INTRODUCTION. BY REV. THEODORE L. CUYLER. THE object of this volume is not only to narrate the history of the Temperance Reform during the first century of its existence, but to set forth its just claims upon the "considerate judgment of mankind." No moral movement can live which does not give good reasons for living. It is the aim of the contributors to this volume to furnish such reasons, and to show how well they have stood the test of a severe scrutiny and of practical experiment. If we date from the publication of Dr. Lyman Beecher's famous "Six Sermons against Intemperance and from the organization of the earliest State societies, it is about fifty years since the experiment was fairly inaugurated. The actual work wrought, the difficulties encountered, the successes gained, and the arguments which -under God's blessing-have secured these successful results, are all faithfully recorded in this "Centennial History." A happy occasion gave birth to this volume. The celebration of the first centenary of American Independence by an International Exhibition of arts and industries brought together many intelligent representatives from many countries. Among these were men and women from every land in which the Temperance Reform has an organized existence. A Conference of these friends of the Reform was held in Philadelphia which lasted through four busy days. At that large and influential Conference the papers which compose this volume were either prepared or presented. No one can even glance over its table of contents without discovering that it contains the most complete array of facts and the best furnished armory of arguments yet produced in behalf of the Temperance Reformation. The facts cover a wide field, because the Reformation has extended to every civilized country on the globe. The arguments are aimed in many directions, because the movement itself has many phases. At the outset its earliest advocates aimed mainly to arouse the public conscience to the ravages of intemperance, and to urge moderation in the use of ardent spirits. It was soon discovered that no headway could be made against the habit of intoxication without proscribing all intoxicants of every name. To combine opposition against the use of these intoxicants, men and women banded themselves into societies under a solemn pledge of entire abstinence. From its birth the Temperance Reform has been a thoroughly religious movement. Its strongest weapons have been drawn from the Word of God; its single purpose has been to benefit and bless mankind. But as the existence of the dram-shop-which was the chief promoter of drunkenness and demoralization—had long been legalized by the state, it became necessary to strike for a reform in legislation, and for the choice of magistrates who favored a suppression of the tippling-houses. This involved legal prohibition, which finds a full discussion in the pages of this work. As the use of alcoholic stimulants is a contested point in dietetics, it soon became necessary to meet and answer the plausible defences of such stimulants as promoters of health. This controversy has engaged the earnest attention of many of the most eminent physicians on both continents. The subject has not yet been exhausted. It involves some of the most vital positions taken by the friends of our Reform. If alcohol is a nourisher of physical life, a promoter of physical strength, and is requisite to the human body in its normal condition, then total abstinence from it is not only a folly, it is a warfare against the physical laws established by the Creator. If so, then men ought not only to "look upon the wine when it is red," but to drink it as an article of wholesome diet. No advocate of total abstinence can afford to be ignorant of these |