Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1859-10-22

and those of another, hut which is reality only
reproduce under another name the passions
and falings which make up the sum of the
human character. At the present day the lot
terry system is almost universally cried down
MS being fruitful source Of immortality ANA
crime. Abroad it has been made pretty gene
rally an object of hostile legislation, although
some governments for instance-rc-
fuse to recognize the validity of the arguments
on which this hostility is founded. In this
country, with the exception of three States
Maryland, Georgia and Observation-Disclosures are
strictly prohibited This does not prevent an
immense business being done by the lotteries
of those States throughout the Union. The
men who have purchased the few remaining
lottery privileges are amongst the richest and
most influential of our citizens. and neither
morally socially nor politically is any stigma
supposed TO attach to them.
ii lotteries he morally wrong, il follows that
public sentiment in regard to the position OF
these persons cannot be right. Let II be clear
| " understood that we do not defend the prin-
| cple of lotteries any more than we defend the
| faro table or gambling in any other shape or
form. We insist, however, upon having things
called by their right names, and upon having
| the specions pretences which are made the
cloak for SO many worse offences against
society stripped from the sins which they
cover In order to do this we need only in
| yestigate the uses made Of lotteries in times
| that were purer and more primitive than our
own and then compare them with the purpo-
SEES to which gambling Of an equally hazard
Gus and indcfcnsible character is ut present
applied. The founders of the republic evil
IDENTIFY did not regard the lottery system us so
pernicious to the public morals as modern re-
formers do, for one of their earliest acts after
the Declaration of Independence was to char
ter lottery TO enable the Revolutionary Con-
gress TO supply the sinews OF war Those to
whose care il deyolved to train the youthful
| minds that were to sustain the honor and in
| teIests of the nation thus called into being
could not have viewed the lottery system as 80
pregnant with danger, for to it we owe large
proportion of the great educational establish
ments of the country. Neither do the clergy
appear TO have been ut all susceptible to its
perils, for we find that at least two-thirds OF
| the churches that were erected in the United
| States prior to the year 1903, were indebted to
lotteries for their completion. Epscopalians,
Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptsts, 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 note that when the hue and
| cry was raised against lotteries, and the Leg
islaturc were driven to pass severe penal
cnactments against them, banks and railroads
suddenly sprang into favor An explanation
| Of this coincidence Is to be found in the fact
that the lottery spectators and gamblers,
compelled to change the form Of their opera
| tons rushed eagerly into these new schemes,
10 them, it is now well ascertaned we owe
most of the rotten banking and railroad enter
prises which have subjected the country to so
many terrible crises.
What orn tIpu tho 81 uul rnsttltp nf all tha
| crusades and severe enactments directed against
lotteries in this country In the first place,
the taste for gambling has been dliuscd over
| wider surface, whilst the lottery system itself
| ia in nearly as great activity as ever. By lin
| iting its legal existence to three States we
have given n monopoly to n few individuals
who are making enormous revenues out of it,
and we have thereby impaired to it unity
and force which render it infinitely more pow
etlul for mischief than il was when it was cx-
| posed to general competition, From the two
other evils which our cndeay0rs to suppress
| lotteries have created have sprung results in
fnitely more disastrous than any 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
10 individuals has been converted into vast
and uncomfortable engines of mischief. The
whole system, conceived rs it was in wild
| spirit of speculation, and carried out in had
faith and dishonesty has exploded and dcstoy-
| cd all future confidence in its results Our
| banks have not as yet arrived at this pass, hut
| they are on the high road to it. The men who
are at their head are doing all they can to in
sure their ruin, and it requires but another re-
vulsion like that OF 81 to bring the whole
structure Of our banking system topping to
the ground. So much for the morality that
seeks to impose legal limits to tendencies
which require but the restraints of sound
public opinion for their guidance and correc-
tiDn. As in the case of Sabbath legislation,
the only effect of such tyranical restrictions is
| to drive the masses into other and more dam
| gGrous excuses.
THE PIETY AND PATRIOTISM OF LoTTE-
| RlES.
Lotteries were formerly very pious or very
patriotic affairs when they were applied TO oh
jects of benevolence and charity, such as hos
pitfalls and asylums, or to educational institu-
| tions, such as colleges and academies, or Ia
| public works, such rs roads, bridges, and the
| Improvement of the navigation of rivers
About the earliest account we have of lottery
is one AT Amsterdam in l54a, where some Of
our pions Dutch ancestors employed II for the
purpose of raising money to build the tower OF
a church.
| ~ thIlN VI lSlhUl WE llul
il was employed for the building of churches
and other sacred uaes. In 5s2 and l5ss lot
teries were established in the Old World by
Louis dc Gonzaga for purpose almost equally
| gOpd-the providing of dowries for the poor
girls Of his estate. A lottery could not he es-
tablishcd for more appropriate object for there
is no greater lottery in life than marriage Dr.
johnson, shrowd observer of the world, re-
marked that marriages could not be worse as
sorted than they are il they were drawn by lot
The truth is, that they are regulated by chnncs
and circumstances rs variable and uncertain
as the drawing of the blanks and prizes.
In 1912 lottery was granted by the English
Parliament in aid of the Virginia Company
which founded the first Anglo-Saxon colony in
the New World-that which may be regarded
MS the nucleus of the United States The
cause of American independence was helped
along by the same kind of aid, and the prac-
tice of lotteries previled in every State till a
comparatively recent period, when partly sew-
ing to the new lights of evangelical religion
pretending to he better than our honest fore
fathers, and the fact of those who directed lot
teries finding more profitable business in
other games of chance, such as stocks and
railroads. lotteries have been abolished in eve
ry state except Delaware and Georgia.
Lotteries were too honest for the rogues who
wanted to make rapid fortunes by the swndling
operations carried on in stocks. So recently
were lotteries legal and moral in this State,
that Horece Greeley began life as an editor of
lottery paper, called the "Constitutionalist.' .
by what process of spiritual alchemy does that
WHICH was moral and pious few years ago,
become now immoral and impious.
The general abandonment of the business
has thrown it completely into the hands of n
few persons, who are making enormous fortunes