Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-07
RELIGION IN THE LAW
Bishsp Coke, of New York, in His
Latest Letter to Young Citizens
INSISTS UPON PUBLIC MORALITY.
Disclosing the Secret Of Disorders Which
Wrecked Nations.
GOOD MEN NEEDED FOR LEGISLATORS
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. /!


in New York, little volume entitled,
"Maxims of Washington. Never was
such book so much needed as now, when
public men, and even Senators in Congress,
deride the great principles OF religion and
morality upon which the fathers Of the Re-
public based its Constitution and established
its legislation. "Morality," says the Father
of his Country, sis the necessary spring
of popular government; and, he adds,
emphatically, "Let us with caution
indulge the supposition that moral
ity- can be maintained without relig-
ion." He allows that men of education and
of refined tastes may be found who profess
philosophical morality, and consistently
maintain it; but he very clearly points out
the truth illustrated by all history, that, as
few men are philosophers, and the masses
are not influenced by ref ned tastes, the
restraints and sanctions of pure religion are
| requisite to the individual, the family, and
the State.
| Indeed, the entire book may be said to
enforce this principle and to commend it to
his countrymen as the only safeguard to that
| Difference for law and that conscientious
| discharge of duty without which liberty be-
| gets license, and free institutions become
the prey of faction and civil broils.
The Secret of National Disorders.
The condition of the South American
States, which have so signally failed, here
rofore, in their attempt to establish such
republic as our own, not to speak Of the
successive failures of Mexico, may illus
trate these maxlms of Washington; for none
can doubt that the immortality and ire
ligion of their populations are the secrets of
their disorders. 1t may be justly urged
that the Bible alone, and reverent accept
ance of its moral code, have as yet been
found sufficient to build up free States.
An eloquent Frenchman once said to an
immense assembly of his countrymen in
Paris, and in my own hearing: why do
we in France, with all our splendid capa-
bilities in other respects, make so many un-
successful attempts to initiate the Ameri-
cans, and to found lasting institutions of
freedom, civil and religious? Why cannot
we, like our great rivals across the channel,
build up and maintain the liberties we have
SO long coveted? The Queen OF England
has said the secret of enlightened freedom
in the Old World and the New, is that they
ally difused and universally rever-
enced." The vast audience applauded, J
and seemed very deeply to feel this express
sion, while the orator added his fervent
hope that he might live to see Frauce, like
England, "a land of the Bible"
The Bible in Daily Life.
A very grave matter, indeed, is the ex-
pertinent which has recently become popu-
los nf ba nf lie
our public schools; and one fears that the |
maxims OF Washington are too thoroughly |
imbued with Scripture to be long exempted |
from like indignity. But, till Americans |
are SO degenerate as to scorn the counsels !
and to cast out the wisdom OF their great |
Founder, it is worth inquiring whether this |
little volume might not wisely be introduced |
into all our public schools, and, in short,
commended to all instructors of youth |
throughout the land. But, far better, let
the Bible be everywhere restored. Apart |
from its incompatible teachings of human !
brotherhood and OF the love of ones neigh. |
Dor, it Is q Book of which nobody can be
ignorant, if only because it is the first classic
of the English language. 1t came with our !
first colonists to the shores of Virginia, and /
to the rock at Plymouth. 1t has been part
of our history and is associated with every |
memorial of the heroic lives and struggles of |
our ancestry. More than that, it is living |
factor of our civilization, nor can our civili-
zaiion long survive it it cease to hold it's
place.
Kent and Webster, and the rulings of in
Vulnerable cases in our courts, have proved
that the civilization which our laws have
been created to maintain is Christian civili-
cation; not indeed the Christianity of creed
and theology, but the Christianity of our
social life, our marriages, our family rela-
tions, our homes, our community of ideas in
education, magistracy, the claims of
humanity, and the nature of justice.
The Foundation of All Law.
All people are welcomed to share with US
In these our institutions; and they are inst-
tutions which protect their rights and their
equality with others before the laws of the
land. But aliens are welcomed to enjoy
them not to overthrow them. Hence the
alien is made sharer in our privileges be-
fore he becomes citizen, but he can only
become citizen by swearing to support the
Constitution-a Christian Constitution in
so lar as morals and civilizo tion are con-
cerned. In celebrated trial on charge of
blasphemy, Chancellor Kent defined the re-
lations of the Bible to our law as part of the
law of the land. 1t is the recognized in
strument of the law in giving its character
to an oath. Men may be permitted to swear
or affirm in other forms, but a Bible oath
has peculiar dignity. Nobody, the great
Chancellor said, could regard an oath upon
a book which 1t was no offense to the law to
insult opprobriously, that is to blaspheme;
and his ruling has been generally accepted
throughout the land. Washington not only
laid his hand upon the book when he took
his oath as first President of the United
States, but he gently repressed the effort of
Livingston to raise 1t to his lips, in order
that he might bow his head in giving it the
ceremonial kiss
Now, the Constitution is law; but the
sessions laws" of Legislature are only
which often fails to become law.
To become law, it must be sustained bv the
moral sense of the people. That moral
sense cannot preserve itself; it must rest on
the knowledge OF God, and of our moral
duties as prescribed by Him, and for which
He will hold His intelligent creatures ac-
The great Athenian orator told
his countrymen that to enact laws was moth
ing; to make the people will to obey and en-
force them was the essence of law giving. II
such is the power of the masses, surely in a
Democratic Republic the masses must be
Identified with the spirit of law and order.
or all is lost. They must be penetrated by
q sense of accountability to the Judge of all,
and q fundamental reverence for Him as
the Great Law Giver or the prime condition
Of permanent prosperity does not exist.
Good Men Needed for Law Givers.
But let us have men qualified by rehec-
ton, at least, and by elementary education,
to be our law sivers. 1t would be we'll if a /
new edition of Montesquieus spirit of
Laws" might be published for American