Rome Total War Alexander

[Pinkie Mclucas]

THIS convention met at 10 o'clock Thursday morning, [September 1] at MetropolitanHall, about 1,000 persons being present, representing different sectionsof the United States, Canada and England. During the morning, therewere constant accessions by the arrival of delegates.

Rev. T. W. HIGGINSON, of Massachusetts, moved the temporaryorganization of the Convention, and asked that nominations for a Chairmanbe made. Mr. L. P. NOBLE, President of the State TemperanceAlliance, was nominated as temporary Chairman. This nomination wasunanimously accepted, but, it being ascertained that Mr. NOBLE wasnot yet present, Dr. ELEAZAR PARMLY was unanimously elected in hisstead.

Joseph Dugdale, of Pennsylvania; E. L. Snow, of New York;Sydney Pearce, of Pennsylvania; Mrs. M. A. Johnson, of New York;Paulina W. Davis, of Rhode Island; and Caleb Clark, of Connecticut.The name of C. C. Shoals, Esq., of Wisconsin, was added to the list.

I hardly know, my friends, how to begin to address a Convention like this, upon such a short notice as has been given me, tocome before you as the first speaker on this occasion; for, three minutes ago, I had no more expectation of any such call, thanI had of a call to go on a mission to the Celestial Empire. Still those who are engaged in this cause, I suppose, are bound tobe minute-men.

When the world meets in Convention in behalf of a cause which is so doubly interesting to all the world's inhabitants, itmeets to advocate an enterprise in the advocacy and earnest prosecution and complete success of which, the world has aneminent and manifest need. Nowhere can we turn, without seeing abundant proof of the truth of this proposition, and indeed,of the abundant need of the prosecution of this enterprise. We have only to look about us in this great city, to observe thetraces of the deadly influence of intemperance. Everywhere, we face crime, disease and death, all testify to the necessity ofthe prosecution of the cause, of steadfast and unwavering effort and prompt action to lead to complete success.

This is an enterprise that recognizes no distinction of cast, sect, or nation; it is one that exhibits devotion to the great familyof man. We need all the help of those who are willing to help, whatever be the sex or station of the individual, to engage inthe work in which universal humanity is interested; a work which seeks the welfare of universal man.

Our enemies never stop to discriminate--why should we? They are quite as ready to deal with one cast, one sex and one raceas with another--they are just as ready to sow the seeds of poison--of moral and physical pestilence and death in one stationas another, and we must meet them everywhere--we must leave no avenue undefended; no point accessible to their attack.

In whatever parts we are assailed, we must be ready to oppose them with whatever is in the range of rightful action, and ourmeans are ample. We must show, from the observation and experience of the world, the evils which have arisen from thevice of intemperance, and contrast them with the blessings proceeding from Temperance. These blessings we must scatterbroad-cast over the land, till there shall not be on the broad earth a single victim to the deadly vice, or a single wailingmourner over its sad consequences. [Applause.] We are to prosecute this enterprise, moreover, upon the most stringentprinciples of reform--no compromise with the adversary--we take our ground upon this stand--that the use and preparation ofintoxicating beverages is a moral wrong, and therefore the whole business of the manufacture, the sale, and the use ought tobe assaulted with exterminating warfare. "No quarter," is our motto--we ask one. We ask none, because we stand upon truthas our stronghold. Our fortress is impregnable, our panoply is irresistible. The sword which we wield is like that which thearchangel swayed; it is so tempered that nothing is so solid as to resist its edge. We have no occasion to ask for quarter;therefore we claim no credit for heroism. We desire to put an

So long as man tampers with intoxicating drinks, so long does he justify the manufacture and the sale in large and smallquantities, and so long as it is sold must the use of it be abused, and use is the accompaniment of temptation.--We have hadour eyes upon facts for twenty years, and we can see the operation of the sale of intoxicating drinks upon the people of ourcountry, whose mental, moral and physical constitutions--perhaps inherited constitutions--are such that they cannot face theintoxicating bowl with safety. The young men who take their first glass, being fascinated by its powers of intoxication,continue its practice. But they never meant to become the complete slaves of appetite. They are just as sure that they are atthe right point as the veteran moderate drinkers, who have been for fifteen and twenty years steeped in alcohol, till theyimagine themselves proof against its influence. Yet we know, that multitudes of this class have fallen, and we know thatmultitudes are falling, and therefore we know that the temptation set before the young men ought not to be placed there. Aregard for principle demands its removal, and the common sense and intelligence of the community have prepared the publicmind to assert the necessity for carrying the principle out.

If respectable individuals who drink liquor stand upon their character and long-tried reputation, if they may indulge, it iscertainly right that others may supply them; for the rightfulness of a demand proves the rightfulness of supply. How is themanufacturer to know that the wholesale dealer sells to those who can safely use? and how is the wholesale dealer todetermine whether the retailer will use wisdom in the selection of persons to whom he sells? And again, how is the retailerto know whether the consumer will make a judicious use of the beverage purchased? It will be seen, therefore that no otherprinciple is practicable for effectually assailing the source--the cause of all the multiplied evils of intemperance. We mustcause the rum-seller to be regarded with the same feelings as is now the pickpocket and highwayman--as invaders of therights and welfare of mankind.

We do not deny but there are many marvelous standards of respectability among the rumsellers and rum makers, but there is avast deal of inconsistency in the details of this subject, and probably will be for some time to come. We must, therefore,adopt some other standard whereby to try actions and customs than the respectability of those who perform those actions,and we ask, therefore, not that the individuals engaged in the business are respectable, but whether the business itself isrespectable, or in other words, can the business

I need hardly way I deem it a high honor to preside over a Convention like this, whether I consider the circumstances underwhich it was first called, or the great audience I now see before me. It is unusual, on the first morning's

Previous to Neal Dow making any movement in the direction of his celebrated law, the initiative had been taken by a womanof Portland, who entered a groggery and emptied the rum jugs from which her husband had been drawing his daily poison.So Maine affords some information of the assistance rendered to the furtherance of the cause by our sisters. We know at leastthe claims of woman; we know that if man is the father of the Temperance movement, woman is its bounteous and beautifulmother, and without her it would be motherless, and consequently unborn to this day. We know, then, where we stand--ourbeing here--our action--our equal recognition of the rights of woman to speak, settle that question. Now let us leave itbehind; let the dead past bury its dead; let us say nothing of those from whom we differ in this movement--let it be an honestdifference--let us go on and do our work. Our work to day is to help the movement on--to remember those in bonds, bound in

A bouquet merchant--an elderly, pleasantish Quaker, well known to all Broadway promenaders and opera-goers--here madehis appearance, with smiling countenance, proffering tempting baskets of his commodities. He ascended the stage withoutwarning of his intention, solemnly deposited two baskets of handsomely arranged flowers, and jumping nervously up,ejaculated; "I am dead set agin rumselling! He added

The Chairman said that, according to the terms of the Call of the Convention, he must rule that credentials were unnecessary.All persons sympathizing with the object of the meeting, were entitled to take part in its deliberations. However, a list ofmembers was desirable, and he thought the idea of a Committee a very good one.

The Chairman said the Business Committee would be out for a few minutes, and in the meantime, he had a suggestion tomake, and he proposed to tell a story first. It was to the effect that a young lady somewhere Down-East had conceived theidea that the Maine Law had something to do with music. The reason was this. Her father, a distiller, had promised her apresent of a new piano unless the Maine Law passed, and the piano had never come. She though it must have something to dowith music, and that was all she knew about it.

It was well known that the world-renowned Hutchinsons sang "The Good Time Coming." By your permission we will singyou the "Dawn of the Good Time Coming". Upon which, there was great applause, and the song was duly given. It washopeful lay. It spoke of the best of times to come.

The Whole World's Temperance Convention,--room on its broad platform for everybody! "Parthians, and Medes, andElamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egyptand in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers about Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians"--every manwho may come here speaks his own tongue wherein he was born, about one of the most needed reforms ever launched on theocean of events. Here is Woman invited to speak into the great ear-trumpet of the world, that all may hear. No wonder thatthe Woman's Rights Convention should be called directly hereafter. It follows immediately on upon the present occasion. ButI am reminded that in this Temperance gathering teetotalism is to be discussed in its length and breadth--nothing else andnothing more; not a word about Woman and her rights. This may be well, but there's a good time coming, friends; wait a littlelonger. The sun may be everywhere seen, though it is not yet up in the meridian. Milk for babes, but strong meat afterwards.Temperance and Woman's Rights, chopped up together, would be a potato and meal amalgamation, quite nauseous to manymodern reformers, even by those who like either when served up by itself. Hash is an old fashioned dish used at largebanquets. But any one has a right to speak of Temperance to the world, even though this right has been disputed and virtuallyvoted away. Who does not see this to have been in bad taste--and not a word here about any woman's right to vote, even infavor of a Maine Law, although the world disfranchises one-half of its inhabitants: although they are not recognized asbelonging to its inhabitants, and although the other part are licensed to sell and to use what bring them desolation and ruin,with the exception of those who live in the darkness of heathenism, in a few Yankee States and a few

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