THE INDEPENDENT ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS.

BY S. B. CHASE, ESQ., PENNSYLVANIA.

It is because I love the Order so much that I have undertaken the task of presenting the history of the Good Templars for the Centennial volume within the space allotted me, and not that I feel adequate to the work.

To one whose recollection spans the entire time of the Order's existence, and who has been an active participant in all her activities, her career seems quite wonderful, and heartfelt thankfulness goes up to the Most High that shape and direction were ever given to Good Templary. The youngest of the principal ritualistic temperance Orders, it now outstrips them all, both in the sweep of territory occupied and the glorious mission it is performing.

In this age, when every philanthropic heart beats hopefully for humanity, and the public attention is everywhere directed towards the best means to dry up the fountains of intemperance that constantly send forth such gushing streams of death, flooding our peaceful homes and desolating all departments of society, we feel confident we may present the claims of our chosen Order so that it will receive the favor of the good and true.

No one should remain in ignorance of this organization. Its basis and the principles inculcated, as well as the great amount of good it has accomplished, should commend it to all real friends of the great temperance reform. In its objects and operations it occupies a broad platform, and no one need be shut out from the pale of its blessed influences. It opens wide its doors for the admission of the whole family, and grasps all who may be injured by the intoxicating bowl. Grand idea! What can be more noble than to gather the father and mother, brother and sister, all round

our common altar, to consecrate a life to this great work of humanity?

I am invited to give a history of the Order; but as this volume will be read by persons who are ignorant of its principles, basis, and workings, it is fitting that these should be mentioned before giving the history proper. In this Centennial year, when we make exposition of our various products of art and skill, and the whole world is manifesting its mental and material development thereby, we cannot afford, either as temperance men or as Templars, that the temperance element in every community, or the people at large, shall longer be in the dark as to who we are, what we are doing, or what we aim to accomplish.

BASIS-NO BENEFICIARY SYSTEM.

The basis of the Order of Good Templars is quite different in many of its prominent features from any temperance organization preceding it. There existed three different societies-the Sons of Temperance, admitting only adult males to membership; Daughters of Temperance, for females; and the Cadets of Temperance, for boys-in each of which existed different elements, at work earnestly for the cause, but separately and apart. Ours might have been, and probably was, originated from the idea of a union of all these different influences in one grand organization; but, unlike these, never connected with its operations the beneficiary system. It was found in the Sons of Temperance that, while many real wants were relieved by this system, it was frequently a source of great difficulty and danger. It necessarily made the fees so high as to place the Order beyond the reach of the poorer classes who were anxious to join in the crusade against intemperance, while many joined from purely selfish motives, with an eye-" to having something laid up for a rainy day," rather than from love for the cause. Funds became large and must seek investment, which produced diversity of sentiment, and frequently engendered quarrels, while this accumulated fund became the strongest, and in many instances the only, bond that kept the members to

gether. The experience of the world is that men united from merely sordid and selfish motives cannot be effective in great moral enterprises.

The Good Templars, ignoring this feature, place no motive before a person for joining them but to be reclaimed, if fallen, or to be saved or to save others from falling; and we try to get possession of the heart, and then, through the heart rather than the purse, carry on our operations for good.

PLATFORM.

This Order takes the broadest ground upon all questions connected with the temperance reform, and yet, as it seems to us, the only consistent position for any one to assume who wishes to save, or to be saved, or to assist in the great work of pushing to the wall the most gigantic evil that ever cursed the earth.

The following is our platform, as adopted at our annual session in 1859:

1. Total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors as a beverage.

2. No license, in any form, or under any circumstances, for the sale of such liquors to be used as a beverage.

3. The absolute prohibition of the manufacture, importation, and sale of intoxicating liquors for such purposes-prohibition by the will of the people, expressed in due form of law, with the penalties deserved for a crime of such enormity.

4. The creation of a healthy public opinion upon the subject by the active dissemination of truth in all the modes known to an enlightened philanthropy.

5. The election of good, honest men to administer the laws.

6. Persistence in efforts to save individuals and communities from so direful a scourge, against all forms of opposition and difficulty, until our success is complete and universal.

NO LICENSE-PROHIBITION.

Thus, it will be seen, we endeavor to strike at the root

of the evil by making it an outlaw wherever it is met. As the use of alcohol, in any form or degree, as a beverage, is dangerous and ruinous, and hence immoral, we oppose any system or scheme by which the state is to give legal sanction to the traffic; and as it has, or should have, no status in morals, so we would allow it none in law. Believing it a poison, slow and alluring, but sure-a foe insidious and invincible-we do not believe the sale of it can be regulated or restrained by laws, however wholesome. Require, if you please, that none but good, moral citizens should be licensed-any one immoral enough to apply for and accept a license would only look at the shining sixpence sliding into his well-filled till, while the poor, beggarly object of some wife's early love staggers away drunk, supposed to be under the especial protection of a humane liquor-law that forbids the vender to furnish to persons of intemperate habits! Believing that the appetite, once formed, is too strong to be overcome while the siren tongue beckons on the unfortunate to partake of the sparkling, bewildering draught, we would carry joy to his heart, and enable him to conquer it, by banishing the luring devil from our midst, and surrounding his unfortunate victim by attractions pure, healthy, and soul-benefiting. Believing that it is even worse to sell to persons who have not the habit formed-as, in this case, you begin to corrupt the life-blood of health and purity, while in the other you are only completing the wreck of what has aleady begun to totter-we defy the wisdom of any legislative body to frame a license bill that is not fraught with the most glaring inconsistencies and a disgrace to a statute-book; and, while ostensibly designed to place the traffic under wholesome restrictions, and to throw around society some measure of protection from the terrible evils consequent upon the use of intoxicating_drinks, the vender under such law laughs in the face of and practically defies the judicial authorities, while he daily draws thousands into the maelstrom of destruction. For these reasons the Good Templars oppose the manufacture and sale, for use as a beverage, of all intoxicating drinks, in any form or

quantity. We believe the license system a device to quiet the moral nerves of our country while Antichrist can operate with impunity in leading his victims to ruin.

TOTAL ABSTINENCE-WHAT IT MEANS.

Total abstinence from all that intoxicates is construed, by our organization, to exclude the use of sweet cider and unfermented wine, or the juice of the apple, grape, and berry, in any state, as a beverage. To maintain so high a standard, especially so far as pertains to the use of sweet cider, has required great firmness and unswerving adherence to principle. Warm discussions have been engendered in all our lodge-rooms and temperance papers, and many have withheld from us their support, because they loved sweet cider, and blessed the arts and sciences for processes to always keep it so.

The reasons which may naturally form a basis upon which to rest the prohibition of sweet cider are:

1. In principle it ought to be excluded, because it is impossible to tell the exact point when fermentation commences; hence, when to, or not to, abstain from it.

2. Because necessary to the correct administration of discipline; as, if sweet cider or wine is allowed, the burden of proof would rest upon the accuser to show that the accused drank intoxicating cider or wine, thus causing great embarrassment, if it does not thwart all discipline.

3. The Pauline doctrine, or considerations of love to our fellow-man: "It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." If I am not willing to give up my sweet cider, how can I ask my neighbor to give up his wine or whiskey? Thus our Order occupies the highest possible ground, and we exclude from our sideboards and tables, and prohibit in all forms, the use of sweet cider as a beverage.

PERPETUITY OF THE PLEDGE.

Again, Good Templars are pledged to total abstinence for life-a feature not in all temperance pledges. We make the pledge of total abstinence the essence of the whole