Fellow
Soldiers,
In compliance
with your request, I am here – not to indulge in panegyric to some successful
aspirant to political place – not to expatiate upon the glories or prowess of
American arms – not to dilate upon the vexatious political questions of the day
which are threatening to break the beautiful fabric of our Union into
atoms. I come, though arrayed in the
garb of war, to bear a message of peace – to proclaim your triumph, though, a
peaceful triumph, over an enemy that has numbered more victims than war
pestilence and famine combined – To add my voice to the support of a cause,
that so ennobles the man, and has for its direct object to rescue from
degradation and ruin our fellows. I am
proud to meet you, beneath the auspicious sky of this glorious jubilee of
Christendom. Alas! Too often profaned by the bacchanalian
festival and riot – for the purpose of establishing by our precept as well as
practice in daily life, that sobriety is no disqualification to the good
soldier – on the contrary it is the source of the greatest pride and
satisfaction to see those in your ranks who are model-soldiers – ever ready for
duty & who perform it with alacrity and ability. Where shall we look, if not in your ranks, for those who are
patient in suffering, zealous in action, and brave and efficient in danger.
We cannot
expect those qualities always in him who is in the daily use of intoxicating
drink, for the fumes of liquor cloud the brain of the most gifted and sap the
energies of the most active, nor in him who at times & when removed from
temptation attracts our admiring gaze at his bold step, and excites our praise
for his warm heart and brilliant mind, and yet frequently when most needed and
when the want of his services will be most grievously felt the one of whom I
have presented so flattering a picture is transformed into the debaucher.
But to the man
clothed in that regalia, so appropriately emblematic of “Love purity and
Fidelity” – who lives in the daily enjoyment of every faculty we may look at
all times with confidence for a head clear – an arm steady and a heart
true. The object claimed for the
organization of this military order of Sons of Temperance is to use your
influence to reclaim such of your fellow soldiers as have fallen under the
influence of intoxicating drink. Not
content then with the benefits accruing to yourselves from habits of sobriety
you seek to extend them to others. Such
noble and disinterested conduct deserves the commendation of every friend of
humanity. He were indeed selfish who
could counsel you to exclude your fellows from a share in your benefits –
inhuman he who did not urge you to stretch every nerve to rescue the drunkard,
strengthen and encourage the weak, and to discountenance the moderate
drinker. This last is an individual to
be rarely met with. Very few men can
drink in moderation. It is like walking
a tight-rope over the Niagara of excess and consequent ruin. Some persuade themselves that a wee bit of
spirit, not only does no harm, that it is a direct benefit but even that it is
indispensable to their health. What a
wonderfully subtle reasoner a man becomes when prompted by desire!
When the use
of intoxicating drink is not necessary to the system it is a direct injury, in
that proposition I am supported by the most eminent Physicians of the day. Its baneful effects may hardly be
perceptible at first but the seed takes root and bears its inevitable fruit
sooner or later. The cases when its use
is necessary to health are exceedingly rare I consider their existence at all
very questionable – but granting that such a case may exist – it is attended
with the peril of excess – should it not then instead of being seized upon as
an excuse – be resorted to with great circumspection and reluctance, and
acquiesced in as a melancholy necessity.
The amputation of a limb is sometimes a necessity, but it is resorted to
with fear and axiety both on account of the attendant pain, but the imminent
risk of permanent injury or loss of life – so with the use of ardent spirits,
if ever a necessity, is one fraught with the utmost danger to character
– reason – life but to the very soul itself.
Why shrinks
the step from the brink of a precipice, if not that a step once taken beyond can
never be retraced, but down lower and lower t must hasten to inevitable
destruction. With every one who drinks,
there is a precipice of self-control.
To it the approach is so easy and gradual that the fatal step is often
taken before the victim is aware of the abyss below yawning to receive him, the
path leading to the brink is oftimes even hung with garlands of grape and there
is a syren whose music lulls every suspicion of danger. That brink self-control – so easily passed,
he has no power to return, but hopeless and reckless he falls and is lost. But while he thus possesses no power to
arrest his impending fate, yet if a hand be reached to him from above, he may
be saved. Who is there here that would
stretch forth a hand to save him! Here
then is the appropriate province of a Son of Temperance. Every one but a Son of Temperance loathes a
drunkard. He loves him because is a
fellow man. Cares for him in want and
wins him to paths of sobriety and virtue, when if left to his own resolves and
the charity of the world he would reel on down the broad road to ruin.
I will not
trouble you with a recital of the melancholy details of the woes incident to
drunkenness. They may be found in the
police reports, the guard books, and the Hospital statements that daily issue
to the world. They present poor human
nature in its most revolting aspect – brothers estranged – the wedded divorced
– the pocket ruined and the character bankrupt, while starvation,
murder, arson, & suicide are the furies that follow like hungry
wolves yelping for bait follow in its wake.
The sober reflecting mind turns from the spectacle resolved to refrain
from its use, and yet when he meets a bevy of his boon companions, he can not
resist their importunities but follows on to join in a glass. If he state the cause of his reluctance, he
is upbraided for his want of pluck – while many who will pretend to take
offence at his ref hesitating to drink with them, but if he were
joined the Sons of Temperance all he would have to say would be simply – “I
don’t drink – I’m a Son of Temperance” – that silences all rebuke and hushes
every importunity.
There is a
powerful cause operating to prevent a man’s drinking moderately, if he
be at sociable. If he drink with one
comrade he must drink with all – and he must repeat as long as there’s a drop
in the jug. So that many there
who are theoretically moderate drinkers are practically frequently ensnared
into something very different & find themselves, more jolly than wise. I never knew but one man who during a long
life drank moderately without exception and his son in trying to do likewise
failed most signally. Let no man try it
– it is a dangerous experiment.
In 1857
occurred about the only instance I know of where liquor would have done good
during my connexion with the army. A
Greaser in the Employ of our Commissary was bitten by a rattlesnake, and the
whole camp was ransacked for the antidote, but none could be found. Although the command was well supplied with
the indispensable Snake-bite which was the significant name given to the
ardent, when we left Leavenworth, yet it was all gone –
Like a summer-dried fountain
When our need was the sorest.
We
had not even a Bourbon among us.
And
yet the man got well – the snake –
– “it was that died.”
In this
connexion I am rejoiced to announce that a certain preparation of homine has
been found to be a certain cure for the bite of a snake. It is now furnished with the supplies for
army Hospitals. The issue of whisky to
troops when under circumstances of extra-ordinary fatigue or exposure is
authorized by the Army Regulations and therefore I would be the last to
withhold it at such times from those who want it. But I must say that I have borne fatigue and exposure equally
with all with whom it has been my fortune to serve, and they will bear me
witness that I have, under such circumstances without touching a drop, stood
hardship as well as any man that braced himself with a gill.
Health vigor and effectiveness under all
circumstances are in my opinion attainable without the aid of such a stimulant;
it is true by habit a man may