NATIONAL COLD WATER ARMY. HEALTH - PEACE - COMPETENCE. PLEDGE. THIS CERTIFIES, THAT [----] HAS SUBSCRIBED TO THE ABOVE PLEDGE, AND IS ENROLLED AS A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL COLD WATER ARMY. ASA FITZ, SEC'Y. THOMAS ORR, PRES'T by National Cold Water Army - 1842

[Philadelphia]: Published at the Temperance Office, No. 3 North Eighth Street, 1842. Certificate, oblong 8-3/4" x 5-1/2". Ornately printed in gilt on black glazed stock, with elaborate bank-note border. Subscriber's name is blank. Faded in a few spots but always visible, Very Good.

The 'Cold Water Army' was a juvenile temperance organization, founded in the belief that its message was best directed at children, who were more likely to follow it when they became adults. The 'Pledge' begins: "Here, Lord! I pledge perpetual hate/ To all that can intoxicate;/ I'll never use the filthy weed,/ Then from its evils I'll be freed..."
Asa Fitz, Secretary of this Philadelphia branch, was a writer on temperance subjects and editor of the 'Cold Water Boy', a periodical published in Providence. This certificate was probably published at the same address as Fitz's Temperance Pictorial Songster [Philadelphia: Nathan Moore. 3 Carpenter's Buildings, North Eighth Street. 1843].
We do not locate this on OCLC as of October 2021.