Sons of Temperance: organisation for abstainers

Letter of advice and Commission to Queen’s Division, No 1, Sons of Temperance of England.

To the Officers and Members of Queen’s Division, No 1, Sons of Temperance of England:-
Worthy Brothers. In connection with the grant of Charter to you as a Division of the Order of Sons of Temperance of North America, it becomes proper, owing to your distant and foreign location, briefly to revert to your relations to the Order. This office will therefore remark that until further and special legislation on the subject by the National Division of North America, you will occupy the same position, and have accorded to you the same rights and privileges as Divisions of the Order in North America. That this will for the present prove the most prudent and beneficial arrangement there can be no doubt. That the future may make it desirable that you shall resolve and assume a more independent and primary character, is, in the opinion of this office, equally clear. The precise conditions of such a state will, when necessary, doubtless be agreeably defined by the wisdom of the National Division and the wishes of the Order in Great Britain and Ireland.
     To the rules, terms, customs, conditions and enactments of the Order as presented in the B.B.’s &c, Constitutions, Revised Rules and proceedings of the National Division of N. America, copies of all which have been duly forwarded, you are expected closely and fraternally to conform.
     To promote your convenience and enlarge your efficiency as a branch of the Order, Queen’s Division, No 1, S. of T. of England, is hereby appointed to the honorable and responsible post of Deputy Most Worthy Patriarch, to and for the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with power to grant Charters, institute Divisions, and perform such other acts as properly appear to belong to a Dep. M.W. Patriarch from a pertinent construction of Sect. 1. Part IV of Constitution of National Division of N. America.
     The Division will report a summary of its acts and proceedings as Deputy M.W.P. to this office at the close of each quarter, in addition to its ordinary quarterly report as a Division.
     The Division is most earnestly and affectionately enjoined strictly to avoid all entanglements with public questions other than Temperance. It is the policy of the Order to look forward and to labor with an eye single to its own great object, the disenthralment of mankind from the vice of Intemperance. Politics is especial and sectarian views are allowed no expression in the Order. In all your intercourse with individuals or Divisions under your jurisdiction, by virtue of the Commission herein contained, it is also most cordially recommended to you to observe the utmost gentleness and courtesy, ever bearing in mind that we are a Brotherhood, and that the motto of the Order is first Love, then Purity and Fidelity.
     In conclusion, Worthy Brothers, permit me to invoke the blessing of Almighty God upon your efforts, and to assure you of the hearty wishes of thousands here for the full success of the Order on your side of the Atlantic.

Yours in Love, Purity and Fidelity,
Frederick A Fickardt, M. W. Scribe

(Journal of the Proceedings of the National Division of the Sons of Temperance of North America. Seventh Annual Session. 1850.)