The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-05-23
OUT the world and founder of many of its best

Gov Dingley closed with glowing tribute
to Gen. Neal Dow, AMI called upon the chair
for selection, which was furnished.
Mayor M. M. Butler was then introduced
and addressed the meeting in the following ap-
propriate remarks:
Mr.. Right Worthy Grand Templar and
Messrs. Members and Representatives of the
haght Worthy Grand Lodge of Good IempldrS
1t is my privilege and certainly it is my
pleasure to extend to you hearty greeting and
| cordial welcome in behalf of the chief COM
mereial city of the Pine Tree state. I have to
thank you for the honor which you have done
us IN making choice of Portland as the place of
youItassemby to take council together in the
interests OF the pure, noble and holy cause of
temperance-as all good and right minded men
must pronounce that cause to be whatever
differences of opinion may exist among them
respecting the methods best calculated for its
promotion. The past history of your order as
| given to me and your presence in this coupec-
ton from sol many distant homes at no little
personal inconvenience, no doubt-some of YOU
from foreign lands and having encountered
the discomforts and dangers of the seas in Or
der to be here-attest that you do not belong
to that class of philanthropists who protesting
to make the lives of others their care, succeed
in making their own lives comfortable and
luxurious. L congratulate you upon the steady
advance which the temperance cause has
made in years past and especially upon the
l
only in this country but as L believe through
out the civilized world. AS respects this Sec
ton of our county it can be truly affirmed that
Enthusiastically the current of public opinion is
setting strongly to the side Of temperance; that
drunkenness is no longer tolerated in respecta-
BILE society; that sobriety is the rule excess in
the use of intoxicants the exception; and that
the practice of furnishing liquors in dispensing
private and public Inequalities has well nigh
| fallen into deSuetude, and in this connection
/ cannot fOrhaar t0 rpfar fO the m q rvQlOuc m
ment in the temperance reform now going on
| In the Middle and Western states of the Union
under the leadership of Francis Murphy, well
known in this community and who presume
still claims Portland as his residence-a move
ment the like of which if all accounts are true
has not been witnessed since the days of
Whtefeld. By appeals in loving persuasive
| words to mans higher nature, by infusing into
| the work the gracious spirit of the Gospel, by
recognizing the fact, that man, however fall
| len, is still child of God made in His image
| and capable of becoming true, and good and
right-minded-this william bartender seems to
| have succeeded in achieving results, compared
with which those accomplished by legal enact
ment and legislative restraints, dwindle into in
significance.
| Let me venture the question: Does rot this
remarkable success of Murphy carry with it
| the hint and suggestion that the future pro-
gress and final triumph of this great reform
must depend less on the coercive power of
law-mOre upon the efficacy of those instru-
mentalities and influences which our blessed
Saviour brought into the world, and by which
He seeks to win the erring and fallen from
their evil and sinful ways. DR.. johnson, you
remember, wrote long ago:
How small of all that human hearts endure,
The part that kings or laws cause or cure.
True reformation is born not of outward re-
strants, but of the inward purity of the heart.
But the discussion of these topics belongs to
other occasions. Permit me now to express the
wish in the intervals between your official du
ties you may find time to make the acquaint.
ance of and mingle freely with our citizens
and partake of their hospitalites, always in a
sober, temperate way of course). They Twill be
glad to afford you all facilities to examine the
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., charitable, educational,
municipal, of a thoroughly New England town.
1t will also be their pleasure to point out to
you, not only the commercial and industrial
advantages of our city, but also the natural
beauties by which landward and seward it is
environed, and which in cur local pride we are
accustomed to boast are unsurpassed. May
your laborS here be fruitful of good; may your
stay among us be agreeable, SO agreeable that
you will desire to visit us again; you may carry
away with you pleasant memories of the occa-
sion, and of the Forest City, and when you
arrive at your several homes you may find the
dear ones there-kept during your absence by
the good providence of God in health and safe
ty-ready to greet you with a welcome, with
which no other welcome, however warm, from
human lips can compare.
Governor Conner was then introduced and
spoke as follows:
Mr.. President Il en- called upon by YOUR
committee to render what is essentially, so far,
am sure, as the ladies and gentlemen before
me are concerned, a superfuous service; to
welcome to the state of Maine representatives
from abroad of an organization having for its
object the entire abolition of the use of al,o-
holic liquors as drink. Super1uous, because
they must indeed have served short appren-
ticeship in the work to which the Order of
Good Templars is devoted, who do not feel at
home and sure of welcome on the soil and
among the people of this state on an occasion
OF this kind. 1t is, however, pleasureable
office to me to formulate the courtesy which
the hearts OF our people greet you with, and to
bid you, delegates of the Good Templars to this
grand gathering of your Order, a warm and
cordial welcome for the sake of the cause YOU
serve and in the hope that your assemblage
here may be fruitful of good to our own COM
munities and to those which you represent.
Whether you come from sister states near or
remote, from neigh3oripg counties or far-off
lands, or from the islands of the seas Maine
gladly receives you and holds in honor this
parliament and federation which you have
convoked here in her chief city.
The branches of your order established in the
towns and villages of this stato are known and
appreciated es doors of good works and centres
of beautiful influences. The hundreds of their
members now minglipg with you, superadd to
y
courteous dues of the citizen and host to the
stranger and guest Not only are you among
these sworn friends. comrades in a strong
union for knightly service in the rescue of your
fellow men from the perls of indulgence in
drink, but you stand upon the classic ground
OF temperance reform, and in the midst of a
people, a majority of whom are staunch llege-
men to the cause you have at heart, the earnest
friends and supporters of every agency and
effort that tends to aid it on to victory. Years
ago they were strong in the belief that the
bane of strong drink could and should be des-
treyed; and out of that belief sprang determin-
alton, and determination has invented and in
spired varied forms of action, and through
them some tomorrow will be made glorious
with success.
The magnitude of the evil which you array
yourselves against does not need to be estab-
lished by argument or proof. You do not war
with shadows. Eloquent orators who address
themselves to this theme, startle us with re-
citals OF the costlinesS and wastefulness of the
drinking habit, and thrill US with vivid por-
trayals Of the crimes, the sufferngs and
shames, the innumerable forms Of wretched-
ness and Woe which it entails; but rarely does
deliberate investigation disclose any material
discrepancy between the facts and the state
ments that seem to be the eXaggerations of
ferVld defamation. Its burdensomeness and
horrors are known and confessed of all men
who read and observe and reflect The long
list of unimpeachable witnesses, of men whose
opinions have the weight of authority who cry
out az ainst it's constantly increasing, and
the appeals that are made to rescue its victims.
to Protect the unwary from its wiles and to do
away with it utterly as sin and a reproacb,
swell ever higher and louder and grow in the
earnestness and power and pathos of their in
dignation and entreaty. Ask tbs patriot, the
statesman, the political economist, what one
thing would conduce more than any other to
the glory, the strength and prosperity of his
country? Some of the noblest of them have
answered. The removal of the blight and curse
of strong drink. Ask the officers of justice how
crime may most effectually be essened, the
dispensers of public charities, how the number
of applicants for their doles may be diminished,
the physician, how the ravages of disease of
body and mind may be checked, and like re-
ply is prompt and decided. What thinking
man can fail to concur in the opinion so often
and SO authentatively expressed, that the most
direct and effectual way of aiding every kindly
charity, every agency for alleviating human
misery, of leading men to better lives and of
making happier homes, is to destroy the hide
GUS vice which at every turn obstructs, mocks
at and brings to naught the good that love and
pity seek to do.
There are no compromising benefits from the
habtual use of intoxicating liquors to affect
the mischief it works. 1t is, at best, "pleas-
ant vice. the satisfaction of luxurious
taste, Granting that soma NAV crafty that