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contaminated, and mean and despicable as you (
are, you have your influence, and that is exerted
to do evil. Words 'cannot describe your worth
lessness--imagination can not conceive your mean
ness. Ifyoudesire that this opinion ofyoushould
be reversed, Reform —Reform! Do not consider
yourself too far gone to be recovered. Hope yet:
Do not despair: “It is not too lata to learn the
old dog new tricks.” But trust not to your own
determinations.—Believe not in promises made
t< ■’Ourself. They are frail- they arc easily bro
ken—they may be forgotten in moments of high
excitement. If you really desire to be temperate,
join the society -Its restraints will strengthen
you in your determination; your brother mem
bers will cheer you in your work. It may save
you from trials, which your own determination
may not be sufficiently strong to resist. We
would urge the moderate drinker to join us, lest
he should become one of the class of which we
' have just taken leave. The present class ot Sen
i or Drunkards, are hut last year’s Junior Moder
ate Drinkers. I recollect, perfectly well, the time
when I used ardent spirits as moderately as any
one now before me. I recollect the time, when 1
could take one, two, or three glasses, and then
cease; and if 1 had then thought that I would
ever have become a drunkard, 1 would have ceas
ed to drink entirely. But in this matter, we
know not the danger until we are in the midst of
it. Let me tell you, the transition from the one
slate, of moderate drinking, to the other ot brutal
drunkenness, is very sudden. No one ever be
came a drunkard, without being a moderate
drinker; and none can tell, when he ceases.to be
the one, and becomes the other. As a matter ot
policy, then, it becomes to cease where you
now are, for recollect, there are many drunkards
now, who, when they had only arrived at your
state, felt as great confidence in their powers of
self-restraint, as you do now, and their present
condition but adds another lamentable proof of
the instability and uncertainty of our own deter
minations. Os this thing, lam eertain, and so
are. you, if you will acknowledge it: that drink
ing is of no benefit to you, ami if you are a good
citizen, it is your duty to sacrifice the small pleas
ure which a gratification of the palate produces,
to the great good which may result to the com
munity, by the influence of your example in join
ing in with those, who are endeavoring to arrest
the ravages of this “ fell destroyer." You, as yet,
have your reason about you : it has not been des
troyed by use of Alcohol. Use it then for your
soli', and as you feel cominissoration for those,
who are bound by the chains of this tyrant, take
heed, lest you also, in time, should need the pity
of those, who will stand in your shoes, when you
arc occupying the ones left vacant by the worn
out drunkard!
It is the duty of those, who have never felt the
degradation of either of the above mentioned
classes, to prevent, as far as possible, an exten
sion of this vice. Os you, there will be no sacri
fice required. Never having acquired the thirst
for liquor, you will never know what it is to suf
fer from it, if you now join the Temperance So
ciety. The influence you are called upon to
exert, is one purely of example. Drunkards and
moderate drinkers will never enter upon a refor
mation solely by themselves. If you wish this
disgrace blotted out from our land,you must prove
that you consider it a disgrace. You must show,
by your conduct, that you arc determined that
you shall never he the subject of it. You must
assist those, already dissipated, in their endeavors
to extricate themselves. It is to you they look
for the first move in this matter, and it is not
enough, that you should say—l am temperate, I
abhor drunkenness; hut you must prove it, by
joining the Society—by coming out openly and
boldly from among those who indulge, and by
placing a barrier forever between yourselves and
ardent spirits. Every one has his influence, no
matter how obscure he is; and that influence is
exerted upon some, for weal or woe. It is the
moral duty of every one, in every community, to
advance the cause of morality in that community
in every possible way, and where so small a boon
as your name and influence is requested, we ho|>o
none will be so selfish as to withhold it.—-You
cannot do it with a clear conscience. Say not,
that you desire that tho cause of Temperance
should succeed, and still refuse the sanction of
your name. I, for one, cannot believe words,
which are so plainly belied by actions. You are
all conscious of the evils of Intemperance; so
much so, that I have considered it unnecessary
to dwell particularly upon them—You are all
confident, that the peace and good order of socie
ty will he promoted, by the abolition of the prac
tice of drinking ardent spirits—You are certain,
that in proportion to this abolition, will be the
decrease ot crime—You are aware, that respect
to laws will not be paid by drunken men; and
you are also sure, that the condition of the whole
world will be benetitted by the substitution of
Temperance for Intemperance. Why need we
urge you farther in this matter ] As good citi
zens, then—as lovers of law and order—as phi
lanthropists —as Christians—as members of a free
government, whose stability so greatly depends
upon the strict observance of temperance in all
things, and particularly in this, we beg ofyou
to come forward and join us.
Ladies! we respectfully, but earnestly, urge
your co-operation in this good work. The extent
of your influence is unbounded, in whatever
cause you exert it. It is a fact, beyond dispute,
that in the recent rebellion in Rhode Island, ma
ny men were induced to unite with the traitor,
Dorr, in his treasonable designs, by the entreaties
of those of your sex. If in so unholy a cause
you can exert so great an influence, how much
greater would if be if exerted in this one. of
kindness and humanity. It is but seldom we are
called upon to witness the revolting spectacle of
a drunken woman, and we urge you to join us,
not for fear that you will need the restraints ol a
temperance society to keep you sober: but we
wish the world to know, that you are with us.
You have but to will, and those of the sterner sex
must obey. Discountenance vice and immorali
ty, and they must disappear from the land. Let
the dissipated know that you do not consider
them fit company, and they must reform; for man
cannot do without you, no matter what old bache
lors say. Besides, the time has come when all
mu.it declare themseltes. You are either for us,
or against us. There is no neutral ground in
this matter. Ifthe desire to see the whole world
benefitted, will not be a sufficient inducement to
you, let your own personal and mental feelings
be urged to you. Upon you, falls in the greatest
degree, the injury done by an indulgence in in
temperate habits* It is your father, or your bro
ther—your husband, or your son, who is the
drunkard; and fiend-like that he is, upon you he
vents his ire, in his moments of intoxication.
Use woman’s arguments, her entreaties, her
smiles, her tears, more powerful than any which
man has at his command, and you will reform
him. But selfish motives, such as these, never
yet influenced woman. It is enough, that itisthe
cause of morality, and that man and woman will
alike be benefitted. We say no more. We are
confident you will respond to the call.
Marietta, Cobb County, Geo. )
August Ist., 1842. )
To the Editor of the Washingtonian, Augusta:
Mr. Taylor visited this place, and remained
with us nearly a week, during which time he was
employed in lecturing on the subject of Temper
ance, or rather Total Abstinence.—A Washing
ton Total Abstinence Society was formed in this
place, which numbers upwards of two hundred
and thirty members. On the 4th day of July,
Mr. James A. Cooper, of the corps of engineers,
delivered a fine address before the society, a copy
of which is now forwarded to you, with a request
that you publish it in your valuable paper.
Respectfully, your very ob’t. serv’t.
JESSE C. FARRAR,
Corresponding Secretary.
Friends and Fellow-Citizens:
All America is this day assembled to render
homage to the natal hour of freedom--from the
ocean strand, and from the mountain summit—
from the sunny plains of the South, and from the
verdant valleys of the West —with one accord
their grateful views rise in solemn harmony to
celebrate this day.
What is it that they celebrate'! Wherefore do
those gorgeous banners wave on high! Why
does that martial music echo through the land !
Why do those cannons thunder forth that joyful
jubilee! What glad tidings do those shouts
proclaim, that are wafted upon every breeze !
It is in commemoration of an act which asserted,
and which procured the independence of Ameri
ca. You have just heard it read, and 1 would
ask you to observe, particularly, the nature of the
declaration, and to remark, that through the man
ly exordium setting forth the unalienable rights
of men, through that painful rehearsal of the
grievances which beset them—through the sub
lime peroration which closes and crowns that per
fect instrument—and,especially in the wonderful
results that were achieved by that Charter of our
Country’s liberties, —1 say, in all these particu
lars, there exists a striking eulogy with the histo
ry, organization, and progress, of the Washing
tonian Association.
We assert, that it has become necessary to
dissolve the stubborn bands by which intemper
ance has been fastened on our land—to cast out
the serpent’s tooth which is sunk deep into the
body politic, gnawing its inmost vitals, and
spreading through it 3 swollen veins its pestilen
tial fires. It has become necessary for us, as men,
for us, a people, to assume upon the page of his
tory, that elevated station to which the code of
abstinence only can exalt us—to emerge from
the ruin in which we have too long wallowed,
and to walk among the sober sons of men—in
fulfilment of the honorable destiny which infalli
bly attends the exertions of zeal and sobriety.
The declaration reads, “ When along train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to redeem them (the
people) under an absolute despotism—it is ihcir
right—it is their duty—to throw off such form of
government, and to provide new guards for their
future security.”
Who can enumerate the long train of abuses,
the grim catalogue ot crimes and miseries, which
are the creatures and the followers of the demon
drunkenness. Look where he comes, reeling at
their head, and mark the ghastly host that follow
in his footsteps; it is an endless rank of thieves
and murderers—incendiaries and paracides—the
agonizing shrieks of widows —the groans of dis
appointed parents —and the wail of starving or
phans, constitute the music of his band; in
drunken cadence with which dismal notes, he
totters onward to an early and an ignominious
grave. Pass on, you proud procession, your ban
ners streaming with the rags of poverty, dyed
with the blood of crime; —march on, march on,
ye staggering crew—the wild shouts of the mani
ac shall be your feu de joie.
“ Abuses and usurpations.” Let us now in
quire into the usurpations, to follow out the par
allel. In the brain of the drunkard, brutishness
and ignorance have usurped the seat of reason:
in his heart, crime has supplanted innocence , in
his household, destitution and misery have dis
possessed competence and happiness; in his bu
siness, insolvency and ruin will take the place of
prudence and frugality; in his councils, uncer
tainty and error, instead of wisdom and discern
ment; and in his own person, squalidness and
filth, instead of decency and propriety. It is the
province, and it is the purpose ot our association,
to reform these incongruities —to restore the lu
gitive reason to her abdicated throne—to intro- ;
duce into the drunkard’s hovel, that peace and j
plenty now almost forgotten —to stretch the hand |
of charity towards his famished offspring — to re- j
kindle in the hearts of wives and mothers that
cheerfulness and hope so long extinguished; and
to re-establish the prostrate drunkard in a career
of usefulness and honor.
“ It is their light, it is their duty, to throw off 1
such government, and to provide new guards for
their future security."’ Do we provide those
guards for our future security ! Yes, the same
i guards, the same pledge, the same sacred honor
! of American citizens, that endowed our land with
; that liberty whose blessed fruits we have enjoyed
! for two thirds of a century. Fifty-six men, the
signers of that declaration, redeemed a whole
Continent from foreign servitude; may not two
j hundred regenerate a county, repel a moral de
gradation from themselves! Are we worthy of
That Independence which our forefathers wrung
from the reluctant hands of Great Britain; and
can we not cleasc ourselves from this contamina
tion! We can—-we will! That spirit which
redeemed us in ’76, may again redeem us now.
Come forward, then, and take a part in this se
cond Revolution,—come, like your Hancocks
and your Jeffersons, and set your hands to that
pledge—adopt the necessary safeguards: the
Country is in the midst of a Resolution—a blood
less and a rumless Revolution; and shall not
Cobb county send her quota of recruits to the
Continental army. Arm, arm, and out—unfurl
vour banner to the breeze, displaying to the eye
| of all America the sacred and immortal name of
j Washington—first in Peace, first in War,
first in the hearts of his Countrymen; castoff
| your prejudices before that hallowed name—sa
| crifiee your scruples upon that consecrated shrine;
bid the cynic scoff, and let the skeptic sneer; for
well may you despise their contumely, when you
rally to the name of Washington,
“And for the support of this Declaration, with
a firm reliance on Divine Providence, we mutu
ally pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes,
and sacred honor.” This completes the parallel
which I have attempted to trace. After laying
down in general terms, the unalienable rights of
men—after reciting the particulars ofthe oppres
sion under which the Country labored—they de
clare themselves absolved from allegiance to the
British Crown —pledged life, fortune and honor,
to sustain the Declaration: signed the instru
ment, and cast it into the teeth of the British
Ministry. After a struggle of seven years dura
tion, the Country realized the Indepcndencethen
declared. Here then is an instance of the effica
cy of mutual pledges; and with that memorable
example before their eyes, the Washingtonian
Association are trying the same plan of pledges.
Theirs is a simple instrument, in these words: —
“ We, whose names are hereunto annexed,
desirous of forming a Society for our mutual ben
efit. and to guard against a pernicious practice,
which is injurious to our health, standing and
families, do pledge ourselves as gentlemen, not to
drink any Spirituous or Malt Liquors, Wine or
Cider.” 1
But here there is no seven years of war to in
tervene, between the signing of the pledge and
the accomplishment of the object: the effect is
instantaneous —the act of signing is itself the act
of redemption—each man liberates himself from
the abject slavery of rum. It is a universal de
mocracy, when every citizen represents himself,
and legislates himself from degradation. The
plan, as you all know, has met with extraordina
ry success, wherever its genuine merits have been
laid before the public. In this place, our forces
number two hundred and twenty-two, and we
were informed, by the missionary who lately vis
ited us, that the village of Marietta is second
only to Augusta, in the number of accessions
received in the various towns in Georgia, where
he had lectured. This is truly a proud and en
couraging distinction for the Washingtonians of
Cobb; one that will invite them on to great deeds
ot reformation. Yes, we will labor to maintain
our proud ascendancy, and we will not abate our
efforts till we have rooted out the last vestiaes of
this demoralizing vice, then will be heard no
more the ribald song of drunkenness, breaking
on the stillness of the midnight air—then no
longer will be seen those grovelling shapes of
stultified humanity, disputing with the beast pos
session of the ditch, till, overmatched in the une
qual contest, his bloated carcase sinks “ to dumb
forgetfulness a prey,” and all ‘those horrors
which on horrors head accumulate” from this
accursed vice, shall be purged and routed from
the soil.
Intemperance engenders crime; it crowds the
calenders of our criminal courts; peoples our
penitentiaries; overflows our lunatic assy turns;
caters for the scaffold, and multiplies the sepul
chres of death. The wine cup and the wassail
stifle with their suffocating streams the salutary
breath of conscience, and thus resolve the mid
night bravo in his undetermined schemes ot
blood—infuriated by the liquid venom driving
through his veins—he strikes the murderous
blow which dooms him to perdition.
As personal intemperance debases and de
grades the character of men, so national intem
perance will humble and destroy a nation. This
was illustrated to you a few evenings since, in
the history of the fail of Athens, of'Carthage,
and of Rome —illustrated with surpassing elo
quence, by Richard Taylor. He has now left
us ; but he leaves his land-marks where he goes,
in the societies which he creates. He has gone
to other parts of Georgia on his honorable mis
sion of sobriety and peace. Welcome, harbinger
of happiness; "may that success attend your gen
erous exertions in the cause of reformation,
which your disinterested self-devotion so well
deserves. In your own person, an emblem of the
virtues of abstinence —have I not a response in
every Bosom present, when 1 bid you, God speed.
But to return. Are we, as a nation, exempt
from the doom which has overtaken other repub
lics 1 We arc not, so long as the fiend of In
temperance stalks unmolested through,the length
and breadth of the land. Seal it in your halls
of legislation, and anarchy will follow ; let it di
rect your armies and your navies, and disgrace
will "light upon your arms; place it on the judi
cial bench, and misrule prevails; give it a voice
in your diplomacy, and your national honor will
be polluted; let it range throughout your institu
tions, and it will sap the foundations of your re
publican structure, and the fair fabric will totter
to its base.
That maxim which constitutes the corner-stone
of our institutions would then stand reversed,
and we would blazon to the world the mortifying
fact, that man is not capable of self-government;
then would be realized in dreadtul force the
doubts of the skeptic, and the misgivings of the
philanthropist, in the permanency of republics.
Now is the accepted hour to erase those doubts —
now is the propitious moment to banish those
misgivings, to rear America in an attitude of
indomitable strength upon the Pedestal of Tem
perance; there she will stand, and stand forever,
relying upon the sobered intellects and renovated
fiames of her proud sons; she will stretch forth
her shield of protection, and welcome the perse
cuted emigrant to the last lone asylum of lost
liberty.
Those who are disposed to take a part in the
great moral Revolution which, we believe, is now
spreading through the country, will have an op
portunity to do so, by subscribing to that pledge.
You that are addicted to the vice of Intemper
ance, sign it, and resume your birth-right among
the sober walks of men. You that are dallying
with the treacherous fluid, indulging lightly in
its dangerous fascinations,sign it; tor it may arrest
you at the threshold ofadark career of crime; and
you, for whom the social glass has no temptation,
sign it, for multitudes await your action; stand
not aloof to plant yourselves as barriers to the
drunkard’s reformation; his eye may be upon
you; he regulates himself by your example—for
the love of Heaven, lead the way to his redemp
tion. Mothers, sign it, and educate your chil
dren to abstemious habits. Daughters, sign it,
and rehearse the wholesome doctrine to your
sires. There is ample inducement to operate on
all—the obligation rests on all. Come on then,
one and all, and enroll yourselves among the
champions of this reformation—inscribe your
names upon that pledge, and this auspicious hour
shall stand forever blessed in the calender.
Shade of the immortal Washington, is thy
spirit with us, as thy name, in this our enterprize.
Thou, who did’st embrace in one glow ot asso
ciated beauty, all the nobler attributes of man,
look down from thy blissful seat on high, and’
cheer us with thy smile. Thou, who did’st hum
ble the proud crest of England, with a handl'ull
of thy tattered countrymen, assist us in our
march against this fearful adversary. Thy name
is lettered on our standard, the sure guaranty of
victory, and relying on its sacred influence,
The mind we sway by, and the heart we bear
Shall never sagg with doubt, or shake with fear.
On, Washingtonians! on to the rescue of your
common country—display your gallant line from
St. 1 awrence to Sabine, and charge the enemy
at every point—charge him in his centre—charge
him on his flanks ;—hold no pailey—show no
quarter—but charge home with all yourchivalry.
“ Strike—till the last arm’d foe expires •
Strike—for your altars and yourtir. s : ’
Strike—for the green graves of your sires—
God, and your natiye land !”
Extracts trout the Proceedings of the Tem
perance Convention, held at Greenvi’le,
S. C., August Bth and 9th, 1842.
In pursuance ot a call made by th. Preside nt ot
the State Temperance Society, the Delegates ap
pointed by the different Temperance Societies
throughout the State assembled at the Ai. thodist
Church at Greenville, at 10 o’clock, A. M. on
the Bth August, 1842.
1 he President, alter the organizali u ot tne
Convention, delivered an eloquent Andr. ss, high -
ly appropriate to the occasion, in which hecon
gratulated the members o the Convention upon
the favorable circumstances und. r which tin y
were furnished of the success, anu the prospect ot
ultimate triumph in the noble . liter; tize in wnielv
they were engaged. He tin n proceeded to slate
in a clear and succinct manner, the various sub
jects that would necessarily demand the attention
and consideration of the Convention, anu con
cluded by impressing upon the members tne ne
cessity of union and concert of action among all
who desire the prosperity ot this great moral en
terprize.
A call was made by the President for the Del
egates of the several Societies to present them
selves, by Districts, at the Secretaries’ table, when
upward of 200 presented their credentials, and
their names were registered.
Dr. Leland, from the committee appointed to
prepare a Statistical Report of the names of all
the Temperance Societies in South Carolina, the
number of members in each; and the kind of