REV. A. PETERS of New York, under date of December 11, 1828, writes as follows: "I mentioned, in my last, the recent formation of a Temperance Society here.--Much has been done in that cause in this State, during the past year. Societies have been formed in various places. One thousand copies of Kittredge's Address have been printed, in this place, and the greater part circulated. Considerable has been published in the newspapers on this subject, and an impulse has been given to the cause throughout the State. It is in contemplation to attempt the formation of a State Society, at Indianapolis, during the present session of the legislature. The good effects of their exertions are quite perceptible. Great numbers have adopted the principle of entire abstinence. Many merchants and mechanics, who formerly traded, and some of them largely, in ardent spirits, have, from conscientious scruples, abandoned the trade altogether." Resolutions to abstain from Ardent Spirits have been passed by twenty five militia companies, and by the officers of four Regiments; by ten medical societies; and by all the lawyers in the counties of Essex and Morris, N. J. All the lawyers in the county of Berkshire, Mass., at the circuit court in Lenox, in November last, removed ardent spirits from their tables, and directed the keepers of the houses where they are accustomed to board in Term time, to supply them no more. The House of Representatives of the New Hampshire Legislature, by a resolution, agreed to a like abstinence during the session. A multitude of instances of a similar description have occurred, in all the various forms in which the business of life call men together for public purposes. In short, the redeeming influence of the Temperance Reformation has spread over our country, and is pervading all the varieties of character and condition which our population affords. The preceding facts support the observation which is now every where made, that the consumption of ardent spirits has been diminished one half in New England, and one third throughout the remainder of the land. Your Committee cannot conclude their Report without adverting to the change which has taken place in their opinions, relative to the reformation of habitual drunkards. Antecedent to the Temperance Reformation, our own experience and observation, and also the testimony of many others, whose means of information were far more abundant than our own, had led us to believe that the recovery of an habitual drunkard was next to an impossibility; for it was but seldom that instances of reformation occurred, and the most of these, proved in the end delusive and temporary. For this reason the Founders of the Temperance Society, in adjusting the plan of their operations, felt themselves almost compelled to strike habitual drunkards from the list of those whom they hoped to benefit, and to leave them to their fate. But the Providence of Him who " came to seek and to save that which was lost" opens to our view a prospect of deliverance for many of these victims of guilt and woe; whom we had cast out from our mercy, because, as we supposed, their distemper was incurable, and their doom inevitable. The members of the Society will at once perceive, that the relapse of drunkards, in times past, after a temporary abstinence from their cups, was occasioned, in great measure, by the existing customs of temperate drinking, which then universally prevailed. It was long since discovered and admitted, that no habitual drunkard could be effectually reclaimed by any other means, than a total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, even from those which are of the mildest description. Whenever then the agonies of want, disease, remorse or terror, tore the victim of excess from his indulgencies, his entire abstinence from the domestic, social, and public bowl, of which his brethren, neighbours and associates drank, made him an outlaw, and a cast away. The necessary means of his cure and safety proclaimed his degraded condition, and served, as a brand upon the forehead of felons, or marks on the cheeks of slaves, to reveal his infamy, or to show that he was no longer a free man. The universal presence too, of the delicious poison, provoking his appetite, and tempting him at every turn to assuage the anguish of ungratified desire; the sarcasm of his former associates, at the grog-shop and bar-room; the bribes and even threats offered by those, whose continuance in drunkenness was rebuked by his abstinence; and the numberless modes, in which his self denial and constancy were put to the torture, satisfactorily account for the fact, that in former years, not one drunkard in a thousand was permanently reformed. The Temperance Reformation has greatly altered the state of Society, and changed the condition of a reformed drunkard, in relation to the particulars to which we have briefly alluded. Formerly, the habitually intemperate man, who was brought to dash the fatal cup from his hands, and banish it from his house, his shop, and his field, as the cause of all his woe, was like a leper sent from the abodes and intercourse of his kindred, and compelled to dwell alone, not that he might avoid imparting pollution and death to them, but lest they should impart again to him the pestilence of which he had been, in a good measure, healed. But now, in every grade of society, and in all the varieties of business and enjoyment, men of total abstinence are found to aid and cheer him, amidst the sufferings and toils which beset the way of his return. Instances of the reformation of habitual drunkards are now mentioned in the notices which we have of the effects of the Temperance Reformation, in every place where efforts have been made. From the extensive observation and inquiries, which our General Agent has been enabled to make, he infers that as many as five hundred men, in the country at large, have, within two years, been snatched from the infamy and woe of habitual intoxication. Every day is multiplying the facilities of effecting the recovery of this wretched portion of the community; and no disheartening opinion should hereafter escape the lips of the friends of temperance, to discourage either the drunkard or his friends, from making all possible exertions to save him from ruin here and hereafter. Your Committee, among other measures to be pursued in future, have resolved to commence, as soon as practicable, a periodical JOURNAL, to serve as a vehicle for communicating intelligence of the progress of reformation, and also as the organ of intercourse with auxiliary societies. An Editor has been appointed, and whenever his acceptance shall have been communicated, and the arrangements made as to the place and manner of the publication, due notice will be given to the public.* Although much has been accomplished towards the deliverance of our land from the dominion of intemperance,-much more than was anticipated by the most sanguine of those who first proposed the formation of this Society; yet it must be borne in mind by every friend of our cause, that no more than a beginning has been made. Great things have been done, but far greater remain to be done. We have now, perhaps, nearly five hundred societies, embracing *Since the annual meeting, arrangements have been definitely made for the proposed publication. See the Prospectus of the Journal, at the close of the Appendix. twenty five thousand men. We state this supposition, that we may at all events, escape the charge of underrating the extent to which the reformation has already advanced. But what are these in comparison with the six thousand seven hundred and fifty one port towns and villages which the United States now contains, and the nearly two millions of men who people them? Each one of these towns and villages must have a temperance society, or be left a prey to the destroyer, and each of these two millions of men must be brought to an entire abstinence from ardent spirits, or they and their offspring be exposed perpetually to ruin. The American Temperance Society has undertaken, in humble reliance on the aid and guidance of the Father of Mercies, to accomplish this great and necessary work. The expectations of the wise and benevolent in many parts of our land, and the confidence which our past success has secured to us, loudly call on us to go forward, with energy, courage, and hope. The blessings of many who were ready to perish, are now descending on the heads of those who have instituted and supported this Society, and carried its purposes into execution. If we go forward with those expanded views and patient labours, and that continued liberality, which the temporal and eternal welfare of the millions now in being, and the millions yet to be born, demand and deserve, what a multitude will rise up, both on earth and in heaven, and call us blessed! By order of the Executive Committee, NATHANIEL HEWIT, General Agent. N. B. On the first page of our Report an error has occurred, in the statement of the amount collected by the General Agent. The total is, $1912,93, and not $1782,93. DR. AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF TEMPERANCE, in account with WILLIAM ROPES, TREAS. CR. 1827 1828 Cash Paid Rev. Mr. Hewit, by order of Ex. Comm. for travelling expenses $73 5 By balance of old account rendered Amount collected in Hanover Church 292 50 1 50 Dr. Woods, for amount paid for expense of Reports and postage 6 725 38 Rev. Mr. Edwards, subs. in Haverhill, Mass. 69 1828 Interest on the above payments 41 12 793 44 10 00 28 65 45 26 52 50 76 00 John Perry and Josiah T. Tappan of Brunswick I. T. Burnham, Exeter, part of subs. in part of Salem subs. John Hopkins, Northampton, his subs. Balance of Salem subs. Mr. Gardner, Lowell, in part of subs. Stillman Lathrop, his subs. Rev. Mr. Hewit, coll. in New York Rev. Jacob Cummings, Stratham, his subs. Rev. Mr. Edwards, from a friend in part of Portsmouth subs. Rev. Mr. Mitchell, Norwich, Ct. by Dr. Edwards Rev. J. Leavitt, Agent, coll. in New York Balance as above Interest on funds (not yet receivable) Notes of donors, given conditionally Interest on the above, less on amount invested, which interest will Note. There are several subscriptions obtained by the Agent in his late tour, which were not received in season to insert in this account. Boston, Feb. 2, 1829. Errors excepted, Boston, Feb. 9, 1829. I have examined the foregoing account, and the vouchers I find all correct. will} 1625 00 110 81 |