portion of society are not wanting to their solemn duty, must
have been seen already by those living along the main channels of public
thought and feeling. Elevated, as we now are, upon a high tide of
general interest and zeal--a tide which may either go on increasing its
flood till it has washed clean the very mountain tops, and drowned
intemperance in its last den; or else subside, and leave the land
infected with a plague, the more malignant and incurable from the dead
remains of a partial inundation--it has become a question of universal
application, which those who are now at the outset of their influence in
society should especially consider: "What can _we_ do, and what _ought_
we to do in this cause?" For the settlement of this question we invite
you to a brief view of the whole ground on which temperance measures are
now proceeding.

It cannot be denied that our country is most horribly scourged by
intemperance. In the strong language of Scripture, _it groaneth and
travaileth in pain, to be delivered from the bondage of this
corruption_. Our country is free; _with a great price obtained we this
freedom_. We feel as if all the force of Europe could not get it from
our embrace. Our shores would shake into the depth of the sea the
invader who should presume to seek it. One solitary citizen led away
into captivity, scourged, chained by a foreign enemy, would rouse the
oldest nerve in the land to indignant complaint, and league the whole
nation in loud demand for redress. And yet it cannot be denied that our
country is enslaved. Yes, we are groaning under a most desolating
bondage. The land is trodden down under its polluting foot. Our families
are continually dishonored, ravaged, and bereaved; thousands annually
slain, and hundreds of thousands carried away into a loathsome slavery,
to be ground to powder under its burdens, or broken upon the wheel of
its tortures.

What are the statistics of this traffic? Ask the records of madhouses,
and they will answer, that one-third of all their wretched inmates were
sent there by Intemperance. Ask the keepers of our prisons, and they
will testify that, with scarcely an exception, their horrible population
is from the schools of Intemperance. Ask the history of the 200,000
paupers now burdening the hands of public charity, and you will find
that two-thirds of them have been the victims, directly or indirectly,
of Intemperance. Inquire at the gates of death, and you will lear