The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-08-18

Puai,.nicaI I<sis,asson-Iss Re.etivs Ten-
dsDeios.
II Is curious how apt people are to confound
principles aud to cheat their consciences when
1t suits them to abandon old Ideas and habits.
Many, for Instance, who think It highly Immoral
t. gamble ut faro table or In lottery, deem 1t
no Sin to risk their money in equally hazardous
speculasions on the Stock Exchange. That which
constitutes with them the moral offence Is merely
the 6isf,vor With which 1t IL viewed by public
opinion. But what is called public opinion, as
CLEANED from puritanicsl sources, has in reality
no aim to that title. Independent thinkers,
who reflect the views OF the multitude refuse to
draw distinctions which are founded on the
forms and not on the essence of things.
Let us just examine one phase of the phafi-
saical tendency which creates such seeming
difference between the ideas of one generation
and those Of another, but which in reality only
reproduces under another name the passions aud
tailines which make up the cum of the human
character. AT the present day the lottery sys.
TEN If almost universally cried down a. being
fruitful source Of immortality ard crime. Abroad
il has been made pretty generally an object Of
hostile legislation, although some governments
FfaDce, for Neutrality-suspicious. to recognise the va
Lofty of the arguments on which this hostility
is founded. In this country, with the exception
of three States-Mary land, Georgia and Della
ware-lotteries are strictly prohibited. Tois
does Dot prevent an immense business being done
ny the lotteries of those States throughout the
U,ion. The men who bave purchased the few
remaining lottery privileges are amongst the
richest and most influential of our citizens, aud
neither moi ally, socially nor politically 10 aay
igDa supposed TO attach to them
II lotteries be morally wong, it follows that
public sentiment in regard to the position OF these
oersons cauuot be right. Let it be clearly uu
deIstoed that we do not defend the principle Of
lotteries any more than we defend the faro table
TT gambling in any other shape OF form. Vein
-ist, however, upon having Things called by theu
right names, and upon having the specious pre-
many worse offences against society strip.
ped from the sins which they cover.
In order to do this we need only investigate the
uses made Of lotteries In times that were purer
and more primitive than our owD, and then com
pare them with the purposes to which gambling
of an equally hazardous and indefensible charac.
ter is at present applied. The founders of the
republic evidently did not regard the lottery
system as 20 pernicious to the public morals as
modern reformers DO, for one of their earliest
acts sfter the Declaration of Independence was
10 charter lottery to enable the Revolutionary
Congress to supply the sinews of war Those to
whose care 1t devoived to train the youthful
minds that were to sustain the honor and in
terests of the nation thus called Into beiog could
not have viewed the lottery system as SO preg
pant with danger, for to it we owe large pro.
portion Of the great educational establishments
OF the country. Neither do the clergy appear to
have been al Ill susceptible to its periis for we
End that at least two-shisoe of the churches
that were erected in the United States
prior to the year 1906 were indebted to
lotteries for their completion Episcopaiiaus,
Meihodists, Presbytefiane aud Bapti-ts, were all,
in fact, equally glad TO avail themselves of the
aid which this invention of the arch. enemy of
mankind afforded them.
1t IS worthy of ote that when the hue and CIV
was raist against lotteries AID the Legislatures
we're driven to pass severe penal enactmeuts
against them, banks and railroads suddenly
spfapg into favor. An explanation of this
coincidence is to be found ia the fact that the
lottery spectators and gamblers, compelled to
change the form Of their operations, rushed
eagerly into toese new schemes. To them, it is
now well ascertaiDed, We owe most of the rotten
bar king and railroad enterprises which have
subjected the country 10 so many terrible crises.
What are, then, the actual results OF all the cru
sades ala severe enactments directed against
Lotteries in this country? In the first place, the
taste fer gambling has been s,tfuseo over wider
surface, whilst the lottery system itself is io
nearly as great activity as ever. By limiting its
legal existence TO three States We have given
monopoly TO q few Individuals who are making
GLORIOUS revenues out Of it, aud @e have thereby
impaired TO it unity aud force which render it
Infinitely more powerful ior mischief THAI it was
when it was exposed to general competition
From the tRo other evils which our ondeavors to
suppress lotteries have created have soruar re-
sulls Infinitely more disastrous than auy to which
the latter could have led. The railway system
of this country, which might have been made
one of great national benefit and of legitimate
profit to Individuals has been converted into a
vast aid uncomfortable engine of mischief The
whole ss stem, conceived as il was in ~i,d spirit
Of spe culaton, and carried cut 10 bad faith and
dishonesty, bas exploded aid destroyed all future
confidence in its results. Our banks have not
as yet arrived at this pass, but they are on the
high read to it The men who are at their head
are doing all they to insure their ruin, aud it
requires but another revuIsion like that of 81 to
bring the whole structure of our banking system
topping to the ground. So much for the mo-
raIity that seeks to impose legal limits to ten
denotes which require but the restraints of q