The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-08-11
DEFALCATIOS.

nous frauds in that city. We copy it below:
The discovery of a great crime is like a
thunderstorm; it excites awe, apprehension,
possibly creates panic; but it leaves the at
mosphere clearer and purer than it was.-
And so we believe the recent astounding
frauds will lead to precautions aud safe
guards which will render such frauds hence.
forth morally impossible. So long as there
are confidence, faith, mutual trust, amonp
men-as there must be in all civilized COM
munties-there will be frauds from time to
time exposed--developing moral rottenness
iu quarters where it had been previously un.
suspected. The resulting shock is painful
but saIutary. 1t teaches that we have NO
right to substitute implicit confidence in any
mans integrity for reasonable prudence
watchfulness, precautiou. An individual has
no right so to do in his own case; much less
when he is acting as the trustee of an asso.
citation or community. Average human vir.
tue is too frail to be exposed to the widest
temptations in the absence or disuse of all
appropriate safeguards.
Prosperity is great protector of honor
While we sail whithersoever we will, on an
ample and favoring sea, how bravely we float
and how punctiliousy we fulfill every re.
qurement of our positonl No thoroughly
prosperous man has any toerable excuse for
showing himself scoundrel; few are so stu
pid as to do it. Had Monroe Edwards in
herited the fortune of Astor or Girard, he
never would have looked through the gate of
prison. On the contrary, he would have
been great financier-buili Railroads and
.l.aI hn 80 a. Il
of Ocean Steamers. Not tilhs money had
taken wings, would the world have suspected
him in vilany. 1t is the ebb of The tide that
discloses wrecks and dangerous rocks in the
channels that are all brimmed and smoothed
and safe at the food A finlnca crisis, a
pressure, crash, unvails abys,es of rascality
which prosperity would have kept forever
concealed and unsuspected.
A successful merchant asserts that no man
ever failed without doing some dishonest, or
at least some unworthy act-without involv.
ing friend by Misrepresentation, dishonora-
by lurching an accommodation indorser, or cut
ting up some dirty caper or other. We think
this assertion much too sweeping. We have
known men to fail without losing par
ticle Of their neighbour respect or con-
fdence-wthout alternating friend or Gre
ating an enemy. Yet it is none the less true
that adversely is a fearful trial of integrity.
No man knows bis own weakness or wicked
ness till he finds himself owing money that
he cannot pay. What trial for pride to be
accosted with insolent demands for money
by workmen whom it ordered and scorned
yesterday-to be blown upon by those who
but yesterday were glad to bask in its shad-
Ow-to be compelled to shun or walk sulk-
ing the streets which it trod as an autocrat
so lately. Death may be terrible to a mere
money-getting wording, but bakruptcy must
be still more appalling.
AS to the essential moral character Of such
acts MS this community now deplores, who
shall now estimate it! Dishonesty is always
revolving; breach of trust especially so, be-
cause Of the confidence repesed and violated.
The utterer of spurious stocks or bonds
must know that he is robbing the widow of
bread and the orphan of education; shaking
the whole fabric of public credit, and injuring
Others to ten times the amount of his person.
al gain. Yet Emerson somewhere says in
substance that murder never seems revolt.
ing to the perpatrator while he is meditating
or committing it: it is only when the deed is
done, and he finds himself with body on
his hands to dispose of, and other incidents
of his act rise up before his startled vision,
that he realizes the jangling and confusion
in which he has involved himself. So the
utterer Of spurious certificates of stock or
bonds doubtless consoles himself with the
reflection, at is only for week-T shall re-
deem all these within few days, and nobody
will be the loser by their issue"-and so he
goes on and on, hoping that the next turn of
the dice will bring him out whole and make
him an honest man again; but the fates are
dice toM not come up right-and
at length the horrible reality can no longer
be concealed even from his perverted vision
he is bankrupt, a traitor, an exposed de-
tected villain. Did any one ever enter this
labyrinth and find his way safely out of it ?