An address upon the moral claims of temperance: delivered before the Charleston Total Abstinence Society

XXV//.

ADDRESS

UPON THE

MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE,

DELIVERED BEFORE

Stye Charleston Sfotal ftbstxutntt Bonet^.

By ROBERT W. BARNWELL, Jr.

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.

CHARLESTON:

GEORGE PARKS & CO.
1852.

1 2 > 4 &

V

ADDRESS.

The subject we present to your consideration this evening'
is the Moral Claims of Temperance, and it will be our endea-
vor to trace out the peculiar obligations which these Societies
carry with them, and impose upon all rational, moral, and
immortal beings.

Anatomists have paid the highest encomiums upon the
physical organization of man, and echoed the declaration of
Holy Writ, that it was very good. If we could dissect the
moral constitution, and .unfokling all its wonderful arrange-
ments, exhibit its mysterious workings in their countless rela-
tions, we would doubtless break forth, with pious Galen, in
hymns of wonder and admiration, to its Great Author ; or ex-
claim with all the rapturous fervor of Israel's inspired Minstrel :
"I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made !"
But although our complete moral structure is removed from
our actual vision, and all that we can know of its organiza-
tion is from its effects, together with a few bold, and striking
phenomena, — we know enough, with the assistance of analogy,
to assert that there are certain primary parts, which, from
their intimate relation with our well being, and moral life, we
term vital, — prominent among which is the virtue of Temper-
ance.

Used in its primitive signification temperance was synony-
mous with moderation, and as such was the keystone of all
the virtues ; for it was the essential condition under which
each virtue could exist, or manifest itself lawfully. It regu-
lated both the emotional existence of the virtuous principle,
and its outward manifestation. Considered as mere passive
impulses, having their dwelling place in the seat of the moral
life, there must be amity and order in this their common nidus ;
they must live in harmonious and proportionate spheres ; there

4 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

must be no clashing or antagonism of existence ; none must
usurp a larger portion of the human soul than is becoming.
The Platonic harmony of the heavens must be here beauti-
fully realized. None must possess dominion to the exclusion
of others. Love must not absorb justice, nor must justice
banish love. Prudence must not cripple fortitude, nor must
fortitude frown down prudence. Each must rule with even
sceptre, — each be controlled by moderation or temperance.
When too, these passive emotions are awakened from their sub-
jective state to activity and outward development, proportion
and restraint must be imposed, and the exercise of any one
class of duties, or of virtuous actions, (for such I conceive to be
the nature of duties,) to the exclusion of another class, or to
excess, is a violation of the law of our moral economy. Thus
to practise truth with rigidness, and to suffer the fountain of
charity to dry up, is as vitiating and ruinous to our moral
nature, as it would be injurious to cultivate and improve our
minds, to the neglect and decay of our bodies. Thus love
inordinate, is wTrong ; charity rn discriminate, pernicious ; bene-
volence towards vice, sinful ; prudence overmuch, an immo-
rality • and moderation or temperance must characterise every
action, every outward manifestation of the inward principle, as
well as the principle itself, in order that the moral being may be
justified. Hence it was that the moralist and philosopher of old
made temperance the crowning virtue. Hence the poetic
fiction of the golden mean — "the nothing too much1' of the
schools. It was the most polished stone in the circlet of
morals ; "the silken string which ran through the pearl chain
of virtues."

But even narrowed down to moderation in a single respect,
and confined in its application to a single article of physical
stimulant, this virtue, temperance, loses none of its dignity, in
its diminished extent of sway. Even when applied to the use
of intoxicating drinks alone, it may be shown to be essential
to the healthy condition of the moral man, and the suitable ex-
ercise of his moral powers ; and it can be demonstrated, that
the obligation which attaches to every conceivable moral
action, carries with it an implied obligation to the sober, and
temperate habit.

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. 5

It is a common remark that the vices are gregarious ; and
the appearance of one is a fair prognostic of the speedy exhi-
bition of others. But this arises, not from any immediate
power in one to produce another ; but from the nature of the
human heart, which, when corrupted, like an impure soil,
briugs forth thorns and briers in wild and countless luxuri-
ance ! But there is in this vice of intemperance a direct and
necessary precursory of all the vicious elements of our nature,
which flow directly and inevitably from it, their impure spring.
It is a noxious weed, which not only vitiates the soil, but itself
scatters the poisonous seeds of licentiousness and vice, while,
like the deadly Upas, it spreads its baneful influence far and
wide, withering and blasting every tender shoot of virtue's
planting. It is not only the harbinger, but the progenitor of
crime. Its name is Gad — a troop cometh ! Aristophanes
calls it the "mother of crime ;" or more strikingly, the "me-
tropolis of vices" as if all were here collected in intimate and
familiar relation, cohabiting in foul alliance, this thAtf impure
Babylon : and there is a strong mingling of truth in that
quaint sentiment of the Bacchanal which describes "seven dead-
ly sins in a flagon of sack." Where did wine ever stimulate to
virtuous action ? When did virtue, Heaven-born, ever grace a
banquet board ? Venus may rise in lascivious beauty from the
foaming sea, but Minerva must spring, full armed, from the
head of Jove. When the Understanding is clouded, and the
Moral perceptions dimmed by the opiate fumes of wine ; where
can there be that nice and wire-drawn distinction between
right and wrong — the very substratum of virtue ? where that
sensitive and keen and intuitive recognition, and espousal of
the noble and praiseworthy, and the prompt, unerring detection
and abandonment of the base and ill-deserving? When the
Judgment is dethroned from its sober realm by excited and
lawless passions, which have been exorcised from their spell-
bound submission, by the incantations, and maddening charms
of alcohol ; how can Justice maintain her even balance, and
prejudice and passion be prevented from turning the nicely
poised scales ? How can Truth utter her sacred and solemn
realities, in the senseless babblings of the inebriate, or the vapid
belchings of the false Bacchanal ? "In vino Veritas" is his
motto ; but what truth does it ever reveal, save the undenia-
1*

6 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

ble evidence of Lis total depravity ? Where in all the annals
of Circean revels, or the revealed mysteries of a licentious
Eleusis, was Bacchus ever a friend of Chastity ? Who does
not know that decency like Persian garments are thrown off
amidst wine cups ? And religion ! — for I conceive that such is
the constitution of mankind, that in their gross imperfection
and degeneracy alone, is the religious element not a compo-
nent part — How can God be acknowledged, or honored, or
glorified, when the image stamped with his own signet, is
marred and blurred, to the foul semblance of a brute, — the
spark of divinity kindled within him from the altars of
eternity, is quenched, — and man, made but a little lower than
the angels, with a destiny of ages for his inheritance, cramps
himself to the petty confines of a moment's appetite, and
grovels in the swinish wallowing of the unreflecting brute ?
Surely, there is something peculiarly fatal in this vice,— and it
is no task of imagination to conceive how forever barred and
sealed, against the entrance of the drunkard, must be the gates
of the paradise of God. If every sin be a devil, the name of
intemperance is Legion, and, like its great prototype, its fit
abiding place a herd of swine. There is a striking fable of
the Jewish doctors, which tells of a certain king, who, alight-
ing upon eleven of their holy Rabbins, put them to the choice
whether they would eat swine's flesh, marry a Gentile, or
drink of their Ethnic wine — they chose the last, as the least
evil: — and when they had freely drunk of the intoxicating
bowl, they indulged also, without compunction, in their
other aversions. So absorbing, and greedy is this vice, which,
like Aaron's serpent, swallows up every other species of crime !
There may be poetry, and mirth, and good cheer, and sweet
madness, in tlie bowl ; but it is withal a Pandora gift, from
the indiscreet handling of which, issues in wild and venomous
swarms, all the vices which have traversed the wide globe,
stinging and biting unto death! — "Hope alone remained in the
box," — and may we not image her, in the chaste and homely,
peaceful, kindly form of temperance, bringing and speaking
consolation to the writhing victims of misery and disease !

It is enough to startle the vulgar mind accustomed to
trace the magnitude of effects up to an equally great cause ;
that indulgence, in an article so simple as alcoholic stimulant,

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. - 7

should produce such utter and desolating overthrow of our
virtuous principles, and devastate with such besom havoc, all
that can dignify or bless mankind ; yet, such is the melancholy
truth ! and it is a reality, which should make virtuous beings
shudder, for their security, when a habit, so seemingly dis-
connected with aught, save physical gratification, brings in its
train such irreparable moral evil ! — it should make us guard
with wary eye, and circumspect vigilance, and with every faculty
" on armed watch, that will render all access impregnable"
against the inroads of a foe, subtle and seemingly insignifi-
cant, but only the more fatal, into the very outposts of our
moral citadel !

But Temperance is something more than a part of the
general virtue moderation ; and drunkenness, than a specific
development of excess.

Drunkenness is considered in Holy "Writ, and in all deca-
logues of morals, as a vice per se, — not as being a mere excess
of animal gratification, and thus standing in the same category
with other excesses of practices, in themselves indifferent,
but as being distinctly, and independently a vice ; and thus its
corresponding virtue, Temperance, must be a distinct and indi-
vidual virtue. And we observe a double obligation arising from
it, as viewed in this two-fold light — as a prominent component
part of the virtue moderation ; and, also, as a virtue distinct
in itself, with its own peculiar and special sanctions and obliga-
tions ; considered, and in which last relation, we will see, disarm-
ed of their weapons, those who place along-side with temperance
in drinking, moderation in every conceivable use of those
gifts that the God of Nature has bestowed. Temperance in
language, or Temperance in food, Temperance in zeal, or Tem-
perance in expenditure ; are not comparable i» elevation to
the high stature of Temperance in spirituous liquors:
nor is Intemperance in either, sunk to so low an abyss of
guilt. The cause we advocate, does not, like them, derive
much of its name and honor, from expediency. It is a low,
and contracted, and undignified view of this virtue, which,
elicits its claims, from its beneficial effects, and the injuries
which the correlative vice inflicts. It derives its purity
and strength from the everlasting fount of virtue, whose
source, like that of the Nile, though buried in unexplored

8 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

obscurity, irrigates with its unfailing waters, in rich and
ever renewed and renewing fertility, the empires of the
world. Whether it be a distinct virtuous principle, or
whether but a condition of the exercise of these principles ;
whether it be a fundamental element, or a phenomenal mode ;
whether it be a unique or compendious part of our moral con-
stitution— I will not here enquire ; but suffice that, there is an
obligation arising from that constitution and imposing itself
upon every human being, to keep his judgment clear, his pas-
sions calm and undisturbed in their lawful channels, his will
above the rude control of appetite, and his mind unparalysed
by his own deliberate acts. This obligation, the Drunkard
universally despises ; and the use of any beverage, vegetable,
mineral, or herb, that has a known tendency to mar this ar-
rangement, and to produce discord and revolution, and
destruction, in the interior life of man, and which are not
used purely as medicinal — I conceive to be a palpable vio-
lation of a plain, and distinctive precept of our moral nature *r
and to be in itself, the object of ill desert, and vicious !

My friends, when we reflect upon the nature of the mind
of man, and all the mysterious adjuncts which distinguish
him from the brute, the use of intoxicating drinks asssumes a
tremendous importance — a towering and awful solemnity I
His body, like the brute creation around him, indeed sprung
from the dust of the ground ; but he became a living soul,
not only by the mandate, but by the act of the Creator.
The breath of Jehovah is in his nostrils ! What part or re-
lation he bears to the divine essence, we know not ; but this
we do know, that he was made in the image of his Creator —
in the likeness of the Invisible and Eternal God. If it be
an act of inhuman cruelty to wantonly hurt the bodies of the
senseless brutes that perish ; if it be a custom of barbarous
origin, and of savage outrage, to mar the proportions of his own
body, and to do violence to his own flesh — the offspring of
the dust, and the creature of an hour : — what name can ade-
quately express the enormity of the outrage to the image of
Deity — the violence to an Immortal being ? We are accus-
tomed to estimate by too low a standard, the nature and value
of man's immortal essence, perhaps, from our common ac-
quaintance with immortal spirits, and their oft infirmities.

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. 9

But it is no mean or common thing, — it is more costly than
mines of virgin ore — a nobler structure than the universe itself —
more mysterious than the startling wonders of nature — more
dear to the Courts of Heaven, than ten thousand worlds.
External objects occupy our attention, and dead phenopiena
in the world without, have greater charms for the eye, and
the ear, and the senses, than that microcosm within ! What
are the wonders of nature ; wondrous though they be ? The
sun rises and sets in awful splendour ! and the stars look
down upon us from their superior heights — the ocean rolls
its waves in commanding majesty ; and the wide expanse of
heaven seems reposing in conscious eternity ; and the Mind of
man, as it contemplates, bows before them all ! But Ocean
knows nothing of those stars, whose beauty it loves to reflect;
and Heaven is but a blind and deaf mute; the Sun
and Stars are but senseless, spiritless machines ; they know
not each other, themselves, or us. But the Mind of man
knoweth them all ! It courses with the Planets along their
airy pathway, and maps and journals out their wanderings ! It
tells to the mighty Chronicler of Time himself, his years, and
days and months. Formless, unseen, like the viewless wind, it
sweeps the blue embrace of Heaven, and beholds, in the end-
less waves of Ocean, but broken mirrors of its own eternity !
Stars may fall from their zenith — the Heavens be rolled away
as a scroll — the Sun grow dim and fade — and Ocean be parched
and dried up, — and the Mind of man will outlive them all !
One drop of water, or a tickling reed, may crush his body ;
but all creation, all save creation's God, could not extinguish
his immortal being ! Is it nothing to trifle with and mar, so
noble an intelligence? Nothing! to curtaia in the eye of
the soul, to dull and imbrute his senses, and to bury them
in the sepulchre of fleshly appetite ! Is it nothing to quench
the vestal fire, which should ever burn to illumine, and
warm within, with the midnight shades of idiocy, or the
lurid and fitful vapours of drunken insanity ? It is nothing
less than suicide to deprive ourselves of a knowledge of our-
selves. Nay, it is more — it is to raise the parricidal arm against
God — it is Deicide — to extinguish for ourselves the existence
of God ! Something like this, is the sin of the drunkard, —
akin to this, the heinous enormity, which shuts him up to

10 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

the wrath of his Maker, the contempt of Men, and the delight of
Devils — an outcast from Heaven, a blot upon Earth, a prisoner
of Hell ; and hence, arises within us the voice of conscience,
declaring the dictates of our moral nature, to forbid the use
of intoxicating drinks, and to urge to the reasonable preser-
vative of Abstinence !

But the full scope of our obligations to Temperance can
only be completely grasped, by an acquaintance with the na-
ture of virtue and vice respectively.

Virtue and vice, are to be loved and hated, as such. To
cherish virtue, and practice it for its beneficial effects, is, in
reality, to undermine its very foundation, and to resolve it into
mere expediency. To abhor vice, and to flee from it merely
because it is detrimental, is no exercise of moral principle !
And any system of moral reform which bases its action upon
mere effects, will find, that there has been left behind a
spring, which will ever feed the torrent of vice, and choking
all their efforts to cut it off, will baffle their best aims,— be-
cause, too little was claimed ; too much has to be compro-
mised^ It is evident, that if the reason for denouncing In-
temperance consists merely in the fact, that it impoverishes
the family, degrades the individual and becomes a gangrene
upon the body politic ; and Temperance be commended
only as being a preventive of these evils, and an instrument
of happiness in disseminating the seeds of honest industry,
noble frugality, and public virtue ; when either of these
effects is not proved to exist, or is not plainly apparent, the
whole foundation of the system is overthrown, and the indi-
vidual is left to a calculation of his own, warped, it may be,
by prejudice, as to the good or evil results of intoxicating
drinks ; and according to this arithmetical computation, the
morality will be shifted from one side to the other ! My
friends, virtue has nothing to do with arithmetic ! It is an
infinity, to which, nothing can be added, — from which,
nothing can be taken away. It begins where arithmetic
ends. True — when Intemperance does infallibly produce
evil results ; and where the blessings of Temperance
are manifest and clear ; there are no better arguments to
address to the feelings, than these mighty energies of Hope
and Fear ! and far be it from me to disparage those forcible

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. 11

arnd thrilling exhibitions of ruin and disgrace on the
one hand, — and the pleasing and alluring pictures of
prosperity and peace, on the other, which have startled many
from the brink of woe, or won them away to the abodes
of sober happiness. Such appeals, illustrate and adorn the
annals of our Temperance cause. They are noble wings ;
but not the corner-stone of this, our moral edifice. It must
be borne in mind, that we inculcate Temperance as a duty ;
because it is a virtue, and deprecate drunkenness, because it
is a vice ! To applaud a virtue because it is prosperous, is to
denounce it when in adverse circumstances ; and to preach
down vice because it ends in calamity, is to compose a homily
upon it, when it is apparently happy and fortuitous in its re-
sults. If virtue was always rewarded, and vice invariably
visited with punishment ; effects would be infallible indices
of the qualities of actions ; and whether or not, in the up-
shot of things, this may not be so, we cannot certainly deter-
mine. Virtue is, in truth, its own reward, and vice its
own punishment ; but whether in Eternity alone, the throne
of distributive justiee may not be reared, is beyond the
reach of mortal ken. It suffices for any purposes of hu-
man reason — that apparently, they are oft times, mingled
and confused in their effects ; and it is no uncommon specta-
cle to see virtue, the seeming mother of much temporal sa-
crifice and misery ; and vice, the prolific parent of prosperity
and success. And it was just this paradox that has given
rise, in all enlightened nations, to the idea of a place of
future rewards and punishments, where the decisions of this
world would be overruled — vice receiving the deserts it merit-
ed here ; and virtue entering into the participation of those
princely guerdons it forfeited in time, to reap four-fold in
eternity. The distinction between virtue and vice being
then immutable, any standard of morals which bases their
test, and consequently our moral duties upon these deceitful
and shifting grounds of effects, must be weak and unstable ;
and must involve all the errors, and absurdities, and crimes*
that have characterised and desecrated all systems that have
justified means for the attainment of the end : — which is but a
synonyme of the same fallacy.

When, therefore, I hear the Temperance cause placed upon

12 TEE MORAL CLAIMS OE TEMPERANCE

the same platform with societies, which begin and end in hu-
man improvement, and beneficent objects : such as Insurance
offices, or Asylums, or Alms-homes, — worthy structures it is
true, — but whose foundations are of Clay, and iron, and brass :
I am compelled to raise my voice, feeble as it may be, to de-
fend Temperance upon a far more durable and nobler basis — a
basis of pure and virgin gold, laid by the hand that laid the
immutable foundation of virtue, in the yearless past of eternity !
I believe that Temperance has a nobler mission than the
amelioration of man's physical wants. I believe that Tempe-
rance holds no common credentials from the potentates of
earth ; but is divinely appointed from above, an herald
from the Courts of Heaven — an embassy from the Abode of
Virtue. It comes subordinate, (meekly subordinate, I trust,)
to Religion, first daughter of the skies — as a handmaid and
forerunner, to reap its harvests, oft where the beautiful feet
of the Gospel messenger have not yet trod, — and oft to follow
in its pathway, gathering to its humbler barns those sheaves
which are unfit for the nobler treasure-house of souls. And
methinks ! in that Heavenly garner, there are doubtless, some
tender plants, which, under the mild influence and genial
fosterings of Temperance, have budded for a riper and ma-
turer growth, and now transplanted to fairer climes, blossom
to immortality.

When, then, I see the poor victim of intemperance, —
it is not so much his shattered constitution,— and quivering
nerves, — and fever-maddened pulse that moves my pity, — •
though these are sad and appealing exhibitions ;— but it is
the wreck within ! the mind in ruins ! the nerves of vir-
tuous action, once powerful to command and rule — un-
strung ! — the once healthful beat to the unison of virtuous
feeling, like an untuned instrument clashing in tumultuous
discord with every generous emotion. There is a vis medica-
trix in nature, a quickening corrective power, which can
resist and alleviate physical derangement ; but what, save
Almighty grace, can renovate the drunken soul ? His pov-
erty, and want, and rags ! what are they, in comparison
with the heart-destitution, and intellectual beggary, and
nakedness, of the moral Lazars of corruption, who lie at
our doors, covered with the defilements of guilt ? Philan*

fails MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPfiRAft'Cfe. 13

thropy and Patriotism may combine, in their labors of
love and civilization, to provide for the needy body,
shelterings and asylums from the storms of weather, and the
ravages of disease : but Oh ! where, in all the chambers of
the human soul, is there a place of refuge, or repose, for the
shadow of that noble being, that once inhabited to adorn its
palace 3 a palace— now a hospital, where every passion, a rav-
ing maniac, rushes from its every cell to rend and tear it !
Is there not a holy mission in the Temperance Cause ? Is
there not more than expediency and benevolence in the Tem-
perance Movement ? Do not the solemn obligations of Vir-
tue, and of Duty, impose a dignity upon it, well worthy the
earnest heed of rational, moral, and immortal beings ?

This may seem, to some, as the dash of hyperbole ! The
picture, my friends, may be highly colored, but its outlines
are universal^' applicable, and will be found to stand the
searching test of experience. Do I hear the excuse from any
within the sound of my voice, that they have only occasion-
ally— perhaps once— fallen a victim to the benumbing influence
of ardent spirits, and are, therefore, free from the imputation
of much that has been said ? My friend, think not, for a
moment, that you are free from vice, because exempt from its
habitual sway. Length of chain adds nothing to the slavery
of him, that is fettered by a single link. Blind not yourself
with the delusion, that from the absence of evil consequences,
you can infer the innocence of that single act. Remember,
that effects are but the insignia, — the badges, of vice, not that
which stamps it with its inherent quality. It is not the scep-
tre which makes the King — nor the wardrobe the Prince. —
Your guilt may not stand registered in y<3ur bloated visage, or
broken constitution; nor have been chronicled with the
mournful pen of disastrous consequences ; but upon the tablets
of an enlightened conscience, in the records of eternal justice,
that single act has an immortal significance ; it is the death
warrant which seals your destiny beyond the tomb ! You are
not yet to know that an offence has been committed ; it is
already done. It borrows not its complexion by what is to
be, but by what has been. Your guilt is in the past. Pun-
ishment, or repentance, alone in the future !

From this fundamental error in the conception of the dis-
2

14 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

tinctive nature of Virtue, and Vice, arises many of the soph-
isms by which the young are fatally deceived ; two of which,
from their wide-spread existence, we will pause to consider.
The first, is a false distinction drawn between the guilt of the
drunkard, and that of the so-called man of pleasure — the
drunkard of festivals and high days. The one, the world
brands and stigmatizes with ignominy and contempt; but
passes the other by with a censure of imprudence. But they
differ only in degree, not in essence — only as a habit differs
from its formative acts. An habit is a bundle of acts, and
the viciousness of an habit is but the accumulated viciousness
of acts. This accumulation may be in a terribly progressive
series — but it must find its beginning in positive vice. That
is no series whose first term is nothing. The nature of the
drunkard's guilt is primarily in the distinctive and peculiar
vicious tendency of each several act — which, when linked wi^i
other acts, forms a chain of evil principles, fettering and en-
thralling all virtuous emotion, and giving rise to the secondary
evil of habits. The vice, however, does not lie in the repeti-
tion, but in the things repeated ; not in the chain which con-
nects the evil acts, but in the acts connected ; and the aggre-
gate evil of a habit, is but the product arising from the con-
stituent acts — the whole is but a compendium of its parts!
Thus, though the guilt of habitual intoxication is fearfully
augmented, it is so in a ratio determined by the very first
act. The guilt of the occasional inebriate may not be enor-
mous, but it is great — it may not be excessive, but it is com-
plete.

The other fallacy consists in the assumed irresponsibility of
one under a state of intoxication. Because, (it is said,)
he is unconscious he is no longer a moral agent ; be-
cause, he is a madman, he is no longer responsible ; be-
cause, he has taken on the form of a brute, he is
no longer a man ; and vices, which tinge the ingenuous
cheek with shame, or hang the head in disgrace, are mantled
over by the charitable excuse of his state of insensibility.
But my friends, you cannot cloak up one vice with another,
and conceal it, — it is but to bring tatters and rags to hide
the deformity, and to expose it in more revolting form. Mo-
rality is not the boon of charity ; it is not a robe to be taken

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. 15

off and put on as a parade or court dress. It is the vesture
that clothes humanity, our swathing bands in infancy, our
leading strings in childhood, the garb and habiliments of
maturity, the winding sheet we carry with us to the grave,
and the apparel of the resurrection morn ! Every soil and
rent shall remain there, beyond the power of charity to
amend. To grant immunity to the moral culprit of the
wine cup, is to lower the standard of virtue indeed, when
Human justice, its feeble shadow, holds him unexcused. If
intoxication be not valid as a palliation, when Human justice
unsheathes its sword, can it dull the edge of Divine re-
tribution ? No ! The inebriate criminal bears upon his
devoted head the double guilt of his double crime ! and I may
add, that even when further crime does not ensue, there is a
probability — nay, a vehement tendency towards it, and cir-
cumstances alone prevent him from adding a deeper dye to
bis already deep-dyed guilt.

But the Temperance we advocate is, Total Abstinence !
And it now devolves upon me ' to trace out the peculiar obli-
gations, which these Societies carry with them, and impose
upon rational, moral, and immortal beings.' And here let
me remark, that it is just at this point, that many
stumble and halt, unwilling to tread with us the rug-
ged pathway of Abstinence. The true cause of stumbling,
when stripped of its plausible disguises, and laid bare in its
naked reality, is some darling appetite — some cherished cus-
tom— some sensual gratification, which is loath to sacrifice
its purple and fine linen for the plainer garb of the " lean and
sallow abstinence." I will not undertake to affirm, that Tem-
perance and Abstinence, are terms exactly synonymous. Far
be it from me to confound what are essentially distinct, or to
improve the code of virtues, inscribed by the hand of Divine
Wisdom. And farther be it to add a single sin to the
dark calendar.of vices. But though abstractly different, they
are practically much the same. An abstinent man must keep
sober ; a temperate man is seldom other than one who ab-
stains. " In order that I might drink little," said Dr. John-
son, " I drink none."

The apparent strength of many of the arguments of Moderate
Prinkers, seems to me to lie in their sophistical definition of

16 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

Temperance. This, they affirm, consists "in the use, without
the abuse, of intoxicating beverages ;'' and they charge our So-
cieties with proving too much, in denying the use, with the
abuse. Now this distinction between the use, and abuse of a
thing, when traced up, takes its rise from another principle —
that God has created all things for the use, and noth-
ing for the abuse of man. To use all the gifts of nature, there-
fore, is the lawful dictate of reason ; while to abuse them, is
as strictly forbidden. The tribes of animals are designed for
the physical necessities, and conveniences of man ; but to
maltreat them by cruelty, or extravagance, or neglect, is
deemed wrong. To use the productions of nature is a natu-
ral instinct; but to waste them, is considered prodigality and
folly. Now, the grounds upon which the use, or abuse, is
lawful, or wrong, in these cases, are purely objective. The
animals, being the gift of God, are to be used — bat these
animals must not be abused. The fruits of the earth are to
be consumed, but they must not be wasted ; and all that can
be possibly inferred from this principle, is, that wine, being a
gift of nature's God, may be used, but must not be abused, or
thrown away. But surely this is widely different from the
position of Temperance advocates. When we speak of the use,
and abuse of wine, we do not speak of it, as in these instances, as
an object acted upon, but as a subject agent. It is not our abuse
of the wine, as in the case of animals, but the wine's abuse of
us — our physical, intellectual, and moral natures. We have
no reference to the duties which we owe to wine, as a gift of
God, but the duties which we owe to ourselves, as moral
beings, who can be injured by intoxicating beverages. It is
not the use, and abuse, as effects, but as causes ; and is more
properly called the "usefulness," or " abusefulness," of wine,
from a reference to those properties in wine which render it
useful, or hurtful to us. The meaning of the definition is thus
much changed; and it is incumbent upon moderate drinkers
to defend their position as virtuous and temperate men, upon
the ground that intoxicating stimulant is useful to their
physical moral, and intellectual being. And they must forfeit
that claim, or embrace our abstinence principles, and profes-
sion, whenever it is in the least degree injurious to them.
Is wine then useful to man's physical constitution ? As a

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. > 17

medicine, it may be, and undoubtedly is,— but then it must
partake of the nature, and be subject to all the regulation of
medicines ; and the opinion of physicians, at the present time,
is fast becoming unanimously opposed to its use, otherwise
than as a drug. This portion of the subject, however, as well
as its influence upon the intellect of man, we must pass by.
Our province is the Moral constitution ; and the problem we
propose for your consideration is, the beneficial or injurious in-
fluence of wine upon man, as man, — not as an animal, but as
a thinking, willing, reflecting, immortal being ! Viewed in
this light, so intimate is its connection with his moral powers,
and their exercise, that it almost seems invested with some-
thing like moral agency. Is that agency exerted towards vir-
tue ? Does it advance man in the march of improvement ?
Does it aid him in the school of moral discipline, which is to
fit him for a higher sphere ? Does it accelerate the increase
of Civilization, of Truth, of Religion ? When moderately in-
dulged in, does it quicken the perceptions of duty, or energise
its performance ? When freely quaffed, does it not debase,
demoralise, dehumanise his nature, — eclipsing his intellect,
paralysing his will ? Does it add a tittle to his immortal des-
tiny ? Does it not subtract every thing ? These are the grave
problems which, Moderate drinker, you must calmly weigh,
deliberate, and decide yourself, ere you can justify yoiu posi-
tion. Until you have certified these facts, your morality is
but " Conjecture, fancy, built on nothing firm."

What then do we claim for Abstinence ? It is a means to
an end — a wise and certain means to a glorious end ! The
obligation to virtue, which we have laid much emphasis upon,
is something more than verbal definition. It is not a mere
emotional and subjective phenomena, having both centre and
circumference within the human breast, but an active,
energetic stimulant to outward manifestation. It is not the
silent appreciation of what is beautiful, or praiseworthy, and
a corresponding disapproval of the base and ill-deserving ; a
mere feeling of admiration, or aversion, which arises, as in the
contemplation of a pleasing picture, or harrowing scene ; a
passive impression produced upon our minds: but it is a strong,
moving, restless, active principle, forcing and pressing to its
exertion. The office of Conscience, the seat of the moral
2*

18 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

sentiment, is not simply to set before us Virtue and Vice as
ends, but as ends to be prosecuted by means, which means
are also brought under its cognizance, and stamped with its
sanction, or rejection, as this may be right, or wrong. The
obligation to use noble and lawful means, is tantamount to
the obligation to pursue lawful and glorious ends ; and as Vir-
tue and Vice are qualities of actions, and are things not in-
different, but which must be pursued, and mv.st be avoided,
the agency of means, and of moral means, towards a moral
end, is a high and solemn injunction of this Sovereign of the
Breast.

Thus Conscience dictates not simply the approval of Justice,
but its administration; and such administration as will, to the
best of our knowledge, attain to it. It not only presents So-
briety and Drunkenness to us as objects of approval and con-
demnation, but it enjoins the practice of the one, and a total
freedom from the taints of the other, insured by the securest
moral means in our power. Thus the duty man owes to his
offspring, is to support and maintain them ; but surely there is
something more than bare support and maintenance, that falls
within the law of duty. A proper support, and lawful main-
tenance, are certainly included ; and the parent who rejects
the best and most available means of rearing his children, for
dangerous and uncertain measures, must incur the guilt of
moral dereliction. The reciprocal duties one owes his parent,
are love and obedience ; but without controversy, moral turpi-
tude attaches to the standard of the love and obedience which
the Hindoo renders to his decrepit parent ; killing him, or ex-
posing him to beasts and fowls of prey ! And with the obli-
gation which we are under to Temperance, there is blended
another obligation: viz. to avail ourselves of those means which
are most effectual, and to shun those which are ensnaring and
uncertain. That of all possible means, Total Abstinence is the
wisest, most virtuous, best, none will deny — and how mode-
rate drinking will stand the trial, is now ou r inquiry.

Now, in the first place, the Moderate drinker is but a
half moralist. He embraces only a part of the moral code —
abstinence from Vice. The admiration and habitual practice
of Virtue for and in itself, he discards as a beautiful theory,
and deems it the extent of his responsibility to hate Vice.

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. 19

He drinks moderately, but surely not because he deems
moderate drinking a virtue, but because excessive drinking is
a vice. He is not virtuous from bis instinctive love of Virtue,
but from his dread of Vice. Blind to the beauties of a spot-
less purity, he espouses a chaste virgin from Lis nervous horror
of the wiles and glamour of a Delilah. The creature of Fear,
he knows nothing of the peaceful calm in which Hope laps
her trusting votaries ; and his only safeguard for keeping sober
is his boasted aversion to being drunk.

Does the practice of moderate drinking ensure against
this — drunkenness? At best it is uncertain, — it may. or it
may not : and its efficiency, be it observed, does not arise
intrinsically from itself, but depends upon something extrinsic
and foreign to it ; and this is the boasted self-command which
the individual arrogates to his possession — the conscious ener-
gy of his iron will ! the power he holds over his lawless pas-
sions to lash them into fury, and then to curb and rein these
maddened courses into tame and submissive quiet ! a power
which is the Creature of circumstance and the Slave of appe-
tite ! Such, Taster of the wine cup, is the little point upon
which you are balancing your virtue ! Are you prepared to
do it? to risk your all upon the veering of a moment's gust ?
If you are fearful of the mad experiment, — as a sense of hu-
man frailty should teach you to be, — stablish yourself with
total abstinence principles and total abstinence pledges. If
not, let us pursue the subject further. You have taken self-
command as your law, your counsellor, your strength, and
locked yourself up to the resources of your own bosom in
proud security, confident that panoplied in your own powers
you can withstand the force or wiles of temptation. But are
there no foes within? no enemies in the camp ? Let us in-
spect the strength of your moral fortress. You have a will,
strong, massive, vigorous ; — but there are passions w^hich can
relax and unnerve it ! You have a judgment calm and clear, —
but it can be clouded and swayed by your affections ! You
have a conscience sensitive and faithful ; — but its whispers are
less tender than those of love, its voice feeble amid the dis-
cord of crying appetite. You have emotions high and noble,
but they are coupled wTith their contraries ; — things base are
mingled with things lofty; — there are rebels in chains that

20 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

may rise and crush you. Your nature is vitiated by birth.
The current of your feelings was poisoned in its spring. Your
inclinations have been magnetized by sin. But you have
another foe — more fatal than them all — a traitor within your
bosom's core ! Appetite ! blind, greedy, animal appetites !
which, leering through the senses, are excited towards all
things without, irrespective of their moral qualities ; which are
elicited towards things base with as vehement attraction as
towards things noble, and which only severe control, and
wrestling, struggling caution and restraint can regulate ! You
have suffered these blind and foolish spies which you should
have kept pent within under guard, to wander at large, and
to tamper with the alluring bribes of the enemy. They have
tasted of the hostile bounty, and are yearning, panting for
increased gratification ! Think you your position safe ? Think
you your salvation sure ? The History of the World, the Down-
fall of noblest cities, the Surrender of sturdiest fortresses, the
Ruin of empires, are but so many copies of the boasted skill,
and strategy, and self-command, and treachery, and deceit, and
final wreck of a thousand Moral commonwealths ! The Gre-
cian horse upon the plains of Ilium concealed within its ribs
of fir no deadlier foes— than that sparkling goblet within its
crystal bounds !

But, besides — There are characteristics of this taste for
wine which are peculiar to it, and which render it thrice en-
snaring. Appetite and Satiety — Desire and Disgust — Plea-
sure and Surfeit are the indissolubly connected concomitants
of sensual enjoyment: and there seems to be everywhere in
the Animal economy a point upon which Nature has inscribed,
"Enough." But there is no such limit in the fondness for
wine. Unsated — insatiable, it grows with what it feeds on.
Who has ever seen the winebiber tired of his wine and cups ?
Where is the point from which the flooding taste for alco-
holic stimulant dates its ebb? The richest viands cannot
tempt the Epicure too long ; but the morning's beams will blush
upon the Bacchanal's feast. Honey is but sipped from the tip
of the finger ; but Wine is drunk from the hollow of the hand !
With appetites within craving like famished whelps, sharp-
ened by artificial stimulant from without, — who is the strong

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. 21

man whose house is secure? He may be safe — if you under-
stand by that word absence from actual ruin. Circumstances
may preserve him ; human vigilance, and care may protect
him ; Divine Grace may save him: but he never can be secure.
Add to this the deceitfulness of wine, and security becomes
an empty shadow — a vague and unsubstantial dream ! This
arch murderer is cunning in his art. Like the Executioner, it
blinds the victim, that he may not see the blow ; — like a wily-
Magician, it wheedles him of what he is, and then cheats him
with what he is not. — It steals from him his sense of moral
agency, and liberty ; and when shackled in fetters, proclaims
him free. How rare is the instance of a self- acknowledged,
self-condemned drunkard ! Such is the sorcery of the bowl,
that intoxication seems to be ever equi-distant from the pre-
sent : and with each glass, the moral vision seems as it were
extended, and the point of error ever flits before him, like
to-morrow, or like his own shadow, and he can never reach it !
So it may have been, my wine-loving, wine-drinking, wine-
sinning friend, with you. Judged by your, own illusory stand-
ard, you may stand self-acquitted — self-approved ! But re-
member ! your distinctions, and your rules of action, and
your judgment upon these actions, have nothing to do with
the moral government of the Universe — they stand there for
cyphers ! There is a right, and there is a wrong ; and their
boundaries are no shifting, imaginary lines, drawn by human
calculation, or regulated by human custom. They are im-
moveable, eternal as the throne of God. Whatsoever be
your private or local distinctions between these two poles of
human action, will avail you nothing. There may be sin in
drinking a single glass of wine; or there may not be. If
there is, your decision to the contrary will be no demurrer in
the Halls of Eternal Justice. There may be a point this side
which, indulgence in intoxicating beverages may be harmless ;
but your designation of it will not stand as the Decree of
Heaven's Chancery. There is a line which separates Right
from Wrong ; Innocence from Guilt. It may be an airy
thread, or wiry cord ; but once passed — it is the Rubicon of-
Eternity — the Ocean between two Continents — the Gulf be-
twixt Heaven and Hell. You may cheat yourself with the

22 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

delusion that your daily glass is as innocent to your body as
the dew of the morning ; but it may be, in the striking lan-
guage of Robert Hall, " distilled damnation" to your soul. It
may be ten, or fifty, or one hundred steps to the brink of the
yawning precipice ; but it is one more, that launches you to de-
struction ! Is it wise then ? is it reasonable ? is it consistent with
the duties which, as moral beings, you cannot divest yourselves
of, to throw yourselves recklessly upon the narrow chance of
escape from this Maelstrom of iniquity, — to embark upon an
ocean of fearful storms, and hidden shoals, and deceitful
winds, and treacherous mists, and disastrous currents — with no
chart save human foresight, — no helm nor compass save self-
command, — no landmarks save the mouldering wreck of some
hapless comrade, — no beacon save the false fires of some
greedy wrecker !

But "Experience," you will say, "proves the voyage safe,
and Example is our guide, and the name of many a distin-
guished and respected citizen sanctions the dinner and social
glass." The argument is one of too much influence with
men. With Seneca they prefer considering drunkenness a
virtue, than Cato vicious. But, besides that, no title or name,

"However mighty in the olden time,
Nor all that heralds rake from coffined clay,
Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme,
Can blazon evil deeds or consecrate a crime."

There is no refuge here. It is recorded of the phi-
losopher Bion, who was a confirmed atheist, that he
was carried by a friend into a temple of Neptune, and
shown the numberless votive tablets which adorned its walls
in commemoration of the vows of shipwrecked mariners,
who had been rescued from the Sea God's domain by the
power of his trident. When the philosopher had sufficiently
contemplated them, his friend pressed him with the trium-
phant appeal : "Do you not now believe ?" The philosopher
shook his head and replied : "But where are the tablets of
those who perished V Yes, my friends, " Where are those
Mi at perished?'' — The " votive tablet" of many a moderate
drinker decorates your cities and houses; but the mantle of
Charity, and the winding sheet of Oblivion, cover from closer

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERAKCE. 23

scrutiny, the unfortunate victims that have fallen ! Intem-
perance finds no tributes in obituaries ; and keeps no record
upon grave stones ! If there could be a Portrait-gallery, like
that in the Ocean-God's temple, of all that have drowned their
virtue as well as their cares in wine ; methinks ! it would
startle you from your apathy, or convert you from your infide-
lity. Such a gallery does exist. God grant that none here
present may recognize themselves, or comrades, there !

I have thus endeavored to unfold the moral elements, which
form the vital power of the Total Abstinence Cause, and of
which the piedge is but the expression, the symbol — the
avowal which freemen are ever proud to make of their prin-
ciples— their temperance creed — a lifeless, unmeaning formula,
without the life-giving spirit — but as the embodiment of a
virtuous principle at once the prerogative and pride of man.

And, my young friends, can I not, with suitable propriety,
address myself to you ? Sharing with you your youthful
passions and emotions and temptations and dangers, will you
not take part with me in those principles of Virtue which will
be at once your sword and shield ? My subject loses none of
its dignity in presenting itseif to you. In the grave and moral
drama of life there are no minor actors, or lesser characters,
upon the stage. Each, even the youngest and most humble,
is invested with destinies and duties which rivet the attention,
and absorb the interest and arouse the sympathies of that
High Assembly of Heaven's Host that gaze upon the spectacle.
Let us not think that because we do not yet fill our fathers'
places, we should not imitate their virtues, — or, if necessary,
by our respectful, but decided example, rebuke their vices.
There is no mistake so fatal to an honest appreciation of the
duties of youth, to improvement in moral discipline, or to the
exhibition of moral excellence, as that sophistry of head and
heart which makes life an assemblage of several distinct
stages, separated by strongly marked boundaries, actuated by
widely differing impulses, awakening into life entirely new
moral powers, and calling for the exercise of fresh born prin-
ciples, which appear for the first time*nd again become obso-
lete in the abrupt passage from one stage to another — and not,
rather, a gradual and easy transition, an undefined but con-
stant successive growth and development from state to state,

24 THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE.

and period to period, and form to form like the germ and leaf
and stem and hud and fruit of flower and tree, — an unfolding
and enlarging and developing continuity of growth and in-
crease.—-an infinite succession of fleeting, shadowy moments,
woven and interwoven, till, link upon link, they lengthen and
expand into hours and months and y^ars, with all the'ir
complex machinery of thoughts and feelings and motives and
impulses and principles and actions, forming a mighty chain
connecting birth with death, filling up and embracing our
earthly existence, — a gliding and mingling and flowing on
from fount to brook, and brook to rivulet, aud rivulet to
bolder stream, widening and deepening and swelling in its
flooding course, — ever fed by the far-back influences of its natal
home and infant source — till a noble, fruitful river, or fierce, tu*
multuous cataract, it bursts its narrow bounds, and speeds on
with majestic fullness to its world-wide destiny of waters !
As great as may be the difference in external circumstances,
and outward relations, and forms of specific duties ; the prin-
ciples and mainsprings of action — the inner man — undergoes
no change — save the growth of development. What is a
child but the infant man ? what the sire of fourscore winters
but the aged child ? As the features of the cradle are car-
ried to the grave ; as the peculiarities and injuries and dis-
eases of the physical man pass, on developing themselves,
through every successive stage of existence ; as the cultivated
intellect of early days gives character to the meridian powers,
and dignity to the decline of life ; and as the prejudices and
influences of youth impress themselves upon maturer years :
so will the great Harvest season of manhood ripen to matu-
rity those virtues or vices, those moral and wholesome plants
or evil, noxious weeds, whose seeds were sown, or which were
left to grow unchecked, and wild, in the^recious Spring-time
of youth.

Remember, my young friends, that life is but an ever-
repeated now. What will be, is the result of what is — To-
morrow, of To-day- -Manhood, of Youth — so true is it that
"the child is father flf the man." In your youthful
forms, passing by the imperfections and carelessness, and
frivolities which characterise the boy, and taking a long

THE MORAL CLAIMS OF TEMPERANCE. 25

prospective glance through the vista of coming years, I
see the men of the next generation — the exponents of
the principles and customs of the maturing Nineteenth cen-
tury— the pillars or the destroyers of States, — the regenerators
or corrupters of Society, the supporters of its virtues, or the
benefactor of its vices. Already the mantles of your fathers
are falling upon your shoulders ! May they be the mantles
of Temperance, pure and unspotted as a virgin's robe — an
ornament of grace to yourselves, to be bequeathed as a rich
heir-loom to your remotest posterity !

And to those of gentler sex, Temperance, too, has its mis-
sion. Daughters of Eve ! your Illustrious Ancestor was the
unhappy cause of this, with the kindred vices which have
cursed mankmd — Availing herself of a power with which she
hact\beeu endowed as a blessing to man, she tempted him
to sin, with the luscious juice of an Apple. See to it — lest
you cause the further disgrace of any of his descendants
by enticing them to share with you the juice of the Grape.

And to the hardy and long tried band of Temper-
ance advocates — I have but the word of encouragement. As
the noble and veteran Champion of our host — whose zeal is
but the reflection of the nobler impulses of his soul — told
you on last Monday evening : «* Go on;" Ours is no paltry
skirmish — no winter's campaign — we are soldiers enlisted
for the war — volunteers enrolled for life. With unbroken
phalanx and defying front, we must ever move fearlessly on-
ward, and ever struggling for fresh victories, keep resolutely
what has been won, baffled by no obstacles — disheartened by
no reverses — daunted by no threats. Watching at our posts —
bucklered and greaved for conflict — our camp-fires ever
burning — let the watchword go round — " Total Abstinence."
We have sterner contests than those of man with man ; the
warring of man with himself — the battling with his own ap-
petites, his own depraved nature, call for intenser effort,
and higher emprise and keener suffering, and nobler forti-
tude, than physical strife. We have no periods of slumber
and repose. In moral conflicts, there are no treaties, no
leagues nor armistices. Among our banners, there is no white
flag of truce. We must not conquer, we must subdue — a
Saxon invasion, ours, to vanquish and exterminate. No quaT-
3

2d the moral claims of temperance.

tcr to the fell ravisher of homes and hearths. No merev
to the captive whose freedom makes us slaves ! The Reptile
must be crushed — not bruised ! As long as a single glass of
intoxicating beverage, is imported, bought, or sold ; as long
as a single dram-shop, or bar-room opens its doors to Miser}^
and Hell ; as long as society sanctions the custom, and a sin-
gle health is pledged in moral hemlock, we must fight L
and with Spartan loyalty to Virtue's high behests, be prepar-
ed to suffer the last extremity " in obedience to her laws."

But blessed be God ! we wrestle not for the baubles of earth
and time ; but in the cause of bleeding, wounded vir-
tue— in the cause of down-trodden, trampled religion — in
the cause of abused, and martyred intellect — in the cause of
fettered, enslaved, moral liberty ; for the franchisement from
the grossest thraldom that ever galled humanity — seeking
no blood-stained victories — no blood-bought trophies, — but
garlanded with the peace-branches of Mercy and Love ; our
triumphal chant will be but the echoing of Angels' song— *•
" Peace upon earth, good will towards men" — to the respon-
sive beating of a thousand captive hearts, which rejoice in
their overthrow, and find victory in defeat !