{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30392/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30392","id":"gutenberg_30392","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30392","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Crime","Criminals"],"text":"ALTEMUS'\n  ETERNAL LIFE SERIES.\n\n_Selections from the writings of well-known religious authors' works,\nbeautifully printed and daintily bound in leatherette with original\ndesigns in silver and ink._\n\n_PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME._\n\nETERNAL LIFE, by Professor Henry Drummond.\n\nLORD, TEACH US TO PRAY, by Rev. Andrew Murray.\n\nGOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORK, by Martin Luther.\n\nFAITH, by Thomas Arnold.\n\nTHE CREATION STORY, by Honorable William E. Gladstone.\n\nTHE MESSAGE OF COMFORT, by Rt. Rev. Ashton Oxenden.\n\nTHE MESSAGE OF PEACE, by Rev. R. W. Church.\n\nTHE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, by Dean Stanley.\n\nTHE MEMOIRS OF JESUS, by Rev. Robert F. Horton.\n\nHYMNS OF PRAISE AND GLADNESS, by Elisabeth R. Scovil.\n\nDIFFICULTIES, by Hannah Whitall Smith.\n\nGAMBLERS AND GAMBLING, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.\n\nHAVE FAITH IN GOD, by Rev. Andrew Murray.\n\nTWELVE CAUSES OF DISHONESTY, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.\n\nTHE CHRIST IN WHOM CHRISTIANS BELIEVE, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks.\n\nIN MY NAME, by Rev. Andrew Murray.\n\nSIX WARNINGS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.\n\nTHE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN BUSINESS MAN, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks.\n\nPOPULAR AMUSEMENTS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.\n\nTRUE LIBERTY, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks.\n\nINDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.\n\nTHE BEAUTY OF A LIFE OF SERVICE, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks.\n\nTHE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD, by Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D.\n\nTHOUGHT AND ACTION, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks.\n\nTHE HEAVENLY VISION, by Rev. F. B. Meyer.\n\nMORNING STRENGTH, by Elisabeth R. Scovil.\n\nFOR THE QUIET HOUR, by Edith V. Bradt.\n\nEVENING COMFORT, by Elisabeth R. Scovil.\n\nWORDS OF HELP FOR CHRISTIAN GIRLS, by Rev. F. B. Meyer.\n\nHOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, by Rev. Dwight L. Moody.\n\nEXPECTATION CORNER, by E. S. Elliot.\n\nJESSICA'S FIRST PRAYER, by Hesba Stretton.\n\n\n  HENRY ALTEMUS,\n  _507, 509, 511, 518 Cherry Street, Philadelphia._\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: HENRY WARD BEECHER.]\n\n\n\n\n  Twelve Causes\n  of\n  Dishonesty\n\n  By Rev. Henry\n  Ward\n  Beecher\n\n  Philadelphia\n  Henry Altemus\n\n\n\n  COPYRIGHTED 1896\n  BY HENRY ALTEMUS\n\n  HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER\n  PHILADELPHIA\n\n\n\n\nTWELVE CAUSES OF DISHONESTY\n\n\nOnly extraordinary circumstances can give the appearance of dishonesty to\nan honest man. Usually, not to _seem_ honest, is not to _be_ so. The\nquality must not be doubtful like twilight, lingering between night and\nday and taking hues from both; it must be day-light, clear, and effulgent.\nThis is the doctrine of the Bible: _Providing for honest things, not only\nin the sight of the Lord_, BUT ALSO IN THE SIGHT OF MEN. In general it may\nbe said that no one has honesty without dross, until he has honesty\nwithout suspicion.\n\nWe are passing through times upon which the seeds of dishonesty have been\nsown broadcast, and they have brought forth a hundred-fold. These times\nwill pass away; but like ones will come again. As physicians study the\ncauses and record the phenomena of plagues and pestilences, to draw from\nthem an antidote against their recurrence, so should we leave to another\ngeneration a history of moral plagues, as the best antidote to their\nrecurring malignity.\n\nUpon a land,--capacious beyond measure, whose prodigal soil rewards labor\nwith an unharvestable abundance of exuberant fruits, occupied by a people\nsignalized by enterprise and industry--there came a summer of prosperity\nwhich lingered so long and shone so brightly, that men forgot that winter\ncould ever come. Each day grew brighter. No reins were put upon the\nimagination. Its dreams passed for realities. Even sober men, touched with\nwildness, seemed to expect a realization of oriental tales. Upon this\nbright day came sudden frosts, storms, and blight. Men awoke from gorgeous\ndreams in the midst of desolation. The harvests of years were swept away\nin a day. The strongest firms were rent as easily as the oak by lightning.\nSpeculating companies were dispersed as seared leaves from a tree in\nautumn. Merchants were ruined by thousands; clerks turned adrift by ten\nthousands. Mechanics were left in idleness. Farmers sighed over flocks and\nwheat as useless as the stones and dirt. The wide sea of commerce was\nstagnant; upon the realm of Industry settled down a sullen lethargy.\n\nOut of this reverse swarmed an unnumbered host of dishonest men, like\nvermin from a carcass. Banks were exploded,--or robbed,--or fleeced by\nastounding forgeries. Mighty companies, without cohesion, went to pieces,\nand hordes of wretches snatched up every bale that came ashore. Cities\nwere ransacked by troops of villains. The unparalleled frauds, which\nsprung like mines on every hand, set every man to trembling lest the next\nexplosion should be under his own feet. Fidelity seemed to have forsaken\nmen. Many that had earned a reputation for sterling honesty were cast so\nsuddenly headlong into wickedness, that man shrank from man. Suspicion\novergrew confidence, and the heart bristled with the nettles and thorns of\nfear and jealousy. Then had almost come to pass the divine delineation of\nancient wickedness: _The good man is perished out of the earth: and there\nis none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every\nman his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands\nearnestly, the prince and the judge ask for a reward: and the great man\nuttereth his mischievous desire; so they wrap it up. The best of them is a\nbrier; the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge._ The world looked\nupon a continent of inexhaustible fertility, (whose harvest had glutted\nthe markets, and rotted in disuse,) filled with lamentation, and its\ninhabitants wandering like bereaved citizens among the ruins of an\nearthquake, mourning for children, for houses crushed, and property buried\nforever.\n\nThat no measure might be put to the calamity, the Church of God, which\nrises a stately tower of refuge to desponding men, seemed now to have lost\nits power of protection. When the solemn voice of Religion should have\ngone over the land, as the call of God to guilty man to seek in him their\nstrength; in this time when Religion should have restored sight to the\nblind, made the lame to walk, and bound up the broken-hearted, she was\nherself mourning in sackcloth. Out of her courts came the noise of warring\nsects; some contending against others with bitter warfare; and some,\npossessed of a demon, wallowed upon the ground foaming and rending\nthemselves. In a time of panic, and disaster, and distress, and crime, the\nfountain which should have been for the healing of men, cast up its\nsediments, and gave out a bitter stream of pollution.\n\nIn every age, an universal pestilence has hushed the clamor of contention,\nand cooled the heats of parties; but the greatness of our national\ncalamity seemed only to enkindle the fury of political parties.\nContentions never ran with such deep streams and impetuous currents, as\namidst the ruin of our industry and prosperity. States were greater\ndebtors to foreign nations, than their citizens were to each other. Both\nstates and citizens shrunk back from their debts, and yet more dishonestly\nfrom the taxes necessary to discharge them. The General Government did not\nescape, but lay becalmed, or pursued its course, like a ship, at every\nfurlong touching the rocks, or beating against the sands. The Capitol\ntrembled with the first waves of a question which is yet to shake the\nwhole land. New questions of exciting qualities perplexed the realm of\nlegislation, and of morals. To all this must be added a manifest decline\nof family government; an increase of the ratio of popular ignorance; a\ndecrease of reverence for law, and an effeminate administration of it.\nPopular tumults have been as frequent as freshets in our rivers; and like\nthem, have swept over the land with desolation, and left their filthy\nslime in the highest places:--upon the press;--upon the legislature;--in\nthe halls of our courts;--and even upon the sacred bench of Justice. If\nunsettled times foster dishonesty, it should have flourished among us.\nAnd it has.\n\nOur nation must expect a periodical return of such convulsions; but\nexperience should steadily curtail their ravages, and remedy their immoral\ntendencies. Young men have before them lessons of manifold wisdom taught\nby the severest of masters--experience. They should be studied; and that\nthey may be, I shall, from this general survey, turn to a specific\nenumeration of the causes of dishonesty.\n\n1. Some men find in their bosom from the first, a vehement inclination to\ndishonest ways. Knavish propensities are inherent: born with the child and\ntransmissible from parent to son. The children of a sturdy thief, if taken\nfrom him at birth and reared by honest men, would, doubtless, have to\ncontend against a strongly dishonest inclination. Foundlings and orphans\nunder public charitable charge, are more apt to become vicious than other\nchildren. They are usually born of low and vicious parents, and inherit\ntheir parents' propensities. Only the most thorough moral training can\noverrule this innate depravity.\n\n2. A child naturally fair-minded, may become dishonest by parental\nexample. He is early taught to be sharp in bargains, and vigilant for\nevery advantage. Little is said about honesty, and much upon shrewd\ntraffic. A dexterous trick, becomes a family anecdote; visitors are\nregaled with the boy's precocious keenness. Hearing the praise of his\nexploits, he studies craft, and seeks parental admiration by adroit\nknaveries. He is taught, for his safety, that he must not range beyond the\nlaw: that would be unprofitable. He calculates his morality thus: _Legal\nhonesty is the best policy_,--dishonesty, then, is a bad bargain--and\ntherefore wrong--everything is wrong which is unthrifty. Whatever profit\nbreaks no legal statute--though it is gained by falsehood, by unfairness,\nby gloss; through dishonor, unkindness, and an unscrupulous conscience--he\nconsiders fair, and says: _The law allows it._ Men may spend a long life\nwithout an indictable action, and without an honest one. No law can reach\nthe insidious ways of subtle craft. The law allows, and religion forbids\nmen, to profit by others' misfortunes, to prowl for prey among the\nignorant, to over-reach the simple, to suck the last life-drops from the\nbleeding; to hover over men as a vulture over herds, swooping down upon\nthe weak, the straggling, and the weary. The infernal craft of cunning\nmen, turns the law itself to piracy, and works outrageous fraud in the\nhall of Courts, by the decision of judges, and under the seal of Justice.\n\n3. Dishonesty is learned from one's employers. The boy of honest parents\nand honestly bred, goes to a trade, or a store, where the employer\npractises _legal_ frauds. The plain honesty of the boy excites roars of\nlaughter among the better taught clerks. The master tells them that such\nblundering truthfulness must be pitied; the boy evidently has been\nneglected, and is not to be ridiculed for what he could not help. At\nfirst, it verily pains the youth's scruples, and tinges his face to frame\na deliberate dishonesty, to finish, and to polish it. His tongue stammers\nat a lie; but the example of a rich master, the jeers and gibes of\nshopmates, with gradual practice, cure all this. He becomes adroit in\nfleecing customers for his master's sake, and equally dexterous in\nfleecing his master for his own sake.\n\n4. EXTRAVAGANCE is a prolific source of dishonesty. Extravagance,--which\nis foolish expense, or expense disproportionate to one's means,--may be\nfound in all grades of society; but it is chiefly apparent among the rich,\nthose aspiring to wealth, and those wishing to be _thought_ affluent. Many\na young man cheats his business, by transferring his means to theatres,\nrace-courses, expensive parties, and to the nameless and numberless\nprojects of pleasure. The enterprise of others is baffled by the\nextravagance of their family; for few men can make as much in a year as an\nextravagant woman can carry on her back in one winter. Some are ambitious\nof fashionable society, and will gratify their vanity at any expense. This\ndisproportion between means and expense soon brings on a crisis. The\nvictim is straitened for money; without it he must abandon his rank; for\nfashionable society remorselessly rejects all butterflies which have lost\ntheir brilliant colors. Which shall he choose, honesty and mortifying\nexclusion, or gaiety purchased by dishonesty? The severity of this choice\nsometimes sobers the intoxicated brain; and a young man shrinks from the\ngulf, appalled at the darkness of dishonesty. But to excessive vanity,\nhigh-life with or without fraud, is Paradise; and any other life\nPurgatory. Here many resort to dishonesty without a scruple. It is at this\npoint that public sentiment half sustains dishonesty. It scourges the\nthief of Necessity, and pities the thief of Fashion.\n\nThe struggle with others is on the very ground of honor. A wife led from\naffluence to frigid penury and neglect; from leisure and luxury to toil\nand want; daughters, once courted as rich, to be disesteemed when\npoor,--this is the gloomy prospect, seen through a magic haze of\ndespondency. Honor, love and generosity, strangely bewitched, plead for\ndishonesty as the only alternative to such suffering. But go, young man,\nto your wife; tell her the alternative; if she is worthy of you, she will\nface your poverty with a courage which shall shame your fears, and lead\nyou into its wilderness and through it, all unshrinking. Many there be who\nwent weeping into this desert, and ere long, having found in it the\nfountains of the purest peace, have thanked God for the pleasures of\npoverty. But if your wife unmans your resolution, imploring dishonor\nrather than penury, may God pity and help you! You dwell with a sorceress,\nand few can resist her wiles.\n\n5. DEBT is an inexhaustible fountain of Dishonesty. The Royal Preacher\ntells us: _The borrower is servant to the lender._ Debt is a rigorous\nservitude. The debtor learns the cunning tricks, delays, concealments, and\nfrauds, by which slaves evade or cheat their master. He is tempted to make\nambiguous statements; pledges, with secret passages of escape; contracts,\nwith fraudulent constructions; lying excuses, and more mendacious\npromises. He is tempted to elude responsibility; to delay settlements; to\nprevaricate upon the terms; to resist equity, and devise specious fraud.\nWhen the eager creditor would restrain such vagrancy by law, the debtor\nthen thinks himself released from moral obligation, and brought to a legal\ngame, in which it is lawful for the best player to win. He disputes true\naccounts; he studies subterfuges; extorts provocatious delays; and harbors\nin every nook, and corner, and passage, of the law's labyrinth. At length\nthe measure is filled up, and the malignant power of debt is known. It has\nopened in the heart every fountain of iniquity; it has besoiled the\nconscience; it has tarnished the honor; it has made the man a deliberate\nstudent of knavery; a systematic practitioner of fraud; it has dragged him\nthrough all the sewers of petty passions,--anger, hate, revenge, malicious\nfolly, or malignant shame. When a debtor is beaten at every point, and the\nlaw will put her screws upon him, there is no depth in the gulf of\ndishonesty into which he will not boldly plunge. Some men put their\nproperty to the flames, assassinate the detested creditor, and end the\nfrantic tragedy by suicide, or the gallows. Others, in view of the\ncatastrophe, have converted all property to cash, and concealed it. The\nlaw's utmost skill, and the creditor's fury, are alike powerless\nnow,--the tree is green and thrifty; its roots drawing a copious supply\nfrom some hidden fountain.\n\nCraft has another harbor of resort for the piratical crew of dishonesty;\nviz.: _putting the property out of the law's reach by a fraudulent\nconveyance_. Whoever runs in debt, and consumes the equivalent of his\nindebtedness; whoever is fairly liable to damage for broken contracts;\nwhoever by folly, has incurred debts and lost the benefit of his outlay;\nwhoever is legally obliged to pay for his malice or carelessness; whoever\nby infidelity to public trusts has made his property a just remuneration\nfor his defaults;--whoever of all these, or whoever, under any\ncircumstances, puts out of his hands property, morally or legally due to\ncreditors, is A DISHONEST MAN. The crazy excuses which men render to their\nconsciences, are only such as every villain makes, who is unwilling to\nlook upon the black face of his crimes.\n\nHe who will receive a conveyance of property, knowing it to be illusive\nand fraudulent, is as wicked as the principal; and as much meaner, as the\ntool and subordinate of villany is meaner than the master who uses him.\n\nIf a church, knowing all these facts, or wilfully ignorant of them,\nallows a member to nestle in the security of the sanctuary; then the act\nof this robber, and the connivance of the church, are but the two parts of\none crime.\n\n6. BANKRUPTCY, although a branch of debt, deserves a separate mention. It\nsometimes crushes a man's spirit, and sometimes exasperates it. The\npoignancy of the evil depends much upon the disposition of the creditors;\nand as much upon the disposition of the victim. Should _they_ act with the\nlenity of Christian men, and _he_ with manly honesty, promptly rendering\nup whatever satisfaction of debt he has,--he may visit the lowest places\nof human adversity, and find there the light of good men's esteem, the\nsupport of conscience, and the sustenance of religion.\n\nA bankrupt may fall into the hands of men whose tender-mercies are cruel;\nor his dishonest equivocations may exasperate their temper and provoke\nevery thorn and brier of the law. When men's passions are let loose,\nespecially their avarice whetted by real or imaginary wrong; when there is\na rivalry among creditors, lest any one should feast upon the victim more\nthan his share; and they all rush upon him like wolves upon a wounded\ndeer, dragging him down, ripping him open, breast and flank, plunging\ndeep their bloody muzzles to reach the heart and taste blood at the very\nfountain;--is it strange that resistance is desperate and unscrupulous? At\nlength the sufferer drags his mutilated carcass aside, every nerve and\nmuscle wrung with pain, and his whole body an instrument of agony. He\ncurses the whole inhuman crew with envenomed imprecations; and\nthenceforth, a brooding misanthrope, he pays back to society, by studied\nvillanies, the legal wrongs which the relentless justice of a few, or his\nown knavery, have brought upon him.\n\n7. There is a circle of moral dishonesties practised because the LAW\nallows them. The very anxiety of law to reach the devices of cunning, so\nperplexes its statutes with exceptions, limitations, and supplements, that\nlike a castle gradually enlarged for centuries, it has its crevices, dark\ncorners, secret holes and winding passages--an endless harbor for rats and\nvermin, where no trap can catch them. We are villanously infested with\nlegal rats and rascals, who are able to commit the most flagrant\ndishonesties with impunity. They can do all of wrong which is profitable,\nwithout that part which is actionable. The very ingenuity of these\nmiscreants excites such admiration of their skill, that their life is\ngilded with a specious respectability. Men profess little esteem for\nblunt, necessitous thieves, who rob and run away; but for a gentleman who\ncan break the whole of God's law so adroitly, as to leave man's law\nunbroken; who can indulge in such conservative stealing that his\nfellow-men award him a rank among honest men for the excessive skill of\nhis dishonesty--for such a one, I fear, there is almost universal\nsympathy.\n\n8. POLITICAL DISHONESTY, breeds dishonesty of every kind. It is possible\nfor good men to permit single sins to co-exist with general integrity,\nwhere the evil is indulged through ignorance. Once, undoubted Christians\nwere slave-traders. They might be, while unenlightened; but not in our\ntimes. A state of mind which will _intend_ one fraud, will, upon\noccasions, intend a thousand. He that upon one emergency will lie, will be\nsupplied with emergencies. He that will perjure himself to save a friend,\nwill do it, in a desperate juncture, to save himself. The highest Wisdom\nhas informed us that _He that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in\nmuch_. Circumstances may withdraw a politician from temptation to any but\npolitical dishonesty; but under temptation, a dishonest politician would\nbe a dishonest cashier,--would be dishonest anywhere,--in anything. The\nfury which destroys an opponent's character, would stop at nothing, if\nbarriers were thrown down. That which is true of the leaders in politics,\nis true of subordinates. Political dishonesty in voters runs into general\ndishonesty, as the rotten speck taints the whole apple. A community whose\npolitics are conducted by a perpetual breach of honesty on both sides,\nwill be tainted by immorality throughout. Men will play the same game in\ntheir private affairs, which they have learned to play in public matters.\nThe guile, the crafty vigilance, the dishonest advantage, the cunning\nsharpness;--the tricks and traps and sly evasions; the equivocal promises,\nand unequivocal neglect of them, which characterize political action, will\nequally characterize private action. The mind has no kitchen to do its\ndirty work in, while the parlor remains clean. Dishonesty is an\natmosphere; if it comes into one apartment, it penetrates into every one.\nWhoever will lie in politics, will lie in traffic. Whoever will slander in\npolitics, will slander in personal squabbles. A professor of religion who\nis a dishonest politician, is a dishonest Christian. His creed is a\nperpetual index of his hypocrisy.\n\nThe genius of our government directs the attention of every citizen to\npolitics. Its spirit reaches the uttermost bound of society, and pervades\nthe whole mass. If its channels are slimy with corruption, what limit can\nbe set to its malign influence? The turbulence of elections, the virulence\nof the press, the desperation of bad men, the hopelessness of efforts\nwhich are not cunning, but only honest, have driven many conscientious men\nfrom any concern with politics. This is suicidal. Thus the tempest will\ngrow blacker and fiercer. Our youth will be caught up in its whirling\nbosom and dashed to pieces, and its hail will break down every green\nthing. At God's house the cure should begin. Let the hand of discipline\nsmite the leprous lips which shall utter the profane heresy: _All is fair\nin politics._ If any hoary professor, drunk with the mingled wine of\nexcitement, shall tell our youth, that a Christian man may act in politics\nby any other rule of morality than that of the Bible; and that wickedness\nperformed for a party, is not as abominable, as if done for a man; or that\nany necessity justifies or palliates dishonesty in word or deed,--let such\na one go out of the camp, and his pestilent breath no longer spread\ncontagion among our youth. No man who loves his country, should shrink\nfrom her side when she groans with raging distempers. Let every Christian\nman stand in his place; rebuke every dishonest practice; scorn a\npolitical as well as a personal lie; and refuse with indignation to be\ninsulted by the solicitation of an immoral man. Let good men of all\nparties require honesty, integrity, veracity, and morality in politics,\nand there, as powerfully as anywhere else, the requisitions of public\nsentiment will ultimately be felt.\n\n9. A corrupt PUBLIC SENTIMENT produces dishonesty. A public sentiment, in\nwhich dishonesty is not disgraceful; in which bad men are respectable, are\ntrusted, are honored, are exalted--is a curse to the young. The fever of\nspeculation, the universal derangement of business, the growing laxness of\nmorals, is, to an alarming extent, introducing such a state of things. Men\nof notorious immorality, whose dishonesty is flagrant, whose private\nhabits would disgrace the ditch, are powerful and popular. I have seen a\nman stained with every sin, except those which required courage; into\nwhose head I do not think a pure thought has entered for forty years; in\nwhose heart an honorable feeling would droop for very loneliness;--in evil\nhe was ripe and rotten; hoary and depraved in deed, in word, in his\npresent life and in all his past; evil when by himself, and viler among\nmen; corrupting to the young;--to domestic fidelity, a recreant; to common\nhonor, a traitor; to honesty, an outlaw; to religion, a hypocrite;--base\nin all that is worthy of man, and accomplished in whatever is disgraceful;\nand yet this wretch could go where he would; enter good men's dwellings,\nand purloin their votes. Men would curse him, yet obey him; hate him and\nassist him; warn their sons against him, and lead them to the polls for\nhim. A public sentiment which produces ignominious knaves, cannot breed\nhonest men.\n\nAny calamity, civil or commercial, which checks the administration of\njustice between man and man, is ruinous to honesty. The violent\nfluctuations of business cover the ground with rubbish over which men\nstumble; and fill the air with dust, in which all the shapes of honesty\nappear distorted. Men are thrown upon unusual expedients; dishonesties are\nunobserved; those who have been reckless and profuse, stave off the\nlegitimate fruits of their folly by desperate shifts. We have not yet\nemerged from a period, in which debts were insecure; the debtor legally\nprotected against the rights of the creditor; taxes laid, not by the\nrequirements of justice, but for political effect; and lowered to a\ndishonest insufficiency; and when thus diminished, not collected; the\ncitizens resisting their own officers; officers resigning at the bidding\nof the electors; the laws of property paralyzed; bankrupt laws built up;\nand stay-laws unconstitutionally enacted, upon which the courts look with\naversion, yet fear to deny them, lest the wildness of popular opinion\nshould roll back disdainfully upon the bench, to despoil its dignity, and\nprostrate its power. General suffering has made us tolerant of general\ndishonesty; and the gloom of our commercial disaster threatens to become\nthe pall of our morals.\n\nIf the shocking stupidity of the public mind to atrocious dishonesties is\nnot aroused; if good men do not bestir themselves to drag the young from\nthis foul sorcery; if the relaxed bands of honesty are not tightened, and\nconscience intoned to a severer morality, our night is at hand,--our\nmidnight not far off. Woe to that guilty people who sit down upon broken\nlaws, and wealth saved by injustice! Woe to a generation fed upon the\nbread of fraud, whose children's inheritance shall be a perpetual memento\nof their fathers' unrighteousness; to whom dishonesty shall be made\npleasant by association with the revered memories of father, brother, and\nfriend!\n\nBut when a whole people, united by a common disregard of justice, conspire\nto defraud public creditors; and States vie with States in an infamous\nrepudiation of just debts, by open or sinister methods; and nations exert\ntheir sovereignty to protect and dignify the knavery of a Commonwealth;\nthen the confusion of domestic affairs has bred a fiend, before whose\nflight honor fades away, and under whose feet the sanctity of truth and\nthe religion of solemn compacts are stamped down and ground into the dirt.\nNeed we ask the causes of growing dishonesty among the young, and the\nincreasing untrustworthiness of all agents, when States are seen clothed\nwith the panoply of dishonesty, and nations put on fraud for their\ngarments?\n\nAbsconding agents, swindling schemes, and defalcations, occurring in such\nmelancholy abundance, have at length ceased to be wonders, and rank with\nthe common accidents of fire and flood. The budget of each week is\nincomplete without its mob and runaway cashier--its duel and defaulter;\nand as waves which roll to the shore are lost in those which follow on, so\nthe villanies of each week obliterate the record of the last.\n\nThe mania of dishonesty cannot arise from local causes; it is the result\nof disease in the whole community; an eruption betokening foulness of the\nblood; blotches symptomatic of a disordered system.\n\n10. FINANCIAL AGENTS are especially liable to the temptations of\nDishonesty. Safe merchants, and visionary schemers; sagacious adventurers,\nand rash speculators; frugal beginners, and retired millionaires, are\nconstantly around them. Every word, every act, every entry, every letter,\nsuggests only wealth--its germ, its bud, its blossom, its golden harvest.\nIts brilliance dazzles the sight; its seductions stir the appetites; its\npower fires the ambition, and the soul concentrates its energies to obtain\nwealth, as life's highest and only joy.\n\nBesides the influence of such associations, direct dealing in _money_ as a\ncommodity, has a peculiar effect upon the heart. There is no property\nbetween it and the mind;--no medium to mellow its light. The mind is\ndiverted and refreshed by no thoughts upon the quality of soils; the\ndurability of structures; the advantages of sites; the beauty of fabrics;\nit is not invigorated by the necessity of labor and ingenuity which the\nmechanic feels; by the invention of the artisan, or the taste of the\nartist. The whole attention falls directly upon naked Money. The hourly\nsight of it whets the appetite, and sharpens it to avarice. Thus, with an\nintense regard of riches, steals in also the miser's relish of coin--that\ninsatiate gazing and fondling, by which seductive metal wins to itself\nall the blandishments of love.\n\nThose who _mean_ to be rich, often begin by imitating the expensive\ncourses of those who _are_ rich. They are also tempted to venture, before\nthey have means of their own, in brilliant speculations. How can a young\ncashier pay the drafts of his illicit pleasures, or procure the seed, for\nthe harvest of speculation, out of his narrow salary? Here first begins to\nwork the leaven of death. The mind wanders in dreams of gain; it broods\nover projects of unlawful riches; stealthily at first, and then with less\nreserve; at last it boldly meditates the possibility of being dishonest\nand _safe_. When a man can seriously reflect upon dishonesty as a possible\nand profitable thing, he is already deeply dishonest. To a mind so\ntainted, will flock stories of consummate craft, of effective knavery, of\nfraud covered by its brilliant success. At times, the mind shrinks from\nits own thoughts, and trembles to look down the giddy cliff on whose edge\nthey poise, or over which they fling themselves like sporting sea-birds.\nBut these imaginations will not be driven from the heart where they have\nonce nested. They haunt a man's business, visit him in dreams, and\nvampire-like, fan the slumbers of the victim whom they will destroy. In\nsome feverish hour, vibrating between conscience and avarice, the man\nstaggers to a compromise. To satisfy his conscience he refuses to _steal_;\nand to gratify his avarice, he _borrows_ the funds;--not openly--not of\nowners--not of men: but of the till--the safe--the vault!\n\nHe resolves to restore the money before discovery can ensue, and pocket\nthe profits. Meanwhile, false entries are made, perjured oaths are sworn,\nforged papers are filed. His expenses grow profuse, and men wonder from\nwhat fountain so copious a stream can flow.\n\nLet us stop here to survey his condition. He flourishes, is called\nprosperous, thinks himself safe. Is he safe, or honest? He has stolen, and\nembarked the amount upon a sea over which wander perpetual storms; where\nwreck is the common fate, and escape the accident; and now all his chance\nfor the semblance of honesty, is staked upon the return of his\nembezzlements from among the sands, the rocks and currents, the winds and\nwaves, and darkness, of tumultuous speculation. At length dawns the day of\ndiscovery. His guilty dreams have long foretokened it. As he confronts the\ndisgrace almost face to face, how changed is the hideous aspect of his\ndeed, from that fair face of promise with which it tempted him!\nConscience, and honor, and plain honesty, which left him when they could\nnot restrain, now come back to sharpen his anguish. Overawed by the\nprospect of open shame, of his wife's disgrace, and his children's\nbeggary, he cows down, and slinks out of life a frantic suicide.\n\nSome there be, however, less supple to shame. They meet their fate with\ncool impudence; defy their employers; brave the court, and too often with\nsuccess. The delusion of the public mind, or the confusion of affairs is\nsuch, that, while petty culprits are tumbled into prison, a cool,\ncalculating and immense scoundrel is pitied, dandled and nursed by a\nsympathizing community. In the broad road slanting to the rogue's retreat,\nare seen the officer of the bank, the agent of the state, the officer of\nthe church, in indiscriminate haste, outrunning a lazy justice, and\nbearing off the gains of astounding frauds. Avarice and pleasure seem to\nhave dissolved the conscience. _It is a day of trouble and of perplexity\nfrom the Lord._ We tremble to think that our children must leave the\ncovert of the family, and go out upon that dark and yeasty sea, from whose\nwrath so many wrecks are cast up at our feet. Of one thing I am certain;\nif the church of Christ is silent to such deeds, and makes her altar a\nrefuge to such dishonesty, the day is coming when she shall have no altar,\nthe light shall go out from her candlestick, her walls shall be desolate,\nand the fox look out at her windows.\n\n11. EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY, by its frequency, has been a temptation to\nDishonesty. Who will fear to be a culprit when a legal sentence is the\nargument of pity, and the prelude of pardon? What can the community expect\nbut growing dishonesty, when juries connive at acquittals, and judges\ncondemn only to petition a pardon; when honest men and officers fly before\na mob; when jails are besieged and threatened, if felons are not\nrelinquished; when the Executive, consulting the spirit of the community,\nreceives the demands of the mob, and humbly complies, throwing down the\nfences of the law, that base rioters may walk unimpeded, to their work of\nvengeance, or unjust mercy? A sickly sentimentality too often enervates\nthe administration of justice; and the pardoning power becomes the\nmaster-key to let out unwashed, unrepentant criminals. They have fleeced\nus, robbed us, and are ulcerous sores to the body politic; yet our heart\nturns to water over their merited punishment. A fine young fellow, by\naccident, writes another's name for his own; by a mistake equally\nunfortunate, he presents it at the bank; innocently draws out the large\namount; generously spends a part, and absent-mindedly hides the rest.\nHard-hearted wretches there are, who would punish him for this! Young men,\nadmiring the neatness of the affair, pity his misfortune, and curse a\nstupid jury that knew no better than to send to a penitentiary, him, whose\nskill deserved a cashiership. He goes to his cell, the pity of a whole\nmetropolis. Bulletins from Sing-Sing inform us daily what Edwards[1] is\ndoing, as if he were Napoleon at St. Helena. At length pardoned, he will\ngo forth again to a renowned liberty!\n\nIf there be one way quicker than another, by which the Executive shall\nassist crime, and our laws foster it, it is that course which assures\nevery dishonest man, that it is easy to defraud, easy to avoid arrest,\neasy to escape punishment, and easiest of all to obtain a pardon.\n\n12. COMMERCIAL SPECULATIONS are prolific of Dishonesty. Speculation is the\nrisking of capital in enterprises greater than we can control, or in\nenterprises whose elements are not at all calculable. All calculations of\nthe future are uncertain; but those which are based upon long experience\napproximate certainty, while those which are drawn by sagacity from\nprobable events, are notoriously unsafe. Unless, however, some venture, we\nshall forever tread an old and dull path; therefore enterprise is allowed\nto pioneer new ways. The safe enterpriser explores cautiously, ventures at\nfirst a little, and increases the venture with the ratio of experience. A\nspeculator looks out upon the new region, as upon a far-away landscape,\nwhose features are softened to beauty by distance; upon a _hope_, he\nstakes that, which, if it wins, will make him; and if it loses, will ruin\nhim. When the alternatives are victory, or utter destruction, a battle\nmay, sometimes, still be necessary. But commerce has no such alternatives;\nonly speculation proceeds upon them.\n\nIf the capital is borrowed, it is as dishonest, upon such ventures, to\nrisk, as to lose it. Should a man borrow a noble steed and ride among\nincitements which he knew would rouse up his fiery spirit to an\nuncontrollable height, and borne away with wild speed, be plunged over a\nprecipice, his destruction might excite our pity, but could not alter our\nopinion of his dishonesty. He borrowed property, and endangered it where\nhe knew that it would be uncontrollable.\n\nIf the capital be one's own, it can scarcely be risked and lost, without\nthe ruin of other men. No man could blow up his store in a compact street,\nand destroy only his own. Men of business are, like threads of a fabric,\nwoven together, and subject, to a great extent, to a common fate of\nprosperity or adversity. I have no right to cut off my hand; I defraud\nmyself, my family, the community, and God; for all these have an interest\nin that hand. Neither has a man the right to throw away his property. He\ndefrauds himself, his family, the community in which he dwells; for all\nthese have an interest in that property. If waste is dishonesty, then\nevery risk, in proportion as it approaches it, is dishonest. To venture,\nwithout that foresight which experience gives, is wrong; and if we cannot\nforesee, then we must not venture.\n\nScheming speculation demoralizes honesty, and almost necessitates\ndishonesty. He who puts his own interests to rash ventures, will scarcely\ndo better for others. The Speculator regards the weightiest affair as only\na splendid game. Indeed, a Speculator on the exchange, and a Gambler at\nhis table, follow one vocation, only with different instruments. One\nemploys cards or dice, the other property. The one can no more foresee the\nresult of his schemes, than the other what spots will come up on his\ndice; the calculations of both are only the chances of luck. Both burn\nwith unhealthy excitement; both are avaricious of gains, but careless of\nwhat they win; both depend more upon fortune than skill; they have a\ncommon distaste for labor; with each, right and wrong are only the\naccidents of a game; neither would scruple in any hour to set his whole\nbeing on the edge of ruin, and going over, to pull down, if possible, a\nhundred others.\n\nThe wreck of such men leaves them with a drunkard's appetite, and a\nfiend's desperation. The revulsion from extravagant hopes, to a certainty\nof midnight darkness; the sensations of poverty, to him who was in fancy\njust stepping upon a princely estate; the humiliation of gleaning for\ncents, where he has been profuse of dollars; the chagrin of seeing old\ncompetitors now above him, grinning down upon his poverty a malignant\ntriumph; the pity of pitiful men, and the neglect of such as should have\nbeen his friends,--and who were, while the sunshine lay upon his\npath,--all these things, like so many strong winds, sweep across the soul\nso that it cannot rest in the cheerless tranquility of honesty, but _casts\nup mire and dirt_. How stately the balloon rises and sails over\ncontinents, as over petty landscapes! The slightest slit in its frail\ncovering sends it tumbling down, swaying widely, whirling and pitching\nhither and thither, until it plunges into some dark glen, out of the path\nof honest men, and too shattered to tempt even a robber. So have we seen a\nthousand men pitched down; so now, in a thousand places may their wrecks\nbe seen. But still other balloons are framing, and the air is full of\nvictim-venturers.\n\nIf our young men are introduced to life with distaste for safe ways,\nbecause the sure profits are slow; if the opinion becomes prevalent that\nall business is great, only as it tends to the uncertain, the extravagant,\nand the romantic; then we may stay our hand at once, nor waste labor in\nabsurd expostulations of honesty. I had as lief preach humanity to a\nbattle of eagles, as to urge honesty and integrity upon those who have\n_determined_ to be rich, and to gain it by gambling stakes, and madmen's\nventures.\n\nAll the bankruptcies of commerce are harmless compared with a bankruptcy\nof public morals. Should the Atlantic ocean break over our shores, and\nroll sheer across to the Pacific, sweeping every vestige of cultivation,\nand burying our wealth, it would be a mercy, compared to that ocean-deluge\nof dishonesty and crime, which, sweeping over the whole land, has spared\nour wealth and taken our virtue. What are cornfields and vineyards, what\nare stores and manufactures, and what are gold and silver, and all the\nprecious commodities of the earth, among beasts?--and what are men, bereft\nof conscience and honor, but beasts?\n\nWe will forget those things which are behind, and hope a more cheerful\nfuture. We turn to you, YOUNG MEN!--All good men, all patriots, turn to\nwatch your advance upon the stage, and to implore you to be worthy of\nyourselves, and of your revered ancestry. Oh! ye favored of Heaven! with a\nfree land, a noble inheritance of wise laws, and a prodigality of wealth\nin prospect,--advance to your possessions!--May you settle down, as did\nIsrael of old, a people of God in a promised and protected land;--true to\nyourselves, true to your country, and true to your God.\n\n\n\n\nFootnote:\n\n[1] Monroe Edwards, a notorious forger.--ED.\n\n\n\n\n  ALTEMUS'\n  BELLES-LETTRES SERIES.\n\n_A collection of Essays and Addresses by eminent English and American\nAuthors, beautifully printed and daintily bound in leatherette, with\noriginal designs in silver._\n\n\n_PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME._\n\n\nINDEPENDENCE DAY, by Rev. Edward E. Hale.\n\nTHE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS, by Hon. Richard Olney.\n\nTHE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS, by Edward W. Bok.\n\nTHE YOUNG MAN AND THE CHURCH, by Edward W. Bok.\n\nTHE SPOILS SYSTEM, by Hon. Carl Schurz.\n\nCONVERSATION, by Thomas De Quincey.\n\nSWEETNESS AND LIGHT, by Matthew Arnold.\n\nWORK, by John Ruskin.\n\nNATURE AND ART, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.\n\nTHE USE AND MISUSE OF BOOKS, by Frederic Harrison.\n\nTHE MONROE DOCTRINE: ITS ORIGIN, MEANING AND APPLICATION, by Prof. John\nBach McMaster (University of Pennsylvania).\n\nTHE DESTINY OF MAN, by Sir John Lubbock.\n\nLOVE AND FRIENDSHIP, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.\n\nRIP VAN WINKLE, by Washington Irving.\n\nART, POETRY AND MUSIC, by Sir John Lubbock.\n\nTHE CHOICE OF BOOKS, by Sir John Lubbock.\n\nMANNERS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.\n\nCHARACTER, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.\n\nTHE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, by Washington Irving.\n\nTHE BEAUTIES OF NATURE, by Sir John Lubbock.\n\nSELF RELIANCE, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.\n\nTHE DUTY OF HAPPINESS, by Sir John Lubbock.\n\nSPIRITUAL LAWS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.\n\nOLD CHRISTMAS, by Washington Irving.\n\nHEALTH, WEALTH AND THE BLESSING OF FRIENDS, by Sir John Lubbock.\n\nINTELLECT, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.\n\nWHY AMERICANS DISLIKE ENGLAND, by Prof. Geo. B. Adams (Yale).\n\nTHE HIGHER EDUCATION AS A TRAINING FOR BUSINESS, by Prof. Harry Pratt\nJudson (University of Chicago).\n\nMISS TOOSEY'S MISSION.\n\nLADDIE.\n\nJ. COLE, by Emma Gellibrand.\n\n\n  HENRY ALTEMUS,\n  _507, 509, 511, 513 Cherry Street, Philadelphia._","title":"Twelve Causes of Dishonesty","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":7233}