The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-05-14
THE QUESTION OF
TEMPERANCE
Judge William H. Delacy in
a Lecture at Catholic
University
Says That the Movement in
Holy Cause is the Hope
of the Home.
Refers to the Grand Work of
Father Mathew in
United States.

Judge De Lacy, who is delivering a
series of lectures at the Catholic uni
versity recently talked on "The Rise
of the Temperance Movement" and
said in part:
| The Catholic Church stands for tenn
perance. The Catholic University of
America stands for temperance be-
cause temperance is the hope of the
home; temperance is necessary for
human happiness. And the Catholic
Abstinence Union of America, early in
the nineties, established at this Uni
versity the Father Mathew chair as a
centennial monument to that great
apostle Of temperance.
On Washington's birthday, 1870, at
Baltimore, inspired with motives Of
patriotism and charity for their neigh
| Dor, representatives of Catholic absti-
nence societies from about a dozen
states met and formed the Catholic
Total Abstinence Union of America.
Followers of Christ, they adopted a
pledge to abstain from Intoxicating
drink and to discountenance the drink
| ing customs Of society, and offered
| their pledge in honor of the Sacred
Thirst of our Saviour upon the cross.
This was the first of the seed plant
ed as far back as 1S49 when Father
Theobald Mathew, the great Irish
Apostle of Temperance, visited Amer
charge Of a mission chapel at Cork,
but he had laid mankind under eternal
obligation by herculean labors in the
cause of temperance not only in his
native land but abroad. More than a
million persons had taken the pledge
of total abstinence at his hands in
Ireland and Great Britain alone. On
his visit to this mighty republic, the
people gave him reception eclipsing
in grandeur the triumphs of the an
cient Roman emperors. A great pro-
cession met him at the landing at Cas-
tie Garden, New York, and escorted
him to the city hall where he was
welcomed by the board Of aldermen
the mayor and other dignitaries. Here
in Washington, he was banqueted at
the White House by President Taylor
The United States Senate voted him
admission to it's floor, an honor which
General Lafayette alone had enjoyed
up to that time. Henry Clay said OF
him: "It is but a merited tribute OF
respect to a man who has achieved
a great social revolution-a revolution
in which no blood has been shed; q
revolution which has involved no des-
olation, which has caused no bitter
a revolution which has been achieved
without violence, and a greater one
perhaps, than has even been accom-
plished by any benefactor of man.
kind
Such is the man whom the Union
has honored, and in monument to hi.
memory they have properly furthcret
the great cause which is the grant
object of the organization.
At the close of the eighteenth cen.
tury the conviction had forced itsel
upon the American mind that the ust
of liquor was wrong. At the time
nearly everybody used intoxicants
Stimulants were upon every sideboard
Indeed, they were used as freely al
most as water, for they were the reg.
ular table beverage in families ant
were invariably offered to visitors ant
guests. The doctor in his calls upol
the sick and even the minister IL
/ rounds of parish duty imbibed tn,
social glass of ardent spirits, and t.
refuse the proffered glass would hav,
: been regarded a. discourtesy and al
; insult. Spirits were dispensed a
chrstenings, at weddings and ever
, funerals, at parties and fairs, and WI
, find them even at the installation o
, ministers and clergymen. They en-
tered closely into the hospitality o
the period. They were regarded a.