CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER IV. 
"One of the universal sentiments which Christianity has deeply imbedded in the human heart is that of the natural equality of men. . . . . . It has produced the spectacle, which I believe to be peculiar to christian times, of one class uplifting anotber, the happy toiling for the miserable, the free vindicating the rights of tbe oppressed. With all the noble examples of disinterested friendship and patriotism, which ancient history affords, I can remember no approach to that wholesale compassion, that general action of one order of society on another, that system of benevolent agitation in behalf of powerless and forgotten suffering, which characterises the history of modern times."
Ratiionale of Religious Inquiry.
THE idea of travelling in America was first suggested to me bya philanthropist's saying to me, "Whatever else may be trueabout the Americans, it is certain that they have got atprinciples of justice and mercy in the treatment of the leasthappy classes of society which we may be glad to learn from them.I wish you would go and see what they are." I did so; andthe results of my investigation have not been reserved for thisshort chapter, but are spread over the whole of my book. Thefundamental democratic principles on which American society isorganised, are those "principles of justice and mercy"by which the guilty, the ignorant, the needy, and the infirm, aresaved and blessed. The charity of a democratic society isheart-reviving to witness; for there is a security that nowholesale oppression is bearing down the million in onedirection, while charity is lifting up, the hundred in another.Generally speaking, the misery that is seen is all that exists:there is no paralysing sense of the hopelessness of setting upindividual benevolence against social injustice. If the communityhas not yet arrived at the point at which all communities aredestined to arrive, of perceiving guilt to be infirmity, ofobviating punishment, ignorance, and want, still the Americansare more blessed than others, in the certainty that they have farless superinduced misery than societies abroad, and are usingwiser methods than others for its alleviation. In a country wheresocial equality is the great principle in which all acquiesce,and where, consequently, the golden rule is suggested by everycollision between man and man, neglect of misery is almost asmuch out of the question as the oppression from which most miserysprings.
In the treatment of the guilty, America is beyond the rest ofthe world, exactly in proportion to the superiority of herpolitical principles. I was favoured with the confidence of agreat number of the prisoners in the Philadelphia penitentiarywhere absolute seclusion is the principle of punishment. Everyone of these prisoners, (none of them being aware of theexistence of any other,) told me that he was under obligations tothose who had the charge of him for treating him "withrespect." The expression struck me much as being universallyused by them. Some explained the contrast between this method ofpunishment and imprisonment in the old prisons, copied from thoseof Europe; where criminals are herded together, and treated likeanything but men and citizens. Others said that though they haddone a wrong thing and were rightly sequestered on that ground,they ought not to have any further punishment inflicted uponthem; and that it was the worst of punishments not to be treatedwith the respect due to men. In a community where criminals feeland speak thus, human rights cannot but be, at length, as muchregarded in the infliction of punishment as in its otherarrangements.
Much yet remains to be done, to this end. An enormous amountof wrong must remain in a society where the elaboration of a vastapparatus for the infliction of human misery, like that requiredby the system of solitary imprisonment, is yet a work of mercy.Milder and juster methods of treating moral infirmity willsucceed when men shall have learned to obviate the largestpossible amount of it. In the meantime, I am persuaded that thisis the best method of punishment which has yet been tried. Muchas the prisoners suffer from the dreary solitude, cheered only bytheir labour and the occasional visits of officialsuperintendents, they testified, without exception and withoutconcert, to their preference of this over all other methods ofpunishment. The grounds of preference were, that they couldpreserve their self-respect, in the first place; and, in thenext, their chance in society on their release. They leave theprison with the recompense of their extra labour in theirpockets, and without the fear of being waylaid by vicious oldcompanions, or hunted from employment to employment by thosewhose interest it is to deprive them of a chance of establishinga character. There is no evidence, at present, that solitaryimprisonment, with labour, is more injurious to healththan any other condition which is attended with anxiety of mind.The Philadelphia prisoners certainly appeared to me to be morehealthy-looking than those at Auburn, or at any other prison Ivisited.
There is at present a deficiency in the religiousministrations of the prison. This is a fact which, I believe, hasonly to be made known to cease to be true. Among the clergy ofall denominations in Philadelphia, there must be many who wouldcontrive to afford their services in turn, if they were fullyaware how much they are needed. I know of no direction that canbe taken by charity with such certainty of success as visitingthe solitary prisoner. I think it far from desirable thatprisoners should be visited for the express purpose of givingthem religious, and no other, instruction and sympathy. The greatobject is to occupy the prisoner's mind with things whichinterest him most, to keep up his sympathies, and nourish hishuman affections; and especially to promote the activity andcheerfulness of his mind. His situation is such,--he is so drivenback upon the realities of life in his own mind, that the dangeris of his accepting religion as a temporary solace, of hisseparating it in idea from active life, and craving for the mostexciting kind of it; so as that when he returns to the world, hewill discard it as something suiting his prison-life, but nolonger needed, no longer appropriate. If, keeping this in view, avery few good men and women of Philadelphia would go sometimes tospend an hour with a prisoner, honourably observing the rules,telling no news, but cheerfully conversing on the prisoner'saffairs,--his work, his family, his prospects on coming out, thebooks he reads, &c.--if they would carry him good andentertaining books, and if religious ones, only those of amoderate and cheerful character, (such being indeed not easy tobe found,)--these friendly visitors could scarcely fail ofrestoring, more or less completely, the moral health of theobjects of their benevolence. None who have not tried can imaginethe ease with which sufferers so placed are influenced; in theabsence of all that is pernicious, and in absolute dependence, asthey are, on the sympathy of those who will be kind to them. Ifwatchful observance were united with common prudence andkindness, I believe that a prisoner of five years would rarelyre-enter society unqualified for the discharge of his dutiesthere. It must be remembered that the criminals of the UnitedStates are rarely the depraved, brutish creatures that fill theprisons of the old world. Even in the old world, I have no doubtthat every prison visitor has been conscious, on first conversingprivately with a criminal, of a feeling of surprise at findinghim so human: but in America, convicts are even more like othermen. The reason of my visiting them, as I told them, was tosatisfy myself about the causes of crime in a country where thereis almost an absence of that want which occasions the greaterproportion of social offences in England. Sooner or later, alltold me their stories in full: and I found that in every casesome domestic misery had been the poison of their lives. A harshstep mother, an unfaithful wife, a jilting mistress, anintemperate son or father,--these were the miseries at home whichsent them out to drink: drinking brought on murder, or causedvicious wants, which must be supplied by theft. The stories,infinitely varied in their circumstances, were all alike in theirmoral.
I do not like the principle of the Auburn prison: and I amconfident that very little effectual reformation can take placeunder it. The disadvantages of the prisoners being waylaid anddogged on their discharge are very great; but there are somewithin the prison quite as serious. The spy system is abominable,in whatever light it is viewed. It is the deepest of insults; andif there be a case rather than another in which insult is to beavoided, it is where a reformation is desired. The great point tobe gained with the criminal is to regenerate self-respect. Avirtuous man may preserve his self-respect under the eyes of aspy; (though even he is in some danger; but a morally infirm mancan never thus acquire it. Arrangements should be made for hissecure custody and harmless outward conduct, and then he shouldbe left to himself. And what is the purpose of the spying,--ofthe loop holes to peep through, and the moccasins which are tomake the tread of the spies as stealthy as that of a cat? Todetect talking; talking subjecting a man to the lash. Talking isan innocent act; and, in the ease of men secluded from the worldand their families, and all that has hitherto interested them, anunavoidable act. They ought to talk; and they do, in spite ofspies, governor, and the whip. They learn to murmur intelligiblybehind their teeth, without moving the lips, and to takeadvantage of the briefest instants when the superintendent turnshis back. It is surprising to me that any effectual reformationcan be looked for from men who, convicted of grave crimes, havethe prohibition to speak set up before their minds as the chiefcircumstance and interest of their lives for five, seven, or tenyears. Their interest in it makes it the chief circumstance. Howthe disordered being is to be rectified, how the prostratedconscience is to be reinstated, while an innocent and necessaryact is thus erected into an offence, I leave those who are mostversed in moral proportions to decide. I do not believe in thepossibility of effectual reformation in any but a few cases,under such a discipline.
The will of the majority has not yet wrought out the rightpractice from good principles, in two cases which regard thetreatment of the guilty: and great evil arises in the interval.It is extremely difficult, in some parts of the States, and withregard to some particular offences, to get the laws enforcedagainst offenders. In those parts of the States where personalconflicts are countenanced by opinion, offences against theperson go too often unpunished; elsewhere, riot is passed overwithout notice; and in some few places, the most heinous crimesof all are nearly certain to be got over without the convictionof the offender. The impunity of riot arises from the reliancesociety has on the moral sense of the whole: a reliance veryhonourable in itself, but found of late to be inadequate underthe pressure of such a crisis as that of the anti-slaveryquestion. Nothing can be more honourable to the people, than thefact that they have been safe and virtuous under thesuperintendence of principle, while the laws have slept so long,that it is now found difficult to put them in force: but now thatthe time has come for a conflict of classes and opinions, thetime has also come for the law to be vigilant and inexorable. Thefrequent impunity of the most serious crimes arises from thegrowing enmity of opinion to the punishment of death. There canbe little doubt that in a short time capital punishments will beabolished throughout the northern States: and if this is to bedone, the sooner it is done the better: for the present impunityis a tremendous evil.
In passing the City Hall of one of the northern cities with afriend, I asked what was the meaning of a great crowd that wasabout the doors, and even clustered on the windows of thebuilding. My friend told me, that a young man was being examinedon the charge of being the murderer in a most aggravated case,which had been related to me the day before. I observed, that noone seemed to have any doubt of his guilt. She replied, thatthere never was a clearer case; but that he would be acquitted:the examination and trial were a mere form, of which every oneknew the conclusion beforehand. The people did not choose tosee any more hanging; and till the law was so altered as to allowan alternative of punishment, no conviction for a capital offencewould be obtainable. I asked, on what presence the young manwould be got off, if the evidence against him was as clear as wasrepresented. She said, some one would be found to swear an alibi:the young man would be wholly disgraced, and would probably setout westwards the morning after his acquittal. I watched theprogress of the case. The trial was a long one. There was nodoubt of the suppression of large portions of the evidenceagainst him. A tradesman swore an alibi: the young man wasthereupon acquitted; and next morning he was on his way to thewest.
On the principle that punishment should be reformatory, thepractice of pardoning criminals has gone to far too great anextent, from the belief of reformation in each particular case.The consequence is very injurious. A sentence oflife-imprisonment is generally understood to mean imprisonmentfor a shorter term than if ten or seven years had been named.Every one of the prisoners I conversed with was in anxiousexpectation of a pardon. In the cases of those who were in forfive years, and who I knew would not be pardoned, I reasoned thematter; and found that the fact of all their fellow-prisonershaving the same expectation with themselves, made a strongimpression. They were, amidst their dreadful disappointment,easily convinced: but I could not but mourn that they did notlearn the philosophy of the case in society, rather than inprison.
Whenever the abolition of the punishment of death takes place,it will be essential to the safety of virtue and society, that itshould be understood that the practice of pardoning is, except onrare and specified occasions, to cease; and that punishment is tobe certain in proportion to its justice.
The pauperism of the United States is, to the observationof a stranger, nothing at all. To residents, it is an occasionfor the exercise of their ever-ready charity. It is confined tothe ports, emigrants making their way back into thecountry, the families of intemperate or disabled men; andunconnected women, who depend on their own exertions. Theamount altogether is far from commensurate with the charity ofthe community; and it is to be hoped that the curse of a legalcharity, at least to the able-bodied, will be avoided in acountry where it certainly cannot become necessary within anyassignable time. I was grieved to see the magnificent pauperasylum near Philadelphia, made to accommodate luxuriously 1200persons; and to have its arrangements pointed out to me, asyielding far more comfort to the inmates than the labourer cansecure at home by any degree of industry and prudence.There are so many persons in the city, however, who seethe badness of the principle, and regret the erection, that Itrust a watch will be maintained over the establishment, and itscorridors kept as empty as possible. In Boston, the principles oftrue charity have been better acted upon. There, many of theclergytnen,--among the rest, Father Taylor, the seaman'sfriend,--are in possession of wisdom, derived from the mournfulexperience of England; and seem likely to save the city from themisery of a debasing pauperism among any class of itsinhabitants. I know no large city where there is so much mutualhelpfulness, so little neglect and ignorance of the concerns ofother classes, as in Boston: and I cannot but anticipate thatfrom thence the world may derive the brightest lesson that hasyet been offered it, in the duties of the rich towards the poor.If the agents of the benevolence of the wealthy will but bescrupulously careful to avoid all that mental encroachment andmoral interference, which have but too generally ruined theefficacy of charity, and go on to exhibit the devotion of thephilanthropist, without the inquisitiveness and authoritativenessof the priest, they may deserve the thanks of the whole ofsociety, as well as the attachment of those whom they befriend.
In Boston, an excellent plan has been adopted for theprevention of fraud on the part of paupers, and the mutualenlightenment and guidance of the agents of charity. Aweekly meeting is held of delegates, from all societies engagedin the relief of the poor. The delegates compare lists ofthe persons relieved, so as to ascertain that none arefraudulently receiving from more than one society: they discussand investigate doubtful cases; extend indulgence to those ofpeculiar hardship; and, in short, secure all the advantages ofco-operation. Perhaps there are no cities in England but Londontoo large for a somewhat similar organisation: and its adoptionwould be an act of great wisdom.
In the south, I was rather amused at a boast which was made tome of the small amount of pauperism. As the plague distances alllesser diseases, so does slavery obviate pauperism. In a societyof two classes, where the one class are all capitalists, and theother property, there can be no pauperism but through the vice oraccidental disability of members of the first. But I was beset bymany an anxious thought about the fate of disabled slaves.Masters are, of course, bound to take care of their slaves forlife. There are doubtless many masters who guard the comfort oftheir helpless negroes all the more carefully from the sense ofthe entire dependence of the poor creatures upon their mercy:but, there are few human beings fit to be trusted with absolutepower: and while there are many who abuse the authority they haveover slaves who are not helpless, it is fearful to think what maybe the fate of those who are purely burdensome. I observed, hereand there, an idiot slave. Those whom I saw were kindly treated,humoured, and indulged. These were the only cases of naturalinfirmity that I witnessed among the negroes; and the absence ofothers struck me. At Columbia, South Carolina, I was taken by abenevolent physician to see the State Lunatic Asylum, which mightbe considered his work; so diligent had he been in obtainingappropriations for the object from the legislature, andafterwards in organising its plans, with great wisdom andhumanity. When we were looking out from the top of this building,watching the patients in their airing grounds, I observed that nopeople of colour were visible in any part of the establishment. Iinquired whether negroes were as subject to insanity as whites.Probably; but no means were known to have been taken to ascertainthe fact. From the violence of their passions, there could be nodoubt that insanity must exist among them. Were such insanenegroes ever seen?--No one present had ever seen any.--Where werethey then?--It was some time before I could get a clear answer tothis: but my friend the physician said, at length, that he had nodoubt they were kept in out-houses, chained to logs, to preventtheir doing harm. No member of society is charged with the dutyof investigating cases of disease and suffering among slaves whocannot make their own state known. They are wholly at the mercyof their owners. The physician told me that it was his intension,now he had accomplished his object of establishing alunatic asylum for the whites, to persevere no less strenuouslytill he obtained one for the blacks. He will probably not findthis a very difficult object to effect; for the interest of masters,as well as their humanity, is concerned in having an asylumprovided by the State for the useless or mischievous negroes.
The Lunatic Asylums of the United States an honour to thecountry, to judge by those which I saw. The insane inPennsylvania hospital, Philadelphia, should be removed to somemore light and cheerful abode, and be much more fullysupplied with employment, and with stimulus to engage in it. Iwas less pleased with their conditiors than with that of anyother insane patients whom I saw. The institution at Worcester,Massachusetts, is admirably managed under Dr. Woodward. So wasthat at Charlestown, near Boston, by Dr. Lee; a young physicianwho has since died, mourned by his grateful patients, and by allwho had their welfare at heart. The establishment atBloomingdale; near New York, is of similar excellence. The onlygreat deficiency that I am aware of is one which belongs to mostlunatic asylums, and which it does not rest with thesuperintendent to supply;--a want of sufficient employment. Everyexertion is made to proviple a variety of amusements, andto encourage all little undertakings that may be suggested: butregular, important business is what is wanted. It is to behoped that in the establishment of all such institutions, theprovision of an ample quantity of land will be one of theprime considerations. Watchful and ingenious kindness may do muchto alleviate the miseries of the insane; but if cure is sought, Ibelieve it is agreed by those who know best that regularemployment, with a reasonable object, is indispensable.
The Asylum for the Blind at Philadelphia was a younginstitution at the time I saw it; but it.pleased me more than anyI ever visited: more than the larger one at Boston; whoseinstitution and conduct are, however, honourable to all concernedin it. The reason.of my preference of the Philadelphia one isthat the pupils there were more active and cheerful thanthose of boston. The spirits of the inmates are the oneinfallible test of the management of an institution for theblind. The fault of such in general is that mirth is notsufficiently cultivated, and religion too exclusively so. Itshould ever be remembered that religion comes out of the mind,and not in at the eye or ear; and that the truest way ofcultivating religion is to exercise the faculties, and enlargethe stock of ideas to the utmost. The method of printing for theblind, introduced with such admirable ingenuity and success intothe American institutions, I should like to see employed to bringwithin the reach of the blind the most amusing works that can befound. I should like to see it made an object with benevolentpersons to go and give the pupils a hearty laugh occasionally, byreading droll books, and telling amusing stories. The one thingwhich the born blind want most is to have their cheerlessnessremoved, to be drawn out of their abstractions, and exercised inplay on the greatest possible variety of familiar objects andevents. They should hear no condolence: their friends should keeptheir sympathetic sorrow to themselves; and explain, cheerfullyand fully, the allusions to visual objects which must occur inall reading and conversation. It grieves me to hear the hymns andother compositions put into the mouths of blind pupils, all fullof lamentation and resignation about not seeing the stars and theface of nature. Such sorrow is for those who see to feelon their behalf; or for those who have lost sight: not for thosewho never saw. Put into their mouths, it becomes cant. When aroving sea-captain tells his children of the glories of orientalscenery which they are destined never to behold, does he teachthem to sigh, and struggle to submit patiently to their destinyof staying at home? Does he not rather make them take pleasure inmirthfully and eagerly learning what he can teach? The face ofnature is a foreign land to the born blind. Let them be taughtall that can possibly be conveyed to them, and in the mostspirited manner that they can bear. There is a nearer approach tothe realisation of this principle of teaching the blind in thePhiladelphia house than I ever saw elsewhere. It would be enoughto cheer a misanthrope to see a little German boy there, pickedup out of the streets, dull, neglected, and depressed; but withina few months, standing in the centre of the group of musicians,fiddling and stamping time with all his might, and quite ready toobey every instigation to laugh. Mr. Friedlander, the tutor, ismuch to be congratulated on what he has already done.
It may be worth suggesting here that while some of thethinkers of America, like many of the same classes in England,are mourning over the low state of the Philosophy of Mind intheir country, society is neglecting a most important means ofobtaining the knowledge requisite for the acquisition of suchphilosophy. Scholars are embracing alternately the systems ofKant, of Fichte, of Spurzheim, of the Scotch school; or abusingor eulogising Locke, asking who Hartley was, or weaving a rainbowarch of transcendentalism, which is to comprehend the whole thatlies within human vision, but sadly liable to be puffed away indark vapour with the first breeze of reality; scholars are thuslabouring at a system of mental philosophy on any but theexperimental method, while the materials for experiment lie allaround and within them. If they object, as is common, thedifficulty of experimenting on their conscious selves, there isthe mental pathology of their blind schools, and the asylums forthe deaf and dumb. I am aware that they put away the phenomena ofinsanity as irrelevant; but the same objections do not pertain tothe other two classes. Let the closet speculations be pursuedwith all vigour; but if there were joined with these a close andunwearied study of the phenomena of the minds of personsdeficient in a sense, and especially of those precluded from thefull use of language, the world might fairly look for an advancein the science of Mind equal to that which medical science owesto pathology. It will not probably lodge us in any final andtotal result, any more than medicine and anatomy promise toascertain the vital principle: but it will doubtless yield ussome points of certainty, in aid of the fluctuating speculationsamidst which we are now tossed, while few can be found to agreeeven upon matters of so-called universal consciousness. I shouldlike to see a few philosophers interested in ascertaining andrecording the manifestations of some progressive mirrds, peculiarfrom infirmity, for a series af years. If any such in America,worthy to undertake the task, from having strength enough to putaway theory and prejudice, and rocord only what is reallymanifested to them, should be disposed to take my hint, I hopethey will not wait for a philosophical "class to fall into."
I was told at Washington, with a smile half satirical and halfcomplacent, that "the people of New England do good bymania." I watched accordingly for symptoms of this second orthird-rate method of putting benevolence into practice. Theresult was, that I was convinced that the people of New England,and of the whole country, do good in all manner of ways; somebetter and some worse, according to their light. I met.with piousladies who make clothes for the poor, but who took work (hermeans of bread) out of the hands of a sempstress, (who had threechildren,) because her husband was in prison. They told me itwould be encouraging vice to have anything to do with thefamilies of persons who had committed offences: and when I askedhow reformed offenders were to put their reformatiou in practice,I was told that if I would employ anybody who had been in prison,I deserved the censure of society. The matter ended in thesempstress, (a good young woman) having to go home to herfather's house. I met with others, both men and women, whomake it the business of their lives, or of their leisure from yetmore pressing duties, to seek out the sinners of society, andgive them, not threats, nor scorn, nor lectures, but sympathy andhelp. So does light vary in this glimmering age; so eloquentlydoes the conduct of Jesus speak to some, while to others it seemsto preach in an unknown tongue. With regard to some methods ofcharity, nothing could exceed the ingenuity, shrewdness,forethought, and determination with which they were managed: inothers, I was reminded of what I had been told about mania.
In regarding the Temperance movement, the word perpetuallyoccurred to me. How the vice of intemperance ever reached thepass it did in a country where there is no excuse of want on theone hand, or of habits of conviviality on the other, wassometimes attempted to be explained to me; but never to mysatisfaction. Much may be said upon it, which cannot find a placehere. Certain it is that the vice threatened to poison society.It was as remarkable as licentiousness of other kinds ever was inParis, or at Vienna. Men who doubted the goodness of theprinciple of Association in opposition to moral evil, were yetcarried away to countenance it by seeing nothing else thatwas to be done. Some few of these foresaw that, as every man mustbe virtuous in himself and by himself; as the principle oftemperance in a man is incommunicable; as no two men'stemptations are alike; and as, especially in this case, thetemptations of the movers were immeasurably weaker than those ofthe mass to be wrought upon, there could be no radical truth, nopervading sincerity to rely upon. They foresaw what had happened;that there would be a vast quantity of perjury, of false andhasty promising, of lapse, and of secret, solitary drinking; thatif some waverers were saved, others would be plunged intohypocrisy in addition to their intemperance; that schisms mustarise out of the ignorance of bigots, which would cause as muchscandal to good morals as intemperance itself; and that, worst ofall, this method was the introduction of new and fatal perils tofreedom of conscience. A few foresaw all this; but a very few hadstrength to resist the movement. A sort of reproach was cast uponthose who refused to join, like that which is now visited uponsuch as adhere to the principle on which they first joined;--akind of insinuation that their temperance is not thorough.--Whathave the consequences already been?
The amount of visible intemperance is actually lessenedprodigiously; perhaps to the full extent anticipated by theoriginators of the movement. Spirit-shops have been shut up byhundreds; some few drunkards have been reformed; and very largenumbers of young men, entering life, are now sober citizens,who seemed in danger of becoming a curse to society. The questionis whether the causes of the preceding, intemperance havebeen discovered and obviated. If not, there is every reason toexpect that the control of opinion over them will be buttemporary.; and that the late sweeping and garnishing will giveplace to a state of things at least as bad as before.
At present, the effect of example is perishing; day by day.The example of those who have not pledged themselves is the onlyone morally regarded; all other persons being known to be bound.Virtue under a vow has no spiritual force. The morereasonable of those who are pledged have confined their pledge tothe distinct case of not touching distilled liquors. Theyhave the utmost difficulty in maintaining their ground, asexamples, (their sole object,) under the assaults of bigots whocomplain that they are not "getting on," and who, ontheir part, have got on so far as to refuse the communion topersons who will not abjure as they have done; to banish thesacramemtal wine; and to forbid malt liquors; and even coffee, intaverns and private houses. The superstition,--the attachment tothe form without the spirit,--is fearfully revealed uponoccasion. A man was brought dead drunk into a watch-house; andbefore the magistrate next morning, persisted that he could nothave been drunk, because he was a member of a Temperance Society.The subservience of conscience to control is as necessaryand remarkable. For instance, a gentleman, whose wife, in a stateof imminent danger, was ordered brandy, ran and knocked up hisminister to get leave before he would procure any for her.It is true that these are extreme cases: but the effectof such institutions upon weak minds must be studied, asit is for weak minds that they are created.
My own convictions are that Associations, excellent as theyare for mechanical objects, are not fit instrumentsfor the achievement of moral aims: that there is yet noproof that the principle of self-restraint has been exalted andstrengthened in the United States by the Temperancemovement, while the already too great regard to opinion, andsubservience to spiritual encroachment have been much increased:that, therefore, great as are the visible benefits of theinstitution, it may at length appear that they have been dearlypurchased. I have reason to think that numbers of persons in theUnited States, especially enlightened physicians, (who have thebest means of knowledge,) are of the same opinion. This isconfirmed by the fact that there is a spreading dislike ofAssociations for moral, while there is a growing attachment tothem for mechanical, objects. The majority will show to those whomay be livinig at the time what is the right.
Though scarcely necessary, it may be well to indicate thedistinction between Temperance and Abolition societies withregard to this principle. The bond of Temperance societies is apledge or vow respecting the personal conduct of the pledger. Thebond of the Abolitionists is agreement in a principle which is tobe proposed and exhibited by mechanical means,--lecturing,printing, raising money for benevolent purposes. Nobody is boundin thought, word, or action. There have been a few Temperancesocieties which have avoided pledges, and confined theirexertions to spreading knowledge on the pathology ofintemperance, and its effects on the morals of the individual andof society. Associations confined to these objects are probablynot only harmless, but highly useful.
From Harriet Martineau, Society in America, VolumeIII, Part III, Chapter IV - "Sufferers." London:Saunders and Otley, 1837, pp. 179-204.
Forward to Society in America, VolumeIII, Part III, Chapter V - "Utterance."
Back to Society in America, Volume III,Part III, Chapter III - "Children."
Back to Society in America - Table ofContents
Back to the Dead Sociologists'Society Index