The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-03-14
FEAR OF DETECTION Is not NOR
Atty.


ding, cheating or bride taking. It is neve
safe to practice corruption, any kind or de
gree of it. It is never safe to indulge IN false
hood, any sort of it. It is never safe to d.
anything which would bring shame to tn
doer by being revealed. One may fancy hi
misdeeds can't be found out, or have beer
covered up, or can be so covered or thai
they can be denied or explained away 50 tina
| people will be deceived about them; but ye
it remains true that there can be no safety to-
the wrong -doer, and no security against hi
exposure. Though this look hard TO somt
people, It ia nevertheless in accordance with
the fixed and irreversible moral law Of things
and Of being. The only safety for man, OF
for woman, is in RETAINING from wrong and
in doing right. Even in old times, at the
yery beginning of human history, it was
said, - Be sure your sins will find You out"
So holds forth some contemporary in re-
cent issue, probably the New York Sun, but
We can not say positively. The aim of the
paragraph is to admonish men to do right-to
avoid swindling cheating. bribing and cor
ruption-to speak the truth, to follow the
strait way of rectitude, to refrain from wrong
and to do justice, because the contrary course
is followed by detection and leads to failure.
This doctine would be worth more in the eyes
of the student of moral philosophy if he had
not the constant evidence of other students
of this and other days, as well as Of his own
senses, that not 1.-THE nor hundredth part
Of the criminality and roguery of his fellow
men is brought to light A hundred
thefts pass without punishment or detection
where one is made to pay the penalty of the
law.
The silent ground drinks the blood Of ten
murders where the gallows claims one victim.
Fiction enters largely into the daily discourse
of the street, the shop, the market and the
social circle. yet there are few who bear the
stigma and odium of habitually doing violence
to truth. In not one instance IN hundred
are crimes against the social system followed
by detection. All over this continent and the
world there are millions of people who daily
sin against their neighbors and against the
good order of society, yet who are not
punished. Millions are rolling in riches ILL
won by themselves or by their fathers, neither
rebuked by the press, nor censured by the
pulpit, nor put in jeopardy by the law, nor
shamed by public opinion. They flourish
like the green bay tree and their eyes stick
out with fairness; they are not even annoyed
by their own steel-hardened consciences. A
hundred guilty or dishonest men escape
where one is punished. A hundred busy aad
cunning heads are employed in evading the
consequences Of civil or penal suits where
there is one engaged in securing tie triumph
of justice.
There are good men and good women now
as there have always been, and we hope and
trust. that their number may never be less
Some Of them are among the lofty and some
among the lowly. or scattered up and down
through all ranks and stations of life They
love morality more than others can love il
licit pleasure. They love justice more than
they love splendor, wealth or power. They
love the right and therefore do no wrong.
are nought to them because all
vice and all wrong see m hideous in their eyes.
They are truthful because they see the beauty
Of truth and are attracted by it. They shun
vice because it is hateful to them, and be-
cause their natures revolt against it as q
healthy palate revolts against poison. Fear
,f detection has little to do towards keeping
hem in virtuous paths, and finds no place in
heir hsbitual thoughts.
Society must protect itself, and the majority
who find it their interest as well as their
pleasure to be honest must take measures to
prevent and punish depredations. The fear
If the penalty of the criminal law has
wholesome restraining power, and all good
men would be CAD to see that power rigor-
,usly and invariably applied; but it is power
hat can never make men who are prone to
vii hate what is bad for it's own sake or love
THAT is good merely because it is good.
What our country needs is not 50 much the |
ear of detection and retributive justice as it
> . reverence and affection for what is in
moral, right, noble and true. Our |
educational system is faulty, and religious |
eachings are only partially effective. There
re innumerable cases of inherited vicious pro-
'ensilies which no scholastic, parental, or
ecclesiastical tuition or nurture can alto
ether cure or eradicate.
We conceive that one of the best methods
4 bringing honor and morality into high re.
'ute is to fill our public offices with moral,
ruthful and honorable citizens. Another ex-
client way to encourage rectituae is to cease
rom the absurd reverence that is paid to
1ealth or what is called success, and try to
onor real worth as 1t deserves.
Fdcile Decensus Auerni-Belknap knows
hat proverb, and Babcock will pretty soon.
70 suspect, be convinced of the fact The
resident and his friends are evidently be-
oming very much alarmed for their own
afety, and will not, in all probability, show
lercy unto any whose acts may cast oopro-
rum upon the Executive