American Purity Alliance

It incorporated under this name in 1895, as the continuation of the New York Committee for the Prevention of State Regulation of Vice, which commenced its work in 1876 and held thirty annual meetings.

It was organized in response to an appeal that came to the New York group from the International Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice, of which an influential English physician, Dr. John Birkbeck Nevins, of Liverpool, was president, Professor James Stuart, M. P., of London, was Honorary Secretary, and the honored Josephine E. Butler of England was the inspired leader.

Still, it was not in a concentrated form to gain the strength needed from them, until 1895, when the New York group broadened its basis and took the name of The American Purity Alliance, hoping thereby to do more and better work, and to come in closer touch with allies and supporters.

[2] The chief work of the alliance consisted in organizing methods for the instruction of the young in schools and colleges, for the information of teachers, parents, and physicians in sexual hygiene; the distribution of purity literature, of which a supply of 34 pamphlets was kept on hand at its headquarters; and the publication of The Philanthropist.

Its official organ, The Philanthropist,[1] was a monthly periodical devoted to the promotion of purity, the better protection of the young, the repression of vice, and the prevention of its regulation by the state.

The leaflets were designed to reach and elevate public sentiment; to gain a regeneration of thought on these matters, and to inspire an affirmative faith in the possibilities of chastity as a basis for the reform needed.