The Press., 1894-06-14
W. C. T. U. DEPARTMENT.
Address to Neal Dow.

Address CO Neal DOW.
 Following is a portion of the congratu- latory address delivered to Gen. Neal Dow at the international temperance con- gress, at Prohibition Park, Sunday after noon, J une 5:
 VENERABLE AND HoNoRED SIR.-In the name of more than TOO temperance lead CTS, and of the numerous temperance so- cieties represented in the call for this con- gress, and by delegates on this hOor-sO- cieties all of which have come into being during your long and eventful life, in the organization of many of which you have been constituent member in the name of the homes of America, where the strength of manhood and the tenderness of womanhood unite to hand down the glories of the past to more grandly achieving future through the tender hands and plastic souls of children reared for God, and the republic, and the brother hood of man-homes, on every one Of which the grisly specter of the saloon waits to lay it's defiling and despoiling hand; in the name of the American peo- pie robbed every year of millions of treas ure, equal to the waste of most devasta- ting war, in time of prOfoundest peace :; in the name of the English-speaking world, where in every city, village and hamlet your name has become house. hold word; in the name of manhood, wo- manhood, and childhood-of America-of humanity; by all the woes we would Tighten, .by all the tears we would dry, by all the lives and souls we would save, by the citizenship we would exalt, and the nations we would redeem-we welcome you the veteran warrior, the deliverer of your native state from the thraldom of intemperance, the champion first among men to strike down and outlaw the legal ized liquor traffic, the Nestor of the tenn perance reform, the Lincoln of a nobler emancipation, the Gladstone of better home rule.
 |, This assembly, convened from all parts of our wide republic and from the neigh boring land across the imaginary line, greets you with joy and honor, welcoming you to this park-called by the name of the great principle for which your life battle has been fought, with prohibition in every title-deed, reaching down thro' every lot from the overarching sky to the center of the solid earth.
 Wegfeet you as the man of God-given vision to see peoples need, who, when every grocery was a liquor-shop; when a tavern with open bar-room waited at every four-corners; when seven distilleries and two breweries in the single city of Port land worked continually. and often by night as we'll as by day, to supply the de- mand for intoxicantS; when liquor flowed freely at every wedding and christening and at the ordination of every minister; |; when every military parade or muster was recruiting for the ''lords of hell; ;" when the town bell rang twice daily, at II o'clock and o'clock, to summon men to gratify an appetite God never created for stimulant God never made; when the jug was every harvest-field, and intoxi- eating liquor or the money to buy it form ed part of every workmans wages-the man who at such time could see beyond the environment the vision of nobler, purer, better way; the man who had the courage to attack this barbarian supersti- ton entrenched in the reverence of ages and encrusted in the appetftes of men. and who had the faith that it could be overthrownAa courage and faith not to tbe borne down by ridicule, scoffing and | libel, by personal assault or the incendi- ary's torch; the man who to clear vision, courage and faith added sound American common sense and the genius of had work.
 We remember how that carriage climb
 
 heat of summer, and the sleigh slid over the icy wastes or plowed the snow-drifts when the mercury was score of degrees below zero, as Neal Dow went to plead total abstinence and prohibition in every church arfi scnooiEcnse, while the litera- ture of temperance futtored it's white wings over all the state like genuine down-east snowstorm, till the legislature enacted prohibition by more than two thirds vote, and 43 years ago yesterday (June 2, 1851,) the governor of Maine ,f signed the bill making it crime to purs sue what had always been deemed the legitimate industry of debauching men and running homes.
 We remember with pride to-day that when the ininions of the rum power raised a desperate mob to make good their as. sertion that the Maine law could 7eot be en. forced, you were the executive officer who dared to draw the sword and vindicate with serried bayonets and shotted guns the majesty of law and the personal liber- ty of the best citizens of Portland, to
 keep their sons and their homes free from saloon domination and degradation-as holy cause as any for which armed meI
 ever mustered in battle array.
 We greet you as the man of more thar
 one issue, who volunteered for battle ir the hour of your country's peril when al
 ready twelve years past the age of mili tary exemption; the leader at whose cal
 for 1000 menin your native city 2,5O(
 men respondsd; the commander who lee } in the face of death the gallant and terri
 ble charge at Port Hudson. It is by nc