The gazette and Democrat. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1860-1860, 1860-04-19
THE MORALS OF BUSINESS.

on the other hand, it is life only 30 far as
it has meaning. On the bald rock Of alb.
sosie truth rests every supers!ruclure
that stands to-day; what is put together
with the help Of the ties and Gloss beams.
the g:rders, the brackets, the rafters, and
the scafoldiDg Of falsehood, however well
they look to the eye, canuot and will not
stand. Time will only show il 70 the de.
luded builders. Time is the final test,
settling and unsettling everything.
To be shrewd, to wear long head on
ones shoulders, to see the 'cutest way
and forthwith to follow it. is not always
the shrewdest, the longest. headed, or the
'cutest, By long distance. Let it be
borne in the mind of every man. that he
must either add to or take from the gene.
J raj stock ofsocial integrity. Nobody need
: think he can himself cheat. and forbid the
, same practice to others. And so far as
, he does cheat, by SO far he diminishes the
) general stock Of truth, lowers the standard
t Of honorable dealing, and vitiates the force
g of his own example.
:, This he cannot do, however, and not
h himself be a sufferer. 1t is not SO plain
70 as it ought to be, and might be, to some
IS minds, we know; but no truth is more
a a true than this, that falsehood hurts him
is the most who deliberately practices it,
d If | deceive another, the evil does not
A. rest there; l have not got rid Of lie by
Fk telling it; it goes forth as my word, my
" representative, and stands for me where
a. vel and to whom my action may be known
If not now, then by and by, its hollow
ness win betray ITSELF and they who max
;, the discovery, will naturally come no
#, merely 10 doubt me, but TO try the prac
of tice of playing off similar tricks them
I'M selves against mine.
-, 80 Thus mischief widens, like circles i
III the water. Thus virtue decays and die
in cut Contagion blasts the whole body {
lui society at last. No one man can stan
sr nv aside, and say that he may take from Il
to general health and general virtue VIII
no another may not; he is permitted to tai
an nothing from it; it is in his place only
.ne ' add lit. 10 help on the progress ofaccr
No. tion. and not to draw against it at all.
ing But how much soever people or s
ray ciety is strong, by so much must it
on @ virtuous. In other words, all its publs
lem cd wealth, strength, greatness. bene
in. cence. relies on its naked integrity.
ting all business transactions, there is SON
,ne thing finer than the business. the thoug
mn. refers back from the thing done 10 t
deal thing signi6ed. Our merchants col
lec not stand day without this consta
10 though slleut, appeal TO a nice spirit
,n am truth and honor; impalpable, when {
bs. goes to talking about it, yet the only re
l,hy bottom on which all transactions rest.
men tween men of the highercrder in mercan
ems life, nod comes to mean promise, {
thsn IHn the promise stands till it has gone rot
the world. They do not require to he
their conduct abodt with legal technie
-Ine ties, and formalities that are meant
: H. thieves and forgers: if such were ind
anps the case, commercial transactions
,use: large nature would not be carried {
sting because their effectiveness would be
ea'so ! ne snoyed by the delay. But once Let il
, his even suspected, among such body
) ros. men-who are the ones, in fact, that u
Iiwi. the four quarters Of the glObe-that
q 10 one, or that, is disposed to finch from
,ulta 1m; candid and direct requirements Of
nm truth, and from that moment he is
u 10 pillory of helplessness and sh
ually, from which there is no hope Of csc
pur;, and, all the time, too, perhaps not
bsar. has been spoken.
# i'm. 1t is not any the less true BECAUSE
N. ." never thought Of it before; nothing is
oeen true, or more true either, on tha' acco
~ hut t is fact Of universal signifies
oprie. that as a single tube of water may bal
m the the ocean, and keep itself firm, 81
simple principle Of integrity alone,
,aips the whole unwieldy and comp
off his structure Of business and affairs.
r. II a nothing but the morals of a thing
.,,,.d saves that thing making it sweet
= to A keeping whole. To Imagine stat
:, business transactions, conducted wi
lis 'o'd any reference at all to truth and
I'LL or, is 10 create something that n'
4, -, does nor can exist. The man in the
ne, for little thinks on what slender ba
him, all this business system rest
at his there is the basis, for all that, and It
laKe 4" " basis--pone the less real for beir
hodv's tangible and unseen, or abstract an
' in her side the limits Of definition.
Suppose, for example, that nOthir
" to his tho la,O had sway. integrity being Sc
i'd you altogether how long would It be
p all this fabric of wealth and exc