American Temperance Society Essay Example

The American Temperance Society (ATS), first known as the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, was established in Boston, Massachusetts on February 13, 1826. The organization was co-founded by two Presbyterian ministers, Dr. Justin Edwards and the better-known Lyman Beecher. * Formation of the American Temperance Society marked the beginning of the first formal national temperance movement in the US. * The Temperance Movement was an organized effort during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to limit or outlaw the consumption and production of alcoholic beverages in the United States. * By the mid 1830s, more than 200,000 people belonged to this organization. The American Temperance Society published tracts and hired speakers to depict the negative effects of alcohol upon people.

Lyman Beecher was a prominent theologian, educator and reformer in the years before the American Civil War. * Lyman Beecher was a prominent theologian, educator and reformer in the years before the American Civil War. Beecher was born in 1775, in New Haven, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale College in 1797 and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1799. He became a minister in Long Island, New York. In 1810, he accepted a position as minister in Litchfield, Connecticut. He became well known for his fiery sermons against intemperance and slavery. In 1826, he resigned his position in Litchfield and accepted a new one in Boston, Massachusetts. By this point, his reputation had spread across the United States. The church in Boston had more money to pay a minister of his standing. It also had a much larger congregation. In 1830, Beecher's church caught fire. A merchant who rented some rooms in the church stored whiskey in the basement. The whiskey somehow ignited. Beecher took this as a personal affront considering the sermons he delivered in the church's sanctuary against the evils of liquor.

Neal Dow, temperance reformer, born in Portland,