Beecher is not here; Channing and Ware have gone to their reward. That
other man,[19] benevolent and indefatigable, where is he? He trod the
worm of the still under his feet, but the worm of the pulpit stung him,
and he too is gone; that champion of temperance, that old man eloquent,
driven out of Boston. Why should I not tell an open secret?--driven out
by rum and the Unitarian clergy of Boston.
Whatsoever the causes may be, I think you see proofs enough of the fact,
that drunkenness has increased within the last few years. You see it in
the men drunken in the streets, in the numerous shops built to gratify
the intemperate man. Some of these are elegant and costly, only for the
rich; others so mean and dirty, that one must be low indeed to wallow
therein. But the same thing is there in both, rum, poison-drink. Many of
these latter are kept by poor men, and the spider's web of the law now
and then catches one of them, though latterly but seldom here.
Sometimes they are kept, and, perhaps, generally owned, by rich men who
drive through the net. I know how hard it is to see through a dollar,
though misery stand behind it, if the dollar be your own, and the misery
belong to your brother. I feel pity for the man who helps ruin his race,
who scatters firebrands and death throughout society, scathing the heads
of rich and poor, and old and young. I would speak charitably of such an
one as of a fellow-sinner. How he can excuse it to his own conscience is
his affair, not mine. I speak only of the fact. For a poor man there may
be some excuse; he has no other calling whereby to gain his bread; he
would not see his own children beg, nor starve, nor steal! To see his
neighbor go to ruin and drag thither his children and wife, was not so
hard. But it is not the shops of the poor men that do most harm! Had
there been none but these, they had long ago been shut, and intemperance
done with. It is not poor men that manufacture this poison; nor they who
import it, or sell by the wholesale. If there were no rich men in this
trade there would soon be no poor ones! But how does the rich man
reconcile it to his conscience? I cannot answer that.
It is difficult to find out the number of drink-shops in the city. The
assessors say there are eight hundred and fifty; another authority makes
the number twelve hundred. Let us suppose there are but one thousand. I
think that much below the real number, for the assistant assessors
found three hundred in a single ward! These shops are open morning and
night. More is sold on Sunday, it is said, than any other day in the
week! While you are here to worship your Father, some of your brothers
are making themselves as beasts; yes, lower. You shall probably see them
at the doors of these shops as you go home; drunk in the streets this
day! To my mind, the retailers are committing a great offence. I am no
man's judge, and cannot condemn even them. There is one that judgeth. I
cannot stand in the place of any man's conscience. I know well enough
what is sin; God, only, who is a sinner. Yet I cannot think the poor man
that retails, half so bad as the rich man who distils, imports, or sells
by wholesale the infamous drug. He knew better, and cannot plead poverty
as the excuse of his crime.
Let me mention some of the statistics of this trade before I speak of
its effects. If there are one thousand drink-shops, and each sells
liquor to the amount of only six dollars a day, which is the price of
only one hundred drams, or two hundred at the lowest shops, then we have
the sum of $2,190,000 paid for liquor to be drunk on the spot every
year. This sum is considerably more than double the amount paid for the
whole public education of the people in the entire State of
Massachusetts! In Boston alone, last year, there were distilled,
2,873,623 gallons of spirit. In five years, from 1840 to 1845, Boston
exported 2,156,990, and imported 2,887,993 gallons. They burnt up a man
the other day, at the distillery in Merrimack street. You read the story
in the daily papers, and remember how the by-standers looked on with
horror to see the wounded man attempting with his hands to fend off the
flames from his naked head! Great Heaven! It was not the first man that
distillery has burned up! No, not by thousands. You see men about your
streets, all afire; some half-burnt down; some with all the soul burned
out, only the cinders left of the man, the shell and wall, and that
tumbling and tottering, ready to fall. Who of you has not lost a
relative, at least a friend, in that withering flame, that terrible
_Auto da fe_, that hell-fire on earth?
Let us look away from that. I wish we could look on something to efface
that ghastly sight. But see the results of this trade. Do you wonder at
the poverty just now spoken of; at the vagrant children? In the Poor
House at Albany, at one time, there were 633 persons, and of them 615
were intemperate! Ask your city authorities how many of the poor are
brought to their Almshouse directly or remotely by intemperance! Do you
wonder at the crime which fills your jails, and swells the tax of county
and city? Three fourths of the petty crime in the State comes from this
source directly or remotely. Your jails were never so full before! When
the parents are there, what is left for the children? In Prussia, the
Government which imprisons the father takes care of the children, and
sends them to school. Here they are forced into crime.
As I gave some statistics of the cause, let me also give some of the
effects. Two years ago your Grand Jury reports that one of the city
police, on Sunday morning, between the hours of twelve and two, in
walking from Cornhill square to Cambridge street, passed more than one
hundred persons more or less drunk! In 1844 there were committed to your
House of Correction, for drunkenness, 453 persons; in 1845, 595; in
1846, up to the 24th of August, that is, in seven months and twenty-four
days, 446. Besides there have been already in this year, 396 complained
of at the Police Court and fined, but not sent to the House of
Correction. Thus, in seven months and twenty-four days, 842 persons have
been legally punished for public drunkenness. In the last two months and
a half 445 persons were thus punished. In the first twenty-four days of
this month, ninety-four! In the last year there were 4,643 persons
committed to your watch-houses, more than the twenty-fifth of the whole
population. The thousand drink-shops levy a direct tax of more than
$2,000,000. That is only the first outlay. The whole ultimate cost in
idleness, sickness, crime, death and broken hearts--I leave you to
calculate that! The men who live in the lower courts, familiar with the
sinks of iniquity, speak of this crime as "most awful!" Yet in this
month and the last, there were but nine persons indicted for the illegal
sale of the poison which so wastes the people's life! The head of your
Police and the foreman of your last Grand Jury are prominent in that
trade.
Does the Government know of these things; know of their cause? One would
hope not. The last Grand Jury in their public report, after speaking
manfully of some actual evils, instead of pointing at drunkenness and
bar-rooms, direct your attention "to the increased number of omnibuses
and other large carriages in the streets."
* * * * *
These are sad things to think of in a Christian church. What shall we do
for all these little ones that are perishing? "Do nothing," say some.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" asked the first Cain, after killing that
brother. He thought the answer would be, "No! you are not." But he was
his brother's keeper, and Abel's blood cried from the ground for
justice, and God heard it. Some say we can do nothing. I will never
believe that a city which in twelve years can build near a thousand
miles of railroad, hedge up the Merrimack and the lakes of New
Hampshire; I will never believe that a city, so full of the hardiest
enterprise and the noblest charity, cannot keep these little ones from
perishing. Why the nation can annex new States and raise armies at
uncounted cost. Can it not extirpate pauperism, prevent intemperance,
pluck up the causes of the present crime? All that is lacking is the
prudent will!
It seems as if something could easily be done to send the vagrant
children to school; at least to give them employment, and so teach them
some useful art. If some are Catholics, and will not attend the
Protestant schools, perhaps it would be as possible to have a special
and separate school for the Irish as for the Africans. It was recently
proposed in a Protestant assembly to found Sunday Schools, with Catholic
teachers for Catholic children. The plan is large and noble, and
indicates a liberality which astonishes one even here, where some men
are ceasing to be sectarian and becoming human. Much may be done to
bring many of the children to our Sunday and week-day schools, as they
now are, and so brands be snatched from the burning. The State Farm
School for juvenile offenders, which a good man last winter suggested to
your Legislature, will doubtless do much for these idle boys, and may be
the beginning of a greater and better work. Could the State also take
care of the children when it locks the parents in a jail, there would be
a nearer approach to justice and greater likelihood of obtaining its
end. Still the laws act cumbrously and slow. The great work must be done
by good men, acting separately or in concert, in their private way. You
are your brother's keeper; God made you so. If you are rich,
intelligent, refined and religious, why you are all the more a keeper to
the poor, the weak, the vulgar and the wicked. In the pauses of your
work there will be time to do something. In the unoccupied hours of the
Sunday there is yet leisure to help a brother's need. If there are times
when you are disposed to murmur at your own hard lot, though it is not
hard; or hours when grief presses heavy on your heart, go and look after
these children, find them employment, and help them to start in life;
you will find your murmurings are ended, and your sorrow forgot.
It does not seem difficult to do something for the poor. It would be
easy to provide comfortable and convenient houses and at a reasonable
rate. The experiment has been tried by one noble-hearted man, and thus
far works well. I trust the same plan, or one better, if possible, will
soon be tried on a larger scale, and so repeated, till we are free from
that crowding together of miserable persons, which now disgraces our
city. It seems to me that a store might be established where articles of
good quality should be furnished to the poor at cost. Something has
already been done in this way, by the "Trade's Union," who need it much
less. A practical man could easily manage the details of such a scheme.
All reform and elevation of this class of men must begin by mending
their circumstances, though of course it must not end there. Expect no
improvement of men that are hungry, naked, and cold. Few men respect
themselves in that condition. Hope not of others what would be
impossible for you!
You may give better pay when that is possible. I can hardly think it the
boast of a man, that he has paid less for his labor than any other in
his calling. But it is a common boast, though to me it seems the glory
of a pirate! I cannot believe there is that sharp distinction between
week-day religion and Sunday religion, or between justice and charity,
that is sometimes pretended. A man both just and charitable would find
his charity run over into his justice, and the mixture improve its
quality. When I remember that all value is the result of work, and see
likewise that no man gets rich by his own work, I cannot help thinking
that labor is often wickedly underpaid, and capital sometimes as grossly
over-fed. I shall believe that capital is at the mercy of labor, when
the two extremes of society change places. Is it Christian or manly to
reduce wages in hard times, and not raise them in fair times? and not
raise them again in extraordinary times? Is it God's will that large
dividends and small wages should be paid at the same time? The duty of
the employer is not over, when he has paid "the hands" their wages.
Abraham is a special providence for Eliezer, as God, the universal
providence, for both. The usages of society make a sharp distinction
between the rich and poor; but I cannot believe the churches have done
wisely, by making that distinction appear through separating the two, in
their worship. The poor are, undesignedly, driven out of the respectable
churches. They lose self-respect; lose religion. Those that remain, what
have they gained by this expulsion of their brothers? A beautiful and
costly house, but a church without the poor. The Catholics were wiser
and more humane than that. I cannot believe the mightiest abilities and
most exquisite culture were ever too great to preach and apply
Christianity among the poor; and that "the best sermons would be wasted
on them." Yet such has not been the practical decision here! I trust we
shall yet be able to say of all our churches, however costly, "There the
rich and poor meet together." They are now equally losers by the
separation. The seventy ministers of Boston--how much they can do for
this class of little ones, if they will!
It has been suggested by some kindly and wise men, that there should be
a Prisoners' Home established, where the criminal, on being released
from jail, could go and find a home and work. As the case now is, there
is almost no hope for the poor offender. "Legal justice" proves often
legal vengeance, and total ruin to the poor wretch on whom it falls; it
grinds him to powder! All reform of criminals, without such a place,
seems to me worse than hopeless. If possible, such an institution seems
more needed for the women, than even for the men: but I have not now
time to dwell on this theme. You know the efforts of two good men
amongst us, who, with slender means, and no great encouragement from the
public, are indeed the friends of the prisoner.[20] God bless them in
their labors.
We can do something in all these schemes for helping the poor. Each of
us can do something in his own sphere, and now and then step out of that
sphere to do something more. I know there are many amongst you, who only
require a word before they engage in this work, and some who do not
require even that, but are more competent than I to speak that word.
Your Committee of Benevolent Action have not been idle. Their works
speak for them.
* * * * *
For the suppression of intemperance, redoubled efforts must be made. Men
of wealth, education and influence must use their strength of nature, or
position, to protect their brothers, not drive them down to ruin.
Temperance cannot advance much further among the people, until this
class of men lend their aid; at least, until they withdraw the obstacles
they have hitherto and so often opposed to its progress. They must
forbear the use, as well as the traffic. I cannot but think the time is
coming, when he who makes or sells this poison as a drink, will be
legally ranked with other poisoners, with thieves, robbers, and
house-burners; when a fortune acquired by such means will be thought
infamous, as one now would be if acquired by piracy! I know good men
have formerly engaged in this trade; they did it ignorantly. Now, we
know the unavoidable effects thereof. I trust the excellent example
lately set by the Government of the University, will be followed at all
public festivals.
We must still have a watchful eye on the sale of this poison. It is not
the low shops which do the most harm, but the costly tippling-houses
which keep the low ones in countenance, and thus shield them from the
law and public feeling. It seems as if a law were needed, making the
owner of a tippling-house responsible for the illegal sale of liquors
there. Then the real offender might be reached, who now escapes the
meshes of the law.
It has long ago been suggested that a Temperance Home was needed for the
reformation of the unfortunate drunkard. It is plain that the jail does
not reform him. Those sent to jail for drunkenness are, on the average,
sentenced no less than five times; some of them, fifteen or twenty
times! Of what use to shut a man in a jail, and release him with the
certainty that he will come out no better, and soon return for the same
offence? When as much zeal and ability are directed to cure this
terrible public malady, as now go to increase it, we shall not thus
foolishly waste our strength. You all know how much has been done by one
man in this matter;[21] that in four years he saved three hundred
drunkards from the prison, two hundred of whom have since done well! If
it be the duty of the State to prevent crime, not avenge it, is it not
plain what is the way?
However, a reform in this matter will be permanent only through a deeper
and wider reform elsewhere. Drunkenness and theft in its various illegal
forms, are confined almost wholly to the poorest class. So long as there
is unavoidable misery, like the present, pauperism and popular
ignorance; so long as thirty-seven are crowded into one house, and that
not large; so long as men are wretched and without hope, there will be
drunkenness. I know much has been done already; I think drunkenness will
never be respectable again, or common amongst refined and cultivated
men; it will be common among the ignorant, the outcast and the
miserable, so long as the present causes of poverty, ignorance and
misery continue. For that continuance, and the want, the crime, the
unimaginable wretchedness and death of heart which comes thereof, it is
not these perishing little ones, but the strong that are responsible
before God! It will not do for your grand juries to try and hide the
matter by indicting "omnibuses and other large carriages;" the voice of
God cries, Where is thy brother?--and that brother's blood answers from
the ground.
What I have suggested only palliates effects; it removes no cause;--of
that another time. These little ones are perishing here in the midst of
us. Society has never seriously sought to prevent it, perhaps has not
been conscious of the fact. It has not so much legislated for them as
against them. Its spirit is hostile to them. If the mass of able-headed
men were in earnest about this, think you they would allow such
unthrifty ways, such a waste of man's productive energies? Never! no,
never. They would repel the causes of this evil as now an invading army.
The removal of these troubles must be brought about by a great change in
the spirit of society. Society is not Christian in form or spirit. So
there are many who do not love to hear Christianity preached and
applied, but to have some halting theology set upon its crutches. They
like, on Sundays, to hear of the sacrifice, not to have mercy and
goodness demanded of them. A Christian State after the pattern of that
divine man, Jesus--how different it would be from this in spirit and in
form!
Taking all this whole State into account, things, on the whole, are
better here, than in any similar population, after all these evils. I
think there can be no doubt of that; better now, on the whole, than
ever before. A day's work will produce a greater quantity of needful
things than hitherto. So the number of little ones that perish is
smaller than heretofore, in proportion to the whole mass. I do not
believe the world can show such examples of public charity as this city
has afforded in the last fifty years. Alas! we want the justice which
prevents causes no less than the charity which palliates effects. See
yet the unnatural disparity in man's condition: bloated opulence and
starving penury in the same street! See the pauperism, want,
licentiousness, intemperance and crime in the midst of us; see the havoc
made of woman; see the poor deserted by their elder brother, while it is
their sweat which enriches your ground, builds your railroads, and piles
up your costly houses. The tall gallows stands in the back-ground of
society, overlooking it all; where it should be the blessed gospel of
the living God.
What we want to remove the cause of all this is the application of
Christianity to social life. Nothing less will do the work. Each of us
can help forward that by doing the part which falls in his way.
Christianity, like the eagle's flight, begins at home. We can go
further, and do something for each of these classes of little ones. Then
we shall help others do the same. Some we may encourage to practical
Christianity by our example; some we may perhaps shame. Still more, we
can ourselves be pure, manly, Christian; each of us that, in heart and
life. We can build up a company of such, men of perpetual growth. Then
we shall be ready not only for this special work now before us, to
palliate effects, but for every Christian and manly duty when it comes.
Then, if ever some scheme is offered which is nobler and yet more
Christian than what we now behold, it will find us booted, and girded,
and road-ready.
I look to you to do something in this matter. You are many; most of you
are young. I look to you to set an example of a noble life, human, clean
and Christian, not debasing these little ones, but lifting them up. Will
you cause them to perish; you? I know you will not. Will you let them
perish? I cannot believe it. Will you not prevent their perishing?
Nothing less is your duty.
Some men say they will do nothing to help liberate the slave, because he
is afar off, and "our mission is silence!" Well--here are sufferers in a
nearer need. Do you say, I can do but little to Christianize society!
Very well, do that little, and see if it does not amount to much, and
bring its own blessing--the thought that you have given a cup of cold
water to one of the little ones. Did not Jesus say, "Inasmuch as ye have
done it unto one of the least of these ye have done it unto me?"
Since last we met, one of our number[22] has taken that step in life
commonly called death. He was deeply interested and active in the
movement for the perishing classes of men. After his spirit had passed
on, a woman whom he had rescued, and her children with her, from
intemperance and ruin, came and laid her hand on that cold forehead
whence the kindly soul had fled, and mourning that her failures had
often grieved his heart before, vowed solemnly to keep steadfast
forever, and go back to evil ways no more! Who would not wish his
forehead the altar for such a vow? what nobler monument to a good man's
memory! The blessing of those ready to perish fell on him. If his hand
cannot help us, his example may.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] This evil is now happily removed, and all men rejoice in a cheap
and abundant supply of pure water.
[17] See the valuable tables and remarks, by Mr. Shattuck, in his Census
of Boston, pp. 136-177.
[18] For this much needed reform at the academical table, we are
indebted to the Hon. Edward Everett, the President of Harvard College.
For this he deserves the hearty thanks of the whole community.
[19] Rev. John Pierpont.
[20] The editors of the "Prisoners' Friend."
[21] Mr. John Augustus.
[22] Nathaniel F. Thayer, aged 29.
VII.
A SERMON OF MERCHANTS.--PREACHED AT THE MELODEON, ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER
22, 1846.
ECCLESIASTICUS XXVII. 2.
As a nail sticketh fast between the joinings of the stones;
so doth sin stick close between buying and selling.
I ask your attention to a Sermon of Merchants, their Position,
Temptations, Opportunities, Influence and Duty. For the present purpose,
men may be distributed into four classes.
I. Men who create new material for human use, either by digging it out
of mines and quarries, fishing it out of the sea, or raising it out of
the land. These are direct producers.
II. Men who apply their head and hands to this material and transform it
into other shapes, fitting it for human use; men that make grain into
flour and bread, cotton into cloth, iron into needles or knives, and the
like. These are indirect producers; they create not the material, but
its fitness, use, or beauty. They are manufacturers.
III. Men who simply use these things, when thus produced and
manufactured. They are consumers.