Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-02-14
rPUBLIsHED By REQUEST.
Scarlet Sins.

rPUBLIsHED BY REQUEST.
Scarlet Sins.
At no period in the country's history
vas there ever such cause, as exists
low; for anxiety to the patriot and
Christian. We have no desire to be
alarmists but there are certain very
staEtlinR things to which i5 viii not do
TO shut our eyes We have written,
aireadv. on certain matters in which the
national conscience is utterly corrupt;
On matters, too, wherein religion, as it
Is called. has busted itself in increasing
that carruptfon.@That is to say, gam
bling has been taughts praetfced, and
and sometimes, for the first time, intro
iqtced bv religious fairs" FOR "relig-
ioush objects; and finally the Roman
lists have turned it IN Italy, into regu-
lar source Of revenue for molly OBJ
iects.
become rotten on that matter, among
pthers, and has ceased to have any
moral sense upon the subject.
1t is lust so in regard to the marriage
relation. The public conscience has
Deccme utterly rotten on that; and
what people call "the religion" of the
country has become rotten too. The
churches have accepted the existing COR
Eupticn without murmur, and have,
In the very midst Of tsreviVals" and
gracious outpourings, +" blessed the un-
ton of aduIterers and adulteresses, have
certified to their genuine conversion, y
and have admitted them into their COM
muniou. Of course we are speaking of
those to whom the Circuit Judge has
issued his license to break the Seventh
Commandment, according to the laws
Of Indiana or Iowa ~
Now, that there should be gross and
EreviOus corru ptions in the social life OF
a people, is in itself thing serious and
alarming. But there is still hope as
long as the religion Of the people de-
nounceB these corruptiOns, and refuses
to recognize them as anything but what
thew are, A people Is not utterly lost
until its 'treligi0fl'' has conse eerated, or
at least excused and justiffeds its cor
ruptions. And this is the terrible Tea
turs Of the case at present. On mass
of things which are eating at the very
heart of the manliness, the decency and
the Christianity Of the country, the pop
uIar oreligiOnH Of the country is DUMB.
Some things which are rotting out the
nations life that ssreligion" Justihes
and some il even uses for its own pur-
poses, and, as we have seen, tries 20
make out Of them its money profit
There is surely cause for fear to the
patriot and the Christian herein. Ma
lions have gone to utter degeneracy be-
fore and the road they have travelled
has been always the same, and is road
by this time, marked out pretty clearly.
We need scarcely say to any one ae-
souainted much with the past, that our
own country is travelling that road in
very bold aud decided way just now.
The great landmarks are clear enough
luxury, rapid riches, and especially
family and domestic corruption.
There is still another point on the
road which we have reached, and, in
some parts Of the country, passed.
point far down indeed on the road Of
national annihilatiOn. In the later
days Of Rome, it became necessary to
compel people 80 marry. Men and Wo-
men were SO unwilling to assume the
burdens Of the family, ana the care OF
children, that the ingenuity Of leg1sla-
ton was taxed in vain to ind induce
ments sufficient to overcome their un-
willingness The old Roman popula-
ton Of the empire was rapidly. dying
out and but for the influx Of rude bar
bariansf italy itself would have become
q desert.
When the first emigrants visited the
shore of New England and Virginia,
they found the Indians dying out in
the same way. One or two children in
family was the rules and IN many fam
lies there were none at all. This was
the case, too, in Australia, when the
English cOlOnists discovered it. The
native population was disappearing by
simple and regular excess OF deaths
over births. Certain tribes in Upper
India have disappeared, in the memory
of men now living, in Just this manner.
In ancient times and modern, among
great civilized nations and among saw
age tribes, in the Eastern continents
and the Western, this has been the last
Btrik ing mark Of national decay, the
final stage on the downward road. It
has been reached, age sag, among our
SeLUss
The enormous emigration has, so far,
masked the evil. Our population has
not decreased, because Europe has
poured its thousands upon our shores,
who, whatever else may be their faults,
have not yet learned to deny that "chil-
dren and the fruit of the womb are an
heritage and gift that cometh of the
Lord" But it is clear fact, that the
original American population of these
United States is fast disappearing. 1t
is disappearing more rapidly, too, in
New England Than in any other por-
tiOn of the country.
The war brought out some startling
facts, and these, among the rest by Of
f1eial and uHdOQbted hgure4a that the
fase dscaying that the mass of the men
OF military age were not 1T, from dis
ease OF one sort or another, for military
service; and that, but for the Irish and
German immigration, New England
would soon become empty of men.
A friend, who Is q careful Observer
New Englander by birth and breed
ing, and of large travel and experience
shere-saYs it is really startling to
see the number Of childless families,
and the number Of others where there
are but one or two children at most.
The dozen stalwart sous and blooming
daughters, of the old New England
home. are to be found nowhere now,
The sons and daughters Of the Euro
pean immigrant are occupying the in
heritanees OF the Puritaus, and the chill
sdren Of the Puritans. are disappearing
from their own soiE One need hardly
wonder at this, when a New England
woman, writing in the Atlantic Month
ly, recommended, unrebuked, some
years back, to New England mothers,
the use of what even GIbbOn call 'de-
testable pTsCautiO iOnsn when Speaking Of
the vile Theodore. And this woman
l9 considered one Of the foremost 3InOr-
81 writers Of New Englsnd? Aud the
Atlantic Moathly and her books are
lOUnd on the censre-taISleg7 even of
s -ChuFohmene
But these adetestable pra,,artio,s,,
DO avoid the natural burdens of the
AAnily, are not used by New. ENGLAND
n1othsFs aAone,, nor justified only bv
1tserGtsisTS in the Atlantic. They are
common enough In the West, also,
W here the land lies empty CRYING for
u7eni VvHere the eKp Kpense Of rearing chill
AEen is almost nothing, and whore their
IWcaeGg In life ig certain in auv one 0f|
the thousand fields Of human exprtfou.
leE4 II anywhere, the old blessfutr oil
she man that hath his culver f'lll Of
those aEr0Wa ia the hands OF a giant :
te TQung eh flrens should be felt as
3 literal and present blessing still.
And Yot, here, In this teeming West, so
lGRrk & ~ the corruption into which