Evening star. [volume], October 12, 1930, Page 8, Image 94

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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8
Early Temperance Organizations Here
i
a
John R. Mahoney, pioneer temperance
worker, still active in the cause.
BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR *
/T was probably not Intended that we
mortals should be contented. Indeed,
we find justification for this reasoning
in the efforts made for many years by
the various temperance organizations
throughout the United States to have a prohibi
tion law put on the statute books, and now,
after being part of the Constitution for nearly
11 years, there is a strong effort to have it
abolished, and if such effort should prevail,
then in a short while, no doubt, there would
be another effort made to have it re-enacted
Into law. And so it goes.
There are few temperance organizations at
present in the city, nearly all of them having
gone out of existence, though less than half a
century ago there were quite a number here.
They were very wide awake and active, too,
and in many instances had among their mem
bers some of the foremost citizens of the Dis
trict, who .did much toward reclaiming many a
man and starting him again along the right
road.
True, some of those who belonged to these
bodies years ago may not today be particularly
strong for the eighteenth amendment perhaps,
feeling that, after all, the persuasive method
was the best. But, irrespective of how they
may or may not feel now on the subject, they
undoubtedly recall with pleasure the wonder
fully enjoyable times they had at the meetings
of some particular organization to which they
belonged when they were of the courting age,
or at least much younger than they are today.
Though the first temperance organization in
the United States did not come into existence
unUl about 1808, yet the temperance question
itself dates back to the very beginning of the
Republic, in the District of Columbia it was
agitated from the beginning, particularly be
cause of the number of drinking places then
permitted to exist here, there being at an early
date an estimated number of 256 in Washing
ton, Georgetown and the county, or an average
of one for every 90 persons. Mr. Bryan tells
us that by 1912 the average had become one
licensed place to every 512 inhabitants, indicat
ing that at the latter date the situation had
greatly improved.
BRYAN also tells us that in the early
days of temperance bodies here a dis
tinction was made between distilled and fer
mented drinks, as in the constitution of the
Franklin Temperance Society of Washington,
having a membership chiefly of printers, which
barred these forms of liquors "except in cases
of bodily hurt or sickness,” and the moderate
use of malt liquor, wine or cider was not pro
hibited. Unfortunately, only the names of the
first three officers of this society have come
down to us, they being Reuben Johnson, presi
dent; A. Roth well, vice president, and 8. A.
Elliot, secretary.
The City Directory for 1843 gives only the
pun* of one of these pioneer temperance work
ers, and this source discloses the fact that by
fiii« date Andrew Roth well hgd left the "case”
ami was serving as the tax collector, with an
office in the City stall, and residing on the east
side of Seventh street between I street and New
York avenue northwest.
An earlier organization than the Franklin
Society was the Temperance Society of Wash
ington, which held its pre’iminary meeting in
the City Hall on July 21, 1818, and later selected
Mr. William Cranch as president; Rev. Dr.
Robert B. Semple, vice president; James L.
Edwards, treasurer, and John Coyle, Jr., secre
tary, the directors chosen being Rev. John
Davis, Rev. Reuben Post, Rev. Obediah B.
Brown, Rev. Andrew Coyle and Rev. James H.
Handy. Judge William Cranch was for many
yean the chief justice of the District of Colum
bia Circuit Court and a jurist greatly esteemed
and regarded even to this day for his many
valuable decisions.
Ptom this date temperance bodies sprang up
yapkDy, until within four yean a temperance
union was formed of the 11 organisations then
existing. Os this union of bodies Walter Uowrie,
the Secretary of the Senate, was made the first
president; judge Cranch. vice president, and
Join Chyle, secretary.
iHSfi 6UIWJBW (RAH VWtSmXCTOW. BL <£. OCTOBER 12, TOft
Washington Had Many Societies Devoted to
This Cause and They Had Large Enroll
ments —How Their Work Continued
Over the Years Preceding Prohibition.
Interest Shown by Congress.
liof ajjl H
Old Temperance Hall, 914 E street northwest, later Marini's Dancing Academy »
comer stone laid 1843, occupied 1847.
ATURAJLLY, of interest are the names of
those Washingtonians who represented their
respective societies at pie forming of the Tem
perance Union of the District of Columbia, now
closely approaching 100 years ago. They were:
Washington City Temperance Society.—Dr.
Thomas Sewall, Rev. Dr. Laurie, Andrew Coyle,
Charles H. Wiltberger and John Coyle (Rev.
Mr. Sargent, alternate for Dr. Sewall).
Union Temperance Society of Washington.—
Ulysses Ward, J. C. Dunn, R. Middleton, R.
Orme and F. Howard.
Young Men’s Total Abstinence Society of
Washington.—R. P. Anderson, Z. W. Denham,
Daniel Campbell, James Brown and Michael
Lamer.
Navy Yard Total Abstinence Society.—W. W.
Lowe, William S. Walker, William Speiden,
William Martin and Thomas O. Summers.
Georgetown Temperance Society.—James L.
Edwards, Samuel McKenney, John S. Nevins,
Paul Btevens and B. M. Miller.
Temperance Society of the Methodist Prot
estant Church, Georgetown.—Paul Stevens and
Joel Brown.
Alexandria Temperance Society.—T. Smith,
H. Stringfellow, C. F. Lee, J. Vanzant and John
Withers.
Temperance Society of the Methodist Epis
copal Church, Alexandria—William Veitch,
Benoni v* heat, John Wood, Benjamin Waters
and Dr. Joseph Wheelwright.
Rock Creek Temperance Society.—Rev. c.
Wiltberger, Washington Berry, George H. Mar
shall, Caleb Perkins and Enos Ray.
Eastern Temperance Society of Washington.
—William Doughty, sr.; James Friend, George
H. Grant, Thomas Blagden and William
Doughty, jr.
Tenleytown Temperance Society. Joseph
Foreman, George Shoemaker, Asa Gladman,
Daniel Lightfoot and John Harry.
As early as July 4, 1*35, we find this supreme
body meeting in the Methodist Episcopal
Church in Alexandria, then a part of the Dis
trict of Columbia, at which time the officers
for the ensuing year were selected and the
managers for the union decided upon, as
follows:
John Bhackford, president; Marmaduke Dove,
first vice president; Thomas Turner, second vice
president; Benoni Wheat, third vice president;
John Coyle, corresponding secretary; Flodoardo
Howard, recording secretary, and Z. W. Den
ham, treasurer.
Managers:
Washington City Temperance Society.—Rev.
Dr. Laurie and Dr. Sewall.
Young Men’s Total Abstinence Temperance
Society.—R. P. Anderson and John Wilson.
Union Temperance Society.—Ulysses Ward
, and Dr. W. B. Magruder.
Navy Yard Total Abstinence.—William 8.
Walker and W. W. Lowe.
Eastern Temperance Society.—William Spei
den and William Doughty, jr.
Alexandria Temperance Society. Robert
Jamieson and Cassius Lee.
Temperance Society of the Methodist Epis
copal Church, Alexandria.—'William Veitch and
llMn.
Georgetown Temperance Society.—Anthony
Hyde and B. Miller.
Temperance Socelty of the Methodist Prot
estant Church, Georgetown.—P. Stevens and
Joel Brown.
Rock Creek Temperance Society—Rev. C.
Wiltberger and W. Berry.
Tenleytown Temperance Society. George
Shoemaker.
'T'HE Temperance Union about the time It was
A formed went exhaustively into the statis
tical part of Inebriety, and in this connection
addressed the following letter to Judge Cranch:
Washington City,
February 17, 1835.
Dear Sir: Being directed by the Temper
ance Union of the District of Columbia to
procure from every responsible source such
substantial and general Information as shall
eventually dispose the Corporation of Wash
ington to withhold licenses for the sale of
ardent spirits from dram shops and ordi
naries, and thereby promote the cause of
temperance in this city; knowing your
friendly feelings toward every effort that
tends to advance the welfare of the com
munity, and especially the temperance refor
mation, I would respectfully solicit from you
a reply to the following Interrogatories, to
gether with any other information on the
subject that may have come under your
notice in the discharge of your official
duties:
First. What proportion of criminal cases
coming before you for adjudication in our
District Court far the County of Washing
ton have originated in or been connected
with Intemperance?
Second. What has been the probable cost
in bringing these cases to final issue, includ
lag all expenses of prosecution?
Third. Whether, in your opinion, the
abolishing of licenses by our City Corpora
tion to sen ardent spirits would not have a
tendency greatly to prevent crime, poverty
and their concomitants throughout the com
munity?
In behalf of the Temperance Union of the
District of Columbia, I am, very respectfully,
sir. Tour friend and obedient servant,
JOHN COYLE,
Corresponding Secretary.
To the Hon. William Cranch,
Chief Justice of the District Court, D. C.
'T'HE justice in his reply gave a printed page
A and more of figures, which would mean
nothing here. But the closing paragraph of his
letter might well stand thorough scrutinising
and digestion. It reads:
“The above is an answer to your two first
interrogatories. In answer to the third, I have
no hesitation in saying that it is my decided
opinion that the prohibition of the sale of
ardent spirits, not only in this city, but in the
District, would greatly tend to the prevention of
crime, poverty and their concomitant evils. But
such a prohibition, if not supported by a strong
preponderance of public opinion, would be h
effectual, as H could not be enforced.**
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Alexander “BiuT Eagleston, pioneer
temperance worker of Washington.
At this period Francis Scott Key, author of
“The Star Spangled Banner,” was the United
States district attorney for the District of Co
lumbia, and was called upon for a report on
the criminal cases prosecuted by him and their
bearing in relation to drunkenness. After giv
ing the information requested, he concluded by
saying:
“This will show what the United States pays
annually in Washington County in the prose
cution and punishment of crimes. I am confi
dent that a vigilant police and the suppression
of dram shops would diminish it at least one
half.
"Hoping that your society may succeed in
convincing our citizens that it is their duty and,
interest to adopt these measures.”
Members of Congress soon became interested
in the temperance movement, especially in con
nection with the American Congressional Tem
perance Society, formed in 1833, where 100
members of Congress and officers of the Gov
ernment are reported to have signed the con
stitution of their society and pledged them
selves "by example and moral influence to dis
countenance the use of ardent spirits and its
traffic.” But apparently this did not stop mem
bers of Congress from wanting their toddy, for
a few years later the Temperance Union of the
city deplored the sale of intoxicating liquors
permitted in the Capitol Building.
In 1837 the Senate took the matter up and
provided in its standing rules that no "spiritous
liquors should be offered for sale or exhibited in
the Capitol or in the grounds.” At that time
the House was apparently wetter than the Sen
ate, for it took seven years to get its consent
to the rule covering the whole Capitol, although
the Senate, on the surface at least, did make
an effort to enforce it from the time it passed
upon the subject. However, there must have
been some who did not take kindly to ttfts re
striction, for we are told that when Capfc.
Marryat, the English novelist, visited the Capi
tol restaurant in 1838 he noted in his diary
that when one "asks for pale sherry they hand
you gin; brown sherry, and it is brandy; Madei
ra, whisky.”
JUDGING by the lack of results achieved by
the American Congressional Temperance
Society, which sought rather to limit or curb
the liquor traffic than to prevent its use en
tirely, a step further was taken in 1842, result
ing in the forming of the Congressional Total
Abstinence Society, and the sale of all kinds of
intoxicating liquor was a little later prohibited
in the Capitol, while the Treasury clerks even
included in their pledge the total abstinence
clause, as did other "partly dry” temperance
bodies.
m our own time—around 40 or 60 years ago—
it is not difficult to recall when it was not an
infrequent occurrence for members of the Sen
ate when fatigued from holding the floor for
long hours to have brought to their desks a cup
of "tea,” which they would sip from time to
time until it was all gone, when the page would
bring in another one. This “tea,” according’ to
the knowing ones—so it was averred at the
time—was nothing else than just plain
"whisky.” But, after all, we must admit that
they did make some mighty good speeches in
Congress half a century ago.
The Congressional Temperance Society re
ferred to, and which was organized in 1833,
with Mr. Lewis Cass as president, had a sort
of spasmodic career, for it had no less than four
revivals—lß37, 1842, 1844, and again in 1868
it was given a new start, only later to give up
the ghost entirely. But just why it did not
succeed is a question the writer cannot answer,
for surely there were some very good men
interested in its behalf, the first annual meeting
after its last revival, held in the House of
Representatives Sunday evening, January 28,
1868, showing those in attendance as being
Senator Wilson (presiding), Mr. William Plants
of Ohio, Horace Greeley, Mr. Samuel F. Carey,
and Mr. Thomas H. Ford, both of Ohio .and
Gen. Hurlbut of DMnoia, an of whom mada
speeches in favor of temperance, that of 18r.
Greeley in particular, we are told, "being very
radical.”
¥ 7 PON the question of partial or total abstt*
nence there was early manifested a de
cided difference of opinion, so much so, hind
that ha 1841 a split eoowrred ha the OitbsEs