The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-27
MORAL DEOADENOE.

the existence Oh our pOutlchl AooHeioo, OH
). that there is now left an amount of virtu
\ among the voting masses insufficient to Il
them to enjoy or to enable them to maintain
a representative republican government. TIT
croakers who utter these jeremiads over mora
:. decadence would have us concur in their be
lief that, while the colonists of 1776 were
honest, frugal, pious and patriotic enough te
earn and deserve personal and political lib
erty, their grandchildren have become so de.
based and 30 degenerated as to be ready to
: fall prey to any scheme of usurpation OF
monarchical assumption or oligarchical con-
spiracy that design and the juncture Of acct
dents may give rise to.
Now, while we hold the memory of our
ancestors of the "good old colony times" in
due reverence, and while we concede to them
the possession Of the hardy virtues which &C.
companied and sustained them in their hard
ships, and while we acknowledge their sacri-
fees, their self.denial their protracted suffer.
ings, their conspicuous bravery, their patience
10 misfortune, their moderation in victory,
and their return TO the walks of industry as
soon as the echoes of war had died away, we
are not so deceived by the halo of mystery
and glory which always attaches to the dis
tsnt past, as to believe them either destitute
of passions, or universally pure, sober,
simple, frugal, industrious and honest.
That the men who took share in the
genesis of the North American Republic
were. for the most part, sturdy, frugal,
honest and resolute, is an assertion only
equivalent to saying that they were the off
spring of those Britons who even then were
in possession of high intelligence and in the
enjoyment of degree Of political liberty
and settled constitutional government which
has been vouchsafed to very few nations.
The Britons of 1876 have retained all the
intelligence, all the virtue. all the liberty,
all the prowess and all the energy of their
ancestors, and have improved in wealth
as well as in knowledge enormously since
the days of their war with their insurgent
colonists. And now when we are asked
to believe that the successful rebels of
1776 have degenerated in morals and
are becoming unfit for self government,
we must hesitate in accepting an opinion
which involves the confession that our revolt
ing ancestors were inferior to the in
habitants of the British Islands and were
less capable of moral self-preservation. The
respects and the British Empire Of this era
is far more powerful, wealthy and compact,
as we'll as more confirmed in settled political
liberty than it was a hundred years ago;
when, therefore, We are called upon to be-
lieve that the great occidental offshoot and
progeny of the British Empire has degen-
Grated in morals or in any other essential par
ticular we are inclined to challenge the asser.
ton.
The colonies that fought under Washington
and organized representative government
have, in the course of one century, increased
more than ten fold in numbers, have more
than quadrupled IN territorial possessions
and have attained to fifty times the wealth of
that period whose one hundredth anniversary
We are about to celebrate The average
wealth of the citizens of this era is far
greater than the average in the days when the
indignant colonists de6ed the power that op.
pressed them. The nation, in naval, military,
commercial and monetary power, has risen
from the lowest to the highest rank. The pro-
yeny has kept pace in all essential respects
with the parent country, and in its career has
done as much as any other nation on the
globe in diffusing useful knowledge, and in
nventing and utilizing machinery for the
of labor.
We can safely 60 further in affirming that
he sum total of crime in our Republic is less, !
,ne year with another, than in any other ma
ion Of equal numbers and extent We can 1
firm that the average of intelligence is great
n than in any other country. We can in like I
manner appeal to religious statistics in sup (
,ort of the conclusion that the American /
people of this era are as worthy as their pro- i
,enitors or as any of their contemporaries. +
We are ready to admit that the vice of r
varice and the idolatrous worship Of money il
AVE increased in very marked degree in a
his country. We confess, with no little
humiliation, that larger portion of the
nergy, learning and talent of our ADLER men \
J directed to the acquisition of wealth. We Il
the disagreeable fact that more a
eference is paid to wealth than in the earlier q
avs of the Republic, and that as conse- 0
uence there is more greed for money and less ID
cripple in its acquisition. We confess also
nat in the wicked pursuit of wealth elaborate t,
lans are pursued and extended combinations d
re- formal and that there ia Threatened an h
ll-pervading and systematic oligarchy p
scoundrelism. In the name of very large IL
lumber of public men, we could, as public Ii
ccuser, enter their plea of confessed guilt on v
,e charge of impure motives base ends and NJ
orrupt practices. But all this does not D
rove that our countrymen in mass have SO
realty deteriorated in morals as to render CO
lem unfit for self-government. Under the d,
tiuences of spccess conuuests prosnertv ~,