The Portland daily press., 1865-08-21
IS INCREASING Am ONO Usp

Some ofour exchanges manifest considera- I
be degree of anxiety over what seems to them
the general increase Of crime and criminals at
the present time The public has lately been
startled and shocked by succession of afro
cities of various kinds, which might almost
prompt to the belief that murder and lust were
holding carnival all over the land. Ac-
counts Of shootings, stabbings, robberies and
brawls fill the local columns OF. every paper we
take up. More recently the Developments
have been Of dishonesty in business transac-
tions. Astounding frauds, entertainments and
defalcations on an immense scale, an unprin-
cipled reckiessness in speculation ON other
peoples money, and disposition to introduce
the principles Of the gaming table into ordina-I
ny trade, are the latest manifestations of these
varying phenomena of lawlessness. The
painful conclusion to which many thoughtful
observers have been forced by these facts is
that the moral sense of the community has
been blunted, its conscience deBauehed, and its
respect for law and human life weakened by
the demoralizing effect Of war, and that we
can hope for nothing better until these evil
effects have had time to wear off; until the
better Influences of peace exerted for a long
period shall have wrought a cure upon the
diseased social system, We are not of those
who take this discouraging view. We do not
believe either that the disease is SO deeply
seated, or that the curative process is necessa-
rily to be so protracted as some Of our CON
temporaries seem to fear. 1t is true that war
is fearful demoralizer, and its EVIL influence
does not stop with armies, or the men who
compose them, but spreads into the whole
community. Familiarity with scenes of wi
olence and carnage weakens everywhere the
respect for human life and the binding infu-
ence of law; and the facilities which war
affords for the practice Of fraud and pecula-
ton, breed dishonesty with appalling rapidity.
Ii any one is not fully convinced of this let
him study the fearful but not over-drawn pic
ture just given us by Archbishop Trench in his
Social Aspects of the Thirty Years War"
But in the case Of the war just ended, and of
its effect upon the character of our people, we
believe there have been comter-acting causes
which have tended constantly to neusralize
these corrupting influences and have been, to
a great degree, effectual The spirit of unset
fish patriotism with which SO many went iuto
the conflict, the humanizing influence of the
Sanitary and Christian Commissions, the con-
slant agitation and discussion of questions in-
volving the highest principles of mans deal
ing with his fellows, the untiring vigilance
which free press exercises over the shifting
phases Of public morals and manners, point
ing out, If it does not always cure the mani
festations of social disease,--these, with other
corrective agencies incident to a free society,
have kept the poison Of war from fatally in
fecting our national and social life
We believe that the apparent increase of
crime among US viii be found to be transient
and, in some sense, accidental phenomenon.
Society is in state Of transition and commo-
ton. 1t has been deeply stirred, and it has
not yet had time to subside. In all this
change and ferInent, the evil element rises to
the surface like a scum. d 1t is more apparent
to the eye, but we do not believe that it exists
in greatly larger proportion than ordinary.
When the complicated relations Of capital of
industry and of trade, now temporarily disar-
ranged, shall have become readjusted, and the
various social elements shall have settled to
their normal condition, we think il win be
found that the proportion of rascals among us
is not greater than usual Nay, we believe it
will then be seen that under the terrible teach
ings of the last four years our people have
grown not worse but better, that they have
lost nothing in their regard for law and order,
while they have gained largely in, steadiness,
in endurance, in the power to surmodnt diff
culties, in ability to adapt themselves to cir
cunstances, ane in all the elements of man.
~ national character; that under the disci-
pine Of their long, heroic struggle for noble
cause, it has been possible for them 10
"Gain in no5feness and moral heiehtI -
Nor lose the wrestling thews that thraI the world"