Frances Willard: Address before the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

By the time she addressed the Second Biennial Convention of the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1893, Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was one of the most famous social reformers in the United States. Raised in Wisconsin, Willard completed her schooling at North Western Female College in Evanston, Illinois, and then taught science at several institutions. In 1871 she served as president of the newly established Evanston College for Ladies, which merged with Northwestern University in 1872. Willard was the university’s first dean of women but resigned in 1874 to become the corresponding secretary for the WCTU. This national organization, founded in the same year in Cleveland, Ohio, advocated abstinence from alcohol as a method of protecting the home and family. In many ways, the WCTU used its crusade to promote women’s rights. Certainly, this was true after Willard became the second national president of the WCTU in 1879, a position she held until her death in 1898.

While her predecessor, Annie Wittenmyer, had followed a one-policy platform during her presidency, Willard wanted to broaden the WCTU’s scope of reform efforts. An active reformer and president of the National Council of Women of the United States, Willard led the WCTU to promote social reform in the areas of education, labor, prisons, care of orphans, homelessness, and prostitution. The association also lobbied for female suffrage. In pursuing these goals, Willard promoted a “Do Everything Policy,” which is at the heart of the address excerpted here. The speech was delivered to delegates of the World’s WCTU, an international organization founded by Willard in 1883, and provides insight to the state of the temperance movement at that time.