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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9596.txt b/9596.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..091696b --- /dev/null +++ b/9596.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1593 @@ +Project Gutenberg EBook, Reform and Politics, Part 2, From Vol. VII. +The Works of Whittier: The Conflict With Slavery, Politics and Reform +#41 in our series by John Greenleaf Whittier + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + + +Title: Reform and Politics, Part 2, From Vol. VII, + The Works of Whittier: The Conflict With Slavery, Politics + and Reform, The Inner Life and Criticism + + +Author: John Greenleaf Whittier + +Release Date: December 2005 [EBook #9596] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 25, 2003] + + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, REFORM AND POLITICS *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + + + + REFORM AND POLITICS + + BY + + JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER + + +CONTENTS: + + UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND POLITICAL THEORISTS + PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS + LORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES + WOMAN SUFFRAGE + ITALIAN UNITY + INDIAN CIVILIZATION + READING FOR THE BLIND + THE INDIAN QUESTION + THE REPUBLICAN PARTY + OUR DUMB RELATIONS + INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION + SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN + + + + + REFORM AND POLITICS + + UTOPIAN SCHEMES AND POLITICAL THEORISTS. + +THERE is a large class of men, not in Europe alone, but in this country +also, whose constitutional conservatism inclines them to regard any +organic change in the government of a state or the social condition of +its people with suspicion and distrust. They admit, perhaps, the evils +of the old state of things; but they hold them to be inevitable, the +alloy necessarily mingled with all which pertains to fallible humanity. +Themselves generally enjoying whatever of good belongs to the political +or social system in which their lot is cast, they are disposed to look +with philosophic indifference upon the evil which only afflicts their +neighbors. They wonder why people are not contented with their +allotments; they see no reason for change; they ask for quiet and peace +in their day; being quite well satisfied with that social condition which +an old poet has quaintly described:-- + + "The citizens like pounded pikes; + The lesser feed the great; + The rich for food seek stomachs, + And the poor for stomachs meat." + +This class of our fellow-citizens have an especial dislike of theorists, +reformers, uneasy spirits, speculators upon the possibilities of the +world's future, constitution builders, and believers in progress. They +are satisfied; the world at least goes well enough with them; they sit as +comfortable in it as Lafontaine's rat in the cheese; and why should those +who would turn it upside down come hither also? Why not let well enough +alone? Why tinker creeds, constitutions, and laws, and disturb the good +old-fashioned order of things in church and state? The idea of making +the world better and happier is to them an absurdity. He who entertains +it is a dreamer and a visionary, destitute of common sense and practical +wisdom. His project, whatever it may be, is at once pronounced to be +impracticable folly, or, as they are pleased to term it, _Utopian._ + +The romance of Sir Thomas More, which has long afforded to the +conservatives of church and state a term of contempt applicable to all +reformatory schemes and innovations, is one of a series of fabulous +writings, in which the authors, living in evil times and unable to +actualize their plans for the well-being of society, have resorted to +fiction as a safe means of conveying forbidden truths to the popular +mind. Plato's "Timaeus," the first of the series, was written after the +death of Socrates and the enslavement of the author's country. In this +are described the institutions of the Island of Atlantis,--the writer's +ideal of a perfect commonwealth. Xenophon, in his "Cyropaedia," has also +depicted an imaginary political society by overlaying with fiction +historical traditions. At a later period we have the "New Atlantis" of +Lord Bacon, and that dream of the "City of the Sun" with which Campanella +solaced himself in his long imprisonment. + +The "Utopia" of More is perhaps the best of its class. It is the work of +a profound thinker, the suggestive speculations and theories of one who +could + + "Forerun his age and race, and let + His feet millenniums hence be set + In midst of knowledge dreamed not yet." + +Much of what he wrote as fiction is now fact, a part of the frame-work of +European governments, and the political truths of his imaginary state are +now practically recognized in our own democratic system. As might be +expected, in view of the times in which the author wrote, and the +exceedingly limited amount of materials which he found ready to his hands +for the construction of his social and political edifice, there is a want +of proportion and symmetry in the structure. Many of his theories are no +doubt impracticable and unsound. But, as a whole, the work is an +admirable one, striding in advance of the author's age, and prefiguring a +government of religious toleration and political freedom. The following +extract from it was doubtless regarded in his day as something worse than +folly or the dream of a visionary enthusiast:-- + +"He judged it wrong to lay down anything rashly, and seemed to doubt +whether these different forms of religion might not all come from God, +who might inspire men in a different manner, and be pleased with the +variety. He therefore thought it to be indecent and foolish for any man +to threaten and terrify another, to make him believe what did not strike +him as true." + +Passing by the "Telemachus" of Fenelon, we come to the political romance +of Harrington, written in the time of Cromwell. "Oceana" is the name by +which the author represents England; and the republican plan of +government which he describes with much minuteness is such as he would +have recommended for adoption in case a free commonwealth had been +established. It deals somewhat severely with Cromwell's usurpation; yet +the author did not hesitate to dedicate it to that remarkable man, who, +after carefully reading it, gave it back to his daughter, Lady Claypole, +with the remark, full of characteristic bluntness, that "the gentleman +need not think to cheat him of his power and authority; for what he had +won with the sword he would never suffer himself to be scribbled out of." + +Notwithstanding the liberality and freedom of his speculations upon +government and religion in his Utopia, it must be confessed that Sir +Thomas More, in after life, fell into the very practices of intolerance +and bigotry which he condemned. When in the possession of the great seal +under that scandal of kingship, Henry VIII., he gave his countenance to +the persecution of heretics. Bishop Burnet says of him, that he caused a +gentleman of the Temple to be whipped and put to the rack in his +presence, in order to compel him to discover those who favored heretical +opinions. In his Utopia he assailed the profession of the law with +merciless satire; yet the satirist himself finally sat upon the +chancellor's woolsack; and, as has been well remarked by Horace Smith, +"if, from this elevated seat, he ever cast his eyes back upon his past +life, he must have smiled at the fond conceit which could imagine a +permanent Utopia, when he himself, certainly more learned, honest, and +conscientious than the mass of men has ever been, could in the course of +one short life fall into such glaring and frightful rebellion against his +own doctrines." + +Harrington, on the other hand, as became the friend of Milton and Marvel, +held fast, through good and evil report, his republican faith. He +published his work after the Restoration, and defended it boldly and ably +from the numerous attacks made upon it. Regarded as too dangerous an +enthusiast to be left at liberty, he was imprisoned at the instance of +Lord Chancellor Hyde, first in the Tower, and afterwards on the Island of +St. Nicholas, where disease and imprudent remedies brought on a partial +derangement, from which he never recovered. + +Bernardin St. Pierre, whose pathetic tale of "Paul and Virginia" has +found admirers in every language of the civilized world, in a fragment, +entitled "Arcadia," attempted to depict an ideal republic, without +priest, noble, or slave, where all are so religious that each man is the +pontiff of his family, where each man is prepared to defend his country, +and where all are in such a state of equality that there are no such +persons as servants. The plan of it was suggested by his friend Rousseau +during their pleasant walking excursions about the environs of Paris, in +which the two enthusiastic philosophers, baffled by the evil passions and +intractable materials of human nature as manifested in existing society, +comforted themselves by appealing from the actual to the possible, from +the real to the imaginary. Under the chestnut-trees of the Bois de +Boulogne, through long summer days, the two friends, sick of the noisy +world about them, yet yearning to become its benefactors,--gladly +escaping from it, yet busy with schemes for its regeneration and +happiness,--at once misanthropes and philanthropists,--amused and solaced +themselves by imagining a perfect and simple state of society, in which +the lessons of emulation and selfish ambition were never to be taught; +where, on the contrary, the young were to obey their parents, and to +prefer father, mother, brother, sister, wife, and friend to themselves. +They drew beautiful pictures of a country blessed with peace, indus try, +and love, covered with no disgusting monuments of violence and pride and +luxury, without columns, triumphal arches, hospitals, prisons, or +gibbets; but presenting to view bridges over torrents, wells on the arid +plain, groves of fruit-trees, and houses of shelter for the traveller in +desert places, attesting everywhere the sentiment of humanity. Religion +was to speak to all hearts in the eternal language of Nature. Death was +no longer to be feared; perspectives of holy consolation were to open +through the cypress shadows of the tomb; to live or to die was to be +equally an object of desire. + +The plan of the "Arcadia" of St. Pierre is simply this: A learned young +Egyptian, educated at Thebes by the priests of Osiris, desirous of +benefiting humanity, undertakes a voyage to Gaul for the purpose of +carrying thither the arts and religion of Egypt. He is shipwrecked on +his return in the Gulf of Messina, and lands upon the coast, where he is +entertained by an Arcadian, to whom he relates his adventures, and from +whom he receives in turn an account of the simple happiness and peace of +Arcadia, the virtues and felicity of whose inhabitants are beautifully +exemplified in the lives and conversation of the shepherd and his +daughter. This pleasant little prose poem closes somewhat abruptly. +Although inferior in artistic skill to "Paul and Virginia" or the "Indian +Cottage", there is not a little to admire in the simple beauty of its +pastoral descriptions. The closing paragraph reminds one of Bunyan's +upper chamber, where the weary pilgrim's windows opened to the sunrising +and the singing of birds:-- + +"Tyrteus conducted his guests to an adjoining chamber. It had a window +shut by a curtain of rushes, through the crevices of which the islands of +the Alpheus might be seen in the light of the moon. There were in this +chamber two excellent beds, with coverlets of warm and light wool. + +"Now, as soon as Amasis was left alone with Cephas, he spoke with joy of +the delight and tranquillity of the valley, of the goodness of the +shepherd, and the grace of his young daughter, to whom he had seen none +worthy to be compared, and of the pleasure which he promised himself the +next day, at the festival on Mount Lyceum, of beholding a whole people as +happy as this sequestered family. Converse so delightful might have +charmed away the night without the aid of sleep, had they not been +invited to repose by the mild light of the moon shining through the +window, the murmuring wind in the leaves of the poplars, and the distant +noise of the Achelous, which falls roaring from the summit of Mount +Lyceum." + +The young patrician wits of Athens doubtless laughed over Plato's ideal +republic. Campanella's "City of the Sun" was looked upon, no doubt, as +the distempered vision of a crazy state prisoner. Bacon's college, in +his "New Atlantis," moved the risibles of fat-witted Oxford. More's +"Utopia," as we know, gave to our language a new word, expressive of the +vagaries and dreams of fanatics and lunatics. The merciless wits, +clerical and profane, of the court of Charles II. regarded Harrington's +romance as a perfect godsend to their vocation of ridicule. The gay +dames and carpet knights of Versailles made themselves merry with the +prose pastoral of St. Pierre; and the poor old enthusiast went down to +his grave without finding an auditory for his lectures upon natural +society. + +The world had its laugh over these romances. When unable to refute their +theories, it could sneer at the authors, and answer them to the +satisfaction of the generation in which they lived, at least by a general +charge of lunacy. Some of their notions were no doubt as absurd as those +of the astronomer in "Rasselas", who tells Imlac that he has for five +years possessed the regulation of the weather, and has got the secret of +making to the different nations an equal and impartial dividend of rain +and sunshine. But truth, even when ushered into the world through the +medium of a dull romance and in connection with a vast progeny of errors, +however ridiculed and despised at first, never fails in the end of +finding a lodging-place in the popular mind. The speculations of the +political theorists whom we have noticed have not all proved to be of + + "such stuff + As dreams are made of, and their little life + Rounded with sleep." + +They have entered into and become parts of the social and political +fabrics of Europe and America. The prophecies of imagination have been +fulfilled; the dreams of romance have become familiar realities. + +What is the moral suggested by this record? Is it not that we should +look with charity and tolerance upon the schemes and speculations of the +political and social theorists of our day; that, if unprepared to venture +upon new experiments and radical changes, we should at least consider +that what was folly to our ancestors is our wisdom, and that another +generation may successfully put in practice the very theories which now +seem to us absurd and impossible? Many of the evils of society have been +measurably removed or ameliorated; yet now, as in the days of the +Apostle, "the creation groaneth and travaileth in pain;" and although +quackery and empiricism abound, is it not possible that a proper +application of some of the remedies proposed might ameliorate the general +suffering? Rejecting, as we must, whatever is inconsistent with or +hostile to the doctrines of Christianity, on which alone rests our hope +for humanity, it becomes us to look kindly upon all attempts to apply +those doctrines to the details of human life, to the social, political, +and industrial relations of the race. If it is not permitted us to +believe all things, we can at least hope them. Despair is infidelity and +death. Temporally and spiritually, the declaration of inspiration holds +good, "We are saved by hope." + + + + + + + PECULIAR INSTITUTIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS. + + [1851.] + +BERNARDIN ST. PIERRE, in his Wishes of a Solitary, asks for his country +neither wealth, nor military glory, nor magnificent palaces and +monuments, nor splendor of court nobility, nor clerical pomp. "Rather," +he says, "O France, may no beggar tread thy plains, no sick or suffering +man ask in vain for relief; in all thy hamlets may every young woman find +a lover and every lover a true wife; may the young be trained arightly +and guarded from evil; may the old close their days in the tranquil hope +of those who love God and their fellow-men." + +We are reminded of the amiable wish of the French essayist--a wish even +yet very far from realization, we fear, in the empire of Napoleon III.-- +by the perusal of two documents recently submitted to the legislature of +the State of Massachusetts. They indicate, in our view, the real glory +of a state, and foreshadow the coming of that time when Milton's +definition of a true commonwealth shall be no longer a prophecy, but the +description of an existing fact,--"a huge Christian personage, a mighty +growth and stature of an honest man, moved by the purpose of a love of +God and of mankind." + +Some years ago, the Legislature of Massachusetts, at the suggestion of +several benevolent gentlemen whose attention had been turned to the +subject, appointed a commission to inquire into the condition of the +idiots of the Commonwealth, to ascertain their numbers, and whether +anything could be done in their behalf. + +The commissioners were Dr. Samuel G. Howe, so well and honorably known +for his long and arduous labors in behalf of the blind, Judge Byington, +and Dr. Gilman Kimball. The burden of the labor fell upon the chairman, +who entered upon it with the enthusiasm, perseverance, and practical +adaptation of means to ends which have made him so efficient in his +varied schemes of benevolence. On the 26th of the second month, 1848, a +full report of the results of this labor was made to the Governor, +accompanied by statistical tables and minute details. One hundred towns +had been visited by the chairman or his reliable agent, in which five +hundred and seventy-five persons in a state of idiocy were discovered. +These were examined carefully in respect to their physical as well as +mental condition, no inquiry being omitted which was calculated to throw +light upon the remote or immediate causes of this mournful imperfection +in the creation of God. The proximate causes Dr. Howe mentions are to be +found in the state of the bodily organization, deranged and +disproportioned by some violation of natural law on the part of the +parents or remoter ancestors of the sufferers. Out of 420 cases of +idiocy, he had obtained information respecting the condition of the +progenitors of 359; and in all but four of these eases he found that one +or the other, or both, of their immediate progenitors had in some way +departed widely from the condition of health; they were scrofulous, or +predisposed to affections of the brain, and insanity, or had intermarried +with blood-relations, or had been intemperate, or guilty of sensual +excesses. + +Of the 575 cases, 420 were those of idiocy from birth, and 155 of idiocy +afterwards. Of the born idiots, 187 were under twenty-five years of age, +and all but 13 seemed capable of improvement. Of those above twenty-five +years of age, 73 appeared incapable of improvement in their mental +condition, being helpless as children at seven years of age; 43 out of +the 420 seemed as helpless as children at two years of age; 33 were in +the condition of mere infants; and 220 were supported at the public +charge in almshouses. A large proportion of them were found to be given +over to filthy and loathsome habits, gluttony, and lust, and constantly +sinking lower towards the condition of absolute brutishness. + +Those in private houses were found, if possible, in a still more +deplorable state. Their parents were generally poor, feeble in mind and +body, and often of very intemperate habits. Many of them seemed scarcely +able to take care of themselves, and totally unfit for the training of +ordinary children. It was the blind leading the blind, imbecility +teaching imbecility. Some instances of the experiments of parental +ignorance upon idiotic offspring, which fell under the observation of Dr. +Howe, are related in his report Idiotic children were found with their +heads covered over with cold poultices of oak-bark, which the foolish +parents supposed would tan the brain and harden it as the tanner does his +ox-hides, and so make it capable of retaining impressions and remembering +lessons. In other cases, finding that the child could not be made to +comprehend anything, the sagacious heads of the household, on the +supposition that its brain was too hard, tortured it with hot poultices +of bread and milk to soften it. Others plastered over their children's +heads with tar. Some administered strong doses of mercury, to "solder up +the openings" in the head and make it tight and strong. Others +encouraged the savage gluttony of their children, stimulating their +unnatural and bestial appetites, on the ground that "the poor creatures +had nothing else to enjoy but their food, and they should have enough of +that!" + +In consequence of this report, the legislature, in the spring of 1848, +made an annual appropriation of twenty-five hundred dollars, for three +years, for the purpose of training and teaching ten idiot children, to be +selected by the Governor and Council. The trustees of the Asylum for the +Blind, under the charge of Dr. Howe, made arrangements for receiving +these pupils. The school was opened in the autumn of 1848; and its first +annual report, addressed to the Governor and printed by order of the +Senate, is now before us. + +Of the ten pupils, it appears that not one had the usual command of +muscular motion,--the languid body obeyed not the service of the imbecile +will. Some could walk and use their limbs and hands in simple motions; +others could make only make slight use of their muscles; and two were +without any power of locomotion. + +One of these last, a boy six years of age, who had been stupefied on the +day of his birth by the application of hot rum to his head, could +scarcely see or notice objects, and was almost destitute of the sense of +touch. He could neither stand nor sit upright, nor even creep, but would +lie on the floor in whatever position he was placed. He could not feed +himself nor chew solid food, and had no more sense of decency than an +infant. His intellect was a blank; he had no knowledge, no desires, no +affections. A more hopeless object for experiment could scarcely have +been selected. + +A year of patient endeavor has nevertheless wrought a wonderful change in +the condition of this miserable being. Cold bathing, rubbing of the +limbs, exercise of the muscles, exposure to the air, and other appliances +have enabled him to stand upright, to sit at table and feed himself, and +chew his food, and to walk about with slight assistance. His habits are +no longer those of a brute; he observes decency; his eye is brighter; his +cheeks glow with health; his countenance, is more expressive of thought. +He has learned many words and constructs simple sentences; his affections +begin to develop; and there is every prospect that he will be so far +renovated as to be able to provide for himself in manhood. + +In the case of another boy, aged twelve years, the improvement has been +equally remarkable. The gentleman who first called attention to him, in +a recent note to Dr. Howe, published in the report, thus speaks of his +present condition: "When I remember his former wild and almost frantic +demeanor when approached by any one, and the apparent impossibility of +communicating with him, and now see him standing in his class, playing +with his fellows, and willingly and familiarly approaching me, examining +what I gave him,--and when I see him already selecting articles named by +his teacher, and even correctly pronouncing words printed on cards,-- +improvement does not convey the idea presented to my mind; it is +creation; it is making him anew." + +All the pupils have more or less advanced. Their health and habits have +improved; and there is no reason to doubt that the experiment, at the +close of its three years, will be found to have been quite as successful +as its most sanguine projectors could have anticipated. Dr. Howe has +been ably seconded by an accomplished teacher, James B. Richards, who has +devoted his whole time to the pupils. Of the nature and magnitude of +their task, an idea may be formed only by considering the utter +listlessness of idiocy, the incapability of the poor pupil to fix his +attention upon anything, and his general want of susceptibility to +impressions. All his senses are dulled and perverted. Touch, hearing, +sight, smell, are all more or less defective. His gluttony is +unaccompanied with the gratification of taste,--the most savory viands +and the offal which he shares with the pigs equally satisfy him. His +mental state is still worse than his physical. Thought is painful and +irksome to him. + +His teacher can only engage his attention by strenuous efforts, loud, +earnest tones, gesticulations and signs, and a constant presentation of +some visible object of bright color and striking form. The eye wanders, +and the spark of consciousness and intelligence which has been fanned +into momentary brightness darkens at the slightest relaxation of the +teacher's exertions. The names of objects presented to him must +sometimes be repeated hundreds of times before he can learn them. Yet +the patience and enthusiasm of the teacher are rewarded by a progress, +slow and unequal, but still marked and manifest. Step by step, often +compelled to turn back and go over the inch of ground he had gained, the +idiot is still creeping forward; and by almost imperceptible degrees his +sick, cramped, and prisoned spirit casts off the burden of its body of +death, breath as from the Almighty--is breathed into him, and he becomes +a living soul. + +After the senses of the idiot are trained to take note +of their appropriate objects, the various perceptive faculties are next +to be exercised. The greatest possible number of facts are to be +gathered up through the medium of these faculties into the storehouse of +memory, from whence eventually the higher faculties of mind may draw the +material of general ideas. It has been found difficult, if not +impossible, to teach the idiot to read by the letters first, as in the +ordinary method; but while the varied powers of the three letters, h, a, +t, could not be understood by him, he could be made to comprehend the +complex sign of the word hat, made by uniting the three. + +The moral nature of the idiot needs training and development as well as +his physical and mental. All that can be said of him is, that he has the +latent capacity for moral development and culture. Uninstructed and left +to himself, he has no ideas of regulated appetites and propensities, of +decency and delicacy of affection and social relations. The germs of +these ideas, which constitute the glory and beauty of humanity, +undoubtedly exist in him; but there can be no growth without patient and +persevering culture. Where this is afforded, to use the language of the +report, "the idiot may learn what love is, though he may not know the +word which expresses it; he may feel kindly affections while unable to +understand the simplest virtuous principle; and he may begin to live +acceptably to God before he has learned the name by which men call him." + +In the facts and statistics presented in the report, light is shed upon +some of the dark pages of God's providence, and it is seen that the +suffering and shame of idiocy are the result of sin, of a violation of +the merciful laws of God and of the harmonies of His benign order. The +penalties which are ordained for the violators of natural laws are +inexorable and certain. For the transgressor of the laws of life there +is, as in the case of Esau, "no place for repentance, though he seek it +earnestly and with tears." The curse cleaves to him and his children. +In this view, how important becomes the subject of the hereditary +transmission of moral and physical disease and debility! and how +necessary it is that there should be a clearer understanding of, and a +willing obedience, at any cost, to the eternal law which makes the parent +the blessing or the curse of the child, giving strength and beauty, and +the capacity to know and do the will of God, or bequeathing +loathsomeness, deformity, and animal appetite, incapable of the +restraints of the moral faculties! Even if the labors of Dr. Howe and +his benevolent associates do not materially lessen the amount of present +actual evil and suffering in this respect, they will not be put forth in +vain if they have the effect of calling public attention to the great +laws of our being, the violation of which has made this goodly earth a +vast lazarhouse of pain and sorrow. + +The late annual message of the Governor of Massachusetts invites our +attention to a kindred institution of charity. The chief magistrate +congratulates the legislature, in language creditable to his mind and +heart, on the opening of the Reform School for Juvenile Criminals, +established by an act of a previous legislature. The act provides that, +when any boy under sixteen years of age shall be convicted of crime +punishable by imprisonment other than such an offence as is punished by +imprisonment for life, he may be, at the discretion of the court or +justice, sent to the State Reform School, or sentenced to such +imprisonment as the law now provides for his offence. The school is +placed under the care of trustees, who may either refuse to receive a boy +thus sent there, or, after he has been received, for reasons set forth in +the act, may order him to be committed to prison under the previous penal +law of the state. They are also authorized to apprentice the boys, at +their discretion, to inhabitants of the Commonwealth. And whenever any +boy shall be discharged, either as reformed or as having reached the age +of twenty-one years, his discharge is a full release from his sentence. + +It is made the duty of the trustees to cause the boys to be instructed in +piety and morality, and in branches of useful knowledge, in some regular +course of labor, mechanical, agricultural, or horticultural, and such +other trades and arts as may be best adapted to secure the amendment, +reformation, and future benefit of the boys. The class of offenders for +whom this act provides are generally the offspring of parents depraved by +crime or suffering from poverty and want,--the victims often of +circumstances of evil which almost constitute a necessity,--issuing from +homes polluted and miserable, from the sight and hearing of loathsome +impurities and hideous discords, to avenge upon society the ignorance, +and destitution, and neglect with which it is too often justly +chargeable. In 1846 three hundred of these youthful violators of law +were sentenced to jails and other places of punishment in Massachusetts, +where they incurred the fearful liability of being still more thoroughly +corrupted by contact with older criminals, familiar with atrocity, and +rolling their loathsome vices "as a sweet morsel under the tongue." In +view of this state of things the Reform School has been established, +twenty-two thousand dollars having been contributed to the state for that +purpose by an unknown benefactor of his race. The school is located in +Westboro', on a fine farm of two hundred acres. The buildings are in the +form of a square, with a court in the centre, three stories in front, +with wings. They are constructed with a degree of architectural taste, +and their site is happily chosen,--a gentle eminence, overlooking one of +the loveliest of the small lakes which form a pleasing feature in New +England scenery. From this place the atmosphere and associations of the +prison are excluded. The discipline is strict, as a matter of course; +but it is that of a well-regulated home or school-room,--order, neatness, +and harmony within doors; and without, the beautiful 'sights and sounds +and healthful influences of Nature. One would almost suppose that the +poetical dream of Coleridge, in his tragedy of Remorse, had found its +realization in the Westboro' School, and that, weary of the hopelessness +and cruelty of the old penal system, our legislators had embodied in +their statutes the idea of the poet:-- + +"With other ministrations thou, O Nature, +Healest thy wandering and distempered child +Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, +Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets, +Thy melodies of woods, and winds, and waters, +Till he relent, and can no more endure +To be a jarring and a dissonant thing +Amidst this general dance and minstrelsy." + +Thus it is that the Christian idea of reformation, rather than revenge, +is slowly but surely incorporating itself in our statute books. We have +only to look back but a single century to be able to appreciate the +immense gain for humanity in the treatment of criminals which has been +secured in that space of time. Then the use of torture was common +throughout Europe. Inability to comprehend and believe certain religious +dogmas was a crime to be expiated by death, or confiscation of estate, or +lingering imprisonment. Petty offences against property furnished +subjects for the hangman. The stocks and the whipping-post stood by the +side of the meeting-house. Tongues were bored with redhot irons and ears +shorn off. The jails were loathsome dungeons, swarming with vermin, +unventilated, unwarmed. A century and a half ago the populace of +Massachusetts were convulsed with grim merriment at the writhings of a +miserable woman scourged at the cart-tail or strangling in the ducking- +stool; crowds hastened to enjoy the spectacle of an old man enduring the +unutterable torment of the 'peine forte et dare,'--pressed slowly to +death under planks,--for refusing to plead to an indictment for +witchcraft. What a change from all this to the opening of the State +Reform School, to the humane regulations of prisons and penitentiaries, +to keen-eyed benevolence watching over the administration of justice, +which, in securing society from lawless aggression, is not suffered to +overlook the true interest and reformation of the criminal, nor to forget +that the magistrate, in the words of the Apostle, is to be indeed "the +minister of God to man for good!" + + + + + LORD ASHLEY AND THE THIEVES. + +"THEY that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick," was +the significant answer of our Lord to the self-righteous Pharisees who +took offence at his companions,--the poor, the degraded, the weak, and +the sinful. "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and +not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to +repentance." + +The great lesson of duty inculcated by this answer of the Divine Teacher +has been too long overlooked by individuals and communities professedly +governed by His maxims. The phylacteries of our modern Pharisees are as +broad as those of the old Jewish saints. The respectable Christian +detests his vicious and ill-conditioned neighbors as heartily as the +Israelite did the publicans and sinners of his day. He folds his robe of +self-righteousness closely about him, and denounces as little better than +sinful weakness all commiseration for the guilty; and all attempts to +restore and reclaim the erring violators of human law otherwise than by +pains and penalties as wicked collusion with crime, dangerous to the +stability and safety of society, and offensive in the sight of God. And +yet nothing is more certain than that, just in proportion as the example +of our Lord has been followed in respect to the outcast and criminal, the +effect has been to reform and elevate,--to snatch as brands from the +burning souls not yet wholly given over to the service of evil. The +wonderful influence for good exerted over the most degraded and reckless +criminals of London by the excellent and self-denying Elizabeth Fry, the +happy results of the establishment of houses of refuge, and reformation, +and Magdalen asylums, all illustrate the wisdom of Him who went about +doing good, in pointing out the morally diseased as the appropriate +subjects of the benevolent labors of His disciples. No one is to be +despaired of. We have no warrant to pass by any of our fellow-creatures +as beyond the reach of God's grace and mercy; for, beneath the most +repulsive and hateful outward manifestation, there is always a +consciousness of the beauty of goodness and purity, and of the +loathsomeness of sin,--one chamber of the heart as yet not wholly +profaned, whence at times arises the prayer of a burdened and miserable +spirit for deliverance. Deep down under the squalid exterior, +unparticipative in the hideous merriment and recklessness of the +criminal, there is another self,--a chained and suffering inner man,-- +crying out, in the intervals of intoxication and brutal excesses, like +Jonah from the bosom of hell. To this lingering consciousness the +sympathy and kindness of benevolent and humane spirits seldom appeal in +vain; for, whatever may be outward appearances, it remains true that the +way of the transgressor is hard, and that sin and suffering are +inseparable. Crime is seldom loved or persevered in for its own sake; +but, when once the evil path is entered upon, a return is in reality +extremely difficult to the unhappy wanderer, and often seems as well nigh +impossible. The laws of social life rise up like insurmountable barriers +between him and escape. As he turns towards the society whose rights he +has outraged, its frown settles upon him; the penalties of the laws he +has violated await him; and he falls back despairing, and suffers the +fetters of the evil habit to whose power he has yielded himself to be +fastened closer and heavier upon him. O for some good angel, in the form +of a brother-man and touched with a feeling of his sins and infirmities, +to reassure his better nature and to point out a way of escape from its +body of death! + +We have been led into these remarks by an account, given in the London +Weekly Chronicle, of a most remarkable interview between the professional +thieves of London and Lord Ashley,--a gentleman whose best patent of +nobility is to be found in his generous and untiring devotion to the +interests of his fellow-men. It appears that a philanthropic gentleman +in London had been applied to by two young thieves, who had relinquished +their evil practices and were obtaining a precarious but honest +livelihood by picking up bones and rags in the streets, their loss of +character closing against them all other employments. He had just been +reading an address of Lord Ashley's in favor of colonial emigration, and +he was led to ask one of the young men how he would like to emigrate. + +"I should jump at the chance!" was the reply. Not long after the +gentleman was sent for to visit one of those obscure and ruinous courts +of the great metropolis where crime and poverty lie down together,-- +localities which Dickens has pictured with such painful distinctness. +Here, to his surprise, he met a number of thieves and outlaws, who +declared themselves extremely anxious to know whether any hope could be +held out to them of obtaining an honest living, however humble, in the +colonies, as their only reason for continuing in their criminal course +was the impossibility of extricating themselves. He gave them such +advice and encouragement as he was able, and invited them to assemble +again, with such of their companions as they could persuade to do so, at +the room of the Irish Free School, for the purpose of meeting Lord +Ashley. On the 27th of the seventh month last the meeting took place. +At the hour appointed, Lord Ashley and five or six other benevolent +gentlemen, interested in emigration as a means of relief and reformation +to the criminal poor, entered the room, which was already well-nigh +filled. Two hundred and seven professed thieves were present. "Several +of the most experienced thieves were stationed at the door to prevent the +admission of any but thieves. Some four or five individuals, who were +not at first known, were subjected to examination, and only allowed to +remain on stating that they were, and being recognized as, members of the +dishonest fraternity; and before the proceedings of the evening commenced +the question was very carefully put, and repeated several times, whether +any one was in the room of whom others entertained doubts as to who he +was. The object of this care was, as so many of them were in danger of +'getting into trouble,' or, in other words, of being taken up for their +crimes, to ascertain if any who might betray them were present; and +another intention of this scrutiny was, to give those assembled, who +naturally would feel considerable fear, a fuller confidence in opening +their minds." + +What a novel conference between the extremes of modern society! All that +is beautiful in refinement and education, moral symmetry and Christian +grace, contrasting with the squalor, the ignorance, the lifelong +depravity of men living "without God in the world,"--the pariahs of +civilization,--the moral lepers, at the sight of whom decency covers its +face, and cries out, "Unclean!" After a prayer had been offered, Lord +Ashley spoke at considerable length, making a profound impression on his +strange auditory as they listened to his plans of emigration, which +offered them an opportunity to escape from their miserable condition and +enter upon a respectable course of life. The hard heart melted and the +cold and cruel eye moistened. With one accord the wretched felons +responded to the language of Christian love and good-will, and declared +their readiness to follow the advice of their true friend. They looked +up to him as to an angel of mercy, and felt the malignant spirits which +had so long tormented them disarmed of all power of evil in the presence +of simple goodness. He stood in that felon audience like Spenser's Una +amidst the satyrs; unassailable and secure in the "unresistible might of +meekness," and panoplied in that "noble grace which dashed brute violence +with sudden adoration and mute awe." + +Twenty years ago, when Elizabeth Fry ventured to visit those "spirits in +prison,"--the female tenants of Newgate,--her temerity was regarded with +astonishment, and her hope of effecting a reformation in the miserable +objects of her sympathy was held to be wholly visionary. Her personal +safety and the blessed fruits of her labors, nevertheless, confirmed the +language of her Divine Master to His disciples when He sent them forth as +lambs among wolves: "Behold, I give unto you power over all the power of +the enemy." The still more unpromising experiment of Lord Ashley, thus +far, has been equally successful; and we hail it as the introduction of a +new and more humane method of dealing with the victims of sin and +ignorance, and the temptations growing out of the inequalities and vices +of civilization. + + + + + + WOMAN SUFFRAGE. + + Letter to the Newport Convention. + + AMESBURY, MASS., 12th, 8th Month, 1869. + +I HAVE received thy letter inviting me to attend the Convention in behalf +of Woman's Suffrage, at Newport, R. I., on the 25th inst. I do not see +how it is possible for me to accept the invitation; and, were I to do so, +the state of my health would prevent me from taking such a part in the +meeting as would relieve me from the responsibility of seeming to +sanction anything in its action which might conflict with my own views of +duty or policy. Yet I should do myself great injustice if I did not +embrace this occasion to express my general sympathy with the movement. +I have seen no good reason why mothers, wives, and daughters should not +have the same right of person, property, and citizenship which fathers, +husbands, and brothers have. + +The sacred memory of mother and sister; the wisdom and dignity of women +of my own religious communion who have been accustomed to something like +equality in rights as well as duties; my experience as a co-worker with +noble and self-sacrificing women, as graceful and helpful in their +household duties as firm and courageous in their public advocacy of +unpopular truth; the steady friendships which have inspired and +strengthened me, and the reverence and respect which I feel for human +nature, irrespective of sex, compel me to look with something more than +acquiescence on the efforts you are making. I frankly confess that I am +not able to forsee all the consequences of the great social and political +change proposed, but of this I am, at least, sure, it is always safe to +do right, and the truest expediency is simple justice. I can understand, +without sharing, the misgivings of those who fear that, when the vote +drops from woman's hand into the ballot-box, the beauty and sentiment, +the bloom and sweetness, of womankind will go with it. But in this +matter it seems to me that we can trust Nature. Stronger than statutes +or conventions, she will be conservative of all that the true man loves +and honors in woman. Here and there may be found an equivocal, unsexed +Chevalier D'Eon, but the eternal order and fitness of things will remain. +I have no fear that man will be less manly or woman less womanly when +they meet on terms of equality before the law. + +On the other hand, I do not see that the exercise of the ballot by woman +will prove a remedy for all the evils of which she justly complains. It +is her right as truly as mine, and when she asks for it, it is something +less than manhood to withhold it. But, unsupported by a more practical +education, higher aims, and a deeper sense of the responsibilities of +life and duty, it is not likely to prove a blessing in her hands any more +than in man's. + +With great respect and hearty sympathy, I am very truly thy friend. + + + + + + ITALIAN UNITY + + AMESBURY, MASS., 1st Mo., 4th, 1871. + + Read at the great meeting in New York, January, 1871, in celebration + of the freedom of Rome and complete unity of Italy. + +IT would give me more than ordinary satisfaction to attend the meeting on +the 12th instant for the celebration of Italian Unity, the emancipation +of Rome, and its occupation as the permanent capital of the nation. + +For many years I have watched with deep interest and sympathy the popular +movement on the Italian peninsula, and especially every effort for the +deliverance of Rome from a despotism counting its age by centuries. I +looked at these struggles of the people with little reference to their +ecclesiastical or sectarian bearings. Had I been a Catholic instead of a +Protestant, I should have hailed every symptom of Roman deliverance from +Papal rule, occupying, as I have, the standpoint of a republican radical, +desirous that all men, of all creeds, should enjoy the civil liberty +which I prized so highly for myself. + +I lost all confidence in the French republic of 1849, when it forfeited +its own right to exist by crushing out the newly formed Roman republic +under Mazzini and Garibaldi. From that hour it was doomed, and the +expiation of its monstrous crime is still going on. My sympathies are +with Jules Favre and Leon Gambetta in their efforts to establish and +sustain a republic in France, but I confess that the investment of Paris +by King William seems to me the logical sequence of the bombardment of +Rome by Oudinot. And is it not a significant fact that the terrible +chassepot, which made its first bloody experiment upon the halfarmed +Italian patriots without the walls of Rome, has failed in the hands of +French republicans against the inferior needle-gun of Prussia? It was +said of a fierce actor in the old French Revolution that he demoralized +the guillotine. The massacre at Mentana demoralized the chassepot. + +It is a matter of congratulation that the redemption of Rome has been +effected so easily and bloodlessly. The despotism of a thousand years +fell at a touch in noiseless rottenness. The people of Rome, fifty to +one, cast their ballots of condemnation like so many shovelfuls of earth +upon its grave. Outside of Rome there seems to be a very general +acquiescence in its downfall. No Peter the Hermit preaches a crusade in +its behalf. No one of the great Catholic powers of Europe lifts a finger +for it. Whatever may be the feelings of Isabella of Spain and the +fugitive son of King Bomba, they are in no condition to come to its +rescue. It is reserved for American ecclesiastics, loud-mouthed in +professions of democracy, to make solemn protest against what they call +an "outrage," which gives the people of Rome the right of choosing their +own government, and denies the divine right of kings in the person of Pio +Nono. + +The withdrawal of the temporal power of the Pope will prove a blessing to +the Catholic Church, as well as to the world. Many of its most learned +and devout priests and laymen have long seen the necessity of such a +change, which takes from it a reproach and scandal that could no longer +be excused or tolerated. A century hence it will have as few apologists +as the Inquisition or the massacre of St. Bartholomew. + +In this hour of congratulation let us not forget those whose suffering +and self-sacrifice, in the inscrutable wisdom of Providence, prepared the +way for the triumph which we celebrate. As we call the long, illustrious +roll of Italian patriotism--the young, the brave, and beautiful; the +gray-haired, saintly confessors; the scholars, poets, artists, who, shut +out from human sympathy, gave their lives for God and country in the +slow, dumb agony of prison martyrdom--let us hope that they also rejoice +with us, and, inaudible to earthly ears, unite in our thanksgiving: +"Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! He hath avenged the +blood of his servants!" + +In the belief that the unity of Italy and the overthrow of Papal rule +will strengthen the cause of liberty throughout the civilized' world, I +am very truly thy friend. + + + + + + INDIAN CIVILIZATION. + +THE present condition and future prospects of the remnants of the +aboriginal inhabitants of this continent can scarcely be a matter of +indifference to any class of the people of the United States. Apart from +all considerations of justice and duty, a purely selfish regard to our +own well-being would compel attention to the subject. The irreversible +laws of God's moral government, and the well-attested maxims of political +and social economy, leave us in no doubt that the suffering, neglect, and +wrong of one part of the community must affect all others. A common +responsibility rests upon each and all to relieve suffering, enlighten +ignorance, and redress wrong, and the penalty of neglect in this respect +no nation has ever escaped. + +It is only within a comparatively recent period that the term Indian +Civilization could be appropriately used in this country. Very little +real progress bad been made in this direction, up to the time when +Commissioner Lang in 1844 visited the tribes now most advanced. So +little had been done, that public opinion had acquiesced in the +assumption that the Indians were not susceptible of civilization and +progress. The few experiments had not been calculated to assure a +superficial observer. + +The unsupported efforts of Elliot in New England were counteracted by the +imprisonment, and in some instances the massacre of his "praying +Indians," by white men under the exasperation of war with hostile tribes. +The salutary influence of the Moravians and Friends in Pennsylvania was +greatly weakened by the dreadful massacre of the unarmed and blameless +converts of Gnadenhutten. But since the first visit of Commissioner +Lang, thirty-three years ago, the progress of education, civilization, +and conversion to Christianity, has been of a most encouraging nature, +and if Indian civilization was ever a doubtful problem, it has been +practically solved. + +The nomadic habits and warlike propensities of the native tribes are +indeed formidable but not insuperable difficulties in the way of their +elevation. The wildest of them may compare not unfavorably with those +Northern barbarian hordes that swooped down upon Christian Europe, and +who were so soon the docile pupils and proselytes of the peoples they had +conquered. The Arapahoes and Camanches of our day are no further removed +from the sweetness and light of Christian culture than were the +Scandinavian Sea Kings of the middle centuries, whose gods were patrons +of rapine and cruelty, their heaven a vast, cloud-built ale-house, where +ghostly warriors drank from the skulls of their victims, and whose hell +was a frozen horror of desolation and darkness, to be avoided only by +diligence in robbery and courage in murder. The descendants of these +human butchers are now among the best exponents of the humanizing +influence of the gospel of Christ. The report of the Superintendent of +the remnants of the once fierce and warlike Six Nations, now peaceable +and prosperous in Canada, shows that the Indian is not inferior to the +Norse ancestors of the Danes and Norwegians of our day in capability of +improvement. + +It is scarcely necessary to say, what is universally conceded, that the +wars waged by the Indians against the whites have, in nearly every +instance, been provoked by violations of solemn treaties and systematic +disregard of their rights of person, property, and life. The letter of +Bishop Whipple, of Minnesota, to the New York Tribune of second month, +1877, calls attention to the emphatic language of Generals Sherman, +Harney, Terry, and Augur, written after a full and searching +investigation of the subject: "That the Indian goes to war is not +astonishing: he is often compelled to do so: wrongs are borne by him in +silence, which never fail to drive civilized men to deeds of violence. +The best possible way to avoid war is to do no injustice." + +It is not difficult to understand the feelings of the unfortunate pioneer +settlers on the extreme borders of civilization, upon whom the blind +vengeance of the wronged and hunted Indians falls oftener than upon the +real wrong-doers. They point to terrible and revolting cruelties as +proof that nothing short of the absolute extermination of the race can +prevent their repetition. But a moment's consideration compels us to +admit that atrocious cruelty is not peculiar to the red man. "All wars +are cruel," said General Sherman, and for eighteen centuries Christendom +has been a great battle-field. What Indian raid has been more dreadful +than the sack of Magdeburg, the massacre of Glencoe, the nameless +atrocities of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the murders of St. +Bartholomew's day, the unspeakable agonies of the South of France under +the demoniac rule of revolution! All history, black with crime and red +with blood, is but an awful commentary upon "man's inhumanity to man," +and it teaches us that there is nothing exceptional in the Indian's +ferocity and vindictiveness, and that the alleged reasons for his +extermination would, at one time or another, have applied with equal +force to the whole family of man. + +A late lecture of my friend, Stanley Pumphrey, comprises more of valuable +information and pertinent suggestions on the Indian question than I have +found in any equal space; and I am glad of the opportunity to add to it +my hearty endorsement, and to express the conviction that its general +circulation could not fail to awaken a deeper and more kindly interest in +the condition of the red man, and greatly aid in leading the public mind +to a fuller appreciation of the responsibility which rests upon us as a +people to rectify, as far as possible, past abuses, and in our future +relations to the native owners of the soil to "deal justly and love +mercy." + + + + + +READING FOR THE BLIND. + +[1880.] + +To Mary C. Moore, teacher in the Perkins Asylum. + +DEAR FRIEND,--It gives me great pleasure to know that the pupils in thy +class at the Institution for the Blind have the opportunity afforded them +to read through the sense of touch some of my writings, and thus hold +what I hope will prove a pleasant communion with me. Very glad I shall +be if the pen-pictures of nature, and homely country firesides, which I +have tried to make, are understood and appreciated by those who cannot +discern them by natural vision. I shall count it a great privilege to +see for them, or rather to let them see through my eyes. It is the mind +after all that really sees, shapes, and colors all things. What visions +of beauty and sublimity passed before the inward and spiritual sight of +blind Milton and Beethoven! + +I have an esteemed friend, Morrison Hendy, of Kentucky, who is deaf and +blind; yet under these circumstances he has cultivated his mind to a high +degree, and has written poems of great beauty, and vivid descriptions of +scenes which have been witnessed only by the "light within." + +I thank thee for thy letter, and beg of thee to assure the students that +I am deeply interested in their welfare and progress, and that my prayer +is that their inward and spiritual eyes may become so clear that they can +well dispense with the outward and material ones. + + + + + +THE INDIAN QUESTION. + +Read at the meeting in Boston, May, 1883, for the consideration of the +condition of the Indians in the United States. + +AMESBURY, 4th mo., 1883. + +I REGRET that I cannot be present at the meeting called in reference to +the pressing question of the day, the present condition and future +prospects of the Indian race in the United States. The old policy, +however well intended, of the government is no longer available. The +westward setting tide of immigration is everywhere sweeping over the +lines of the reservations. There would seem to be no power in the +government to prevent the practical abrogation of its solemn treaties and +the crowding out of the Indians from their guaranteed hunting grounds. +Outbreaks of Indian ferocity and revenge, incited by wrong and robbery on +the part of the whites, will increasingly be made the pretext of +indiscriminate massacres. The entire question will soon resolve itself +into the single alternative of education and civilization or +extermination. + +The school experiments at Hampton, Carlisle, and Forest Grove in Oregon +have proved, if such proof were ever needed, that the roving Indian can +be enlightened and civilized, taught to work and take interest and +delight in the product of his industry, and settle down on his farm or in +his workshop, as an American citizen, protected by and subject to the +laws of the republic. What is needed is that not only these schools +should be more liberally supported, but that new ones should be opened +without delay. The matter does not admit of procrastination. The work +of education and civilization must be done. The money needed must be +contributed with no sparing hand. The laudable example set by the +Friends and the American Missionary Association should be followed by +other sects and philanthropic societies. Christianity, patriotism, and +enlightened self interest have a common stake in the matter. Great and +difficult as the work may be the country is strong enough, rich enough, +wise enough, and, I believe, humane and Christian enough to do it. + + + + + +THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. + +Read at a meeting of the Essex Club, in Boston, +November, 1885. + +AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 10, 1885. + +I AM sorry that I cannot accept thy invitation to attend the meeting of +the Essex Club on the 14th inst. I should be glad to meet my old +Republican friends and congratulate them on the results of the election +in Massachusetts, and especially in our good old county of Essex. + +Some of our friends and neighbors, who have been with us heretofore, last +year saw fit to vote with the opposite party. I would be the last to +deny their perfect right to do so, or to impeach their motives, but I +think they were mistaken in expecting that party to reform the abuses and +evils which they complained of. President Cleveland has proved himself +better than his party, and has done and said some good things which I +give him full credit for, but the instincts of his party are against him, +and must eventually prove too strong for him, and, instead of his +carrying the party, it will be likely to carry him. It has already +compelled him to put his hands in his pockets for electioneering +purposes, and travel all the way from Washington to Buffalo to give his +vote for a spoilsman and anti-civil service machine politician. I would +not like to call it a case of "offensive partisanship," but it looks a +good deal like it. + +As a Republican from the outset, I am proud of the noble record of the +party, but I should rejoice to see its beneficent work taken up by the +Democratic party and so faithfully carried on as to make our organization +no longer necessary. But, as far as we can see, the Republican party has +still its mission and its future. When labor shall everywhere have its +just reward, and the gains of it are made secure to the earners; when +education shall be universal, and, North and South, all men shall have +the free and full enjoyment of civil rights and privileges, irrespective +of color or former condition; when every vice which debases the community +shall be discouraged and prohibited, and every virtue which elevates it +fostered and strengthened; when merit and fitness shall be the conditions +of office; and when sectional distrust and prejudice shall give place to +well-merited confidence in the loyalty and patriotism of all, then will +the work of the Republican party, as a party, be ended, and all political +rivalries be merged in the one great party of the people, with no other +aim than the common welfare, and no other watchwords than peace, liberty, +and union. Then may the language which Milton addressed to his +countrymen two centuries ago be applied to the United States, "Go on, +hand in hand, O peoples, never to be disunited; be the praise and heroic +song of all posterity. Join your invincible might to do worthy and +godlike deeds; and then he who seeks to break your Union, a cleaving +curse be his inheritance." + + + + + +OUR DUMB RELATIONS. + +[1886.] + +IT was said of St. Francis of Assisi, that he had attained, through the +fervor of his love, the secret of that deep amity with God and His +creation which, in the language of inspiration, makes man to be in league +with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field to be at peace +with him. The world has never been without tender souls, with whom the +golden rule has a broader application than its letter might seem to +warrant. The ancient Eastern seers recognized the rights of the brute +creation, and regarded the unnecessary taking of the life of the humblest +and meanest as a sin; and in almost all the old religions of the world +there are legends of saints, in the depth of whose peace with God and +nature all life was sacredly regarded as the priceless gift of heaven, +and who were thus enabled to dwell safely amidst lions and serpents. + +It is creditable to human nature and its unperverted instincts that +stories and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness and affection between men +and animals are always listened to with interest and approval. How +pleasant to think of the Arab and his horse, whose friendship has been +celebrated in song and romance. Of Vogelwied, the Minnesinger, and his +bequest to the birds. Of the English Quaker, visited, wherever he went, +by flocks of birds, who with cries of joy alighted on his broad-brimmed +hat and his drab coat-sleeves. Of old Samuel Johnson, when half-blind +and infirm, groping abroad of an evening for oysters for his cat. Of +Walter Scott and John Brown, of Edinburgh, and their dogs. Of our own +Thoreau, instinctively recognized by bird and beast as a friend. Emerson +says of him: "His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller +records of Butler, the apologist, that either he had told the bees +things, or the bees had told him. Snakes coiled round his legs; the +fishes swam into his hand; he pulled the woodchuck out of his hole by his +tail, and took foxes under his protection from the hunters." + +In the greatest of the ancient Hindu poems--the sacred book of the +Mahabharata--there is a passage of exceptional beauty and tenderness, +which records the reception of King Yudishthira at the gate of Paradise. +A pilgrim to the heavenly city, the king had travelled over vast spaces, +and, one by one, the loved ones, the companions of his journey, had all +fallen and left him alone, save his faithful dog, which still followed. +He was met by Indra, and invited to enter the holy city. But the king +thinks of his friends who have fallen on the way, and declines to go in +without them. The god tells him they are all within waiting for him. +Joyful, he is about to seek them, when he looks upon the poor dog, who, +weary and wasted, crouches at his feet, and asks that he, too, may enter +the gate. Indra refuses, and thereupon the king declares that to abandon +his faithful dumb friend would be as great a sin as to kill a Brahmin. + + "Away with that felicity whose price is to abandon the faithful! + Never, come weal or woe, will I leave my faithful dog. + The poor creature, in fear and distress, has trusted in my power to + save him; + Not, therefore, for life itself, will I break my plighted word." + +In full sight of heaven he chooses to go to hell with his dog, and +straightway descends, as he supposes, thither. But his virtue and +faithfulness change his destination to heaven, and he finds himself +surrounded by his old friends, and in the presence of the gods, who thus +honor and reward his humanity and unselfish love. + + + + + +INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. + +Read at the reception in Boston of the English delegation representing +more than two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor +international arbitration. + +AMESBURY, 11th Mo., 9, 1887. + +IT is a very serious disappointment to me not to be able to be present at +the welcome of the American Peace Society to the delegation of more than +two hundred members of the British Parliament who favor international +arbitration. Few events have more profoundly impressed me than the +presentation of this peaceful overture to the President of the United +States. It seems to me that every true patriot who seeks the best +interests of his country and every believer in the gospel of Christ must +respond to the admirable address of Sir Lyon Playfair and that of his +colleagues who represented the workingmen of England. We do not need to +be told that war is always cruel, barbarous, and brutal; whether used by +professed Christians with ball and bayonet, or by heathen with club and +boomerang. We cannot be blind to its waste of life and treasure and the +demoralization which follows in its train; nor cease to wonder at the +spectacle of Christian nations exhausting all their resources in +preparing to slaughter each other, with only here and there a voice, like +Count Tolstoi's in the Russian wilderness, crying in heedless ears that +the gospel of Christ is peace, not war, and love, not hatred. + +The overture which comes to us from English advocates of arbitration is a +cheering assurance that the tide of sentiment is turning in favor of +peace among English speaking peoples. I cannot doubt that whatever stump +orators and newspapers may say for party purposes, the heart of America +will respond to the generous proposal of our kinsfolk across the water. +No two nations could be more favorably conditioned than England and the +United States for making the "holy experiment of arbitration." + +In our associations and kinship, our aims and interests, our common +claims in the great names and achievements of a common ancestry, we are +essentially one people. Whatever other nations may do, we at least +should be friends. God grant that the noble and generous attempt shall +not be in vain! May it hasten the time when the only rivalry between us +shall be the peaceful rivalry of progress and the gracious interchange of +good. + + "When closer strand shall lean to strand, + Till meet beneath saluting flags, + The eagle of our mountain crags, + The lion of our mother land!" + + + + + +SUFFRAGE FOR WOMEN. + +Read at the Woman's Convention at Washington. + +OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, MASS., Third Mo., 8, 1888. + +I THANK thee for thy kind letter. It would be a great satisfaction to be +able to be present at the fortieth anniversary of the Woman's Suffrage +Association. But, as that is not possible, I can only reiterate my +hearty sympathy with the object of the association, and bid it take heart +and assurance in view of all that has been accomplished. There is no +easy royal road to a reform of this kind, but if the progress has been +slow there has been no step backward. The barriers which at first seemed +impregnable in the shape of custom and prejudice have been undermined and +their fall is certain. A prophecy of your triumph at no distant day is +in the air; your opponents feel it and believe it. They know that yours +is a gaining and theirs a losing cause. The work still before you +demands on your part great patience, steady perseverance, a firm, +dignified, and self-respecting protest against the injustice of which you +have so much reason to complain, and of serene confidence which is not +discouraged by temporary checks, nor embittered by hostile criticism, nor +provoked to use any weapons of retort, which, like the boomerang, fall +back on the heads of those who use them. You can afford +in your consciousness of right to be as calm and courteous as the +archangel Michael, who, we are told in Scripture in his controversy with +Satan himself, did not bring a railing accusation against him. A wise +adaptation of means to ends is no yielding of principle, but care should +be taken to avoid all such methods as have disgraced political and +religious parties of the masculine sex. Continue to make it manifest +that all which is pure and lovely and of good repute in womanhood is +entirely compatible with the exercise of the rights of citizenship, and +the performance of the duties which we all owe to our homes and our +country. Confident that you will do this, and with no doubt or misgiving +as to your success, I bid you Godspeed. I find I have written to the +association rather than to thyself, but as one of the principal +originators and most faithful supporters, it was very natural that I +should identify thee with it. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, REFORM AND POLITICS *** +By John Greenleaf Whittier + +***** This file should be named 9596.txt or 9596.zip ***** + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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