Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1867-11-14
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over buf N'dhAil Wunb uhNe uffteteo
tho attention Of the mos, careless OBJ.
server. The special oauses OF this
raging epidemic are probably of q
somewhat complex character, but there
is, perhaps, no one cause that exerts
80 wide and powerful an influence in
stimulating this mania, as that grow
ing out Of our late civil war. Men
grown familiar with the sight of blood,
have become indifferent TO the sight
of even innocent blood. The violence
that storms over fields of carnage, has
perpetuated and diffused itself over
the serener fields of social peace and
domestic tranquility. Sons lift their
hands against their fathers and imbrue
their fingers in brothers' blood. Wives
hack to pieces husbands, and husbands
bury hatchets and axes in the brains
of wives. Daughters pour molten lead
into the ears of dying mothers, and
household domestics pierce with butch.
er-knives their mistresses, infiicting as
many mortal stabs as those under
whichfCe fell at the base of Pom
py's statue. It is absolutely stagger.
ing to be perpetually confronted with
such a catalogue of blood. 1t is q
perfect muster-roll of slaughterings
and poisonings, and almost literal
drawings and quarterings, fared be-
fore our eyes. The fountains of do
mestic affection appear to be COM
pletely drying up. Preside place
seems to be taking wings and flying
to the uttermost ends of the earth.
Sons are alienated from their fathers.
Wives elope from their husbands. A
confusion worse than the wrangling
tongues at the Tower of Babel, seems
to have smitten the community every.
where, and widespread, raving
diabolism appears in all directions to
dominate the land. What can be the
melting cause of this overhowing har-
vest of crime? What great national
sin have we committed 7 From what
department of Gods moral economy
does this terribly Christening influence
proceed Have we committed sins
in the face of high Heaven, and in
the very sight Of the Divine counte-
nanceY Have we challenged the
judgments of the Almighty in our
mad lust for wealth, and the glory of
a distinguished nameY We fear that
some Of these offences may be truly
charged to onr account, whatever
influence they may have had in de-
veloping the present all pervadihg
insanity for the commission Of crime.
Our abounding material prosperity
seems to have sapped away, TO large
extent, all the foundations of national
moral life. We have followed in the
labyrinthine ways of frauds and de-
ceptions and treacl cries. Truth and
honor and manly faith and noble in
tegrity seem TO have lost their charm
to fascinate. But the more immedi-
ate practical cause of this comprehen-
sive criminal epidemic, is beyond all
question, the late war from which the
nation has so recently emerged. From
that war has grown the mass Of elope-
ments that load, and of suicides that
darken the columns of newspapers
From that war has grown the des-
truetive assaults on life and property
that are now so rife through the land
Men accustomed for years to deal
with human lifo and property by the
summary process Of war inevitably
perpetuate, in multitudes of instances,
the same contempt for the rights of
both property and life, long after that
war has formally ceased.
The habits Of wholesale sacrifice
contracted in war, are brought home
to the quiet shades of domestic life.
Conjugal alterations grew up during
the war. Wives are tempted to de-
pravity during tho absence of their
husbands, and husbands grow eallous
and indifferent by virtue Of the hame
absence Meanwhile household alien
stions and jealousies sprout up and fill
the same dread interval. Sons grow
into disrespect for their fathers, and
wives lose faith and confidence in their
husbands. Here then we have just
the combination of circumstances,
especially auspicious for the produc-
tion of the crimes to which we have
been referring. Wives are ready to
run away from their husbands, and
sons are ready to slay their fathers.
Husbands are ready to shoot their
wives paramours, aid paramonrs are
ready to blow their own brains out.
Children are ready 10 cut each others
throat, and the whole saturnalia of
slaughtering and poisoning is ready
TO open its fearfully bloody carousal.
The prospect is sad in the extreme to
contemplate, and calls for a remedy
prompt and radical 10 arrest the fierce
fanaticism. All that is good and pure
and true and virtuous in the land,
must combine in one compact mass,
with locked shields, and confront the
raging spirit with tho whole unani-
nous moral power Of the community.
We know not that this remedy can
prove effective, and perhaps the deep,
distressing malady must be left, to be
handled with efficiency only by the
healing influence of time. But We
are sure that no influence less than
that above indicated, can produce any
present permanentreform. The whole
moral power of the community must
be summoned to the rescue. The sur
wing virtue of the people must com
bine in one unanimous effort. They
must set their faces in one solidified
front against the whole riotous mob
Of crimes and vices, and then perhaps
The fierce storm may be partially
Allayed. But nothing short of such