The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-11-25

the church, the combination is mo.
difed very considerably. Gap
plause.)
TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.
In the United States they had
temperance societies, which had q
! convention once or twice a year,
attended by the most influential
members OF the State and district.
Well, these conventions we're q
great power, and a sign of the times.
During the terrible struggle of ten
years, and the great conflict which
ended in the abolition of slavery,
the temperance question was in
allegiance. The attention of the peo-
pie could not be directed to .wc
great questions at once. The tenn
perance societies, therefore, did not
do much work. They were not well
ded together. Some people must
be CULTIVATED 70 fairly secure them,
and the best way to do this was to
give them something 10 do, and to
make them feel they were OF impor.
lance. Well, the Americans were
wIse on this point, and during the
whole of the war he found the tenn
perance canse was kept alive chief
ly by two bodies of reformers, form
ed INTO secret societies. the Sons of
Temperance and the Good Temp
lars. These bodies, he supposed,
now included many hundred thou-
sands OF members. There was some
evil connected with these bodies,
amid ali their good, and he would
name it here, lest similar results
should follow us. There was a lit
tie jealousy between them, and they
did not always cooperate well with
the general movement ; otherwise
they had done a great work there,
and might do 80 here, it they did
not split on the rock of jealousy
However much men might be at
tached to. means, the end to be
reached should always be grander
than the means to be used.
PROHIBITION AND POLITICAL ACTION.
The third great movement was
ASSOCIATIONS for working out PROM
bition. On that point he could
speak with some emphasis. He had
a message to bear from their great
leaders TO us. He had their auth
GRITTY to say to US, that they now
see, that from :; mistaken policy, an
entire generation has been lost to
our work and to possible success
The meaning of that was, that they
were asked long ago to raise the
banner OF Prohibition above all 9TH
ers, as its social and political i'm
portance was greater than all 9TH
ers. But they loved their Republl-
can or Democratic vote better than
the temperance movement. How
ever, they had found themselves
constrained to follow the rejected
advice at last (; and in the hest State
of the Union, Massachusetts, where
the most religion, learning, and pa.
trIo:Ism existed, they were putting
themselves vigorously to work.
(Ap2lause.)-And the message that
they sent here was, that we should
profit by their experience, be wise,
and not lose the opportunity of CIV
ing u temperance conviction q
political application, and making it
superior to all other merely party
questions. Some Republicans were
now going in with the temperance
movement in America and in Mas
sachusetts, that great champion of
human liberty, who did more than
any man living to breaR the bonds
OF the American slave, that man OF
classical genius, pure life, splendid
talents, and deep religious feeling.
that perhaps greatest of all living
orators, Wendell Phillips, had been
selected as a candidate for govern
ship, and the temperance men were
called upon to rally round and car
ry him through. He then proceed
cd TO speak of the success of Prohi-
bitlon. 1t was said that it was a
failure. That was sheer nonsense.
He had been IN thirteen States and
territories where it was in operas
ton in some ono or other of its
forms. Sometimes it was more
strlngently enforced than at others,
but there was no example Of failure.
On the contrary, it had beeua grand
success. just as n Liverpool or
London there were times when the
police made a sudden descent on the
betting houses, and purified localr-
ties of the past, so in America with
places where drink was lllicitly
sold. The fact of the stuff being
sold was not .he fault of the law ;
1t was the fault of the police, and for
their conduct again the magistrate
was to blame. Wherever the law
existed, there was little open viola
ton of it, and no drunkenness seen
IN .he streets. He gave several in
stances of the working os The law.
In Portland, Maine, they had a De-
mocratic Mayor when he was there;
and there, in a population of 10000,
there was q: that time fewer than a
dozen men in goal, some Of them in
for trading 10 liquors. In the small
er towns where the traffic was dis
allowed, the beneficial effects were
eve more marked, there being in
some of them neither police nor pri-
son, and no poor people at ali. On
tAe other hand, where the licensing
system prevailed, the evils With
which we were here so familiar also
prevalled--crlme, rising to murder,
poverty, disease. lunacy, and every
kind of social wretchedness."