Lincoln's Temperance Principles

Promise Made to His Mother—Writes a Temperance Article Before Leaving Indiana—Mr. Wood and Mr. Farmer—Did Lincoln Sell Whisky?—His Great Temperance Address—Testimony of Associates—Moses Martin's Letter—The Internal Revenue Bill.

It is well known that Abraham Lincoln was strictly a temperance man. His early training was on that line. In his maturer years, while a member of Congress, when urged by an associate to drink on a certain occasion, he said, "I promised my precious mother only a few days before she died that I would never use anything intoxicating as a beverage, and I consider that promise as binding to-day as it was on the day I made it."

Among his first literary efforts, at his boyhood home in Indiana, was to write an article on temperance. William Wood, living near by, was Lincoln's chief adviser in many things. He took a political and a temperance paper, and Lincoln read them thoroughly. He expressed a desire to try his hand at writing an article on temperance. Mr. Wood encouraged him, and the article was written. Aaron Farmer, a noted minister of the United Brethren Church, often stopped with Mr. Wood, who was a zealous and devoted member of the same church. Mr. Herndon and other Lincoln biographers are mistaken in saying that Aaron Farmer was a minister of the Baptist Church. Henry Brooner told me that he joined the United Brethren Church at a grove meeting held in that part of the country by Aaron Farmer, in the fall of 1827.

Lincoln's temperance article was shown Mr. Farmer by Mr. Wood, and he was so well pleased with it that he sent it to an Ohio paper, in which it was published. Lincoln, at this time, was seventeen or eighteen years old. I was acquainted with James, Andrew, Robert, and Charles, aged sons of William Wood, all of whom knew Lincoln. They have all passed away. In the year 1888, I officiated at the funeral of Mrs. Nancy Armstrong, one of Mr. Wood's daughters, at her home, which was the old home of her father, where Lincoln was always a welcome visitor. William L. Wood, a grandson of Lincoln's adviser, now living at Dale, and whom I have known for many years, says his grandfather was a temperance worker.

Mr. Farmer had a literary turn of mind, and published a paper called Zion's Advocate, at Salem, Indiana, in 1829, but this was about two years after Lincoln's temperance article was written. The United Brethren Church organ, the Religious Telescope, now published at Dayton, Ohio, was first published at Circleville, Ohio, in 1834, but this was still later. Query: In what paper in Ohio was Lincoln's temperance article printed? Mr. Farmer died March 1, 1839, while serving as presiding elder of the Indianapolis District. William Wood, Lincoln's old friend and adviser, died at Dale, Spencer County, Indiana, December 28, 1867, at the age of eighty-three.

Mr. Lincoln has been charged with selling whisky at New Salem, Illinois. Let us examine the facts and his own statement. In 1833, he and Mr. Berry bought out three groceries in New Salem. Berry was a drinking man and not a suitable partner for Lincoln. At that time grocery stores usually kept whisky on sale, so the firm had quite a stock of whisky on hand, along with other commodities. Drinking was common then. Even some ministers of the gospel would take their "dram." It appears that Lincoln trusted Berry to run the business. It is doubtful if Lincoln himself sold whisky, although his name was connected with the firm. The firm failed. Berry died, leaving Lincoln the debts to pay.

Mr. Douglas, in his debates with Lincoln, twitted him as having been a "grocery keeper" and selling whisky. In replying, Lincoln jokingly said Mr. Douglas was one of his best customers, and said he had left his side of the counter, while Douglas stuck to his side as tenaciously as ever. When Lincoln laid aside his jokes he declared that he never sold whisky in his life. (See Chapter IX.)

Mr. Lincoln often "preached" what he called his "sermon to boys," as follows: "Don't drink, don't gamble, don't smoke, don't lie, don't cheat. Love your fellow-men, love God, love truth, love virtue, and be happy."

On the 22d of February, 1842, he made a strong address before the Washingtonian Temperance Society, in the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois, in which he said: "Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks, seems to me not now an open question. Three-fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts."

Leonard Swett, who, for eleven years was associated with Lincoln in law in the Eighth Judicial District of Illinois, said, "Lincoln never tasted liquor, never chewed tobacco or smoked."

The late Philip Clark, of Mattoon, Illinois, an old-time friend of Lincoln, is reported to have said: "We were together one night in a country neighborhood, when some one proposed that we all go to church, close by, to hear the Rev. John Berry preach a temperance sermon. After listening intently, Abe remarked to me that that subject would some time be one of the greatest in this country."

In the year 1847, Lincoln made a number of temperance addresses and circulated a total abstinence pledge, urging persons to sign it. Among those who signed the pledge presented by Mr. Lincoln were Moses Martin and Cleopas Breckenridge, who are still living. Recently I wrote to Mr. Martin, asking him to furnish for this book a statement concerning his recollections of Lincoln and his temperance speech. He promptly answered, as follows:

At my request, Mr. Martin kindly sent his picture for this book. Cleopas Breckenridge, who is referred to in Mr. Martin's letter, is living, in his seventy-third year, at Custer, Illinois. As he has furnished a statement for other publications, he writes that he prefers not to furnish it again. It may be said, however, that he was ten years old when Lincoln, by permission, wrote his name under the pledge, then placing his hand on the little boy's head, said, "Now, sonny, you keep that pledge, and it will be the best act of your life." In his long life, subject to many temptations, Mr. Breckenridge has faithfully kept his pledge made at Mr. Lincoln's temperance meeting.

On the 29th of September, 1863, in response to an address from the Sons of Temperance in Washington, President Lincoln said:

It is true that President Lincoln, during the awful pressure of the Civil War, signed the Internal Revenue Bill, (H. R., No. 312,) to raise money from various sources to support the Government, among which was the licensing of retail dealers in intoxicating liquors. This bill was warmly discussed. Some years ago, I read these discussions in the "Congressional Record," of May 27, 1862. Senators Wilson, Pomeroy, Harris, and Wilmot opposed the licensing of the sale of intoxicants in the strongest manner. Mr. Lincoln threatened to veto the bill, but, as a war measure, and, acting under dire necessity, with the assurance that the bill would be repealed when the war was over, he reluctantly signed the bill, July 1, 1862. Up to this time, however, the bill has never been repealed. There have been some changes made, among which the word "license" was changed to "special tax," but the import is practically the same.