Annie+Wittenmyer+and+Temperance

Original Author: Sharon McKenna Revision Author:
 * Annie Wittenmyer and Temperance**

Annie Wittenmyer, often described in literature as a “woman’s woman”, boasts a history as a stalwart nurse, relief worker, activist and champion of crusades. At her core, she was a humanist that strove to identify and amend the injustices she viewed during the course of her work. As record, her tireless efforts are well-documented in multiple publications during the antebellum and Civil War eras, as well as during modern times.
 * Annie Wittenmyer and Temperance**

In particular, her connection with the Quad Cities has several components. Among these are her alliances with the Keokuk Ladies’ Soldiers’ Aid Society in 1861; her appointment as Iowa’s first sanitary agent in 1862; her crusade to house war orphans in 1863 in Iowa;the development of the special dietary kitchen system during the Civil War in Iowa; organizer of and election to the Woman’s Home Missionary Society in 1871 and in 1874, her election as the first president of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (qc memory.org).Her attributes were not only in the form of organization and leadership, but as public speaker and writer/author as well. Her early skills were honed in Iowa and although her accomplishments were numerable, this paper focuses on Annie Wittenmyer’s work as an activist for temperance and the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement.

In order to give meaning to the Temperance Movement, the word temperance, an antiquated term for many, may need clarification. In addition, the term prohibitionoften thought of as a counterpart to temperance and its association with alcohol, will be briefly contrasted. According to Ames Brown, “Temperance is essentially a quality established within one's self, while prohibition is a measure designed to achieve the superficial results of temperance through the exercise of a superior force. Temperance comes through internal growth, while prohibition forces abstinence upon one and is accompanied by the constant danger of rebellion” (565). The temperance movement was directed at transforming the soul and striving for internal self-control, at a time when outside interventional forces (governmental control and legislation) were not welcome.

During mid-nineteenth century America, there was a chasm between religious groups and cultures in terms of alcohol use and abuse which proved to be unsettling for the more refined members of society. As noted by Joyce Appleby,

…this story played itself out when a new group of Irish and German Catholic emigrants, bringing with them a traditional nonchalance about drinking, arrived in the United States in the 1840s. The new generation viewed…emigrant families picnicking in public parks with kegs of beer. Contemporaries interpreted the different moral standards as distinguishing Catholic self-indulgence from Protestant rectitude, having forgotten- should we say suppressed-the memory of their grandparents' behavior. And one more brush stroke was added to the American self-portrait (Appleby 148).

While in Iowa, and whileserving as a nurse during the Civil War era, Annie Wittenmyer, had occasion to observe abhorrent, drunken behaviors in the ranks. During time of war, female nurses had a degree of advanced authority. According to Nina Silber, “… some nurses used nineteenth-century ideals of female morality and domestic skill to challenge incompetent doctors and army bureaucrats. Determined to make the disease-infested battlefront more like a properly sanitized … home, many female nurses boldly spoke out against corrupt commanders or drunken administrators. When Nurse Annie Wittenmyer locked horns with a drunken medical director, she had him dismissed” (Silber 12).

During the post-Civil War era, Mrs. Wittenmyer was becoming more attuned with the societal happenings of the time, as well as the political ones. She was observingthe breakdown of Christian family values, moral decadence and polarizing views related to alcohol and taxation. In contrast, she was also aware that America, as a young nation, had made strides in economics, farming and human liberty. With this panoramic, multifaceted view, Wittenmyer reflects by saying,”…we might have been the strongest and richest nation in the world had not our rulers…encouraged the liquor traffic, and adopted a scheme of raising public revenue…”(Wittenmyer 25). Wittenmyer reports that hefty taxation from liquor traffic as a branch of commerce negatively impacted all of American society in terms of morality, family life, violence, economics and early demise. Wittenmyer further reflects with the following observation: “The whole land was filled with beggary and crime… Millions, who ought to have been producers and breadwinners, became consumers, tramps and criminals. Men, mad with strong drink, reeled through the streets: women, grown old before their time… and little half-starved children hid away in fear from their brutal fathers” (26).

Using her work, observations and personal experiencesfrom Iowa as a springboard, Mrs. Wittenmyer soon became more entrenched with public speaking and the Temperance Movement. This calling brought her to the area of Philadelphia, which would take her work to a new level. In 1874, Mrs. Wittenmyer was elected as the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), an organization for which she worked earnestly in the previous years.The goals of this groupincluded, helping habitual drunkards, discouraging the use of alcoholic beverages, advocating the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, lecturing, and working with the medical community to enlighten the public regarding the dangers of alcohol use (Carson-Dewitt).

Under the leadership of Annie Wittenmyer, her primary commitment of the WCTU was to gospel temperance, stressing personal reform of the drunkard and of the whole liquor industry by moral suasion (Carson-Dewitt). According to Willard& Lathbury, Wittenmyer lectured tirelessly during her five year association as president with the WCTU. One of the most notable acts which characterized her administration was the “presentation to Congress of a huge petition on behalf of our local, State, and National unions, asking for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, on which occasion a ' hearing' was granted by the Congressional judiciary committee. Another act even more important was the sending of a letter of inquiry to the International Medical Association… This led to another hearing before a committee of celebrated physicians of Europe and [America], and resulted in the well-known ' Resolutions,' expressive of the most important medical opinion against intoxicants on record” (Willard &Lathbury165).

On a more globally noted scale, during her time as president, the WCTU “established over a thousand local branches, taught nearly five thousand children about temperance, and enrolled over one hundred thousand men in reform clubs” (Daniels 1). In addition, she spread the word of WCTU achievements by way of authoring or co-authoring several articles and books, including: //History of the Woman’s Temperance Crusade// in 1878 and //Women of the Reformation// in 1884 (Daniels 2). According to John Willard, in 1879 the direction of the temperance union came to a clash regarding organizational direction (1). Annie Wittenmyer believed the direction should stay the course of the original mission of temperance, whereby Frances E. Willard, her corresponding secretary and co-worker for the union wanted to take the organization on a different path that included suffrage and political involvement. In 1879, Annie Wittenmyer was defeated as the WCTU president by Frances E. Willard because of this schism.

Although her official work with temperance activities ceased with her WCTU presidential defeat in 1879, the path she paved led her to other areas of women’s rights activism. Until her death in 1900, Annie Wittenmyer continued to write, “became the President of the Women’s Relief Corp in 1889, and forced homes to be built for retired nurses and widows and mothers of veterans” (Daniels 2). Her caretaking of the WCTU in its infancyeventually led to the organization’sinvolvement with issues such as women’s suffrage, women’s right to vote and prohibition activities.

Appleby, Joyce. “The Personal Roots of the First American Temperance Movement.”//Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 141.2// (1997): pp. 141-159. Print. Brown, L. Ames. “Prohibition or Temperance?”//The North American Review 203.725// (1916): pp. 564-571. Print. Carson-DeWitt, Rosalyn.“Women's Christian Temperance Union.”//Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol, and Addictive Behavior.2nd Ed.// Ed. Macmillan-Thomson Gale, 2001.eNotes.com. 2006.17 Nov, 2010 <http://www.enotes.com/drugs-alcohol-encyclopedia/women-s-christian-temperance-union. Daniels, Sarah E. “Annie Wittenmyer Biography”.Spring 2006.[]. pp. 1-2. Web. 29 Oct. 2010. Quad City Memory website.Web. 29 Oct. 2010.[|www.qcmemory.org/Page/Annie_Wittenmeyer.aspx?nt=231]. Silber, Nina. “A Woman's War: Gender and Civil War Studies.”//OAH Magazine of History 8.1.//The Civil War (1993): pp. 11-13. Print. Willard, Frances Elizabeth and Mary Artemisia Lathbury. //Woman and Temperance.// (1883). (Park Publishing Company, Hartford, CT., 1883). pp. 161-167. Print. Willard, John. (2003). “A Look Back at Annie Wittenmyer.” //Quad City Times.//[]. pp. 1-2. 15 Jul. 2003. Web. 29 Oct., 2010. Wittenmyer, Annie and Frances Willard. //History of the Women’s Temperance Movement Crusade//. The Office of Christian Women: Philadelphia, PA, 1878. pp. 26-28. Print.
 * Work Cited**

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