An address delivered before the Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society : at the Second Presbyterian Church, on the twenty-second day of February, 1842

i Z> r e

AN XdDRESs"

DELIVERED BEFORE ^HE

temperance

ociety

At the Second Presbyterian Church,

ON THE

Twenty-second Day of February, 1842,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Copies of this address can be had of T. J. Crowder, 926 Governor St.,
Springfield, 111. Single copies, 15c. ; lots of 100, $10.00. Special rates on
larger quantities.

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I 906

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ADDRESS.

Although the Temperance Cause has been in "-ogress for
near twenty years, it is apparent to all that it is just now be-
ing crowned with a degree of success, hitherto unparalleled.

The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of
fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems
suddenly transformed from a cold abstract theory, to a living,
breathing, active and powerful chieftain, going forth "con-
quering and to conquer." The citadels of his great adver-
sary are daily being stormed and dismantled ; his temples and
his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long
been performed, and where human sacrifices have long been
wont to be made, are daily desecrated and deserted. The
trump of the conqueror's fame is sounding from hill to hill,
from sea to sea, and from land to land, and calling millions to
his standard at a blast.

For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice.
That, that success is so much greater now, than heretofore, is
doubtless owing to rational causes ; and if we would have it con-
tinue, we shall do well to inquire what those causes are.

The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemper-
ance has, somehow or other, been erroneous. Either the cham-
pions engaged, or the tactics they adopted, have not been the
most proper. These champions for the most part have been
preachers, lawyers and hired agents, between these and the
mass of mankind, there is a want of approachability, if the term
be admissable, partially at least, fatal to their success. They
are supposed to have no sympathy of feeling or interest, with
those very persons whom it is their object to convince and per-
suade.

And again, it is so easy and so common to ascribe motives
to men of these classes, other than those they profess to act
upon. The preacher, it is said, advocates temperance because

he i'-j a fanatic, and. desires a union of the church and State ; the
'Id", yer from his pride, and vanity of hearing himself speak ;
and the hired agent for Ids salary.

Br. *vhe . ^ie. wj has long been kno^m as a victim of in-
temperance, bursts the. fetters thai have , xnnd him, and ap-
pears before his neighbors "clothed and in his right mind," a
redeemed specimen of long lost humanity, and stands up with
tears ef joy +:-::\ 1 1' g in eyes, to tell, of the miseries once en-
dur^;, 'low f " • ... uved no more forever; of his once naked
and slarvk-g .ren, now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife,

Ion/ weighed clown with woe, weeping and a broken heart, now
r\si>red io health, happiness and a renewed affection; and how
easily it is all done, once it is resolved to be done ; how simple
h;3 language, there is a logic and an eloqueoce in it that few
with human feelings can resist. They cannot say that he de-
sires a um "i of church and State, for he is not a church mem-
ber; they cannot say he is vain of hearing himself speak, for his
whole demeanor shows tie would gladly avoid speaking at all;
they cannot say he sneaks for pay, for he receives none, and
asks for none. Nor can his sincerity in any way be doubted;
or his sympathy for those he would persuade to imitate his ex-
ample be denied.

In my judgment it is to the battles of this new class of
champions that our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly,
owing. But, had the old-school champions themselves been of
the most wise selecting, was their sj^stem of tactics the most
judicious? It seems to me it was not. Too much denuncia-
tion against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers was indulged in.
This I think was both impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic,
because it is not much in the nature of man to be driven to any-
thing ; still less to be driven about that which is exclusively his
own business; and least of all, where such driving is to be sub-
mitted to, at the expense of pecuniary interest, or burning ap-
petite. "When the dram-seller and drinker Avere incessantly
told, not in the accents of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently
addressed by erring man to an erring brother ; but in the thun-
dering tones of anathema and denunciation, with which the
lordly judge often groups together all the crimes of the felon's
life, and thrusts them in his face just ere he passes sentence of
death upon him, that they were the authors of all the vice and
misery and crime in the land; that they were the manufacturers

and material of all the thieves and robbers and murderers
infest the earth; that their houses were the workshops of- the
devil; and that their persons should be shunned by ad the <. too
and virtuous as moral pestilences. I> <y, when they were told
all this, and in thi • " itv i+ is not wohdt "ul tha4 • . ey ■"res'"""
very slow, to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations, and
to join the ranks of their denouncers, in a hue and cry against
themselves.

To have expected them to do pthe'r^ • fKa.fi: th'gy-'did — to
have. expected them not to meet denuneiat ixou > rt'R den miction,
crimination with crimination, and anathema \?3'& nnafheuia —
was to expect a reversal of human nature, which :y Gc< 's de-
cree and can never be reversed.

AVhen the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, per-
suasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted.
It is an old and a true maxim, "that a drop of hojiey catches
more flies than a gallon of gall." So with men. if you would
win a man to your cause, first convince him ihat you are his
sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his
heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to his
reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little
trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your
cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one. On the con-
trary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his ac-
tion, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he
will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and
his heart ; and though your cause be naked truth itself, trans-
formed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper
than steel can be made, and though you throw it with more than
herculean force and precision, you shall be no more able to
pierce him than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a
rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be understood by
those who lead him, even to his own best interests.

On this point the Washingtonians greatly excel the temper-
ance advocates of former times. Those whom they desire to
convince and persuade are their old friends and companions.
They knoAV they are not demons, nor even the worst of men ;
they know that generally they are kind, generous and charit-
able, even beyond the example of their more staid and sober
neighbors. They are practical philanthropists ; and they glow

with a generous and brotherly zeal, that mere theorizers are in-
capable of feeling. Benevolence and charity possess their
hearts entirely ; and out of the abundance of their hearts, their
tongues give utterance, "Love through all their actions run,
and all their words are mild;" in this spirit they speak and act,
an. I in the same they are heard and regarded. And when such
is^he temper of the advocate, and such of the audience, no good
cause can be unsuccessful. But I have said that denunciations
agaii.sc drain-sellers and dram-drinkers are unjust as well as im-
politic Let us see.

j have not encpiired at what period of time the use of intox-
icate, g liquors commenced, nor is it important to know. It is
sufficient that to all of us who now inhabit the world, the prac-
tice of drinking them is just as old as the world itself — that is,
wo have seen the one-; just as long as Ave have seen the other.
When all such of us as have now reached the years of maturity
first opened our eyes upon the stage of existence, we found in-
toxicating liquor ; recognized by everybody, used by everybody,
repudiated by nobody. It commonly entered into the first
draught of the infant, and the last draught of the dying man.
From the sideboard of the parson down to the ragged pocket of
the houseless loafer it was constantly found. Physicians pre-
scribed it in this, that and the other disease ; government pro-
vided it for soldiers and sailors ; and to have a rolling or rais-
ing, a husking or "hoe-down" anywhere about, without it, was
positively tinsnffcrable. So, too, it was everywhere a respectable
article of manufacture and of merchandise. The making of it
was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he could make
most was the most enterprising and respectable. Large and
small manufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which all
the earthly goods of their owners were invested. Wagons
drew it from town to town ; boats bore it from clime to clime,
and the winds wafted it from nation to nation ; and merchants
bought and sold it, by wholesale and retail, with precisely the
same feelings on the part of the seller, buyer and by-stander, as
are felt at the selling and buying of plows, beef, bacon, or any
other of the real necessaries of life. Universal public opinion
not only tolerated, but recognized and adopted its use.

It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged
that many were greatly injured by it ; but none seemed to think

the injury arose from the use of a bad thing, but from the abase
of a very good thing. The victims of it were to be pitied, and
compassionated, just as are the heirs of consumption, and other
hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as a misfortune,
and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace.

If, then, what I have been saying is true, is it wonderful
that some should think and act now, as all thought and acted
twenty years ago, and is it just to assail, condemn, or despise
them for doing so ? The universal sense of mankind, "cci. >any
subject, is an argument, or at least an influence not easily over-
come. The success of the argument in favor of the existence
of an overruling Providence mainly depends upon that ,, ease;
and men ought not, in justice, to be denounced for yielding to
it in any ease, or giving it up slowly,- especially when they, ara
backed by interest, fixed habits, or burning appetites. . .,,: .-

Another error, as it seems to me, into- which the old reform-
ers fell was the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly
incorrigible, and therefore must be turned adrift, and damned
without remedy, in order that the grace of temperance might
abound, to the temperate then, and to all mankind some hun-
dreds of years thereafter. There is in this something so repug-
nant to humanity, so uncharitable, so cold blooded and feeling-
less, that it never did, nor never can enlist the enthusiasm of a
popular cause. We could not love the man who taught it —
we could not hear him with patience. The heart could not
throw open its portals to it, the generous man could not adopt
it, it could not mix with his blood. It looked so fiendishly self-
ish, so like throwing fathers and brothers overboard to lighten
the boat for our security — that the noble minded shrank from
the manifest meanness of the thing. And besides this, the ben-
efits of a reformation to be effected by such a system were too
remote in point of time to warmly engage many in its behalf.
Few can be induced to labor exclusive^ for posterity ; and none
will do it enthusiastically. Posterity has done nothing for us ;
and theorize on it as we may, practically we shall do very little
for it unless we are made to think we are, at the same time, do-
ing something for ourselves.

What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit to ask
or expect a whole community to rise up and labor for the tem-
poral happiness of others, after themselves shall be consigned to

tSBi dust, a majority of which community take no pains what-
ever io secure their own eternal welfare at no greater distant
day ? Great distance in either time or space has wonderful
power to lull and render quiescent the human mind. Pleasures
to be enjoyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead and
gone are but little regarded, even in our own cases, and much
less in the cases of others.

£'11!.' in- addition to this.' there is something so ludicrous in
prcvi.ves of good, or tnreet&jof evil, a great way off, as to render
the v.'ole subject with which they are connected, easily turned
into ridicule. " Better i lay fdown that spade you're stealing,
Paddy — if you don't, you'll pay for it at the day of judgment."
"Be thte powers, if ye '11 credit me so long I'll take another jist. "

By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the
habitual drunkard to hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt
a more enlarged philanthropy, they go for present as weii as
future good. They labor for all now living, as well as here-
after to live. They teach hope to all — despair to none. As
applying to their cause, they deny the doctrine of unpardonable
sin, as in Christianity it is taught, so in this they teach — ■

""While the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return."

And, what is a matter of the most profound congratulation,
they, by experiment upon experiment, and example upon exam-
ple, prove the maxim to be no less true in the one case than in
the other. On every hand we behold those who but yesterday
were the chief of sinners, now the chief apostles of the cause.
Drunken devils are cast out by ones, by sevens, by legions; and
their unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed, who was re-
deemed from his long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are
publishing to the ends of the earth how great things have been
done for them.

To these new champions, and this new system of tactics, our
late success is mainly owing; and to them we must mainly look
for the final consummation. The ball is now rolling gloriously
on, and none are so able as they to increase its speed, and its
bulk — to add to its momentum, and its magnitude — even though
unlearned in letters, for this task none are so well educated.
To fit them for this work they have been taught in the true

school. They have been in that gulf from which they ' ..^.a
teach others the means of escapes. They have passed- .that
prison wall, which others have long declared impassable ; and
Avho that has not shall dare to weigh opinions with them as to
the mode of passing?

But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have
suffered by intemperance personally and have reformed are the
most powerful and efficient instrument/? to push the reformation
to ultimate success, it dcesj.hotdkJlkW that those who ^.^vje not
suffered have no part left them to^erform. Whether^ur not
the world would be vastly beneficed by a total and final '. inish-
ment from it of all intoxicating drinks seems to me not now: an
open question. Three-fourths of mankind confess thtf .affirma-
tive with their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge
it in their hearts.

Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the
good of the whole demands? Shall he who1 cannot do much be,
for that reason, excused if he do nothing? "But," says one;
"what good can I do by signing the pledge? I never drink,
even without signing. ' ' This question has already been asked
and answered more than a million of times. Let it be answered
once more. For the man to suddenly, or in any other way, to
break off from the use of drams, who has indulged in them for a
long course of years, and until his appetite for them has grown
ten or a hundred fold stronger, and more craving than any nat-
ural appetite can be, requires a most powerful moral effort. In
such an undertaking he needs every moral support and influ-
ence that can possibly be brought to his aid and thrown around
him. And not only so, but every moral prop should be taken
from whatever argument might rise in his mind to lure him to
his backsliding. When he casts his eyes around him he should
be able to see all that he respects, all that he admires, all that
he loves, kindly and anxiously pointing him onward and none
beckoning him back to his former miserable "wallowing in the
mire."

But it is said by some that men will think and act for them-
selves; that none will disuse spirits or anything else because his
neighbors do ; and that moral influence is not that powerful en-
gine contended for. Let us examine this. Let me ask the man
who could maintain this position most stiffly what compensa-

10

lion he will accept to go to church some Sunday and sit during
the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a trifle,
I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing irre-
ligious in it ; nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable — then
why not? Is it not because there would be something egregi-
o'usly unfashionable in it? Then it is the influence of fashion ;
and what is the influence of fashion but the influence that other
people's actions have on our own actions — the strong inclina-
tion each >i' us feels to. do as. wevec- all < ur neighbors do? Nor
is the influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or
class t'f things. It is just as. strong on one subject as another.
Let us* "mike it as unfashionable to withhold our names from
the t<v> trance pledge as for husbands to wear their wives' bon-
nets ■,;, church, and instances will be just as rare in the one case
a* tli." ither.

''Brit. "-say:some, " we are no drunkards and we shall not.
acknowledge pur, elves such by joining a reformed drunkard's
society, whatever our. influence might be. " Surely no Christian
will adhere to this okjeotion.

If they believe as they profess that Omnipotence conde-
scended to take on Himself the form of sinful man and, as such,
to die an ignominious death for their sakes, surely they will not
refuse submission to the infinitely lesser condescension for Lhe
temporal and perhaps eternal salvation of a large, erring, and
unfortunate class of their fellow creatures. Nor is the conde-
scension very great. In my judgment such of us as have never
fallen victims have been spared more from the absence of appe-
tite than from any mental or moral superiority over those who
have. indeed, I believe if we take habitual drunkards as a
class their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous
comparison with those of any other class. There seems ever to
have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall
into this vice — the demon of intemperance ever seems to have
delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.
What one of us but can call to mind some relative, more promis-
ing in youth than all his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to his
rapacity? He ever seems to have gone forth like the Egyptian
angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest
born of every family. Shall he now be arrested in his desolat-
1110' career? In that arrest all can oive aid that will; and who

11

shall be excused that can and will not? Far around as human
breath has ever blown, he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our
sons, and our friends prostrate in the chains of moral death. To
all the living everywhere we cry, "Come sound the moral trump
that these may rise and stand up an exceeding great army"—-
"Come from the four winds, 0 breath! and breathe upon thest;
slain that they may live." If the relative grandeur of revolu-
tions shall be estimated by the great amount of human misery
they alleviate, and the sm ill .am (unit. .they infhet-.i then, indeed,
will this be the grandest the world shall ever have seefrn.

Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly p oud. It
has given us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of
any other nations of the earth. In it the world has'!1 <ui:d a
solution of the long mooted problem as to the capability ol-man
to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegrtatecl,
and still is to grow and expand into the universal lioerty of
mankind.

But with all these glorious results, pa;-t, present, and to
come, it had its evils too. It breathed fo'-th famine, swam in
blood, and rode in fire ; and long, long after, the orphans ' cry
and the widows' wail continued to break the sad silence that
ensued. These were the price, the inevitable price, paid for the
blessings it bought.

Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find
a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a
greater tyrant deposed — in it more of want supplied, more dis-
ease healed, more sorrow assuaged. By it no orphans starving,
no widows weeping. By it none wounded in feeling, none in-
jured in interest; even the dram-maker and dram-seller will
have glided into other occupations so gradually as never to have
felt the change, and will stand ready to join all others in the
universal song of gladness. And what a noble ally this to the
cause of political freedom, with such an aid, its march cannot
fail to be on and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich
fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty.
Happy day when all appetites controlled, all poisons subdued,
all matter subjected; mind all conquering mind shall live and
move, the monarch of the world. Glorious consummation !
Hail fall of fury ! Reign of reason, all hail !

And when the victory shall be complete — when there shall

12

ne neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth — how proud the
title of that Land, which may truly claim to be the birthplace
and the cradle of both those revolutions', that shall have ended
in that victory. How nobly distinguished that people who
shall have planted, and nurtured to maturity, both the political
and moral freedom of their species.

This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birth-
day of Washington — we are met to celebrate this day. Wash-
ington v """he mightiest auras.' of • 'h — lent: binee mightiest in
the ckv ••i civil liberty, still mightiest in mora;! reformation.
On thai' name a eulogy is \>z L>ected. It cannot bv. To add
brightness to the sun, or glory 16 the name of Washington, is
alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pro-
nounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it
shining on.

% *

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