The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1881-04-15
The washinetopiaps.

The Washingtonian movement had
itsorigin In iIppling house. in IN, cite
OF Baltimore, in the year 1910. win a
company Of half dozen hard ,lrinkcrs
who had formed themselves into a
club, and who used TO meet for drink
ing bouts at Chase's tavern. D
One night the Rev. Matthew Hale
smith, a noted lecturer on temperance
was announced TO speak in one of the
churches, and they appointed two of
their number a committee to 90 and
hear him. The committee brought
back favorable report of the man ana
his doctrines, upon which warm dis
cussion arose. This being overheard
by the landlord, he at once broke out
into q TRADE against all temperance
lecturers, and denounced them as hyp..
ocrites and fools.
To this storm of abuse one of the old
topers replied, "Of course il is for your
interest to cry them down." whereup.
on the discussion waxed hotter and
hotter, and resulted in the six men
forming themselves into a temperance
club which they. styled the Washingto-
man Total Abstinence Society, and
adopted pledge requiring total absti-
inence from the use of all intoxicating
liquors. h'3s se8 Lnttfl q II - :
The names of those six individuals
were William II. Mitchell, John j..
Hoss, David Anderson, George Stearn,
James M'Curley and Archibald Camp.
bell. John Hawkins early became a
member, but was not one, of the orisi-
nal six They then voted to meet the
next night in a carpenter, shop, and
each agreed to bring a new member,
These meetings were held almost
nightly, at which each man related his
own experience at the court of death.
AS might be expected, the meetings
soon began to attract public attention..
These reformed men were. soon in
vited to visit other cities and towns:
and who of our older citizens has not
listened to the thrilling and simple ex-
perience of John Hawkins, as he por-
trayed the misery of the drunkard, and
told the touching story of his little
daughter Hannah, persuading him to
reform? This new movement spread
from city to city, and from town TO
town, until there was scarcely a place
in the United States that did not have
its Washingtonian Total Abstinence
Society. Men who had been drunk
ards for years burst the bonds that had
so long bound them, and became tenn
perance reformers. The name being
quite long, 1t soon became shortened
by daily use. and these organizations
became known throughout ihe country
as Washingtonians. This was rebel
lion of the subject of King Alchohol
against his tyranny, and as such it i'm
mediately became famous. II was a re-
form, commencing with, the people
who most needed reformation, and car
ried with 1t so much of sound sense,
and 80 little of mere rhetoric, that
everywhere the reformed men who
went about telling their. own expert
ence and salvation from the power of
liquor found large and attentive audi
ences, and the Washingtonian move
ment became the chief topic both in re-
ligious and social circles. s,.. f...a.
II was quite wonderful thing to
hear man in plain clothes, and with
ont any OF the graces of speech, declare
what had been done for him, and ex-
horting with all simplicity and bold
ness that others should give up liquor
as he had done. fa aI'ilsdT saf-fi '
Tho common people heard these men
gladly, and drunkards by thousands
and tens of thousands signed the total
abstinence pledge. -'. .- by
Among the men who were reached
by the Washingtonian movement was
the great temperance apostle whose
name is household word throughout
the English speaking world, John b.
Cough. . COS 90 i.ee llls-t