Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-01-08

From Ike Eesieya Citizen.
OUR S0CIlh STATE, AND ITS
EVILS.


Man is awake TO a sense Of misery. Evil
has oyerspread the world. 1t is true that
some lands are comparatively blest. .71ieri-
ems, while they behold the terrible ills un-
der which the laborins classes Of britain
groan, bless God that they were born AMER
IcANs. But IRE are t%reading the path Eng
land has trodden. We, too, are becoming a
great nation. The whelp is growing TO be
a lion, and it will soon have claws and teeth
to be dreaded. The world is filled with pow
eriy, crime and degradation. We are told
that man is Inherently vile; and that his vile
ness is the cause Of all this evil granted
but how comes he thus vile! All agree that
he did not come thus from the hand of his
Creator. That God has established certain
laws fer the government of mans moral and
material nature, those will acknowledge who
do not believe in chance. II man is in har-
mony with these laws he is righteous. But
il society is so constituted that it is impossi-
bic for man to live in obedience to these
laws, who is to bear the blame of the fail
Ure Man must suffer the consequences {;
and. as no man can suffer alone, society must
suffer. But where is the blame to restl-
On man, OF on a false state Of society
"N hat can we reason but from what we
know Z" We know that there are states Of
SNN'N'J' NlliiN - ltNNSSlANs ElONt
rank and dreadful. Speculation has follow
ed speculation in the world upon the origin
Of evil. One class Of men has asserted that
it was owing to the doctrine of total depavi-
ty though these stopped short and did not
inquire into the origin Of this dcctrine.-
The world was once said TO stand on a tur-
tie, but what the turtle stood on was not
said. The views Of those who have endelv-
ored to account for the existence Of evil, are
peculiarly unsatisfying. 4 very small MUM
Der have charged all evil upon that religion
that teaches us 10 ''Dless them that curse us,
and TO do good to those who persecute us"
Because these speculalions have been false,
shall we cease to inquire Why man is evil,
and why he is miserable
The world seems to be determined that its
holiOwness shall not be exposed. Men hold
down, with all their strength, the evil that
covers the ~ialscness Of society, even when
that ialseness is cankering their very souls.
Like the Spartan, man covers the fox care
fully with his cloak, that is tearing out his
vitals.
For years, the pages of our Journals and
Reviews have teemed with accounts of the
: evils which Cypress the people of the Old
World. But we need not look away from
our own land for miseries. We can see in
our midst evcr-wearying, wasting TOLL
And for what! Not for health, or life in its
higher sense, but for the mere life, not
health of the body. We have our poor
struggling for oXiStence-we have DAUGHTERS
sacrificing life, in toll and anxiety, for a dy-
Ing father or a sick mother, who have been
worn out In the false labor of our society
the death-struggle for life We have our
crowded atlics, with their tseasinr and DIES.
troying atmosphere; we have deadly MAS.
maIa ascending from our filthy cities: all
G these, and numerous other evils are here. and
human intelligence and human virtue vii.
t yet come up IN their might and remove these
evils.
1t IS evident to the philosopher that the ma
inral laws are not known, and consequent,
cannot be oOeyed. Society is held togethe
ny arbitrary rules and regulations, which arr
only to be endured. because they are bette
! than that worse state that men would faI
into without them. One of the greatest evil
of the present state is, that men are drsinte
grated. The immense power that is obtain
ed by combining the material forces of men
may furnish a hint of what men may becom,
by a union of spiritual forces. Man wa
made for sympathy and companionship.
he finds them not with the good, he vii
seek them with the evil. The want of sym
Pathy is everywhere felt. The interests O
men run counter to each other. They ar
continually fastened to the material, an.
obliged to contend, till they lose sight o
spirituality and sympathy together, and maj
might now not unaptly be defined as a being
that buys and sells. Men and women, whose
souls are developed, are everywhere soul.
starved. In the great struggle 10 live, mei
come to have little but worldly consideration
to keep them in the line of duty. 1t is no
love of truth that induces them to act or re-
if4in from acting, but fear of the scorpion
whip of public opinion.
We see around us a strange, wild, deer.