National Convention in Philadelphia L. Jackson's efforts in New York The Marine Temperance Society of N. Y. THE MIRROR OF INTEMPERANCE. CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF INTEMPERANCE. INTEMPERANCE is, at this time, the master sin of the civilized world. Imagination cannot paint the terrible evils which flow from drunkenness. There is too little feeling and action on this subject. With all the efforts that have been made by the friends of temperance, the traffic in alcoholic beverages is still rife in the land, diffusing its deadly influences. Wherever intemperance has prevailed, it has played the part of the ungrateful serpent, and infused its deadliest poison into the vitals of its kindest benefactor. Some of the mightiest nations on earth have fallen beneath its giant tread. Our own republic has been in great peril from the same cause; and I believe, if our fair land is to go on in her career of glory; if the fair fields of this united confederacy are to remain untrod by the minions of despotism; if the flag of our nation's pride is to continue its stripes and stars floating high, to cheer the hopes and animate the oppressed of every clime; if the religion of Christ is to flourish here and pervade and cement all hearts, Temperance must be one of the important virtues practised by our citizens, in all parts of the land. A great work has been commenced, and remains to be completed, by the temperance enterprise. The grand design of the temperance movement is to effect, as speedily as possible, a complete revolution in the habits and practices of society, in relation to the use of intoxicating drinks. It proposes to dry up the fountains of intemperance, by banishing the sale of the article which produces the evil. Its aim, is to undermine the traffic on one hand, by vigorous moral influences, and to bring it down on the other, by prohibitory statutes, till it is brought, as near as possible, to the point of entire legal proscription. Its design is to eradicate strange and deep-rooted prejudices and customs, which have come down to us from former times; that have been associated with all that is courteous in high life, and with all that is merry and jovial in low life, and that have entrenched themselves in the strongholds of appetite and avarice. What was the state of things in relation to this subject, at the commencement of the temperance reform? Nearly all kinds of intoxicating beverages were then in general use among our countrymen. There were then but few persons, whether male or female, children or adults, who did not partake of stimulating alcoholic drinks in some form. The doctor must have alcohol in compounding his medicine; the lawyer, in preparing his brief; and the clergyman in preparing his sermon. At every |