Temperance societies.
French traders engaged extensively in the sale of intoxicating liquors to the Indians in
Canada.
The Jesuit missionaries opposed the traffic with all their power, as it was not only injurious to the Indians, but interfered seriously with the labors of the missionaries.
The wealthy traders managed to interest the
governor-general in their behalf, also the
King's counsel, on the pretext that the traffic was necessary to secure the good — will of the Indians.
It was asserted that the evils of it were imaginary or much exaggerated.
For once, however, philanthropy triumphed over sordid interest.
The
Bishop of
Quebec went to
France in 1678, and obtained a royal decree prohibiting the traffic under heavy penalties.
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The first modern temperance society was formed in 1789 by 200 farmers of
Litchfield county, Conn., who agreed not to use “any distilled liquor in doing their farmwork the ensuing season.”
Organized societies of a similar kind began to be formed in 1811, and in 1826 the first public temperance society was organized in the
United States.
The total abstinence principle was not adopted until 1836, when a national convention held at
Saratoga, N. Y., took that higher stand.
The Washingtonian Society, the first formed on total-abstinence principles, was organized in
Baltimore in 1840 by six men of intemperate habits who signed a pledge to totally abstain from intoxicating drinks.
At the first anniversary of the society 1,000 reformed drunkards walked in procession.
