CHAPTER VI.

THE WASHINGTONIAN AND KINDRED MOVEMENTS.

On the night of April 2, 1840, twenty chronic drinkers sat in the bar of Chase's Tavern on Liberty Street, in the city of Baltimore, engaged in their usual nightly convivialities.* In another part of the same city, the Rev. Mathew Hale Smith was delivering a lecture on the subject of temperance. In a spirit of jest, a committee of two was chosen to attend the lecture and report. They did so, and rendered a favourable account of what they had heard. The report precipitated a discussion of much warmth. The tavern-keeper, with an eye to business, denounced the temperance advocates as "hypocrites and fools." To this one of the topers retorted, " Of course, it is to your interest to cry them down;" whereupon the discussion waxed warmer and warmer.

The debate was continued from night to night until April 5, when six of the company decided to quit liquor and form a total abstinence society. They adopted" Washingtonian " as the name of their organisation and the famous Washingtonian movement was thus begun. The pledge then signed, which has generally been used in Washingtonian societies, reads:

"We whose names are annexed, desirous of forming a society for our mutual benefit, and to guard against * See Appendix A, Chap. VI.

a pernicious practice which is injurious to our health, standing and families, do pledge ourselves as gentlemen, that we will not drink any spirituous or malt liquors, wine or cider."

The names of the original signers were: William K. Mitchell, tailor; John T. Hoss, carpenter; David Anderson, blacksmith; George Steers, wheelwright; James McCurly, coachmaker; and Archibald Campbell, silverplater.* Each member was given an office in the new society, which voted to meet every evening in a carpenter shop. It was made a rule of the organisation that each member was to attend all meetings and "bring a man with him.” Meetings were at first held every night, and later, weekly. The shop soon became too small, and a schoolhouse was secured. The sessions were con

ducted mainly as experience experience meetings. Each member told his experiences and urged others to sign the pledge. By the first of December, some three hundred had joined, two-thirds of whom had been drunkards of long standing. One of the early members was John H. W. Hawkins, who was induced to leave off drink by the tears and pleadings of his twelve-year-old daughter, Hannah. Hawkins was a man of much native ability and soon developed into a speaker of wonderful power. It was his eloquence which added fire and life to the movement more than that of any other man. His recital of the story of his conversion was most pathetic, and little Hannah became the heroine of the new movement. Later, Dr. John Marsh wrote his pamphlet, Hannah Hawkins, the Reformed Drunk

* See Appendix B, Chap. VI.

ard's Daughter, which went through twenty editions within a few years.

For the first year, outside of the vicinity of Baltimore, the movement attracted but little attention. The American Temperance Union did not hear of it until about the middle of December, when an account reached New York of Hawkins' address before the Legislature of Annapolis. This led the society to extend an invitation to Hawkins and his followers to come to New York, and resulted in a series of great. rallies in the spring of 1841. The meetings were advertised as gatherings of reformed drunkards, to be addressed by the same. On the first night. thirty or forty signed the pledge, and in the two weeks' series two thousand five hundred drunkards. had pledged themselves to give up drink.

Then came the first anniversary of the founding of the society. Six thousand men marched in the street procession at Baltimore on that memorable fifth of April, 1841. A short time afterwards a series of meetings was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, in which Hawkins was the chief speaker. His first address in Boston is still preserved. He began thus:

"When I compare the past with the present,-my days of intemperance with my present days of peace and sobriety-my past degradation with my present position in this hall,-the Cradle of Liberty-I am overwhelmed. It seems to me holy ground. I never expected to see this hall. I had heard of it in boyhood. It was here that Otis and the elder Adams argued the principles of Independence, and we now meet here to declare ourselves free and independent; to make a second declaration-not quite as lengthy as the old one, but it promises life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiOur forefathers pledged their lives and fortunes

ness.

and sacred honor; we, too, will pledge our honor, our life; but our fortunes have gone for rum. Poor though we drunkards are, and miserable, even in the gutter, we will pledge our lives to maintain sobriety."

What added much to the strength of the Washingtonian movement was the organisation of the women into the Martha Washington societies early in 1841. The first organisation was effected in a church at the corner of Chrystie and Delancey Streets, New York, on May 12 of that year, through the efforts of William A. Wisdom and John W. Oliver. The objects were indicated in the constitution:

"Whereas, the use of all intoxicating drinks has caused, and is causing, incalculable evils to individuals and families, and has a tendency to prostrate all means adapted to the moral, social and eternal happiness of the whole human family; we, the undersigned ladies of the city of New York, feeling ourselves especially called upon, not only to refrain from the use of all intoxicating drinks, but, by our influence and example, to induce others to do the same, do therefore form ourselves into an association."

These auxiliaries, as well as societies of juniors, were formed far and wide in connection with the societies of the men, and for a time gave promise of adding permanency to the movement. For four years it continued to sweep the country. It is commonly computed that at least one hundred thousand common drunkards were reclaimed in the crusade and at least three times as many common tipplers became total abstainers. In 1846 there were not less than five million teetotallers in the country, members of some ten thousand total abstinence societies. The movement even reached the halls of Congress. The old

Congressional Temperance Society was reorganised on a total abstinence basis, and no longer appeared "with a bottle of champagne in one hand and a temperance pledge in the other."

Just as the Washingtonian movement reached its full height another prophet of the same school came into public notice in the person of J. B. Gough. This hero of the temperance reformation was born in Kent, England, in 1817, and came to the United States at the age of twelve. He lived on a farm in Oneida County, New York, for two years, and then entered the employment of the Methodist Book Concern in New York City, to act as errand boy and learn the trade of bookbinding. His mother and his sister Mary came from England and joined him here in 1833. The three lived together for the most part in the most extreme and miserable poverty, for a year, and then the mother died. The brother and sister parted, to pursue their occupations (she as a straw bonnet maker and he as a bookbinder) separately.

After this Gough drifted into bad company and dissipation. He says in his autobiography: “I possessed a tolerably good voice and sang pretty well, having also the faculty of imitation rather strongly developed; and being well stocked with amusing stories, I got introduced into the society of thoughtless and dissipated young men, to whom my talents made me welcome." He now began to drink, and rapidly went from bad to worse. At this time he began to frequent theatres constantly. He had an instinctive love of acting, which the austerely religious surroundings of his earlier years had repressed, but which now broke forth into a passion. He sought employment as a comic singer at several New York theatres, and occasionally was accepted, and won considerable applause.