New-York tribune., 1874-03-21
TEMPERANCEC ECDISCUsSION.
LETTER TO ARCHBISHOP PURCELL.

your recent circular with profound regret Your
high character, Your influential position in the
great church which you represent and your conf
dent and ingenious appeal to divine authority as
the basis of, and warrant for your views and opin-
| ions, give your manifesto great sigDifcaDce, and
| rear "A formidable obstacle before the feet
of those who labor to win the nation
to sobriety, and destroy q traffic in which vice inn
morality, disease, misery, and death find their most
redundant fountain. | do not question for mo-
ment your sincerity, or the purity of yonr motives
but believe you have made great mistake-a mis-
take snrcharged with danger to your people, TO
the country and the world. ! beg you not TO deem
distant stranger mpertnent il he regards yon as u
representative of large class of the clergy not only
of yOur own but of other denominations and under
takes to show wherein that mistake lies.
OF the wOmens temperance movement in the West,
| know nothing but what l find reported in the
daily Eastern press. / notice that it has been in
strumental in closing dram-shops, in pledging null
itudes to life of total abstinence in largely dimin-
ishing the sale of Intoxicating liquors at
the manufacturing centers. and that these
results are accompanied by decided
revival of religious feeling, and the exhi-
biton of q great deal of Christian herosm l
notice, too even here at the East, where we only
| catch the echoes of the great oommoton, that a
strong moral influence is felt and that the public
conscience has been quickened nightly with regard
to the evils Of intemperance. SO much seems plain
and so much, am sure ought to be canse of
rejoicing to you and to all who love and their
Master
Besides, would it not be well for rs to remember
that the women who engage in this crusade are
working in the only way that Providence has left
open to them. Who are theyf They are the moth
n
have seen year after year. dropping into the graves
of drunkards. They have suffered worse
than death that the rum-seller might
live. They have their loved ones
become sots idiots, madmen. They have
seen their fortunes s1uandered, they have found
themselves dsgraced they have been cursed beaten,
bruised; they have seen their peaceful and happy
homes turned into places Of fear and torment.
Boys that were nursed on the bosOms Of some of
them have been transformed by drink into ieuds.
Men whose kiss of love and loyalty honored them
with wifehood, have degenerated into beasts. For
these, through weary, suffering years they have
prayed Nay they have knelt with them,
and held up their weak and imbecile hands while
they prayed for themselves. Day after day they
have done this, as men have gone to their business
through temptations that bcset their path at every
corner, and have received them at night, only to
cover them FROM sight with shame and sink backiu
their old despair The sorrows through which these
women have walked have been simply immeasnra-
bic. No words Of mine can describe them; 10 words
of any man can exaggerate them.
They have looked to the leaders of the Church for
help have they had it They have looked to the
politicians for help; have they received itf They
have asked for laws which were easily made to
satisfy their camor have they been executed'
IL
their example been of any avail They have pleaded
with all the eloquence of love with those who have
broken their vows to cherish and protect them, to
forsake their vice. and have received only curses
or promises not worth straw. What in Gods
dear name was there left for them to do, but just
what they are doing, and what you condemn
Who have driven these women to this great neces
styi Who have forced them into a position
from which all their natural instincts
dissnade themi Who have made their
SADIE absolutely necessary, in order to save
the men of the present generation from going TO
ruin7 Men, and men Of influence with shame be it
said IL the leaders of the Christian church had
done their duty, and the leaders of State and Ma
tonal politics had done theirs, there would not be
a dram-shop to-day between Canada and the Gulf
The whole business has thus been left to God and
the women; and the latter are praying in
on their divine and peaceful crusade
because the men of America have failel to do their
duty. Shall Christian man, in high station or
low lift his voice against thein' Rather let him
hide his head in shame and selfcontempt.
You say that the Archbishop cannot instruct or
preach that it Is sin for dly-aborer who has to
carry the hod on broling hot day in July August
ND a steep ladder, to the third or fourth story
10 eNh str 9TH
by a glass or two Of beer" Have you not unwit-
tipply avoided or changed the issuci Did the
"lady league" definitely ask you to declare such an
act a sinf If they did, they were unwise, think.
Do YOU suppose this crusade would have been begun
il nothing worse were drunk than beer! That is
bad enough without doubt, and an UnmitiGated
enrse to all who drink it habtualy, whether
they drink to excess or not but the women know
that where beer Is there is something
worse and all their observation has taught them
thattha worse thing cannot be got rid of unless the
beer goes with it. Besides. they know what you do
not seem to admit, that "a glass or two of beer
restores the wasted strength of no man. stimu-
lus restores nothing. Alcohol eXces the nervous
system and all artificial excitement is followed by
reaction and exhaustion. Alcohol in notorm adds TO
the vital forces it subracs from them In scknesst
NAV stimulate for the time the processes of diges-
ton or rally temporarily the vital forces to throw
off disease but the best modern Psychologists recog-
nizs no nutritious element in that much-abused
agent. If there is a nutritve element in beer it Is
so insignificant as to deserve no consideration what
ever. After ALL it is the company that the beer
keeps which condemns it; and after ALL too, it is the
fact that beer always is abused wherever it is kept
or sold which makes it Objectionable to the women.
But this is small matter, comparatively,
and | hasten to what seems to me to be
the most important part of your circular
that in which you quote chapter and verse, your