The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-03-06
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.

Our worth and work avail us then,
And not the names we bear.
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.
Speech of Hon. Henry Wilson, Presl.
dent of the Congressional Temperance
Society.
The following is the eloquent address
delivered by Senator Wilson at the
great temperance meeting held last Sun
day evening in the hall Of Representa-
tiyes. 1t will be read with much inter-
est by many who were unable to gain
admission to the crowded hall, as well
as by others who did not attend, and
of those who heard it, many have ex-
pressed q desire to see it in print, which
we take pleasure i'll gratifying:
LADIES AND GENTLEMAN: Several
members of the Senate and House of
Representatives, mindful of the meas
ureless evils and sorrows of intemper-
ance, have formed society in which
we have pledged each to the other, and
all to country and to God, to put from us
forever the fatal cup of intoxication. APP
plause. On this holy Sabbath evening
the society has summoned members of
the Congressional temperance organiza-
ton, and the people ofthe national cap
ital to meet in this chamber of the rep
resentatives of the people publicly to
sommit ourselves, to the full extent of
all we are and all we hope to be, to the
hallowed cause of temperance. In the
, name OF the society 1 bid welcome here
tonight to these members of Congress,
these societies, and this people that
crowd this chamber and throng these
. galleries. l bid you, one and all, well
come on this occasion, which we hum
bly, trust, in the providence of Almigh-
ty God, will contribute something to-
ward arresting the multitudinous evils
of drunkenness that in this age are
sweeping over the land. Applause.
The great work upon which this So
ciety has entered is personal re.
form-a social warfare. Its battles will
be bloodless, its victories will be tear
less; but the contest is fearful one, for
tits struggle with the Initiated appe-
titles of our fallen nature-appetites that
have left scars deeply furrowed on the
face Of humanity. In ali the ages, among
all the nations, drunkenness has con-
quered the mightiest intellects, the
bravest hearts, and the noblest natures.
Soldiers who have led their conquer
ing legions over fields ofvictory, states
men who have swayed the destinies of
nations, philosophers who have stamp
ed the impress of their genius upon the
ages, orators who have held listening
Senates in rapt admiration, scholars
who have laid under contribution the
vast domains of matter and of mind,
have been the victims of iAtemperance.
Applause.
1t is estimated that in our own coun-
try, in this age of light and of knowl-
edge, in this land with fifty thousand
churches and fifty thousand ministers
of the living God, we have an army Of
five hundred thousand drunkards that
fifty thousand of this army annually
sink into drunkard's graves that its
ranks are kept filled by drafts upon the
vast reserves ofmoderate drinkers. An
army of half million drunkards in
Christian America /! Every annual cir.
cult of the sun fifty thousand new-made
drunkards' graves The perishing ranks
Of drunkenness recruited and crowded
by merciless drafts upon the manhood
ofthe nation! How fearfulis the thought!
How appalling the spectacle! Look at
that army as it staggers on to annihila
ton. You see no mighty columns Of
heroes marching on with radiant ban
ners, glad music, and Offering steel to
victory and to glory but multitude.
nous throng; broken, disordered, spirit.
less, tramping on to their doom, with
the cries of fathers, mothers, brothers.
sisters, wives, children ringing in theil
ears. All ages and conditions are
there-youth prematurely blighted
manhood broken, hopeless age bending
beneath the burdens of nameless sor
rows the generous, the noble, men Of
heart, of mind, and of soul, struggling
in the grasp of drunkenness like giants
in chains; but their feet ever glide on.
ward and downward. God pity that
throng of scared, perishing, vanishing
humanity. Applause.
1t is cur purpose, ladies and gentle.
men, to hold ourselves back from this
great army Of drunkards-from this
vast throng of moderate drinkers, upor
whom drunkenness makes its annua
drafts. It's our purpose, too with thu
smile of God, to rescue the perishins
dlunkard and save the moderate drink
er. We indulge the hope that thil
Congressional Society, by the blessing
of Almighty God, will contribute some
thing to this holy purpose, to rescue
the fallen and save the falling. Let us
gentlemen of this society, which W,
trust viii long continue to enroll among
its members the representatives of thu
people as they shall come hither in tn,