The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-03-07
DISQUISITI0E.

ESSAY BY MRS B. A. OWENS OF EOsEBURG, ORE
GOS-PREPARED To READ BEFORE THE RE-
CENT MEETING o. THE STATE TEMPERANCE
ALLIANCE But not DELIVERED oS ACCOUNT
OF THE DIsoRGANIzING SECESSION ELEMENT,
THAT COULDN'T BEAR IT.
FeHow Members Of This AUimnce:-In
attempting TO submit my views to you
on this occasion, allow me first to most
humbly beg your pardon for occupying
any portion Of your valuable time. The
Importance Of the subject, and the deep
interest which l feel in so great and
worthy an undertaking, actuates me in
submitting to you few thoughts Of my
own.
The object for which we meet here to-
day must be reached through other
modes than those yet prescribed by the
order Of Good Templars. Notwithstand-
ing the order is worthy Of all praise-an
order in which 1 am proud 10 claim
membership-yet it is an order which
am sorry to say, in my Judgment, falls
far short Of driving the greatest enemy
Of civilization from our land. While l
do not advise the disbandment of this
order, let me show you, by way of illus
tration, that it cannot accomplish all
that was hoped for by its founders
Who constitute the greater portion of
our lodges? Are they not men and
women who have always borne Chris
tian characters? And in nine cases out
of ten when we do reach that man who
has become a slave TO the cup, is it not
at time when he has passed the me-
ridian Of life? Is it not at a time when
he feels that he is degraded in the eyes
Of the world? Is it not at Il time when
his constitution is destroyed, his fortune
lost, his home covered with mortgages,
his wife and children reduced to want
and destitutiOn? It is only at that stage
OF the drunkard's lot that our order is
most successful in reaching him, when
almost all is lost. And again how many
Of these men fall back Just as their
friends begin to hope? Allow me to
say that the temptation must be re-
moved; rum must be driven from the
land before we can safely hope that ever
our own brothers may not be led from
the paths Of virtue and sobriety into
drunkenness and crime; that our fathers
may not go, as thousands have already
gone, down to drunkarls' graves; that
our mothers, sisters and daughters NAV
not be tied to drunkards, to eke out mis-
erable lives Of woe and sorrow. "Abol.
ish it! abolish itl'' is the cry coming NJ
from all parts Of the State, and can this
be done by any system yet inaugural
ed? Can it be abolished otherwise thar
by making it political issue? If so
how? And if not, why not make it I
political issue at once by the actions o
this Alliance? Give the moral men o
both parties a chance TO act on this, th'
greatest question Of the age. Should
not wisdom dictate policy calculated
to draw out all the moral strength o
the State against this giant evil? AnC
While you invite and labor To obtain the
votes OF every man for this cause, NJ
matter of what political organization
creed or religion; and while YOU strug
gle Tor victory and behold il doubtful
and while the enemy looms up and en-
Virons you on all sides; and while vor
see the cause for which you labor beater
and driven back by the whisky power
does policy dictate that it is wisdom I,
refuse the votes Of thousands of intelli
gent women Of the State, whose heart,
are enlisted in the cause? If 50. LET !
still be done; let the laws enacted by ,
legislation in which we had no voic,
still deprive us of happiness, comfort
and homes. Let laws, enacted by men
still 90 on making drunkards of on
fathers, husbands and sons. Let it a