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 DURST 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM, 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 IADIES' TEMPERANCE BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES. 
 
 <i S!>e stretcheth out her hand to the poor ; yea, she reacheth forth her 
 hands to the needy." — Solomon*. 
 
 BY 
 LORENZO D. JOHNSON, 
 
 NEW YORK! 
 PUBLISHED BY SAXTON & MILES, 
 
 20 5 Broadway. 
 BOSTON— SAXTON, PEIRCE & CO. 
 
 1843. 
 
Y 
 
 .. . 
 
 HARVARD COUfB£/(lBRARY 
 FROM THE j#R\OF 
 GEORGE 0. DEMP3E 
 
 . A\ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1343 f by 
 
 SAXTON & MILES, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 S. W. BKNEDIOT & CO , PRINT. 
 
 HIS 
 
 Gift of 
 
 The ? of 
 
 George C kJempttjr 
 
TO MY ESTEEMED FRIEND, 
 
 MRS. ANN MARIA EGBERT, 
 
 FIRST DIRECTRESS OF THE 
 
 FIRST MARTHA WASHINGTON SOCIETY, 
 
 AS A TOKEN OF RESFECT 
 
 FOR HER DIGNIFIED YET UNASSUMING AND 
 
 CONCILIATORY COURSE AS PRESIDING OFFICER, 
 
 FOR HER LOVE OF HUMANITY, 
 
 HER TENDER REGARD FOR THE UNFORTUNATE, 
 
 AND FOR HER SUCCESS IN RECLAIMING THE INTEMPERATE 
 
 OF HER OWN SEX, 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY 
 
 DEDICATED. 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 The Reader will perceive that in tracing the rise and pro- 
 gress of Martha Washingtonianism it has formed no part 
 of our plan to give a history of each society. To detail no- 
 thing but the singular cases of reformation that have occur- 
 red under their auspices would make a volume that could 
 not be afforded for a dollar, instead of twenty-five cents. 
 We have, therefore, taken our facts mainly from one so- 
 ciety only, and so far as the history of this society is pre- 
 sented, it is giving the history of all the others ; as the ob- 
 ject and the work are the same in all : the only difference lies 
 in the amount performed. 
 
 Should those who are familiar with the movements of our 
 Ladies' Temperance Societies deem our sentiments tame and 
 common-place, we would, in anticipation, reply, that it was 
 not to give them anything new that this book was written. 
 
 The writer's chief object has been to place in the hands 
 of those who very gravely say, (and there are thousands of 
 them), " We have yet to learn what is meant by a Ladies' 
 Temperance society, or what ladies can do in the cause," a 
 little book in which they can see, as in a mirror, the 
 work go on. How far we have succeeded in accomplishing 
 this object is now left for others to determine. 
 
 New York, March 10th, 1843. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/marthawashingtonOOjohn 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 " Alcohol, the foe of humanity, is the demon curse of the domestic 
 sphere, the murderer of countless thousands of wives and mothers — that 
 which has robbed woman of her beauty, her comforts, her rights, her 
 health, her home, her reason, her life. The tears woman has shed, would 
 form a river; the groans she has uttered, collected and concentrated, 
 would be louder than the earthquake's terrific sound ; and if funeral ob- 
 sequies were to be in proportion to the ruin and wo produced, the whole 
 heavens should be clad in sackcloth, and the earth, as in Egypt in the 
 reign of Pharaoh, should have her days of mourning and darkness." 
 
 Anonymous. 
 
 Washingtonianism had its origin in the city of 
 Baltimore; Martha Washingtonianism, in New 
 York. While we find an imperishable glory- 
 fast accumulating around the fadeless memory 
 of " the immortal six,' 1 for having founded a so- 
 ciety, new in its remarkable adaptation to save a 
 class of men who were nearly lost to society, 
 to their families, and to themselves ; and whom 
 nearly all the world had consigned to " a drunk- 
 
8 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 ard's grave," the names of Wra. A. Wisdom, pre- 
 sident of the first "Washington Temperance Be- 
 nevolent Society" in New York, John W. Oliver, 
 and many of their co-laborers, deserve to live as 
 long in story, for having devised the plan of 
 bringing out so all-potent an auxiliary as the 
 Martha Washington Societies — without whose 
 aid the friends of temperance would now despair 
 of seeing the temperance cause reach the glori- 
 ous consummation they all so devoutly hope for. 
 
 The pioneers of Washingtonianism in New 
 York are entitled to the credit of pointing out 
 what was, in connection with the temperance 
 cause, the appropriate work of woman to per- 
 form — a work, which is now viewed as the "bet- 
 ter half" of this great moral enterprise. 
 
 It was when this little band of reformed Re- 
 formers began to sally forth among their compa- 
 nions in dissipation they had left behind, that 
 they became impressed that " it was not good 
 for man to be alone." All the squalid poverty 
 they had witnessed among the disconsolate and 
 almost homeless wives, mothers and children, 
 suggested to their minds, that the work our la 
 dies' societies now assign to their wardrobe com 
 mittees, would give new vigor and life to hope. 
 where hope was almost dead ! 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 9 
 
 Nor were the ladies backward in obeying what 
 they deemed to be a call of Providence. No 
 sooner did they see that demand which so many 
 half-clad reformed inebriates made on their hands, 
 than they rallied, and were found at the laboring 
 point. Soon, very soon, the united industry and 
 devotion of a small society had a wardrobe, 
 where a man, coming from the lowest stage 
 of degradation to sign the pledge, could receive 
 such early tokens of sympathy as would enable 
 him, by the time he was clothed and in his right 
 mind, to appear out in the condition of a respect- 
 able candidate for any place of industry his pre- 
 vious trade or profession had qualified him to fill. 
 How many hundreds have received such timely 
 aid from this source, but for which they might 
 have felt it impossible to rise, will only be known 
 at the great day of final accounts. 
 
 The .first ladies' temperance society, formed on 
 the principles to which we have alluded, was 
 convened on the 12th of May, 1841, in the church 
 corner of Chrystie and Delancy streets, New 
 York, where an organization was consummated, 
 by adopting an appropriate constitution, and sub- 
 sequently, the following preamble : 
 
 "Whereas, the use of all intoxicating drinks 
 
10 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 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 5 
 we, the undersigned ladies of the city of New 
 York, feeling ourselves especially called upon, 
 not only to refrain from the use of all intoxicat- 
 ing drinks, but, by our influence and example, to 
 induce others to do the same, do therefore form 
 ourselves into an association." 
 
 In the language of this preamble, these ladies, 
 by the effectual door that was now opened where 
 they could enter into the service of humanity, 
 and be avenged on the foe which had affiicted 
 her sex with such untold miseries, felt themselves 
 " called upon " to appear at their posts in an or- 
 ganized phalanx, and stand ready to do, with all 
 their might, whatever their hands and their hearts 
 might find to do. To obtain funds, and increase 
 their membership, were the first things that de- 
 manded attention ; for it should not be over- 
 looked that the object of the society was two- 
 fold : — to prevent the ravages of intemperance 
 among their own sex, and to render pecuniary 
 aid to the reformed inebriates and their families. 
 To accomplish both of these objects at the 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 11 
 
 same time, it was required that, in becoming 
 a constitutional member, they must not only- 
 sign the pledge, but pay a given sum on being 
 received to membership, and a small amount 
 on the first of each month thereafter, as long as 
 they remained members of the society. This 
 " initiation fee " and the monthly dues, together 
 with the second-hand clothing which every mem- 
 ber took upon herself to solicit, soon placed 
 them in possession of means to furnish a ward- 
 robe with all the variety of clothing that any 
 subject of their commiseration should stand in 
 need of. The wardrobe, and the small amount of 
 funds which they frequently found it necessary 
 to use for the purchase of medicine, and the pay- 
 ment of board (for some one who was passing 
 the transition state), at once made them an in- 
 dispensable auxiliary to the Parent Society. It 
 was justly said, that, as in the case of Lazarus, 
 who by the voice of the Son of God was raised 
 from the dead, and for whom the Savior directed 
 the aid of human hands to take off his grave- 
 clothes, and place him in a condition to walk, — 
 so, in like manner, when the thrilling and soul- 
 stirring appeals of experience-telling Washing- 
 tonians had brought many a man from the grave 
 of inebriation to sign the pledge, yet now he had 
 
12 MARTHA WASHIi\GTOr<IANISM. 
 
 need to lay off his " filthy rags " for a " tetotal 
 dress," before he could seek employment with 
 any hope of success. This could all be done from 
 the wardrobe of the ladies' society. How many, 
 by receiving such aid, have been encouraged to 
 successful effort, who, had it not been for such 
 early tokens of sympathy, would have yielded 
 to discouragement and despair in the outset, the 
 scenes of eternity alone will reveal. 
 
 The real good that the society performed in 
 restoring individuals and families to self-respect 
 and usefulness, soon led the public to appreciate 
 their labors, the evidences of which appeared in 
 donations received, as well as in the increase cf 
 members. In the reports of the society we find 
 the following notice. 
 
 " The members of the Martha Washington So- 
 ciety gratefully acknowledge the receipt of the 
 following donations: from Dec. 1st, 1841, to Jan. 
 1st, 1842, including just one month — from Mr. 
 John Heeker, $5 00 ; from Mrs. Lovejoy, a bun- 
 dle of clothing, also several from Mrs. Dr. Osborn ; 
 from G. W., fourteen seal caps ; two gross of 
 buttons -. one piece of handkerchiefs ; one dozen 
 wool hose ; one lot of blue cambricks ; one dozen 
 half hose ; one lot of bombazine, one piece of 
 plaid camblet ; one piece of green flannel ; two 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANJSM. 13 
 
 pieces of scarlet flannel ; one piece of plaid lin- 
 sey i two pieces of printed satinet ; one piece of 
 mohair ; one piece of broadcloth ; one piece of 
 4-4 prints ; one piece of bleached muslin 5 one 
 piece of blue muslin ; one piece of worked mus- 
 lin ; one piece of striped prints ; one piece of 
 muslin-de-laine ; one bale of wadding $ two bun- 
 dles of ladies' hoods ; one dozen spools of cot- 
 ton \ and three hats." 
 
 This one donation, from an unknown friend, 
 must have been worth at least two hundred dollars. 
 Such were some of the demonstrations that the 
 purposes of the society began to be appreciated by 
 the public. 
 
 That the reader may have same tolerably cor- 
 rect view of the work these ladies were perform- 
 ing, we will quote still farther from the Wardrobe 
 Committee's Keport : K Distributed by the Relief 
 Committee of the Washington Total Abstinence 
 Society and the Wardrobe Committee of the Mar- 
 tha Washington Society, from Dec. 10th to Jan. ' 
 10th, twenty-seven yards of muslin ; eleven hats ; 
 twelve pair of shoes ; thirteen vests \ seven 
 coats ; four pair of shoes ; six stocks \ ten pair 
 of pantaloons 5 two jackets ; seven pair of boots ; 
 three ladies' hats 5 one pair gloves ; four shirts \ 
 
14? MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 three dresses ; one cap ; three collars 5 one hand* 
 kerchief ; two children's dresses ; one pair of sus- 
 penders, and twenty shirts." Although the re- 
 port of but one month, this is quite sufficient to 
 show the progress of the Society, when it is add- 
 ed that the increase of paying members averaged 
 about this time, rising a hundred in three months. 
 Were we to give even a clue to the great work 
 which the Society has been instrumental in effect- 
 ing, in redeeming those who had sunk far down 
 in the misery and degradation of intemperance, 
 we fear it might occupy more space than our 
 limits can admit. But to turn habitations of 
 cruelty into homes of peace and plenty, is the 
 work which God, in his Providence, has given 
 into the hands of the Ladies', as well as the Gen- 
 tlemen's Societies, to perform ; and should it be 
 asked, have they done it 1 the answer can best 
 be given in their own words. The following are 
 extracts from the Report of the Visiting Commit- 
 tee: — 
 
 " The Visiting Committee wish to report the suc- 
 cess which has attended their effort in reforming 
 the unfortunate victims of inebriation, and, as a 
 case in point, would state, for the gratification of 
 the Society, the following fact, as touching one 
 of the first subjects that come under their notice. 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 15 
 
 More than two months ago a member of the 
 Washington Temperance Society found in the 
 street a poor victim of intemperance, and on in- 
 quiry found she was from one of our eastern 
 states, in an entire state of destitution. The 
 gentleman immediately took the case in hand, 
 and, through his exertion, she was provided for 
 until the ensuing meeting of your society. Your 
 
 committee learned from Mrs. that she has 
 
 lived in respectable families, that she has a hus- 
 band, to join whom she recently came to this 
 city, he having written to her for that purpose — 
 failing to find him was the cause of all her mis- 
 fortunes. Her means being slender, having had 
 little more than sufficient to defray her expenses 
 to this city, she was obliged to procure cheap 
 accommodations. Although not habitually an in- 
 ebriate previously, but lodging in an intemperate 
 family and overwhelmed with disappointment, 
 she became an easy victim to that soul-destroy- 
 ing evil, as was to be expected. The sequel is 
 soon told — while her means lasted she was wel- 
 come ; her clothing was sold piece by piece un- 
 til nothing was left, when she was informed that 
 she could no longer be accommodated. Mani- 
 festing a desire to reform, she was taken into the 
 family of one of the members and provided with 
 a change of clothing, with whom she remained 
 
16 MARTHA WASHIjNGTOKIANISM. 
 
 until a situation was procured in the family of a 
 respectable physician, where she has continued 
 , ever since, discharging the duties of her office 
 with perfect satisfaction." 
 
 " In the course of my visitation, as a member 
 of the Martha Washington Society, I found in 
 
 street a woman in a most pitiable condition, 
 
 w T ith lier two children, the one eight and the 
 other four years old. The habitation was truly 
 the abode of wretchedness and misery, and my 
 heart sickened at the sight of the wretched 
 mother with scarcely sufficient clothing to cover 
 her person, and I involuntarily exclaimed, ' is it 
 possible that immortal beings, created to glorify 
 their Maker, can be thus degraded 1 has human 
 nature sunk so low 1 The mother being detained 
 at home for want of clothing, the children were 
 sent daily to beg, which afforded them a scanty 
 subsistence. The case appeared almost hopeless ; 
 but remembering that ' the more desperate the 
 case, the more need of exertions,' we were en- 
 couraged to make an effort, which, happily for 
 her and for society, proved eminently successful ; 
 clothing was provided her, she attended our 
 meeting, signed the pledge, and was placed in 
 the family of one of our members, where she 
 gave strong proof of reformation. A situation 
 has since been procured in the country, from 
 
MARTHA WASHINGT0N1ANISM. 17 
 
 whence intelligence has been received of her 
 possessing the entire confidence of her employer. 
 
 "At the mention of the Martha Washington 
 Temperance Society, tears of gratitude flowed 
 from her eyes — despair is driven from her coun- 
 tenance, and she appears truly clothed in her 
 right mind. Her children have been also pro- 
 vided with comfortable homes under the care of 
 the Society, and our hearts ascend in prayer to 
 God that their path through life may be that of 
 the just that c shineth more and more unto the 
 perfect day.' 
 
 " Another is that of a woman who called on one 
 of our ladies one month ago. and informed her of 
 her wretched condition from the effects of intem- 
 perance ; and that her husband as well as herself 
 was intemperate. They had raised a family of 
 children, most of whom had abandoned their pa- 
 rents on account of the disgrace attendant on 
 their mode of living. After attending our meet- 
 ing she signed the pledge. A situation was 
 procured for her, where she gives entire satis- 
 faction ; having entirely renounced her former 
 habits. 
 
 " At another time I called on a family whose 
 situation was truly deplorable ; the whole appear- 
 ance of the house said plainly, this is the abode 
 of him who "tarries long at the wine." The 
 -2* 
 
18 MARTHA WASH1NGT0NIANISM. 
 
 wretched man could not be prevailed on to sign the 
 pledge, although many inducements were held 
 out to him; he said our motives were selfish, and 
 the temperance cause a money-making concern. 
 But God can work by instruments that man 
 would despise. He can clothe the wretched ine- 
 briate and restore him to his right mind. We 
 trust that the friends of temperance will raise 
 their hearts and voices in prayer, that the work 
 may not cease until the mourning of the 
 
 " broken-hearted widows 
 
 Arid the orphan's bitter cry," 
 
 shall no longer be heard, but the songs of praise 
 and thanksgiving be upon every tongue." 
 
 The following fact was furnished by the First 
 Directress of the Martha Washington Society. 
 
 "THE RECLAIMED. 
 
 "About 17 months since, a woman called on 
 me for the purpose of signing the pledge. She 
 proved to be an old acquaintance, and the mother 
 of a girl who had lived in my family about ten 
 years since. She had been intemperate for twenty 
 years, during the greater part of which time she 
 had been separated from her family ; sometimes 
 performing the menial offices of the kitchen, but 
 oftener a wretched outcast, without home or 
 friends. 
 
MARTHA WASHTNGTONIANISM. 19 
 
 " After the mutual surprise had somewhat sub- 
 sided, she said, she had been directed to me to 
 sign the pledge. On being asked if she was liv- 
 ing with her family, she replied that she was not, 
 and that she supposed they knew not whether 
 she was dead or alive ; she stated that she had 
 no home, but that a Washingtonian, a reformed 
 man, who had himself experienced the good 
 effects of signing the pledge, had, though very 
 poor, given her a shelter, and urged her to go 
 and sign it also, lending her his own shoes for the 
 purpose. 
 
 cl At the next meeting of our Society she signed 
 the Pledge and Constitution. A sum, less than 
 two dollars, was expended for her. A mem- 
 ber of the Society wanting help, she obtained 
 immediate employment, and in one week from 
 that time came to the Society and took part in 
 the sewing, and was delighted at the happy 
 change in her condition. 
 
 " She continued to live in that family for several 
 months, during which time her children, seeing 
 the permanency of her reformation, took her 
 once more into their confidence and affection. 
 The husband, too, who had long since given her 
 up as a hopeless case, and who was himself 
 deemed by his friends scarcely less hopeless, 
 became interested in the Washingtonian move- 
 
20 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANtSMi 
 
 ments, signed the pledge, and became a reformed 
 man. 
 
 " This reformed couple, who had scarcely lived 
 together for twenty years, are now joined again, 
 and with their children are keeping house in 
 this city, each endeavoring to render the other 
 happy. 
 
 " To those who doubt the propriety or utility 
 of Ladies' Temperance Benevolent Societies, I 
 would commend to their attention the above 
 facts. In her wretched and destitute condition, 
 to whom could she have appealed had there been 
 no similar association 1 These societies look 
 upon the inebriate, not as hopeless members of 
 society, but in all their degradation they point 
 them to the pledge. Their language to them is, 
 " Sign that pledge, and adhere to its principles, 
 and we will be your friends." It is kind words 
 and kind treatment that melt the drunkard's 
 heart. Such facts are full of encouragement 
 to. every Ladies' Society to persevere in the be- 
 nevolent design of their associations." 
 
 The above selections are not made as contain- 
 ing the most remarkable cases of reformation 
 which have occurred, or which have been report- 
 edi; but they are thrown in to help the reader to 
 some notion of the wonderful work which we are 
 permitted to witness in this labor of humanity. 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTOMAiMISM. 21 
 
 The name of the Society would not appear ap- 
 propriate at first view, only, as associated with 
 that of Washington's, whose name the reformed 
 inebriates of Baltimore had taken. But when we 
 learn the real character of Mrs. Washington, there 
 seems to be a greater fitness in the selection of 
 her name than we might at first imagine. The 
 partner of the immortal Washington, for forty 
 years the sharer of his joys and sorrows, pre- 
 sents not in her public character more than in 
 her private virtues, a fit model for the Societies 
 which have adopted her name. In writing of this 
 lady, her biographer says : — " To her intimate 
 acquaintances and to the nation, the charac- 
 ter of Mrs. Washington was ever a theme of 
 praise. Affable and courteous in her deportment, 
 remarkable for her deeds of charity and piety, 
 unostentatious and without vanity, she adorned 
 by her domestic virtues the sphere of private life, 
 and filled with dignity every station in which she 
 was placed." Unlike the great majority, however, 
 of benevolent individuals, Mrs. Washington had 
 an ample fortune, from which she could draw, to 
 gratify her love of doing good in deeds of charity. 
 But were we to look at her as a model for 
 imitation by our Ladies' Temperance Benevo- 
 lent Societies, we might find even in the abun- 
 dance of her r esources not so foreign a trait 
 
22 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 from the character of our Ladies' Societies. 
 Although composed mostly of women whose 
 earthly comforts are derived mainly from the 
 labor of their own hands, yet the abundance of 
 their resources for doing the good they propose, 
 constitutes their chief excellence. It has too 
 long been supposed that the laboring classes, and 
 " poor people" especially, do not possess the 
 means, and in fact are not the proper persons, to 
 engage in benevolent enterprises — thus, a great 
 majority of the poor themselves believed. The 
 all-pervading opinion has been, that if anything in 
 the form of pecuniary good works were to be 
 done, it must be left to those who are blessed 
 with the abundance of this world's goods. How 
 many of those who have had but limited means, 
 have felt themselves entirely excused from en- 
 gaging in deeds of charity, because they saw 
 neighbors around them so much more able to 
 do than they, thus excuse themselves, and refer 
 it to a class who might be wanting in the in- 
 clination to give ; and thus the work is entirely 
 neglected. But a new era has dawned upon us, 
 and sent forth broad-cast upon the face of socie- 
 ty, the new truth, that all, all classes of human 
 beings, irrespective entirely of what they indi- 
 vidually possess, may share in the luxury of doing 
 good— that all, in their turn, may prove the truth 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 23 
 
 of holy writ, that " it is more blessed to give than 
 to receive.'' All that appears paradoxical in this 
 assertion is obviated, when we see those who have 
 but little or nothing themselves to give, associate 
 together in societies, where they can turn to some 
 good account, a little portion of time or the ser- 
 vice of their hands, either in work, or visiting 
 the poor — carryings the means of relief, as ap- 
 pointed by the society. And in. this work, what a 
 grand opportunity is presented for imparting that 
 which is sometimes more valuable, and, perhaps, 
 needed more than food or clothing, namely ; kind 
 words, good advice, and signs of real sympathy ! 
 With such a field of labor, and with such means 
 of usefulness made accessible alike to all, many 
 kind spirits have risen up and attained to great 
 usefulness, who, until such facilities brought them 
 out, were unknown to society, or not known at 
 least, as possessing any more interest for the 
 miserable and the vicious around them than 
 others. It is a glorious fact that all may be kind, 
 all may do good ; may cultivate good will and 
 unfeigned sympathy to the degraded and the un- 
 fortunate of their race ; and with such feelings, 
 who will fail to be useful % It is this that affords 
 an inexhaustible resource for doing good, and it is 
 this that makes a true Martha Washington Soci- 
 ety, like Mrs. Martha Washington, never without 
 
24 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 the means of affording relief, and making them- 
 selves " remarkable for their deeds of charity 
 and piety." 
 
 Soon after the organization of the Martha 
 Washington Society, the parent society to which 
 the ladies became auxiliary, rented the large hall 
 in the Dispensary, at the corner of White and 
 Centre Streets, where both societies have con- 
 tinued to meet weekly until the present time, and 
 where a clerk is daily employed in administering 
 the pledge, and attending to whatever business 
 may devolve upon him relating to the cause. 
 The time when the Ladies' Society meet, is so ex- 
 tensively known among the poor females of that 
 neighborhood, that it has become a scene worth 
 witnessing to see how many of the unfortunate 
 daughters of misery and woe, will flock to the 
 place where they learn that the voice of kindness 
 is to be heard, giving aid and counsel in tones of 
 tenderness. Mothers are to be met there, with 
 little half-clad and half-fed children by their side, 
 who are driven to their wits' end to keep soul 
 and body together, while the husband and father 
 is the source of their greatest earthly troubles, 
 and even terror. Women, also, are to be met 
 there, on whose faces broods dark despair, pro- 
 duced by "woes too wide to see beyond," 
 which they have brought upon themselves by the 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 25 
 
 use of intoxicating drink ! In marking the rise 
 and progress of the Martha Washington Socie- 
 ties, we have thus far followed the movements of 
 the first society in the field — not because it fur- 
 nishes so much more efficiency now than many 
 others which have sprung up all around it ; but 
 because it is the first society, and has furnished 
 the first examples of success in rescuing and sav- 
 ing the intemperate women — the first society 
 organized to aid reformed inebriates and their 
 destitute families, until they could aid themselves 
 — the first Ladies' Society that demonstrated to 
 the world that kind words and deeds will do more 
 to reform and elevate even the vicious poor than 
 bolts and bars ever did, than the strong arm of 
 the law ever can do — the first female society that 
 has proved that " there is a chord even in the 
 most corrupt heart that vibrates to kindness." 
 The objects and principles of this society needed 
 only to be known in order to be appreciated. 
 Ladies in other parts of the city were not slow 
 in perceiving, that the same work was to be 
 done, the same objects to be accomplished, in 
 every direction, which were proposed by this so- 
 ciety. Not long subsequent to the first organiza- 
 tion being known, an efficient society sprang 
 up, embracing precisely the same objects, call- 
 ed the "Lady Howard Society," thus very dis- 
 3 
 
26 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 tinctly signifying their object by the name they 
 adopted ; — and not a whole year had expired 
 before there were similar societies organized in 
 every ward in New York, and for aught we know, 
 in nearly every county at least, in the northern, 
 middle, and western states of the Union. The 
 press bore a noble part in this work — all the Tem- 
 perance papers in New York at once recognized 
 and advocated the happy adaptation of these so- 
 cieties to sustain and encourage on the Washing- 
 tonian Reform. From a conviction that female 
 influence must be brought to bear in a more effi- 
 cient manner, a semi-monthly paper called " The 
 Olive Plant and Ladies' Temperance Advocate," 
 was commenced for the purpose of advocating 
 the importance of Female Temperance Societies. 
 The first number was published almost simulta- 
 neously with the organization of the Martha Wash- 
 ington Society. Mrs. Steele, author of the 
 " Heroines of Sacred History," wrote for its col- 
 umns " An Appeal to the Ladies of America." 
 This number was stereotyped, and as funds were 
 obtained, copies of it were sent through the 
 length and breadth of the land. Some of the 
 most gifted lady-writers in this country contri- 
 buted to its pages — all tending to show what the 
 fair sex can do to avert the evils and calamities 
 growing out of the fashionable custom of using 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 27 
 
 intoxicating drink, which she had taken so active 
 a part in sanctioning, if not in introducing far and 
 wide through the community. And no paper 
 which has taken any part in the great interests of 
 humanity has been silent on this subject — until 
 the whole people are apprised that Woman is 
 awakening from the slumber of ages to destroy 
 those viperous evils that have so long lived and 
 fattened on the very life-blood of society ; but 
 which are by no means too mighty for her mild, 
 yet Herculean influence to destroy.* 
 
 a Till Hymen brought his love-delighted hour, 
 
 There dwelt no joy in Eden's rosy bower ! — 
 
 In vain the viewless seraph lingering there 
 
 At starry midnight, charmed the silent air ; 
 
 In vain the wild bird carolled on the steep, 
 
 To hail the sun slow wheeling from the deep; 
 
 In vain to soothe the solitary shade, 
 
 iErial notes in mingling murmurs played ; 
 
 The summer wind that shook the spangled tree, 
 
 The whispering wave, the murmur of the bee ; 
 
 Still slowly passed the melancholy day, 
 
 And still the stranger wist not where to stray. 
 
 The world was sad ; the garden was a wild ; 
 
 And man the hermit, sighed — till woman smiled !" 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE DESIGN OF MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 Allow me to urge on all, the importance of devoting some portion of 
 their time in inspecting, as well as of their property in relieving, the dis- 
 tresses of the poor. Robert Hall. 
 
 The design of these Societies is as yet but im- 
 perfectly understood. When it is seen that they 
 meet weekly for making and distributing gar- 
 ments among the poor, and the various methods 
 employed to raise funds, it might be inferred that 
 they are only another class of charitable or relief 
 Societies. But such is not the fact. First of all, 
 they are Temperance Societies. Yes, these ladies 
 felt that they wanted all the moral obligations of 
 the Pledge in arraying their influence against a 
 custom which their sex had done so much to 
 sanction in the community. They are, then, 
 Temperance Societies, as thoroughly as though 
 they had no other object in view but to aid and 
 encourage each other to practice total abstinence 
 from all intoxicating drink. But they are also 
 benevolent Societies ; and to accomplish their 
 purposes, they tax themselves with the payment 
 of a small sum of money monthly, besides what 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 29 
 
 they contribute of clothing", and time devoted to 
 labor and visitations. But it is not their design 
 to aid the poor, simply because they are poor. If 
 they did this, many an unfortunate family might 
 present their claims for aid, who are equally as 
 respectable as themselves. In such a case it 
 would not be the object to improve the character 
 of the persons they aid, but simply their condi- 
 tion. But the peculiar characteristic of the La- 
 dies' Temperance Societies is, that they employ 
 their charities, not to give relief merely, but to 
 improve the life of the person they aid. They 
 make their charities a powerful lever in their 
 hands for raising the individual with whom they 
 communicate to better habits and to an improved 
 state of mind and feelings. It is easy to see that, 
 going to a person now so depressed with poverty 
 as to be almost destitute of the soul-inspiring in- 
 fluence of hope, and so low as to see no way by 
 which he can return to respectable associations, 
 — and say to such, " Change your habits and your 
 company, leave your haunts of dissipation, and 
 we will aid you" — in the language of inspira- 
 tion, " Come thou with us, and we will do thee 
 good" — come into our Society, be one of us, and 
 assume your claim to respectability again. This 
 gives to the person we would reform, evidence of 
 our sincerity : it is doincr " in deed and in 
 3* 
 
30 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 truth," as well as in " word and in tongue. >? 
 Some have labored to find an objection to this 
 course, because it makes an appeal to their self- 
 ishness, coincides with their interest, and offers 
 a premium for hypocrisy. But this is an ob- 
 jection hardly deserving a reply ; for if there 
 should be here and there an instance where a 
 person was so ,ow as to hide his evil designs 
 under the cloak of a pretension to reform, for 
 the sake of " the loaves and fishes," such cases 
 will always be " few and far between." Go to 
 most persons, however low and brutalized their 
 habits may have made them, and convince them 
 by whatever means, only convince them, that you 
 are kind — that you have their good in view — and 
 all the better feelings of their natures are at once 
 aroused, and brought into exercise. 
 
 How many delightful demonstrations have 
 Washingtonians and Martha Washin^tonians had 
 of this fact 1 How many habitations of cruelty 
 have been turned into homes of peace and plenty, 
 — how many who were almost fiends in human 
 form, have been restored, by the unmistaken 
 voice of kindness and sympathy, to all the feel- 
 ings and appearances of a man, a husband, and 
 father — a woman, a wife, a mother ! We are 
 witnesses of these things. 
 
 Instead, then, of the aid that Martha Washing- 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 31 
 
 I tonians afford, being viewed as an end — like the 
 I aid bestowed by most charitable societies, who 
 i combine simply to relieve the distressed — it 
 I should be viewed as a means through which to 
 gain an end, namely, the reformation of the per- 
 son aided. 
 
 It is understood that many persons of wealth 
 impart pecuniary aid as a condescension on their 
 part, never expecting that it will have any other 
 influence, or effect any other moral ends, than 
 simply to lay the receiver under some sort of ob- 
 ligation to the donor — nothing being farther 
 from their purpose than to make their charities 
 serve to elevate the recipient into the same 
 scale of social life with themselves. To re- 
 lieve immediate distress without an effort to 
 effect a reform, then, is the object of the do- 
 nor. This is the ultimate design of many cha- 
 ritable societies also. Not so the Martha Wash- 
 ington Societies. Their alms are all designed to 
 accomplish moral ends. Hence you w r ill find 
 their visiting committees going most frequently 
 " two and two," like the Apostles of old, looking 
 into the dark corners of our towns and cities, 
 into the damp cellars and open garrets, to find 
 those whose poverty and suffering they can con- 
 trol, by pointing out to them a more excellent 
 way of living, and encouraging them to walk in 
 
2 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 it, by offering them pecuniary aid. They go 
 forth with hearts full of good will towards even 
 the vicious poor, a class heretofore almost en- 
 tirely passed by, as not the proper objects of at- 
 tention, much less of charity. Yet Martha 
 Washingtonians restrict themselves to aid none 
 except such as sign the pledge of total absti- 
 nence. And in this way they find enough to do. 
 As an evidence of their success we have only to 
 point to an " exceeding great army," whose con- 
 dition was once as unpromising as were those in 
 the Valley, on whom the prophet looked, when 
 he exclaimed, " Can these bones live % n 
 
 But there is another view which we are to 
 take of the design of these institutions. Their 
 efforts are adapted to promote the greatest good 
 of the greatest number. Instead of building 
 costly asylums, and taking here and there one 
 from among the many, out of society, to a re- 
 treat, and leaving hundreds behind equally as 
 deserving of sympathy as those who happen 
 to be the sharers of their favors, the Martha 
 Washingtonian system proposes going into the 
 community, and making the inebriate's home a 
 house of reformation, and then an asylum, per- 
 chance, to those who may be saved through their 
 instrumentality. Instead of taking them from 
 home to reform them, they would reach them at 
 
MARTHA WASH1NGTONIAN1SM. 33 
 
 home, and thereby make home what it should be. 
 It then becomes a practical, rather than a theo- 
 retical reformation. 
 
 We are aware that this method requires much 
 more of time and 'personal effort on the part of 
 the individuals engaged in the work, than simply 
 to give money, and pay a matron at an asylum ; 
 therefore while it is less expensive, it is more 
 useful. It is the purpose of Martha Washingto- 
 nians to do a great deal of good with a Utile mo- 
 ney, by making up the deficiency of funds in the 
 labor of their hands, and their regular visitations 
 among those whom they are laboring to save. 
 Whoever shall visit one of the weekly working 
 meetings of our Ladies' Societies, will find a 
 portion of the time devoted to hearing reports 
 from the visiting committees, appointed at the 
 previous meeting : for the motto of the society 
 with which all persons are met, applying for aid, 
 is, "Give us your name to the pledge, your street 
 and number, and let us visit you, then we will 
 aid you 5" and this aid is given out according to 
 the judgment of the committee who have inves- 
 tigated the case. We would not be understood 
 to signify by these remarks that asylums are not 
 useful : far otherwise. They are no doubt worth 
 all they cost, and infinitely more. 
 
 We are personally acquainted with an asylum, 
 
34 • MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 the annual expenses of which are not less than 
 $2400, and we have never seen twenty inmates 
 there at one time 5 yet in that asylum has been 
 saved, a class of persons, who, according to all 
 human calculation, would never have been saved 
 in any other way, had they not been brought to 
 that place. We say saved; for, persons have 
 been brought to that asylum, who were the very 
 ministers of sin, and there they have reformed 
 and there died in the triumphs of God's pardon- 
 ing mercy and grace. But all this does not 
 prove that other institutions are not better adapt- 
 ed to the reformation of the great mass who will 
 never be redeemed from vice, if they are to wait 
 until visited by the managers of an asylum. In 
 comparison with the results of Martha Wash- 
 ingtonianism it seems like doing a little good at 
 great expense, instead of a great deal of good 
 with small means. As to Orphan Asylums, we 
 venture the assertion, that should the cause of 
 Temperance triumph, and dissipation cease from 
 among us, they will be as tenantless as some of 
 our County Jails where the traffic of alcoholic 
 liquors has ceased. We have recently learned 
 that, since the use of intoxicating drinks has 
 diminished to such an unprecedented degree 
 in Baltimore, children have been taken by 
 scores from the Orphan Asylum. Between forty 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 35 
 
 and fifty were called for by reformed parents and 
 relatives last year. Precisely the same result 
 has been reported from Philadelphia, and other 
 places where Orphan Asylums have, at a great 
 expense, been established. We believe that when 
 the community are brought back to a state of so- 
 briety and industry, there will not be found any 
 more homeless and orphan children than would 
 be gladly provided for, bv the yearly demand for 
 them in those families which are destitute of chil- 
 dren by death or other causes 
 
 But let us look at the moral bearing of this 
 method. See what pity, what tenderness, what 
 anxious concern it creates in the hearts of the 
 visitors themselves. We know of more than one 
 First Directress of a society, whose whole mind, 
 and nearly the whole of whose time, is absorbed in 
 inventing and prosecuting plans for the encourage- 
 ment of those persons m whose reformation they 
 have reason to hope. Nor arc the principal offi- 
 cers alone in this. There are scores of ladies who 
 were once in the habit of regarding this kind of 
 human misery with apparent apathy, in times 
 when they knew not what ladies could do in the 
 cause of temperance, who are now alive with in- 
 terest, and industrious in their plans for doing 
 good. And it is yet to us a problem as to who 
 in the aggregate, will receive the greatest gain, — 
 
36 MAPwTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 those who give and labor, or those who receive. 
 What still greatly improves this picture is, that 
 hundreds of women who, from their limited 
 means, never expected to know the luxury of do- 
 ing- good, with their earthly substance, have had, 
 by uniting in these Ladies' Societies, a set of 
 kindly and humane feelings drawn forth into use- 
 ful exercise, which has greatly elevated them 
 into the possession of all that is noble and gene- 
 rous, all that is amiable and lovely, all that 
 is to be admired in the gentle and tender graces 
 of woman's nature. In the spirit of " Mercy's 
 angels," they go out as the Almoners of their so- 
 ciety, realizing the full force of the Apostle's 
 doctrine that " It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive;" until " benevolence becomes a prevail- 
 ing habit of the mind, and its exertions make up a 
 part of the cares and toils of life." Were it not 
 for their connection with these societies, many 
 would remain strangers to those delicious emo- 
 tions which the benevolent Author of our nature 
 has implanted in us, to prompt us to relieve the 
 distresses of our fellow beings. We are convinced 
 that this method of administering no relief with- 
 out first personally investigating the case by 
 visiting the objects in their own abode, has the 
 tendency to cherish an habitual tenderness which 
 exceedingly heightens the pleasures of our exist- 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 37 
 
 i ence, while it forms a protection against impo- 
 sitions, which some practise merely to obtain a 
 i subsistence without labor. 
 
 From the Olive Plant. 
 
 WOMAN'S PART IN THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION. 
 
 BY MRS. E. C* STEADMAN (NOW MRS. KENNEY.) 
 
 Say not that woman's voice 
 
 Must stay its silvery note, 
 While the far hills and vales rejoice, 
 
 And on each breeze, doth float 
 Glad tidings, from the field, 
 
 Where Temperance armies stand, 
 Against king Alcohol, to wield 
 
 The sword, w T ith fearless hand 
 
 Let woman, too, rejoice, 
 
 To see the foe recede ; 
 And let her in the l still, small voice/ 
 
 The cause of Temperance plead : 
 And while the thunder-tone 
 
 Of eloquence is stirred ; 
 Her whispered-warning God may own— 
 
 His voice, through hers be heard, 
 4 
 
38 MARTHA WASKINGTOMANISM, 
 
 Say not, that woman's heart 
 
 Its fulness must contain ; 
 Nor from Compassion's fount, impart 
 
 To other hearts again : 
 For since her sex hath shared 
 
 The evils of the foe ; 
 Let not her sympathy be spared, 
 
 Where yet is felt his blow. 
 
 Say not, that woman's hand 
 
 For Temperance hath no power — 
 That she must meek spectator stand, 
 
 In Reformation's hour : 
 Behold, in garments made, 
 
 What woman now hath wrought ! 
 How is th' inebriate's home arrayed 
 
 In comforts she hath brought ! 
 
 See how the gentle band 
 
 Of sisters, onward move — 
 How in one cause, have heart and hand, 
 
 United works with love ! 
 Go on — do what ye can ; 
 
 And as by Eden's laws, 
 Woman must be l help-meet for man/ 
 
 So, in the Temperance cause. 
 
 Cedar Bkook, August, 1841. 
 
PART III. 
 
 CAPABILITIES OF MARTHA WASHINGTONIAN- 
 ISM. 
 
 " As a vine which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, 
 and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is riven by 
 the thunderbolt, cling around it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its 
 shattered boughs ; so is it beautifully ordered by Providence that Wo- 
 man, who is the mere dependant and ornament of man in his happier 
 hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity, 
 winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting 
 the drooping head, and binding up the broken heart." 
 
 Washington Irving. 
 
 In treating of the capabilities of these institu- 
 tions, it will be necessary to consider who are 
 engaged in carrying on the work — its peculiar 
 character, and the adaptation of means for its 
 accomplishment. 
 
 First, then, it will be remembered that it is 
 Woman that has taken charge of this department 
 of human effort — the mothers, wives, sisters 
 and daughters have entered the field, united and 
 determined, to see what female influence can ac- 
 complish, in rescuing and saving from perdition 
 their husbands and sons, their fathers and bro- 
 thers, and all who seek pleasure in the use of in- 
 toxicating liquor. And are not such agents pe- 
 culiarly endowed with capabilities for this work % 
 
40 MARTHA WASHINGTON I ANISM. 
 
 "Oh ! Woman's heart is like the rose, 
 That glows beneath the tropic's flame, 
 Which blooms alike 'mid northern snows, 
 For ever lovely and the same. 
 Whate'er her rank — whate'er her lot, 
 Where'er her gentle influence ranges, 
 The art to bless is ne'er forgot, 
 The will te comfort never changes s " 
 
 Says a late writer, " If, as we are assured by 
 astronomers, scores of new stars have taken 
 rank with the heavenly hosts, during the last two 
 centuries ; stars, brighter than they, have in the 
 same period kindled up new lights in the moral 
 firmament. Among the new stars, one, a little 
 lower than that of Bethlehem, has just appeared 
 above the horizon. It is the star of Woman's In- 
 fluence. Influential woman is a being of scarce- 
 ly two centuries' growth : up to that period, and 
 almost hitherto, her influence has fallen upon hu- 
 man character and society, like the feeble rays 
 of a rising winter's sun upon polar fields of ice. 
 But her sun is now reaching upward — there is a 
 sacredness, as well as potency, in female influ- 
 ence ; sacred, because of its power, and peculiar- 
 ly so when brought to bear on proper objects. 
 And where is the true greatness of woman's 
 power seen, as in the cause of humanity and 
 virtue 1 Martha Washingtonian measures fur- 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTOJSIANISM. 4<1 
 
 nish daily demonstrations that there are none so 
 low and degraded, but that woman's influence 
 can reach and save them. We meet the men 
 daily in our streets, who, amidst all the exciting 
 influences and soul-stirring measures of reformed 
 inebriates, remained unmoved; they had no de- 
 sire to leave their wretchedness and to reform, un- 
 til approached by some kind-hearted female, who 
 took it upon herself to care for them ; and in the 
 silver tones of female eloquence pleaded with 
 them to save themselves. This had the effect. 
 The desire to live again was created, and an effort 
 which produced reformation was made, and they 
 are saved I The delicate and refined sensibility, 
 the modesty of feeling and manner, the gentle 
 and unassuming tenderness which a lady-like fe- 
 male possesses in a degree with which the 
 " sterner sex" are not endowed, gives her deci- 
 dedly the vantage-ground over man, in elevating 
 the degraded portion of our race. This being 
 the fact, who can be at a loss respecting " Wo- 
 man's sphere 1" In the cause of humanity she 
 may labor, and in the spirit of a moral heroine 
 battle with vice and misery successfully, and 
 achieve triumphs that will live in their blessed 
 results when time shall be no more, and at the 
 same time never step out of the position in 
 which God has placed her, never assume the 
 4* 
 
42 MARTHA WASHINGT0NIAN1SIYI. 
 
 control of affairs in which she is the a depend- 
 ant" on man, to whom she should look with reli- 
 ance, — which indeed gives her another charm in 
 the eyes of her protector and friend. Such are 
 the individual capabilities of those who make up 
 and manage the affairs of Martha Washington 
 Societies. 
 
 In considering the character of this work, it 
 should be contemplated in both its moral and 
 social relations. Like the Washingtonians, they 
 do not profess to be religious societies — 
 they hold no auxiliary connection with any of 
 the religious institutions of the day — but, al- 
 though not missionary societies, they are a so- 
 ciety of missionaries, and, in this capacity, have 
 from the beginning felt that the work they had to 
 perform was one which must receive the sanction 
 of the Divine Being, in order to succeed. In 
 this view they almost uniformly open their meet- 
 ings by reading the Scriptures and prayer ; and 
 never was there a meeting of any kind where the 
 managers have felt more dependence on God, 
 We have listened to the prayers offered up at the 
 opening of these meetings. Burthened with the 
 condition of the families they were aiding, and of 
 those also yet in the miseries of intemperance, 
 they poured out their souls to God in such 
 earnest supplication, as to affect the meeting to 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 43 
 
 tears. What a pleasing sight is here to be seen 
 — a company of ladies are assembled to pass an 
 afternoon in making garments for the poor, who, 
 first of all, bow before God, and " with strong 
 cries and tears" implore His blessing on their 
 labors. It is a sight upon which He, who in the 
 days of his flesh " went about doing good," looks 
 down well pleased. Agreeably with this view of 
 their character, we find among the first resolu- 
 tions passed by the Martha Washington Societies 
 the following: — "Resolved, that the thanks of 
 this Society be tendered to the Rev. S. E. Jones, 
 Financial Secretary of the American Bible So- 
 ciety, for the donation of a Bible." It is impos- 
 sible for the ladies to meet and perform labor, 
 and draw plans to relieve the suffering and re- 
 claim the intemperate, with no hope of any 
 earthly reward, without having produced in them- 
 selves a more expansive benevolence and a kind- 
 lier feeling. The tendency of the societies, 
 therefore, is to improve the moral feeling of 
 the members. This fact alone is one which 
 should lead us to cherish them as associations 
 deserving our highest regard. The Lady Howard 
 Society, the second society organized, also ob- 
 tained a Bible by donation, and, to make the im- 
 pression indelible on the members, that they were 
 to be governed by its principles, the first direct- 
 
44 MARTHA WASHIKGTONIANISM. 
 
 ress made an imposing scene of its reception. 
 We find in the " Crystal Fount," a temperance 
 paper published in this city, under date of Sep- 
 tember 21, 1842, the following notice: — "Hap- 
 pening along by the Lady Howard Society, we 
 dropped in and spent as pleasant an evening as 
 we remember to have enjoyed in a long time. 
 When we entered, Mrs. Hawley, the first direct- 
 ress, was presenting a Bible which had been 
 given by Mr. Hyde, of the Bible House, to the 
 Society — the precious gift was received by 
 Mrs. Fearon, one of the members, in their be- 
 half." The writer says, " it was a splendid Bible 
 and a neat speech." The influence of such a 
 performance could have been none other than im- 
 pressive and good. 
 
 PRESENTATION OF BANNERS. 
 
 The presentation of Banners has always been 
 an interesting occasion. We have sometimes 
 regretted that so much money should otherwise 
 be appropriated than to relieve the poor. But 
 when it is considered that a banner seems to be 
 an indispensable appendage to a society^ particu- 
 larly in the city, where societies assemble and 
 form processions, and that the money raised for 
 the purchase of a banner is generally obtained for 
 
MARTHA WASHI1NGT0NIAMSM. 45 
 
 that purpose, when, were it not for that, it might 
 not be raised at all, it cannot be viewed as taking 
 aught from the funds of the society or robbing 
 the poor of one tittle. But, on the contrary, the 
 interest that the banner presentations have created 
 beyond what it would have been, were it not for 
 these imposing ceremonies, it is believed the 
 funds of the societies have been increased by 
 them. 
 
 The first Banner presented by the ladies was 
 given by the Martha Washington Society to the 
 young men, " The Junior Washington Society." 
 The Banner was neatly got up, containing the 
 portrait of Washington, under which is the fol- 
 lowing motto : — " Let the rising generation be a 
 temperate one." The ceremony was performed 
 in the Washington Temperance Hall, which was 
 at an early hour crowded to excess. A commit- 
 tee of ladies were appointed to present the Ban- 
 ner to the president of the young men, of whom 
 Miss Ann M. Waldron, secretary of the society, 
 was chairman, and made the speech, which was 
 commenced as follows : — 
 "Mr. President, — 
 
 " The ladies of the Martha Washington Tem- 
 perance Society having beheld with pleasure the 
 formation of the society over which you have 
 the honor to preside, were desirous of giving you 
 
46 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 some substantial evidence of the deep interest 
 they feel in the success of your association — an 
 association yet in its infancy, but which is des- 
 tined, as they fondly hope, soon to make itself 
 known and appreciated, not less by the respecta- 
 bility of its numbers, than by the high moral 
 worth of its members. In furtherance of this ob- 
 ject, sir, the society resolved to present you with 
 a Banner, under which your swelling numbers 
 might be hereafter marshalled." 
 
 This was replied to by Mr. Aikeman, presi- 
 dent of the society, in a neat and appropriate 
 manner. Were it not for swelling this little vol- 
 ume beyond its prescribed limits, we should be 
 most happy to give both of those addresses en- 
 tire — as they were full of pathos and enthusiasm. 
 
 THE FIREMEN OF NEW YORK. 
 
 While considering this subject, it should not go 
 unnoticed, that the great reform which is going 
 on among the fire companies in all our cities and 
 large towns, received its first impulse, as we 
 believe, in the presentation of a Banner. Some 
 of the members of fire engine company No. 18, 
 having signed the total abstinence pledge at the 
 Howard temperance meetings, it was proposed to 
 them by some members of the Lady Howard 
 society, that if all the company would come for- 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 47 
 
 ward and enrol their names as members, the ladies 
 would present them a beautiful Temperance Ban- 
 ner. The offer was taken into consideration by 
 the company, and when they were agreed to come 
 en masse they gave the society notice. The eve- 
 ning was appointed, and seats reserved for them. 
 We were present to witness their entrance, all in 
 firemen's uniform, led on by their foreman, and 
 saw every member of the company attach his 
 name to the temperance pledge. No time was 
 lost on the part of the ladies in redeeming their 
 pledge. The Banner was procured — the device 
 was strikingly appropriate and beautifully painted 
 — the time and place for its presentation was ap- 
 pointed. A large church was procured, and a 
 platform erected in front of the pulpit, sufficiently 
 large to accommodate the firemen on one side, 
 and the Ladies' Society on the other, when among 
 other exercises the presentation of the Banner 
 took place before a crowded audience. It was 
 performed, on the part of the ladies, by their 
 secretary, Miss Mary A. Downing, and received 
 by % the foreman of the company. In the course 
 of her address Miss Downing remarked, "If any 
 one class of citizens more than another should be 
 temperate, it is the firemen, as it is to them we 
 look for the protection of our property and our 
 lives. When the sable curtain of night is drawn 
 
48 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 around us, and we are quietly reposing on our 
 pillow, who is it that is first to hear the sound of 
 yonder c alarm bell,' as it tolls off the burning 
 district % Is it not the fireman 1 Who is first 
 awake to the shrill cry of the watchman, as he 
 breaks the stillness of night, when the call is 
 made upon our fellow citizens to turn out, for fire 
 is raging in the city 1 Who, we ask, is the first 
 seen in the streets 1 Is it not the fireman 1 When 
 that building is wrapt in flames, who is first to 
 hazard his life to save the inmates from the most 
 distressing of all deaths % It is the fireman. If 
 such then be your worth ; if such your praise- 
 worthy acts; if such your danger, should you 
 not be temperate men % Then go forth in a 
 mighty phalanx — go forth and rear the standard 
 of temperance — show to your fellow firemen that 
 you can brave the severest storm of winter or 
 bask in the sultry heat of summer without the 
 use of intoxicating drinks. And now, members 
 of Union Company No. 18, as a token of our re- 
 spect and approbation of your course, we, the 
 members of the Lady Howard Temperance So- 
 ciety, present you with the first Fireman's Banner 
 that was ever unfurled in the city of New York. 
 May it long wave in triumph over your heads, and 
 may Heaven forbid that you should ever prove 
 recreant to the high trust we have reposed in 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 49 
 
 you." On receiving the Banner, the foreman 
 made a reply in behalf of the company. There 
 was a deep moral feeling which pervaded the 
 audience. The old men wept, and the young 
 listened with seriousness. It was indeed a scene 
 on which the philanthropist could look with feel- 
 ings of gratitude and joy, and which shadowed 
 forth to the Christian's mind omens of future 
 good. 
 
 A writer for the Olive Plant, in a notice of 
 this scene, says, " there shone forth a feeling 
 of enthusiasm that reminded us of the days of 
 romance and chivalry, when high-born dames 
 were wont to bestow such honors on the daunt- 
 less champions, who had most nobly and suc- 
 cessfully encountered their enemies and defend- 
 ed their rights." That first Fireman's Banner in 
 New York, or any other city for aught we 
 know, has waved in honored triumph ever since. 
 Nor has it waved alone ! Fire companies have 
 since come in such numbers to the Temperance 
 standard, and in a body signed the pledge, that 
 its novelty has passed away. It can hardly be 
 imagined how much total abstinence has im- 
 proved the deportment of the firemen, not only 
 at fires, but also at their engine-house meetings. 
 The mother who used to mourn over the mid- 
 night revelries of her son, now finds him, al- 
 5 
 
50 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 though still a member of a fire company, at 
 home, or at some useful meeting. The number 
 of fire companies who are not now practising 
 total abstinence is quite in the minority. Nor 
 is the time far distant when a fire company 
 which indulges in the use of intoxicating liquors 
 will be unknown in New York or any other city 
 of the Union. How much the presentation of 
 the banner to fire company No. 18, has done in 
 giving an impulse and an example which has 
 been followed by so many others in New York 
 and other cities, we leave others to decide, 
 
 CONCERTS. 
 
 Concerts have been useful. They have brought 
 the power of music to serve a useful purpose 
 — they have produced a demand for music, 
 which has, in turn, greatly improved its charac- 
 ter, at least, as employed among the Washing- 
 tonians. The Ladies' Societies of New York 
 embrace as fine musical talent as can ordinarily 
 be found. They have also been pecuniarily pro- 
 ductive. 
 
 Pic-JVic and Tea Parties, and excursions, as 
 managed by the Ladies' and Gentlemen's So- 
 cieties united, going by steam-boats to some 
 place adjacent to the city, have had their social 
 benefits. On these occasions, remote Societies 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 51 
 
 have met and greeted and cheered each other on 
 in their self-denying, yet life-sustaining course. 
 Such an air of cheerfulness, of innocent enjoy- 
 ment, pervades the scene, that what the inebriate 
 feared he might lose in leaving his cups, he has 
 found in a far higher and more refined enjoy- 
 ment. The social character, then, of these 
 institutions, growing out of the means employed 
 to restore a lost race to the position of husbands, 
 brothers, fathers and good citizens, forms a con- 
 trolling power which ladies wield with great 
 effect. 
 
 Thus, a train of means has been put in ope- 
 ration, the certain results of which will be to 
 lessen vice, dissipation, and human suffering in 
 all its forms. Begging children already begin 
 to disappear from our streets, and we trust the 
 day is not far distant when kindness and good- 
 will will become predominant in the community, 
 and when there shall nothing be left " to harm 
 or destroy in all God's holy mountain." 
 
 The direct connection that exists between 
 most of the Ladies 5 Societies and those of the 
 Gentlemen, bring them into constant contact 
 with each other ; the influence of which is de- 
 cidedly good, particularly on the reformed men. 
 No better evidence of returning self-respect can 
 be found in a reformed inebriate than to see him 
 
52 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 prize the society and good-will of respectable 
 females $ and it is a remarkable fact, that the 
 comparatively small number of men who have 
 broken their pledge, and relapsed into their 
 former habits in New York, is owing mainly to 
 the obligation that the ladies have immediately 
 laid them under by some kind favor they had 
 occasion to do them. The interest manifested 
 by those whose society the drunkard had for- 
 saken for his cups, takes them by surprise. They 
 are awakened into life by their cheerful coun- 
 tenances, — by the music of their voices as they 
 " sing the praise of water," and by the mani- 
 festation of kind feelings, all coming from those 
 whose respect, more than all others, they had 
 forfeited. 
 
 There is a happy adaptation in the peculiar po- 
 sition which the Ladies' Societies occupy, to call 
 out all the higher and better feelings of the re- 
 formed man's nature, for in his integrity and re- 
 formation they make proffers of confidence, the 
 moment he signs the pledge. The means which 
 the ladies have from time to time employed, and 
 which have brought their influence immediately 
 to bear on the male societies, should not pass un- 
 noticed. The presenting of banners, bearing 
 appropriate mottoes, and of signal lanterns, to 
 fire companies, who, as such, had signed the 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 53 
 
 pledge, and medals to individuals, who had in 
 some form of usefulness become distinguished, 
 have all created not only strong social obligations, 
 but have extended an interest far and wide in the 
 community. Two of the principal means which 
 the ladies have .employed to accomplish their 
 merciful designs are to carry out a system of 
 visiting and personally investigating the cases of 
 those they would reform, and in extending pe- 
 cuniary aid to the cases that demand it. The 
 ordinary method of raising funds to carry on 
 the work, is to tax themselves with the payment 
 of a sum which does not generally exceed one 
 shilling a month. To sign the pledge only, no 
 sum is required. These are called "pledged 
 members," thousands of whom in no other way 
 become members of the society/ 
 
 But those who become members in the 
 sense required by the Constitution, aim not only 
 to practise total abstinence themselves, but 
 also, to labor for the good of others. Such 
 are called " constitutional members." These 
 members meet on a given day of each week, to 
 make and repair garments, and to devise the best 
 plans for their appropriation. Visiting commit- 
 tees are therefore appointed, whose labors can 
 be made exceedingly useful by personal conver- 
 sation and appropriating the means of relief. A 
 5* 
 
54? MARTHA WAfiHUf GTONIA^ 1 8M . 
 
 lasting impression is made by these almoners, for 
 good or for evil, according to the spirit in which 
 they do their work. 
 
 PERMANENCE OF THE SOCIETIES. 
 
 The societies, thus far, have received no large 
 donations — they have, with the exception of a 
 few dollars which some of the societies may have 
 in their treasury, no unappropriated funds ; and 
 the regular channels for receiving them by mem- 
 bership, &c, but little more than meet the con- 
 tingent expenses, such as paying for rent, fire, &c. 
 Other methods are resorted to for raising funds > 
 such as " concerts," " temperance entertain- 
 ments," "fairs," &c. ; to all of which, a fee of ad- 
 mission is required — and in most cases they have 
 been so liberally patronized as to be productive. 
 But when the public see in these societies, 
 their happy adaptation of usefulness to the great 
 mass, and especially to that class of the poor, 
 who have hitherto been regarded as not the pro- 
 per objects of pecuniary aid — an adaptation which 
 is not found in many other benevolent Institu- 
 tions — we have no doubt they will be more 
 highly appreciated, and will yet receive dona- 
 tions of a more liberal and extended character, by 
 which they will be enabled to take a more per- 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 55 
 
 manent form, and conduct their measures more 
 efficiently than ever before. And for this pur- 
 pose we should advise some one or more of the 
 societies of this city to become incorporated and 
 provide themselves with the proper qualifications 
 for holding property. Funds will then, in the 
 providence of God, come to hand. 
 
 If appeals can be made to the ladies with suc- 
 cess, for promoting objects relating only to patri- 
 otic deeds — if the women of New England could 
 be roused to the work of raising funds to com- 
 plete the Bunker Hill Monument — we think there 
 can be no doubt that, when the importance of 
 funds to the success of female temperance bene- 
 volent Societies comes fairly before the Ladies 
 of New York, they will be willing to institute 
 and sustain measures that will build a monument 
 to the memory and permanence of Martha 
 Washingtonianism, that will be more useful to 
 the cause of humanity, and honorable to them- 
 selves, than if they were to build a monument to 
 the memory of every battle won by carnage and 
 death in American history. 
 
 We venture the opinion that these institutions 
 are destined to illustrate the principle of adapta- 
 tion, which must renovate all our moral and be- 
 nevolent Societies before the great reform the 
 world needs shall be consummated. It is our 
 
56 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 ardent hope, therefore, that the Martha Washing 
 ton Societies which have sprung up within the 
 last two years, may continue in their works 
 of faith and labors of love — nor cease their 
 efforts so long as they can inculcate compassion 
 for the unfortunate, or employ means for reviving 
 hope in the despairing, and in lessening the tears 
 of suffering humanity. 
 
 " Oh ! Thou who poured the pitying tide 
 
 That flows through woman's gentle breast, 
 And streams of tenderness supplied 
 
 To aid and comfort the distressed, 
 Making, in all life's scenes of ill, 
 Woman a guardian angel still, — 
 Against our nation's deadliest sin 
 
 Bid female purity unite ; 
 Aid us, oh Lord ! our cause to win, 
 
 By firm example's steadfast might, 
 'Till foul Intemperance has flown, 
 Abashed by Virtue's awful frown. 
 Rouse, God of Truth ! each lukewarm heart, 
 
 Give wisdom to each wav'ring mind, 
 Let woman bear a lofty part 
 
 In teaching Temperance to mankind — 
 Seeking with pure untiring zeal 
 Tne wounds of sin and grief to heal." 
 
 , 
 
PART IV. 
 
 " I will that women adorn themselves, not with braidened hair, or gold, 
 or pearls, or costly array, but with good works."— St. Paul. 
 
 "These (Ladies') associations are doing a great work in reforming and 
 saving the nation. Never before has charity been so well bestowed. — 
 Rev. John Marsh. 
 
 This Part will be entirely occupied in present- 
 ing a view of the many societies which have 
 sprung up in New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, 
 and Newark. We have done this with such ma- 
 terials as we could obtain. The same kind of ac- 
 curacy looked for in an annual report should not 
 be expected, but the greatest inaccuracy that can 
 be detected is on the side of an incomplete, in- 
 stead of an exaggerated statement of facts. 
 Where the Secretaries have made their own re- 
 ports, no doubt the statistics are complete, but 
 without such aid we have been careful to keep 
 within the truth. 
 
 We have no question that there are now more 
 of these societies in New York than will be sus- 
 tained. All that are herein reported, we know, 
 meet weekly for the purpose of accomplishing 
 their humane and benevolent designs ; and there 
 can be no doubt they are all doing good. But it 
 
58 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 is our opinion that they will continue to do good 
 much longer if, in many cases, two or three so- 
 cieties were to consolidate into one. This would 
 save the contingent expenses of several societies, 
 and the money thus saved could be expended in 
 giving permanence to those which might remain. 
 
 For the better information of those who may 
 smile over the names of these Ladies' Societies, 
 they should know that nearly every Ladies' So- 
 ciety is christened by the name of the Washington 
 Society, to which they are auxiliary, for the gen- 
 tlemen have learned that where they have no la- 
 dies' society with whom to co-operate, they but 
 half do their work. 
 
 Who that reads the following pages can for- 
 bear to rejoice at the humane, philanthropic and 
 benevolent spirit that is evidently gaining upon 
 the whole face of the community ! " Let us rejoice 
 in it and be glad all the days of our lives." 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 1 .—THE MAKTHA WASHING-TON TEMPERANCE BENEVO- 
 LENT SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized 12th of May, 1841. 
 Since its organization nineteen hundred have 
 signed the pledge, nearly one half of whom be- 
 came constitutional members. The society have 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 59 
 
 aided about seven hundred individuals and fami- 
 lies. They have distributed two thousand gar- 
 ments, and expended $500 in money. 
 
 They have presented two banners, one to the 
 Junior Washington Society, and one to hose 
 company No. 33. To aid their funds they have 
 held musical concerts and one Pic Nic party, &c. 
 In the winter of 184?2, they received from the 
 Martha Washington Society of New Haven a 
 box of seasonable articles of clothing for distri- 
 bution. By the hands of Mr. John Hawkins, they 
 received from the Lady Washington Society of 
 Boston, a splendid plum cake, weighing fifty 
 pounds, for the festival held in commemoration 
 of Washington's Birth-Day, Feb. 22d, of the 
 same winter. This cake was in the form of a 
 castle, elegantly ornamented ; from the battle- 
 ments of which w r ere displayed two beautiful 
 satin banners, with suitable inscriptions, The 
 May following they returned the compliment to 
 the ladies of Boston, in a plain cake, weighing 
 sixty pounds, for their fair. 
 
 Mrs. H. McKay, Cor. Sec'ry. 
 Miss Ann Gordon, Re.c. Sec'ry. 
 
 2.— THE LADY HOWARD T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized June 13th, 184>1. 
 Ten hundred and twenty-five have signed their 
 
60 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 pledge, two hundred and twenty-five of whom 
 have become constitutional members. 
 
 At their first annual meeting, this society re- 
 ported, among other facts, that about one hun- 
 dred intemperate women had signed the pledge of 
 total abstinence, and had reformed under their 
 auspices. They have presented two banners — 
 one to the Howard Society, the other to fire 
 company No. 18. They have also presented a 
 number of medals to the pioneers of the Wash" 
 ingtonian reform in New York ; and also a medal 
 to one of their own managers — herself a reformed 
 woman, who has risen up, under the good in- 
 fluence of the society, to respectability and use- 
 fulness in the cause. This woman's case fur- 
 nishes a living demonstration that, under the 
 life-giving influence of kind attentions from her 
 own sex, intemperate females as well as men can 
 be restored to themselves, to their families, to 
 society, and to happiness. The number of gar- 
 ments, and amount of money distributed, not re- 
 ported. In a late communication to the " Olive 
 Plant," the secretary says : — " We have been 
 surprised at the rapid progress temperance has 
 made amongst us ; but we are much more sur- 
 prised that any lady, possessed of one spark of 
 sympathy for suffering humanity, can stand as an 
 idle spectator in this work." 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 61 
 
 3.— LADY MANHATTAN T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized Sept, 1st, 1841 . 
 
 One hundred and eighty-four have signed their 
 pledge, one hundred and nineteen of whom are 
 constitutional members. This society has been 
 diligent from the beginning. They have distri- 
 buted about five hundred different kinds of bed 
 clothes and wearing apparel, besides contributing 
 other timely necessaries for those they have la- 
 bored to save. 
 
 A banner, costing $85 00, was presented on 
 the 13th of July, to the gentlemen's Manhattan 
 Society, all of which was paid for by donations 
 made for that purpose. They have recently had 
 a fair to aid their funds, which was well patroniz- 
 ed and made productive. 
 
 4.— THE LADY MOUNT PITT T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized October 23d, 1841. 
 
 About four hundred have signed their pledge, 
 a portion of whom are constitutional members. 
 
 On the 24th of March, 1842, they presented to 
 hose company No. 15 a beautiful banner. They 
 have given Pic Nic and other entertainments, and 
 have rendered themselves quite useful in making 
 and distributing garments among the families of 
 reformed inebriates, and in aiding the male so- 
 ciety, to which they are auxiliary. They re- 
 6 
 
62 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM 
 
 ceived fifty dollars in one donation, to carry on 
 their benevolent purposes. 
 
 5.— LADY CLINTON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized Jan. 8, 1842. 
 
 Rising three hundred and fifty have signed 
 their pledge, about a hundred and fifty of whom 
 are constitutional members. 
 
 This society have presented banners, given 
 concerts, and in numerous ways brought their in- 
 fluence to bear effectually in the great cause of 
 humanity. Composed of excellent members, 
 they will let no occasion pass unimproved, in 
 reforming and improving the characters and 
 condition of all who come within the sphere of 
 their influence. In a report made some months 
 since, the secretary says : 
 
 " The object of this society being, to aid in re- 
 lieving the destitution of the reformed inebriates, 
 meetings have been held for that purpose. A 
 number of garments have been distributed. A 
 spirit of deep interest and unitedness in the cause 
 has been manifested in all our meetings, which 
 have usually been well attended. 
 
 " In reviewing the rise, progress, and present 
 prospects of this society, we cannot but take en- 
 couragement to go forward with renewed zeal in 
 our labors, looking to Him for strength and guid- 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 63 
 
 ance, who has thus far crowned our feeble efforts 
 with success." 
 
 6.— LADY WASHINGTON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized Bee, % 1841. 
 
 At the formation of this Society, there were 
 but five members, and for some weeks we were 
 fearful we should not succeed in this effort, but 
 by the blessing of an all-wise Providence, our 
 most sanguine expectations have been more than 
 realized. We now number nine hundred, includ- 
 ing pledged and constitutional members. 
 
 We have received, during the year, $275, in- 
 cluding a donation from the American Temper- 
 ance Union, through the Rev. John Marsh, their 
 secretary, $27 39 ; from Express Hose Co. 13, 
 the proceeds of a concert, and the avails of our 
 Fair, held in September, which was $92. This 
 has been judiciously expended for the poor, in- 
 cluding the incidental expenses of the society, 
 with the exception of $70 handed over to the 
 Washington Total Abstinence Society, and $16 
 95 now remaining in the treasury. We also have 
 received six hundred and ten articles of various 
 kinds of second-hand clothing as donations ; 
 about two hundred and thirty new garments have 
 been cut out of goods bought with the society's 
 funds, eight hundred and fifty, including new and 
 
64 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 old, have been distributed to about two hundred 
 and fifty different individuals, who have been vi- 
 sited by the relief committee, and considered 
 worthy objects of our charity. It is true, we 
 have a trifle of money on hand, and our wardrobe 
 is not entirely empty, but we have not sufficient 
 to carry us through the ensuing winter. Appli- 
 cations are numerous and pressing, and the little 
 we now have will soon be expended. This so- 
 ciety has presented three banners, one to the 
 Gentlemen's society, one to Chatham Fire Com- 
 pany, and one to Express Hose Company. We 
 also held the first Temperance Fair, which was a 
 successful experiment. 
 
 FACTS. 
 
 On Monday evening, Feb. 20th, 1843, the so- 
 ciety met, and, as usual, the meeting was opened 
 by reading the scriptures, and prayer, after which 
 a Bible was presented, through Mr. McKibbin, 
 from the American Bible Society. There were 
 also present two intelligent looking females, 
 Americans, with streaming eyes and broken 
 hearts, asking protection for the night. They 
 stated that for several years they had been ad- 
 dicted to intemperance, and consequently had been 
 sent by the authorities of this city to Blackwell's 
 Island ; they had there, about two weeks since, 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 65 
 
 r 
 
 at a temperance meeting, signed the total absti- 
 nence pledge, and were determined to live a bet- 
 ter life and drink no more ; they also said they 
 had that day been set at liberty, and returned to 
 the city ; they had no home nor friends, were 
 tired and hungry, and could not think of return- 
 ing to their former associates for shelter. We 
 listened to their tales of misery and distress with 
 grateful hearts to the Father of Mercies, for hav- 
 ing given us a disposition to alleviate the suffer- 
 ing of such. We readily received them under 
 our care , and they were conducted to a respect- 
 able temperance boarding house, where they will 
 be kindly taken care of, at the expense of the 
 Society. The time for adjournment having ar- 
 rived, the meeting was closed by singing the 
 Doxology. 
 
 Mrs. G. McKibbin, 1st Directress, 
 Miss Lucy Graves, Secretary. 
 
 7.— LADY CHELSEA T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized Bee. 8th, 1841. 
 Members both pledged and constitutional, 
 about 400. 
 
 They have presented two banners, one to the 
 gentlemen's Chelsea Society, the other to Fire 
 Company, No. 48. 
 Like the other societies, they have distributed 
 6* 
 
66 MARTHA WASHINttTONIAMSM. 
 
 both money and clothing. The amount we can- 
 not report accurately. There are excellent wo- 
 men actively engaged in this society, who have 
 had the pleasure of witnessing some deeply inter- 
 esting cases of reformation. 
 
 8.— LADIES 5 COLD SPRING T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized Dec. 21st, 1841. 
 
 Three hundred and sixty-four have signed their 
 pledge, one hundred and fourteen of whom are 
 constitutional members. 
 
 Nearly four hundred pieces of clothing have 
 been given to the Society, most of which have 
 been distributed. More than six months since 
 $114 had been expended, and the Society has 
 been at work since that time. 
 
 In the month of February, 1842, the Society 
 had a grand concert in aid of their funds, at 
 which some of the best musical talents in New 
 York were employed. Terms of admission, 25 
 cents. In the same month, they presented a 
 splendid banner to the gentlemen's society. 
 
 In November last, they presented a banner to 
 the Young Men's Cold Spring Temperance Soci- 
 ety. On each of these occasions, large audi- 
 ences were in attendance, and the exercises 
 were deeply interesting. 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 67 
 
 9.— LADY LA FAYETTE T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized January 25th, 1842. 
 
 Three hundred and ninety-eight have signed 
 the pledge, one hundred and fifty-eight of whom 
 are constitutional members. Nearly four hun- 
 dred articles of bedding and wearing apparel have 
 been distributed by their hands, besides $95 34. 
 
 This Society numbers seventeen individuals 
 who have been reclaimed from inebriety through 
 their instrumentality. They have presented two 
 banners ; one to the La Fayette Society, on the 
 1st of February, 1842; the other to Fire En- 
 gine Company, No. 10, on the 18th of June fol- 
 lowing. This Society has been useful, and is 
 still doing good. 
 
 10.— LADY COLUMBIAN T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized March 1st, 1842. 
 Nearly one hundred and fifty have signed the 
 pledg'e. We have no other particulars. 
 
 11,— LADY UNION T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized March 9th, 1842. 
 Number of members, three hundred and twen- 
 ty-two, ninety-six of whom are constitutional 
 members. They have given out one hundred 
 and thirty articles of clothing, besides other 
 
68 MARTHA WASHIInGTOxNIAJNISM. 
 
 modes of assistance which the Society has ren- 
 dered to individuals under various circumstances. 
 To aid the funds of the society, they have had 
 one concert and a grand temperance gathering, 
 at which twenty-five couple of children from the 
 City Farms were exhibited, and took part in the 
 exercises. Received and expended rising $75. 
 
 12.— LADIES' GOOD SAMARITAN T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized March 16M, 1842. 
 
 Five hundred and forty-three have signed the 
 pledge, eighty-six of whom are constitutional 
 members. The Society have reformed and aided 
 one hundred and six persons — have expended in 
 money $180 57 cents, and distributed three hun- 
 dred and twenty-two articles of various kinds of 
 clothing. On the 1st of July last, they presented 
 a Hook and Ladder Company with a magnificent 
 banner. 
 
 Besides attending to the wants of the sick, this 
 Society has paid the funeral expenses of four de- 
 ceased persons, who appeared to be without 
 friends that could do this last act of humanity. 
 
 13.— LADIES 5 HAND-IN-HAND T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized March 1842, 
 And has had rising one hundred and fifty mem- 
 bers sign the pledge and constitution. The So- 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 69 
 
 ciety continue to meet, and are useful. Further 
 particulars not known. 
 
 14.— LADY MOUNT VERNON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized April 1st, 1842. 
 
 Two hundred and seventy-five have signed 
 their pledge, about one hundred of whom are con- 
 stitutional members. This Society have pre- 
 sented two banners, one to the Gentleman 
 Mount Vernon Society, and the other to Forrest 
 Fire Engine Company. 
 
 They have been active and successful. In a 
 notice of the Society, the First Directress 
 writes : 
 
 " The nature of this Society is so generally 
 understood as to render explanation unnecessary. 
 The secret of the great success which has 
 attended our labors, is the spirit with which 
 it is performed. Instead of reproaching the 
 fallen of our sex with harsh rebukes, we offer 
 the friendship and confidence of our ladies. Af- 
 ter signing the pledge, they are visited and their 
 immediate wants supplied, as far as possible, and 
 employment secured for them. Thus, real and 
 efficient sympathy gives them a motive for good 
 action, and rarely do they disappoint us. 
 
70 MARTHA WASHIx\GTONIANISM. 
 
 15.— LADY E. C. DELAVAN T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 The Lady E. C. Delavan T. B. Society was or- 
 ganized on the 6th April, 1842 ; and immediately 
 became auxiliary to the Shipwright and Caulkers 
 Temperance Benevolent Society. 
 
 We number, fifty-six constitutional and one 
 hundred and seventy-five pledged members. 
 
 We have held one public meeting, and given 
 two temperance concerts ; and realized from 
 them the sum of $43 78. 
 
 Our Treasurer acknowledges the receipt (from 
 fees, dues, donations, &c.) of $22 53. Our ex- 
 penditures have nearly kept pace with our re- 
 ceipts, as the gross amount expended by the Ex- 
 ecutive Committee is $63 29, leaving a balance 
 in the Treasury at the present date, February 23, 
 of $2 34. 
 
 We have, connected with our society, an ex- 
 cellent choir, known as the E. C. Delavan Asso- 
 ciation, under the management of Mr. John Dun- 
 shee ; all the members of which association are 
 identified with our own, or the society to which 
 we are auxiliary. 
 
 The Secretary of the Wardrobe Committee re- 
 ports the receipt of 121 garments, 36 1-2 yards 
 cotton cloth, 25 1-2 yards calico, and 3 articles 
 of bedding. Also reports the distribution of 
 70 articles of wearing apparel, one bedquilt, one 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 71 
 
 blanket and one comfortable, for the relief of the 
 needy. There are now in the wardrobe fifty- 
 one articles. 
 
 It has been, and still is our purpose, to procure 
 a banner for the Shipwright and Caulkers So- 
 ciety ; but hitherto the funds contributed for that 
 object have fallen far short of the necessary sum. 
 But we feel assured that when the winter, with 
 its cold and bitter trials, passes away, our active 
 ladies will be able to raise the necessary funds 
 for that purpose. The treasurer of the banner 
 fund acknowledges the receipt of $6 34. 
 
 We have been permitted to u rejoice with 
 trembling" over some females, who formerly have 
 succumbed to an intemperate habit ; but who 
 now are pledged to abstain. We strive to watch 
 over them kindly, and provide for their most 
 pressing necessities ; and constantly pray that 
 the means put into our hands may receive the 
 blessing of Him, who is no respecter of persons, 
 and be by Him sanctified to their present and fu- 
 ture welfare. 
 
 As regards the spirit prevailing among us, 
 we may say, that harmony and love have thus 
 far characterized our meetings ; and a deter- 
 mined zeal has ever been manifested by all, to 
 do what lay within the compass of their ability to 
 put down intemperance. 
 
72 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 In concluding our report for your little manual, 
 we find we have recorded nothing of apparent 
 importance $ but hoping that the same power 
 which sustains the minute animalculce, while 
 heaving up the coral reef until it extends far out 
 into the broad blue sea of the tropics, will uphold 
 us, until our labor, together with that of kindred 
 organizations, shall rear such rocks and reefs, 
 everywhere amid the sea of life, as shall render 
 it impossible for any of Alcohol's cruisers to na- 
 vigate its waters safely : 
 
 Hoping thus, we would thankfully take courage 
 and humbly record here, our determination to 
 serve at the altar of temperance while we live. 
 In behalf of the society. 
 
 Almira C. Loveland, Cor. Sec'ry. 
 
 16.— LADY MARY WASHINGTON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized J?pril 1th, 1842. 
 
 About one hundred and fifty have signed their 
 pledge, a number of whom are constitutional 
 members. 
 
 They continue to meet in Columbian Hall in 
 Grand street, and are co-workers with the so- 
 ciety to which they are auxiliary. We have no 
 particulars. 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 73 
 
 17,— LADIES' MARION T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized 2Stk of April, 1842, 
 
 Nine ladies at that time pledging themselves 
 " not to drink any spirituous or malt liquors, 
 wine or cider ; nor on any occasion provide 
 them as articles of entertainment for friends." 
 
 The objects of this society are, "by exercising 
 mercy and kindness toward the intemperate, to 
 persuade them to reform and sign the pledge of 
 total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks ; and 
 to ameliorate the condition of those who are 
 sick and destitute, by furnishing food, clothing, 
 &c." 
 
 PIC-NIC SCENE. 
 
 Their first appearance before the public was 
 on the 22d of August : when, accompanied by the 
 gentlemen of the Marion T. A. and delegates 
 from many other societies, they had a delightful 
 Pic-Nic at Flushing. 
 
 On their arrival, they were received by the 
 Washingtonian societies of all the adjacent villa- 
 ges, and the Flushing Guards with an excellent 
 band of music, by whom they were escorted to a 
 beautiful grove, where every arrangement had 
 been made for their reception. The day was 
 spent in listening to eloquent addresses, uniting 
 in temperance songs, and partaking of a plentiful 
 
74 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 repast of the most choice productions of the 
 season. 
 
 The number of persons participating in the 
 festivities, was judged to be about 2,000. 
 
 The next thing of interest was the presenta- 
 tion of a Banner to the Marion Total Absti- 
 nence Society, Sept. 16th, 1842. 
 
 The Banner was of splendid pearl-colored silk, 
 nearly six feet square, trimmed with blue and 
 white fringe, with cord and tassels to correspond. 
 Value $75. 
 
 On one side was well painted a full length por- 
 trait of General Marion, (the scenery in the 
 back ground representing an encampment of the 
 American army), with the motto, " Our cause is 
 righteous, and will prevail." On the other side 
 was the date of organization, and the motto, M Be" 
 ware of Moderate Drinking. 1 ' 
 
 It was presented in behalf of the ladies, by 
 Mrs. Mallison, First Directress, and received by 
 Mr. Z. Hyde, President of the Marion Society. 
 
 An ode written for the occasion by a young 
 lady of the Society, also many other temperance 
 odes and songs, were well sung during the eve- 
 ning. Hoffman's celebrated brass band played 
 several national airs. Able addresses were deli- 
 vered to a delighted audience. 
 
 In January, 1843, the ladies gave a public invi- 
 
MARTHA WASHINGT0N1ANISM. 75 
 
 tation to the youth under 16 years of age, who 
 were willing to form a junior society, to meet at 
 the Marion House on the 20th inst. About forty 
 lads assembled at the appointed time, and were 
 organized under the name of the " Junior Marion 
 Temperance Society ;" and on the 20th of Febru- 
 ary, their number had increased to 106. 
 
 On the evening of that day, a handsome blue 
 silk banner, having on it their name, date of or- 
 ganization, and the motto, " Order and Punctu- 
 ality," was presented in behalf of the ladies by 
 Miss Hyde, and received by Mr. Bogardus, Pre- 
 sident of the Juniors. 
 
 According to the report of the wardrobe com- 
 mittee, three hundred garments and also a quantity 
 of provisions have been distributed within the 
 last four months. 
 
 Many interesting cases of reformation have 
 occurred, and several instances where whole 
 families were destitute of the necessaries of life, 
 and have been made happy and comfortable 
 through the exertions of this Society. 
 
 Three hundred and ten have signed the pledge \ 
 but only sixty-three of these have signed the 
 Constitution, and contribute to the funds of the 
 Society. 
 
 This Society has given $20 in cash to the Ma- 
 
76 MARTHA WASHINGT0NIAN1SM. 
 
 rion Total Abstinence Society, in aid of the good 
 they are doing, in the cause of humanity. 
 
 Miss Leonora Jones, Cor. Sec. 
 New York, March 1st, 1842. 
 
 18.— LADY WASHINGTON PROSPECT BENEFICIAL 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized May bth, 1842. 
 
 One hundred and eighty-five have signed their 
 pledge, one hundred and five of whom are con- 
 stitutional members. 
 
 The admission fee of this Society is 50 cents. 
 $110 in their treasury. The constitution of this 
 Society provides that $2 per week shall be paid 
 to a member in case of sickness, besides provid- 
 ing watchers if necessary, and $20 are allowed 
 as funeral expenses for all deceased members, 
 and that the Society shall attend the funeral. 
 
 19.— LADY MARSHALL T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized May 2oth, 1842. 
 They have about seventy-five constitutional 
 members. In her last quarterly report, the Sec- 
 retary writes: 
 
 Having been informed that by the exertions 
 of a very active member of the Marshall Society, 
 a most degraded inebriate had been reformed and 
 restored to his family, after an absence of several 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 77 
 
 years. His dying wife was destitute even of the 
 comfort of a bed of straw. The visiting commit- 
 tee was requested by the Directress to proceed 
 immediately to their house, and examine their 
 particular wants. The committee without delay 
 proceeded thither, and after having explored the 
 dreary habitation, and taken the accurate dimen- 
 sions of their misery, returned with the thrilling 
 information, that they were indeed destitute of 
 clothes and covering, and suffering from hunger 
 and cold ; the woman emaciated with sickness 4 
 and apparently near death. Touched with the 
 faithful representation of their wants, their sighs, 
 her sufferings, and her woes ; and resolved that 
 she should not expire on the floor, wrapped only 
 in a sheet ; a generous and venerable member of 
 the board at once interposed, redeemed her bed 
 and other articles that were pledged at a pawn- 
 broker's, and thus immediately alleviated her 
 pains, checked the falling tear, and soothed her 
 broken heart. And we are happy to report that 
 by the continued care of the Society, her health 
 has been partially restored ; her husband confirm- 
 ed in sobriety — and now a temperance experience 
 speaker — giving delightful evidence of his grati- 
 tude, and doing what he can to curtail and pre- 
 vent the destruction of others. 
 
 Harriott Brown, Rec. Sec. 
 
78 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 treasurer's REPORT FOR THREE MONTHS. 
 Cash received by the Treasurer, $25 76 
 
 20.— LADY FRANKLIN T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized May 3(M, 1842. 
 
 Four hundred and ninety-five have signed the 
 pledge, seventy of whom are constitutional 
 members. One hundred different articles of 
 clothing have been received as donations, or 
 made by the society, about eighty of which have 
 been given out for purposes of relief. 
 
 They have from the beginning been industri- 
 ously engaged in accumulating a wardrobe. 
 A choir from among their own number sing 
 at the meetings of the Franklin Society and on 
 other occasions, to great admiration. They are 
 in this way contributing to the interest of the 
 meetings, and to the success of the cause. 
 
 21.— YOUNG LADIES 5 HOPE T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized June 12M, 1842. 
 
 Forty members in the Society. 
 
 This Society presented a temperance flag to 
 the National Cadets, who all became members of 
 the Temperance Society. 
 
 They have a choir connected with their Socie- 
 ty, who gratify large audiences with the music 
 of their voices. 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 79 
 
 22.— LADY PHENIX T. B. SOCIETY, 
 Organized June 18, 1842. 
 Seventy-six constitutional members, a good so- 
 ciety. 
 
 23.— LADY HOPE T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized August 3, 1842. 
 The society have fifty constitutional members, 
 have raised funds by a concert, and are variously 
 active. 
 
 24.— LADY HUDSON T. B. SOCIETY, 
 
 Organized August 19, 1842. 
 
 A hundred and twenty-five members. A good 
 
 class of ladies are engaged in this society, who 
 
 will do what they can to lessen human suffering 
 
 and reform the intemperate. 
 
 25.— LADY BROADWAY TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, 
 
 Organized August 19, 1842. 
 About a hundred and twenty-five members. 
 
 SIGNAL LANTERN PRESENTATION. 
 
 On Wednesday evening, January 4th, we 
 dropped into Concert Hall, and witnessed the 
 presentation of a Signal Lantern to Engine Com- 
 pany 36, by this Society. Before and after the 
 presentation exercise, the audience was various- 
 ly entertained with music. But the Lantern and 
 
80 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 its presentation, were the objects of chief inter- 
 est. Mr. Robert Taylor, who presented it, in 
 behalf of the ladies, made a speech which was 
 listened to with deep interest. — Mr. Gulick, who 
 received it, compared the new lantern with the old 
 one, which, he said, had served in the reign of 
 King Alcohol. The new one was neat and beau- 
 tiful in its appearance, the old one ungainly- 
 enough — full of bruises, marks peculiar to every 
 thing that serves that king. 
 
 This society is now making preparations for 
 presenting a magnificent banner to the Broadway 
 Temperance Society. 
 
 26..— LADIES' BLOOMINGDALE T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized October, 1842. 
 Two hundred and sixty-nine have already 
 signed the pledge, eighty-six of whom are con- 
 stitutional members, and two life members. 
 70 articles of clothing have been distributed, and 
 rising $40 for purposes of relief. A spirited 
 society. 
 
 27.— LADY E. L. SNOW T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized JVov. 10, 1842. 
 A hundred and twenty have signed their pledge, 
 thirty-four of whom are constitutional members. 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 81 
 
 This society, though young, have had some very 
 interesting public meetings, at one of which the 
 children from the Farms recited and sang pieces, 
 to the gratification of a large audience. 
 
 28.— LADY FRIENDSHIP T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized Nov. 14, 184*2. About fifty have 
 signed their pledge. 
 
 29.— YOUNG LADIES' NORTH RIVER UNION T. B. 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized Dec. 1, 1842. Twenty-four consti- 
 tutional members. 
 
 30.— LADY HAMILTON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized Dec. 3, 1842. 
 
 Rave about fifty members in society. They 
 meet at a hall in 27th street, and promise useful- 
 ness in the neighborhood of their location. 
 
 31.— LADY MITCHELL T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 Organized Dec. 1th, 1842. 
 
 Eighty have signed their pledge, about thirty 
 of whom are constitutional members, and are 
 doing well. 
 
V 
 
 :• 7 r -•; ;n~" 
 _. IMS 
 
 ire already united with 
 
 j:-.fi i:._ i:::t-; ; -.Lf:: 
 
 .1.:: i: 
 
 ill ::::.:-: f : : : i f : : 
 .: -.if :-.se ;:' i"- 
 
 HBSQX T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 .:ej live 
 
 lCKSCKT t. jl society. 
 
 7:.fy :; = 
 
 . 
 
MARTHA \VASHI> _ SM. S3 
 
 36.— LADY MARGARET WALLACE T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized I 7. 1843. Up wards of 
 
 forty constitutional mem b 
 
 37._JUVE.VILE FEMALE MT. VERNON SOCIETY. 
 Organized February '21th, 1843. 
 
 And are auxiliary to the Lady Mount Vernon 
 T. B. Society. They are composed of misses 
 
 under the age of sixteen. 
 
 35.— YOUNG LADIES' LYCURGIAX T. B. SOCIETY 
 Is the name of a little association of mil 
 
 who meet weekly at the house of a merchant in 
 the upper part of the city, for the purpose of 
 making and collecting clot nine for the families 
 of reformed inebriates. They have recently be- 
 come tributary to the wardrobe of the Martha 
 Washington Society. 
 
 39.— YOUNG MISSES' COLD SPRING T. B. SOCIETY. 
 
 A society recently organized. The number of 
 
 members unknown. 
 
 40. YOUNG LADIES' BAND IX HAXD T. B. SOCIETY 
 Organ : ". 1863. 
 
 About twenty constitutional members. They 
 have already announced a grand concert in aid of 
 their funds. 
 
84 MARTHA WASHlKGTOHIANIflK. 
 
 BROOKLYN, N, J. 
 
 MARTHA WASHINGTON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized 16tfi December, 1843. 
 At present there are one hundred constitu- 
 tional and three hundred and fifty pledged 
 members. About seventy individuals have been 
 assisted by the society, among whom there are 
 many hopeful cases of reform e& female inebriates. 
 Many children from these families have been 
 brought into the sabbath schools. 
 
 A banner has been presented to the Eagle Fire 
 Company of this city, and nearly four hundred 
 dollars have been expended in supplying the 
 wants of the destitute under our care. 
 
 Catharine O. March, Sec'ry. 
 
 FIFTH WARD MARTHA WASHINGTON SOCIETY. 
 Organized May 23d, 1842. 
 Twenty-three members. They meet weekly, 
 and are doing good in the neighborhood of their 
 location. 
 
 YOUNG LADY MOUNT VERNON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized August 13th, 1842. 
 About forty constitutional members. On the 
 6th of February they presented the " Nassau 
 Guards" of Brooklyn with an exquisitely beauti- 
 ful stand of colors. They have also had a fair, 
 to aid their funds. 
 
 J 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 85 
 
 JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY. 
 
 LADY WASHINGTON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized October 11, 184<2. 
 
 Since its organization, 175 have become con- 
 stitutional members, and 135 have signed the 
 pledge only. The last reports of the committee 
 are not brought forward, or probably the aggre- 
 gate would be 350. 
 
 The society have expended 54 dollars, of which 
 $50 50 has been distributed in alms, and have now 
 $37 remaining in the treasury. They have dis= 
 tributed 315 garments, and have now 260 remain- 
 ing in the wardrobe, making the aggregate of 
 money and clothing, owned and distributed, 
 $101 50, and 575 garments. 
 
 The ladies have not the honor to report a dis- 
 tribution of banners, badges, signal lanterns or 
 medals. Their society, though cheered by all 
 that is encouraging in prospect, is yet but in the 
 dawn of its existence, having been organized 
 hardly five months. 
 
 J. Jordan and A. Fleming, Directresses. 
 
 E Scott and E. M. Chaffer, Secretaries. 
 
86 MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 
 
 NEWARK, N. J. 
 MARTHA WASHINGTON TEMPERANCE UNION. 
 Organized Aug. 4/A, 1841. 
 Its pledge is, " not to use as a beverage intoxi- 
 cating drinks, or to countenance their use as ar- 
 ticles of entertainment." 
 
 It has enrolled the names of more than one 
 thousand and seventy females, among whom are 
 the wives of seventeen ministers of the gospel, of 
 different denominations ; and hundreds of all 
 classes in society. They have stated monthly 
 meetings for sewing. 
 
 It has completed and distributed 309 garments. 
 " repaired 239 
 
 " received into its treasury $139. 
 Mrs. Smith Burnet, First Directress. 
 Mrs. Dr. L. A. Smith, Secretary. 
 Newark, Feb. 24, 1843. 
 
 JUNIOR MARTHA WASHINGTON T. B. SOCIETY. 
 Organized August 18tk, 1841. 
 This Society have, since their organization, 
 distributed nearly six hundred articles of cloth- 
 ing, besides expending some money for provi- 
 sions, &c. 
 
 FACTS. 
 
 They have taken, in one instance, an inebriate 
 man under their care, who was supposed to be 
 far gone with consumption, and procured for 
 
MARTHA WASHINGTONIANISM. 87 
 
 him medical aid and other assistance. He is 
 now restored to health, and is an industrious and 
 sober man. Also a girl, thirteen years of age, 
 who, through the neglect of her parents, had for 
 nearly ten years of her life been the prey of a 
 disease which had made her an invalid, and an 
 object of disgust. Under the kind treatment of 
 these friends and the medical aid they procured, 
 she is in a fair way of recovery. 
 
 RELIEF TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 
 Organized Dec. 21th, 1842. 
 Thirty-two constitutional members. They 
 have already held a fair to aid their funds. 
 
 COLD WATER ODE. — BY REV. JOHN PIERPONT. 
 
 1 Shall e'er cold water be forgot 
 
 When we sit down to dine ? 
 Oh no, my friends, for is it not 
 
 Poured out by hands divine ? 
 
 Poured out by hands divine, my friends, 
 
 Poured out by hands divine ; 
 From springs and wells it gushes forth, 
 
 Poured out by hands divine. 
 
 2 To beauty's cheek, tho' strange it seems, 
 
 'Tis not more strange than true, 
 Cold water, though itself so pale, 
 
 Imparts the rosiest hue ; 
 
 Imparts the rosiest hue, my friends, 
 
 Imparts the rosiest hue ; 
 Yes, beauty in a water pail 
 
 Doth find the rosiest hue. 
 
88 MARTHA WASKINGTONIANISM. 
 
 3 Cold water, too, (tho' wonderful, 
 
 'Tis not less true again,) 
 The weakest of all earthly drinks, 
 
 Doth make the strongest men ; 
 
 Doth make the strongest men, my friends, 
 
 Doth make the strongest men ; 
 Then let us drink that weakest drink, 
 
 And grow the strongest men. 
 
 4 I've seen the bells of tulips fair, 
 
 Drink up the drops that fell 
 From summer clouds — then why should not 
 
 The two lips of a belle ? 
 
 The two lips of a belle, my friends, 
 
 The two lips of a belle ? 
 What sweetens more than water pure 
 
 The two lips of a belle ? 
 
 5 The sturdy oak full many a cup 
 
 Doth hold up to the sky, 
 To catch the rain ; then drinks it up, 
 
 And thus the oak gets high; 
 
 'Tis thus the oak gets high, my friends, 
 
 'Tis thus the oak gets high ; 
 By having water in its cups, 
 
 Then why not you and I ? 
 
 6 Then let cold water armies give 
 
 Their Banners to the air, 
 So shall the boys like oaks be strong, 
 
 The girls like tulips fair ; 
 
 The girls like tulips fair, my friends, 
 
 The girls like tulips fair, 
 The boys shall grow like sturdy oaks, 
 
 The girls like tulips fair. 
 
SAXTON & MILES, 
 
 CHEAP CASH BOOKSELLERS, 
 
 205 BROADWAY, 
 
 Hit ^©miKs 
 
 PUBLISH THE FOLLOWING VALUABLE WORKS. 
 
 (THIRD EDITION). 
 
 A collection of Original Song?, adapted to familiar airs, and arranged 
 to be sung either as solos or chorussee. 
 
 Designed for the use of Washington Temperance Societies. 
 BY JAMES H. AIRMAN. 
 The publishers would respectfully ask the attention of every friend of 
 the great cause of Temperance, to the following notices of this popular 
 work. 
 
 From the President of the Franklin Temperance Society. 
 
 New York, Dec. 2, 1842. 
 Messrs. Saxton & Miles : 
 
 Gentlemen— I consider the Washingtonian Harp, (just published by 
 you), well calculated to aid in the promotion of the good and great cause 
 of temperance, and therefore hope that it may meet with (what in my 
 estimation it richly deserves) an extensive circulation. 
 
 Yours truly, JAMES HARPER, 
 
 President of Franklin Temperance Society. 
 
 From J. Covert, Esq. 
 
 Mr. J. H. Aikman : 
 
 Dear Sir — I have examined the music and poetiy of the Washingto- 
 nian Harp critically, and am prepared to recommend it to the favorable 
 notice of the Washingtonian Societies throughout the city and country, 
 as a work calculated to aid the cause of temperance. 
 
 1 am, dear sir, yours, J. COVERT. 
 
 From the Commercial Advertiser of Nov. 30. 
 
 We can commend this little collection of temperance songs without the 
 qualification we have had to append, to some oilier temperance song books; 
 the airs, most of them old and familiar, are pretty melodies, and the 
 words are free from that slang and vulgarity which deface so many of the 
 songs we have heard at cold-water meetings. The sonus are all original, 
 by Mr. James H. Aikman ; and as the book is small enough for carriage in 
 the pocket, and cheap enough to be within the reach of almost anybody's 
 pocket, we recommend the Washingtonian Harp to our friends of the 
 Franklin, the Washington, Croton, and all the other temperance societies. 
 
THE WASHINGTONIAN HARP. 
 
 From the Lady Phoznix Society. 
 
 Sir — The Lady Phoenix Society have requested me to convey to you 
 their thanks for your politeness in sending for their inspection the " Wash 
 ingtonian Harp." They desire also to express their gratitude as Washing 
 tonians for the valuable service you have rendered the cause of tempe- 
 rance by the production of the above work. They will thank you to send 
 them copies agreeably to the enclosed order, and would earnestly recom- 
 mend it to all Washingtonian Societies as the best collection of temperance 
 music yet published. 
 
 I will take this opportunity of saying I have myself examined the 
 Washingtonian Harp, and can recommend it as a choice collection of 
 music, correctly arranged, and well adapted to the words. From so many 
 good pieces it is difficult to make a selection. I will however name as 
 specimens that soul-stirring piece of composition, the Marseilles Hymn, 
 and Webb's beautiful Glee, " Glorious Apollo," each of which has been 
 too long known and admired in the musical world to require my praise. 
 
 Trusting your labors will be duly appreciated by all Washingtonians, 
 I remain yours, most respectfully, 
 
 J. H. Airman, Esq. GEORGE LEACH 
 
 December 9, 1842. 
 
 THE VOCAL GUIDE, 
 
 A FIRST BOOK FOR SCHOOLS AND CLASSES IN 
 
 BY WILLIAM J. EDSON 
 
 From the New York American. 
 "The Vocal Guide," etc. It contains some very beautiful pieces, in 
 themselves a sufficient recommendation. 
 
 From Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D. 
 I think this a good book, and will well fulfil the purpose designed by the 
 author. 
 
 From Col. William L Stone, Esq. 
 I entirely concur in the opinion expressed by Dr. Hawks. 
 
 Messrs. Saxton & Miles : 
 
 Gentlemen — As you requested my opinion of your' 1 Vocal Guide," 
 I will simply state, after glancing over. it, that it is well adapted to the pre- 
 sent state of musical science in this country, and much more thorough in 
 its rudimental department, than any similar work now in market. 
 
 Yours, &c, P. A. ANDREU, Professor of Music. 
 
 Opinion of Hon. Benj. F. Butler, 
 From what I have seen, I am satisfied that Mr. Edson has really pro* 
 duced a book which is now a desideratum. 
 
J 
 
 I