[Unsigned Nineteenth Century Holograph Temperance Lecture]
A plea from unknown author offering statistics, historical contect, and warnings of the dangers of a half-way approach to temperance.
Price: $600.00
[Unsigned Nineteenth Century Holograph Temperance Lecture]
Advocating for the kind legal ban of alcohol that would finally come to fruition during Prohibition, the anonymous lecturer mixes a potent cocktail (sorry, had to) of morality and patriotism: "Intemperance is the severest scourge with which our nation was ever visited. It has for many years rolled its waves of desolation over us, spreading poverty, ruin, death and devestation around. Intemperance has filled our lands with widows and orphans. Under his black banner crime has stalked abroad at mid day and worked in darkness, he has fed the hungry man of pestilence and nourished disease while they have done his deeds of cruelty [...] He hath filled our prisons and jails, our poorhouses and penitentiaries with his unhappy visitors." Reference to Reuben Mussey, Professor at Dartmouth College (who left Dartmouth in 1838) and the "recent establishment of the Congressional Temperance Society" (which was established in 1833) appear to date the manuscript to the mid 1830s; the paleography is consistent with this period as well. The lack of corrections suggests either fair copy or utilized in delivery. An apparently unpublished lecture (bordering on sermon) from the early years of the American temperance movement.
The Object
[likely New England]: [ca. 1833]. Oblong 8vo. self-wrappers. Awkwardly hand-stitched in a rather ad-hoc manner. 21 leaves of manuscript penned in a neat and legible hand recto and verso. [42]pp. in all. Mild toning, infrequent foxing, moderate edgewear. Overall, very good.
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