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Gerrit Smith Broadside and Pamphlet Collection

Communication from Gerrit Smith to Edward C. Delavan, Esq., on the...

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874.

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Call number: Smith 403

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COMMUNICATION

From GERRIT SMITH, to EDWARD C. DELAVAN, Esq. on the Reformation of the Intemperate.

(Republished from the fourth number of the American Temperance Magazine, Article VI.]

PETERBORO', September 11, 1833.

EDWARD C. DELAVAN, Esquire,

My dear friend, - I well remember your deep interest in the remarks I made to you about the reformation of intemperate persons in this neighborhood; and, in fulfilment of my promise to you, I now take up my pen to furnish you with a written account of this reformation.

It often occurs, that the designs of men take a much wider scope in their accomplishment than is contemplated by their narrow sighted framers. This remark is eminently verified in the case of the Temperance Reformation. It did not enter into the minds of its happy pioneers, that the reformation had good in store for poor drunkards; and had they foreseen how full it is of blessings and salvation to these most wretched and hitherto most hopeless of all prisoners, and how it would so soon fill the [minds is crossed out and "mouths" is penciled in margin] minds of thousands of them with songs of deliverance - cheering indeed would have been the vision amidst the difficult and discouraging beginnings of the work.

To save the sober from becoming drunken was the exclusive original object of the Temperance Reformation; and therefore do they discover their ignorance of the original character of our enterprize, who pronounce it a failure, because it has not reformed all or a great proportion of the drunkards of the country. If it has reformed one drunkard, it has done what it did not promise, and what it did not expect to do. The adage, that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," had as much credit with the originators of this enterprize, as with others; and perfectly did they accord with the public sentiment, that the drunkard is beyond cure. We all remember, that this was the public sentiment of that period. Formerly, when a man became a drunkard, we excluded him from the pale of our sympathies. Vain, we thought it, to do for him, and almost no crime not to feel for him. The vice, to which he had yielded himself, stamped him in our eyes, with incurableness; and we abandoned him to a fate from which escape seemed well nigh impossible. There was hope for our friend, if the yellow fever or even the plague was upon him; but none if he became a drunkard. Now, however, under the healthful influences of the Temperance Reformation, the recovery of the drunkard is not only possible, but even probable: and when I look at the reformation, and see its illimitable and surpassingly varied beneficence reaching even to the countless multitude of drunkards, and holding out a prospect of deliverance even to these lost wretches, I must believe, and I would believe, though it were a hundred fold more neglected, derided and reproached than it is, that it has come down to us from heaven, and that it is owned and blest of that good Being, who himself came into our guilty, ruined world "to seek and to save that which was lost."

We find that wherever the principles of the Temperance Reformation have obtained, there drunkards are reclaimed; and that too, even if no special efforts are made to reclaim them. In an atmosphere of total abstinence, the drunkard can come to life again. When rum has been banished from a neighborhood, and the sober in it have ceased to present temptations, in their example and practices, to the master appetite of the drunkard; when the state of society, instead of presenting constant and fatal hindrances to his reformation, has become so changed, as to invite and assist; then the instance is

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common of the drunkard's becoming sober. And when we consider, tha there are more than 300,000 drunkards in our nation, and that of these the Bible declares, "they shall not inherit the kingdom of God"; and that, of even their earthly woes and those of their family connexions, the mind can form no adequate conception - it would seem that every sober man, in whose breast there remains any thing of good will to his fellow men, must consent to the little and certainly harmless self-denial of discontinuing his use of strong drink, and of so far making his example and practices favorable to their recovery.

When I returned, fourteen years ago, to reside in this village, more than every other man in it was a drunkard; and, at that time, it contained some sixty or seventy families. This unusually large proportion of drunkards was doubtless owing, in a great measure, to its extensive manufacture of window glass. For firemen, as you are aware, formerly felt it to be necessary to drink up a large part of their wages; and thence the fact, that half the blacksmiths in our country, ten years ago, were drunkards. Two-thirds of all the men, who were buried in our village cemetery from the year 1820 until the beginning of the Temperance Reformation (I speak from personal knowledge) were drunkards. The vice of intemperance had impoverished the village. The sober could not make headway in the midst of such waste of time and property. There were half a dozen places in the village where rum was sold. There was a distillery in it, owned by a prominent member of the Presbyterian church, and which, until the dawn of the reformation, myself and others were blind and wicked enough to stock with grain. There were six other distilleries within the limits of the town, in which the village is situated. But the scene is greatly changed. The fires of the seven distilleries have all gone out - never again to be rekindled. The last chapter in the history of the village distillery is peculiarly interesting. It was purchased nearly a year ago by one of my neighbors, who from about the time of his purchase has been entirely reclaimed from habits of intemperance and idleness; and now, in the place of the tubs and the worm and the other apparatus of death, may be seen his anvil, his bellows, and the cheerful and useful business of a sober, industrious and worthy blacksmith. Only one place is left in our village, where the drunkard's drink can by obtained, and, for weeks together, an intoxicated man is not seen in our streets. Only one drunkard remains in the village. Of him we have very little hope, as his dwelling is hard by the house, that supplies him with the "liquid death and distilled damnation." It is supposed, that he is the only person in the village, who drinks ardent spirit. For the young man who vends it, (respectable but for his occupation,) has too much sense to drink it. Would that he had too much benevolence to tempt others to drink it! Surprising change since the time, when more than every other man in the village was a drunkard!

Nothing however, so happily denotes the change in our morals as the sweet stillness of our Sabbaths. The pious strangers, who, in the course of the last three or four years, have been with us in these seasons of "heavenly calm," have often spoken of the unusually quiet character of a Peterboro' Sabbath.

To indicate the connexion there is between rum and crime, I state that, during the last eleven and a half years, ninety-four complaints for crime were made to our village magistrates; and, that in eighty-eight of the cases the accused were drunkards; in three of them, they were sober; and, in the other three, their habits were unknown.

The subject of temperance did not begin to awaken public attention here, until January, 1827; and not until 1830 or 1831, was the interest in it so general and strong, as to exert any considerable influence upon our drunkards. A few of them were reformed, about that time. For the last twelve to eighteen months, some of the friends of temperance here have made special and great efforts to save them; and our success, under GOD, has been such as to fill our hearts with gratitude to Him.

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The following narrative exhibits important changes, that have taken place in most of the drunkards, who resided in our village and within two or three miles of it. There are within the same limits a dozen or fifteen other persons who still remain intemperate: and, unless their sober neighbors, who have not yet subscribed the pledge to total abstinence, hasten to do so, and to put away the snare of their example, there is great reason to fear, that a part, if not all, of these persons, will go to their graves and to the judgment seat, in their present character.

No. 1. Upwards of 40 years of age. Was frequently intoxicated, until the last two or three years. When so, he was apt to be wild and quixotic is his conduct, and to involve himself in difficulties, from which he was not always extricated without a considerable loss of money and time. He became quite poor. His large family were frequently in need of the comforts of life. He is now one of our most industrious, thriving and respectable farmers. He is a member of the temperance society, and a highly esteemed member of the church.

No. 2. Upwards of 30 years of age: was for several years very intemperate. When under the influence of liquor, he occasionally exhibited a propensity to crime, which well nigh involved him in utter ruin. He became very poor, and neglected to provide for his wife and children. Often, when in his drinking moods, absented himself from his home for days together, wandering about like a maniac. He has been a consistent member of the temperance society, about two years. Happily, he dreads cider, as he dreads rum; and when, a few weeks since, it was proposed by some of his fellow laborers to have cider brought into the harvest field, he exclaimed quickly: "Not one drop, not one drop." He feels himself to be "a brand plucked from the burning," and which a single spark maybe sufficient to ignite. He is now an industrious, respectable, money-making farmer.

No. 3. About 50 years of age. The gradations of moderate drinking, of tippling, and of hard drinking have been observable in his case, as in the cases of most drunkards. He became exceedingly poor. His very numerous family suffered for the necessaries of life. Such of his children, as are grown up, are very ignorant; and, I believe, some of them can neither read nor write. Seven or eight months ago, he subscribed the pledge of total abstinence; and, at his own solicitation, and with the full consent of those of them, who were of sufficient age to give it, the names of all the members of his family, not excepting the infant child, were added to the same talismanic instrument. He is now cheerful and light-hearted: loves his family, and provides well for them: and he cannot fail to see, that he is greatly respected by his neighbors. An incident must be related here. The nearest neighbor of No. 3, at that time, was a deacon-and a respectable good man he is. But, being rather credulous, the stories about church and state and other bugbears, of which the invention of artful demagogues is so prolific, had deterred him from joining the temperance society. No. 3 feeling, as is very natural, a great desire to strengthen the party to which he and his family had recently acceded, and feeling, doubtless, that he should be strong in his new faith and steadfast in his sobriety, somewhat in proportion as the temperance party should be numerous and respectable, hurried with the pledge, as soon as the names of his family were put to it, to the good deacon for his name. The application was unquestionably very trying to the deacon. The conflict of his emotions may well be imagined. Here stood before him a man, who but yesterday was a drunkard, and who was now imploring the aid of the deacon's name towards confirming the good resolutions which he had just been making. Humanity - his religion - not to speak of his ecclesiastical office - urged the deacon to give his name promptly. But, on the other hand, he may have had some lingering notions, that this scheme of making all men sober would, in the event of its complete success, unite church and state. There was too the pride of opinion and consistency rising up strongly in his breast; for even christians are subject to this miserable and wicked pride. He had joined in

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the common talk against the society; had often refused to belong to it; and, now to give his name, at the solicitation of a drunkard! - a deacon to take lessons in ethics from the lips of a drunkard! - this was too humiliating! He refused to sign; but said that they were about to get up a temperance society in the church he belonged to, and he would sign there. The church temperance society, however, has never been formed; and the deacon's influence, in respect to temperance, remains where Jesus Christ tells him it should not be.

No. 4. Is about 55 years of age: was for many years a loathsome drunkard; spent his earnings in filling his whiskey bottle; and left his family to suffer for clothing, food and medicine. Some three years ago the Angel of Mercy was sent to his rescue, and he was reclaimed to soberness and to GOD, apparently without the aid of human instrumentality. He and other members of his family soon after made a public profession of religion, which they have honored to this day with sober and godly lives. Of course he is a member of the temperance society.

No. 5. Upwards of 30 years of age: was intemperate for several years. Nearly a year ago, he joined the temperance society, and has been sober and industrious ever since. Drunkenness kept him very poor: but his family are now comfortably supplied. During his abstinence from ardent spirit, he has frequently been in the sanctuary. I very rarely, if ever, saw him there be. fore. It is said that he sometimes drinks cider; and those of us, whose abundant observation on this point assures us, that the reclaimed drunkard, who takes to cider and strong beer, will by the use of these drinks, revive and maintain his appetite for ardent spirit, and be liable also to intoxication upon these drinks themselves, are very apprehensive that he will fall.

No. 6. About 30 years of age, and has a family. Some six months ago, he discontinued the use of ardent spirit, and joined the temperance society. Has recently drank to intoxication. Never forsook his evil companions. His poor deluded father, who is a professor of religion and opposes the temperance reformation, is greatly, perhaps fatally, in the way, of the recovery of his son. I this day had a conversation with a brother of No. 6. He thinks No. 6 will drink no more ardent spirit.

No. 7. About 40 years of age, and has a family. Has more than a common education. For many years a loathsome drunkard. I have seen him lying in the street so drunk, as to be entirely insensible to his condition. Became miserably poor. About two years since, relinquished the use of ardent spirit, and joined the temperance society and church. With the exception of one week in these two years, he has appeared well the whole time. During that week he was so imprudent and, I may add, so sinful, as to go unnecessarily into that only house in our village, where the poison is vended. He drank strong beer there, until he became intoxicated. It was suspected, that his fellow drinkers mingled spirituous liquor with the beer, that they might, in the fob! of the poor man, have an occasion for exulting over the temperance cause. His fit of drunkenness lasted several days: but when he recovered from it, he manifested the penitence of a child of GOD, and abjured even cider and beer forever.

No. 8.* Is Elder Truman Beeman. I mention his name, because he has given me liberty to do so; and because the mention of it will, in the many parts of New - England and this state, where he is known, increase the interest in the account I give of him. He is about 73 years of age; and, though his body is feeble, his superior mind remains perfectly sound. From twenty to thirty years he was a preacher of the gospel. A portion of that time, he resided in Rensselaerville and Catskill in this state. He removed to this village upwards of twenty years ago. He was fond of liquor then, and had left the ministry shortly before. Soon he became a drunkard and a gambler; and the lips which had taught others the way of truth and life, were now eminently profane and obscene. No other man amongst us has ever done half so much to corrupt our youth, as Elder Beeman has done. His wit and remarkably ready talent at rhyming were his most powerful aux-

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iliaries in this work. He became very poor, after having possessed a handsome property, and, but for the industry and good management of his wife, they would both have suffered the want of food and clothing. It was observed several years ago, that the Elder's habits were improving under the general reformation, that was going on amongst us. But, never until a year ago, did he come to the resolution to abstain entirely and forever from the use of ardent spirit. Early in the winter, he attended a temperance meeting, which was addressed by Mr. Turner, the agent of the New York State Temperance Society, and there joined the society. From that day to this, he has not tasted of the poison, and, I believe, that the offer of a world would he insufficient to bribe him to taste it. Last winter he received from the War Department the welcome news, that his name was placed upon the pension list, and that he was entitled to one hundred and sixty dollars back pay. His old companions now flocked around him for a treat. They trusted, that the Elder's temperance was not yet firm enough to withstand so great and sudden prosperity. They had, perhaps, flattered themselves, that his temperance was owing, in some measure, to his inability to purchase liquor. But they were disappointed. They found him to be an incorrigible cold water man. The Elder went to work in paying his debts and supplying his family with comforts; and left his old companions to purchase the whiskey they would

have begged from him. I have often visited the old gentleman, within the last year. Not only is he sober; but, it can be said of him, as it was of Paul: "Behold he prayeth" This old and exceeding sinner-this wonderful monument of the patience of GOD - now sits "at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." Harmony has taken the place of discord in his family; and that aged breast, which, for twenty years, was agitated with the untold horrors of the drunkard, is now the abode of "quietness and assurance forever." The Elder's religion is of such a character, that he prefers the Bible to all other books, and spends a large share of his time in reading it. His change is well worth all the temperance efforts, that have been made in Peterboro'.

No. 9. Upwards of 50 years of age. Has long been an inhabitant of the town. Has an excellent family. Was for along time a moderate daily drinker - next a tippler - and thence, by quick march, a full grown drunkard. Lost his health and respectability, and ceased to increase his property. About two years since he quit his cups; his health and character are already restored, and peace and cheerfulness, long banished from it, are now returned to his dwelling. He has not yet joined the temperance society, though he attends its meetings. I saw him angry, the other day. The alarming thought came into my mind, that he had been drinking cider. I remembered the saying among the Jersey women, that cider drunkards are crosser husbands than other drunkards. I hope, however, that he does not drink cider.

No. 10. About 50 years old. Has lived in town but a couple of years. Was very intemperate when he came here, and poor. Has a good family. His removal into this temperance atmosphere was most happy for him; for he had not been here long, before he joined the temperance society. He has continued ever since his connexion with the society to be a sober and respectable man. He has recently manifested a hope in Christ.

No. 11. An old man. Had been intemperate for many years. Very poor. Connected himself with the church, two or three years since; and has been sober from that time. Demagogues have made him believe, that the temperance reformation is but a scheme to abridge men of their political rights, and therefore, (though possibly a lingering and secretly indulged love of rum has something to do with it,) he cannot join the temperance society.

No. 12. A coloured man, about 30 years of age, with a family. Was a very great drunkard, and very poor. For the last three or four years, lie has wholly abstained from ardent spirit. About a year since he drank freely of cider on a festival occasion, and probably became somewhat intoxicated. He then resolved, that he would never again taste of any intoxicating liquor

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whatever. He is a lovely christian of remarkable tenderness of conscience, and of course belongs to the temperance society.

No. 13. An old person. Intemperate for many years. Has been sober for the last two or three years. Now a member of the church, and probably would be of the temperance society, if a certain near relative would be, on whom No. 13 is dependent.

No. 14. About 30 years of age, with a family. Had been intemperate for several years; and, therefore, could not preserve his earnings. Some three years ago, he joined the temperance society, and has ever since lived up to its requirements. He is now an industrious and respectable man. Much of the time during his abstinence from ardent spirit, he has been religiously minded.

No. 15. About 40 years of age, with a family. Was a miserable sot, and very poor. For the last three or four years, he has abstained from ardent spirit, and has, during that time, been a consistent and beloved member of the church of Christ. I scarcely need add, that such a member of the church is also a member of the temperance society.

No. 16. About 60 years of age. Had been for twenty or thirty years one of the greatest drunkards in town. Was very poor, and a brute in his family when drunk. Has trained up several sons to drunkenness. Nearly a year ago he joined the temperance society, and has remained sober ever since, one occasion perhaps excepted. I fear he drinks cider, and if he does, he will probably soon relapse into drunkenness.

No. 17. About 50 years of age, with a large and intelligent family. Had been intemperate for many years and became very poor. Three or four years ago he joined the church and the temperance society, and has ever since been a sober man and a decided christian.

No. 18. Was a great drunkard, and was very poor. Joined the temperance society a year or two since. Had a long drunken frolic last winter. I know little about him.

No. 19. Was a great drunkard. Now a member of the temperance society, and a respectable professor of religion. Has as much fear of cider and strong beer, as of rum.

No. 20. About 60 years of age, with a family, and poor. I believe he has not used ardent spirit for months. Was formerly intemperate. I know but little of him.

No. 21. About 50 years of age, with a large family. Had been intemperate long enough to waste the considerable property he had accumulated in the early part of his life. Last winter he bound himself in writing to abstain from ardent spirit. The person who wrote the instrument, begged him very long and earnestly to suffer the prohibition to extend to cider also. But the unhappy man could not consent to it. He laughed at the charge of danger in a drink of cider. It. turned out, as the writer feared. He made cider his substitute for ardent spirit; and he now drinks ardent spirit perhaps as freely as ever. Many a heart bleeds for his meek and pious wife.

No. 22. About 60 years of age, with a large family. Had long been very drunken and very poor. About two years since he relinquished the use of ardent spirit. He was persuaded to attend the election last fall, and some demagogues, to control his vote, got him to drink. One of his respectable children told me that his father had not drank any ardent spirit before for a year. Had the poor fattier been a member of the temperance society, the tempting glass and the importunities of the designing might not have overcome him. I hope he does not use ardent spirit now.

No. 23. Seventy years of age, with a family. Had long been a very great drunkard. Now abstains from ardent spirit. But it is said drinks to intoxication of cider, which a professor of religion is ignorant or unprincipled enough to sell him. Has not joined the temperance society. One of hue neighbors, who has great influence over him, talks much of church and state

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No. 24. Lives a little out of the territory, to which I have confined my examinations. Was a great drunkard - but has been, for some time, a consistent member of the temperance society.

No 25. Lives near No 24. Was quite intemperate. Has recently joined the temperance society, and appears very well.

No. 26. Was a drunkard, until the last three or four years. From that time, until his death, nearly a year ago, was a sober man and interesting christian. He was about 60 years old, at his death. The cry that is often raised to justify our neglect of the drunkard, and to discourage our efforts for his recovery is, that the reformed drunkard will go back. That cry is signally rebuked and falsified in the case of No. 26; for instead of going back, he has gone to heaven.

No. 27. About 45 years of age, with a family. Was very poor and drunken. I am informed, that he has abstained entirely from ardent spirit, for the last seven or eight months, and is pious.

No. 28. About 40 years of age, with a family. Was very poor and drunken. For the last two years, has been a respectable and faithful member of the temperance society. Is now so afraid of ardent spirit, that some months ago, when in great bodily pain, he refused camphor, because it was dissolved in it.

No. 29. About 40 years old, with a family, and poor. Had been intemperate for years. Has recently promised to abstain from all intoxicating liquors, and I hope soon to see him in the temperance society.

No. 30. Upwards of 30 ,veers of age, with a family, and was poor. Had been intemperate for several years: but, for the last year or two, he has been a zealous and faithful member of the temperance society. He is now a sober, pious, industrious, money making man.

No. 31. About 60 years of age. Had long been intemperate and poor: Lives at a distance from this place. Visited his friends here last winter, and got caught in the temperance trap. Returned home a sober man, and, to the rest joy of his numerous and very worthy family, has remained so ever since. It is said, that his old drinking companions tried very hard to get him back into the rum ranks. He is industrious in proselyting his drunken neighbors to temperance. Of course he belongs to the temperance society.

No. 32. About 40 years of age. This is a very remarkable instance. He lives a number of miles from this place, but is to remove to this neighborhood in two or three weeks. Seven or eight months since, he came to me, late in the evening, for the single purpose, as he avowed, of subscribing his name to the temperance pledge. He was very drunk. I sought hard to put him off. But he would subscribe the pledge. He seemed to feel that this, and nothing short of this, would save him Rather to rid myself of his importunity, than in the hope of benefitting him, I wrote the pledge for him to sign. He took the pen, fell upon his knees, and signed it; and immediately after offered an audible prayer of ten minutes length. Strange to say, he has never tasted spirituous liquor since. He is now very industrious, and very ambitious to be a man of respectability and property. His remaining affection for his amiable and pious wife seemed to be his strongest motive for signing the pledge and entering upon the redemption of his character. Let the unhappy wife of the drunkard so demean herself towards her wretched partner, as to keep alive his love of her. In some heaven-favored moment, that love may impel him to successful efforts to escape from his bondage.

No. 33. About 40 years of age. Had long been a drunkard. His family frequently needed the comforts of life. Nearly a year ago, he resolved on total abstinence from ardent spirit, and has been a sober industrious man, ever since. He has not yet joined the temperance society, but probably will soon join it. I believe he wishes to make a thorough trial of his constancy to his new principles, before he joins the society. In this, he is in a common error. He needs, and so does every drunkard, who is striving to reform himself, the help of a connexion with the temperance society to keep him from falling.

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No. 34. About 55 years of age, with a family. Had been intemperate for many years. About four years ago he joined the temperance society, and has been a perfectly sober man ever since. Never, however, until the last winter, did he resolve to give up cider. It was much feared by some of his friends, that his use of cider would bring him back to rum.

No. 35. About 30 years of age. Well educated. Was a very great drunkard, and was very poor. Two or three years ago he joined the church, and ever since he has been a sober, pious and useful man. He removed into a neighboring town soon after he made a profession of religion.

No. 36. Very drunken and poor. Has recently joined the temperance society. Does well thus far. But I cannot yet form an opinion how he will hold out.

No. 37. Similar to No. 36 in all respects.

No. 38. Upwards of 50 years of age: had long been a drunkard: became pious two or three years since, and joined the church. Last winter some of his rum drinking neighbors got him to drink, until he was intoxicated. When he became sober, he was very penitent, and hastened to join the temperance society. Previously, he felt too strong to need the help of a connexion with it. I can now confidently say of him, that he is a sober man, and a christian.

This list would be far longer than it now is, should I add to it the names of all those persons, within the same territory, who, but for the temperance reformation, would, in all probability, have become drunkards, ere this time. Numbers of my most respectable neighbors had already drank ardent spirit so long, as to contract a decided appetite for it.

The most important fact established by the foregoing narrative is the connexion between the Temperance Reformation and the work of the Holy Spirit. Or, I might venture the remark, that innumerable instances in our country, similar to some in this narrative, establish the fact, that the Temperance Reformation is itself the work of the Holy Spirit. Well has the Reformation been called the John Baptist of the gospel. For, in thousands of instances, it has prepared the way for the Saviour to take possession of the sinner's heart. Such conversions to GOD, as are recorded in this narrative, whilst they illustrate His forbearance, greatly encourage the individual, who enters into the work of reforming the drunkard, with the hope, that he may be instrumental in saving "a soul from death," as well as in drying up the fullest and bitterest fountains of temporal misery.

Were there space for it in this communication, I might advert to several other facts established by the foregoing narrative; and especially to the one, that the drinking of ardent spirit induces poverty. But I pass from this to say something about our process for reforming the drunkard.

Benevolence is the soul of this process, as it is emphatically of the whole temperance enterprize: and if any are laboring to promote that enterprize from motives at all inferior to the love of their fellow men, they are at best but feeble helpers of our noble cause. Those of my neighbors, who have undertaken, in reliance on GOD, the work of reforming drunkards, do not feel and act towards these wretched beings, as they once did. They have learnt highly prized lessons on this subject in the great school of Temperance Reform. Formerly, they despised the drunkard. Now, they pity him. Now they feel, that no class of men are entitled to draw so largely on their compassions, as drunkards are; and especially do they feel this, when they consider how much they have themselves done to make drunkards. For who of us can truthfully say, that he has done nothing towards continuing that rum drinking custom in our country, whence have come all our drunkards? Formerly, they repulsed the drunkard from their doors; neglected his sufferings; and wherever they met him, manifested their contempt and abhorrence of him. Now, they are kind to him; furnish him with employment; are tender of his feelings, and attentive to his wants. The drunkard's self despair arises, in a great measure, from the conviction, that he is an outcast from the pub-

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lic respect and sympathy. Of this we have been aware in our efforts to reform him; and we have sought to show him, that, as to ourselves at least, this conviction shall henceforth be groundless. We have taken great pains to persuade him, that we are his friends, and that every improvement to his habits, however slight, would proportionably and promptly elevate him in our esteem. We have also cheerfully consented to practise every self denial, by which we could gain his confidence: for in no way can you so surely win men's hearts to you, as by submitting to obvious self denial for their sake. It was not because of his self denial, but it was notwithstanding this endearing virtue, that the great pattern of self denial was crucified. Whilst inculcating the doctrine, that the drunkard, to be thoroughly reformed, must relinquish wine, cider, and malt liquors, as well as ardent spirit, we have seen and submitted to the necessity of giving up these drinks ourselves. The drunkard is affected by this self denial for his sake; and he straightway opens his heart to those who practise it. But, should we, whilst insisting on his disuse of these drinks, indulge in them ourselves, he would despise our inconsistency and selfishness: and we should only make the matter worse, by attempting to justify ourselves in saying to him: "these drinks are safe for us who are sober; but you who have lost your self control, are not to be trusted with them." Much as the drunkard's self respect is impaired, he cannot brook a distinction so offensive as this.

The self denial that prompted the god-like Howard to visit and explore the vilest and most repulsive scenes on earth, "to take the gauge and dimensions of human misery," in its most loathsome and aggravated forms, must actuate him, who would befriend and save the drunkard. His regard for the drunkard's welfare must be stronger than his disgust towards his loathsome vice; and he must toil for his rescue unweariedly. Even as the man of God fixes his weeping eyes on an impenitent neighbor, and resolves in the holy benevolence of his heart, that he will devote himself to the salvation of that neighbor; so must the friend of temperance single out the drunkard; employ upon his recovery the fruitful ingenuity, that a good man ever has in a good cause; visit him frequently; exhort him " in season and out of season;" wrestle with GOD for him; entreat others to be kind to him, as well in their example, as, in their words; and he must finally resolve never to give over the labor whilst his unhappy fellow being remains the slave of the bowl.

I recollect having said to you, a couple of years since, that the Temperance Reformation was worth all it had cost, if it were only for its having developed and exercised, in composition and public speaking, so much of the talent of the young men in humble life in this country. I would now add, that the Reformation is worth all it has cost, had it accomplished no other good than that of teaching thousands of professors of religion, that they have little self denial, and of course little of Christ in them. The Temperance Reformation has shown, that many a professor of this self denying religion, would rather cling to his glass than throw it away to save a soul.

The temperance tavern is to be acknowledged amongst the most important aids, which we have had in cleansing the moral atmosphere of this neighborhood. For nearly six years, (probably longer than any other place has been favored with such an establishment,) we have had a temperance tavern. Temperance taverns are equally creditable and useful to the public morals, and they are one of the peculiar and most precious fruits of the Temperance Reformation. How strange, that temperance men do not support them! It is in their power, by the bestowing their patronage on temperance houses to convert all the rum taverns in the land to temperance taverns. Whilst, on the other hand, no temperance man puts up unnecessarily at a tavern where ardent spirit is sold, without lending his influence to prolong the guilty traffic.

Nothing, however, has been so useful, towards effecting, and especially towards rendering permanent, the reformation of drunkards here, as the public pledge, which the temperance society requires of its members. The pledge

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associates him with the respectable, who have subscribed it; and he feels himself honored by the association, and stimulated to well doing. This public promise constitutes, in his view, whatever it may be in fact, a far more solemn appeal to the living GOD than do his private and, generally, vague and hesitating resolutions of amendment; and he is also most profitably conscious, that this public promise fixes upon him the eyes of hundreds of his fellow beings, who will and ready to applaud him for his fidelity to it, or to despise and abhor its violation. The temperance pledge, in the hour of temptation, is like the amulet worn of old to preserve its wearer from evils. It may be likened also to some adopted maxim, which, embodying the just conclusion of a long and wise train of thought, often conies greatly to one's help in an exigency, and when he is in no circumstances for a process of reasoning. The remembered pledge often exerts a saving power, when the waves of temptation beat violently against the trembling resolution of the reformed drunkard. He may not be able to answer the ingenious and plausible arguments, with which his tempters assail him: but he falls back with confidence and safety upon his pledge, as upon a conclusion to which he arrived, in a season more propitious than the present, for determining his duty. And now, although the peril of the crisis be so great, as to strip him of every other resource and every other means of escape, yet here, in the temperance pledge, is that "last plank," which saves him. There is another consideration, showing the value of the pledge to the reformed drunkard. (It is imperfectly brought to view in the application made by No. 3 for the deacon's name.) If it had no other name to it than his own, it might and probably would avail him little. But his respectable neighbors, and hundreds of thousands of the wise and good all over the land, have honored it with their names; and he feels that he stands is their strength. Hence is it, that he is able to stand: whilst, without this dependence, he would be tottering and falling through his inherent feebleness. You have heard the story of our countryman at the battle of Yorktown, who, to use his expression, "fought on his own hook." There are some such self poised and independent spirits. But the reformed drunkard, in respect to his conflict with the temptations of rum, is far from being one of them. In that conflict, and in his reliance on his associates in the pledge, he is more bike the coward soldier, who, but for his identification of himself with his country's cause, and with the ten thousands of strong hands and stout hearts, that are supporting it by his side, would have "no stomach for the fight."

Of vital importance, however, as is the temperance pledge to the drunkard, yet how many people there are of sober lives, who discourage him from subscribing it, by refusing to subscribe it themselves. I have often known fathers and even mothers keep back from sanctioning and honoring temperance societies with their names, notwitstanding they had drunken sons, whose reformation was hopeless, unless they could be brought into these asylums.

I have witnessed, in some of these cases, the ineffectualness of entreaties addressed to the stubborn and deluded parents, until I have been well nigh driven to the uncharitable conclusion of the poet, that,

"There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart;
It does not feel for was."

I have a few neighbors who wholly abstain from ardent spirit, but who decline giving their names to the pledge. I respect them for their abstinence: but here, as well as elsewhere, such persons seriously obstruct the progress of the car of temperance. The rum party chuckle over such temperance men, and they wish for no better allies. They remember too well the impotence of all efforts against intemperance, before the temperance society was devised, to fear any of those efforts now. It is the machinery of the Temperance Society; its meetings; its publications; the activity of its members; above alt the resistless magic of its roll of names - the resistless power of example and of fashion too in that roll - that they dread. GOD plainly says of temperance societies to all mutt: "This is the way: walk ye in it." But they, who have

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been brought under the Temperance Reformation, to give up the drinking of ardent spirit, and who still refuse to join the temperance society, are guilty, not only of disobedience to this requirement, but of heinous ingratitude, in turning their backs on the instrumentality, which God has mercifully employed to produce in them so great and so happy a change. Such persons generally speak well of the society; but they do not consider, that their standing aloof from it argues a perception on their part of something very objectionable in it; and therefore it is, that, just so far as their example and opinions have weight, is the institution discredited and subjected to suspicions.

Persons of this class are frequently heard to say, in order to justify their standing aloof from the temperance society, that they can do more good by remaining out of the society, than they could if they were in it. But, if they may say so, then may others; then may all; and the temperance society should not exist; - and the conclusion is, that the society is an evil, and that it has hindered rather than promoted the progress of the cause of temperance. A sensible man should be careful not to take a position, which can be fairly carried out into consequences so absurd. That the temperance society is useful, and useful in proportion to the number and respectability of its members, is a proposition not to be controverted at this late day. But, let the persons to whom I here refer, examine themselves, to see whether, after all, it is not pride, notions of independence, gentlemanly feeling, or something other than a desire to be most useful, which keeps them back from joining the temperance society.

But to return to the drunkard. The grand difficulty in reclaiming him is not in himself: it is in the sober, and in the state of society around him. As the question, "Will this be a good child," is far more pertinently and forcibly put to the parents of the child than to the child itself; so the question, whether a drunkard shall be reformed, is more suitably addressed to the sober,

whose examples control that drunkard, than to the drunkard himself. The question of the drunkard's probable fate is in the hands of the sober, amongst whom he dwells; and their examples solve that question, either for his recovery or his ruin. Go into a community where there is no temperance society - where the sober and respectable are above the meanness of laying themselves under its obligations, and you will never hear a prayer offered in that community for the poor drunkard, and never see a tear dropped over his wretchedness; and, there, of course, you will find no instance of a reclaimed drunkard. So far from this, you will find the habits of society - the state of feeling-such as to make men drunkards, and to keep them drunkards when they have become such. But go into another community, and where there has been, for several years, a well sustained temperance society, and there you will find, that kind feelings have begun to prevail towards the drunkard; and here and there you will see a drunkard, who has already broken his chains.

Sober men generally are still wont to look upon themselves, as clear of the sin of drunkenness. But, if they will examine the relations they bear to the drunkard, they will find themselves to be responsible for all the drunkenness, that exists. The sober (for drunkards are generally paupers,) raise the grain for distillation, and manufacture and import and vend the spirituous liquor; and set the example, irresistibly attractive to the drunkard, of drinking it: and thence the myriads of drunkards and the difficulty of reclaiming them. If men will not, yet the all seeing GOD will, fix the responsibility of this murder of bodies and souls, where it belongs. In "the great day of his wrath," will the ruin dealer and the rum drinker, who still persist in their sin, under all the light that reveals its enormity, "be able to stand?"

What I have said sufficiently indicates the process, by which, under GOD, most of our drunkards have been reformed. How they can be reformed in a city, where every tenth or twentieth building is a grog shop, and where at every turn and corner of the streets, an appeal is made in the display of bottles, to the master appetite of the drunkard, I do not know. When our license laws and the rum dealers and demagogues, who cling to them, shall no longer

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be able to withstand the fast gathering tempest of public indignation; and when the intolerable oppression of these laws on the sober, unoffending and industrious citizens of our state shall have been exchanged for legislative protection against the evils of rum selling; then the drunkard in the city can be reclaimed, as well as the drunkard in the country.

GERRIT SMITH.

The following temperance publications can be had in any quantities at the office of the N. Y. St. Tem. Soc. No. 19 Greens-st. Albany:

1. Cold-Water-Man, per doz. copies, $3.00

2. Temperance Recorder, vol. 1st, stitched, 0 25
2d vol. single copy for one year, 0 50
20 or more copies, when separately directed, per year, 0 25
40 or more copies, when sent to one direction, per year 0 12 ˝
To counties, for distribution in each family, per year, 0 10
Postage - any where in the state, 1 ct.
Out of the state, 1 ˝ "

3. 1st vol. Quarterly Temperance Magazine complete, 400 pages octavo, 1 00
2d vol. same size, subscription price, 1 00
Postage - under 100 miles, 4 ˝ cts., over 100 miles 7 ˝ cts. each No.

4. Temperance Almanac for 1834, per 1,000, 25 00
per 1,00, 3 00

5. "My Mother's Gold Ring," per 100, 3 00

6. Sixth Report of the American Temperance Soc., single, 0 25
100 copies, 16 67
Postage - under 100 miles, 7 ˝ cts., over 100 miles, 12 ˝ . This
document contains 112 octavo.

7. "Ox Discourse," per 1,000 copies, 2 00

[Albany, N.Y. - printed and published.]