ART. VII. Journal of the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Temperance Convention, begun and held at Worcester, on Wednesday, September 18, 1833. Boston. Ford & Damrell. 1833. 8vo. pp. 36.

A CONVENTION of delegates from the several Temperance Societies of this Commonwealth assembled at Worcester on the 18th of last September, for the purpose of considering how the cause of temperance could be most effectually served at the present time, within the limits of the State. Such a convention, including nearly 500* members, collected from all parts of the State, drawn from every religious denomination and every political party, presenting every variety of temperament, from the sanguine zeal of youth to the cautious judgment of age, many of them men to whom the people had awarded high civil offices, and others, those on whom they had bestowed their respect and confidence, but all of them brought together by their interest in a common object, for which they were ready to forget their differences, and to exhibit the beautiful spectacle of Christian beneficence in exercise with Christian courtesy, - may claim the attention even of those who withhold their sympathy from its purpose. The deliberations of such a body must be an object of interest with the people, and the measures which with a singular unanimity they concurred in advising, the weakest vanity or the most obstinate prejudice alone can regard with indifference. Never before had such a meeting for such an object been held in Massachusetts. That philanthropy should have broken down the usual barriers of division, and have secured an assemblage of worth and influence that cannot be held inferior to any ever convened within the Commonwealth, gave to this occasion a character of novelty, which we care not how soon it shall exchange for that of oft-quoted precedent. Our own thoughts have again been directed to the evil which this Convention was called to consider, and the result has been to strengthen our conviction of the value of the " temperance reforma

*496 is the number reported by the Secretaries. Of this number a respected friend, whose accuracy is unimpeachable, informs us that 105 were clergymen, 391 laymen.

mation," of the practicability of the work in which its active friends are engaged, and of the importance of obtaining for it the attention, sympathy, and support of every one who has not yet given it his countenance. Our present remarks will include a rapid sketch of the origin, principles, and progress of this undertaking.

The vice of intemperance a few years since had overrun our land to an extent, which, though every one must have pronounced it enormous and fearful, recent calculations have shown to have greatly exceeded the belief or apprehension of any one. In two respects this vice had preeminence over all others, and therefore required special efforts for its extinction. It produced a greater amount of disastrous consequences than any other habit. It affected the person, health, property, character, and family of the individual who became its victim. It unnerved the strong arm, bloated or withered the fair figure, consumed the vital principle, broke up a man's industry, wasted his fortune, hardened his heart, seared his conscience, quenched the light of intellect and the holier light of love, set aside the restraints of religion, buried the hope of heaven, and made a man a beggar, a brute, a monster, a child of hell. It spread sadness and desolation over domestic life, made one's home the scene of shame and fury, wrung the heart of woman with anguish when it could not persuade her to forget her sex and her nature in submission to its power, converted every relation of life into a source of discord, and every blessing, privilege, circumstance of existence into the fuel of misery, compelled parents to wish they had been childless, and children to shudder as they found disgust and abhorrence mingling with the filial sentiment, made heart-broken widows and wretched orphans of those who yet welcomed death within their doors. It sapped the strength and expended the resources of the community, reducing able-bodied citizens to helplessness, turning laborers into drones, and forcing the industrious and virtuous to maintain hosts, literally hosts, of these unprofitable and offensive fellow-creatures; for pauperism owned itself indebted to this cause for almost all the demands with which it wearied the ear of charity. It increased the dangers of the social state, and multiplied every form of wickedness; crime received from its hands nearly all those whom it delivered to the gaol, the state prison, and

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the gallows. Its effects, in a single line, were loss of health, disgrace, ruin, the overthrow of domestic peace, augmentation of the public burthens, increase of profaneness, licentiousness, riot, theft, and murder, death, darkness, woe. Upon what other vice could be charged such a production of evils, physical and mental, personal and social, temporal and eternal, — not in some rare instances, not in many cases only, but in almost every instance without exception or qualification?

Yet in this tendency to aggravate the miseries of the world, does not lie the sole distinction of intemperance over other vices. It is also preeminent for the facility with which it swells the numbers of those who surrender themselves to its thraldom, when the slightest observation would suggest so many dissuasives. It is universally conceded, that the appetite for spirituous liquor is unnatural, and its taste at first unpleasant; the use of it brings on that train of evils which we have described, and by such a progressive accumulation, that any one may at any stage of the habit, either by looking back to discover what he has lost or by looking forward to anticipate what he must expect, convince himself that perseverance is the height of folly. Still it was at the time of which we are speaking the vice of all classes. No condition excluded it; nothing seemed to be a security against it. The brightest and the best humbled themselves before its influence. Joy and sorrow, health and sickness, cold and heat, poverty and abundance, were only different means by which it introduced and fastened itself upon men, women, and even children. The great would forget their greatness, the good would sacrifice their goodness, and fashion and custom conspired with less obvious causes to make the sober man a moderate drinker, the moderate drinker habitually intemperate, and the habitually intemperate irreclaimable drunkards. The good habits and principles of the people were crumbling beneath the step of this mammoth vice. The liberties of the country were endangered, its institutions were threatened, and there was reason to fear that this single habit would work the decay and downfall of those privileges, which had distinguished us among the nations, and would compel us to illustrate the meaning of our Saviour's prophecy against the unbelieving cities of Galilee.

Such was the evil which called for the interference of the

lovers of their country, their homes, and their own souls. We have forborne to repeat the numerical statements by which its enormity is most vividly presented to the mind, because, though we do not doubt their general correctness, from their nature they cannot be perfectly accurate, and their force is often parried by the complaint of exaggeration. The magnitude and prevalence of the evil even now, and still more a few years ago, are unquestionable, and to the most cursory observation must have justified an attempt to prevent its increase, if it were impossible to purge the land of its presence. The latter task seemed hopeless, and few were so impressed with the character of the vice, or so confident of success, as to oppose any systematic resistance to its progress. In the year 1813 the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was formed, and on the list of its earliest members may be found the names of some of the most distinguished citizens of the Commonwealth. One or two societies for a similar object had been previously formed in other parts of the country,* but none embracing so large a sphere of operation, or suited to obtain such regard as the Massachusetts Society. For many years this Society drew attention to the subject by meetings, addresses, and other publications; and meanwhile, partly through its influence, and partly, doubtless, from other causes, a change was effected in the habits of a most important class of the people, the more cultivated and opulent class. Still, throughout the country intemperance was extending its conquests, and was celebrating its triumphs in facts of the most painful and alarming character. The Massachusetts Society was a feeble instrument against such an inveterate and shameless

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*The Constitution of one of these, "The Temperance Society of Moreau and Northumberland,” in Saratoga County, New York, is given in the second number of the "American Quarterly Temperance Magazine." The fourth article deserves to be copied. Article IV. No member shall drink rum, gin, whiskey, wine, or any distilled spirits, or composition of the same, or any of them, except by advice of a physician, or in case of actual disease, also excepting wine at public dinners, under penalty of twenty-five cents; provided that this article shall not infringe on any religious ordinance. Section 2. No member shall be intoxicated under penalty of fifty cents! Section 3. No member shall offer any of said liquors to any other member, or urge any other person to drink thereof, under penalty of twenty-five cents for each offence."

vice.* An organization intended to reach over a much wider territory and to act with more immediate effect was devised, and the American Temperance Society was instituted in 1827. That some of its first proceedings were marked by an illiberal spirit, as we deemed to be true at the time, we shall always regret; but that it has faithfully and successfully pursued its ostensible and noble purpose, cannot be denied, and its name will for ever be associated with a most signal improvement in the habits of the American people. By means of agents employed to visit different sections of the country, and of publications scattered with a profuse generosity over its whole face, a change in public sentiment has been effected, particularly in the Northern States of the Union, which has produced a change in practice, that has withdrawn thousands from ruin, and saved multitudes from an indulgence which every year would have rendered more dangerous. We need not exhibit in figures the evidences of this change, that are furnished by the diminution of the sale

* A disposition has been manifested to underrate the value of the services rendered by this Society to the cause of temperance, and still more to represent its promoters as ignorant of the principles which lie at the foundation of success. The failure of their enterprise, if such a name must be given to the result of their labors, should be attributed to two causes, which prove the generous ardor with which they entered upon the work. The insensibility of the public upon the subject met them with an almost impenetrable resistance, and the modes of associated action, which within a few years have been found most effective for philanthropic ends, were then scarcely known. In agricultural language, they were obliged to break the ground with imperfect instruments. But the result of their efforts does not deserve to be styled a failure. There is no reason to doubt the truth of the remark with which their "Second Annual Report" begins; “That the operations of the Society, during the short term of its existence, appear to have produced salutary effects in calling the attention of the public to a portentous evil, which was making silent, but rapid and almost unresisted progress in the community." In December, 1814, the Board of Council issued a Circular, "adapted to show that the excessive use of ardent spirits commonly results from the regular use of it at the return of certain hours." This was at most but one step short of the principle of total abstinence. If any of our readers have in their possession the early volumes of "The Christian Disciple," we beg leave to refer them to a series of articles in the volume for 1816, on the causes, evils, preventives, and remedies" of intemperance, which will show, that whatever may have since been the increase of general information, there were those twenty years ago who understood the character of the evil they were anxious to suppress.