"After signing the temperance pledge a year ago, instead of a hogshead, I purchased a five-gallon keg of rum, for my whole business concerns, both of farming and lumber. And my reason for doing this was, because my business required a few excellent laborers, not one of whose help I could obtain without some liquor. During the year past, I have exerted the best influence in my power to reduce the quantity of liquor required by them to the lowest mark possible. This morning I examined my keg of liquor, and, as nearly as I could judge, without accurate measurement, the keg was half full. We have abandoned all kinds of liquor in the family as a beverage, and the difference of the quantity used among laborers the year past, has been reduced from a hogshead to the half of a five-gallon keg of rum, and my business was never better performed, nor to greater satisfaction." CONSTITUTION. The following is a copy, verbatim, of the Constitution of the First Temperance Organization, with the forty-three names of the subscribers, as it was subsequently abridged and revised by a committee of publication, for the purpose of promulgating the facts relating to the temperance reform thus far, of which committee the author of this work was one, who was especially favored with encouragement, and presents for the Temperance Society, by a highly esteemed correspondent of the City of New York, by the name of John Murray, who subsequently was enrolled among the pioneers of the Moreau and Northumberland Temperance Society, as an honorary member, as was also Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia. It is believed that not more than one fifth of the pioneer members are now living to see A. D. 1852. CONSTITUTION OF THE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY OF MOREAU AND NORTHUMBERLAND. "I own myself a friend to the laying down rules to ourselves of this sort, and rigidly abiding by them. They may be exclaimed against as stiff, but they are often salutary. The stricter the rule is, the more tenacious we grow of it; and many a man will abstain rather than break his rule, who would not easily be brought to exercise the same mortification from higher motives. Not to mention, that when our rule is once known, we are provided with an answer to every importunity."-PALEY'S ELEM. MOR. AND POL. PHILOSOPHY, p. 815. ART. I. This Society shall be known by the name of the TEMPERATE SOCIETY OF MOREAU AND NORTHUMBERLAND. ART. II. The last Monday in October, at 10 o'clock, A.M., shall forever hereafter be the time of annual meeting, and for the election of all officers, at such place as shall be appointed at the last annual meeting. ART. III. The officers shall be a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Deputy Librarian (who shall act in case of the death, removal, or absence of the Librarian), and not less than three, nor more than seven Trustees, who shall be chosen by ballot. ART. IV. No member shall drink rum, gin, whisky, wine, or any distilled spirits, or compositions of the same, or any of them, except by advice of a physician, or in case of actual disease; also, excepting wine at public dinners, under penalty of twenty-five cents; provided that this article shall not infringe on any religious ordinance. SEC. 2. No member shall be intoxicated, under penalty of fifty cents. SEC. 3. No member shall offer any of said liquors to any other member, or urge any other person to drink thereof, under penalty of twenty-five cents for each offense. ART. V. No tax or taxes shall exceed two dollars in any one year. ART. VI. Any member, on application to the Society, may be discharged, on paying the taxes, fines, and expenses due from such member, and the Secretary shall give him a certificate to that effect. ART. VII. No member shall be compelled to serve two successive years in the same office. ART. VIII. The Trustees shall execute any resolution of the Society, as to the laying out of their moneys for the purchase of books and other purposes. ART. IX. The several officers shall deliver to their successors all books, money, paper, or other property possessed by them in virtue of their offices. ART. X. In case of the death, absence, or removal of the President, then the Vice President shall act in his stead; and of the death, absence, or removal of the Secretary, the Treasurer shall act as Secretary, and of the death, absence, or removal of the Treasurer, then the Secretary shall act as Treasurer, and each until the next election, or an appointment pro tem. ART. XI. It shall be the duty of each member to accuse any other member of a breach of any regulation contained in article IV., and the mode of accusative process and trial shall be regulated by a by-law. SEC. 2. No member shall be expelled, except by the concurrence of two thirds of the members present at any meeting. ART. XII. Three quarterly meetings shall be holden on the last Mondays of January, April, and August, at one P. M., in each year, at such place as the Society shall appoint. ART. XIII. Any member, or in case of his death, his legal representatives, may transfer his share in the stock to any person who will become a member, and the property in such share shall be deemed to be vested in the purchaser, only from the time of such purchaser's subscribing to this Constitution. ART. XIV. Any member expelled shall forfeit all his rights and privileges in this Society. DEFICIENCY OF THE FIRST TEMPERANCE PLEDGE. 25 ART. XV. The manner of amending this Constitution shall be as follows, and not otherwise: any member wishing an amendment shall submit it, in writing, to the Trustees, who, if they approve thereof, shall deliver it to the Secretary, who shall read it to the Society at the next quarterly meeting. The Society shall, therefore, appoint a committee of not less than three nor more than five, to consider and report therefor, at the next annual meeting; and if approved by two-thirds of the members of that meeting, the same shall then become a part of this Constitution. (Adopted last Tuesday of April, 1808.) SIDNEY BERRY, JOHN DUMONT, MEMBERS. CHARLES KELLOGG, JR., JOHN BERRY, WILLIAM VELSEY, GURDON G. SILL, SAMUEL HINCHE, DAN KELLOGG, JESSE BILLINGS, JR., BILLY J. CLARK, JESSE WOODRUFF STEPHEN PAYN, ALVARO HAWLEY, JAMES CROCKER. DEFICIENCY OF THE FIRST TEMPERANCE PLEDGE. It is readily admitted that the pledge of the first organized temperance society was imperfect, and so is almost every other human production, in its incipient stages. This conceded fact can not, of course, be a matter of wonder, and would not have been even here noticed by way 26 DEFICIENCY OF THE FIRST TEMPERANCE PLEDGE. of apology, were it not for the fact that the author's ears have been so often cloyed, and his heart grieved by unfeeling throes and cants upon the pioneers of the temperance reformation, on account of deficiencies in their original temperance pledge, representing it as directly calculated to "make drunkards, and foster the principles of intemperance!" The author of these reminiscences hopes to be able to convince all who read or hear, that such was not the fact. The pioneers of the temperance reformation had to contend with their own propensities to evil, and with the prejudices, appetites, customs, pride, and interests of the whole community around them, who were accustomed from infancy to the free use of intoxicating liquors, and were urged on to continue their use by innumerable wiles of Satan to defeat every contemplated measure of reform! Under such circumstances, the restrictions specified in the pledge of their adopted Constitution comprised the ne plus ultra point that could possibly be secured at that time, by a temperance organization. But let not the imperfect attainment of that auspicious event be disparaged as a thing of naught by succeeding generations, who have acquired, or may hereafter acquire, improvements in the system of reform. The temperance reformation, at the commencement, was evidently the work of JEHOVAH. He foresaw the evil, and provided for the remedy in His eternal purpose, revealed to man in the Book of Divine inspiration. And, although it was like a grain of mustard seed in the beginning, yet it was then the incipient development of God's predicted plan for the destruction of the curse of intemperance, the most subtle, |