"In vain might moralists and philanthropists have declaimed for
ages on the evils of drunkenness, had no temperance society been
formed till all mankind were ready to adopt a pledge of total
abstinence. The authors of the temperance reformation did not
lavish their strength and resources in attempting to convince
the world of the blessings of temperance, but forming themselves
into a temperance society, gave a visible and tangible proof
that the principle they recommended was not merely expedient but
practicable. And surely if we desire to persuade mankind that
war is an unnecessary evil, it is indispensable that we should
be able to point them to some instance in which it has been
safely dispensed with; nor can we hope to effect a change in the
opinion of Europe, while our own people remain unaffected by our
assertions and arguments.

"Here then must be the field of our labors; and let those labors
be quickened by the reflection, that while they are aimed at the
happiness of the human race, they are calculated to confer on
our beloved country a moral sublimity which no worldly glory can
approach.

"But what are the means we shall use? The same by which the
commerce in human beings was destroyed, and which are now
driving intemperance from the earth--_voluntary associations and
the press_.

"Let the friends of peace concentrate their exertions in Peace
Societies; and let the press proclaim throughout our land, in
all its length and breadth, the folly, the wickedness, and the
horrors of war; and call on our rulers to provide for the
amicable adjustment of national differences. In the first treaty
that shall be formed for this purpose we shall behold the dawn
of that glorious day, the theme of prophets and the aspirations
of saints, when nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

"The present age is propitious to the enterprise. It is an age
of energy and of freedom. All the powers of mind are in full
activity, and every eye and every ear is open to the reception
of new truths. Science and philanthropy are daily achieving
triumphs which the past century dared not imagine. The world is
no longer governed by princes and senates, but by public
opinion, and at the fiat of this mighty potentate, ancient
institutions are