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(From the New York Herald, 4th inst.)
MOVEMENTS OF FATHER MATTHEW.
THE CALLS AT THE CITY HALL.
TAKI.\(< THE PLEDGE.
THE MEETING AT THE TABERNACLE.
The Apostle of Temperance held a levee yes
terday, in the Governor’s room, of the City Hall,
from ten to one o’clock, and was visited by thou
sands; and none welcome him more than the poor
and humble who have lately come out from Ire
land.
About noon, a committee, (consisting of Messrs.
Smith, Cowdin, and Oakes,) from the various tem
perance associations of Boston, w 7 aited upon him.
• Dr. J. V. C. Smith, chairman of the committee,
thus addressed the venerable man;
Reverend Sir —The fame of an extraordinary
influence you exercise over men of depraved
habits, in turning them from the debasing vice of
intemperance, to a recognition of the responsibil
ities we are under to society, w’as long ago, waft
ed from the old w r orld to the new. Although
strangers, we are the representatives of the advo
cates of a doctrine you have taught with gratifying
success in your own country. This delegation is
from the North—the metropolis of New England
—a region in which the most abundant natural
productions, according to the declarations of a
traveler, are, granite and ice. But, sir, the hearts
of the inhabitants are neither as hard as the for
mer, nor as cold as the latter. It is our express
business to ascertain when it will suit your con
venience to visit the city of Boston ? When may
the friends, an army of well-wishers to humanity,
expect your arrival ihere, to strengthen and en
courage them ? While greeting you as a bene
factorof the age, we pray that a blessing may fol
low your mission to America, which contemplates
the noble purpose of raising the drunkard from
degradation to a position of respectability, from
misery to comparative happiness, and from moral
death to intellectual life.
Father Mathew responded as follows :
Gentlemen — l heartily thank you for the kind
attentions you have thought proper to bestow 7
upon an individual so humble and so feeble as
myself. I feel that I have much to do in America
in behalf of the cause of temperance. 1 have
but just arrived in this great city—l intend to visit
Albany, and shall be happy to visit Boston, and
shall probably be able to do so early in August.
I trust, gentlemen, that although w r e are now
strangers, w 7 e shall soon become better acquainted
and, in the meantime, you will please to convey
to those whom you represent my sincere thanks
ior sending this delegation so great a distance to
extend to me this invitation. Ample notice will
be given in regard to the precise time of my visit
to your city.
At half-past one o’clock he w'ent to Brady’s
daguerreotype rooms, in Broad w ay, and had his
likeliness there to gratify his friends. It hangs
there among the likenesses of the eminent men
of the day.
He then w'ent out to drive to see some things
about New York w ? hich strangers consider worthy
of regard.
Previous to the reverend gentleman leaving the
Irving House for the City Hall, in the morning,
be w'as w r aited on by a deputation of his own
countrymen, who expressed themselves delighted
at the reception given him by the brave people of
America. Mr. McGrath, on the part of the depu
tation, read an address which he w r as*deputed
to deliver, on behalf of the temperance society of
which he is president. Father Mathew replied
in his usual affectionate manner. Their en
thusiasm knew 7 no bounds, and they wept tears
of j°y ori beholding him. They pressed forward
with the utmost eagerness to shake him by the
hand. Many of them knelt before him and kissed
his hand, in despite of every effort of his to pre
vent it. One poor fellow, named Francis O’Con
nor, came forward and asked for the pledge.—
Father Mathew replied, that though it w 7 as not his
intention to have administered it there, he could
not refuse, and accordingly he directed O’Connor
to kneel dowm, and repeated the words of the
pledge “to abstain from all intoxicating drinks,
and to discourage intemperance in others,” and
the postulant repeated it after him, w 7 hen Father
Mathew gave him his blessing, and the poor man
went away, delighted beyond measure that he
was the first to take the pledge from Father Mat
thew in America.
In a few minutes after, an Irishwoman named
Mary Fagan, knelt at his feet and likewise took the
pledge. Three or four more received it, including
a man who had been on a drunken spree, and
bore the marks of it on his face.
The number who shook hands w 7 ith Father Mat
thew was immese ; among them, many who thank
ed God they had taken the pledge from him in
Ireland. Men, women and children, of all grades
in society, thronged to touch him, as if he possess
od some healing power. Many of the most dis
tinguished citizens thought it a high honor to shake
hands with him, and a host ot ladies w 7 ere intro
duced to him, among them Mrs. Larrian, who pre
sented him with several copies of a temperance
tale written by herself.
FATHER MATHEW AT THE TABERNACLE.
Last evening, pursuant to advertisement, a re
ception was given to the Apostle of Temperence
in the Tabernacle, Broad w 7 ay, by the American
Temperance Union. The building was pretty
well filled, but not crowded. The fine brass band
of Mr. Dingle performed several airs, with great
eclat , before the proceedings commenced. At ten
minutes before eight o’clock, lather Mathew en
tered the Tabernacle amidst loud cheers. H e
was accompanied by the mayor and the commit
tee of arrangements, who retired, for a few ini”
nutes, to a waiting room, when the Apostle ot
Temperance again made his appearance, which
was the signal for a renewed burst of applause.
He looked remarkably well, and has evidently
improved in health and spirits since his advent
to our shores. The band then struck up “ ba
vourneen Deelish,” in exquisite st\ le. Re\. Dr.
DeWitt, of the Reformed Dutch Church, then
opened the proceedings with prayer.
The Secretary of the Temperance Union, Rev.
Mr. Marsh, said he w'as sorry that the eve ot the
anniversary of the declaration of American In
dependence had lessened the number of the au
dience. He had no report to read of statistics —
he had only one report to make, and that was,
that Father Matthew was come. (Loud cheers.)
That report Dr. Cox would read for them, and
circulate it, too, over the land. (Hear and laugh-
ter*
Rev. Dr. Cox, of Brooklyn, then came forward
and, taking a glass of w r ater, he raised it and said
—Before I begin I must take my text. (Laugh
ter.) Having taken a copious draft of Croton, he
said he hoped they w r ould not place much depen
dence on him, for he had sympathised so much
wiih the atmosphere of late, that his physician
forbade him to attend, and yesterday he respond
ed to the order. To-day, however, he changed
his mind, and he was now before them. Ihe
great theme of temperance was in some respects
like the glorious gospel of the blessed God ; it did
not depend upon a flimsy variety. f L ruth was un
changeable, and even the same God was not tired
of his gospel, and w 7 ould not be tired of temper
ance. till he ceased to seek the highest good of man.
(Cheers.) They were all mortgaged to the 4th of
July, since 73 years ago; and that no doubt kept
maiiv away this evening ; but temperance was a
duty” just as much as patriotism. The ancients
were in the habit of praying for a sound mind in
a sound body. The Christians of the present day
would do well to apply this sentiment to them
selves. The associations that belonged to the
place and th.e occasion naturally threw’ back his
thoughts to the gem of the ocean, green isle of the
sea. (Enthusiastic cheering.) There was a pretty
large sprinkling of Irish in the human nature of
Americans. (Hear and laughter.) He was de
scended from the Irish himself, but he w r as twist
ed on the way with Wales, England, and Scotland.
(Roaro of laughter.) lie bad vldiicd liclaild Some
time ago, and he had the opportunity of seeing
what a misrepresented soil it was; that it w r as
productive, and fertile, and beautiful—the soil of
genius, if its growth were not checked in the bud.
(Loud cheers.)
“ 111 fares that land, to every vice a prey,
When wealth accumulates, and men decay.”
But oh, how ill when poverty accumulates and
men decay. Temperance was a sovereign anti
dote to poverty. We recollect the time w hen the
word alconol was but as an inkling of Arabic,
like the Alcoran and other Ales. It was a curious
fact, that alcohol, like the Alcoran did come from
Arabia, and he doubted which of them had done
most mischief among mankind. Those skilled in
the Arabic say, that it means a pure ointment, fra
grant and grateful to the senses, which, when
poured on the head of a grandee, would qause a
deligdtfuland refreshing halo around it. Many
called it happiness, but it was an insidious, mur
derous poison—a terror among the nations. He
had been thinking of one or two scripture texts;
one w T as where the Boaneges wished Christ to
call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samari
tans ; when Christ rebuked them, and said, “ 1
am not come to destroy men’s lives but to save.”
What a glorious sentiment. The ot her text w 7 as,
“ For the devil w r as a murderer from the begin
ning.” Peter advised the wise to “ add to their
knowledge temperance.” He asked them to
pause a moment, and reconnoitre the antidote of
lemperance though they knew 7 it already. It was
like some of the rare excellencies of Providence
and Christianity. He often thought they were not
sufficiently thankful for the air they breathed.—
They had now 7 got the cholera in it. They were
not thankful for the glorious light of heaven, nor
for cold water, that beverage of Paradise with
which Adam and Eve celebrated their marriage
in the garden of Eden. (Loud laughter.) When
God surveyed the creation, and saw that all was
good, there was no alcohol—not a drop of it. —
It was not till the earth was smitten for man’s sin,
that this cursed draught was found. When man
sinned, then there was a retrograde to decay,
thence to fermentation, but not yet to alcohol, for
that requires the art of the distiller. (Hear, hear,
and cheers.) Alcohol had no more nourishment
as a drink, then a flash of lightning. (Appla use.)
The temperance cause belonged to no Island, to
no country. It w 7 as the cause of the whole world,
and of all races from the Caucasian to the Malay.
It was a republican principle, for it w’as a great
leveller ; but, unlike the devil, temperance levelled
upwards. (Laughter.) He had sometimes seen
a fustian aristocracy, embroidered and strutting
He had once travelled wfitha gentleman-—it was
raining, and there w 7 as no railway much less a
telegraph. When they came to an inn the gen
tleman got his symposium, and wished him (Dr.
Cox) to join him ; but he would not, upon which
the gentleman said. “We understand each other
—we know chemistry. It is all right to bewilder
the vulgar with these theories; but absurd for
wise men to pay attention to them.” He (Dr.
Cox) told the gentleman that, wise as he was, al
cohol would make a fool of him, and the brutes
would be his superiors, when they trampled upon
him. He was a barrister; and he (Dr. Cox) told
him that he (Dr. Cox) was no gentleman ; that he
was merely a man ; actually flesh aiad blood,
and that if he put alcohol in his mouth it
would steal away his brains. That gentleman
became paralysed from intemperance and joined
the tetotalists when it was too late. He died—a
proof this bow little alcohol cares for embroidery.
It bad been said that religion had nothing to do
with temperance. This was true, if by religion
was meant sectarianism. But he must first take
the soul out of his body before he could separate
temperance from religion, for man was made in
the image of God, and alcohol degraded him be
low the brutes. He was too glad to agree with
men in what they held in common, to waste his
time in trying to And out in what they differed.—
It was seventy-three since the Declaration
of Independence came forth from the State House
in Philadelphia, when erst he was a boy, and in
his plays drew in the first inspirations of liberty
under this arched empire, with shining stars, and
the eagle flying in the middle. (Cheers.) Eu
rope would not hesitate to admit that, though the
older country, America is the mother country of
temperance. (Repeated cheering.) It was be
cause Americans prized it, that they honored
Father Mathew, who had struggled and labored
till he enrolled nearly six millions of his country
men. He was sorry to have to inform him that
in this “excelsior” city, there were numerous
groggeries. He loved Ireland. He visited it
once on purpose and at the time he did not in
tend to go there. (Laughter.) He will not say
how much intemperance had to do with this. He
then adverted to intemperaucein Ireland, former
ly having infected the clergy ; and he said the
whole of Europe were looking to see how Father
Mathew would be received here. There influ
ence, therefore, upon thedestinies of Europe was
beyond calculation. Let them imitate the virtues
of Washington and not say with Cain, “Am Imy
brother’s keeper ? ”
The Secretary, Rev. Mr. Marsh, thOn read the
following address from Chancellor Walworth,
President of the American Union, who was stay
ing at Saratoga, and could not be present on ac
count of the illness of his daughter :
Dear Sir —Permit me, not onty as an individ
ual, but also as President of the American Tem
perance Union, and in behalf of all the friends
temperance throughout the United States, to wel
come you to America. And may that kind and
merciful Providence, which has protected you in
your passage across the ocean, and brought you
in safety to our shores, preserve your life, your
health, and your strength, during your sojourn
among us. Your labors in the cause of Christian
charity and benevolence, but more particularly in
the promotion of temperance in your native land,
have made vour name familiar to us, not onlv
from the commencement of the glorious temper
ance revival upon the banks of the Shannon, in
August, 1839, but from that earlier period, when
vou were indoctrinating your fellow townsmen of
Cork in the true principles of temperance —tola!
abslinance from all that can intoxicate—at your
semi-weekly meetings at the Horse Bazaar in ihat
city. And allow me here to say, what certainly
is not undeserved praise, that it is the common
opinion of the friends of temperance, and of most
of the friends of Ireland on this side of the At
lantic, that your continued and disinterested labors
in this cause alone, have done more to relieve and
elevate the oppressed and down trodden people,
of your own beautiful isle of the ocean, than the
noble political exertions of all the self-devoted
patriots, of whose services and sacrifices in her
cause Ireland has so much reason to be proud.—
It was an honor to one of your ancestors to have
been the great standard bearer of England’s fourth
Edward in his contests with the house of Lancas
ter, for the throne of a kingdom. But in the es
timation of all who love their fellow-men, who
glory in the triumphs of the cross, and who seek
the eternal as well as the temporal happiness of
the human race, it is infinitely more honorable for
his descendant to be the great standard bearer of
the king of kings in this war against the demon
of intemperance. Desolation has marked that
monster tyrant, not only in yourown native land,
for which God has done so much and man so little
but in every other land which ha* been subjected
to his besetting and iron rule. It is he who in
every land furnishes tenants for prisons, and vic
tims for the gallows. He causes the deluded fa
ther to corrupt the appetites and the morals of his
son, by holding the intoxicating cup to the lips of
the confiding youth. He persuades the infatuated
mother to poison the smiling infant at her breast
by creating in it an unnatural appetite for intoxi
cating drink, before it is able even to lisp her
name. It is this monster who makes so many
wives widows, and so many children orphans;
and who so often destroys the happiness of the
domestic fireside. He enters the halls of science,
and deprives them of their brightest ornaments!
He often has polluted the sanctuary of justice,
perverting the impartial trial by jury, or soiling
the purity of her ermine. And, what is still worse,
and most to be deplored, he sometimes enters the
halls of the living God, and corrupts and de
bases the priest at the altar. Continue, therefore,
reverend sir, to bear aloft this broad standard of
total abstinance, as you have hitherto done until
this monster tyrant, who carries on this dreadful
warfare against the peace and happiness of the
whole world, shall be forever dethroned. And
may all the friends of humanity, and particularly
all the friends of the great king ot kings, whose
standard in this cause you have so long been, aid
and sustain you in this warfare, until this monster
of iniquity is not only driven irom Ireland and
America, but also from the earth, to his own ap
propriate realm, the bottomless pit.
Many of your countrymen upon their arrival
in this land of freedom, fall into the hands of the
destroyer, and soon find that they have escaped
oppression at home only to become the slaves of
a more grinding oppression here. May you r
counsels, therefore, enable them to escape the
withering curse of intemperance. In this land
of their adoption, and other millions here, as mil
lions in Ireland have already done, will still rise
up and call you blessed. Thousands of the suf
fering poor of Ireland have blessed those philan
thropists of America who, from their abundance,
contributed to relieve the wants of those who were
perishing with famine ; but your previous exer
tions in the cause of total abstinence there, had
done more to save the starving poor of Ireland
from actual starvation, in the da vs of her calamity,
than all the pecuniary contributions for their re
lief, which were so liberally bestowed on this
side of the Atlantic. \V e welcome vou, there
fore, to America, not only as a standard bearer in
the cause 0 f temperance, but as a true Christian
philanthropic, who loves bis fellow men, and
whose disinterested and untiring exertions in the
cause of benevolence, mav well be followed bv
the most enlightened friends of our common Sa
viour, in all parts of the world. And fear not,
dear sir, that any sectarian feelings will impede
vour welcome to the hearts of other philanthro
pists here, who also love their Saviour and love
their fellow r -men ; and who believe no sinner can
be acceptable to a God of infinite goodness and
merev, which does nothing to benefit other*. For
rest assured dear Sir, that one w hose liberal Chris
tianity ha* provided a resting place for the dying
poor of all denominations, where the Catholic and
Protestant mav mingle their ashes together, until
the trump of the arch-angel shall awake the sleep
ing dead, will receive a cordial welcome from ev
erv one who endeavors to practice that heaven
born charity, which teaches us to treat the suffer
ing and the needv of all classes and denomina
tions as our neighbors, and the whole familv of
man as our brethren. We cordially welcome
you then to our country and to our homes.
The reading of this document was received
with loud cheers. “Patrick’s Dav” was then
struck up by the hand, when the whole meeting
rose in honor of Ireland.
Father Mat-new then came forward and was re
ceived with a tempe*t of applause. He thanked
the meeting with all the feeling* of a w r nrm heart,
for the kind reception tlev had given him. The
reception he had met with vesterdav, fareyeeded
his expectations, for he had expected nothing of
the kind from the great. American people. He
would acknowledge that he was an instrument in
the hand* of God, in reforming the Trish people.
Fie saw they were overw helmed with the vice of
intemperance; he knew it. was from their position
and not their hearts, and that they wanted hnt
enlightenment and persuasion. He saw there
wore great difficulties to contend wfith ; there was
a mighty pressure from without; hut he felt a
mightier pressure wfithin. and the result was that
more than five millions had taken the pledge.—
(Cheers.) He wa* sorrv to hear that in this coun
fry *o many Irishmen had broken the pledge. In
Ireland not more than five in every 100 violated
it. Fie hoped, after his vi*it through the Flnifed
State*, that those who had here broken their vows,
would here he restored to the fold of temperance.
Though he felt his heart throb with pleasure ves
terdav, he felt also sad when he refleeted upon
the millions he had left behind him in his native
land, exposed to the horrors of ptnrvntinn ; anti
he wished that the hundreds of thousands upon
wdiom the workhouse had shut its gloomv gates,
and those who could not find an asvlum even
there, W’ere in this free and hnppv land. He did
mot intend to speak on the subject of temperance
to-night, for he labored under a cold, and he hoped
upon some other occasion, when he had better
health he w’ould do so ; hut he could not help now
thanking them for the honor they had conferred
upon him,
Loud cheers followed the conclusion of the rev
erend gentleman’s speech. The band then struck
up Garrvowen.
Rev. Mr. Schneiler, of the Catholic Church,
Brooklyn, then in a warm address welcomed Fa
ther Mathew to America, and invited him to
Brooklyn.
The whole meeting then sung “Sparkling and
Bright” led by the by the band, and E. W. An
drews, E=q.
Rev. Dr. Cox then pronounced the benediction
and the meeting separated.
What is better than Presence of Mind in 3
railway accident? Absence of body.— Punch*