USA > Ohio > Memories of the crusade a thrilling account of the great uprising of the women of Ohio in 1873, against the liquor crime > Part 26
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In October I was called to Chicago by our now world-renowned National President, Miss F. E. Willard, who had been made President of the union there,and had entered with great earnestness and enthusiasm into the work, -which earnestness and enthusiasm have been increasing with each succeeding year in geometrical ratio. I spent a week in the city, -our Sister M. E. Griffith, now temperance evangelist of Kansas, was there at the same time. Our first meeting was a citizens' mass meeting, held in the First M. E. Church, Dr. Thomas then being pastor, and Dr. Ryder, of the Universalist Church, presided. For many reasons this was an important meeting. It was among the earliest moves of our wonderfully efficient and far-seeing President. The place, the men, ministers, lawyers and business men that helped to compose that assembly, giving character to it by their unqualified indorsement, combined to make it an important initiation of
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many such that have followed. But with all, Chicago stoutly maintains high license. Not high enough, however. I see the City Collector sug- gests that the license will have to be raised to prevent the further multiplication of saloons, but nothing said about the reduction of drinks, or of the souls sent through these wide-open gates to eternal woe. And I see that a Judge has recently decided that a saloon-keeper indicted for selling liquor to a young girl, that caused her ruin, was not guilty because the law reads minors, and this was only ONE! Smart people, those Chicagoans. Sensible, very! Why didn't they impose a high license on those Haymarket assassins, instead of a high gallows? I wonder if there can be found ten righteous men in this Sodom by the sea? Let us see, there is the editor of the N. WV. Christrian Advocate, and Dr. Judkins, and Dr. Herrick John- son, (but he opposes the ballot in woman's hand ; he'll come to it beautifully, though, before this cruel war is over), Van Fleet, that mighty man with his hand on the " Lever ;" Hobbs, and Geo. C. Hall, and-and-who else ? I believe the Lord is counting in the women in this case of emergency. Mrs. Carse, Mrs Hobbs, Mrs. Rounds, and then our ubiquitous President, is there a good deal, too, with a brigade of white ribbon soldiers, all working and praying with their might. But what of our meeting? I will introduce the editor of the N. W. Christian Advocate, who will report it better than I can:
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THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN CHICAGO.
A great temperance meeting took place in the First Methodist Episcopal church, Oct. 29th evening, which is the sign of the opening campaign against intemperance in this city. The church was filled with people of all denominations, assembled for the one purpose of commencing a war in defense of sobriety. Dr. W. H. Ryder, Pastor of St. Paul's Universalist church, was chosen chairman. Addresses were made by Rev. Dr. W. W. Everts, Pastor of the First Baptist church, Dr. H. W. Thomas, Pastor of the First M. E. church, Miss Frances E. Willard, President of the Woman's Temperance Association; Hon. Emory A. Storrs, and others. Dr. Everts thought public opinion should be directed to the one point of suppressing the four thousand saloons of Chicago. As long as these dens were in existence it would be impossible to prevent young men from fall- ing victims to intoxicating liquors. Dr. Everts is right. But how is this "Giant Grim" to be overthrown? The doctor gave point to his remarks by instancing Evanston, a place of ten thousand people, where there is not a grog-shop in existence. Dr. Thomas expressed himself as heart and soul with the move- ment. He advocated the right of women to vote, as one of the means of reforming the country. Miss Willard gave an interesting account of the recent temperance Convention held at Bloomington, Ill., and announced a programme of temperance meetings for this week in various parts of the city. Hon. Emory A. Storrs, who is a lawyer of high standing in his profession, delivered a forcible address, in which he showed that the claim that drunkenness is due largely to impure liquors, was a deception and a fraud. He urged that the only safety was in total abstinence. Make drinking intoxicating liquors disreputable as gambling is disreputable, and it would be a long step toward reform. Mr. Storrs urged that complete organization of the friends of temperance must be effected and diligent work must be done.
The best speech of the evening was made by " Mother" Stewart, the woman who began "the Crusade" in Ohio. She struck several nails on the
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head as follows : I come to you as a committee of one to say that the way to advance our cause is for every man and woman to exert themselves to the utmost in the suppression of the crime of drunkenness. The evil is one of gigantic proportions, but it can be put down if the people will it. I thought this even- ing of the text, " Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." I charge you with being a nation of drunkards, and you have been asleep to the existence of the evil. Many of our ministers have gone down to their graves drunkards. This is a terrible fact, but upon investigation it has proved to be correct. The church is to blame for it, and I do not charge the church wrongfully. Its members have slept at their posts, and we have what you see-a nation of drunkards. The number of saloons in every city of the United States is largely out of proportion to the number of churches. In New York there are sufficient saloons to reach ten miles, six stories high, and in your own city you have four thousand saloons. Are we a Christian people ? Each one of these saloons can do more damage in one Sabbath than all your churches put together can counteract. It is a pitiful sight to see women have to rise up and plead with men only to keep the laws. What would the world have said if the men had allowed the women to turn out during the late war and meet the enemy ? But women are now facing a more ter- rible foe than our soldiers had to face, and it is necessary that both men and women should join in this work. There is no issue involved in the present elections which so vitally affects the interests of the country as does this temperance question, and it is the duty of every man during this election to vote for men who will assist in suppressing the evil of inten- perance. I say to you men to-day, the whisky ring represents you and your wives and daughters, and that ring rules you with a rod of iron. ( Applause. ) You are going to have an election in a few days, and many of the balloting places are in saloons. You will not have ballot-boxes in saloons when your wives and daughters have votes. Men talk so much about the policy of expediency, but I say there is no policy but the policy of right. ( Applause. ) What can be
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more deplorable than to have our country ruled by whisky and our sons and husbands dragged to eternal woe. Your laws against drinking are merely sops thrown to you by the liquor-dealers. Among your laws you have one which provides that a man shall obtain a certificate of his good moral character before he can become a saloon-keeper. The very idea of the thing! It is an utter impossibility for such a man to have a good moral character. If women had made such a law, men would say, "It is just what we can expect from them." ( Laughter, and "Hear, Hear. ") I say if the liquor traffic were stopped, your taxes would soon be cut down. I want you men to understand that from this traffic, sixty-one million dollars goes into the treasury of the United States, and it takes ninety million dollars to keep up this wicked traffic. I ask you to put these figures in your hats, and when you go to the polls look at these figures and vote for the suppression of the evil which must destroy the country. I appeal to you to crush out this traffic before the country is destroyed by it. ( Applause. )
There is the true ring of the reformer in these sentences, which will bear examination, as an address, which cannot be said of mere "gush." The sug- gestion that polling places will be removed from saloons when women vote, will prove itself true to the conscious prescience of every person. It is time we men began to see more clearly than we do the de- moralizing tendencies of this alliance of politics and whisky, which is so patent to every one, when he comes to the exercise of the highest prerogative of an American citizen, the casting of a vote for the men who are to carry on the functions of his government. Before the meeting adjourned, a first-rate committee was nominated to thoroughly organize for effective work in the temperance cause throughout the city. Dear people, be moving everywhere.
It was at this meeting, to the best of my recol- lection, that I uttered the first word in the Cru- sade campaign on the subject of woman suffrage. This statement I know will surprise many who
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have heard that by my "persistent lugging in of woman suffrage, I had broken up the work in my State." In response to Dr. Thomas' assertion that it would be necessary to put the ballot into woman's hand before we would be able to over- come the evil, I said, when that time came, the polling boxes would not be found in the saloons, as was the case in Chicago at that time. It does not look on the face of it as though that declara- tion was worthy of death, does it ?
A few weeks after, in Eaton Rapids, Mich., the Methodist minister in whose church I spoke, having seen the report of this meeting, and being himself a warm advocate of equal suffrage, called me out on the subject. I explained that I had not mentioned the subject in connection with my Crusade work, but now, being called on for my views, I felt free to give them. Even then, and under such circumstances, it was pretty near worth my life to do it. But it was known that I held this view, which was reason enough for bitter persecution. I am not lonesome now, for I have a great army of white ribboners with me * But I cannot leave this Chicago mass-meeting without referring to one other fact that to me
I am happy to record that at that greatest convention ever held in this or any other country, May 30, 31, ISSs, in Indianapolis, the Prohibition party, with scarcely a men- tionable opposition, reaffirmed their endorsement of equal suffrage irrespective of sex. And Frances E. Willard and Sam -mall, hither'o leaders of the opposite wings, step: ed onto the plank and stood there with clasped hands, while the Convention, amid the waving of handkerchiefs and wildest enthusiasm, drove the golden spike of eternal jus- tice into it, nailing it firmly to the platform forever.
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had much significance. It has been stated that Dr. Ryder, of the Universalist Church, presided. I, being the stranger, was last on the programme. When my turn came, the Doctor took me by the hand and led me to the front of the plat- form, where we stood for a few moments in silence, while the audience greeted us with prolonged applause. It was one of the happiest experiences of my life. I had seen from the beginning that it would require the united effort of all Christians of all names to overcome the enemy ; and I had in a quiet way done what I could to enlist in our ranks members from all Churches, not forgetting those of the Universalist denomination. Not that they were reluctant to aid, for I have gen- erally found both ministers and people of that church sound on the temperance question, many of the ministers among the strongest advocates of the cause. But some of our good orthodox friends were not sure whether the great call to go out into the vineyard was a general one. Here, after the toil and the tears, was my spirit cheered as by a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol. A veteran Methodist of more than forty years, and a learned divine of the Universalist Church, standing hand in hand in the blessed work, while that vast audience with a good will shouted, " Amen."
Yes, one of the most blessed features of our work was the breaking down of the sectarian barriers that had so long prevented united Christian effort for the advancement of the
(27)
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Redeemer's kingdom. It was not a little amus- ing to hear our sisters say, after a short associa- tion in our Crusade, " Why, I don't see but they are just like us." "Why, she prays just like a Meth- odist," or "I never thought I could come to feel so much at home with the Methodists." "I love those Baptist sisters as well as I do those of our own church." How blessed it was to come to feel that we all belonged to the same house- hold of faith, and were, in very deed, all one in Christ Jesus.
After closing my engagements in Chicago, I filled a series of engagements in Michigan, be- ginning at Muskegon, thence to White Hall, then through the dense forests thirty miles by private conveyance to Pent Water, where I first mct our dear Sister E. J. Gray, who was leading the work up in that forest region. She afterwards returned to Ohio, and for several years served with unflagging zeal and energy as our State Treasurer. From Pent Water I went to Big Rapids. Here dear Sister Hood, the President, full of zeal and enthusiasm, devised quite an ingenious method of getting out an audience. Some of the good citizens had been considerably exercised on the subject of Spiritualism, and as I walked along the board sidewalks, I saw at short distances, pasted on the boards, "Mother Stewart will lecture to-night on Spirits !" Somewhat ambigu- ous, but we had a good audience ; interrupted however by the cry of "fire !" about the time we got fairly into our subject, which soon took
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our audience. In those Michigan lumber regions a fire has more than ordinary terrors. This was a business house in the most crowded part of the town. While the firemen worked hour after hour, the W. C. T. U., having organized for the purpose, stood by them with hot coffee, and guarding them from the ever present temptation, the saloon. Thus they stood guard till 2 o'clock in the morning. The business men expressed their gratitude in warmest terms, saying it was due to the ladies that the firemen were kept sober and able to at length subdue the flames without the destruction of property that would otherwise inevitably have followed. We were not interrupted the second night. In my route I spoke in one of Michigan's pleasant col- lege towns, and was entertained by the matron of the institution, a very intelligent and pious lady. I asked her if the students gave much trouble to the professors. " Oh no," she an- swered, she heard of no cases of discipline. Did they have no trouble in regard to their drinking or visiting the saloons? "No," none that she heard of. The next morning, before I left, a lady who lived near the college called on me, and with so much feeling that she could not keep back the tears, said she felt that she must come and unburden her heart to me. There was a liquor-seller next door to her who was ruining the students ; he had a chamber only across a narrow alley from her own, where nightly the students were in the habit of gathering, after
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the professors had retired, and drinking and having what they, poor deluded creatures, called a "good time." She begged me to see if some- thing could not be done to save them. But I had to leave. If I could have had the informa- tion before my lecture, perhaps I might have at least "ventilated " the case. So often it has oc- curred that the very facts that I could have used to good purpose would not reach me tillit would be too late.
My last meeting in the series was at Jackson, where I was entertained by a minister of the M. E. Church, who on Sabbath morning broiled the beefsteak in most appetizing fashion, and made a delicious cup of coffee, then took a car- riage and drove me to a church and preached me a good sermon. It was a woman, of course, Rev. Mary T. Lathrop, of whom all the world has long since heard.
FIRST NATIONAL W. C. T. CONVENTION.
A twelve-month had rolled around, our Cru- sade spirit had spread far and wide. State after State had fallen into line. But there was yet much land to be possessed and regions beyond to be reached, and the "praying women" were still looking to the Lord for guidance. One of them, Mattie McC. Brown, who had been in the field for years before the Crusade, with pen and voice urging on the Good Templar hosts, was spending a season at Chautauqua that summer. And here, while before the Lord, the thought of a National Convention was impressed
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upon her mind. She hastened to communicate it to other "praying women." A counsel was held and the result was, a National Convention was called to meet in Cleveland, November 1Sth. This call was responded to by a large representa- tion of women from all the States where our work had been taken up. The enthusiasm, the good feeling and loving greetings of the dear sisters, many of whom I had organized and led onto the street, others whom I had been called to help, with many others whom I had never met before, were very cheering to the weary Crusader.
The Convention was duly organized by elect- ing Mrs. Jennie F. Willing, of Illinois, as Chair- man, with a Vice - President from each State represented. Miss Aureta Hoyt, of Indianapolis, Ind., and Mrs. Mary Burt, Auburn, N. Y., were elected Secretaries; Mrs. W. A. Ingham, Cleveland, Treasurer.
A very full and fair report of the proceedings of this first National Convention was given by the various papers represented. Among these, I may name the National Temperance Advocate, by its editor, J. N. Stearns; the Cincinnati Com- mercial, by the regular reporter, Mr. Loomis, and the Cincinnati Gazette, by Col. Furay.
The various committees were appointed and in due time brought in their several reports, which were acted upon by the Convention. The elec- tion of officers resulted as follows :
President, Mrs. Anna Wittenmyer; Corre-
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sponding Secretary, Miss F. E. Willard ; Record- ing Secretary, Mrs. Mary C. Johnson ; Treasurer, Mrs W. A. Ingham ; with some twelve Vice- Presidents.
From a lengthy report lying before me, I see that upon the convention being declared organ- ized and ready for work, Mother Stewart, of Springfield, Ohio, moved the appointment of a Committee on Plan of Work, and Mother Stew- art ; Mrs. Z. G. Wallace, of Indiana ; Mrs. Allen Butler, of N. Y .; Mrs. J. S. Collins, of Pennsyl- vania ; Miss F. E. Willard, of Chicago, Ill., were appointed, and Mrs. H. N. K. Goff and Mrs. M. McC. Brown were added by request.
This committee, out of much free discussion, interchange of views and earnest prayer, brought forth the first Appeal and Flan of Work of the National Union. The committee working on it till time for adjournment at night, put it into the hands of Miss Willard and Mrs. M. McClel- lan Brown, our Secretaries, who finished it, and on their knees at 2 o'clock in the morning, first submitted it to the Lord for His acceptance and blessing ; and the next morning it was presented to the convention. The following is a copy of this:
ADDRESS AND PLAN OF WORK PRESENTED BY THE UNDERSIGNED COMMITTEE TO THE WOMEN'S NATIONAL CONVENTION.
APPEAL.
Women, sisters, mothers in all lands, give your at- tention to the facts herein stated and let them awaken
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in your humane hearts all the noble instincts of your two-fold nature.
The liquor traffic is the greatest curse of our race. It is undermining our nation by violating the spirit and letter of its Constitution (which was framed for the protection of the weak against the strong), by an- tagonizing all the noble principles upon which it is founded, by paralyzing all our institutions, civil, intel- lectual, moral and religious, by perverting the cardi- nal issues of human destiny, life, liberty and love, which embody " the pursuit of happiness."
This traffic is draining our financial resources with- out compensation, hoarding up the millions in an unholy monopoly ; collecting them pitilessly off the poor, misguided vassals of the drink-demon. The moneys thus expended every year exceed the expen- diture on all the humane and intellectual enterprises of the land. It is equal every year to all that has ever been expended in church enterprises since the landing of the Mayflower. Counting the loss of time of the intemperate, this outgo of the nation's property would load a train of wagons, with a ton of gold to each wagon, thirteen miles long.
Poverty and suffering everywhere result to the lower classes. Among the highest classes, usefulness and genius are quenched in the rum-glass. Grog- shops are ten times as frequent as both churches and school-houses. To the want of improvement of the lower classes we must add a nine-fold commission of crime. The imbecility, insanity, idiocy, ignorance and wickedness of the nation are mainly due to this use. The care of these and other classes of sufferers imposes unjust burdens on good citizens. Our per- sonal liberty is violated. Our homes, which should be the paradise of earth joy, are devastated by the curse. Our temporal existence is imperiled, and who can predict the generating power upon generations yet to be.
One hundred and fifty thousand lives are sacrificed every year in our nation alone. Nor is this a merely temporal sacrifice of the nation's kings, born to rule in the earth and over the higher realm of their own great natures; but an eternal sacrifice of the im- mortal sons of God, for "no drunkard shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
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For this criminality there is not the shadow of an excuse. The almost universal demand for stimuli is abnormal and not essential.
It is the result of the stimulants themselves. The drinking always precedes the crying demand for drink, either remotely or immediately. Supply this abnormal demand, as has been the rule, and it in- creases ad infinitum. The whisky market was never glutted. But in the interests of the whole human race, remove, abolish the drink system and the de- mand is gone.
By a wonderful dispensation from the Divine Ruler, attended by unmistakable signs of power and approval, the women of this nation have been set apart as the apostles of the Temperance Gospel. The ponderous truth of this gospel is-The liquor traffic is depressive, ruinous, criminal, and ought to engage the best energies of the people for its abolition.
Women, whose keen perception takes in all the terrors of the curse; women, whose earnest sympa- thies, intensified by a love both human and divine, penetrate to the depth of human wretchedness; women, whose hope through faith in the Master Leader spans the chasm of human impossibilities ; women, who respect neither "times," "seasons," "policies," " expediencies," nor "financial practica- bilities," but only justice and right, because it is right ; women, love-inspired, God empowered, may throw themselves into the breach between humanity and its curse, may stand in the vanguard of this great movement until the whole ruling public is borne across the abyssmal transition from the superstitious notion that "alcohol is food" to the scientific fact that "alcohol is poison;" from the pusillanimous con- cession that "intemperance is a great evil," to the responsible conviction that the liquor traffic is a crime
Filled only with aspirations for the ennoblement of our falling humanity, to its native kingship and the heritage of princes of peace, prosperity and purity - women, sisters, mothers of all lands, let us arise and go forward, doing whatsoever the hand findeth, claiming the omnipotent promise, " Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end."
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We hereinafter submit a plan of work which will afford methods for every locality.
Respectfully submitted in the bonds of Christian love.
Mother Stewart, Springfield, Ohio, Chairman of Committee.
Mrs. Governor Wallace, President State Womens' Christian Temperance Union, Indianapolis, Ind.
Mrs. Allen Butler, President State W. C. T. U., Syracuse, New York.
Mrs. Rev. Collins, Ex-President W. C. T. U., Pittsburg, Pa.
Mrs. Dr. Black, President W. C. T. U., Pitts- burg, Pa.
Miss Frances E. Willard, President W. C. T. U., Chicago, Illinois, Secretary of Committee.
Mrs. H. N. K. Goff, Corresponding Secretary W. C. T. U., Philadelphia, Pa.
Mrs. M. McClellan Brown, Secretary Committee, and Right Worthy Vice Templar International Order of Good Templars.
PLAN OF WORK.
I .- Of Organization.
Organization is the sun-glass which brings to a focus scattering influence and temperance union in any State, city, town or village.
II .- Of Making Public Sentiment.
The evolution of temperance ideas is in this order : The people are informed, convinced, convicted, pledged. With these facts in view, we urge :
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