Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/444

 420 APPENDIX. destiny, and recommend its earnest efforts to the patronage of all. The institution is located in the town of Davenport, Dela- ware county. It is accessible by stage, either from Albany or Catskill, on the^Hudson, daily. The following is a copy of the constitution of the first tem- perance society formed in Delaware county : THE SOCIAL LEAGIUE. " As a band of brothers joined, Peace and safety we shall find !" To every reputable, honest man, in Meredith, be his reli- gious or political opinions what they may — It cannot have escaped observation, that the state of our society, for the last year or two, instead of bettering, has been waxing worse and worse. Tavern-haunting, intemperate drinking, carousing and high scrapes, horse-jockeying and trafhcking in depreciated and sus- pected bills ; enticing and leading away, one and another of our unwary, unsuspecting neighbors, into like excesses and dis- grace ; and traducing, slandering, threatening and endeavoring to intimidate and awe into silence, all who wish for better things, all who dare to discountenance and denounce the aban- doned and the profligate in the mad career of their vices : — These enormities, at first stealing and crawling covertly and slyly in among us, have, of late, assumed a bolder aspect, and made rapid and gigantic strides, till, at length, grown bold by impunity, they have dared to brave appearances, and even to show their impudent, brazen front, in open day— setting truth, decency, good manners and good morals, at utter defiance. With these facts staring us in the face, what have we left us, but to yield a pusillanimous and ignominious submission