Still, while the popular demand for better laws in re- gard to the traffic in alcohol almost ceased for a time to be felt in current politics, the moral reform made some progress. In 1856 the American .Juvenile Temperance Society was founded in the city of Xew York, and the
next year a monthly paper for children, called the Ju- venile Tvmjnrancc Buuntr, was established. In Janu- ary, 1859, four young men, who had met one Sunday evening in a liquor saloon in San Francisco, suddenly resolved to change their evil course, formed a society which they called the " Dashaways," and inaugurated an extensive movement on the Pacific coast much like the Washingtonian campaign of 1840, The next year a similar reform organization, originating in Chicago, spread through the state under the name of the Tem- perance Flying Artillery. In 1802 the spirit ration in the United States navy, which was made optional in 1832, totally ceased by order of Congress; and coffee was substituted for whiskey in the army of the Poto- mac. The friends of the cause were everywhere active in their benevolent labors among the soldiers and sail- ors during the war.
The fifth National Convention, held at Saratoga in August, 18G5, organized the National Temperance So- ciety and Publication House, whose headquarters are at 58 Keade Street, New York, and which, by its two periodicals, the XuVumul Temperance A clvocate and the Youih's Temperance Banner, and its numerous volumes and tracts, has been an efficient instrument in enlight- ening and stirring the public mind. In April, 18()6, Congress voted to banish the li()uor traffic from the Capitol and the public grounds at Washington, and the next winter a Congressional Temperance Society, Hon. Henry Wilson president, was organized. In 1868 the •'Friends of Temperance" and the "Vanguard of P"ree- dom," the one a society of white people and the other of the freedmen, were organized in the South. In Jidy, 1808, the sixth National Convention met in Cleveland, Ohio. Its most important resolution declares that the temperance cause " demands the persistent use of the ballot for its promotion." In 1869 women began to form associations for the suppression of the traffic. The first were organized in Kutland, Vt. ; Clyde, O. ; and Jonesville and Adrian, Mich. This was the beginning of a tidal-wave of enthusiasm which culminated in the Ohio crusades, and crystallized in the establishment of the Woman's National Christian Temperance Union. The churches were actively at work. " Bands of Hope" were formed among the children. The iniquities of the license system, and the wisdom of separate political ac- tion on the part of temperance men, were everywhere discussed; and the liquor-dealers, in alarm, were busy organizing leagues and collecting funds, because, as they confessed," of the damage being done to the liquor busi- ness."
In January, 1873, the Hon. Henry Wilson introduced in the United States Senate a bill providing for a Com- mission of Inquiry, whose aim was to secure a thorough investigation of the evils of the alcoholic habit, and as- certain what measures are most efficient in removing or lessening those evils. This bill has been repeatedly brought forward in Congress, backed by memorials from all parts of the country, but has been defeated every time by the influence of the liquor interest. The guilty alone fear the light. In August, 1873, the seventh Na- tional Convention was held at Saratoga. It declared again that the legal suppression of the traffic is the only effective policy, and that the time had arrived '•fully to introduce the temperance issue into state and national politics," hut counselled the friends of the cause to co- operate with existing political parties " where such will endorse the policy of prohibition."
In the winter of 1873-74 a novel movement began which, under the name of the Woman's Crusade, at- tracted universal attention. In the town of Hillsbor- ough, Highland Co., O., the liquor trade was doing its deadly work, and at the same time the enemies of that traffic were earnest in their labors to lessen its ravages. At a public meeting. Dr. Dio Lewis, of Boston, told how a drunkard's wife, forty years ago, after long and fervent prayer, gathered a band of Christian women and wait- ed upon the liquor-dealer, imploring him to give up his
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dreadful business, and how their prayers were answered. The next day seventy-five Christian women, led by Mrs. E. J. Thompson, a daughter of ex-governor Trim- ble, began a systematic visitation of the drug-stores, hotels, and saloons of Hillsborough, and continued it till victory crowned their efforts. In eight days all the sa- loons were closed. The work spread from town to town and from city to city, in not a few encountering fierce opposition, but moving on in triumph, and accomplish- ing great and permanent good. This wonderfid move- ment spread into other states, reclaiming thousands of inebriates, closing thousands of saloons, and giving a mighty impulse to all forms of temperance work.
At this present time (January, 1880) the reform seems to be even more prominently before the public mind than it was before the war. The iniquities of the traf- fic have been urged upon the attention of tlie legisla- tures of the states, and the laws are constantly chang- ing, generally for the better, occasionally for the worse, as Israel or Amalek prevails, so that it is almost impos- sible to classify them. Maine, Vermont, New Hamp- shire, Ohio, and North Carolina prohibit the traffic in all intoxicating liquors. Iowa prohibits the traffic in distilled liquors, but not in wine and beer. Rhode Island, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, ]\Iinnosota, Mis- souri, Arkansas, Texas, and the District of Columbia are under Local Option laws. The people of Kansas are to vote this fall (1880) on a proposed amendment to the State Constitution, which, if adopted, will prohibit both the manufacture and the sale of alcoholic intoxicants. Some of the states, as New York, Ohio, and Illinois, hav^e Civil Damage laws, which make the dealers re- sponsible before the courts for mischief done by means of their wares. Nevada has no law on the subject. In many of the states special laws give particular counties or towns the power to prohibit, by popular vote, the trade in alcohol. Experience has given ample demon- stration that where prohibitory legislation is fully sus- tained by public sentiment the liquor traffic can be stamped out as thoroughlj^ as any other form of crime. All through the land the active friends of temperance, with scarcely an exception, are fixed in the conviction that the common traffic in alcoholic drinks is a crime against society, and that to license it is to commit an- other crime against the public welfare. This convic- tion grows more intense from year to year, and from this position it may be safely predicted that there will be no retreat.