Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-01-28
Circular Of the WOman's National
Temperance Convention.

We publish by request tAe concluding
portion OF the circular issued by the
above convention at its recent session in
Cleveland. The whole circular is too
lengthy for our space:
To the Women Of the United States of America:
DEAR SISTERS: To epitomiZe
the matter, we borrow the following
statement Of facts from the report of a
committee Of clergymen representing one
OF the largest ecclesiastical organizations
OF the country:
lntemperance is causing a constant
drain of property. This is equal every
year to all that has been expended in
church enterprise since the landing of
the Mayfower. Counting the loss of
time of the Incorporate, this outgo of the
nations property would load train of
wagons, with ton of gold to each wag-
on, thirteen miles long. Poverty and
suffering everywhere result to the lower
classes. Among the very highest classes
usefulness and genius are quenched in
the rum glass. Grog-shops are ten times
as frequent as both churches and school
houses To the want of improvement of
the lower classes we must add nine0ld
commission Of crime.
1.-The imbecility, insanity, idiocy, igno-
rance and wickedness of the nation are
largely due to this cause The care Of
these and other classes of sufferers i'm
poses unjust burdens on good citizens.
Our personal liberty is violated, our
homes and very existence is rendered
unsafe"
To the sisters, wives and mothers
W
suggest those uncatalogued agonies, none
the less universal, the legitimate and in
evltable results of strong drink; the fair
form and promise of genius worse than
blighted, maddened and brutalized; the
army of wretched inebriates hundred
thousand strong, yearly recruited from
the flower of our firesides; domestic mis-
cry in high and low places; broken
hearts muffled under costly apparel; sad
weary hearts hid behind the sembance
of a smile; or haggard, gaunt and un-
mitigated woe of women worse than
widowed, and children whose heritage is
a curse.
But while we invite attention to the
facts that must clearly indicate the
enormity and prevalence of the evils of
intemperance, we wish to say that our
hope of ultimate success lies in preven-
ton rather than cure. We plan and
labor especially for the young, and in
this aspect of the case it is only by the
cooperation of every woman that it will
prove success. With women, as mothers
and teachers and makers of public senti-
ment, rests the final and complete
triumph of all social reform. Every.
where her hand can check the incipient
evil. The invincible Hannibal was
brought at the age of nine before the
affairs of the gods to swear eternal enmity
to Rome. SO let us pledge our children
at the affairs of our faith against this
lightly Moloch.
1t has been more than indicated that
the recent temperance movement is
wholly religious.
Two forces had hitherto been brought
to bear upon the suppression of intem-
perance. The one, moral suasion, stood
upon too low a plane to reach high re-
suit, a plane outside of vital goodness;
the other, legislative action, which, how
ever judicious and humane, can never
be enforced beyond the moral sense of
the community And so men held per-
force for while above their level, fell
yet lower in the reaction. But woman,
when she laid her hand to the work, rec
ognized in this spirit of evil "the kind
that goeth not out but by prayer and
fasting" While we recognize as friends
and co-laborers all who are earnestly
striving by whatever legitimate means to
advance the cause, what we recon-
mend, and what we adopted as the basis
of all our methods, is faith in God.
Women of America, we have thus laid
before you as well as we may in so brief
space the designs and plans of the tenn
perance work as proposed to be carried
on in combined effort. And again we
ask your cooperation. Let no one cast
aside this appeal until she has solemnly
answered this inquiry: Have no duty
nor influence, nor responsibility in this
matter?"
Is there no trembling soul far or near
waiting for your outstretched hand? If
it seems so, still give your sympathy to
the work for the works sake The
flower knows not what becomes of its
fragrance, so we know not how tar and
wide our influence may be ditfused.
And to others than Esther it may be said,
" For if thou altogether holdest thy
peace at this time, then shall there en-
largement and deliyerance arise to this
people from another place; but thou and
thy fathers house shall be DESTROYED;
and who knoweth whether thou art
come to the kingdom for such time as
this"
In the quiet and seclusion Of our
households, washing the feet of the weary
and helpless ones, we scarcely feel our
selves power for either good or III 4; but
the hand of every woman is upon the
lever that moves the world; and its up
ward progression through the instrument
tality of women, in great moral and re-
ligious enterprises, is one of the sub
FINEST spectacles of this eventful time.