On the 22d of February, 1842, he made a strong address before the Washingtonian Temperance Society, in the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois, in which he said: "Whether or not the world would be vastly benefited by a total and final banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks, seems to me not now an open question. Three-fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts." Leonard Swett, who, for eleven years was associated with Lincoln in law in the Eighth Judicial District of Illinois, said, "Lincoln never tasted liquor, never chewed tobacco or smoked." The late Philip Clark, of Mattoon, Illinois, an old-time friend of Lincoln, is reported to have said: "We were together one night in a country neighborhood, when some one proposed that we all go to church, close by, to hear the Rev. John Berry preach a temperance sermon. After listening intently, Abe remarked to me that that subject would some time be one of the greatest in this country." In the year 1847, Lincoln made a number of temperance addresses and circulated a total abstinence pledge, urging persons to sign it. Among those who signed the pledge presented by Mr. Lincoln were Moses Martin and Cleopas Breckenridge, who are still living. Recently I wrote to Mr. Martin, asking him to furnish for this book a statement concerning his recollections of Lincoln and his temperance speech. He promptly answered, as follows: "EDINBURG, ILLINOIS, January 14, 1909. "MR. J. T. HOBSON, DEAR SIR:—I heard Abraham Lincoln lecture on temperance in 1847, at the South Fork schoolhouse. He came out from Springfield. He had gotten up a pledge. It was called the Washingtonian pledge. He made a very forcible lecture, the first temperance lecture I ever heard, and the first one ever delivered in our neighborhood. It was in the grove, and a large crowd came out to hear the lecture. Lincoln asked if any one had anything to say, for it or against it, while he circulated the pledge, he would hear from them. My old friend, Preston Breckenridge, got up and made a very forcible talk. He signed the pledge, and all his children. Cleopas was his son. Nearly every one there signed it. Preston went out lecturing. I usually went with him and circulated the pledge copied after Abraham Lincoln's pledge. It read as follows: 'Whereas, the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is productive of pauperism, degradation, and crime, and believing it is our duty to discourage that which produces more evil than good; we, therefore, pledge ourselves to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage.' When I signed Lincoln's pledge I was about nineteen years old. I am now eighty years old. "MOSES MARTIN."