On the 29th of September, 1863, in response to an address from the Sons of Temperance in Washington, President Lincoln said:
"If I were better known than I am, you would not need to be told that, in the advocacy of the cause of temperance you have a friend and a sympathizer in me. When I was a young man—long ago—before the Sons of Temperance as an organization had an existence, I, in a humble way, made temperance speeches, and I think I may say that to this day I have never, by my example, belied what I then said.... I think the reasonable men of the world have long since agreed that intemperance is one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, of all evils among mankind. This is not a matter of dispute, I believe. That the disease exists, and that it is a very great one, is agreed upon by all. The mode of cure is one about which there may be differences of opinion."
It is true that President Lincoln, during the awful pressure of the Civil War, signed the Internal Revenue Bill, (H. R., No. 312,) to raise money from various sources to support the Government, among which was the licensing of retail dealers in intoxicating liquors. This bill was warmly discussed. Some years ago, I read these discussions in the "Congressional Record," of May 27, 1862. Senators Wilson, Pomeroy, Harris, and Wilmot opposed the licensing of the sale of intoxicants in the strongest manner. Mr. Lincoln threatened to veto the bill, but, as a war measure, and, acting under dire necessity, with the assurance that the bill would be repealed when the war was over, he reluctantly signed the bill, July 1, 1862. Up to this time, however, the bill has never been repealed. There have been some changes made, among which the word "license" was changed to "special tax," but the import is practically the same.
Major J. B. Merwin and Abraham Lincoln—They Together Canvass Illinois for State Prohibition in 1854-55—Lincoln's Arguments Against the Saloon—Facts Omitted by Lincoln's Biographers—President Lincoln, Generals Scott and Butler Recommend Merwin's Temperance Work in the Army—The President Sends Merwin on a Mission to New York the Day of the Assassination—Proposition for Freedmen to Dig Panama Canal—Lincoln's Last Words to Merwin—Merwin's Characteristic Address at Lincoln's Tomb—"Lincoln, the Christian Statesman"—Merwin Living at Middlefield, Connecticut.