American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-05-29
VOLUME 4.
WHAT MEN WILL % FOR MONEY
BY Rev. HENRY wAsD BEEoHER.

When the welfare of men, their vir.
tue, their intelligence and their happiness
/. is weighed in the scales against money
avarice is The stronger. 1t is true, re-
garding the whole enlightened communi.
ty, and political economy, that the inter.
ests of property are identical with the
interests Of virtue, and that whatever
promotes virtue is good investment, and
whatever destroys virtue in the end in
jures property. Comprehensively, in a
large view, intelligence and religion are
good for the lowest interests in a commu'
nifty, as we'll as for the highest They
are not alone beneficial to men in their
family relations and in their higher So
cial connections and future estate; though
they are prominently beneficial in these.
1t would be to the interes.of every man,
even if he looked only at his pccuniary
advantage, that there should be integrity,
purity, disinterestedness, elevation of pi-
ETY., true godliness. Vice is q corrup-
ton, not Of morals simply, but of props
erty as much. 1t is not only bur den
to its victims, but it is destructive to the
whole community as well. 1t is tax
gatherer and oppressor. Itrwrongs the
poor, it wrongs those who are next to the
poor, i: wrongs those who are next to
them, it wrongs you, it wrongs me, it
wrongs every body. Every single moral
influence that is put forth in the commu-
nifty, doing good to the actor, does good
more or less to the whole community
and every single evil influence that is ex-
erted in the community, doing harm to
the actor and victim, also does harm to
tho whole community. We are so bound
together, our social connections and sym>
pathies and liabilities are such, that re-
fIectively the good of one is the good Of
all, and the evil of any part afiicts the
whole. Such is the moral constitution
Of this world, that G Godliness is profitable
in all things But to those classes of
men who do not understand or care for
any good except immediate good, and
physical good at that, it does not seem
so. The aproftableness Of virtue, in re
mote way, Incidentally, is nothing 20 men
who have no faith to morrow or of next
year, who live by their senses for the i'm
aicdiate moment, and to whom living
means some pleasure in the nerve aud
some qualification of the muscle. They
do uot hesitate, therefore, to make money
:at the expense of human purity, and hu-
man happiness, and life itself.
1t will not do, then, Cor US to be sem
timental, and exclaim against such. de-
grading views of human nature There
us nothing more potent and nothing more
melan chCly, than that maa will make
money out of his fellow man--literally
out of his blood sad homes he eau.
There is no mcasuer of cruelty, there is
NO depth Of wickedness, there is no de-
gree of meanness, that men will mot come
to practice for the sake of getting mon
eyse hope atfrst with scruples and re-
luctanccs but at last without sensation
or delicary. There is nothing gigantic
in fraud Ithere is nothinst base and,t reach
erous and heartless, that man will not do
for the sake of realizing pclf. n Z 0l .
If you should take the treatment of
the emigrants that land on our sholcs; if
you should take the deliberate deceptons,
the fleeing. the overwhelming ruin bro't
upon families, their beggary, their com
pulsory aegradations if you should call
from mute lips histories now suppressed
and unknown, of unutterable anguish
suffered by those who can not speak the
tongue Of the land to which they have
come if you should know that these
things were reduced to business, and
that heartless Heecings were carried on
BY men that cared neither for tears nor
anguish, nor separation, nor the deep
damnstion that they heaped on the vic
TINS head, youwould not doubt that men
would doany thing for the sake of money
"a.
,sa Strangers that sojourn in our midst 6nd
themselves watched for, as men watch
for game in the woods. The trapper does
not more cunningly spread his snares and
traps than do gamblers and tsouLdestroy
,.su;set,their traps for men and With no
,.theaght or desire except their destruc-
tien. slnd outiof that destraetiahi no end
except teEmske their temporary gain.
aThs ssstiacny in respecs 70 shs treat
nent Of sailors; in respect to the lairs
snd dess into which they arssnsiced; in
respect to the outrages which they suf-
fer in respect to the utter abomiaatipons
Of snhpmaaity that, from year to year
for long time, have remained unexplof'
ed and untouched this is one Of tbs
prolific chapters OF bottomiess, lust and