Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-04-06
Temperance in Boston.

The Boston correspondent of the Mont
pelier Journal speaks as follows of the
late temperance movement in Boston,
which is extending throughout the State /:
Over in fremont Temple they have
been holding a convention to-day in the
interests of cause that is near to the
heart of true Vermonter as a cause can
be-the cause of Temperance. For a
long time the opinion has been gaining
ground with those who speak, think, and
live Temperance, that it is waste of
| time, and farce, to argue the subject in
| Legislature whose members go from
voting for Prohibitory Law straight to
the Revere, or Parker's, or Young's. and
| o10tdte the Law; that to lean on Legisla-
tive enactment for the cure or re-
straint of drunkenness, is to lean upon
broken staff; that while there has
been eloquent shouting and vigorous
wringing of the hands in the Committee
Rooms at the State House, followed by
valiant rushings to and fro in the distant
suburbs, and remote and quiet country
places, by Major Jones and his constabu-
larry, here in the heart of the city there
has been steady, uninterrupted, unop-
posed increase of liquor selling and drink
ing; that whether we were under Lii
cense or Prohibition dispensatien, it did
not matter-or if it did, things were
worse under Prohibition than under Lii
cense, sellers and drinkers seeming to take
special delight in violating the law; and
not only that law, but all other laws
And so our jails, houses of correction, and
station houses, are daily getting more and
more crowded. This opinion has been
gaining ground with the temper
ance men among Us, and under
its influence, together with the iufu-
ence of parellel opinion, that salvation
from drunkenness, like salvation from every
other vice, must come from Dithin a man,
and not from aoithout-that the final ap-
peal, and the only appeal that in the end
amounts to much, must be made to the
internal laws of conscience and reason,
and not to the external law of involuu-
tary restraint-the meeting held to-day
in fremont Temple was called. Its ob-
lect, as stated in the call, was to form
new State Temperance Society which,
while it left its members free to act and
vote as they should see fit, would confine
itself to bringing only moral and religious
forces to bear upon the work. I was in
ohtObaohSCs Hho VJOlObo W rcS tho great
number present, and the kind of men
assembled. Leading members of the Bos-
ton pulpit, press and bar, who hitherto
though strictly temperance men, have
stood aloof because they doubted the right |
or exrediency of appealing to legislative
enactment, were upon the platform and |
spoke. And there were representatives |
from all parts of the State, and the same
&; 40 eooxoaJ 70 oil thut
ment of the kind was the crying need of
the hour, and it would be eminently sue
cessful and heartily welcomed and helped |
on by the pulpit, the press and the people |
everywhere. The resolutions, the organ
iz4tion, and the pledge adopted by the |
convention, are strictly in the old teetotal
spirit; and in short, the meeting was in
tended,to be the new birth of the Wash
inRtonian movement.
In one of his letters TO the Inde,
pendent last year, Vice President Col |
fax argued the ravivina of that old |
work. Boston sets the ball rolling, and |
it will be caught up in turn by church |
and city and town, until the whole couu-
try is again all sfame with the total alb
stinenoe furor. God speed the good |
cause!
l count Vermont in at once. My OBJ |
servations on the workings of the con-
stabulsry farce here in inMassachusetts leads
me to say to the friends of the cause in
Vermont, don't waste time and strength |
trying TO get constabulary bills through |
the legislature, but continue to hunt
down the liquor dealers and pour their
liquors into the cutters, according to the |
law you already have; and, in the mean
while. organize on the basis of the move |
ment just started here, set the press, the
pulpit and the Sunday School all at work
circulating temperance words and acts,
and keeping men out of the cutters by
getting them to sign the pledge