The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-11-19

citizens may have an opportunity to read II before
being called upon for their signatures
To THE HONORABLE CouRr OF COMMON Council IN
HARTFORD -
The undersigned have heard with profound
Germ that report is now before your body recon-
neDdiDg the admission and license of a theatre in
this city Permit us to say that, in our Judgment,
10 question could possibly come before your body In
which the friends of good order and public virtue
have more imme date interest than in this. fou
are about to decide upon a matter which involves
the character of many q SON. which affects the
hopes and touches the peace of many a parent;
which shall carry with il consequences that may
outlast your own lives aud affect your memories ia
the grave No friends of the dead of other cities would
consent that the monuments of their departedar.
cestors it should now be inscribed, " Here lie the
founders and the fathers of the theatre in this city
Regarding the theatre in the light OF its own unsm-
biguous history-viewipg its uniform character and
its unvaryng effects since its first existence in civil
zed society, "a thing which any well read indivi-
dual can easily do) 1t appears to us that nothing
but the most coDsumm ate misapprehension, or the
most complete self delusion, can persuade patron
Of the ancient virtues of Hartford to desire the in
PRODUCTION of this gangrene of depravity into tue
bosom Of this community. The theatre came into
Christian society from its birth. place and homo
stead, the heather world And through its entire
course in Christian lands, it has retained the three
vital functions which everywhere give it existence
and character. Inspect the theatre in its cradle, in
early Greece, and intemperanoe, obscenity, and
gambling, were as inseparable from the Athenian
stage; as were the chorus ami the actors. Como
down to the theatre Of Rome, and though many in
cidents and APPENDICES Of the stage hal been
changed, the three vices which the three twin
satellites Of the play were still present, and wanton
ness wine, and the game, were as essential CONGO
mitants OF the Roman stage as they were of the
Grecan. The theatre was smuggled at length into
European society And in very continental city and
court, during history of ten cen turies the stage Of
Europe has pertnacously preserved in its three in
separabe acts nebriety, 0bscenity and gambling its
original identity and functions The theatre has had
history Of England. Ard the British stage has, to
this moment, by confession of all who know any
thing Of its annals. been the ceaseless seminary of
the three Identical vices go constantly attendant
upon this mo her Of the lusts. The theatre came at
length to America, appearing in 1850 in the then
Puritan city of Boston. But there, as in its first
heather CRADLE the stage became at the centre
OF q scene Of unrestraned license, and the favorte
haunt Of the impure, the profane, and the intern.
perate. And such had been the uniform character
OF stage actors, stage plays, and stage ATTENDANTS
in all Christian times and all Christian cities that
the fathers Of this New World, with one consent,
sought to Danish it, the inveterate and incurable
cOrrupter of al civilized communities Accordingly
the Legislature, at its session in Boston, in 1867,
passed an immediate law, prohibiting stage plays,
interudes, and other theatrical amusements, the
ground that they discourage industry and frugality
and tend greatly to increase impiety and contempt
for religion" At intervals, and by stealth. plays
crept into Boston and other cities, TILL in l776, the
members of the frst American Congress, after voting
the Declaration of Independence, passed also the
following resolution
whereas true religion and good morals the only
foundations Of public liberty and happiness,
Resolved That it be and hereby Is earnestly
mended to the several States to take the most ecctu
means for the encouragement thereof and for the sup
preston of theatrical horse racing ga
ming and such other diversions productive Of
dleness dissipation and general deprayity Of princi
pies and manners
The fathers Of the republic differei greatly among
themselves on questions of religious faith and prac
tice: But. taught of history, they were unanimous
in the opinion that the theatre could never be safe
~ accepted among the institutions of free and
virtucus people. Since that time theatres have had
license and career In all the large cities Of the
Union.
And though censured and deprecated by all the
founders of the State though condemned and dread
ed by all the moralists and all the divnes Of the aud
though acting under such stringency of restraints,
and after such scandalous history, the theatre Of
America has been truly the nursery Of the three
lnseparable vices which with from the orgies
OF the first Bacchanaliau festivals 1t in Greece,
in Europe and in Britain You arc asked. then,
gentlemen to yield your license and appro oaton not
to an unknown not to an equivocll, not to doubt
full institute. Ifs tree that has borne fruit for more
than twenty centuries and borne in all climates,
countries, and soils, precisely the same fruit, can
by such process establish its character and make
itself known, your honorable body may know the
character OF the tree you are importuned to plant,
with Christian hands, in this sanctiied soil Of Hart
ford.
We have presep ted 10 you one aspect OF the case
have shown you the direct, uniform, and perpetual
character Of the theatre Permit US now to draw
important and more instructive than that already
presented In heather society, the native soil Of the
theatre, the public conscience so often outraged
by its Obscenties and its license that were
frequently adopted by magistrates and monarchs
to restrain and reform this inveterate corrup.er Of
the public morals. But it was early demonstrated
that on heather ground the stage has but one law
OF Development. and that the memorable law of de-
generacy. The theatre was forever gro wing worse,
but 1t could not and would not grow better. So con-
WINGED were ancient moralists, legislators, and
senates of this fact, that the Roman censors finally
exteIminaed the theatre, because, as Livy saws it
was nocitWNm publcis n,wibus- an Institution fatal
to the pubic morals. The gladiatorial anuse.
Ments OF Rome were retained comparatively in
nocent. The theatre was demolished as in
compatible with the virtues of q heather peo.
pie. And this treatment of the theatre, as a
moral nuisance, irresponsible, irrcclaimable, and
worthy only of utter extermination had the record
ed sanction of all the suges and all the philosophers
of antiquity. Aristotle, Plato, Solon Socrates,
Nenophon, Seneca, Cicero. Lvy, and Tactus, have
left behind them testimony 30 the ncorrigib,e de-
rravi'y Of the stage, which jusifes tho severity Of
ancient laws, and a5u onisbes the guardians of
modern morality On heather ground the theatre
could never be reformed It's actors wero uniformly
sDd incurably corrupt. It's plays were habitually
and Intentionally licentous It's appendages were
ever the acknowledged Summaries ofsensuaity and
vice i, was therefore well understood doctrine
in heather legislation that the theatre must re-
ceive either on absolute prohibition unlimited
license.
Following the st0ge INTO That New W ortd, the ear
~ Christian society, shall discover what any one
who regards Christianity q. least competing in
its morals, instincts, and virtues, with those Of
besthcnisn will expect to discover, that theatrical
exhibitions at first universally prohibited, the
churches the councils, and the imperial court itself,
Irorouncing them psrnicoHs and incurabls. At
length, however, Christian society in Europe, par
ticjpating in the general corruption of the world,
consented to receive and tolerate the returning
stage And from that day to this the effort Of
Cbrstendom has been to keep the theatre, and il
possible, to reform it. But that effort has proved
as inrotent and as aboriive in every solitary
experiment of every Christian age and country
as similar attempts bad previously been on hea.hen
grourd Accordingly, nobody. can point to
reformed stage rs one Of the actual entities
Of Christian history. The three iuseparable
vices Of the theatre as conspicuous, as vital,
and as shameless, at this moment and have re-
manned 80 against all the utilities Of attempted
reform, as they were in the days Of the Second