The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-05-07
The Temperance Agitation FOR Sixty
Years
IFrom the N. Y. World March sOthl

reverses and has seen at least twice Zone
in 1881 and again in I840) even create
success than it is at present enjoying i
Ohio. In both cases the success has beel
followed by a reaction which showed tha
the reform had done little to reach tn
root of the matter or give any seIiou
check to the steady demand for alcohol Il
some shape.
The sixty years Of Temperance agita
ton which lis country has heretOfor,
witnessed may be divided into two nearly
equal periods. The first OF these periods
was marked by the religious character o
! the movement and the 8scendancy of tht
clergy; its success was followed by reac-
| ton, and the organization Of temperance
societies commenced. Some were opel
unions of pledged men, ana others were
secret with intricate mechanism, past
| grands, grips and passwords. They Ia
creased; numbered their numbers by thous.
ands, and passed away so Tar as any abid-
ing effect was concerned, though a part o.
them still exist and claim charges, chap.
| ters, and lodges all over the country. Re
preEsive legislation of one kind and anoth-
er had been employed IN many OF the
States to regulate traffic in liquors even in
the last century, but the laws were quite
as much for revenue purposes as for any
other ends. The first session OF Congress
placed heavy tax on distilled spirits,
and most of the States required licenses,
for the sale of liquors, and some prohibited
sales to the intemperate. The laws repre-
sented fully the average Of public opinion
of the time. The usual preparation for an
ordination in the little State of Connecti-
cut was a sideboard loaded with liquors.
(which" says clergyman of the time.
looked and smelled like the bar Of very
active grog shop" and, continues the dis
eliminating chronicler, while none were
drunk, there were at times q considerable
amounG OF exhileration. A temperance
tractate had been widely circulated by
DIR. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, IN
1894, but 1t had as little direct influence
as the temperance society, the first organ
ization of the kind IN Saratoga county,
formed four years later
In New York there was not the lain
test sign of any change, and as late as 1914
the clergyman of Wall Street Presbyte
ran Church speaks oflmminent danger he
ran as young minister of getting drunk
while he made his round of morning calls
And the Wall Street Presbyterian Church
was no exceptional case. The same temp
tation beset the popular young preacher
everywhere TAe first movement in ia
vor of a change had been made at the time
just alluded to. Two religious bodies, one
IN Connecticut and the other the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Charch had
passed resolutions cendemning the use of
ardent spirits, but great care was taken
to exclude from any disapproval intoxlca-
ting liquors containing lesser percentage
of alcohol. 1t was not until 1887 that
temperance came to mean total abstinence
and the change in policy was only carried
against great opposition from the leaders
of the old movement
For twenty years the agitation remain
ed in the hands OF clergymen. One reli-
gIeus body after another came out IN IA
Vor Of temperance, and general prosely-
tlzlng of the masses was carried on IN all
the States, attempting not TO abolish the
trade in liquors but to regulate it, and to
prevent drunkenness by encouraging the
use Of ales and wine. Socal societies were
formed principally in the East, and the
does not seem to have made
heading outside of New England A gen
eral temperance convention was held in
Boston in 1926, but it contained few dele
gates from the Middle States. The move
ment had already accomplished much in
the production Of ardent spiri
The total production of distilled liquors in
1926 was placed at 100000 gallons an
nually, or more than three-fourIhs Of the
present production, with a population
which has increased nearly three. fold.
Five years later fifth of the distllleries
in the country, or over 1000, had teen
closed from want of business, and the pro-
duction in this State lat that time ranking
first in the manufacture lis said to have
fallen off more than $4,000. COO annu-
ally.
In 1881 the reform In the use of alco-
holic stimulants had spread over the coun-
try. The national organization including
3 900 local societies, with a membership
af 100000, and the society in this State
contained 1900 reformed dIunkards
The movement had by this time acquired
enough of national character to warrant
g. meeting in the Hall of Representatives
at Washington, at which Lewis Cass,
Secretary OF War, presided, and Daniel
Webster pronounced his adhesion TO the
cause of temperance and the disuse Of
alcoholic beverages. Besides Massachu-
setts, Georgia, Tennessee and New Jersey
were represented by their Congressional
in this meeting. In the next
two years, which proceeded a national
on the subject and the forma-
tion of a temperance union at Phlladel
phia, the New York State society gre6 TO
be the largest in the country, numbering
100000 members, aud had branches IN
every town and village. Fully a fourth
of the population of the State was at this
time directly interested IN Temperance
reform"
The movement had reached its highest
point in 1897. The annual report for that
year gives as one result of the agitation
that the distilleries of the State had de-
creased in six years from l.l49 to 337, and
more than one hundred towns had stop
ped the sale of liquor. In this city 40
900 persons had signed the pledge of total
abstinence from the use, manufacture or
sale of ardent spirits. 1t was at this time
that the movement changed lis character
and began to oppose all alcoholic liquors
indiscriminately; This principle was
adopted by the National Convention at
Saratoga, n. Y. in 1886, after three years
of bitter discussion, and the next year the
Society in this Stats adopted the teetotal
pledge The dissension and difference
which sprang up IN the discussions on the
subject alienated many of the old leaders,
and many clergymen and churches with
drew their adhesion from the cause. The
whole temperance movement ceased to be
disunctively q religious reform and passed
into the hands of the societies which con-
trolled it for the next thirty years Be
fore this change was entirely completed,
the first great temperance demonstration
in this city was held at the Chatham Chap
el IN 1887. The American Temperance
Union met for its first anniversary at this
time, and soon after It's Offices We're trans
ferred 10 this city, which has since been
the official centre.
THE wAsHIHGToNIAN MOVEMENT.
The first of the temperance societies
which were to carry on this work in the
last period of this reform was the Wash
ingtonian, organized by eight drunkards
in a Baltimore bar room IN 1910. All
mechanics, and they set on foot a wild,
undiscIplined, popular agitation. Nobody
but reformed druukards were allowed to
speak at their meetings. Loafere and in
IL 1r,r,rr.l ,f