The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-15
SPIRIT OF THE PRnss.
Editorial Opinions ofthe Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
MR.. nEEcHER on sOOURGING.

Mr.. Beecher, returning Gin the ". y.
tLedge1) to the advocacy of hogging as a
necessary part of the education of children,
writes upon the subject with lightness of
manner which may lead those who do not
know him to question his sincerity. With all
his cultivation, and all that skill in contro-
versy which the distinguished gentleman has
exhibited, it appears to us that he does not
fully comprehend the difference between an
opinion and q notion. In this we admit that
he is not alone. More than moiety of the
men and women who undertake to discuss
questions Of public interest are content to be
illogical if only they can be brilliant and en-
tertainine. It is not difficult for them to
whom nature has given the faculty of jesting
to laugh away the whole soul and sincerity of
O question, as Mr.. Beecher tries to do In the
following frivolous passnge:-
"The 'wayward children are not 80 much to
blame, Il seems, the parents. bad boy snatches
his sisters doll aud plumps 1t into the fire. that's
his mothers fault! Bill runs on with his younger
after IT, he gets rubbed in the snow and kicked
and that's his fathers fault! thievish boy eats up
all the doughnuts set apart for supper and then de-
MES that he touched them, and puts IL Off on poor
bound servant girl and gets her into disgrace, and
suborns his younger brother to join In the deceit;
and all this is the fault Of his parents"
We believe that reason, not less than re-
velation, long ago determined that con-
siderable portion of juvenile obliquity is con-
genital. The sins of the father are visited
upon the children. The passion of the parent
for sour grapes sets on edge the teeth of
several generations; and it may often happen
that the fault for which a child is f1ogged,
and the hot wrath which stiffens the arm of
discipline, are substantially identical. The
child Is obstinate; the parent is not less so;
and the conflict speedily becomes no better
than mutual trial of physical strength, in
which the elder, of course, is the victor, until
years have brought to the junior bone, and
muscle, and an immunity from degradation.
When boy can say, 81 will be beaten no
longer, the parental hand must be stayed,
however closely the parental theories may
coincide with those of the Rev. Mr.. Beecher.
In one blessed State of this Union, however,
the persuasive influence of the whip is still
exerted, without regard to age. The body
polite of Delaware, standing, we presume,
in the position of one of Mr.. Beecher's
parents, fogs the wellgrown thieves and the
adult vagrants; and Mr.. Senator Salisbury
himself, in defending the whipping-posts of
his small but Spartan commonwealth, might
argue for the physical discipline of men and
women, as Mr.. Beecher argues for the physi-
cal discipline of ignorant boys and girls.
This, indeed, was the morality of the planta-
tion. The negroes were but beasts; the over
seer literally drove his trembling gang afeld;
the sharp crack of the lash was the even-song
of the quarter house; the cowhide furnished
the mistress of the great mansion with q
never-failing persuasive. Why was not this
all right? These sable children of larger
growth incapable, as they were held to be,
of any other than tutelage of stripes-did
they lie, or steal, or fail to accomplish the
allotted task, how absurd would have been
the attempt to lead them in the paths of rec
titude and industry by that ''silken cord of
love" at which Mr.. Beecher sneers with so
much relish.
Perhaps, however, we give Mr. Beecher
credit which he neither desires, nor deserves.
He may be of the same mind with tlogging
captains at sea and with fogging majors on
shore. He asks perhaps seriously (although
it is hard to tell when he is serious and when
he is jesting), whether physical motives are
not laid aside too early?" This is doubt
which did not at all embarrass well-known
patriarch in a well-known book-the philoso-
phical gentleman, we mean, who fogged
poor 'Uncle Tom" to death. But we are
happy for once to agree with Mr.. Beecher.
Our own idea is that it is just as wise and as
Christian to fog man as to fog boy. We
are with the pastor of the Plymouth Church
in this; nor must either of us be astonished
to find himself in company with the late
lamented Preston Brooks. He thought,
with Mr.. Beecher, that ''an adult might be
greatly benefited by corporal punishment.
He also held what Mr.. Beecher calls ''my
u
could be soundly whipped that sit would
be worth thousand speeches" and there
is no lack of wicked people who hold
that the excellent pastor whose doctrines we
are examining would himself be not at all the
worse for sound rib-roasting We can we'll
remember when the physical dsciplinarians
of Alabama or Mississippi yearned to paddle
him, to pickle him, to tar and feather him,
and even to hang him. These were but repre-
hensible aspirations on their part; nor can we
suppose that their operations had the oppor
tunity been afforded them, would nave beer
marked by that light elegance which doubt
less characterizes the fustigations in Mr.
Beecher's parsonage; but. bloody-minded anC
brutally marderous though the planter-patri
archs may have been, it is but justice to sa,
of them that their idea of any soul in tn,
human constitution was limited and indef
mite; nor did they quote Scripture very Otter
(unless they happened to be CHAMBERLAIN
Presbyterians) in defense of their coars
morality. They were, indeed, sheer animals
Let us in charity, and somewhat to thei
credit, admit that they did not pretend to b
anything better.
THE FUNDING BILL UNACCEPTABLE
TO THE COUNTRY.
From the NJ Y. Times
The Funding bill, as it passed the Senate
is not received with much favor in Wa
street, nor is it likely to be acceptable to tn
country at large, unless very material
changed in the House of Representative
The Objectionable features relate to the va
riety of new bonds proposed to be created; t
the large annual and perpetual appropriatio
of one hundred and fifty millions for gold in