ALTEMUS' ETERNAL LIFE SERIES. 

_Selections from the writings of well-known religious authors' works, beautifully printed and daintily bound in leatherette with originaldesigns in silver and ink. _

_PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME. _

ETERNAL LIFE, by Professor Henry Drummond. 

LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY, by Rev. Andrew Murray. 

GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORK, by Martin Luther. 

FAITH, by Thomas Arnold. 

THE CREATION STORY, by Honorable William E. Gladstone. 

THE MESSAGE OF COMFORT, by Rt. Rev. Ashton Oxenden. 

THE MESSAGE OF PEACE, by Rev. R. W. Church. 

THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, by Dean Stanley. 

THE MEMOIRS OF JESUS, by Rev. Robert F. Horton. 

HYMNS OF PRAISE AND GLADNESS, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. 

DIFFICULTIES, by Hannah Whitall Smith. 

GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

HAVE FAITH IN GOD, by Rev. Andrew Murray. 

TWELVE CAUSES OF DISHONESTY, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

THE CHRIST IN WHOM CHRISTIANS BELIEVE, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

IN MY NAME, by Rev. Andrew Murray. 

SIX WARNINGS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN BUSINESS MAN, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

POPULAR AMUSEMENTS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

TRUE LIBERTY, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 

THE BEAUTY OF A LIFE OF SERVICE, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD, by Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D. 

THOUGHT AND ACTION, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

THE HEAVENLY VISION, by Rev. F. B. Meyer. 

MORNING STRENGTH, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. 

FOR THE QUIET HOUR, by Edith V. Bradt. 

EVENING COMFORT, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. 

WORDS OF HELP FOR CHRISTIAN GIRLS, by Rev. F. B. Meyer. 

HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, by Rev. Dwight L. Moody. 

EXPECTATION CORNER, by E. S. Elliot. 

JESSICA'S FIRST PRAYER, by Hesba Stretton. 

 HENRY ALTEMUS, _507, 509, 511, 518 Cherry Street, Philadelphia. _

[Illustration: HENRY WARD BEECHER. ]

 Twelve Causes of Dishonesty

 By Rev. Henry Ward Beecher

 Philadelphia Henry Altemus

 COPYRIGHTED 1896 BY HENRY ALTEMUS

 HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER PHILADELPHIA

TWELVE CAUSES OF DISHONESTY

Only extraordinary circumstances can give the appearance of dishonesty toan honest man. Usually, not to _seem_ honest, is not to _be_ so. Thequality must not be doubtful like twilight, lingering between night andday and taking hues from both; it must be day-light, clear, and effulgent. This is the doctrine of the Bible: _Providing for honest things, not onlyin the sight of the Lord_, BUT ALSO IN THE SIGHT OF MEN. In general it maybe said that no one has honesty without dross, until he has honestywithout suspicion. 

We are passing through times upon which the seeds of dishonesty have beensown broadcast, and they have brought forth a hundred-fold. These timeswill pass away; but like ones will come again. As physicians study thecauses and record the phenomena of plagues and pestilences, to draw fromthem an antidote against their recurrence, so should we leave to anothergeneration a history of moral plagues, as the best antidote to theirrecurring malignity. 

Upon a land, --capacious beyond measure, whose prodigal soil rewards laborwith an unharvestable abundance of exuberant fruits, occupied by a peoplesignalized by enterprise and industry--there came a summer of prosperitywhich lingered so long and shone so brightly, that men forgot that wintercould ever come. Each day grew brighter. No reins were put upon theimagination. Its dreams passed for realities. Even sober men, touched withwildness, seemed to expect a realization of oriental tales. Upon thisbright day came sudden frosts, storms, and blight. Men awoke from gorgeousdreams in the midst of desolation. The harvests of years were swept awayin a day. The strongest firms were rent as easily as the oak by lightning. Speculating companies were dispersed as seared leaves from a tree inautumn. Merchants were ruined by thousands; clerks turned adrift by tenthousands. Mechanics were left in idleness. Farmers sighed over flocks andwheat as useless as the stones and dirt. The wide sea of commerce wasstagnant; upon the realm of Industry settled down a sullen lethargy. 

Out of this reverse swarmed an unnumbered host of dishonest men, likevermin from a carcass. Banks were exploded, --or robbed, --or fleeced byastounding forgeries. Mighty companies, without cohesion, went to pieces, and hordes of wretches snatched up every bale that came ashore. Citieswere ransacked by troops of villains. The unparalleled frauds, whichsprung like mines on every hand, set every man to trembling lest the nextexplosion should be under his own feet. Fidelity seemed to have forsakenmen. Many that had earned a reputation for sterling honesty were cast sosuddenly headlong into wickedness, that man shrank from man. Suspicionovergrew confidence, and the heart bristled with the nettles and thorns offear and jealousy. Then had almost come to pass the divine delineation ofancient wickedness: _The good man is perished out of the earth: and thereis none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt everyman his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both handsearnestly, the prince and the judge ask for a reward: and the great manuttereth his mischievous desire; so they wrap it up. The best of them is abrier; the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. _ The world lookedupon a continent of inexhaustible fertility, (whose harvest had gluttedthe markets, and rotted in disuse, ) filled with lamentation, and itsinhabitants wandering like bereaved citizens among the ruins of anearthquake, mourning for children, for houses crushed, and property buriedforever. 

That no measure might be put to the calamity, the Church of God, whichrises a stately tower of refuge to desponding men, seemed now to have lostits power of protection. When the solemn voice of Religion should havegone over the land, as the call of God to guilty man to seek in him theirstrength; in this time when Religion should have restored sight to theblind, made the lame to walk, and bound up the broken-hearted, she washerself mourning in sackcloth. Out of her courts came the noise of warringsects; some contending against others with bitter warfare; and some, possessed of a demon, wallowed upon the ground foaming and rendingthemselves. In a time of panic, and disaster, and distress, and crime, thefountain which should have been for the healing of men, cast up itssediments, and gave out a bitter stream of pollution. 

In every age, an universal pestilence has hushed the clamor of contention, and cooled the heats of parties; but the greatness of our nationalcalamity seemed only to enkindle the fury of political parties. Contentions never ran with such deep streams and impetuous currents, asamidst the ruin of our industry and prosperity. States were greaterdebtors to foreign nations, than their citizens were to each other. Bothstates and citizens shrunk back from their debts, and yet more dishonestlyfrom the taxes necessary to discharge them. The General Government did notescape, but lay becalmed, or pursued its course, like a ship, at everyfurlong touching the rocks, or beating against the sands. The Capitoltrembled with the first waves of a question which is yet to shake thewhole land. New questions of exciting qualities perplexed the realm oflegislation, and of morals. To all this must be added a manifest declineof family government; an increase of the ratio of popular ignorance; adecrease of reverence for law, and an effeminate administration of it. Popular tumults have been as frequent as freshets in our rivers; and likethem, have swept over the land with desolation, and left their filthyslime in the highest places:--upon the press;--upon the legislature;--inthe halls of our courts;--and even upon the sacred bench of Justice. Ifunsettled times foster dishonesty, it should have flourished among us. And it has. 

Our nation must expect a periodical return of such convulsions; butexperience should steadily curtail their ravages, and remedy their immoraltendencies. Young men have before them lessons of manifold wisdom taughtby the severest of masters--experience. They should be studied; and thatthey may be, I shall, from this general survey, turn to a specificenumeration of the causes of dishonesty. 

1. Some men find in their bosom from the first, a vehement inclination todishonest ways. Knavish propensities are inherent: born with the child andtransmissible from parent to son. The children of a sturdy thief, if takenfrom him at birth and reared by honest men, would, doubtless, have tocontend against a strongly dishonest inclination. Foundlings and orphansunder public charitable charge, are more apt to become vicious than otherchildren. They are usually born of low and vicious parents, and inherittheir parents' propensities. Only the most thorough moral training canoverrule this innate depravity. 

2. A child naturally fair-minded, may become dishonest by parentalexample. He is early taught to be sharp in bargains, and vigilant forevery advantage. Little is said about honesty, and much upon shrewdtraffic. A dexterous trick, becomes a family anecdote; visitors areregaled with the boy's precocious keenness. Hearing the praise of hisexploits, he studies craft, and seeks parental admiration by adroitknaveries. He is taught, for his safety, that he must not range beyond thelaw: that would be unprofitable. He calculates his morality thus: _Legalhonesty is the best policy_, --dishonesty, then, is a bad bargain--andtherefore wrong--everything is wrong which is unthrifty. Whatever profitbreaks no legal statute--though it is gained by falsehood, by unfairness, by gloss; through dishonor, unkindness, and an unscrupulous conscience--heconsiders fair, and says: _The law allows it. _ Men may spend a long lifewithout an indictable action, and without an honest one. No law can reachthe insidious ways of subtle craft. The law allows, and religion forbidsmen, to profit by others' misfortunes, to prowl for prey among theignorant, to over-reach the simple, to suck the last life-drops from thebleeding; to hover over men as a vulture over herds, swooping down uponthe weak, the straggling, and the weary. The infernal craft of cunningmen, turns the law itself to piracy, and works outrageous fraud in thehall of Courts, by the decision of judges, and under the seal of Justice. 

3. Dishonesty is learned from one's employers. The boy of honest parentsand honestly bred, goes to a trade, or a store, where the employerpractises _legal_ frauds. The plain honesty of the boy excites roars oflaughter among the better taught clerks. The master tells them that suchblundering truthfulness must be pitied; the boy evidently has beenneglected, and is not to be ridiculed for what he could not help. Atfirst, it verily pains the youth's scruples, and tinges his face to framea deliberate dishonesty, to finish, and to polish it. His tongue stammersat a lie; but the example of a rich master, the jeers and gibes ofshopmates, with gradual practice, cure all this. He becomes adroit infleecing customers for his master's sake, and equally dexterous infleecing his master for his own sake. 

4. EXTRAVAGANCE is a prolific source of dishonesty. Extravagance, --whichis foolish expense, or expense disproportionate to one's means, --may befound in all grades of society; but it is chiefly apparent among the rich, those aspiring to wealth, and those wishing to be _thought_ affluent. Manya young man cheats his business, by transferring his means to theatres, race-courses, expensive parties, and to the nameless and numberlessprojects of pleasure. The enterprise of others is baffled by theextravagance of their family; for few men can make as much in a year as anextravagant woman can carry on her back in one winter. Some are ambitiousof fashionable society, and will gratify their vanity at any expense. Thisdisproportion between means and expense soon brings on a crisis. Thevictim is straitened for money; without it he must abandon his rank; forfashionable society remorselessly rejects all butterflies which have losttheir brilliant colors. Which shall he choose, honesty and mortifyingexclusion, or gaiety purchased by dishonesty? The severity of this choicesometimes sobers the intoxicated brain; and a young man shrinks from thegulf, appalled at the darkness of dishonesty. But to excessive vanity, high-life with or without fraud, is Paradise; and any other lifePurgatory. Here many resort to dishonesty without a scruple. It is at thispoint that public sentiment half sustains dishonesty. It scourges thethief of Necessity, and pities the thief of Fashion. 

The struggle with others is on the very ground of honor. A wife led fromaffluence to frigid penury and neglect; from leisure and luxury to toiland want; daughters, once courted as rich, to be disesteemed whenpoor, --this is the gloomy prospect, seen through a magic haze ofdespondency. Honor, love and generosity, strangely bewitched, plead fordishonesty as the only alternative to such suffering. But go, young man, to your wife; tell her the alternative; if she is worthy of you, she willface your poverty with a courage which shall shame your fears, and leadyou into its wilderness and through it, all unshrinking. Many there be whowent weeping into this desert, and ere long, having found in it thefountains of the purest peace, have thanked God for the pleasures ofpoverty. But if your wife unmans your resolution, imploring dishonorrather than penury, may God pity and help you! You dwell with a sorceress, and few can resist her wiles. 

5. DEBT is an inexhaustible fountain of Dishonesty. The Royal Preachertells us: _The borrower is servant to the lender. _ Debt is a rigorousservitude. The debtor learns the cunning tricks, delays, concealments, andfrauds, by which slaves evade or cheat their master. He is tempted to makeambiguous statements; pledges, with secret passages of escape; contracts, with fraudulent constructions; lying excuses, and more mendaciouspromises. He is tempted to elude responsibility; to delay settlements; toprevaricate upon the terms; to resist equity, and devise specious fraud. When the eager creditor would restrain such vagrancy by law, the debtorthen thinks himself released from moral obligation, and brought to a legalgame, in which it is lawful for the best player to win. He disputes trueaccounts; he studies subterfuges; extorts provocatious delays; and harborsin every nook, and corner, and passage, of the law's labyrinth. At lengththe measure is filled up, and the malignant power of debt is known. It hasopened in the heart every fountain of iniquity; it has besoiled theconscience; it has tarnished the honor; it has made the man a deliberatestudent of knavery; a systematic practitioner of fraud; it has dragged himthrough all the sewers of petty passions, --anger, hate, revenge, maliciousfolly, or malignant shame. When a debtor is beaten at every point, and thelaw will put her screws upon him, there is no depth in the gulf ofdishonesty into which he will not boldly plunge. Some men put theirproperty to the flames, assassinate the detested creditor, and end thefrantic tragedy by suicide, or the gallows. Others, in view of thecatastrophe, have converted all property to cash, and concealed it. Thelaw's utmost skill, and the creditor's fury, are alike powerlessnow, --the tree is green and thrifty; its roots drawing a copious supplyfrom some hidden fountain. 

Craft has another harbor of resort for the piratical crew of dishonesty;viz. : _putting the property out of the law's reach by a fraudulentconveyance_. Whoever runs in debt, and consumes the equivalent of hisindebtedness; whoever is fairly liable to damage for broken contracts;whoever by folly, has incurred debts and lost the benefit of his outlay;whoever is legally obliged to pay for his malice or carelessness; whoeverby infidelity to public trusts has made his property a just remunerationfor his defaults;--whoever of all these, or whoever, under anycircumstances, puts out of his hands property, morally or legally due tocreditors, is A DISHONEST MAN. The crazy excuses which men render to theirconsciences, are only such as every villain makes, who is unwilling tolook upon the black face of his crimes. 

He who will receive a conveyance of property, knowing it to be illusiveand fraudulent, is as wicked as the principal; and as much meaner, as thetool and subordinate of villany is meaner than the master who uses him. 

If a church, knowing all these facts, or wilfully ignorant of them, allows a member to nestle in the security of the sanctuary; then the actof this robber, and the connivance of the church, are but the two parts ofone crime. 

6. BANKRUPTCY, although a branch of debt, deserves a separate mention. Itsometimes crushes a man's spirit, and sometimes exasperates it. Thepoignancy of the evil depends much upon the disposition of the creditors;and as much upon the disposition of the victim. Should _they_ act with thelenity of Christian men, and _he_ with manly honesty, promptly renderingup whatever satisfaction of debt he has, --he may visit the lowest placesof human adversity, and find there the light of good men's esteem, thesupport of conscience, and the sustenance of religion. 

A bankrupt may fall into the hands of men whose tender-mercies are cruel;or his dishonest equivocations may exasperate their temper and provokeevery thorn and brier of the law. When men's passions are let loose, especially their avarice whetted by real or imaginary wrong; when there isa rivalry among creditors, lest any one should feast upon the victim morethan his share; and they all rush upon him like wolves upon a woundeddeer, dragging him down, ripping him open, breast and flank, plungingdeep their bloody muzzles to reach the heart and taste blood at the veryfountain;--is it strange that resistance is desperate and unscrupulous? Atlength the sufferer drags his mutilated carcass aside, every nerve andmuscle wrung with pain, and his whole body an instrument of agony. Hecurses the whole inhuman crew with envenomed imprecations; andthenceforth, a brooding misanthrope, he pays back to society, by studiedvillanies, the legal wrongs which the relentless justice of a few, or hisown knavery, have brought upon him. 

7. There is a circle of moral dishonesties practised because the LAWallows them. The very anxiety of law to reach the devices of cunning, soperplexes its statutes with exceptions, limitations, and supplements, thatlike a castle gradually enlarged for centuries, it has its crevices, darkcorners, secret holes and winding passages--an endless harbor for rats andvermin, where no trap can catch them. We are villanously infested withlegal rats and rascals, who are able to commit the most flagrantdishonesties with impunity. They can do all of wrong which is profitable, without that part which is actionable. The very ingenuity of thesemiscreants excites such admiration of their skill, that their life isgilded with a specious respectability. Men profess little esteem forblunt, necessitous thieves, who rob and run away; but for a gentleman whocan break the whole of God's law so adroitly, as to leave man's lawunbroken; who can indulge in such conservative stealing that hisfellow-men award him a rank among honest men for the excessive skill ofhis dishonesty--for such a one, I fear, there is almost universalsympathy. 

8. POLITICAL DISHONESTY, breeds dishonesty of every kind. It is possiblefor good men to permit single sins to co-exist with general integrity, where the evil is indulged through ignorance. Once, undoubted Christianswere slave-traders. They might be, while unenlightened; but not in ourtimes. A state of mind which will _intend_ one fraud, will, uponoccasions, intend a thousand. He that upon one emergency will lie, will besupplied with emergencies. He that will perjure himself to save a friend, will do it, in a desperate juncture, to save himself. The highest Wisdomhas informed us that _He that is unjust in the least, is unjust also inmuch_. Circumstances may withdraw a politician from temptation to any butpolitical dishonesty; but under temptation, a dishonest politician wouldbe a dishonest cashier, --would be dishonest anywhere, --in anything. Thefury which destroys an opponent's character, would stop at nothing, ifbarriers were thrown down. That which is true of the leaders in politics, is true of subordinates. Political dishonesty in voters runs into generaldishonesty, as the rotten speck taints the whole apple. A community whosepolitics are conducted by a perpetual breach of honesty on both sides, will be tainted by immorality throughout. Men will play the same game intheir private affairs, which they have learned to play in public matters. The guile, the crafty vigilance, the dishonest advantage, the cunningsharpness;--the tricks and traps and sly evasions; the equivocal promises, and unequivocal neglect of them, which characterize political action, willequally characterize private action. The mind has no kitchen to do itsdirty work in, while the parlor remains clean. Dishonesty is anatmosphere; if it comes into one apartment, it penetrates into every one. Whoever will lie in politics, will lie in traffic. Whoever will slander inpolitics, will slander in personal squabbles. A professor of religion whois a dishonest politician, is a dishonest Christian. His creed is aperpetual index of his hypocrisy. 

The genius of our government directs the attention of every citizen topolitics. Its spirit reaches the uttermost bound of society, and pervadesthe whole mass. If its channels are slimy with corruption, what limit canbe set to its malign influence? The turbulence of elections, the virulenceof the press, the desperation of bad men, the hopelessness of effortswhich are not cunning, but only honest, have driven many conscientious menfrom any concern with politics. This is suicidal. Thus the tempest willgrow blacker and fiercer. Our youth will be caught up in its whirlingbosom and dashed to pieces, and its hail will break down every greenthing. At God's house the cure should begin. Let the hand of disciplinesmite the leprous lips which shall utter the profane heresy: _All is fairin politics. _ If any hoary professor, drunk with the mingled wine ofexcitement, shall tell our youth, that a Christian man may act in politicsby any other rule of morality than that of the Bible; and that wickednessperformed for a party, is not as abominable, as if done for a man; or thatany necessity justifies or palliates dishonesty in word or deed, --let sucha one go out of the camp, and his pestilent breath no longer spreadcontagion among our youth. No man who loves his country, should shrinkfrom her side when she groans with raging distempers. Let every Christianman stand in his place; rebuke every dishonest practice; scorn apolitical as well as a personal lie; and refuse with indignation to beinsulted by the solicitation of an immoral man. Let good men of allparties require honesty, integrity, veracity, and morality in politics, and there, as powerfully as anywhere else, the requisitions of publicsentiment will ultimately be felt. 

9. A corrupt PUBLIC SENTIMENT produces dishonesty. A public sentiment, inwhich dishonesty is not disgraceful; in which bad men are respectable, aretrusted, are honored, are exalted--is a curse to the young. The fever ofspeculation, the universal derangement of business, the growing laxness ofmorals, is, to an alarming extent, introducing such a state of things. Menof notorious immorality, whose dishonesty is flagrant, whose privatehabits would disgrace the ditch, are powerful and popular. I have seen aman stained with every sin, except those which required courage; intowhose head I do not think a pure thought has entered for forty years; inwhose heart an honorable feeling would droop for very loneliness;--in evilhe was ripe and rotten; hoary and depraved in deed, in word, in hispresent life and in all his past; evil when by himself, and viler amongmen; corrupting to the young;--to domestic fidelity, a recreant; to commonhonor, a traitor; to honesty, an outlaw; to religion, a hypocrite;--basein all that is worthy of man, and accomplished in whatever is disgraceful;and yet this wretch could go where he would; enter good men's dwellings, and purloin their votes. Men would curse him, yet obey him; hate him andassist him; warn their sons against him, and lead them to the polls forhim. A public sentiment which produces ignominious knaves, cannot breedhonest men. 

Any calamity, civil or commercial, which checks the administration ofjustice between man and man, is ruinous to honesty. The violentfluctuations of business cover the ground with rubbish over which menstumble; and fill the air with dust, in which all the shapes of honestyappear distorted. Men are thrown upon unusual expedients; dishonesties areunobserved; those who have been reckless and profuse, stave off thelegitimate fruits of their folly by desperate shifts. We have not yetemerged from a period, in which debts were insecure; the debtor legallyprotected against the rights of the creditor; taxes laid, not by therequirements of justice, but for political effect; and lowered to adishonest insufficiency; and when thus diminished, not collected; thecitizens resisting their own officers; officers resigning at the biddingof the electors; the laws of property paralyzed; bankrupt laws built up;and stay-laws unconstitutionally enacted, upon which the courts look withaversion, yet fear to deny them, lest the wildness of popular opinionshould roll back disdainfully upon the bench, to despoil its dignity, andprostrate its power. General suffering has made us tolerant of generaldishonesty; and the gloom of our commercial disaster threatens to becomethe pall of our morals. 

If the shocking stupidity of the public mind to atrocious dishonesties isnot aroused; if good men do not bestir themselves to drag the young fromthis foul sorcery; if the relaxed bands of honesty are not tightened, andconscience intoned to a severer morality, our night is at hand, --ourmidnight not far off. Woe to that guilty people who sit down upon brokenlaws, and wealth saved by injustice! Woe to a generation fed upon thebread of fraud, whose children's inheritance shall be a perpetual mementoof their fathers' unrighteousness; to whom dishonesty shall be madepleasant by association with the revered memories of father, brother, andfriend!

But when a whole people, united by a common disregard of justice, conspireto defraud public creditors; and States vie with States in an infamousrepudiation of just debts, by open or sinister methods; and nations exerttheir sovereignty to protect and dignify the knavery of a Commonwealth;then the confusion of domestic affairs has bred a fiend, before whoseflight honor fades away, and under whose feet the sanctity of truth andthe religion of solemn compacts are stamped down and ground into the dirt. Need we ask the causes of growing dishonesty among the young, and theincreasing untrustworthiness of all agents, when States are seen clothedwith the panoply of dishonesty, and nations put on fraud for theirgarments?

Absconding agents, swindling schemes, and defalcations, occurring in suchmelancholy abundance, have at length ceased to be wonders, and rank withthe common accidents of fire and flood. The budget of each week isincomplete without its mob and runaway cashier--its duel and defaulter;and as waves which roll to the shore are lost in those which follow on, sothe villanies of each week obliterate the record of the last. 

The mania of dishonesty cannot arise from local causes; it is the resultof disease in the whole community; an eruption betokening foulness of theblood; blotches symptomatic of a disordered system. 

10. FINANCIAL AGENTS are especially liable to the temptations ofDishonesty. Safe merchants, and visionary schemers; sagacious adventurers, and rash speculators; frugal beginners, and retired millionaires, areconstantly around them. Every word, every act, every entry, every letter, suggests only wealth--its germ, its bud, its blossom, its golden harvest. Its brilliance dazzles the sight; its seductions stir the appetites; itspower fires the ambition, and the soul concentrates its energies to obtainwealth, as life's highest and only joy. 

Besides the influence of such associations, direct dealing in _money_ as acommodity, has a peculiar effect upon the heart. There is no propertybetween it and the mind;--no medium to mellow its light. The mind isdiverted and refreshed by no thoughts upon the quality of soils; thedurability of structures; the advantages of sites; the beauty of fabrics;it is not invigorated by the necessity of labor and ingenuity which themechanic feels; by the invention of the artisan, or the taste of theartist. The whole attention falls directly upon naked Money. The hourlysight of it whets the appetite, and sharpens it to avarice. Thus, with anintense regard of riches, steals in also the miser's relish of coin--thatinsatiate gazing and fondling, by which seductive metal wins to itselfall the blandishments of love. 

Those who _mean_ to be rich, often begin by imitating the expensivecourses of those who _are_ rich. They are also tempted to venture, beforethey have means of their own, in brilliant speculations. How can a youngcashier pay the drafts of his illicit pleasures, or procure the seed, forthe harvest of speculation, out of his narrow salary? Here first begins towork the leaven of death. The mind wanders in dreams of gain; it broodsover projects of unlawful riches; stealthily at first, and then with lessreserve; at last it boldly meditates the possibility of being dishonestand _safe_. When a man can seriously reflect upon dishonesty as a possibleand profitable thing, he is already deeply dishonest. To a mind sotainted, will flock stories of consummate craft, of effective knavery, offraud covered by its brilliant success. At times, the mind shrinks fromits own thoughts, and trembles to look down the giddy cliff on whose edgethey poise, or over which they fling themselves like sporting sea-birds. But these imaginations will not be driven from the heart where they haveonce nested. They haunt a man's business, visit him in dreams, andvampire-like, fan the slumbers of the victim whom they will destroy. Insome feverish hour, vibrating between conscience and avarice, the manstaggers to a compromise. To satisfy his conscience he refuses to _steal_;and to gratify his avarice, he _borrows_ the funds;--not openly--not ofowners--not of men: but of the till--the safe--the vault!

He resolves to restore the money before discovery can ensue, and pocketthe profits. Meanwhile, false entries are made, perjured oaths are sworn, forged papers are filed. His expenses grow profuse, and men wonder fromwhat fountain so copious a stream can flow. 

Let us stop here to survey his condition. He flourishes, is calledprosperous, thinks himself safe. Is he safe, or honest? He has stolen, andembarked the amount upon a sea over which wander perpetual storms; wherewreck is the common fate, and escape the accident; and now all his chancefor the semblance of honesty, is staked upon the return of hisembezzlements from among the sands, the rocks and currents, the winds andwaves, and darkness, of tumultuous speculation. At length dawns the day ofdiscovery. His guilty dreams have long foretokened it. As he confronts thedisgrace almost face to face, how changed is the hideous aspect of hisdeed, from that fair face of promise with which it tempted him!Conscience, and honor, and plain honesty, which left him when they couldnot restrain, now come back to sharpen his anguish. Overawed by theprospect of open shame, of his wife's disgrace, and his children'sbeggary, he cows down, and slinks out of life a frantic suicide. 

Some there be, however, less supple to shame. They meet their fate withcool impudence; defy their employers; brave the court, and too often withsuccess. The delusion of the public mind, or the confusion of affairs issuch, that, while petty culprits are tumbled into prison, a cool, calculating and immense scoundrel is pitied, dandled and nursed by asympathizing community. In the broad road slanting to the rogue's retreat, are seen the officer of the bank, the agent of the state, the officer ofthe church, in indiscriminate haste, outrunning a lazy justice, andbearing off the gains of astounding frauds. Avarice and pleasure seem tohave dissolved the conscience. _It is a day of trouble and of perplexityfrom the Lord. _ We tremble to think that our children must leave thecovert of the family, and go out upon that dark and yeasty sea, from whosewrath so many wrecks are cast up at our feet. Of one thing I am certain;if the church of Christ is silent to such deeds, and makes her altar arefuge to such dishonesty, the day is coming when she shall have no altar, the light shall go out from her candlestick, her walls shall be desolate, and the fox look out at her windows. 

11. EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY, by its frequency, has been a temptation toDishonesty. Who will fear to be a culprit when a legal sentence is theargument of pity, and the prelude of pardon? What can the community expectbut growing dishonesty, when juries connive at acquittals, and judgescondemn only to petition a pardon; when honest men and officers fly beforea mob; when jails are besieged and threatened, if felons are notrelinquished; when the Executive, consulting the spirit of the community, receives the demands of the mob, and humbly complies, throwing down thefences of the law, that base rioters may walk unimpeded, to their work ofvengeance, or unjust mercy? A sickly sentimentality too often enervatesthe administration of justice; and the pardoning power becomes themaster-key to let out unwashed, unrepentant criminals. They have fleecedus, robbed us, and are ulcerous sores to the body politic; yet our heartturns to water over their merited punishment. A fine young fellow, byaccident, writes another's name for his own; by a mistake equallyunfortunate, he presents it at the bank; innocently draws out the largeamount; generously spends a part, and absent-mindedly hides the rest. Hard-hearted wretches there are, who would punish him for this! Young men, admiring the neatness of the affair, pity his misfortune, and curse astupid jury that knew no better than to send to a penitentiary, him, whoseskill deserved a cashiership. He goes to his cell, the pity of a wholemetropolis. Bulletins from Sing-Sing inform us daily what Edwards[1] isdoing, as if he were Napoleon at St. Helena. At length pardoned, he willgo forth again to a renowned liberty!

If there be one way quicker than another, by which the Executive shallassist crime, and our laws foster it, it is that course which assuresevery dishonest man, that it is easy to defraud, easy to avoid arrest, easy to escape punishment, and easiest of all to obtain a pardon. 

12. COMMERCIAL SPECULATIONS are prolific of Dishonesty. Speculation is therisking of capital in enterprises greater than we can control, or inenterprises whose elements are not at all calculable. All calculations ofthe future are uncertain; but those which are based upon long experienceapproximate certainty, while those which are drawn by sagacity fromprobable events, are notoriously unsafe. Unless, however, some venture, weshall forever tread an old and dull path; therefore enterprise is allowedto pioneer new ways. The safe enterpriser explores cautiously, ventures atfirst a little, and increases the venture with the ratio of experience. Aspeculator looks out upon the new region, as upon a far-away landscape, whose features are softened to beauty by distance; upon a _hope_, hestakes that, which, if it wins, will make him; and if it loses, will ruinhim. When the alternatives are victory, or utter destruction, a battlemay, sometimes, still be necessary. But commerce has no such alternatives;only speculation proceeds upon them. 

If the capital is borrowed, it is as dishonest, upon such ventures, torisk, as to lose it. Should a man borrow a noble steed and ride amongincitements which he knew would rouse up his fiery spirit to anuncontrollable height, and borne away with wild speed, be plunged over aprecipice, his destruction might excite our pity, but could not alter ouropinion of his dishonesty. He borrowed property, and endangered it wherehe knew that it would be uncontrollable. 

If the capital be one's own, it can scarcely be risked and lost, withoutthe ruin of other men. No man could blow up his store in a compact street, and destroy only his own. Men of business are, like threads of a fabric, woven together, and subject, to a great extent, to a common fate ofprosperity or adversity. I have no right to cut off my hand; I defraudmyself, my family, the community, and God; for all these have an interestin that hand. Neither has a man the right to throw away his property. Hedefrauds himself, his family, the community in which he dwells; for allthese have an interest in that property. If waste is dishonesty, thenevery risk, in proportion as it approaches it, is dishonest. To venture, without that foresight which experience gives, is wrong; and if we cannotforesee, then we must not venture. 

Scheming speculation demoralizes honesty, and almost necessitatesdishonesty. He who puts his own interests to rash ventures, will scarcelydo better for others. The Speculator regards the weightiest affair as onlya splendid game. Indeed, a Speculator on the exchange, and a Gambler athis table, follow one vocation, only with different instruments. Oneemploys cards or dice, the other property. The one can no more foresee theresult of his schemes, than the other what spots will come up on hisdice; the calculations of both are only the chances of luck. Both burnwith unhealthy excitement; both are avaricious of gains, but careless ofwhat they win; both depend more upon fortune than skill; they have acommon distaste for labor; with each, right and wrong are only theaccidents of a game; neither would scruple in any hour to set his wholebeing on the edge of ruin, and going over, to pull down, if possible, ahundred others. 

The wreck of such men leaves them with a drunkard's appetite, and afiend's desperation. The revulsion from extravagant hopes, to a certaintyof midnight darkness; the sensations of poverty, to him who was in fancyjust stepping upon a princely estate; the humiliation of gleaning forcents, where he has been profuse of dollars; the chagrin of seeing oldcompetitors now above him, grinning down upon his poverty a malignanttriumph; the pity of pitiful men, and the neglect of such as should havebeen his friends, --and who were, while the sunshine lay upon hispath, --all these things, like so many strong winds, sweep across the soulso that it cannot rest in the cheerless tranquility of honesty, but _castsup mire and dirt_. How stately the balloon rises and sails overcontinents, as over petty landscapes! The slightest slit in its frailcovering sends it tumbling down, swaying widely, whirling and pitchinghither and thither, until it plunges into some dark glen, out of the pathof honest men, and too shattered to tempt even a robber. So have we seen athousand men pitched down; so now, in a thousand places may their wrecksbe seen. But still other balloons are framing, and the air is full ofvictim-venturers. 

If our young men are introduced to life with distaste for safe ways, because the sure profits are slow; if the opinion becomes prevalent thatall business is great, only as it tends to the uncertain, the extravagant, and the romantic; then we may stay our hand at once, nor waste labor inabsurd expostulations of honesty. I had as lief preach humanity to abattle of eagles, as to urge honesty and integrity upon those who have_determined_ to be rich, and to gain it by gambling stakes, and madmen'sventures. 

All the bankruptcies of commerce are harmless compared with a bankruptcyof public morals. Should the Atlantic ocean break over our shores, androll sheer across to the Pacific, sweeping every vestige of cultivation, and burying our wealth, it would be a mercy, compared to that ocean-delugeof dishonesty and crime, which, sweeping over the whole land, has sparedour wealth and taken our virtue. What are cornfields and vineyards, whatare stores and manufactures, and what are gold and silver, and all theprecious commodities of the earth, among beasts?--and what are men, bereftof conscience and honor, but beasts?

We will forget those things which are behind, and hope a more cheerfulfuture. We turn to you, YOUNG MEN!--All good men, all patriots, turn towatch your advance upon the stage, and to implore you to be worthy ofyourselves, and of your revered ancestry. Oh! ye favored of Heaven! with afree land, a noble inheritance of wise laws, and a prodigality of wealthin prospect, --advance to your possessions!--May you settle down, as didIsrael of old, a people of God in a promised and protected land;--true toyourselves, true to your country, and true to your God. 

Footnote:

[1] Monroe Edwards, a notorious forger. --ED. 

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