The American Temperance Society (ATS), also known as the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, was a society established on February 13, 1826, in Boston, Massachusetts.[1][2] Within five years there were 2,220 local chapters in the U.S. with 170,000 members who had taken a pledge to abstain from drinking distilled beverages, though not including wine and beer; it permitted the medicinal use of alcohol as well.[3] Within ten years, there were over 8,000 local groups and more than 1,250,000 members who had taken the pledge.[4][5]
The society benefited from, and contributed to, a reform sentiment in much of the country promoting the abolition of slavery, expanding women's rights, temperance, and the improvement of society. Possibly because of its association with the abolitionist movement, the society was most successful in northern states.
After a while, temperance groups increasingly pressed for the mandatory prohibition of alcohol rather than for voluntary abstinence. The American Temperance Society was the first U.S. social movement organization to mobilize massive and national support for a specific reform cause. Their objective was to become the national clearinghouse on the topic of temperance.[6] Within three years of its organization, ATS had spread across the country.
Notable people
Dr. Justin Edwards, preacher and treasurer of ATS[7]
Rev.Joshua Leavitt, Lawyer, editor, writer, publisher, first secretary of ATS.
^Jimerson, Randall C.; Blouin, Francis X.; Isetts, Charles A. (1977). Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Temperance and Prohibition Papers. p. 2. Preaching that drinking distilled liquor was both sinful and deleterious to the individual and to society, these temperance crusaders used moral suasion to convince people to sign a pledge promising total abstinence from spiritous liquors. The pledge adopted by one local affiliate of the American Temperance Society, for example, declared that members "shall abstain wholly from the use and sale of distilled spirits, exclude them from their families, with-hold them from friends and visitors, and from their laborers and all persons in their employ except in such cases as render them necessary as a medicine." The pledge described total abstinence from distilled liquor but did not prohibit drinking wine or beer.
