Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-02-16

Washington must have been quite fa-
miliar with exhortations against the vice
OF drunkenness. He probably listened
to the preaching of Parson Wecms and
knew him well. For some time Parson
Weems preached at Pohck Church He
was a revolutionary in his day. He de-
nounced drunkenness, slavery. card
playing and dueling He wrote the first
biography of Washington and was the
first to put in print the story of the,
cherry tree, the throwing of coin or
a stone across the Rappahannock river.
at Fredericksburg and other stories Of
Washington's boyhood.
sWeems was a stanch personal friend
of George Washington, and was related
by marriage to the Washington family.
Though an Episcopalian minister, he
preached in Methodist and other churches
and travelled around the country SELL
ing Bibles and his own books. Bishop
Meade wrote of Weems that .'He was
of very enlarged charity in all re-
spects, and though calling himself an
Episcopalian minister he knew no dis
tinction of churches Bishop Claggett
wrote of him; 81 have a regard for
Weems; his zeal and his attention to the
. duties of his sacred office merit esteem.
but in proportion as this zeal and dill
gence are applied to the Methodist in ).
terest 1t weakens u.s." Parson Weems
married, in 1875. Fanny Ewell. daugh
Ter of Col Jesse Ewell, and Inherited
the E.well estate of Belle Are. a flne old
mansion still standing below Washing
Int,
Weems died at Beaufort S. c., in 1872,
and his remains rest at Belle Are. y
modern bographer OF Weems has writ !.
len this:
No preacher Of the present day can surpass
Wccms in the novel. almost vaudeyillian fash :
ion in which hn presented an idea or in
Weighed against vice. While n trip preach
ing and selling hooks h woud enter a .tayern ;
AMI act TIL. part Of al intoxicated individual
with absolute fidelity. Then lie would siul-
denly recover-his normal attitude and preach a
stirring sermon against Drunkenness canvass
for sales OF his remarkable book, The
Druukards looking Glass" largely the
material his
Washington had heard great deal
spoken against drunkenness and he
unquestionably sympathized with
what he heard. He never heard the
word prohibition" in any other sense
than term meaning the action of
forbidding or preventing by an order
or decree. He had heard the word
temperance in its general sense
and considered himself temperate
man because he did not drink to
4, ~
heard Of a temperance society. for the
first in this country seems to have
been organized at Saratoga in 1908.
nine years after his death He may
have heard of such thing as
piedge of total abstinence, because
that was much talked about in this
country in 1900 and very likely at
an earlier date. He evidently had
no scruples against the issue of rum
der date of Morristown, ~ j., Febru-
AIRY IL, iI77. is this;
The exceeding difficulty there Is in prccur-
J. ing sp!rituous liquor with the exhorbilsht
e prices now asked FOR thar article renders it
II absolutely necessary 10 stop serving il out to
c The troops in general way till supplies eau
Il hi laid In upon more easy terms. The COM
), missary general is therefore directed to issue
o none except it be to fatigue parties. scouting
$ parties or to such troops necessarily
employed in amy eNtrsord;nsr. piece OF duty
Il til further orders.
a Ii IL the conjecture to assume that
c Washington, II he were alive today.
e would be a prohibitionist or the re-
e verse II seems plausible that as
It this movement has made such
d Strong appeal 20 the people of Nir-
v. ginia, very largely descendants OF
It Washington's contemporaries, WASH
, ington himself would have come to
y consider the drinking of liquor as an
evil But that is question beyond
y the power of man TO answer.
y y Wv ~.
= It Washington had any idea about
4 league OF nations TO insure perma-
u nent universal peace. il ~as that such
thing WAS idealistic. He esteemed
peace and wanted to insure 1t. But
10 his plan for maintaining the peace
and. security OF the United States was
by preparing for war in time of
peace, by keeping strong and etii-
c.ent Army and Navy and BY having
no sntanglina alliances with foreign
n.,iopS In 1880 he wrote from the