As has been intimated, I became president of the New Orleans W. C. T. U. not from deep conviction of duty on the temperance question, but because I could not resist the inspirations of Frances Willard’s convictions. Once in the work I gave my heart and my conscience to it with such measure of success that in January, 1883, a State convention was called to meet in New Orleans in the hall of the Y. M. C. A. Miss Willard was again present, and was my guest. Rev. W. C. Carter, D. D., pastor of Felicity Street M. E. Church South, was the knightly brother who stood beside us in this hour when we were without reputation, nobly doing his sworn duty as a soldier of the Cross, to speak the truth and defend the weak. Miss Willard spoke twice in his church. At a table where a number of dignitaries of the church were dining, referring to this event, a friend remarked that Dr. Carter had said the only time his church was full was on this occasion of Miss Willard’s address. “No,” the doctor replied, “I did not say that. I said the first time it was full. It was full again—but she filled it!”
There was a peculiar fitness in the time of Miss Willard’s early visits to the South. Women who had been fully occupied with the requirements of society and the responsibilities of a dependency of slaves, were now tossed to and fro amidst the exigencies and bewilderments of strange and for the most part painful circumstances, and were eager that new adjustments should relieve the strained situation, and that they might find out what to do. Frances Willard gave to many of them a holy purpose, directing it into broader fields of spiritual and philanthropic culture than they had ever known. For the local and denominational she substituted the vision of humanity. It seemed to me that when Miss Willard and Miss Gordon bravely started out to find a new country they discovered Louisiana, and like Columbus, they set up a religious standard and prayed over it—and organized the W. C. T. U. I was one result of that voyage of discovery. It immersed me in much trouble, care and business—sometimes it seemed as if I had more than my head and hands could hold—unused was I to plans and work and burdens. I prayed to be delivered from too much care unless it might set forward the cause. I was willing “to spend and be spent,” but sometimes I felt as if I had mistaken my calling. I only knew that I was on the right road, and tried to look to God to lead me. Doubts might come to-morrow, but to-day I trusted. In ten years I saw the work established in most of the chief towns of the State, and many men and women afield who had learned the doctrine of total abstinence for the individual and the gospel of prohibition for the commonwealth.
During these years I gathered numerous delightful associations in my State work and in my annual attendance upon the conventions of the National W. C. T. U. Among the National workers who aided me greatly in my early work was Mrs. Judith Ellen Foster who, with her husband, was for a week my guest, and spoke in crowded churches. Although I did not wholly sympathize with her when later she withdrew from the National W. C. T. U., our friendly personal relations were never broken. Her brilliant abilities as a temperance worker and as a pioneer woman-member of the bar commanded my respect, and I have not ceased to be grateful for the sustaining power of her inspirations and acts. For the first time in my life, at one of her meetings in New Orleans, I sat in a pulpit—where Bishops Newman and Simpson had officiated—and very peculiar were my feelings in such a place.
Besides Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Mary T. Lathrop, Mrs. Clara C. Hoffman and Mrs. Hannah Whitehall Smith from National ranks did much to create sentiment for our cause in Louisiana. No speaker in America has excelled Mrs. Lathrop in the vigor and the statesmanlike majesty of her arguments for the dethronement of the liquor traffic. A distinguished judge, who was not in favor of our propaganda, said there were few men in Congress who had equalled her in logic and eloquence. We mourn yet that in her death the world has lost so much that time can never replace.
One of the greatest victories won for our cause was the passage in 1888 of a Scientific Temperance Instruction bill, by the State Legislature, for the education of the youth in the public schools, on the nature of alcohol and its effect upon the human system. Mrs. Mary Hunt of Massachusetts, the originator of this movement for the safeguard of health against the seductions and destructions of strong drink and narcotics, spent a month at our legislature as the guest of Mrs. Mary Reade Goodale. Daily I went with these two indefatigable workers, watched and manœuvered the progress of this bill, until one of the best statutes passed on this subject by any State was secured. Such a work for the world’s glory is enough for any mortal, but we trust it has also placed Mrs. Hunt among the immortals of earthly fame.
I visited the Capital at this time and was active in the lobby, interviewing members. I sent my card to a Senator Gage, and was more than surprised when in response a tall, dignified black man presented himself. It was difficult for a moment to determine whether to make him stand during the interview, as is usual with his color, but I said: “Senator Gage: The people have put you in this respectable and responsible position, and as other senators have occupied this chair will you please be seated?” He sat down, and he afterward voted for our bill.
After this social intercourse with Mrs. Hunt and Mrs. Goodale great impetus was given to the work in Louisiana by the establishment of a W. C. T. U. booth at the World’s Exposition in New Orleans in the year 1885. It was artistically decorated and made as attractive as ingenuity could devise. Here the world’s great lights in the temperance cause were to be heard daily—in pulpits and other public places in the city. In addition to Miss Willard, Mrs. Lathrop, Mrs. Matilda B. Carse, Mrs. Caroline Buel, Mary Allen West, Mrs. Josephine Nichols, Mrs. Mary A. Leavitt, Mrs. Sallie F. Chapin of the National Guard, there were present from State work, Mrs. Lide Merriwether of Tennessee, Mrs. I. C. de Veiling of Massachusetts, Mrs. J. B. Hobbs and Mrs. Lucian Hagans of Illinois, Mrs. M. M. Snell of Mississippi, and many others. Our Louisiana Prohibition militia were in force all the time, and we had the pleasure and assistance of such brotherly giants of the temperance reform as Geo. W. Bain, I. N. Stearn, president of National Temperance Society, Jno. P. St. Johns, Hon. R. H. McDonald of California, Rev. C. H. Mead, A. A. Hopkins, and hosts of other loyal brethren who burnished our faith and fired our zeal.
Miss Willard in the Union Signal of this date said: “Mrs. Merrick speaks of the W. C. T. U. Booth as a ‘tabernacle.’ I consult Webster and find that a tabernacle is ‘a place in which some holy or precious thing is deposited.’ Aye, the definition fits. Our hearts are there, our holy cause, our blessed bonds. Again, it is a ‘reliquary,’ says the redoubtable Noah, ‘a place for the preservation of relics.’ Yea, verily. The women of Israel never turned over their relics more keenly than have W. C. T. U. women rifled their jewelry boxes for the ‘Souvenir Fund,’ which has gone into the Tabernacle. It is ‘a niche’ too ‘for the image of a saint.’ Accurate to a nicety. Heaven keeps a niche to hold our treasures, and so does the World’s Exposition. Our saints are there in person and in spirit—the right hand of our power.”
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe had been called by the Exposition management to preside over the Woman’s Department. There was much criticism of the authorities that this honor had not been given to a Southern woman; notwithstanding that this world-renowned Bostonian was not a stranger to our people—they fully appreciated the power of her “Battle Hymn of the Republic”—it seemed unnecessary to seek so far for a head of the Exhibit. If Southern women could create it, some one of them was surely able to direct it. Mrs. Howe came and performed this duty with marked ability, and displayed a force of character which commanded respect though it did not always win for her acquiescence in her decisions or affectionate regard from all her colleagues. I myself had much expense to incur, and received nothing, and individually I had naught special to excite my gratitude, though from the first I was willing to welcome this distinguished lady, and extend to her my co-operation and hospitality. My subsequent relations to her though transient have been pleasant, and doubtless her memory of her Exposition coadjutors matches our recollection of her own regal self. Miss Isabel Greely was her secretary—a very useful and estimable woman.
Some interesting exercises took place during one afternoon of the Exposition. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe addressed the colored people in a gallery devoted to their exhibit. There was a satisfactory audience, chiefly of the better classes of the race. Mrs. Howe had asked me to accompany her, and when I assented some one said: “Well, you are probably the only Southern woman here who would risk public censure by speaking to a negro assembly.” Mrs. Howe told them how their Northern friends had labored to put the colored people on a higher plane of civilization, and how Garrison had been dragged about the streets of Boston for their sake, and urged that they show themselves worthy of the great anti-slavery leaders who had fought their battles. Her address was extremely well received. I was then invited to speak. I told them: “The first kindly face I ever looked into was one of this race who called forth the sympathy of the world in their days of bondage. Among the people you once called masters you have still as warm, appreciative friends as any in the world. Some of us were nurtured at your breasts, and most of us when weaned took the first willing spoonful of food from your gentle, persuasive hands; and when our natural protectors cast us off for a fault, for reproof, for punishment, you always took us up and comforted us. Can we ever forget it?