Exercises on Drunkenness

In November, 1876, the Episcopal Church Congress met in Boston. The Closing Day’s Exercises included a morning session devoted to “The Prevention and Cure of Drunkenness.” The arguments back and forth were reported by the New York Times the next day as follows:

“Dr. Tyler commended enforced abstinence as the principle method of any value. Dr. Hartt thought the punishment of drunkenness by making it a crime, would prove more effectual. Mr. Newton opposed the ordinary plan of temperance organization, and suggested the formation of Church temperance societies similar to those in the English Church. Dr. Huntingdon spoke in favor of total abstinence.

“Hon E. H. Derby, of Boston, suggested combating intemperance by educating the ignorant. D. Banks McKenzie, Superintendent of the Appleton Temporary Home, said he would have the drunkard treated as a sick man rather than as a criminal. J. W. Creamer, of New York, spoke of the importance of improving the condition of the poor. Making their homes happy, said he, would strike at the root of the evil of intemperance. Rev. Thomas H. Gallandet thought that judicious excise laws, with special reference to hours of selling and the purity of liquors, would do much to limit the vice. Rev. Dr. Schereschewsky, Bishop of China, believed that the spirit was to be found in the Church which would be potent to overcome intemperance. Rev. Thomas F. Fates appealed to the clergy to do their share. Right Rev. A.C. Gerrity, Bishop of Northern Texas, was the last speaker of the morning. He believed the Church was the great reformatory institution of the age. He called for good homes and good places of common resort as the best means of reform for drinking men.”

Enforced abstinence and criminalization, the proposals of Tyler and Huntingdon and Hartt, doctors one and all, had their day in the sun, and withered. Mr. Newton’s temperance societies evolved from massive, diurnal beasts of the plains to nocturnal scurriers, like small mammals you never see and have to be reminded are never more than twenty feet away. The judicious use of excise laws can only go so far in a capitalist society, and “educating the ignorant” or “improving the condition of the poor” smack of socialism itself and, as such, are non-starters. The Bishop of Texas’ belief that the Church was the great reformatory institution of the age reflects reality the way a black hole reflects light.

Superintendent McKenzie’s notion of treating the drunkard as a sick man rather than a criminal, however, is wrong only in limiting diagnosis and treatment to the male of the species. And the Reverend Dr. Schereschewsky’s belief that the spirit powerful enough to overcome intemperance was to be found in the Church has come true, for many, although it is unlikely that the Reverend was thinking of the basement.