FRIENDS OF TEMPERANCE. BY REV. W. B. WELLONS, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. THE Friends of Temperance, as a separate and distinct organization of temperance workers, came into existence soon after the close of the four years of bloody war between the Northern and Southern people. The birthplace of the Order was the city of Petersburg, Va., the time of birth November 29, 1865. There was a necessity for the organization. All the temperance societies in the South had suffered immeasurable evils during the war, and there was only now and then a Division of the Sons of Temperance and a Tent of Rechabites to be found when peace was restored, and these were acting independently and not in co-operation. Our young men, the very flower of our sunny land, had returned from the war with their early teachings measurably forgotten and their moral sensibilities blunted, especially in reference to the use of intoxicating drinks. There was necessity for instant action on the part of the friends of sobriety and virtue to counteract these influences and restore the country to its former moral position. The old Orders of temperance men had lost their prestige, and, besides, nearly all of them had engrafted in their workings some feature to which the people of Virginia and other States could not subscribe. A new Order was therefore thought to be necessary, and the convention of temperance men which met in Petersburg to consider this question agreed upon the new organization, and commenced at once to organize Councils, and to arrange and put to work all the machinery necessary to make the Order in its benefits wide-spread and permanent. Since that time the Order has spread into eleven States, and eight State Councils have been organized; and from these organizations sprang a similar Order, called United Friends of Temperance, who now have sixteen State Councils. The Friends of Temperance now number about 20,000 members, and the United Friends about the same number. Our Order is bereft of the beneficiary system, at one time so popular in other Orders. The pledge is totali abstinence from all intoxicating drinks. It is confined to white persons only, a separate Order, called Sons of the Soil, having been organized for the colored people, which has done immense good among that class of persons in the South. We make it our great business to reform the drinking usages of society, and train up the young in the ways of temperance and sobriety. We teach all to depend upon God's grace for assistance, and strive to impress upon those whose drinking habits we would reform to practise total abstinence with prayer, and to feel that without the assistance of divine grace a habit so enslaving rarely loses its power or unlooses its grasp. There is, perhaps, more Bible truth and religious teaching in our ritual than in the private workings of any other Order that we know of. Our Supreme Council held its last session June 8 and 9, 1876, at Jackson, Miss. The two principal officers are Rev. George B. Wetmore, of Salisbury, N. C., President, and Rev. W. B. Wellons, D.D., Suffolk, Va., Secretary. The Order, after some reverses, is now putting on new strength, and is destined to exert a more powerful influence in the future than it has done in the past. The organ of the Order is a weekly paper called the Friend of Temperance, published by Rev. R. H. Whittaker at Raleigh, N. C THE UNITED FRIENDS OF TEMPERANCE. BY ISAAC LITTON, ESQ., P.M.W. PRIMATE. A CIRCULAR, signed by several prominent temperance men, was issued in October, 1871, proposing a meeting of representatives of the several temperance Orders at Chattanooga, Tenn., November 22, 1871, for the purpose "of securing in the future united action and a concentration of effort by all friends of temperance, in whatever manner might be deemed most practicable." In pursuance of this call, representatives from the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky assembled at the appointed time, and effected a permanent organization by the adoption of laws and the election of the following officers: J. A. Jefferson, of Virginia, president; J. J. Hickman of Kentucky, and Dr. S. M. Angell of Louisiana, vice-presidents; and W. E. H. Searcy, of Georgia, secretary. It was decided that this organization should be known as the "Council of Temperance," and that its meetings should be held annually. The following was published to the world as the objects of the Council of Temperance: "To present a united front to the enemy; to harmonize the temperance people of all Orders; to deliberate and decide upon the most effectual agencies for the dissemination of correct temperance principles; to counteract the evil influences of inconsiderate temperance advocates, and repel all connection of temperance Orders with denominations and political parties. The Council of Temperance further declared that in all temperance Orders each State body should be supreme in its own jurisdiction, and that the several national temperance bodies should exercise control over the passwords and private work only, and devote their labors to missionary operations. There were present thirty-three leading temperance men of the Southern States, representing the Sons of Temperance, the Good Templars, the Friends of Temperance, the Temple of Honor, and Knights of Jericho. After the appointment of standing committees, and a most pleasant and fraternal meeting, the Council of Temperance closed its session, to meet July 4, 1872, at Chattanooga. SECOND SESSION. At the meeting of the Council of Temperance held at Chattanooga, July 4, 1872, a full representation of the States and Orders in the South was present. The president being absent, Col. J. J. Hickman, of Kentucky, occupied the chair. Reports of officers and committees were submitted and adopted. The following only, possessing a general interest, are deemed worthy of insertion in this sketch: PROGRESS OF THE CAUSE. The cause of temperance in several of the Southern States is prospering beyond our most sanguine expectations. work is retarded, and the temperance Orders within their limits seem In others the good to be in a state of lethargy. The Sons of Temperance, Good Templars, and Friends of Temperance are going hand in hand to possess our sunny land. STATISTICS. Grand Division of East Tennessee, 26 Divisions, 800 members. Tennessee, Grand Lodge of 66 66 Alabama, 100 12,000 66 The Friends of Temperance are very strong in Virginia and North Carolina, and are being extended rapidly to other States. The Sons of Temperance in South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia are also at work. The Knights of Jericho are prospering in their few lodges. In short, with few exceptions, our banner is waving in triumph. The following report was adopted, and ordered to be communicated without delay to the several temperance Orders throughout the country: We rejoice to learn, from the statistics presented by our secretary, that the temperance Orders represented here, and others existing in the Southern States, embrace so large a membership, and also to believe that the cause we love is apparently making steady and healthful advance throughout our Southern land. We say apparently, because we believe that in every State so many individuals belong to two or more temperance Orders that the aggregate membership of all these Orders is no criterion of pledged temperance people. Still, we are encouraged to look forward with more hopeful prospects of success in our efforts to carry sobriety, with all its attendant blessings, to every home in our land. We believe that the greatest obstacle to a much greater success of our common principles is the multiplicity of agencies employed to secure a common end, and the consequent division of labor and interest, and squandering of the means of temperance men and women, producing, in too many instances, the appearance, if not the fact, of antagonism. We believe that the greatest good to the greatest number will be secured, and the most rapid growth of temperance sentiment and habit among the people obtained, by such a concentration of feeling and effort as can only be attained by an actual consolidation of all existing temperance Orders. The moral weight and commanding influence throughout the land of such a consolidated Order would simply be irresistible (our enemies themselves being the judges), and the cause we love would advance with a rapidity and permanence unparalleled in the history of similar institutions. The money saved from payment of dues by the same individual in different Orders, and in the rent of superfluous halls, etc., would furnish a fund for the aggressive work of such a consolidated Order which no one of the present existing Orders can ever hope to command. Your committee, composed of individuals who have taken the most binding pledges of all the Orders-most exacting in their conditions-and who have devoted years to the service of this cause, are actuated by no motives other than the cause we are all pledged to advocate. We feel we would be recreant to our convictions of duty, and to the interests of a common humanity cursed by intemperance and its attendant woes, should we fail to earnestly recommend that this Convention take the necessary steps, at once, to at least open the way for such a consolidation; and, having made this, we feel that no other suggestion or recommendation need be made by us. All that is needed to secure the result proposed is for each one of us to determine that we have more love for our unfortunate fellow-men-more desire for the present and eternal |