Temperance movements were scarce in the 18th century, and only started their march for a dry country in the early 19th century. Starting with Benjamin Rush, a founding father and a major impact on the medical profession, and publication of his tract in 1784. This tract was an inquiry that not only gave a detailed description of preserving the human body and mind at the current time period, but also criticized the excessive uses of alcohol, and influenced farmers in Connecticut to ban the distilling of whiskey. Advocating for temperance rather than abstinence, similar associations were seen in Virginia in 1800 and New York State in 1808. By the early 1820’s, the Second Great Awakening had started and brought religion back into many american minds, and so many leaders used christianity as a driving reason for abstinence.
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Many organizations started to sprout out and unite the anti-alchohol populace simply by using personal health as a reason for abstinence. A growing temperance organization known as the American Temperance Society, abbreviated to ATS, was founded in 1826 in Boston, MA. Many leaders such as Co-founder of ATS and Prime Minister of Connecticut Lyman Beecher started lecturing his people about the use of liquor in 1825. Within 5 years ATS had accumulated over 2,220 local groups and over 170,000 members. The decade after its founding, it had over 8,000 local groups and 1,250,000 members pledging to abstinence. By 1838 a total of 18 temperance journals were published and simultaneously Protestant and Catholic churches were adopting the idea of abstinence.
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