y precept and example, in promoting the cause of
temperance. Many of them have already stepped forth, and with a noble
boldness have proclaimed the alarm, and have led on the work of
reformation; but many timid spirits still linger, and others seem not
deeply impressed with the importance of the subject, and with the
responsibility of their station. Ye venerated men, you are not only
called to stand forth as our moral beacons, and be unto us burning and
shining lights, but you are placed as watchmen upon our walls, to
announce to us the approach of danger. It is mainly through your example
and your labors that religion and virtue are so extensively disseminated
through our country--that this land is not now a moral waste. You have
ever exerted an important influence in society, and have held a high
place in the confidence and affections of the people. You are widely
spread over the country, and the scene of your personal labors will
furnish you with frequent opportunities to diffuse information upon the
subject of temperance, and to advance its progress. Let me then ask you,
one and all, to grant us your active and hearty cooperation.

9. Appeal to the _female sex_ of our country, and ask them to come to
your assistance; and if they will consent to steel their hearts against
the inebriate, to shut out from their society the man who visits the
tippling shop, their influence will be omnipotent. And by what power, ye
mothers, and wives, and daughters, shall I invoke your aid? Shall I
carry you to the house of the drunkard, and point you to his weeping and
broken-hearted wife, his suffering and degraded children, robed in rags,
and poverty, and vice? Shall I go with you to the almshouse, the orphan
asylum, and to the retreat for the insane, that your sensibility may be
roused? Shall I ask you to accompany me to the penitentiary and the
prison, that you may there behold the end of intemperance? Nay, shall I
draw back the curtain and disclose to you the scene of the drunkard's
death-bed? No--I will not demand of you a task so painful: rather let me
remind you that you are to become the mothers of our future heroes and
statesmen, philosophers and divines, lawyers and physicians; and shall
they be enfeebled in body, debauched in morals, disordered in intellect,
or healthy, pure, and full of mental energy? It is for you to decide
this question. You have the future destiny of our beloved country in
your hands. Let me entreat you,