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FROM

THE BEQUEST OF

EVERT JANSEN WLNL

1918

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

MAINE TEMPERANCE SOCIET Y.

ARTICLE I. This Society shall be called the MAINE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

ART. II. This Society shall meet annually at Augusta, on the first Wednesday of February, and shall be composed of the officers of such County Temperance Societies in this State as vote to become auxiliary to it, and of such other persons in the State as subscribe this Constitution, together with those who may be appointed delegates from other Temperance Societies.

ART. III. This Society recognizes as a fundamental principle, total abstinence from all concern with ardent spirits, as an article of refreshment, entertainment, or traffic.

ART. IV. The sole object of this Society shall be to concentrate the efforts of the friends of Temperance throughout the State, to diffuse information, and by a moral influence, discourage the use of ardent spirits in the community.

ART, V. The officers of this Society shall be a President, Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, Auditor and an Executive Committee of five; of which the Corresponding Secretary shall be one, ex-officio.

ART. VI.

The Presidents of the County Societies, which shall become auxiliary, shall, ex-officiis, be Vice-Presidents of this Society. ART. VII. The officers of this Society shall perform the duties usually considered as pertaining to their respective offices. It shall especially be the duty of the Corresponding Secretary to collect information from the several Temperance Societies in the State, and under the direction, and with the assistance of the Executive Committee, publish from time to time, in the journals of the day, such articles as the cause of Temperance may require.

ART. VIII. The Executive Committee may, from time to time, adopt such measures as they think calculated to promote the objects of this Society; raise funds, when necessary, by voluntary contribution or subscription, and call special meetings of the Society, when expedient.

ART. IX. At each annual meeting a report shall be presented, exhibiting the operations of the Society for the past year; and the state and progress, so far as it can be ascertained, of the Temperance Reformation; which report shall be published.

ART. X. This Constitution may be altered by a majority at any annual meeting, but not so as to affect the fundamental principles contained in the third article,

The second Annual Meeting of the Maine Temperance Society, was holden in Augusta, agreeable to the provision of the Constitution, on Wednesday, the fifth day of February 1834—and among other acts, chose the officers of the Society for the year 1834.

PRESIDENT

Hon. PRENTISS MELLEN, of Portland.

Hon. SAMUEL M. POND, of Bucksport, Corresponding Secretary. Rev. WILLIAM A. DREW, of Augusta, Recording Secretary. ELIHU ROBINSON, Esq. of Augusta, Treasurer. CHARLES WILLIAMS, Esq. of Augusta, Auditor.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

Doct AMOS NOURSE*, of Hallowell. | T. S. BROWN, Esq. of Vassalboro'. BART. NASON, Esq. of Augusta.

S. K. GILMAN Esq. of Hallowell.

S. M. POND, of Bucksport, ex-officio.

On motion of Professor PACKARD, of Bowdoin College,

Resolved, That the design of the American Temperance Society is eminently philanthropic, and that this institution has claims on the sympathies and the efforts of all who love their species.

In support of this resolution Professor Packard addressed the Society in substance as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT:-1 doubt not that the mere reading of this resolution will command for it the ready assent of every one who hears it. It may, however, be well to present some considerations which will animate us in the work of humanity.

After the statements we have all so often heard, I need say but a word concerning the evil of intemperance-its extent and character. It has assailed every age and every class; it has invaded every profession and calling in life; it has violated with unhallowed touch every relation of man to man; it has poisoned every source of human happiness. It even now walks abroad through our streets, the fruitful source of crime and misery. It has entered the dwellings of our friends, perhaps in some cases our own, and seized its victims from our firesides. I would say a word respecting the remedy with which it is proposed to meet this evil. We ask for no legal measures. We call not for the civil arm-that has been stretched forth in vain. We have done with appeals to the intemperate, as a class. Those have proved powerless. We rely no more on addresses to the moral sense and humanity of our race, as a remedy of itself effectual. No, our remedy goes beyond this. It strikes at the root of the evil. This society goes to the temperate user of intoxicating drinks and proclaims their disuse, as the only means of reforming our race. It tells him to abstain, not merely to resolve in the silence of his bosom to do so, but to come out before his fellow men and sign a written pledge that he will abstain. It urges him in this way to operate by the power of his example on his fellow men. Such is the remedy, and what have been the effects of this simple means of reform so far as it has been tried. Mr. President, you cannot go abroad, but some striking evidence of a wonderful change in the sentiments and habits of the community forces itself upon your observation. Millions who not long since were temperate drinkers now regard their use as a sin; thousands, who not long ago, were deriving their livelihood from the traffic in strong driuk, now detest it as a sin against man, and most offensive in the sight of Heaven; and the church in most

*Doctor Nourse has since declined the office, and the Executive Committee have chosen Theodor S. Brown Chairman of the Board, and Asa Redington, Jr. Esq. of Augusta, to supply the vacancy.

of its branches seems almost ready to require a strict adhesion to temperance principles as one test of religious character.

Such, Sir, is the evil which has swept over our land in a wide torrent of pollution, desolation and woe. Such, Sir, is the remedy which the American Temperance Society proposes to apply to it. Such, Sir, have been the results experienced during the few years in which it has been tried. And now, Sir, I am ready to appeal to this assembly whether the design of this institution is not eminently philanthropic.

In the first place, Sir, I argue the philanthropy of this scheme on the ground that it saves national wealth-the property of our fellow citizens and their means of comfort. A man in my neighborhood three or four years since at a time of some considerable excitement on the subject of Temperance, confessed that his ardent spirits had cost him one hundred dollars a year. This was a labouring man—and what, I would ask, is the character of this expenditure in the case of such a man? In the first place, if we may believe the united testimony of our medical men, if we may trust to our own observation, if we may credit the dictates of reason, he expends his money for that which is of no use to him. So far it is a dead loss. But there are other circumstances to be taken into the account, which will show that it had been better for that man had he cast his money into the sea. That would have been a mere loss. But the inebriate purchases that which not only wastes money-but health and life; he purchases that which palsies the hand of industry-unsettles the firmest moral resolution-breaks up habits of thrift-and sends out upon the world the strong able-bodiod man of business, a shiftless, diseased, enervated, loathsome beggar and vagabond. It is at this moment doing it for 300,000 of our fellow citizens, and is not then intemperance making fearful inroads on the property and means of comfort of our people!

Who, Mr. President, can estimate the tribute which our land has annually paid to satisfy the demands of this horrible evil! The remark of the Hon. Samuel Dexter, late of Mass., has been repeated in our hearing this evening. This tribute has been estimated at the frightful amount of 100 millions annually. And, Sir, let it ever be remembered that this has been and will always be a most unequal tax. The rich, the learned, and the exalted have paid largely towards it, but it has been chiefly extorted from the hard earnings of poverty. It has drained the poor man's wealth. This remorseless tyrant has driven out the poor man, a houseless wanderer, from the comforts and sympathies of this world and reduced his once happy fireside to a scene of beggary and woe.

And now, Sir, would any one know how this humiliating, disgraceful tribute, paid with groans and tears, may be, I will not say merely cancelled, to be demanded again, but, forever withdrawn from us, I would refer him to the results of the Temperance reform; I would request him to visit with me any village where it has been suffered to work its wonders; I would ask him to observe "the well conducted farm," the thriving trade, the neat and comfortable dwellings with their well clad, well fed, happy inmates; I would ask him to notice those who a short time since were beastly drunkards, the terrors of their families and neighborhoods, now transformed into sober, useful and happy citizens; all these the undoubted fruits of this reform, and then I would ask him if the Temperance Society is not an institution full of philanthropy?

Again, Sir, I might allude to other more obvious fruits of the Temperance reform. I might refer you to the united testimony of the medical men in proof that it has mitigated the virulence of disease and diminished its frequency. Why, Sir-the Temperance reform will ever constitute an era in the medical history of the world. I could refer you to records of our courts in proof that litigation has materially and rapidly decreased since the efforts in favour of Temperance had made any impression upon the community. I could ask you to visit with me the home of the drunkard, not long since the abode of discord, want and woe, now changed into the home of peace, prosperity and happiness. I could request you to go through the land and witness how many heart stricken wives, how many neglected, starving children, have hailed the approach of the Temperance reform with a joy which no tongue can utter, and have found in it a redemption from their once cheerless misery.

But I would now particularly direct your attention to another less obvious, but in my view, most interesting feature in this reform, and which gives it the most exalted rank in the scale of philanthropic efforts. I refer to the higher

tone of moral feeling which now pervades the whole of society as an undoubted consequence of this reform.

One characteristic of intemperance and that which clothes it with terrific power, is, that it invariably assails, and with success, the moral sense. Even a moderate use of the instrument of intoxication is deeply pernicious to man as a moral being. Who has not observed indications of the frightful havoc which intemperance, beyond any other vice, makes with the moral sensibilities of the soul? No fact in relation to this subject is more fully established than the connexion of intemperance and crime. It has been often stated that it is the instigator of three quarters, some say nine tenths,of the crimes which are perpetrated in society. And now, Sir, in this view of the subject, reflect how loathsome, frightful, the moral disease which is bred in the midst of society, where, as it was the case with our own not long since, if it is not now, there are more than 300,000 confirmed, hopeless inebriates, idlers, vagabonds, sabbath breakers, the ready perpetrators of crime; and more than 600,000 others who are constantly exposing themselves to the infection of the same vice, or have already imbibed it !-more than a million of our fellow citizens, a large portion of whom have almost paralyzed the moral sense, while the rest are every day weakening their power; and among these many fathers and mothers who are exerting a deadly influence on the offspring which will descend to future generations! What wonder that the heart of the philanthrophist has failed within him whenever he has reflected that under the agency of this vice, not less than a seventh part of our whole population are apparently sealed against the influence of the moral means which the mercy of God has provided for their temporal and eternal good.

But what a change have these few years wrought! Of those who but a few years since were regarded as lost inebriates, more than 6000 have been, it is hoped, reclaimed from their bondage. They have been raised from the depths of degradation and restored to the exercise of sound reason and a healthy moral sense. Of the remaining number, who were fast contracting the ruinous habit of using intoxicating drinks, a great multitude have abjured all intercourse with the evil. With them all, the process of moral deterioration has been stayed and they have brought themselves within the reach of moral influThey now find rising within them a self respect and a consciousness of right which were long strangers to their breasts. They now walk among men, and have enlisted themselves with the wise and good of the world. But the change is not confined to them, it pervades the whole community. There is a sensitiveness in the public mind in relation to the use of the instruments of intoxication in all its forms, which, a few years since to have anticipated, would have exposed one to the charge of being an enthusiastic visionary.

ence.

We have proofs on all sides of the influence of the movements in favor of Temperance in raising the tone of moral feeling. They have wonderfully quickened the energies of good men and encouraged them to form various projects for the moral benefit of their fellow men. I cannot but think that the exertions which have been made in all parts of our land in the establishment of Lyceums may be regarded as a consequence more or less direct of the Temperance movement. Sure I am that I hazard nothing in asserting that their kindred institutions, such as the Lectures for our young men, our apprentice-Libraries, and more than all, those associations which have been hailed with joy by many a parent's heart, I mean the societies formed in many of our towns and cities for the benefit of the young men who resort thither in quest of employment, and who, strangers in the new places of abode, are peculiarly exposed to the wiles of iniquity, are to be ascribed to the efforts in favor of Temperance. Such institutions indicate a moral health and vigor in the community which has quite recently been wakened into life, as I believe, under the influence of that great moral revolution. It cannot but be, that a moral phenomenon, like that which has been operating throughout the community should quicken the moral pulse of the whole land, and that we should perceive under its exciting influences a ruddier glow in the moral aspect of society.

We have, Mr. President, another most satisfactory proof of moral improvement which this has effected. I have adverted to the effect of intemperance in deadening the moral sensibilities and steeling the heart against the appeals of truth and moral suasion. We might expect then, as one consequence of the change which has occurred, that the truths of the gospel would come with new