposition to the town authorities, the 
 licensed tavern and the grog-shop may return to the 
 places from which they have been exiled for years by 
 the voice of public opinion. Will the petitioners say 
 that this is just ? Will any man say it is expedient ? 
 Yet unjust and inexpedient as it is, such would be the 
 actual operation of the proposed law in many parts of 
 the State. 
 
 Your Committee cannot close this report, without 
 offering a few remarks in relation to the present license 
 law, and they are induced to do this from the fact, that 
 several petitions are before them, which evince some 
 uneasiness in different parts of the State upon this mat- 
 ter. Several modes of legislation on the difficult and 
 delicate subject of intoxicating liquors, have been sug- 
 gested. The first is, to interdict the retailing of spiritu- 
 ous liquors altogether ; the second, to permit their sale 
 without restriction, making drunkenness penal ; and the 
 last, to regulate the sale of spirits. The two first are
 
 106 A PP E ND I X. 
 
 generally condemned, as either incompatible with public 
 good, or public opinion ; the last is the only one which 
 seems to be expedient. 
 
 Now, the regulating of the sale of ardent spirits can- 
 not be done with a due regard to the varying conditions, 
 the different habits and fluctuating opinions of society, 
 but by the use of a discretionary power. But in whose 
 hands shall this be lodged ? In those of the State com- 
 missioners ? This scheme, would be attended with great 
 expense and inconvenience, and the commissioners must 
 be destitute of that minute knowledge of local circum- 
 stances and individual character, which would be indis- 
 pensable to a salutary use of their authority. Shall the 
 discretionary power be placed in the hands of the select- 
 men of the several towns, according to the wishes of 
 your petitioners ? That question has been already an- 
 swered. 
 
 Of all the modes proposed, none has occurred to your 
 Committee so likely to promote the public good, as that 
 adopted in the statute, which places the discretionary or 
 regulating power in the hands of county commissioners. 
 It appears to be admitted on all hands, that even taken 
 moderately, the drinking of ardent spirits is injurious, 
 and that in point of fact, it is the source of more mis- 
 chief to the community than any other single cause. It 
 is, therefore, a pernicious custom, and demands the vigi- 
 lant attention of the Legislature. The existing law ap- 
 pears to have been framed with these views, and to be 
 well adapted to aid the reformation of public manners on 
 this subject. It proceeds upon the idea, that the drink- 
 ing of ardent spirits is not necessary, and it licenses the 
 retailer only in condescension to public opinion. When
 
 APPENDIX. 107 
 
 that opinion has become so far enlightened, so far de- 
 livered from the slavery of habit, as to bear out the 
 commissioners in refusing to grant licenses, it places that 
 power in their hands, and, however delicate the task 
 may be, it is doubtless their duty to use it in this man- 
 ner, whenever, in their opinion, the public good de- 
 mands it. 
 
 If this view is just, the spirit of the law of Massachu- 
 setts in relation to intoxicating liquors is restrictive, and 
 both its tendency and design are to follow up the march 
 of reformation, and secure the conquests made from 
 time to time by civilization over a barbarous custom. 
 And can any one condemn this ? Can any one show 
 that this is an abuse of legislative power? We have 
 heard some popular clamor against the restraint put 
 upon the natural rights of man, and we have witnessed 
 the attempts of artful individuals to excite uneasiness 
 amongst that class of persons, who are ever ready to 
 identify liberty with licentiousness. But we believe no 
 reflecting man will deny the right of the Legislature to 
 regulate the sale of ardent spirits, in any such manner 
 as the public good may require. Even the petition 
 from Roxbury admits this, and the law therein proposed 
 is based upon a full acknowledgment of the principle. 
 Nor does the doctrine seem to be questioned by any of 
 the petitions before your Committee. 
 
 If, then, the right of regulating the sale of spirits, with 
 a view to the public good, belongs to the Legislature, 
 can any one maintain that the law may not be framed 
 with a view to the gradual diminution of the use of 
 them ? We think not. It is obvious, that the law in 
 its progress must often press with inconvenience upon
 
 108 APPENDIX. 
 
 the business of dealers in spirits, and it is to be expect- 
 ed that these persons, if guided by selfishness alone, 
 will combine to oppose the law, both in its principles 
 and its execution. And it is to be expected, that they 
 will easily rally to their aid, those who have long in- 
 dulged in the habit of drinking, and dread a threatened 
 encroachment, upon a long cherished indulgence. But 
 experience has shown, that the resistance of such indi- 
 viduals is temporary, where a majority of the people 
 around them entertain opposite sentiments, and it fre- 
 quently happens, that, when the law has triumphed, and 
 opposition ceased, the opposers have become the stead- 
 fast friends and sure supporters of a reformation which 
 at first they resisted. 
 
 If we needed illustration of this, we could easily find 
 them in the south-eastern section of this Commonwealth. 
 Here are five contiguous counties, formerly as much ad- 
 dicted to the use of ardent spirits as any others, which 
 have, one after another, submitted to an entire exclusion 
 of licenses for the retail of ardent spirits. At first, the 
 restrictions of the county commissioners were loudly 
 complained of, and the law openly violated. But this 
 opposition gradually subsided," and we believe three- 
 fourths of the people of this section of the State would 
 esteem the restoration of the licensed tavern and grog 
 shop as one of the greatest calamities that could befall 
 them. If any man or combination of men can be found, 
 whose desire is to turn back a revolution so salutary, 
 and destroy a law, whose effects have been at once so 
 great and so good, we trust they will at least find no 
 favor in this legislative hall.
 
 APPENDIX; 109 
 
 To apply these views to the direct question before* 
 the House, your Committee need but say, that so far as 
 the town of Roxbury is concerned, several individuals 
 are suffering from the restrictive operation of the law, as 
 administered by the county commissioners. The same 
 may be said of the inhabitants of two or three other 
 towns in the county of Norfolk. That these individuals, 
 among whom are many of great respectability, should 
 feel aggrieved, and that they should seek relief at the 
 hands of the General Court, is natural. Yet your Com- 
 mittee believe, that, should the law be sustained, these 
 individuals will submit to sacrifices which the public 
 good demands, and that, when their interest no longer 
 induces them to condemn and oppose the law, they will 
 become its steadfast supporters. As to the course pur- 1 
 sued by the commissioners in the county of Norfolk, 
 your Committee need offer no opinion ; it is proper to 
 add, however, that it appears to be approved by a ma- 
 jority of the county. 
 
 Believing, then, that the present license law is a salu-* 
 tary one, and that the change proposed by the petition- 1 
 ers would not promote either public good or public 
 peace, we recommend that their prayer be not granted, 
 And that they have leave to withdraw their petition'* 
 By order of the Committee, 
 
 S. G. GOODRICH, Ghaim&n, 
 14
 
 110 APPENDIX. 
 
 DISTILLATION OF BREAD-STUFFS. 
 
 Under this bead various statements have recently 
 been made in the newspapers, from almost every part 
 of the country. These statements are of a most inter- 
 esting nature. They show how rapidly increasing every 
 where, is the interest of individuals and communities, in 
 the temperance cause. They show, too, that this in- 
 terest is directed to topics of the utmost national impor- 
 tance. Men begin deeply to feel, that not only is their 
 moral well being, but that even the supply of their 
 physical wants, is intimately connected with the progress 
 of this cause. This feeling exists every where. It is 
 in no sense confined to the active, personal friends of 
 the cause. An immense pecuniary pressure continues 
 to be felt throughout the country. We are told that 
 the supply from our own soil, of the necessaries of life, 
 has been deficient. So short, it is added, have been 
 crops, that importations of bread-stuffs have been made 
 to an extent unheard of in our history. With a country 
 of such vast extent, presenting in itself every variety of 
 climate, and a soil, in immense tracts of unparalleled fer- 
 tility, we exhibit the strange fact, of dependence on re- 
 mote countries for what the whole soil is admirably 
 fitted to produce. Under an actual pressure thus ex- 
 plained, prices have continually advanced, for bread- 
 stuffs, until they nearly or quite equal what they were 
 during the late war. To the laboring classes, and es- 
 pecially to the poor, the evil from this state of things 
 has been, and is, severely felt. In one city, resort has 
 been had to open violence for relief. While this course 
 B mentioned only to be reprobated, it may be referred
 
 APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 to as evidence of the severe distress which the alleged 
 scarcity has produced. The price of labor has been 
 advanced, but this has imperfectly met the pressure. 
 The demand for labor must diminish, under this state of 
 things, and then how surely will pauperism, discontent 
 and misery be the lot of those who have always, till 
 now, found in their own honorable industry the means 
 of comfortable support. 
 
 Such a state of things could not long exist, without 
 earnest inquiry for its causes ; and actual scarcity has 
 been referred to as a main one. But is this the true 
 explanation ? So far from its being so believed by those 
 who have the best means of knowledge in the matter, 
 the crops of all grains the present season, were thought 
 quite sufficient for all the purposes of food in every part of 
 the country, and at common prices. It is believed that 
 if bread-stuffs had only been used as food, that there 
 would have been no actual want of a sufficient supply ; 
 no such want as would either have increased the price 
 of bread, or have made importations necessary. A fail- 
 ure in crops, therefore, it is believed, does not explain 
 the actual state of things. 
 
 Speculation is another cause to which is ascribed the 
 diminished supply, and the increased price of the neces- 
 saries of life. Accumulation of these in the hands of 
 the few, for the ultimate use of the many, is a conse- 
 quence as well as cause of the existing pressure. Spec- 
 ulation, in this, its operation, is among the compensations 
 or offsetts of the innumerable advantages of trade ; and 
 is not judged aright, if seen to be only a part of an op- 
 pressive system.
 
 112 APPENDIX. 
 
 But it is believed that speculation has but a small 
 part in the present state of things. It is believed, if a 
 vast demand were not made for bread-stuffs, for other 
 purposes than food, that there would have been no room 
 for the operation of speculation in the present alleged 
 scarcity. 
 
 We come now to what is believed to be the true 
 cause of the present scarcity, and the high prices of 
 bread-stuffs. This is distillation ; the conversion of food 
 into poison, the destruction of food ; yes, the total de- 
 struction of food ; just as much such as if it were bought 
 up only to be burnt, and its ashes scattered to the winds. 
 Upon what does this belief rest ? We answer, upon the 
 following statements, which we now offer earnestly to 
 the consideration of every reader. They might easily 
 have been added to. 
 
 The first offered is from Pitkin's Statistics of the 
 United States, a work of the highest authority. From 
 that work, it appears that in 1810, between five and six 
 million bushels of corn and rye were distilled in the 
 United States. In 1820, it is estimated to have been 
 eight million bushels. In 1830, ten million bushels. 
 
 From the New York Commercial Advertiser, we 
 learn that in New York alone, one hundred thousand 
 bushels of grain are converted monthly into whiskey, 
 pnough to make twenty thousand barrels of flour, or two 
 hundred and forty thousand barrels a year. By another 
 estimate, the quantity of grain thus destroyed as food, is 
 two million bushels. In this last year, on one of the 
 western canals alone, there were entered for transporta* 
 tjon, three thousand two hundred barrels of whiskey,
 
 APPENDIX. 113 
 
 The above statements relate to one state only, in the 
 Union. When to these are added the great amount of 
 distillation from grain which is carried on in Connecti- 
 cut, and the far, far greater amount of the same in the 
 whole west, some estimate may be made of the vast 
 destruction of grain which is daily and hourly going on 
 in these States. The same statements farther explain 
 the existing scarcity, and the present high prices of 
 bread-stuffs. 
 
 To show how deep is the interest felt on this subject 
 in New York, we make the following extract from the 
 Journal of Commerce, for February 2d, 1837. Such 
 legislative movements as these are highly honorable to 
 the great State in which they have been made, and 
 commend themselves strongly to the attention and imi- 
 tation of all other States. 
 
 Extract from the New York Journal of Commerce of d February, 
 1837. 
 
 " A resolution which may lead to important results, 
 was adopted by the New York Senate on Monday, di- 
 recting the Committee on Manufactures to ascertain, if 
 practicable, the amount of grain consumed by the several 
 distilleries in the State, and to enquire into the expedi- 
 ency of preventing, by law, the consumption, in this 
 mode, of productions capable of being converted into food 
 for the use of man." 
 
 It was said above, that great importations of grain 
 from abroad have been made this year. The following 
 statements offer details which may be relied on in regard 
 to this point.
 
 114 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Few, we apprehend, have any idea of the vast 
 quantities which have been received from foreign coun- 
 tries during the last three months. We perceive by the 
 Baltimore papers of the fourteenth, that of the imports of 
 wheat into that city during the last eight or ten days, 
 seventy-two thousand bushels, had been sold at from one 
 dollar and eighty cents, to two dollars and ten cents per 
 bushel. Part of another cargo had been sold at from 
 two dollars and ten cents, to two dollars and fifteen cents ; 
 fourteen thousand eight hundred bushels had been stored 
 by the importers, and fifteen thousand bushels had not 
 been landed ; making in all more than one hundred 
 thousand bushels of foreign wheat received in the port of 
 Baltimore alone, in the course of only eight or ten days. 
 The New York Express Price Current of January sev- 
 enth, says : ' We have large additions to the stock of 
 foreign wheat full a hundred and twenty thousand 
 bushels are on sale at this moment.' January fourteenth, 
 it says, that within the last week, ' we have had very 
 large additions to our stock of German wheat.' The 
 arrivals at other ports, though of less importance, will 
 still add a good deal to the aggregate amount. Large 
 quantities of rye and oats have also been imported ; and 
 accounts have been published in the papers, of consid- 
 erable sales of Indian corn from the Western Islands. 
 It should be taken into view, in this connexion, that, in 
 former years, we have exported immense quantities of 
 grain and flour, to which the state of things, this year, 
 must have almost put an entire stop. 
 
 The New York market is kept bare of rye almost 
 the whole time by the distillers ; and when a cargo ar-
 
 APPENDIX. 115 
 
 fives, even of fifteen or twenty thousand bushels, it is 
 swept off, at once, in a mass by them." Worcester 
 Spy, January, 1837. 
 
 Still farther to show to what an extent the destruction 
 of grain may be carried by distillation, the following ab- 
 stracts are offered of the " Parliamentary Evidence on 
 Drunkenness, taken before a Committee of the House 
 of Commons, in the months of June and July, 1834." 
 
 " In 1828, the consumption of distilled spirits, in Ire- 
 land, according to the Excise office returns, was ten 
 millions of gallons. Besides this, a very large quantity 
 must be put down to the score of illicit distillation, 
 which no vigilance of the government has yet been able 
 to suppress. In the Parliamentary papers for 1823, it 
 is stated, that at a period when three millions of gallons- 
 were charged with duty, ten millions, in opinion of the 
 revenue committee, were really made. In another 
 case, subsequently to this, where six millions were 
 charged, it was believed twelve millions were distilled. 
 For some reason, however, which does not appear, Pro- 
 fessor Edgar estimates the private distillation, in 1828, 
 at only two million five hundred thousand gallons, which, 
 added to the ten million paying duty, makes twelve mil- 
 lion five hundred thousand ; and this, by the addition of 
 water in the vaults and shops, raised it to at least four- 
 teen millions. The cost, to the consumers, could not 
 have been less than nine shillings per gallon, or six mil- 
 lion three hundred thousand pounds sterling. At the 
 annual meeting of the Hibernian Temperance Society in 
 Dublin, held on the nineteenth of June, 1835, it was 
 stated, by John Mackay, Esq., that not less a sum thau
 
 }\6 APFENCIX. 
 
 seven millions of pounds was expended on whiskey, in 
 1833. Taking this as a fair estimate, of the present 
 consumption, in Ireland, the annual cost of liquid fire 
 which goes down into her vitals, and up to the throne of 
 reason, is thirty-five millions of dollars. 
 
 But this is not all. In 1836, there were two hundred 
 forty-five brewers in Ireland, whose consumption of malt 
 was one million eight hundred twenty-nine thousand 
 five hundred eighty-seven bushels. The product of 
 this, must have cost the consumers from three to four 
 millions of dollars ; so that, including wines, large quan- 
 tities of which are drank by the higher class in Ireland, 
 the aggregate cost of intoxicating liquors must exceed 
 forty millions of dollars ! Now suppose this money were 
 thrown into the Irish channel, the loss would amount, 
 in ten years, to four hundred millions of dollars ! Is it 
 strange that there are two millions and a half of paupers 
 in Ireland ?" 
 
 Extract from Mr. Choate's Report to the Council, of the state of 
 the temperance cause in the County of Barnstable, as observed 
 by him, during his agency for the Massachusetts Temperance So- 
 ciety in that county. The statements in this Report are highly 
 interesting in their direct connection with the rapid progress of the 
 reform. A letter from the Secretary of the First Temperance So- 
 ciety in Truro, to Mr. Choate, is added. 
 
 Barnstable, February 15, 1837. 
 
 " Having visited every part of New England, I think 
 
 there is no place in which the temperance reformation 
 
 has effected so much as in this county. In the thirteen 
 
 towns that compose the county, but a short time since,;
 
 AP P E NDIX. 117 
 
 there were about one hundred and fifty places where 
 ardent spirit could be purchased ; now, not a single 
 glass can be obtained in any part of the county. The 
 young men in the county, (most of them sailors) have 
 come forward, and joined the temperance societies, 
 resolving to banish intemperance from among them. I 
 have seen but one case of intoxication during my jour- 
 neys here as your agent, and I have visited every town 
 but one. The number of vessels that sail from this 
 district is not far from four hundred, the crews amount- 
 ing to about three thousand men and boys ; nearly all, 
 as far as I can learn, sail without carrying any ardent 
 spirit as a drink, at least five-sixths of them. 
 
 The number of paupers in the county is not far from 
 one hundred and fifty ; most of them are aged, and in 
 
 all cases where I asked, an answer was given me that 
 / 
 
 three-fourths of them were brought there by intemper- 
 ance. The number of societies in the different towns 
 is about forty, having above three thousand members. 
 Many interesting temperance meetings have lately been 
 held in different parts of the county, and meetings to 
 advance the cause, are being very generally held through- 
 out the county. Perhaps no county was formerly sunk 
 so low in intemperance as this, now no county rises so 
 high in the scale of temperance. In this town there is 
 a very handsome stone jail, without any occupant, also a 
 splendid granite court-house. The court meets, three 
 times a year, but generally adjourns after remaining two 
 days. 
 
 Provincetown has one of the best harbors in the 
 
 world. Into this harbor, in case of a storm, from one 
 15
 
 118 APPENDIX. 
 
 hundred to a thousand sail often put in, remaining fre- 
 quently a week or ten days. Among this number of 
 vessels may be comprised some from every part of the 
 United States, and from foreign countries. In this way 
 some three or four thousand sailors are frequently brought 
 together in the harbor of Provincetown. The week 
 that they remained in port was generally spent in in- 
 temperance, from which quarrels arose, and murder was 
 sometimes committed. Formerly there were many 
 places in that town at which the sailors might purchase 
 ardent spirits ; but now none can be obtained. A great 
 number of hogsheads were often sold in a week formerly, 
 but an entire change in this respect has been brought 
 about. All the ardent spirit that is now used in the 
 county is brought from Boston by the packets. In 
 regard to wine, there is but very little drank in the coun- 
 ty, and the constitutions of most of the temperance 
 societies prohibit its use ; some even include beer and 
 cider. In Yarmouth there was a temperance society 
 formed above twenty years since, one of the oldest in 
 the country. It is still in existence. I obtained the 
 original constitution a few days since ; it is quite a curi- 
 osity. One great object among others, was, to do away 
 the offering of wine and distilled liquors when visiting 
 each other's houses. 
 
 There is to be, on the 28th, a temperance meeting. 
 The publication of your society would be gratefully 
 received. I am very respectfully, 
 
 F. W. CHOATE, 
 
 To DR. W. CHAINING, Sec. Mass. Temperance Society.
 
 APPENDIX. 119 
 
 Truro, March 10, 1837. 
 
 SIR : I received your letter some time since, direct- 
 ed to the Rev. Silas Baker. He left here nearly two 
 years since ; therefore, I shall take the liberty to answer 
 yours. There are two temperance societies in this 
 town. The first consists of three hundred and ninety 
 five members, and the second of two hundred and thir- 
 teen, making six hundred and eight. There are, in this 
 town, one thousand and six hundred inhabitants. Each 
 of these Societies has a President, Vice President, Sec- 
 retary, Treasurer, and Executive Committee. There 
 are about sixty sail of fishing vessels from this port an- 
 nually, and there are not more than four or five, within 
 my knowledge, that carry ardent spirits, except as a 
 medicine. There are thirteen stores, and not one of 
 them traffics in this article. I should have answered 
 yours before, but it was thought advisable to stop until 
 after the annual meeting. 
 
 Yours with respect, 
 
 DANIEL PAINE, 
 
 Secretary of the First Temperance Society in Truro. 
 
 To F. W. CHOATE, 
 
 Agent of Massachusetts Temperance Society, for the County 
 of Barnstable.
 
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