Document – Excerpts from Thomas S. Grimké “Address on the Patriot Character of the Temperance Reformation” (1833)

WHEN GRATUITOUS, PLEASE CIRCULATE.

the

AMERICAN QUARTERLY

TEMPERANCE MAGAZINE.

No. II.—MAY, 1833.

——————————

FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

of the

NEW-YORK STATE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

<image>

published by

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NEW-YORK STATE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

ALBANY:

packard and van benthuysen, printers.

..........

1833.

17. Address on the Patriot Character of the temperance reformation, by Thomas S. Grimke, president of the temperance society, Charleston, S.C., February 26, 1833. 35 p.

"I have said, that the temperance cause, is pre-eminently Christian and American. It is one of the noblest and fairest forms, in which the principle of individual responsibility and social influence has ever been manifested. It rests on the obligation of each to think, to judge, to act for himself. It illustrates, while it enforces the comprehensive obligation that each is bound to combine with others, in promoting not only his own immediate good, but, to the utmost of his ability, the good of his fellow men, whether living or unborn. No individual can rightfully withhold his own from the common stock of social influence. It is the tax, which the law of his nature, and the higher law of God demands of him. Wherever intelligence is found, the duty exists. Happy, thrice happy is the man, who shall have put forth the largest share of it in the cause of religion and education, of public and private happiness and virtue. What though he never held an office, nor was honored with the titles of distinction, which vanity and ambition covet: what though he never wielded the power of his country, and no legislative hall was ever to him the theatre of victory and triumph; yet is he among the wisest and noblest of his country's benefactors. His duties are self-assumed, and therefore the more honorable. His usefulness is all on the side of religion, morals, education, happiness: how full then of honor to God, of love to man! His reward is the approbation of Heaven, and the blessings of his fellowmen: his glory then, how pure, elevated and beneficent.

Let us contemplate this subject of social influence, in another point of view. Who are the men that are carrying this country onward, with such unexampled rapidity, in her course of moral improvement? Where shall we look for the minds that are breathing into the vast mass of our population, a life-giving spirit, a life-perpetuating energy? In vain may you look for them in the executive department of the nation, or of the states. They are not to be found in the robes of justice, nor in the chambers of legislation. Let me not be understood as depreciating the value of such institutions. I know full well how much is due to them; but I believe that I comprehend their true station, their real office. They are the guardian to protect the property and person of the ward; but they are utterly unable to enlighten his conscience or to regulate his affections, to cultivate his mind, or to fashion his character. The social institutions, which are scattered every where through our land, are the centres of power, the fountains of light. These are regenerating the country, and carrying it onward to a state of moral beauty, grandeur and felicity, of which the present generation can form but an imperfect estimate. The condition of our country at the close of this century, under the combined action of the various social influences which are now at work, would appear, if revealed to us, a more sublime and lovely scene, than philosophy has ever sketched, than eloquence or poetry has ever colored.

Let a resolute faith, in the fulfilment of this glorious vision, stimulate the exertion of every one in the cause of social influence. Let the deep consciousness that this magnificent result is to be the workmanship, not of public men, not of the rulers of the land, but of tens of thousands of private citizens, strengthen the courage and animate the hopes of every individual. Let him realize the magnitude of his duty, the dignity of his office, the value of his services, the reward in time and eternity of his deeds. Let him tremble at the thought, that he is useless to others. Let him spurn the suggestion, that he is endued with no beneficent power. Humble, ignorant as he may be, God has bestowed upon him a portion of power: the obligation to use it faithfully, fearlessly, unweariedly, is inseparable from the gift. That power, that duty, involves a responsibility, from which as a good man, as a good citizen, he cannot, must not shrink. Let him then stand up, if he dare, in the presence of God, and of his country, and say, that he has no influence, that he can do nothing. His own conscience tells him that he is self-deceived, or faithless. The testimony of his own life, except he has lived a hermit or a misanthrope, tells him that he errs. All human experience tells him, that it is impossible for any man to live in society without an atmosphere of influence around him; an atmosphere of light and order and blessing about the virtuous; of darkness and guilt, of confusion and mischief around the slothful and careless, the foolish and vicious. He may be a farmer, a daylaborer, a seaman, yet has he influence on all with whom he associates. He cannot see it, he cannot touch it, he cannot measure it, but still it is there, a living principle to act on others, through his words and example. Let him cherish then the generous hope that he can do good; and he shall receive the reward, inseparable from doing good; the testimony of a good conscience and of a useful life. Let him act then on the principle, that he has influence; that others must be affected by it, whether he designs it or not; that he must be a benefit or a disadvantage to society; and thus shall he be able to point to the records of his own life as irrefutable testimony, that the poor, the humble, the ignorant are endued with power and influence. What then shall we say of the educated and the rich, and of the countless numbers, to whom Providence has assigned the materials of an enlarged and continually enlarging influence among their fellow-men? They must know, how many depend upon their sentiments and examples, in domestic and social circles, in public and private life, for the improvement of their minds and the regulation of their affections. The sense of duty, and the spirit of usefulness, gratitude to God, and love to man, moral courage, the habit of well-doing and unwearied perseverance, will enable them to accomplish a hundred fold more than they had ever ventured to hope.

Nor let it be forgotten, that whatever doubts may be entertained of a man's capacity, single handed, to do much good, it can never be doubted when he allies himself to others. Union is full of strength and encouragement; of security to the present, of amplest improvement for the future. It enlists all the sympathies of our nature: it calls for all the social qualities of the mind and the heart: and links them together in the bonds of virtuous emulation and mutual assistance. What is all society, whatever may be its form, but an illustration of the value of the social principle? What is an army, with its variety of weapons, and its combinations of science and discipline, but an example of the strength and effectiveness of united individuals? What are all the institutions of society, families themselves included, but so many standing memorials of the importance of united action? And what is Christianity? The religion not of rulers and governments, but of the people; the religion not of this or that nation or age, but of the world, and of all future time; what is it but the most attractive and imposing form in which the social principle has ever been manifested? And what is its history, but an exhibition, century after century of the embattled hosts, not of Christendom, with its warrior monarchs and its standing armies, but of the faithful in private life, combined against ignorance, error and superstition? And what is the history of Christianity in our day? Shall we look for it in church establishments and the despotism of ecclesiastical intolerance; in the battle-field of polemics or the biography of sectarian champions; in the tenets of this or that denomination, un-churching all others in this world, and denying to them in the next, a place in the many mansions of their common Father? These may furnish materials for the ecclesiastical but not for the Christian history of our age and country. When the pen of some future Luke shall record its eventful scenes, that Christian history will be founded, not so much on the annals of churches as on those of the social institutions, whose Christian spirit is regenerating the nations, whose influence is pervading, with life-instilling energy, all the classes, and the very depths and recesses of society: "whose sound is gone out into all lands, and its words into the ends of the world."

I speak of those institutions which are pre-eminently the wonders of the world, the ornaments of the church in our day. I speak of missionary societies, sending forth in a spirit of diffusive benevolence, the heralds of the cross, to preach the gospel to the poor in Christian lands; and to teach all nations, even the savages in the isles of the sea. I speak of the infant and the Sunday school, those institutions, almost if not altogether of more than a mother's love, supplying instructors to the destitute, parents to the orphan, and friends to the friendless. I speak of those associations which provide for the spiritual welfare of the shunned, the neglected sailor, but lately an outcast in the very land of his birth, a stranger to the public worship of Christian cities. I speak of tract societies, with their winged messengers of eloquent truth, wise as the serpent, yet harmless as the dove, penetrating the dungeon of the captive and the lazar-house of the pauper, the cabins of the wilderness, and the hovels of our towns. I speak of Bible institutions, which have stamped on the nineteenth century the character of the pentecost age of the primitive church. What though no sound from heaven of a rushing, mighty wind, and no eleven tongues as of fire, attest the outpourings of the Holy Spirit, yet the Bible societies of Christian lands are speaking to the Indian of the east and the west, to the Hottentot, the Tartar and the Greek, to the Chinese and the islanders of the Pacific, to every man in his own tongue, the wonderful works of God.

I speak of all the various forms in which Christian benevolence has exhibited its faith by its works; manifesting its glorious hopes in the promises of God, by its labors of love in the cause of man.

The Christian history of society has never yet been written. But that history will be written, at a future day, by some master-spirit, thoroughly imbued with the profound philosophy, the moral sublime, the pathetic beauty of his subject. In that history, the most conspicuous stations will be assigned to the numberless enterprizes of social benevolence, in our age and country. And among the radiant leaves of that glorious record of Christian faithfulness and love, there will not be a brighter or a purer page, than that which registers the rise and progress, the conflicts and triumph of the Temperance Reformation.

Article VI.

Notice of new publications.—Temperance Journal.

We are happy to notice, a new and well executed periodical under the above name, printed monthly at, Boston, and entering the field as the advocate of virtue, and the enemy of vice. The work appears to be well arranged and executed, and calculated to aid the noble cause in which so many presses are already engaged. The distribution of small and well printed single sheets, at a cheap rate and under such an arrangement as to ensure extensive circulation, cannot we think, fail of great usefulness. The selections and original communications in the first number of this paper now before us, are such as to bespeak a favorable reception, and the facts and observations cannot be examined and remembered, but with advantage.

The labor bestowed on these unpretending harbingers of good tidings and sound admonition, is labor devoted to the cause of humanity, in a manner that promises to be more and more efficient, and we know of no field which affords the faithful and able laborer a more certain and rich reward.

Review

1. 1. According to Grimké, the temperance movement is a patriotic undertaking. How so? Who is he trying to appeal to with this address?

2. 2. According to the author, how are individuals supposed to affect social change? Through promoting legislation? Petitioning their leaders? Some other way? Who are the real vanguards of social change?

3. 3. In what ways is he appealing to uniquely American sensibilities of individualism and democracy?