Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1871-12-20
Miscellany
From the New York Observer. ... ......
Some Things That are. Dishonest:
AND SOME THAT ARE NOT

bOtbN hhoh
AND SOME THAT ARE NOT.
You ask me a question that requires
some courage and much wisdom to answer.
1t is not safe for any one man to say that
such and such things are honest or
dishonest, when good and wise men differ
about them. But your inquiry has led
me to look over the whole field Of busi-
ness, and perhaps l can help you to a cor
rect decision. .... .. ,..
A MEAN MAXIM. ..
The maxim that comes from Cervantes |
in Don Quixote, " Honesty is the best
policy" is doubtless true; but it is a
very mean and unworthy inducement to-
do right. lie who is honest because it is
the best policy, or because it is for his
interest to be so, would steal or swiudle
if he thought it would pay. Policy is no
basis of integrity. And the maxim has,
doubtless, been useful in this commercial
age. For it is better that men should be
honest from low motive, than not TO be
honest at all. g.
! HONOR AND HONESTY.
The word honor is the same in the old
Latin with honest in English. For there
was time, strange as it may seem, when
to be dishonest was TO be dishonorable,
and he who defrauded his noighbor was
unable to hold up his head among gentle
men. Yet this very week the question is
under discussion in one of the most ex-
elusive clubs of New York, whether men
whom the city has pronounced dishonest,
shall still be permitted to remain as the
associates and equals of men Of honor.
To such depth of degradation has the
public sense of honor and honesty sunk.
The time was when MIR. Burke spoke of
"that chasity of honor whi,h felt stain
like wound y But that time has gone
by. and there is no such sentiment in Eng
gland, France, or the United States of the
! present day. In the days of Washington
there was chivalry of virtue that wonld
. have resented as an insult the faintest
\ imputation of practice such as public of.
fcers are charged with now, and they dc
think of the slightest importance to deny
or to cxtenuate the facts. Dishonesty Is
not as it once was, dishonorable. ! .t'"
The Governor of one of our States said
to a high official with whom he was IL
controversy, s" | believe you are the great
est scoundrel in the State" To which
the man replied, "Well, that need no
interfere with our social relations" 10
Dishonesty does aot disturb the socla
relations Of life, as it would if there wer'
higher sense of honor in the publi
mind and conscience.
PAYING ONES DEBTS.
To pay ones debts is obviously cue !, Q
the simplest dictates of honesty, In
basis of all dealings among men is the ex
d peetation that an obligation to pay will b
II respected by the debtor. The credit sys
q tenn in the advance of civilization, scarce
known in barbarous States, has grow
out of this confidence, and with its growt
has come the opportunity and temptatlo
to be dishonest. The system is pecessar
in civilization, but it has been extende
e, beyond all bounds of necessity and ha
demcralized he country The man WI
buys goods on credit, or borrows none
without giving security, or who induces h
neishbor to be his endorser, incurs III
billtv to do his neighbor wrong but
mauy cases the rashness with which
took the risk was criminal, and his lallul
to pay may Justly involve him in posltl
dishonesty. Yet very few men thll
themselves dishonest simply because tn
fail to pay their notes when due. aalo'
HONESTY IN BANKRUpTcY. y {
Then comes in bankrupt law viii
releases men from the legal obligation
pay their debts; law which IN
ed opinion of many cannot be moral, becau
no law should relieve a man from the
ligation to do his moral duty. Gre
hardship would result from the establl'
mept of this doctrine, and it is not at
palpable that commercial age IKE o.
will tolerate the principal; but 1t IS tr'
nevertheless. Greater hardshlps res
from the bankruptcy itself, and th'
who advocate bankrupt laws never "a
|. those evils into account. But men v
~ 90 into business, incur liabilities
make promises to pay, ought to have
81 consciousness that no law of God or n
la5 will ever let them escape from the P