Ohio History Journal

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PRESBYTERIANS IN THE OHIO TEMPERANCE

PRESBYTERIANS IN THE OHIO TEMPERANCE

MOVEMENT OF THE 1850's

 

by DONALD K. GORRELL

The agitation for the abolition of slavery which pervaded the

Ohio scene during the decade preceding the Civil War was ac-

companied by other reform movements, one of which sought to

curb intemperance. In that age no other cause, with the exception

of abolition, was pressed more by moralists than that of temperance,l

and no other group was more prominent among the advocates of

temperance than the Presbyterians.

During the early years of the fifties, temperance reform was

promoted zealously by orators, many of whom were Protestant

clergymen. In northern Ohio Dr. Alfred Nevin, pastor of the

First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, was active in addressing

mass temperance meetings, and in the southwestern part of the

state the Old School Presbyterian clergy, directed by a resolution

of the Presbytery of Cincinnati, preached vigorously in support of

temperance. Even at the opening of the Cincinnati Theological

Seminary in 1852, the Rev. James B. Moffat included a note on

the seriousness of the evil of intemperance in the midst of his

sermon on Biblical criticism.2

From one end of the state to the other Presbyterians opposed the

sale and traffic of liquor. Some, like Joseph Brady, were active

in the Sons of Temperance, a national secret society founded in 1842

at Teetotaller's Hall in New York.3 Composed of subordinate,

grand, and national divisions, this organization had a membership

of more than 35,000 by 1846, and had as its fundamental principle

total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors. The secrecy of the

1 Eugene H. Roseboom, The Civil War Era, 1850-1873 (History of the State of

Ohio, edited by Carl Wittke, IV, Columbus, 1944), 220.

2 Daily True Democrat (Cleveland), June 25, 1850; Presbytery of Cincinnati

Session Records, VIII, September 12, 1850, at Historical and Philosophical Society

of Ohio, Cincinnati; James B. Moffat, Biblical Criticism as an Object of Popular

Interest: An Address Delivered at the Opening of the Third Session of the Cin-

cinnati Theological Seminary, of the Presbyterian Church (Cincinnati, 1852), 14.

3 Joseph Brady Journal, 1849-51, February 20, November 6, 7, 8, 27, 1850,

manuscript in Covington Collection Miami University.

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