The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1848-11-25

| 10 the ancient Athenlans, IN time oil
profound peace, to burn the navies of
the other Greek States, by sudden and
secret .reachery. The consideration
Of this proposition was, by that ancient
democracy, referred to Aristides. as a
select committee of one. He finally
reported that nothing could be more
advantageous than the measure propos-
ed, but nothing more unjust. Who
does not see that the moral faculties Of
Aristides we've wiser than his intellect.
ual? Who does not see that such odi.
Gus turpilude would not have promoted
The real happiness Of the Athenians, but
might have ended in their extermina.
ton? Injustice and wrong will not be
really and permanently prosperous.--
Sin will, sooner or later, be productive
Of suffering. The man whose faith in
Gods moral government is fixed and
immo veable, can hear himself denounc-
ed as u false prophet, with bosom un.
ruffled as a summer lake.
AS the anxiety to engage in CONNER.
cial adventures is the CHIEF temptation
at present. TO make an unwarrantabIe
and inordinate use of the taxing power,
that subject deserves to be examined
with some care. The committee in.
tends to do perfect justice to the argu-
ment OF his opponents. 1t may be OBJ
jected, il has been objected, that the
capital invested by government in COM
mercial undertakings, such as the dig.
gIng of canal for instance, has not al
ways been lost, but on the contrary,
has sometimes produced remunerat.
ing return in pecuniary point Of view.
And to the eye OF argumentative zeal,
a single instance of the kind assumes
an importance sufficient to overturn a
well settled principle. We may reply
what right have you to put the taxpay-
er TO the risk? What right have you
10 take the citizens property and en-
ploy it in adventures altogether foreign
TO the design of the social compact?-
What right have you to trade with trust
fund? But we invite gentlemen to con
slider the distinction between the imme-
diale and the remote consequences OF
actions. Paley's admirable treatise
on moral philosophy, certainly was not
intended to encourage assassination.
Yet, he says that the particular mischief
OF knocking an old miser on the head,
who cIenches in his bony, withered
hand the wealth that might relieve the
infant family of a young heir from want
and misery, is very inconsiderable.--
Looking only to the particular instance
the mischief is much overbaIanced by
the resulting benefit. And it is only
by regarding the general consequences,
that assassination is in this instance, as
in all others, discovered to be an afro
cious crime. Another moral writer,
who certainly does not intend to en-.
courage dissolute manners, says that
the personal happiness of the guilty pair
may sometimes be increased by an in
lrigue. The particular mischief Of an
act of adultery will be small, if it remain
undiscovered. And if any class Of vices
can receive excuse or paliation from
the common fraities of our common
nature, it is that class which have their
origin in love and gallanlry. But who,
in the middle of the nineteenth century,
is SO much slave of his brutal lusts, as
to doubt whether adultery is or is not
in reality an enormous crime? The
consideration OF remote and general
consequences will in these, as in all
other cases, unite the gordian knot.
1t is in vain to point this committee
to the apparent success OF the great
Hudson and Erie Canal, so unhappily
undertaken by the State of New York,
in 1917. This committee says, that
the success of that great undertaking is
only partial and apparent. To estimate
it correctly we must look at general
consequences: such as the intolerable
burden of public debt in ten or twelve
States Of the Union, the degradation OF
the standard Of political morality, and
the foul dishonor which pscuniary de.
linquency has fastened on the Ameri
can name, ,theretofore untarnished! But
the subscriber has presented this view
of the subject, in former report made
to the Senate during the present session
and will not, therefore, dllate on the
subject further than to say, that after
ten thousand experiments, men will at
length discover that there is no success,
fu mode of raising the standard Of pop.l
ular happiness, except by raising the
standard Of popular virtue and morality.
But is not true morality shocked at the
idea of taking the treasures of all and
estewing them upon part? Is it not
shocked at the idea OF perverting the