The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1867-10-17
Morality.
or nainta

It is customary fer political speakers
as also others, who arc busy in recount
ing the evils of the day and the ef-
feet of the enforcement of views differ
ent from their OVID, to declare that our
times are degenerate, and that we are
rapidly drifting to ruinous fanaticism on
the one hand, or equally ruinous conser-
vatism on the other. Happily Cat least
for ourselves) we are not among the,
Der who see the ruin of our government
and country, either by their overthrow,
or their permanent perversion to the ends
of injustice and oppression, as a conse-
quence of tie rise or fall of any PARTY
Parties serve good purpose, for it is only
by means of them that large bodies of
people can act In concert for the attain
ment of common desire. But good as
they may be, they are apt to be made the
instruments for gratifying the ambition,
or serving the aims of their leaders, who
may draw after them the mass of the peo-
pie beyond the limits that sober reason
could justify, but who will be rejected by
those same people so soon as the ioiquity
of their purpose is apparent. Such was
the lesson taught the Southern politicians
in 1860 and 1861, who for peace, and in
its sacred name, had obtained concession
after concession from the Northern peo-
pie, out who were hurled as contagion
from the peoples embrace 50 soon as their
wicked design was fully manifested.
While such is the case in regard to
parties, and while people whose genius
and industry are not fettcred viii rise with
renewed Yigor from financial prostration,
and all the horrid desoatiou that follows
in the train of war, there is one other
thing, the yielding of people to immo-
rality, that throttles every useful pursuit,
deadens patriotism, and drags nation
headlong to efeminacy and ruin. The
great, the only sovereign anti4ote to this
evil is Religion. The financial condition
of nation affects it, bat cannot control it.
\ redundancy of money over what is ne
cessary for the purposes Of trade, on the
one hand, drawing men away from the
avenues Of honest industry into the vortex
Of speculation, and such a fnan cial con-
dition on the other as causes willing
hands TO hang idle, or returns the laborer
from his toll with only half sufficient
reward to provide for his necessities, are
as sure to swell the records of police courts
as The rains of Abyssinia to increase the
volume of the Nile. But whatever skill
may be shown in the managing of fnan-
cial affairs, or however adequately labor
may be rewarded, it is the presence and
influence of Religion that prevents a
State from moral decay. Such is the les
son of history, tor there is not now, and
We think We may safely say there never
has been, nation on the face of the globe
which has not leaned upon Religion for
support and locked to it as the grand
agency in maintaining the integrity aud
contentment of the people.
In most countries, the State weds itself
to Religion, but with US the two are for
hidden to wed, not because we disparage
Religion, but because we consider its OBJ
servance not to be enforced by secular
power.
Yet there are some we'll meaning aud
religious people, who, having d worthy,
and, thus far, religious end in view, can
see no other way of attaining that end
than by resort to legislative enactments
There are many evils of the present, as of
every other age, but he who invokes the
secular arm to prevent each evil be may
see, has much to learn. 1t is contrary to
the genius Of cur institutions, and 10 the
designs of our fathers, to bave our statute
books crowded with laws intended to eff
feet ends that might be attained by the
voluntary action Of the people.
We do hot fear to risk the assertion
that if the opponents Of the running Of
street cars on Sunday, aud the friends Of
would give IS much effort,
not merely to moral ements, but to
spreading the teachings of the Christian
Religion among the thrOngs that in our
cities seldom go inside a church-door, as