THE PIONEER.

WASHINGTONIANISM.

AN ADDRESS PREPARED FOR THE UNION MASS MEETING OF SUFFOLK, NORFOLK, PLYMOUTH, AND BRISTOL COUNTY WASHINGTONIANS.

It would be an insult to an intelligent public, to enter into a serious argument against the use of intoxicating liquors as a drink. No such argument is needed. Their deleterious influence has long since been established to a demonstration. No man who enjoys the reputation of a reasonable being denies it. It has taken place among those facts which it is a mark of insanity or foolishness to question.

The same may be affirmed of the sale of intoxicating liquors as a drink. The argument on this point is very simple. Members, as we all are, of a social compact whose main security is virtue, it is plain that any one who persists in an occupation which saps the foundation of public morals, is an enemy to his race. That the man who sells intoxicating liquors as a drink is engaged in such an occupation, he does not himself deny. It is evident, therefore, to the humblest apprehension, that such a man is an enemy to his race, and, of course, should be treated as such. It is pleasant to know that this view is so generally received, that decent men are fast withdrawing from the dreadful traffic in question, and leaving it in the hands of men, whose moral characters are somewhat in keeping with their business.

Under these circumstances, it does not seem worth our while to spend any more time on this branch of our subject. We shall

confine ourselves, therefore, to those topics which have not as yet received general attention.

The "Washingtonian movement" commenced on the 5th day of April, A. D. 1840. On that memorable day-which should be consecrated in the annals of every true friend of temperance— William Mitchell, David Anderson, Archibald Campbell, John F. Hoss, George Steers, and James McCurley, met together in the city of Baltimore, and formed the first WASHINGTON TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY. Their proposed aim was first to reform themselves, and then to reform their brother inebriates. Their idea was as simple as it was great. It had its foundation in the principles of FAITH, HOPE, and CHARITY;-"and the greatest of these was CHARITY." It considered no man as beyond or beneath its influence. It recognized neither despair nor despondence ; and gathered strength from the very magnitude of its task.

The few men who received into their breasts this great idea, and gave it a practical illustration in their lives, had no conception of its destined popularity. They little thought that they were raising a spirit which it was not in the power of man to put down. But such was the fact. Their noble idea travelled through the country with the speed of light. It visited every city, town, village, and hamlet, and its progress may be traced by the footprints of charity and love. It went on "conquering and to conquer," with a power and success unparalleled in the history of reform. Its insignia was the pledge, which it nobly assumed, when once taken would always be kept. That pledge has proved the magic word, the " open sesame, to hearts which, it was thought, were closed forever against the admission of any good influence. Men who had long since parted with all the characteristics of men,-whose reasons were beclouded, whose consciences were seared, whose whole constitution, moral, intellectual, and physical, had for many years been palsied by the dreadful power of intemperance,-who were by-words in the community, and whose sin and degradation had passed into familiar proverbs, -such men (and, alas, such men are found all over our land,) in

large numbers, seized instinctively the proffered pledge, and gathering up, as it were, the wasted energy of a whole life for the effort, made one mighty struggle, snapped asunder the chains of sensuality, and came forth renewed in the spirit of their lives, transformed from the condition of beasts which perish to the stature of men and of Christians. "WHEREAS ONCE I WAS A DRUNKARD," said JOHN HAWKINS, "NOW I AM A SOBER MAN:" and these words of exultation sounded from countless lips, and entered into countless hearts. Thousands of wretched families who depended on the cold charities of the world for their support, whose misery of body and soul was beyond the power of expression, and found its only language in cries and groans,-who were sinking deeper and deeper every day in the black depths of sensuality and sin,-who were "living without God in the world," and saw no better world beyond,-whose prospect seemed to be one dark, cold, starless, and endless night,-whose children were thin with hunger and pale with suffering, and all of whose wretchedness was the result (and the natural result) of drunken parents, who, instead of repenting of their brutal conduct, added daily to its power by the most cruel and disgusting acts of personal violence ;-thousands of such families, we repeat, in every section of the country, have been raised by the almost miraculous power of the Washingtonian pledge, to the state of comfortable, prosperous, and Christian homes.

We should like to dwell upon such pleasant pictures. It would be a delightful task to present to your minds a view of some of the innumerable homes which are now smiling with peace and plenty, and radiant with the beauty of holiness, through the regenerating power of the Washingtonian idea, as administered through the Washingtonian Pledge.

But, thanks be to God, this is not necessary. There is not a person, probably, who will read this address, who does not know within his own experience, however limited, instances of the same kind, so bright and so beautiful as wholly to eclipse any picture which it is in the power of language to portray.

Imagination fails, the pen drops powerless from the hand, and all words become poor and cheap, when we attempt to transfer to paper the sublime beauty and happiness of a reformed family. If you would gather new zeal in our behalf, if you would dispel every doubt as to your duty in this cause, if you would receive an impulse to your benevolent spirit which it shall feel to the "last syllable of recorded time," go and visit a reformed family;— and as the smile of the happy wife falls like sunlight upon your heart; as the merry voices of her children ring through your soul; as the reformed man reaches out to you his hand, first brushing from his face the tear of joy, and gives you his hearty welcome; as you look around his tidy room and see all about it evidences of comfort and happiness ;-and then as you turn your eye up to the tastefully decorated mantelpiece and behold over it, in a neat frame, that pledge, which, under GOD, has caused all this happiness, (and which pledge is held second only to the Bible, in point of sacred importance and worth,)-as you behold all this, tell us if our cause is not noble enough to engage the attention of "earth's wisest and best ;" tell us if it is not overrunning with the spirit of Christian brotherhood and love!

We come now to ask, wherein is the wonderful efficacy of this movement? The consideration of this question will lead us to many topics which, at the present time, need to be clearly presented to the public mind.

We answer, in the first place-that the Washingtonian movement found the field white for the harvest. The ground had been prepared by the temperance organizations instituted prior to 1840. True, when this movement was commenced, but little, comparatively, was doing; but this is to be accounted for by the fact that the energy and efficiency of the old means were nearly exhausted. It was not within the scope of the old organizations to accomplish much upon the drunkard-nor indeed to effect much any way on the Washingtonian plan. Their work was in another direction, and in another form-and it was faithfully done. They entered upon the work-we speak particularly now of NEW ENGLAND

when rumselling was a reputable traffic, and they did not relax their labors until it was disreputable. They placed the brand of shame on the distiller, until "it went hissing to the bone." They flooded the country with facts. They labored with an iron energy, and published report after report, until the light of truth had penetrated every part of the country. At the time the new movement commenced, however, the storm they had raised appeared to have passed over, and the waters were becoming still and stagnant. The tide of public opinion which, through their great exertions, had been made to set in favor of temperance, was, if not actually ebbing, very nearly in that state. It was evident, therefore, that a new agency was needed—that new machinery and new principles were needed to carry out the work.

And as God has, in all great crises in the world's history, raised up men-not always the great and mighty, but often the weak and humble-to meet the emergency; so, now, he did not fail us, but, in his good providence, raised up the men, (whose names we have before mentioned,) and to whose triumph, through his blessing, we are indebted for the present Reform. Most of the men engaged in the former movement are now engaged in this; and the few who now hold back, naturally distrustful of any innovation, will, no doubt, ere long, enter our ranks, and labor with their accustomed vigor and success.

The second answer to the question, wherein is the efficacy of this new movement, must be found in its intrinsic character.This leads us to a brief analysis of the Washingtonian Idea. Its elements are

1. FAITH IN MAN. This is its distinctive feature, its pride and power. Prior to the Washingtonian movement, there did not appear to be faith enough in the whole country to save one drunkard. He was given up as hopeless. It was generally considered that to him that dreadful time had come when God would no longer strive. The fact that a man had fallen among rumsellers, who had "stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead," was considered a valid