A forty years' fight with the drink demon

Front matter

THE EDWIN C. DINWIDDIE

COLLECTION OF BOOKS ON

TEMPERANCE AND ALLIED SUBJECTS w^-^mmm^s mmms pp«'

Preface

Had the temperance enterprise, commenced substantially in 1826, received from the American people a support, financial and other- ■wise, commensurate with its importance, and been prosecuted on the plan adopted by its originators, the promise which its early and wonderful successes gave of a speedy triumph would have been realizedi and this volume would not have been given to the public, but in place thereof, its author, or some fellow-laborer, would have published, ere this, a more ample and worthy history of one of the grandest achievements of this nineteenth century.

The consummation of this great and needful work has been prevented by a concurrence of causes not generally understood, because not carefully studied ; the study, unlike most others, bringing no present and promising no future pecuniary reward.

First among the causes referred to, I must place the strange and deplorable mistakes of our American churches, in the aggregate, which, with a few notable exceptions, have busied themselves with matters having generally a far less direct bearing on their own or the world's welfare, rather than in worthy and direct efforts to crush their own worst enemy, whose wounded and reeling victims meet us in our streets as we walk to our houses of worship — and, worse still, whose marked and doomed ones often look up from the cushioned pews of magnificent churches, into the faces of our Christian teachers while they are eloquently urging us to put forth efforts for the

W PREFACE.

salvation of men in Burmah or Hindostan. But something worse than mistakes have hindered the progress of the cause.

The too general and criminal indifference of our best educated and influential classes to the just claims of the temperance enterprise, in years that have past, has permitted it to form unnatural associations, to take questionable forms, and its honest and earnest friends sometimes to mistake and adopt harmful expedients ; and now, when we appeal for aid to those classes, they point us to our past mistakes anxl.-the imperfection of our present arrangements, as a justification oi their continued neglect. As one of the many deplorable results of such a course, thousands and tens of thousands of^the classes complained of, will pay the penalty of their folly in the ruin\-of^their sons.

When and how have occurred the mistakes I deplore, the reader will learn by the joerusal of the following chapters. It is not too late to correct the errors of the past. Ten years, perhaps less, of wisely directed, properly sustained, and persistent effort, on the part of the aggregate Christianity of this country, would be ample to complete the grandest work ever committed to any generation since the commencement of the Christian era.

The general and thorough education of all our teachable people in relation to the nature and use of intoxicating elements — the entire abolition of the drinking usages of society and what would inevitably and directly follow, the suppression by law of the traffic in those substances, as thoroughly as other crimes against society are suppressed, would be fraught with more blessings to our country than any or all those products of inventive genius and mechanical skill which have distinguished the present century, splendid and beneficent as they are.

We have some reasons to fear that a stern and general grapple with the great scourge of modern civilization calls for a larger measure of courage, self-denial, and consecration to God and the

PREFACE. V

best interests of man, than the present generation seems likely to furnish. If so, the work of demoralization and ruin wrought always by the general use of intoxicants, will go on for the present, and the triumph of the temperance enterprise will be reserved for a wiser, more self-denying, and courageous generation.

It was no part of my purpose in the production of this work, to give a general history of the temperance reform in this country, or to assign to all who have distinguished themselves in connection with it their just meed of praise for the good work they have done.

The time has not arrived when such a work could be ^vritten with justice to al! parties concerned or profit to the great interests involved. Various expedients are now employed to secure increased attention to our views and measures, and to hasten the downfall of the liquor system, the value of which time alone can determine ; and many of the present and active promoters of the temperance reform will never be rightly estimated, until the work in which they are engaged be completed, or their mission on earth shall be ended.

The undersigned is fully sensible that the facts of his personal history would be scarcely worth recording but for his intimate and almost life-long connection with one of the great reform movements of the age. The expressed belief of many friends that such a history might interest and perhaps instruct my fellow-laborers, has led to the production of this volume. If its publication shall justify the expectations of my co-laborers and contribute, in any measure, to the advancement of the cause, I shall never regret its publication, however it shall be regarded by those who look on our efforts only to criticise them.

Let me not be misunderstood. I do not deprecate criticism, but the personal indolence and selfishness of those who make fault-finding their only contribution to a struggling enterprise. Reformatory movements are aggressive always, and those who labor in and for them are constantly attacking the opinions, customs, and habits of

Tl PREFACE.

others v/liicli they seek to change. They have therefore no right to complain of sharp criticism in return. For one, I ask no personal favors, as I never grant any where loyalty to the truth and the interests of humanity forbid.

The Author.

OOTvTTEIsrTS.

Chapter I

Incentives to the Battle — A sad state of things — A Uttle Light — Set on — Considering the matter — The Whipping Post — The first Blow — Signing the pledge — Rev. Dr. Hewitt — The Fathers — Missionary work with Pills — William Goodell — A blow from Elder Meech — My first Speech — What came of it — Pure Gold. 13

CHAPTER H.

Organization — A Commissary Department wanting — Little Money, but Rich — Ben Johnson cures the Doctor — Cider Experience — Out of the Scrape — Rhymes and Retailers — Still Rhyming — Argumentum ad Hominem — The Winding Sheet — They Dislike but Patronize him. . 29

CHAPTER HI.

A Visitor — Thomas P. Hunt — Hie Speech at Aponaug — "An excellent sentiment, madam" — Facing the question — Yes or No ? — He loves but votes against it — A victory for Rum — An " Open House" — A song furnished gratis 41

CHAPTER IV.

A CONTROVEKSY.

A " Plucky" Wholesaler — Retreating, he gets " a shell" — A Retailer hit — Rinsing the glasses — Providence Votes down the Traffic — A laughable incident — The way to do it — A shot that hit — Enlisting a Sharp Shooter — He hits the "bull's eye" — " Crack up" — Shoot, but don't hurt folks — "Father Bonney's Prayer — First

extemporaneous Speech 48

(vii)

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

A COWARDLY ATTACK.

" Smith's hat" — Giving up the lancet — My co-workers — A sick wife — Trouble — A visit to Boston — Dreaming in Rhyme — Laugh and be fat — Encouraging progress — Doubt and uncertainty — A Wife's Counsel — A timely suggestion — Seventy Dollars ! . . 65

CHAPTER VI.

INVITED TO A WIDER FIELD.

Packing up — " Cast down but not destroyed " — A dialogue — Was it brotherly or wise ? — A Christian hero — A Clergyman and three Churches — The poor-house preacher — " If I had let rum alone" — Rum and horrors — We " went for" the buckwheat cakes — Crane's store— What '11 you have ?— " Didn 't I call for't, ha?"— "You can't cheat me" — Doubted ! 76

CHAPTER VII.

REVIEW OF THE PAST.

The Convention of 1838 — The great petition — A committee worth remembering — Looking ahead — Hats off, gentlemen ! — The Law of 1838 — Wholesale Dealers to the front! — They meet — A Paixhan shell — The lesson of past events — Study and reorganization. .... 93

CHAPTER VIIL

TREASON.

Robert Rantoul and Massachusetts Democracy — " Up Guards, and at them" — A practical illustration — A shallow Trickster — A laugh out of place — Hard at work, but happy — Judge Crosby — Wise

. counsel . . .113

CHAPTER IX.

Money, how will you get it ?— Financial Plan — Duties of Agents— The way our plan worked — Illustrative Reports — The Washingtonian movement — The Temperance Union breaking down, why ? An explanation — Local organizations essential — Washingtonianism, its errors — Washingtonianism, its power — Summing up. 122

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER X.

The Clergy and their general faithfulness — Mistakes and their results — " Experiences," their potency — More blunders — The Clergy disaffected — Close organizations, their origin — Practical results — DiiFerent organizations compared — What is needed. . . 140

t

CHAPTER XI.

Open societies, their advantages — Discussion before the masses wonderfully effective — Comparisons — Our progress too slow — Why I thus speak — Our younger brethren — Progress before the year 1840 — Some change essential to a triumph — Three classes will not join the Orders — Why ? — Regalia — They love the drink — Out of date ? No — How they work in California — A glorious success — A supposition — Policy our ground of choice. . 154

CHAPTER Xn.

OPERATIONS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE UNION.

Sad results of wrong measures — Our temperance Poets — Fourteen o'clock — A Cotton Speculation — Jimmy's Mill — The Distiller's Disaster — A grist from Jimmy's Mill. . . . .172

CHAPTER Xm.

BOUND, AND HOW.

The Widow's Son— In the " Slough of Despond "—A fight for Life- Victorious — The Moral — A Speculation — Still moralizing — The Longevity of Reformers 188

CHAPTER XIV.

OUR LEADERS AMD CHAMPIONS.

Rev. Dr. Justin Edwards — The First New England Regiments — Personal Peculiarities — Rev. John Pierpont — The freedom of the Pulpit assailed — A Masterly Defence — Logic — Logic Versified — The License System — Sarcasm — Legitimate employment of it — Awful Exposures — Shall we give it wings ? Yes — " Lament in Rhyme, Lament in Prose" — Square hits — Summing up. . 196

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

" THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS."

L. M. Sargent — Personal peculiarities — The Temperance Tales — A Damascus blade well employed — "Deacon Giles' Distillery" — Providential and grand results — Father Taylor — Word painting — Eloquence 214

CHAPTER XYI.

Joseph Breck — A glass of Gin — Compare them, Sir — Frightened — A laugh all round — A cup of tea — A home question — What . do you say ? — A new patron — Our best hold — Gough, Gough ! — Discussion, its value — The tipsy Son — Afflicted — The old story — Converted at a blow — Temperance Conversions, how eiFected — Ruminating — Only to travelers — Travelers on short routes — Pretty much burned out — The poor old Doctor — Expelled — Why is it ? The Major — " Take him off" — Threatened — Satisfaction — Recovered — Trying it again — " Ten cents" — The wholfe cost. . 231

CHAPTER XVH.

Incompetent Advocates — Their influence — Oiir early Advocates — District Societies — On time — The Christian way — The Lunch — A Good Time — The lesson of it — Visit the Brethren — Rhymes — ■ A new Field — How shall we fix it ? — Plan of operations — Trouble in the Camp 265

CHAPTER XVm.

Moving — Guerrilla Warfare — Almost discouraged — Retreating- Arrested and sent to the front — One thousand dollars — Getting into type — Front to Front — We rout them — Comfortable — Visiting the Prisoners — Sham Democracy — Republicans unsound and timid — A glorious opportunity — Political action — They beg off — A venal Press. ........ 288

CHAPTER XIX.

The Maine Law — Reaction, how created — False Witnesses — Work ing up a " reaction" — A Prophesy — Its fulfillment — How it goes—

CONTENTS. XI

Search and Seizure — Cleaned out — A Viper without fangs — Trying it on — Terrible threats — Nobody hurt — We roll them out — Legs — Three cheers for the Law — Cargoes or Pint Bottles ? Either ! — Property — Pour it out 305

CHAPTER XX.

Will you come? Yes— A Challenge— A four days Debate — The Whisky Champion — A Bill of Indictment — Plausible but baseless — Still Debating — Parallel Cases— Shad in Connecticut River ! Ha, ha — A good time— A capital arrangement — A Colloquy — A Distiller at the front— Political Economy— Still-fed Pork — '' Tender"— Hard Work but poor Pay 325

CHAPTER XXI.

Westward ho ! — On the Prairies — A Thanksgiving extemporized — I Whisky and the Indians — Life on the Farm. . . .342

CHAPTER XXH.

Return to New England — Organization and Finance — Instruction the Great Want — Sensation versus Education — What might have been — Poverty and its results — Mistakes of Good Men — Why is it permitted ? — A " New Departure" suggested — Will you attend to it, Sir,? . . 348

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Million Fund — Massachusetts Alhance — Old Dr. Beecher — To the West again — Thurlow W. Brown 360

CHAPTER XXIV.

Charles Dickens — The Logic of Facts — What we must Teach — Foundations and Connections — Starvation and Consequent Feebleness — Slightly Intoxicated — Temperance and the Doctors — The Longevity of our Temperance Fathers — Form of^Organization for Local Temperance S<jcieties — Conclusion. . 378

A FOETT TEARS FIGHT

WITH THE

DRINK DEM OK

CHAPTER I.

Incentive to the Battle — A sad state of things — A Httle light — Set on — Considering the matter — The "VV^hipping Post — The first blow — Signing the pledge — Rev. Dr. Hewett — The Fathers — Missionary work with Pills — William Goodell — A blow from Elder Meech — My first Speech — "What came of it — Pure Gold.

In the year 1826, while at the home of my father in Lisbon, Conn., engaged in certain studies supposed to be necessary as preliminary to the study of medicine, in which it had been settled that I should subsequently engage, rumors reached our family circle that movements in opposition to the sale and use of intoxicating liquors had originated, not only in our own state, but in other New England states as well. These rumors, aided by local circumstances which I cannot here detail, directed our thoughts to the pernicious results of th5 drinking customs which at that time universally prevailed, and of the liquor traffic which was then carried on in every town and village under the sanction of law

14 SAD STATE OF THINGS.

and apparently without awakening a suspicion on the part of the masses of the people that there was anything wrong about either. Our attention having thus been called to the subject, it was frequently discussed around our hearth, in the held, and by tlie w^ay. Facts to classify and compare and from which to draw conclusions, were all around us and were of the most startling cliaracter. More than one-tenth of our male population who had passed the age of thirty were occasional, it not habitual, drunkards. With that statement the results otherwise need not here be described. And yet, on all public occasions, intoxicating liquors, the cause of all this mischief, were present. At auctions, military trainings and elections, at the raising of houses, barns, or bridges, at public celebrations, on New Years days and the annual Thanksgivings, at funerals and even at the ordination of ministers, the presence ol intoxicating liquors was deemed indispensable. They were relied upon to sustain the farmer during the severe labors of the haying and harvest ; and the best men then living drank them freely, and many such were engaged in tjie traffic. That great changes have been wrought in the customs and habits of the people in relation to these matters since that date is obvious, and will not be denied by any honest man. Notwithstanding the general and deplorable blindness of the people at the period named, in reference to truths which millions even of our children and youth novj understand, certain facts existed even then quite sufficient to enable awakened and inquiring minds seeking for truth and light, to find them, at least to a sufficient extent for practical guidance. To be sure we could not ihen^ even with the help of the facts

A LITTLE LIGHT.

to Tvhich I am about to call attention, see the whole truth. It was not necessary that we should ; but we could see enough to guide us in the right direction, to make the path of duty plain for some distance before us, and that is all we have ever a right to demand ; because a resolute walking in that path so far as we can see it, will always secure additional light by the time it is needed.

Here and there an individual was found, who, from the possession ot some personal peculiarities would not follow the general custom, and refused, utterly, to drink spirituous liquors under any circumstances, and it was perfectly plain to all observers, when attention was directed to the matter, that by their persistent abstinence they lost nothing on the score of health or the power of endurance. A brother of mine was of that number. It was in vain that, in the field or elsewhere, the bottle or its contents were pressed upon Joseph. He would not drink. He did not like the taste of it. The fiery stuff burned his mouth and he would not swallow it. " But Joseph, you cannot stand it on water alone, through these long, hot days, and in the midst of such severe labor, without a little stimulus. You will be fahit and give out before night." " Well, when I do, you will know it," was Joe's uniform reply. We soon discovered that he endured the fatigue of the hay and harvest field as well as the rest of us. In fact, if anybody tailed, it was never Joe. ^

Here, and in other similar cases, was a practical refutation of prevailing opinions ; and some of us saw it and were instructed. My first earnest effort in opposition to the existing state of things occurred in this wise :

mmim

16 SET ON.

Events had occurred in the immediate neighborhood, growing out of the use of liquor, which greatly interested our family; and the subject had been "discussed around our hearth during a certain evening with a good deal of earnestness. At the conclusion of this discussion, my father said to me, in a very earnest way, (I seera almost to hear his words ringing in my ears now, after the lapse of forty-five years,) " Charles, you are always scribbling about something, and for the most part, I think, on matters of very little importance ; and now', if you have any gifts in connection with the use of the quill, try your hand for once on a subject of some consequence." " What would you have me do ?" I asked. " Go into your chamber to-morrow morning and write an address to the authorities of this town and endeavor to show them the folly and wickedness of granting men license to destroy the peace and happiness of the neighborhood by selling liquors ; for that is the result of the sale any way, and men with but half an eye ought to see it."

The reader will perceive that my venerated father, though he was not at the time a personal abstainer, had begun to get his eyes open to see things as they were. As I had been educated from my childhood to find pleasure in always gratifying, as far as possible, the wishes of my parents, (that was an ancient fashion which has become almost obsolete,) and as I had become considerably interested in the matter myself, I went to my chamber the following morning to undertake the task assigned me.

The first thing to be done, of course, was to consider the subject earnestly and in all its aspects, so far as my

CONSIDERING THE M4.TTER.

IT boy-brain and limited observation would enable me. I planted myself, in imagination, over at the store, not eighty rods from my father's door, and in my thought followed the jugs of liquor from thence to the homes of tlie people. From the center of ihQ town, or parish, (Lisbon Green, we called it,) five roads diverged in as many directions, and I knew, personally, every inhabitant for miles. On every road within a mile and a half of the ''meeting-house" was the home of one or more men ruined by drink ; on one of the roads there were three, and a barn is now standing on that road, within a mile of the meeting-house, in which two intemperate men have, in fits of desperation, hanged themselves since 1828. I saw distinctly that the mission of the liquor which was daily carried out of that store was a different one from that of the sugar, the coffee, and the cotton warps which the farmer's wives in those days filled in their own looms with home-spun woolen and wrought into blankets and garments for the boys. The liquor supplied no natural want, but, on the contrary, created an artificial one, which clamored increasingly for gratification, until the ruin of its subject was often effected, involving in most cases the ruin of domestic happiness, and sometimes of different members of the family.

While I mused upon these things I became excited over them, and set about the task before me, and I wrote an address to the Selectmen in rhyme. Youth, and very limited knowledge, is the only apology I can offer for having done so. Although the work of a boy, and very imperfect, yet it was an honest, earnest, and truthful, though clumsy, expression of thought and feel-

LU

18 . THE WHIPPING POST.

ing, and it wrought good results. My father had a hundred copies of the address printed, privately, at his own expense, and on a certain Saturday night, wliile the people generally slept, these were distributed about the town, or parish, rather. Here a copy was stuck on the front gate with a tack, (my father made tacks,) there, one carefully folded, was slipped under the door-knocker, or thrust under the front door. One copy was tacked on the whipping-post, or rather, on the wooden box surmounting it ; for, although scourging as a penalty for crime had ceased to be practiced, (old Betty Green was the last whipped for stealing from the church the table cloths used at the communion service,) that^old relic of barbarism still stood on the " Green " in froiit of the " meeting-house." One copy had been tacked pretty securely on the afores-aid box, and was not observed until the people came to " meeting*," and it was then too late for any party who might be aggrieved to tear it down ; for to do so would be to proclaim that he was among the wounded pigeons. There it remained, therefore, through the day ; and during the interval of public worship was read probably by every man and boy who had come to the meeting, and who was tall enough to read it from the ground. The post was about six feet high.

Here was ''• moral suasion " applied in a very direct way ; and it was interesting to note the amount of rum wrath which this anonymous production awakened in certain of the readers. I noted it with interest, for I was present ; and, to prevent any suspicion attaching to me as its author, I elbowed my way through the staring crowd and read the article with apparently as much

THE FIRST BLOW.

interest as any of the group. That the curious reader may be enabled to form some idea of the character of the document, I will give him here a brief extract ; but I must once more earnestly beg him while reading it to remember that its author was but a country boy, whose reading had been pretty much confined to the Bible and Psalm Book, the old Westminster Catechism, The American Preceptor, Columbian OrUtor, Robinson Crusoe, Weam's Life of Washington, and a weekly, and most excellent newspaper, Tlie Norwich Courier. Referring to the liquor shop and the drinking customs of the people as a source of mischief this was written : —

" Most other evils to this fount we trace, Which blast our j)leasures and destroy our race. For thi% the widow mourns — her husband dead ; For this, the starving children cry for bread ; For this, the wife sits waiting for her spouse, At midnight hour, and ponders o 'er her woes, While he, poor wretch, all power of moving fled, Sleeps by the fence, or in yon crazy shed. In vain she goes and listens at the door ; The sighing breeze, the torrent's distant roar Are all she hears. Now, where her children sleep, She casts one look, and then lies down to weep. Now, tell me, what on earth can comfort brino-, Or from what source shall smiling pleasure spring ? Pleasure ! 'tis what on earth she ne 'er can know, Where every passing hour augments her woe."

In the conclusion of the article, which was of considerable length, though thrown off at one sitting, the boy made the following appeal to the Fathers of the town, its civil authorities, who, as far as licensing men to sell liquors was concerned, had all power in the premises : —

•^,mtUmiims^SBm

20 SIGNING THE PLEDGE.

" Oil, banish grog shops, and thus check this ill, Delay no longer, but your part fulfill, Rescue the fallen, sinking age regard. And Heaven's best blessings will be your reward."

A temperance society was formed in my native town, I think, in 1827, the pledge of which I, with most of my father's family, signed. It pledged its subscribers only against the sale and use of spirituous liquors. Among many others, some very aged men of the town, at the earnest solicitation of our venerable clergyman, Rev. Levi Nelson, joined the society and signed its pledge, fully expecting to suffer in their health from the change it involved ; but were afterwards surprised to find that what they had done for the sake of benefiting others through their example, had really been- blessed to the improvement of their own health.

From the time when these events occurred in that usually quiet, rural community, to the year 1840, the store at the " Green " was successively occupied by four individuals. I knew them all, and can testify that they were kind-hearted, social, and agreeable gentlemen, good neighbors, and, excepting their ruinous traffic, were useful, well-disposed, and public-spirited men. Alas ! three out of the four went down to their graves the lamented victims of their own traffic, and the fourth suffered severely in his own family from the same cause. But one, of all the intemperate men of that community, ever reformed, and he was so far broken down physically, by long and free drinking, that he never regained hia health, remaining to his death but the feeble wreck of his former self.

No event occurred worthy of special notice, "as con-

REV. DR. HEWETT.

nectcd with temperance, during the three years which I devoted to the study of medicine, except a visit to Pittsfield, Mass., where I attended medical lectures, by the Rev. Dr. Hewett, then in the employment of " The American Temperance Society " as a lecturing agent. That learned, able, and eloquent man delivered two public lectures on the subject in that town, which were largely attended, and which so moved the influential portion of its citizens, that a committee was at 07ice appointed to take measures to stop the destructive traffic in liquors ; but the influence of his appeals soon died away to such an extent that the traffic was continued and still curses the town, one of the most beautiful of Western Massachusetts.

The startling view of- the liquor system, presented by Dr. Hewett in those lectures, was not, however, without permanent results. Undoubtedly they left impressions on many minds as lasting as life. Certainly they deepened in the mind of one young doctor, who heard them, a hatred, already pretty strong, of the liquor traffic and the drinking usages of society, and fixed, more firmly than ever before, his determination to wage upon both, while life should last, perpetual and uncompromising war.

More than forty years after listening, at Pittsfield, to that excellent man and intellectual giant, I had the happiness to meet him at a temperance gathering in Bridgeport, Conn. It was during the last year of his life. He had learned that I was to address the people there on the good old theme, and, though in feeble health, he attended the meeting, opened it by prayer, at the request of the chairman, P. T. Barnum, Esq., and listened with