National temperance : a jubilee biography of the National Temperance League instituted 1856 / by William Gourlay ; with an introduction by John Turner Rae.

  • Gourlay, William.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: National temperance : a jubilee biography of the National Temperance League instituted 1856 / by William Gourlay ; with an introduction by John Turner Rae. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER II. THE TEMPERANCE INFLUENCES AT WORK BEFORE 1856. IN order to understand and appreciate the influences bearing on National sobriety which were in operation in 1856, we must glance at the isolated and organised efforts that had been made in the direction of Temperance both in this country and America, and, as stated at the close of last chapter, we begin with America. Two years before the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the leading men of the colonies that were so soon to become the United States, realising the evils of the drinking customs then prevalent there as in England, and the importance of having sober men to watch over their destinies in the troublous times that were then imminent, turned their attention to this matter, and at their first Congress resolved : “ That it be recommended to the several legislatures of the United States immediately to pass laws the most effectual for putting an immediate stop to the pernicious practice of distilling by which the most extensive evils are likely to be derived if not quickly prevented.” In the spirit of that resolution, but only after the lapse of over half a century, the Congressional Temper- ance Society was organized (February 26th, 1833) and consisted of one hundred members of the Senate and House of Representatives.