TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. 



553 



reverts, and, with one or two exceptions, in ad- 

 dresses from distinguished individuals of its number 

 at the annual meeting, continuing, till the year 

 1826, the most conspicuous agent in the enterprise 

 of reformation, while, a year after its formation, a 

 similar state institution, with numerous branches, 

 was organized in Connecticut, measures of like 

 character were set on foot in Vermont, and an in- 

 direct influence from itself was also exerted within 

 its own proposed limits by auxiliary societies, 

 which, according to the report of 1818, had multi- 

 plied at that time to the number of more than forty. 

 At the same time, as was to be expected, individ- 

 uals, by writing and by personal influence, were 

 doing an important part in the same work. Early 

 in the year 1826, a new impulse was given to the 

 movement by the formation, in Boston, on a more 

 extensive plan, of the American Society for the 

 Promotion of Temperance. The Massachusetts 

 society had now accomplished, perhaps, the most 

 useful part of all to which it was competent. It 

 had succeeded in fixing attention to its object in a 

 part of the country where effective combination for 

 further operations might be the most easily organized. 

 By the facts which, with much labour, it had collected 

 and promulgated, both in its own documents and in 

 publications of the most material importance, which 

 it had called out from private hands, it had both 

 furnished guidance to further efforts of the same 

 kind, and demonstrated their necessity ; and, by the 

 controlling influence of the names which stood for 

 vouchers of the wisdom of its design, it had abashed 

 the derision, and shaken the incredulity with which 

 its first annunciation had been met. The Massachu- 

 setts society had been in great part conducted by 

 individuals belonging to a class of religionists, 

 the Unitarians, whose influence, as such, was 

 not great beyond a limited circle in New Eng- 

 land, and who did not sufficiently command the 

 sympathy of other denominations to be able to 

 produce a combination of Christian action. At 

 the time above mentioned, the enterprise was 

 energetically taken up by other hands, in all re- 

 spects highly competent to advance it, and, in that 

 to which allusion has just been made, possessing 

 altogether superior advantages. Perceiving the 

 power which, in the use of means within their con- 

 trol, might be brought, under existing circumstances, 

 to act upon the public mind, some judicious and 

 philanthropic individuals, of the different denomi- 

 nations accustomed to exert a joint influence for 

 general objects, held a meeting, at which they 

 passed resolutions expressing their sense of the ex- 

 pediency of making, on the part of the Christian 

 public, more systematic and vigorous efforts to sup- 

 press intemperance, and appointed a committee to 

 devise means to that end. At an adjourned 

 meeting, the constitution of a new society was 

 adopted, and fifteen individuals elected to compose 

 it, with such associates as might be thenceforward 

 chosen by themselves. The first annual report an- 

 nounced the formation of 30, and the second of 220, 

 auxiliary associations, five of which latter were 

 state institutions. The number of auxiliary asso- 

 ciations was increased, in 1829, to more than 1000, 

 no state in the Union now being without one, and 

 eleven of them bearing the names of their states re- 

 spectively. The report also announces it to have 

 come to the knowledge of the society, that jmore 

 than 700 habitual drunkards had been reformed by its 

 influence, and that fifty distilleries had been closed. 

 Adecline inthesalesof distilled spirits is represented 



to have generally taken place, varying, in different 

 parts reported, from one quarter to nine tenths 

 of the whole amount ; and 400 dealers in them 

 were known to have renounced the traffic for rea- 

 sons of conscience. The next report was presented 

 in the month of May, 1831. More than 2200 so- 

 cieties, embracing 170,000 members, were now in 

 correspondence with the parent society, and, from 

 less certain data, it was inferred that the whole 

 number of societies existing was not less than 3000, 

 and that of their members 300,000. More than 

 1000 distilleries had been stopped a tenth part, as 

 was believed, of all which had been in operation. 

 From extracts contained in the Journal of Humani- 

 ty, a newspaper published under the society's direc- 

 tion since 1829, it appears that, from the sources 

 of information accessible to its government, they 

 gather that there are now 4000 auxiliary associa- 

 tions in the United States, numbering 600,000 

 members ; " that more than 4000 merchants have 

 ceased to traffic in ardent spirits ; and that more 

 than 4000 drunkards have ceased to use intoxicat- 

 ing drinks. There is also reason to believe," the 

 report proceeds, "that more than 20,000 persons 

 are now sober, who, had it not been for the tem- 

 perance reformation, would, before now, have been 

 sots ; and that 20,000 families are now in ease and 

 comfort, without a drunkard in them, or one who 

 is becoming a drunkard, who would otherwise have 

 been in poverty, or cursed with a drunken inmate ; 

 and that 50,000 children are released from the 

 blasting influence of drunken parents ; and 100,000 

 more from that parental influence which tended to 

 make them drunkards." " More than 1,000,000 

 of persons in the United States," says another pub- 

 lication of the society, "now abstain from the use 

 of ardent spirits." 



The means by which the society has produced 

 these results, apart from the contemporaneous la- 

 bours, in writing, and by more personal endeavours, 

 of a great number of individuals, connected and not 

 connected with it. have been the calling of atten- 

 tion to the subject, and the diffusing of information 

 upon it, by the circulation of tracts and the ad- 

 dresses of travelling agents, and then collecting 

 such as have been influenced by the representations 

 made, into auxiliary associations, embracing a larger 

 or more limited neighbourhood, thus making such 

 individuals distinctly responsible for personal, and, 

 as opportunity should permit, more public co-opera- 

 tion with its objects. Such associations have in- 

 cluded females and children, it being thought of 

 the highest importance thus to secure the influence 

 of the former class, and the forming habits of the 

 latter. The basis on which these associations have 

 been formed, at least from an early period, has been 

 that of an engagement, on the part of each member, 

 to abstain from the use of distilled spirits, except 

 for medicinal purposes, and to forbear to provide 

 them for the entertainment of friends or the supply 

 of dependants. The principle of the necessity of 

 abstinence from the use of distilled spirits, in order 

 to the prevention extensively of their fatal abuse 

 a principle to which the researches on the sub- 

 ject from the first had more and more directly 

 tended, and which had, for instance, been distinctly 

 argued in the address befor'e the Massachusetts So- 

 ciety for the Suppression of Intemperance, at their 

 meeting in the spring of 1826 was first, as far as 

 appears, made the matter of an article of mutual 

 agreement by an association formed at Andover in 

 September of that year. At the second annual 



