The Portland daily press., 1863-10-30
Rates of Advertising:
COMMUNICATIONS.
To Temperance Men OF all orders.---No. !

To temperance wen Oi All Oruefs'---Ho' %.
BRETHREN: :-Inasmuch as the editor of the
"Press" in his allusion TO my first article has
misapprehended my meaning it may be that
many of the readers of that paper may not
clearly understand me, | will therefore ex-
plain. say we have been forty years trying
TO stop the sale of liquor and have accom-
plished nothing, and gave as reason for Ell
pertaining this opinion that drinking saloons
are more numerous now than they were TWEEN
ty years ago. BY which wish 10 be under
stood to assert that we have accomplished
nothing in that particular direction-suppres-
sing the sale of liquor 1 think every tenn
perance man in the city will admit this Fact.
No man of common sense would be so simple
as to pretend that temperance efforts and
temperance laws in this state have accom-
plished nothing in tile aggregate. They have
performed wonders in the reformation of inc
brates and making hundreds of families COM
Portable and happy, and rendering hundreds
of men useful citizens who were formerly in
the gutter they have inaugurated new
feature into our social system by banishing
from the tables and the sidc-board the decan-
tiers OF brandy, gin and rum. Balls, parties and
other entertainments can now be held without
the aid of stimulating beverages. Once il
was not so, liquors, wines and cordals were
regarded as an absolutely necessary appendage
tion and amusement. well remember the first
party ever held ia this city where cold water
was used in place OF wine and stronger liquors
as the drink of the evening, and | have not
forgotten how the persons who were the
leaders in this reform were taunted and jeered
at by some of their associates and acquain-
tances While / accord TO temperance
laws all that their most sanguine advocates
can claim for them, firmly believe they have
IL lall 4 l. L..
not the best means of doing it, what remains
TO be accomplished although they may essen
TALLY aid in its performance. When they
were first enacted they were the best and
most potent agencies that could then be de-
vised and brought the cause to a step further
in advance which was Washingtonianism
This took the lead and for many years has
performed good work, but hold that the
state of society and the present condition OF
things demands OF us to 'go forward and we
are now called on 10 take another step in the
great reformation. AS we advance in the
work we are enabled TO see deeper and deeper
into the causes which produce the evil and
each development opens TO our minds differ
ent phase of the disease aud admonishes us
that new mode of treatment is necessary TO
completely eradicate the cause which produces
1t. One of the most prominent temperance
men in this city said in speech that he made
recently IUdI Ill Tie IlOst aGllNp lllles Dl
Washngtonianism it required two firm men
TO watch over, protect aud keep weak
minded brother from falling, and facts have
clearly shown that as soon as this care aud
supervision was in some degree relaxed these
weak-minded brothers slid back into the gut
ter and their last end was worse than the
first. f
1t is probably the fact that this weakness of
mind was at first produced by improper edu-
cation and like all diseases crayed the nutri-
ment that was most eongenal to its own ma
ture until dissipation and drunkenness pros
trated the better faculties OF the mind. Being
led to see his lost and degraded conditi on and
encouraged by the persuasions of Washingto-
mans, many of these inebriates resolutely and
firmly resolved TO become sober men. But
still they continued the use of tobacco or some
other evil habit that constantly excited de-
sire for stimulation and so emacated their in
telectual powers that their resolution and
judgment were subdued and compelled to sub
init TO this intolerable love of excitement
whenever the man came in contact with the
means Of gratifying that love, or even know
where it could be obtained.
The first requisite to the permanent reform
alton of a drunkard is that the resolution TO
quit drinking should be formed in state Of
perfect freedom aud with determination 10
keep and maintain the pledge at any sacrifice
of appetite or qualification that may be re-
quired. The next thing is to abandon every
halX thai tends to weaken or demoralze the
intellectual powers SO as to endanger a viola
tion of the resolution; and the third is to keep
the mind well supplied and stored with good
sound moral principles and the body employed
in some useful occupation. Ii at first the
power of the mind appear weak and vascillat-
ing they will soon gain strength, aud will be-
come firm and infexble as the power Of
giant.
regard this matter as a single branch of
that grand reformation and elevation of hu-
manity that is now going on in the world,
which Is under the supervision and guidance
of infinite wisdom and we are merely agents
to carry out the operations that are plainly
manifested TO us. II others do not see these
things as | do, / shall regard it as an indica-
tion that the time for adopting such course
has not fully come, and wait patiently for the
cooperation of others. 1T is ii self-eyident
fact that the temperance reform must precede
all elevation of our race; for whenever the
intellectual powers are debased and brutal
lied by intoxication no elevation of the mind
can be produced; therefore the first thing to
be done is to become rational.