Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1879-12-12
MARCH OF CRIME AND CORRUP-
T'TON

wonderfully impressed with the vast amount
as well as the extent to which crime and cor
ruption have arrived in the present period
Every mornings press comes to us laden
with the sickening and horrid details of
some shocking and revolving murder, shroud-
ed in the deepest mystery, battling all hui
man ingenuity to unravel, or else committed
in the broad day light, and in open and
known violation of law. Its revolving forms
are visible everywhere; it is heard in the
angry discussion of our legislative halls, it
is seen in their deliberations, il is felt in their
legislation, it is witnessed in the judiciary
and in all the business operations of the
country. Theft, bribery and corruption have
been elevated to the dignity Of the fine arts;
it is confined to no particular class, but has
become fashionable and fascinating among
the leading and most prominent and con-
spicuous members Of society, persons who
have sustained the best characters; Presi-
dents and cashiers of our banking houses,
politicians seeking office, from the highest to
thC lllOSt oubOluiidlC III tilC 6hb vi biO pNO
pie; merchants who have large consign-
ments of merchandise made them with q
preconceved determination TO defraud their
creditors; lawyers, with whom large trust
funds have been placed for investment or safe
keeping apparent to the gambling specu-
lations and operations Of overgrown corpo-
rations which have belted the land with iron
rails upon the pretext of mutual intercourse
and the facilities of trade, it is developed to
an alarming extent in the numerous eleemos-
ynary institutions, it crops Quit the benev-
olent associations supposed to be founded up
on faith, hope and charity-even the church,
whose great mission it is to teach men to
love one another, to give tone and strength
to society and educate morals to high and
perfect standard, give startling and frightful
evidence Of this sad truth--and, alas it is
but too often the offspring of intemperance
and the handmade Of moral depravity.
The advice of Iago to Roderigo, put
money in thy purse" has met with an earn
est, emphatic, and we may add, an enthusi-
astic, self-absorbing endorsement in the burn
ing light and progress of the nineteenth
century, the teachings of that old book writ
ten eighteen hundred years ago, and the
thunderings from the pulpit to the contrary,
the maxim, "that man is the natural enemy
Of his fellow man." has become a sad, pain
full and melancholy axiom. We are afraid
| .oI
to other countries that are now supposed to
be almost heather, we will take with us the
flne arts so prevalent here. The system of
our banking operations, our shameless pros
titution in high places and in office of honor
and trust, and our loose morals, morals that
have grown with the wealth and fashion of
the land, will stand prominent in the temple
of the heather gods, as will the god of
mammon which we so fervently worship,
and which finds an altar in almost every
house. 1t certainly has devotees at its shrine
in many of our shameless public men who,
regardless of every obligation of honor, and
every noble and manly instinct, allow them
selves to be made commodities of merchan-
disc. 1t has debased and demoralized the
great privilege of the elective franchise ;
scarcely national, State or municipal cleo
ton, but that its power is felt, recognized
and obeyed; and the further humiliating
custom, almost engrafted as a chief feature
in our civil service reform, the heads of the
several departments and the various branch
es appertaining, require levies to be made
upon their employees in order to control cleo
tons, or in other words, ITO be placed where
it will do the most good" If Rome fell in
her most flourishing and prosperous days
because of her reckless luxury, crime and
corruption of her people, may we not ven
ture to predict that with every species Of
legislation moulded and shaped by monied
influence, with every branch Of the general
government controlled by political Shylocks
and Adventures, that we likewise may fall Q
prey to the same disease, dashed to pieces
upon the rock where more than one Repub
lie has gone down freighted with the liber
ties of the people; that such has been tn,
verdict of history, none who have turned
over its pages will pretend to deny.
In this time Of our boosted higher civiliza
ton and refinement whilst we have advanc
ed in material prosperity the virtuous, re
/ ligious and honest elements of characte
have been lowered, and public sentiment AM
high, unbendng public opinion has been de
/ based, and the laws as now administered
+ are rather an excuse for crime than pun
} ishment or warning, and good law-abid
ing citizens are losing their faith and re
spect for its enforcement AS we have al
ready intimated, or rather asserted, that eve
the churches in many places, have yielde
, TO the material tendencies of the times, an
! instead of magnifying their high and sacre
: calling and bravely and fearlessly perform
/ ing the grand and holy duties devolvin
/ upon them, are giving away to the prt
| vsiling sentiment on the social, politica
moral and religious tendencies of the time
; Instead of teaching the doctrines that wei
| taught in the Gospel and by the Prophet
, the audience is entertained with splendi
G operate music and sensational discourses III
I on the leading topics of the day. In wha
: ever direction we may turn the present
! dark and gloomy, and the future appear
; unsafe and uncertain II should be remen
9 bered that in this land, the people are Il
$ sovereigns, they are the source from whic
all power and patronage flow, if the iountai
= be corrupt, the stream cannot be pure how
r ever beautiful and fertile the meadows an
e valleys through which il may wind let Il
1 press then, welding as she does, a powerfl
e influence in every community, urge the di
+ sc1nination OF knowledge in the educatio
G Of the growing manhood of the countr,
, advocate higher and purer code of moral
g demand a faithful and honest execution {
: the laws; see that none but pure men al
! called to n representative capacity, and "
7 may look for healthier and better times
s times in which crime will not go unpunisl
!. ed, when corruption in office will be n burn
a inc and lasting disgracp and dishonnr-tinf