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ADDRESS,

DELIVERED BEFORE THE DORCHESTER TEMPERANCE

SOCIETY.

THE change in public opinion within the last few years on the subject of Temperance, is truly astonishing. The pious mind, in contemplating the wonderful effects that have been produced by this change, cannot but exclaim with holy admiration, What hath God wrought! For, although the agency of human effort has been employed to produce it, the design, the means, the success, are all of God, and to his great name shall be all the praise.

No nation has been more highly distinguished for rich and varied blessings, for civil and religious immunities, for personal and social enjoyments, than the American people. Our free

institutions have raised us to an eminence among the nations of the earth, that has excited the admiration and the envy of the world. The western continent had become the refuge of the oppressed from the tyrannical governments of Europe. The poor and the distressed, whose prospects in the old world were entirely hopeless, here found a country and a home.

The unparalleled prosperity of our country had become, not only the envy of the world, but was regarded with malicious eye by the enemy of our race. In an evil hour he entered this Eden of nations, and with the cunning of the serpent, enticed numbers of our free and happy population, not indeed to eat of the forbidden fruit, but to drink of the fatal cup.-Yes, my friends, the demon of intemperance had well nigh destroyed this happy land.

It is a well known fact, that the use of ardent spirits, which had been allowed to the army by whose gallant prowess our glorious revolution was achieved-a use which nothing could have justified but the darkness of the public mind on this subject—had created a habit which followed many of the revolutionary soldiers into their retirements, and spread its baneful influence in their families and in their neighborhoods. To

such an extent had this moral poison spread throughout our otherwise favored land, that "at the close of the first half century of our national existence," as stated in the last Report of the American Temperance Society, "the diseased appetite of our countrymen demanded annually for its gratification more than sixty million gallons of ardent spirits, and that, while the article cost the consumers at least thirty million of dollars, it caused more than three quarters of the pauperism, crime, and wretchedness of the communityblunted the moral sensibilities of all who freely used it increased the number and violence of diseases-deprived multitudes of their reasonswept more than thirty thousand annually into the drunkard's grave-and was threatening to roll its curses in broader and deeper streams over all future generations."

Such was the awful consequence of drinking of the fatal cup. Such were the ravages which the diabolical monster Intemperance had made over this fair land. But, blessed be God, a remedy was in store to bruise the head of this poisonous serpent, and it was reserved for our times and for our country to discover and apply it.

The awful effects of this growing evil had

been long felt and deeply lamented by the wise and good; and by none more so, than by the friends of virtue and correct habits in this vicinity. The first systematic effort for the suppression of intemperance, was made by the Massachusetts Society. Their exertions were important; and to them belongs the praise of being the first regularly organized society, for attempting to arrest this enormous evil. But they had not discovered the simple but powerful antidote to this fatal poison. It was reserved for a still later period, and for another association, to make this important discovery.

The bright thought then dawned upon the mind of some gifted individual, or individuals, that the only way to check the progress of intemperance, was for temperate men to abstain entirely from the use of ardent spirits, and to combine their influence by solemn pledges. The thought, I doubt not, was the inspiration of heaven; and the names of those who first entertained it, whether known to us or not, are inscribed on the page of immortality. Benefactors of mankind! you will be associated, by a grateful posterity, with Howard, and Wilberforce, and Raikes. Your names will stand at the head of a new era of the world, and millions who would have gone down

to the drunkard's grave, will bless your memory. When this thought was first conceived, which is to bruise the head of the odious serpent intemperance, it was regarded by many as utopian. It was looked upon as the visionary dream, of good intention indeed, but as utterly unequal to the correction of the evil it aimed to destroy. Many doubted, and at first held themselves aloof from the pledge. Heaven smiled upon the effort. The most sanguine expectations of its friends were more than answered, and results, as delightful as they were extraordinary, astonished the world. More than a million of persons in the United States, we are officially told, have ceased to use ardent spirits-more than a thousand distilleries have been stopped-more than three thousand merchants have ceased to traffic in the article-and more than three thousand drunkards ceased to use intoxicating drinksmore than ten thousand persons, as appears from numerous facts, have been saved from becoming drunkards, who, had it not been for the change of sentiment and practice in the community, had before now been involved in all the horrors of that loathsome and fatal vice. The quantity of ardent spirit used in the country has been greatly diminished, and pauperism, crime, sickness,

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