them accompany their reeling companions to some secluded nook and
there quaff with them from that Virtue-destroying cup, yet may we
not hope that an influence, though now unseen, unfelt, has gone
forth, which shall tell upon the future, which shall convince us
that our weekly resort to these meetings has not been in vain, and
which shall cause the friends of humanity to admire and
respect--nay, venerate--this now-despised little band of Daughters
of Temperance?...
We count it no waste of time to go forth through our streets, thus
proclaiming our desire for the advancement of our great cause. You,
with us, no doubt, feel that Intemperance is the blighting mildew
of all our social connections; you would be most happy to speed on
the time when no Wife shall watch with trembling heart and tearful
eye the slow, but sure descent of her idolized Companion down to
the loathsome haunts of drunkenness; you would hasten the day when
no Mother shall have to mourn over a darling son as she sees him
launch his bark on the circling waves of the mighty whirlpool.
How is this great change to be wrought, who are to urge on this
vast work of reform? Shall it not be women, who are most aggrieved
by the foul destroyer's inroads? Most certainly. Then arises the
question, how are we to accomplish the end desired? I answer, not
by confining our influence to our own home circle, not by centering
all our benevolent feelings upon our own kindred, not by caring
naught for the culture of any minds, save those of our own
darlings. No, no; the gratification of the _selfish_ impulses
_alone_, can never produce a desirable change in the Moral aspect
of Society....
It is generally conceded that it is our sex that fashions the
Social and Moral State of Society. We do not presume that females
possess unbounded power in abolishing the evil customs of the day;
but we do believe that were they en masse to discountenance the use
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