Communications.

THE LATE WORLD'S TEMPERANCE CONVEN
TION.

MR. EDITOR—DEAR SIR:—I have been ac
cused publicly, privately, and repeatedly, both
in letters and papers sent to me, of carrying
in the incendiary torch, and setting on fire,
the recent World's Temperance Convention—
so-called—of being an enemy to the cause—
of thrusting in "Women's Rights," "Abolition,"
&c., &c." I have remained silent in relation
to those charges, up to the present time, and
this is the first word, in any public way, which
I have uttered in self-defense or justification
of the "fire brand" which I am charged with
having thrown into that combustible Convo
cation! I had not the remote idea, when
introducing my Resolution, of igniting a
World's Convention of Cold Water Men by
asking them to acknowledge the common
brotherhood of the Human Race, and to
adopt a Resolution containing the most sim
ple and obvious principle of Christian and
Democratic equality,—a principle which I
had supposed lay at the base of the great
Temperance, as well as of all other great
Moral Reforms. I very strongly desired, and
certainly had reason to expect to see this
principle recognized and carried out in a
World's Temperance Convention—met for the
promotion of a World's cause—a Worlds
highest good. The "Call" which assembled
it, certainly inspired this faith as it went
forth upon the wings of the wind, inviting
all Total Abstinence Societies, throughout
the World, to send delegates. That the true
friends of this cause, being thus congregated
together, from all Kingdoms, Continents, and
Isles of the sea, might light anew the beacon
fires that are destined yet to illumine the
mountains and the plains, the hilltops and
the valleys, and to make glad the inhabitance
of the whole Earth. It was no American
Convention, no English Convention, no Irish,
Scotch, French, or Dutch Convention. It
was a World's Convention! It was no Pres
byterian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist, or
Quaker Convention—it was no Man's Con

vention, no Woman's Convention—no White
Man's, no Black Man's, but a World's Con
vention!! All Nations, Kindreds, Tribes and
Tongues, therefore, were alike interested in
it, and were alike entitled to be represented
in it, and the rights of all such delegates
were alike sacred, and alike entitled to be
protected; whether they came from South
Carolina, or South Butler—from Timbucktoo
or the Fegee Islands,—whether they were
Nicholas or his Serf.—Louis Napoleon or his
Subject in Blouse—the Queen of Spain or
the Pope of Rome—Queen Victoria in her
Regal Robes, or the hod-carrier, from Bamber
Bridge in his corduroy breeches!—wheather
they were the white faced and white neclaced
American Priest, or the black-faced Prince of
Hayti; the lordly Southern Slave master, or
the crouching Southern Slave! The weal or
the woe of the whole human race, is bound
up in the great Temperance Cause. Let the
drinking customs of society prevail—let the
diabolical traffic in intoxicating liquors con
tinue as the selfish and avoricious would have
it, and let drunkenness as the result, inun
date the Earth; and what man, woman or
child would not suffer? But let the vile
and destructive traffic be annihilated—the
drinking custom be abandoned—the last tip
ling youth and the last confirmed drunkard
be redeemed, and what human being in God's
Universe, would not feel the benign results,
and have occasion to rejoice and be glad.—
As in the Gospel dispensation, so in all the
benevolent and humane efforts it enjoins—
there is neither male nor female, bond nor
free, but all are one!! So God in his Gos
pel regards us,—Father, mother, brother, sis
ter, husband, wife; Jews, Gentiles, Medes,
Parthians, Europeans, and Asiatics, Ameri
cans and Africans! whatever the clime—
whatever the complexion—whatever the lan
guage; ALL have a common origin, a com
mon interest, a common right and a common
destiny.

Regarding the Convention in this light,
and believing in these principles of human
relationship and human action—and wishing
to see the Convention occupy a high and
consistent position, and adopting a platform
as broad and as comprehensive as the objects
and extent of the cause it sought to promote,
I felt impelled to offer in the absence of
anything of a similar character before the

Convention, and at a suitable time, when
such preliminary business was called for
by the President, the following Resolution:

"Whereas The cause of Temperance is
worldwide in its divine mission seeking the
welfare of the WHOLE HUMAN RACE, therefore

Resolved, That this Convention do cordial
ly invite all the friends of humanity, without
respect to age, sex, color, or condition, to
take part in its deliberation and aid in car
rying forward this glorious work of Reform."

Whereupon, whether the Convention lost
sight of the unlimited "call" under which it
had assembled, or the benevolent purpose
for which it had met, or not, it suddenly lost
its self-control—its moral dignity, and self
respect, and descended from the lofty Plat
form of a sublime moral enterprise, where
the children of a common Father, should
have kindly and liberally labored together
for the advancement of a common cause, to
a wild, confused, and turbulent Bear Garden
scramble, to shut out "women and niggers"!!
a proceeding as unmanly and disgraceful, as
it was unnatural and unchristian. The per
sons thus individeously thrust out, were as
worthy, and as justly entitled to a seat, as any
of the more favored white-faced members,
and their ejection will ever remain an un
effaceable stigma upon that notorious body.
Had the Convention been governed by com
mon justice, common sense, and the common
feelings of our social humanity, the common
interest we all feel in a common cause, instead
of yielding to foolish and bigoted notions of
antiquated "usage" and indulging in low and
wicked prejudices against the "color" of
men's skin—it would have proved itself wor
thy the great cause, the promotion of which
it professed to seek—and would have com
manded, as it would have deserved, the re
spect and admiration of the world.

Better, far better, to have allowed the
participation of some whose credentials
might have been thought irregular by a
packed and prejudiced committee, then to
have excluded one friend of the cause from
difference of color, condition, or sex. As to
the charge of introducing collateral and ir
relevent questions —Woman's, Rights ab
stractly considered, or the abolitions of sla
very, I neither did, nor designed to do any such
thing; nor did any of the friends of equal
rights in the Convention. I fling back the

charge; I simply designed to have the Con
vention act consistently, to receive and pro
tect every delegate in their right to an equal
participation in its proceedings. I contem
plated nothing more, I asked for nothing
[more?] and could not have asked for anything
less. Not upon the friends of equal rights,
surely, but its enemies—not upon the pre
sentation of the true basis of action, but up
on its violent opposers, rests the responsi
bility of the disorderly and outrageous con
duct which characterized the Convention.—
No sir, the introduction of irrelevant ques
tions, came from the other side of the house
—from the slaveholders, and Rev. pro-sla
very divines who could see nothing but
"women and niggers" in the fence! To them
belong the glory. The black slave Sous
saint [sic] L'Ouverture, may be exalted by the
French Government General-in-Chief of
the armies of St. Domingo, and be a wise
and humane ruler over the people of that
Island. The black Dumas may sit in one of
the first literary chairs of France, and his
productions be eagerly sought for, and read
by the million; the black Prince Faustin
may sit with dignity and respect in the Im
perial chair of a nation, but black men, how
ever learned or virtuous, may not sit in a
World's Temperance Convention in New
York! A woman may be the mother of a
Moses, a Martin L. Luther, a Howard or a
Washington—yes, she may give to the world
a Redeemer, and be the first to preach to
mankind, a risen Savior; she may sit queen
of the social circle, and of the nursery, edu
cating men for the great duties and destinies
of life, and for immortality beyond the grave;
she may sit queen upon upon the throne of State,
guiding the destinies of the mightiest mon
archial nations of the globe, but she may not
sit on the platform of a Temperance Conven
tion in DEMOCRATIC AMERICA! She may
run upon the stage and play, or stand upon
the platform and sing to admiring thousands;
but she may not stand upon the same plat
form in a Temperance Convention, and use
the same persuasive voice in pleading the
cause of the suffering victims of intempe
rance! Beautiful consistency! As to the
charge of being an enemy of the cause. I
have little to say. I make no claims,

but am willing to compare notes with any of
the Rev. Rowdies of the World's Tempe
rance Convention. I have been over twen
ty years a total abstaince from all intoxi
cating drinks—also from tea, coffee and to
bacco! Over ten years of my life, I have
devoted to hard service in the cause in the
editorial and lecturing field, obtaining over
10,000 names to the total abstinence pledge.
I regard the whole business of drinking in
toxicating liquors, furnishing grain or ma
terials for their manfucature, or renting
buildings for their sale, advertising such sale
in newspapers, and licensing such sale, or
voting for those who will license it, as im
moral.

And I would no more vote for a man for
any civil who is not a practical Tempe
rance man, and in favor of a prohibitory
liquor law, then I would vote for a slave
holder, or any man who thinks a slave
holder fit for civil office! If this practice,
and these principles of action, and the eleva
tion of the human race to a common plat
form of equal rights, constitute me, is the
estimation of these conservators of the
World's Convention, an enemy to the cause,
such an enemy may I be enabled ever to re
main.

Very respectfully yours,

GEO. W. CLARKClark, George W.

This is possibly George W. Clark (c. 1807-1887). He was born in Massachusetts but was living in Victor, New York by at least 1850. In 1848, he was placed on the executive committee of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society. He was a well-respected citizen of the town but not much is recorded about him. 1850 and 1860 U. S. Census Victor, Ontario, New York; “George Clark,” Ontario County (NY) Times, 28 September 1887; “Fifth Annual Meeting of the Western N. Y. Anti-Slavery Society, North Star, 29 December 1848, p. 2, c. 3; .

ROCHESTER, Dec. 10, 1853.