The Charlotte Journal

TO THE LADIES OF THESE UNITED STATES.

We are about to solicit an influence the most powerful and irresistible that can be brought to bear upon any question affecting the hopes and destinies of man, in his social and domestic capacity. It has been well observed, "that no vice can gain ground to any extent unless sanctioned by female..."

Females, like ourselves, you have recommended and sanctioned the Drunkard's Drink! You have lent the weight of your example and influence in fostering and encouraging the drinking customs of society.

The poisoned chalice presented by your hand, has thrown around it another and a more bewitching enchantment; thousands and millions by your persuasions, overcome by your entreaties, have learnt to sip of the cup, who, in the bitterness of a Drunkard's Death, have drunk it to its dregs. You did not intend to make drunkards, no, you did it ignorantly; when you presented the cup, you suspected not the serpent that lay coiled at the bottom. But the days of ignorance have passed away, and the light of a New day has been revealed. The discovery has been made, that from moderate drinking proceeds all the intemperance that afflicts and desolates our land. God's truth, in the freshness of its immortality, is going forth into the world, and under its blessed and heavenly teachings, thousands have enlisted under the banner of total abstinence.

A war of extermination has been commenced with the agents of intoxication, and the iron reign of intemperance will, we trust, speedily come to an end. Ladies, without your support and assistance our task is hopeless, and the day of universal freedom, will never dawn upon our race. Will you then assist us? Assist us in saving our country from an awful and overwhelming ruin. Assist us in raising the voice of warning to those who are just entering upon the path which leads to destruction and the grave. Assist us in raising the lost and miserable drunkard from his poverty, and misery, and rags, to comfort, and happiness, and respectability. Assist us in binding up the broken heart, and drying up the tears of his miserable wife, and feeding and clothing his naked and famishing offspring. Our contest is that of truth against error, of virtue against vice, of happiness against misery.

On which side will you exert your sweet and restraining influence; let it, we beseech you, be exerted, for our bleeding and suffering humanity, for this cause of philanthropy and love. Around this cause you can throw an halo of saintliness and loveliness, and upon your path you can shed the light of love and affection. Cheered and encouraged by you, our zeal will be enkindled afresh, our energies will receive a new and a fresh impulse, and we shall move forward with a bolder and loftier purpose to certain victory and triumph. The temperance cause has an especial claim upon you. Think of the vast number of your own sex, (and remember they are your sisters) who through intemperance are lost to virtue, and happiness, and heaven. Think of the homes that are desolate, which but for intemperance might be filled with purity and love. Think of the broken hearted wives, and disconsolate mothers, which it has made; or, go yourselves, and visit the habitations of the drunkard, behold the sufferings of the victims, listen to their tale of misery and woe, and we think you will no longer hesitate to give your assistance to a society, which is seeking by one grand and mighty effort, to banish the cause and consequence of all these evils forever from the earth.

When the cause of the suffering and oppressed is plead, you sympathize with their sorrows and wrongs, and put forth an effort for their deliverance. There are in these United States more than 500,000 Drunkards bound by a slavery most degrading and cruel. A slavery which not only binds the body, but enslaves the soul.

Females of America! where say you? Do you wish these drunkards shall be free? Will you heartily engage in the sacred cause of liberty! "Be yours then the pledge of abstinence from all intoxicating liquors," and you will achieve the noblest triumphs and gather the fairest laurels.

" 'Tis liberty calls you, friends of freedom! arise.
'Tis Liberty calls you! re-echo the skies."