Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-03-02
New Era and Reign of Benevolence-
Power of Selfishness and Gold to De-
part.

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nevolence shall be inaugurated to
take the place of heartless selfishness
We do not mean that at this partic-
ular time all men shall lay aside
their selfish nature and take to deeds
of charity. But only that Begin
ming shall be made in the way to-
ward living and laboring for the
good of the needy and deserving
Hitherto men have been so intent
upon living for themselves that be-
nevolence was mere incident, since
christ hardly worth the record upon
the pages of history. Here and
there, nov and then, very true a
John Howard would appear as one
out of place and time. Even the
christian organizations bestowed
their charity funds for the endow>
ment of institutions chiefly selfish
Rarely was an institution erected
and dedicated for uses of general be-
nevolence, but only for such use as
promised to augment the church
power.
But day has surely come for a
charge in the whole practice and
science of benevolent enterprise
Public opinion which directs and
supports the state, favors distinct be-
nevolent works. And the state be-
comes the popular agent to care for
the blind, the insane, the deaf and
dumb and the idiotic. Hitherto such
unfortunates have been left to the
family care or been thrown upon the
local charities. The nineteenth cen.
fury has settled such unfortunate
heirs upon the state instead Of the
family in which they were BORN
And the change appears to have been
brought about by the political mind
rather than the religious or charita,
ble-except that our religion may
have taken late years such turn as
to suggest charitable enterprises by
the State.
But it has been said, "the State is
heartless )" politicians look only to
party and to power, never to the
poor and miserable" ''self rules the
staoe," &c. Well, grant it all. But
are the poor. and unfortunate ones
any better supported in countries
where the church rules ? Or in
countries where the infdel mon,
arch's word is law ?
Rather it appears that charity,
which is the chief christian virtue,
dwells with American democracy
having failed to domicil with Euro>
pean monarchy. But we presume the
great reason why the American
states and politicians have erected
asylums for supporting the unfor-
tunate, is, that the people are the
source OF all power. In countries
where even the church is the state
and the state governed by mere
priestly tools, such institutions for
general use by the unfortunate of all
religious and of the rich and poor
alike, are unknown. The like is on
ly known in land of PUBLIC schools
and the general ballot, where man
is man, no respect for wealth or
condition, religion or no religion,
color or where born.
The fact it is under consideration
by the Wisconsin Legislature to erect
one more asylum for unfortunate hu
man creatures, the idiotic, imbeciile,
half-witted or feeble minded, leads
us to prepare this article. Very
true, the people are burthened with
state responsiveness. But these as
ylums only put the charge for sup
porting these unfortunate beings
where it ought to be-upon the state
or people. Such misfortunes, we
think, ought to be fathered by the
state god father-as a just penalty
for that original sin, the fruits of
which are present to all our senses.
The sins of the fathers, such as in
temperance, improper marriages of
relations, beastly unholiness Of heart,
&c, are to be visited upon unborn
generations, and perhaps hardly a
family is innocent. These unfortu-
nate beings are the living sign re-
minders ofsins reaching back through
unknown ancestry, and which sins
involve all alike in measurable guilt
and ruin to be removed only by di-
vine grace which grace is the free
gift Of God, and that without condi,
ton of any good in the hearts OF
any. The debt of their support is
therefore justly upon the state, be-
cause the guilt of sin is upon all.
But such topics are unpleasant
They belong to science, which per-
fectly comedies with scriptural rev.
elation in respect to personal degree
dation being caused by ancestral sins
and ancestral sins without question
being inherited by the human race
from our earliest parents.
There are supposed to be 300 such
feeble minded creatures in Wiscon-
sin. 1t is proposed to provide state
support for them.
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