and taking counsel one with another, we will become more alive to our duty in relation to this momentous subject. The more we prize the sweet privacy of happy homes, the more strong is the appeal to us to labor to make sacred and joyful the hearth-stones of others. If men will remain comparatively supine we must the more energetically sound the alarm, and point them to the danger. If rulers will devise wickedness by law, we must give them no rest, till, like the unjust judge, they yield to our very importunity, and repeal their iniquitous statutes. The temporal and spiritual welfare of many an immortal being is at stake, and we should esteem it a high privilege to labor in this holy cause with an earnest and, if need be, a life-long consecration. Let us, then, apply ourselves devotedly to the work, and a fresh and resistless impulse will be given to the temperance reformation. The electrical fervor of earnest spirits ever communicates itself to others, and the Legislature itself can not long resist our united efforts. In such a cause "we have great allies." God and humanity are on our side, our own souls Will be strengthened and elevated by the work; "failure" is a word that belongs not to us, since our efforts are in a righteous cause.
To the Men of Chester County:
Permit us once more to plead with you on behalf of temperance. We know that to some of you this may seem an old and wearisome subject, but we know also that the sorrow and crime caused by intemperance are not old; new, fresh cases are around us now. Its ravages are repeated every day, and we must beseech you to "hear us for our cause." We can not be silent while the grog-shop stands like the poisonous upas amongst us, and men openly deal out crime and wretchedness in the form of intoxicating drinks.
We need not in this place enlarge upon the danger ever attendant upon the use of those stimulants, nor will we now stop long to dwell upon the solemn fact, that whoever, at the demand of appetite, drinks even the sweet cider, weakens his own moral strength, becomes a tempter to the weak, and casts away the pure influence of an unsullied example. Reckless and guilty indeed is that man who, in the light of this day, dares to insult humanity and defy heaven by publicly putting the glass to his lips.
Men of Chester County! you possess the power to put a stop to the traffic in liquors, and we conjure you by the sacred obligations of virtue and humanity, as you hope to stand acquitted before the just tribunal of God, to arise in your might and banish it from the community; think, we beseech you, of the depths of pollution to which intemperance leads, of the bestial appetites it fosters, of all the unnameable impurities that revel in its abodes; think of the hearth-stones desolated, of the mothers and daughters whose earthly hopes and joys have been destroyed by that charnel-house, the tavern. The incendiary who applies the midnight torch to peaceful dwellings, the robber who commits murder to secure his prey, is not an enemy to society half so dangerous, as he who inflames all evil passions and scatters wretchedness through a community, by dispensing alcoholic poison. Oh! are there not sorrows enough in our best condition? have we not temptations strong enough within and without? Shall men progress too fast in the "onward and upward" road of virtue and happiness, that you leave before them these sinks of pollution, these trap-doors of ruin, these fatal sirens, enticing the unwary listener to destruction? Call us not fanatical. Indifference is crime; silence is fatal here. When the midnight cry of fire is sounded, you rush from your slumbers, and, heedless of danger, hasten to extinguish the flames; but here is a devouring element, burning on from year to year, consuming not mere shingles and rafters, but the priceless hopes and aspirations of immortal souls, leaving blackened ruins in the place of beauty; and we must continue to cry "Fire! fire!" until you hasten to stop the fearful conflagration. Tell us not of liberty and natural right, as a plea for this traffic. It is the liberty to rob innocent families and reduce them to pauperism; the right to break hearts and hopes, to reduce men to demons, to scatter vice and anguish and desolation around the land. Well may we exclaim with Madame Roland, when she was taken along the bloody streets of Paris, about to be murdered in the abused name of freedom, "Oh, Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!"
Fathers and brothers, shall woman in her agony, and man in his degradation, appeal to you in vain? Too long has this evil been borne, too long have minor points of public good taken precedence of this reform. It must not be that you will be content to dwell in quiet indifference, in the midst of a rum-selling community, and die, leaving your children exposed to the tempter's snare. It must not be endured that this infernal traffic, this shame to civilization, this slur on Christianity, shall continue amongst us. It must not be endured that men shall be clothed with the monstrous authority to demoralize neighborhoods and scatter the fire-brands of death and destruction. The power to arrest this horrible work is in your hands. Be vigilant, be active. There is resistless might in the energy of earnest wills devoted to a noble cause. Petition, remonstrate, work while yet it is day. Say not that we can gain nothing by petitioning. Was it not through this means, we obtained the law under which a vote of the majority excluded the sale of intoxicating liquors amongst us? Did not our petitions last winter cause a bill for its prohibition to be reported in the Legislature, which was lost in the House by a small majority? True, the law we desire may not entirely prevent drunkenness, but it will certainly act as a restraint. It will make drinking less reputable, and thus prevent drunkard-making. It will have the moral influence of a State verdict against the practice. The dread responsibility of this traffic must rest upon you, if, through silent acquiescence, you permit its ravages. Do what you can, and peace and prosperity will soon sit where the blackness of ruin has brooded, and the sweet reward of approving consciences and the blessings of joyful hearts will gladden your pathway.
The following resolutions were adopted:
Resolved, That petitioning the Legislature is the most definite and efficient means at our command, whereby to obtain a law to abolish the sale of intoxicating drinks, as a beverage amongst us.
Resolved, That the following persons be appointed to obtain names in their respective neighborhoods, to the petition referred to: Sarah Evans, Grace Anna Lewis, Jane Kimber, H. A. Pennypacker, Catherine Hawley, Deborah Way, Sarah Wood, M. B. Thomas, Anna Parke, Margaret Lea, Susannah Cox, Elizabeth Evans, E. Garrett, M. Darlington, Eliza Agnew, M. P. Wilson, Eliza Pyle, Mary Chambers, H. M. Barnard, Mrs. Jefferis, Alice Speakman, Sarah S. Barnard, Susan Fulton, Mary W. Coates, Millicent Stern, Mrs. Ramsey, Mrs. Hamilton, A. E. Valentine, Ruth Ann Seal, R. W. Taylor, M. K. Darlington, Lydia Agnew, M. Taylor, Alice Lewis, Ann Barnard, Rebecca Pugh, Lydia Jacobs, Margaret Ross, Rachel Leake, Ann Preston, M. W. Cox, Ann Coates, Rachel Good, Esther Jane Kent, Ellen Wilkinson, Mary Pugh, Sarah Ann Cunningham, Eliza Lysle, Beulah Hughes, Sarah Ann Conard.
Resolved, That we urgently solicit those having care of petitions, to make use of every opportunity to obtain men's and women's names in different columns, or on separate petitions, and thus aid the Chester County Temperance Society in procuring the names of those favorable to obtaining a prohibitory law.
Resolved, That Hannah Cox, Sidney Peirce, Ann Preston, Mary Cox, Mary Ann Fulton, Dinah Mendenhall, Mary K. Darlington, Mary S. Agnew, and Hannah M. Darlington, be a committee to call meetings of the people in different neighborhoods, at which to read the addresses to men and women, obtain signatures to petitions, etc.
Resolved, That we offer the proceedings of this meeting for publication in the County papers and Temperance Standard.
Resolved, That we adjourn to meet in Kennett Square, on Saturday, the 3d of February, 1849.
Martha Hayhurst, President.
| Sidney Peirce Hannah Pennock | } | Secretaries. |
At their next Convention in Kennett Square, another stirring appeal was issued, and the following resolutions adopted:
Whereas, The peace of our homes, the security of our property, and our inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are all jeoparded by intemperance; and whereas, this monstrous vice, with all its attendant
