Turner overcame opposition to the excise tax by enlisting to his cause the Rev. Henry W. Bellows, DD, and Professor Roswell D. Hitchcock, DD, President of the Union Theological Seminary. Turner also circulated a pamphlet seeking subscriptions, or pledged contributions, which addressed the concerns of the opposition: "The object of the institution is to provide an asylum for the poor and destitute inebriate, where his physical and moral condition will be alike the care of the physician and philanthropist, and where his labor may be rendered productive and of service to his family. With the asylum will be connected Workshops to make the institution self sufficient and relieve prisons and almshouses".