Though the custom of using strong drinks at social gatherings was common in her new home, yet she firmly set her face against it and nothing of the kind was ever found in her dwelling. When societies were organized, plans adopted, money expended in promoting temperance principles she was always found among the most zealous in promoting sobriety in all its forms.
In subsequent years, Mrs. Bloomer became an active worker in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union; and in an address delivered before it in Council Bluffs, some ten years before her death, she referred to her own and others’ labors in the city as follows:
HER EXPERIENCES.
“I have thus given you, as briefly as possible, a sketch of the introduction and early efforts of woman in this cause of temperance. It may not be so interesting to you as to those of us who encountered the opposition, bore the suffering, endured the struggle, who were subject to ridicule, censure and frowns for the cause’s sake and for woman’s sake. It is well that you of this later generation should know something of what has gone before; that you should know that, long before the W. C. T. U. arose, organizations of women did as great and greater work than that large body of women are doing. We had a cause and a purpose, and there was no lack of zeal and enthusiasm. There was no cold-hearted, half-way work with the Washingtonians and those who enlisted under them. I must mention Rev. George G. Rice, of this city, as among the liberal-minded men of early days. On my coming to Council Bluffs, he very soon called upon me and invited me to give a temperance lecture in his church; and later, at his request, I spoke on the education of girls from his pulpit, and also the church was freely given me for woman’s-rights lectures.
“Council Bluffs has always been a hard field for temperance work. Originally a frontier town, it was for many years almost completely in the hands of the gambling and liquor-drinking classes of the community. On my first coming here, in 1855, Sunday was hardly recognized at all as a day of rest or religious observance. It was the carnival day of the pleasure-seeking of every kind. Business was carried on as usual. The saloons were open and games of chance openly carried on along the streets. But even then there were a faithful few. A division of the Sons of Temperance had been organized, and very soon after we came we assisted in the organization of a lodge of Good Templars. These two societies handsomely fitted up and carpeted a large hall in Empire Block, opposite the Pacific House, and held regular meetings on different evenings of each week for several years. But financial troubles coming on, they were unable to meet their expenses, and before 1860 both had ceased to exist. I do not know whether the Sons of Temperance ever renewed their organization, but think they did not. But the Good Templars have at different times started up anew and I am glad to hear are quite prosperous at the present time. I have a strong feeling of sympathy with this organization because I was connected with it in New York, Ohio, and here, in my earlier days, and because it admits women to its membership on a footing of equality with men, and it was through its membership women passed through struggles for recognition. I have frequently assisted in the formation of lodges, and one of my last acts before coming to Council Bluffs was going by myself as deputy grand-chief templar to Indiana to organize two new lodges. Other organizations for promoting temperance work have existed here at different times. The late D. W. Price was president of one of the most effective of these, and really did a good work. Moved by his eloquent and effective pleadings, many votaries of strong drink were reformed and restored to their right minds and still remain sober citizens.
“The women of the city have not been wholly remiss in their duties to this cause, though they have not done all they could and should. In 1874 a society was organized, a constitution adopted, and a committee appointed to canvass the city to obtain memberships, and signatures to a petition to the city council asking that the laws enacted for their protection against liquor selling be enforced, and the license law amended. But their petitions passed unheeded, as those of tens of thousands of women in other sections had done before them. They were laid on the table as unworthy of notice, and when taken up received but one vote in their favor. What cared our city fathers for the petitions of disfranchised women? They had no votes to give to affect them at the next election, while the veriest drunkard had; and so should they not consult their constituents? Temperance workers, either men or women, have never received much help from the constituted authorities either of our city or county. Generally they have looked upon violations of the law with indifference. That is the case at the present time. Although we have a rigid prohibitory law now in force in this state, its provisions are openly violated and whatever effort is made to enforce it comes not from the men sworn to enforce the law but from individuals in private life, who are thus compelled to give their time and money to do that which should be done by officers elected for that purpose.”
Mrs. Bloomer fully believed in the virtue of prohibitory legislation. She rejoiced when this principle was adopted into the laws of Iowa and strove in all suitable ways to secure the advancement of those laws. She wrote frequently and largely in their defense and the columns of the city press bear witness to the zeal with which she advocated her views. She was greatly distressed when her rector came out in his pulpit and preached sermons against the virtues of prohibition, and censured and criticised his position with great force and spirit.
FOR WOMAN’S ENFRANCHISEMENT.
But beyond all other questions, Mrs. Bloomer’s thoughts, hopes and labors were given to Woman’s Enfranchisement. In that cause she was a pioneer. She studied, considered and dwelt upon it in all its various bearings. She believed most sincerely that the Temperance principle of which she was an ardent advocate could never fully triumph until Woman’s voice could be fully and decisively heard in its settlement. This was her position in all her writings and addresses on that subject, and these were continued and frequent so long as her strength lasted. Moreover, she fully believed that the unjust legal enactments coming down from a semi-barbarous age, together with the harsh teachings of legal writers, would have to be completely changed in letter and spirit before woman could occupy the high place for which she was designed by her Creator and become in very deed and truth a helpmeet for man. And finally she insisted that the precious right of suffrage, the high privilege of casting a ballot along with man, should be accorded to woman as her inalienable birthright, and that she should exercise that right as a solemn duty devolving upon her as a responsible human being and as a citizen of a free republic. These were unpopular doctrines when she first commenced to espouse and uphold them in her paper, more than fifty years before her decease; but she never failed to maintain them, in all suitable ways and at all proper times, throughout her subsequent career.
Her house in Council Bluffs was always the welcome resort of those who were engaged in proclaiming these doctrines and urging them upon the favorable consideration of the people of the great West. From time to time, especially in the earlier days, nearly all these prominent advocates were her guests. Among them may be named Miss Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary A. Livermore, Anna Dickinson, Mrs. M. H. Cutler, Frederick Douglass, Phœbe Cozzens, and many others. And frequently when these advocates of her favorite reform visited her she arranged for public meetings for them in church or hall, so that through Mrs. Bloomer’s instrumentality her neighbors and friends were afforded opportunity of listening to some of the most noted lecturers of the day; and it is here no more than strict justice to record that she was, in all her work of promoting temperance and woman’s enfranchisement, aided and sustained by the cordial assistance and support of her husband. No note or word of discord ever arose between them on these subjects (and, indeed, very few on any other); they passed their long lives happily trying to alleviate the sufferings and right the wrongs of their fellow-travelers through the journey of life.