Ethics for our country and the times

Contents

Letter to Chief-Justice Chase 11

Chapter I

Introductory — The importance of ethics, especially in a free country — The evils of neglecting ethical teachings, and the benefits of obeying these — Milton, Cromwell, Lincoln —

> The Bible the great book of ethics 17

Chapter II

Introductory — Early cultivation of ethics among all nations — Its absolute necessity to the safety of our Republic — Moral dissolution of the South, and its influence upon our whole country, rulers and people — A hopeful waking up to this subject — The Higher Law — Contempt for it, and the punishment thereof. 22

Chapter VII

False ethical views exposed — Great end of punishment not the reformation of the offender nor the good of society — God wills that transgressors be punished — Our duty to obey him — Mere utility has no moral element in it — The danger of false ethical views — Cicero's views here — Serious errors of Dr. Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy — Our highest good associated with God's glory — Duty of seeking them 43

Chapter VIII

Ethics of compromises — Evils of compromises — Slowness to see our folly here — Meanness and wickedness of sacrificing colored patriots to gratify slaveholding rebels — Mr. Sumner's manly stand 50

Chapter IX

Present ethical influence of the loyal North upon the rebellious South — Duty of the people to instruct their public servants to be faithful here — People ahead of their rulers in nearly every thing good — Without justice, no true peace 55

Chapter X

An analysis of moral nature; illustrated in the case of crimes committed during intoxication — Insensibility of the public here 61

Chapter XI

Ethics of capital punishment — Bible teaching, and that of all nations — Dangers of a false humanitarianism 66

Chapter XII

Ethics of expediency — Perversion of public conscience — Miserable consequence of this — The crime of substituting expediency for justice — Mr. Hamlin the best safeguard to President Lincoln — The President's assassination the fruit of expediency 69

CONTENTS. Vll

Chapter XIII

Ethics of the Temperance cause — Touch not, taste not, handle not — The price of blood, etc 85

Chapter XIV

Ethics of divorce — The Family the foundation of the State — Social evils begin in the family — The cure must also there begin — Bad children make bad citizens and a declining community — Facility of divorce the great cause of all these evils— A return to the Scriptural law the only remedy. ..88 CHAPTER XV.

Ethics of bad counsels, laws, customs, etc. — Moral agency and responsibility not to be put off — Bad laws are not law — Benefits of Christian resistance to such — Indebtedness to antislavery men — Good results of Sabbath-keeping — Cases given, etc 94

Chapter XVI

Ethics of casualties, public and private — Men who die in war are murdered, and this crime must be accounted for in the great day — God knows who are the guilty, and will punish such — All casualties should be judicially looked

into 102

Chapter XVII

Ethical relations of citizens to the Government — Wrong views very prevalent — Government our greatest earthly benefit — Its cheapness, etc. — Duty of liberally supporting the Government; especially in its endeavors to discharge our obligations to its soldiers, public creditors, etc 106

Chapter XVIII

Ethics of suffrage — Its constitutional and moral right — It ought to be universal — The people sovereign, and hence must govern — Early and continued attempts of slaveholders to limit suffrage — The ballot the grand conservator

Vlll CONTENTS.

of freedom — All governments hitherto composite— Continual tendency to pure Democracy — How prepare the public mind for this — Christianity the grand means of extending and upholding free institutions — Terrible evils of the sham Democracy — Why the Government may, in some cases, hinder the exercise of the right of suffrage — How treat foreigners here — How females, the most of whom are better qualified to vote than many who now hold the ballot — The right of freedmen to vote — Their superiority here over the great mass of the whites at the South — Folly and danger of denying universal suffrage Ill

Chapter XIX

Ethics of sovereignty — No form of government necessarily atheistic — Our Constitution democratic — A sham Democracy, the vile spawn of slaveholding, has brought reproach upon a true Democracy, etc... 133

Chapter XX

Ethics of popular education — Importance of educating the sovereign people — Much done already in the free States, but a great deal more to be accomplished — How to improve and extend common schools — Christianity must run through and vitalize this reat work 136

Chapter XXI

Ethical claims on the body politic — Frightful evils of defective legislation — Lord Bacon's " wild justice " — The body politic mainly responsible here — Why we have so long been without certain righteous laws — Fraudulent transfer of property, breach of trust, seduction, etc. — Perjury of courts, juries, etc., the only remedy for these evils 141

Chapter XXII

Ethical claims upon the Church — Her solemn responsibility — She is especially intrusted with the ethical instruction of

CONTENTS. IX

all classes — Her unfaithfulness here, especially in the case of slavery — Most painful but instructive facts — Let the Church come manfully up to duty, and so endeavor to make some amends for past unfaithfulness — The hypocrisy of the cry, "Politics in the pulpit ! — The perils of reconstruction great, etc 146

Chapter XXIII

Ethical relations of ministers to war — Duties of ministers in a righteous "war; their importance, etc. — The minister stands at the fountain-head of a nation's moral and spiritual life — If faithful in their peculiar position, ministers may do more to enlighten, invigorate, and sustain the people, and so contribute to success in a righteous war, than the best general, statesman, etc. — Most congregations, even at much sacrifice, showed more wisdom than the Administration — Policy of compelling ministers to do military duty, etc. — Right Reverend General Polk — Bishop Meade's gentle but solemn rebuke, etc 156

CHAPTER XXIV. Ethics of retributive justice or vengeance — Great and most

dangerous errors here — Government, God's vicegerent to

execute justice — Terrible result of the impunity of crime —

The exceeding guilt of sparing the guilty 163

Chapter XXV

Ethics of representation — A difference of views, etc. — All who hold office are agents of the people, and hence subject to the law of agency — The ignominy of President Tyler a warning to all apostate Presidents — No excuse for such unfaithful men * 167

Chapter XXVI

Ethics of government — All public officers are servants of the sovereign people, and ought to obey the people or resign —

X CONTENTS.

Not to do this, proves such men void of principle — Allowance to be made for hesitancy in rulers, as well as for their superior opportunities of knowledge — The apparent inefficiency of Mr. Lincoln's Administration — A letter on thia subject — Superior sagacity and energy of the people — Thf Administration at last compelled, by the popular voic to proclaim emancipation and call colored citizens to the war — The long-predicted and happy results of this righteous measure — The unfaithfulness of the Government at thia moment to its responsibilities — Terrible results of this at the South — Intemperance produces much of these evils- Let us the more steadily look to God for deliverance... 172

Chapter XXVII

Ethics of electors — Availability the common ground on wh*vQ candidates are selected — But good morals and competency are chiefly to be regarded — Corrupting consequences of thia view of availability as the chief thing — A bad man never can be a good officer — Men corrupted by intemperance, slaveholding, or any immoral practice, are not fit for office — The murder of Mr. Lincoln 183

Chapter XXVIII

Present ethical relations of the free loyal States to the late slaveholding rebellious States — Two important facts here — Duty of the North to labor liberally and earnestly to educate and evangelize the South, white and colored — In this way the North may make some amends for past unfaithfulness — Without this true Christian foundation- work, no plan of reconstruction can be successful 188

Chapter XXIX

Ethics of pardon — Pardoning power must be lodged somewhere in every government — No one can be pardoned who has not been legally condemned — How the amnesties ex-

CONTENTS. X

tended to rebels by the President are to be regarded — Every such offender still liable to be tried for treason before the civil courts — Danger of losing sight of this fact 190

Chapter XXX

Ethics of consequences — Most intimate relation between ethics and truth — Truth defined — Ethical tendency to follow out every truth to all its logical consequences : first, our late civil war was inevitable ; second, universal suffrage must, erelong, be established among us, and brought to bear directly upon every office ; third, freedom of intercourse between us and all other nations must be brought about at the earliest day practicable ; fourth, it is morally certain that Christianity will finally prevail over the whole earth... 193

Chapter XXXI

Ethical view of our country's future — Unparalleled greatness before us — An open Bible and a free Christianity ours — the blessing of these — Church establishments paralyzing, corrupting — Benign influence of dissent— Wesley, Whitfield, etc.; their bitter persecution — 2. Our people sovereign — Sovereignty in other countries; France, Russia, etc. — The whole people more intelligent, wise, powerful than any one man, or select number of men — The amazement and fear of other governments at every view^of this Republic, etc. — 3. The last few years made us to know ourselves, and made the nation to know, also, how great is our future — 4. This country the grand depository of the rights and destiny of other nations — How responsible our trust — Evils among us ; how these will be overcome, etc 207

SALMON P. CHASE,

CHIEF-JUSTICE OP THE UNITED STATES:

Dear Sir — Your course generally, as a public man, has shown the deep interest you feel on the subject presented in the following volume.

I say this, not from a distant view, but from personal intercourse extending over nearly half of my long life, and more than half of yours, as fellow-members of convention, as officers of college, as pastor and parishioner, and in the friendly greetings of every-day life.

Your words, your actions, have ever expressed a profound regard for a true ethics. It was this which led you, (UubtUss, at much sacrifice, personal and political, to "fee for them that are in bonds, as bound with them." And this noble stand you took when it cost something to De an antislavery man. And it is this deep moral con- .ction, I doubt not, which led you to sympathize with

(xiii)

XIV DEDICATION.

the mass of the people, and boldly advocate the right and the safety of universal suffrage.

The one great blessing has already, in the wonderful workings of a good Providence, been granted to us — the abolition of slavery. The other — universal suffrage — is advancing with avalanche speed, and must shortly be ours, as I trust, by the peaceful progress of light and good feeling; but if not, it must come by great, perhaps greater and more terrific upheavings than accompanied the birth of universal emancipation. Even I scarcely despair of seeing that happy day. You, as some fifteen years behind me, may much more confidently anticipate the sublime spectacle of a people universally free and politically equal as citizens of a truly Christian republic.

I need not say how fruitful in beneficent results such an era would be. What a glorious prospect of national power, virtue, and happiness would it open before us! Such a people could not but become the cheerfully-acknowledged leaders and benefactors of the whole human family. This, I doubt not, is our future.

But, to prepare us for so great a work, so high an honor, as enlightened, whole-hearted laborers for the world's regeneration, we may yet need much chastening. If so, the God of providence and grace will assuredly lead us into the furnace, and consume our dross and brighten our gold, and so prepare us as " workers together with him" for the advent of the latter-day glory! To this happy day of earth's blessed and holy liberty not only the

DEDICATION. XV

thoughtful and hopeful men of every age, but universal human nature, and even creation itself, have looked forward, "in hope of deliverance from the bondage of corruption into glorious liberty." (Rom. viii : 21.)

You will perceive that in the following ethical discussion I have spoken very plainly and frankly, and, I trust, kindly. He who would not or could not do this ought to be silent. Does not much of Christian and patriotic boldness become us all in this day of our country's solemn crisis ?

I have addressed this volume to you, not from the expectation that you will concur in every particular judgment advanced, but with the pleasing assurance that the great ethical truths it advocates will meet a cordial response in your bosom. Has it not been the labor of your life to extend them? And is not this the one great secret of your distinguished success? And I will here add, that in all I have met with in the writings of the great fathers of our country — Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jay, etc. — I know of no utterance more replete with the light and the benevolence of a true ethics than is contained in a single sentence of one of your published letters during the late rebellion — a letter characterized by your usual clearness, simplicity, and vigor of style: "We can not afford to wrong any class of our people. One poor man, colored though he may be, with God on his side, is stronger against us than the hosts of the rebellion. 1 '

That God may long spare you for the duties of your

XVI DEDICATION.

elevated and most important position, and continually guide and uphold you in them ; and that you may, at last, through the riches of redeeming blood and grace, hear the blessed welcome from the lips of our God — our Savior and Judge — "Well done, good and faithful servant." This is the earnest prayer of your old friend and servant

in the Gospel,

B. P. Aydelott.

ETHICS

FOB

OUR COUNTRY AND THE TIMES.

Chapter I. Importance Of Ethics. — Introductory

The subjects discussed in the following pages concern every citizen, particularly in a free country ; and they ought to command the especial attention of statesmen and all in authority, of divines and professional men, and of studious persons generally.

So long as it is true that educated mind governs the world; and it will hold true so long as the world stands; they who aspire to rule ought to be well grounded in a true ethics — its evidences, its principles, and its practical bearings.

It may be safely asserted that almost no great calamity has ever befallen any nation or people that did not grow out of ignorance here, 2 (17)

or, what is still worse, sinning against the light. And how often have statesmen of unquestioned ability and attainments miserably wrecked their reputations and their most carefully-devised measures either by a want of ethical knowledge, or contempt for it.

And, on the other hand, was it not their love of a sound morality, and their generally steadfast adherence to it, that made Milton, the poet, and Cromwell, the farmer, and Lincoln, the village attorney, so pre-eminent as political leaders and benefactors of their country? Cromwell, with his usual clear vision, foresaw all this. Hence, amid the darkest night of calumny and opposition, he could calmly predict the coming of that day when his character would appear in its true light. "J know that God has been above all report, and will, in his own time, vindicate me" And that day has come when Cromwell, so long misrepresented and misunderstood, stands forth, by the world's almost unanimous verdict, England's greatest, wisest, noblest ruler. And no one doubts of our « Martyr-President " that it was his honesty which mainly made him what he was— purged his mental eye, strengthened his arm, and enabled him to stand up against the embattled hosts of a most mad and cruel

THE IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS. 19

rebellion, and above all, gave him firmness to resist what he believed the mistaken counsel of his most tried friends.

But, it may be asked, how shall we come at a true ethics ? The world has almost from the beginning been greatly divided here, and multitudes have hitherto wandered, and do yet wander, in error. What has caused this? and how may we escape it ?

We answer, the word of God has never yet had its rightful position of pre-eminence in these discussions. In some of the moral sciences it has been kept completely out of view, and in others only partially deferred to.

In psychology, for example, or the philosophy of the human mind, do not nearly all the great authors, in the very face of Scripture testimony, assume throughout that the mind is in its normal state? And therefore they make no allowance whatever for the disturbing influence of evil on the faculties, and hence they frer quently flounder in the dark, and too often are betrayed into the grossest errors. And in moral and political philosopy, also, or ethics strictly so called, how little has as yet been made of Bible authority. Hence the many false and fatal theories that have been put forth, and are continually broached at this day.

But in opposition to all this, we venture to say that the Bible is the very best text-book in the philosophy of the human mind, in ethics or moral and political philosophy, and in the moral sciences generally.

With the Bible in our hands we can easily see through almost every error, and solve most of the dark questions that metaphysicians have started; and with the Bible in our hands we may readily brush away the cunningly-woven webs of Paley's " Falsehoods not Criminal."

And what is still more worthy of remark, humbling as it is to our pride, that while we are full of self-gratulation, on account of our superior knowledge of the great principles of liberty, and our possession of the freest political institutions in the world, we may see, if we choose, the only perfect model of a free government — a true democracy — presented on the pages of the Bible more than thirty centuries since, in the deserts of Arabia, by the great Hebrew Law-giver, Moses, or rather through him, by the God and Father of all mankind.

Just so far as our Constitution has departed from this divine pattern is it defective; and for these shortcomings and positive errors are .we now paying, and we have been paying through all our past history, the righteous pen-

THE IMPORTANCE OP ETHICS. 21

alty. And it is for us now, in this the most solemn crisis of our country, to avert these evils from our posterity, and open before them a brighter prospect than we inherited from our fathers, of national power, blessedness and glory, by honestly looking back in our legislation to the divine rule, the only true ethics, and so laying the foundation of our reconstructed Government in righteousness. Will we do this ? Who can doubt it? Let us "thank God and take courage." Are not the clouds clearing away and the skies brightening over us? The present Congress has so far done nobly. God give them wisdom and firmness to complete the great work ! How enviable their position of usefulness and influence. How largely will they render a grateful people their debtors, and with what rich historic honors will their names go down to the latest posterity, if they continue faithful to their high trust.

We would contribute our mite to this great result, and therefore do we solicit the reader's serious, candid attention to the following chapters.

Chapter II. Eably Cultivation Op Ethics — Introductory

Even in the earliest ages of the world to which our history of the moral sciences extends, many of the questions brought forward in the following pages, engaged the attention of philosophers and thinking men. They were ably discussed in the different schools; they gave rise to great diversity of sentiment ; they were transmitted to succeeding ages, and they live to this day. And although, as might be expected, much light has been shed upon them, they still are by no means settled; at least great differences of views exist in regard to many of them.

It is scarcely necessary to say that such questions must be very difficult and profound, and that their great importance must have been generally felt. Their whole history, and that of all nations and people show this. Our own country also, as every thoughtful observer must be sensible, gives deeply interesting proofs of

EARLY CULTIVATION OF ETHICS. 23

the same fact. There is, perhaps, not one of these questions, on which there are not opposite views embraced among us ; and errors on some of them have become so manifest and wide-spread as to occasion serious alarm in many reflecting minds.

Indeed, these questions meet us every- where, and touch our interests at all points. They concern the pulpit and every department of government, legislative, judiciary, and executive ; they mainly control the morals and politics of the people. In a word, nothing is so fundamental and all-embracing as ethics.

With truth generally settled and seen by us here, our country is safe. But if such errors as have been developed and extended among us for some years past are not speedily and fairly met and exposed, our free institutions

CAN NOT LAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LONGER. We

venture this assertion without the least misgiving, because we assuredly believe that it is true, not only of individuals, but of communities also — for what are these but aggregates of individuals ? — that " whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."

We have just passed through the terrible war of secession, and only been saved "by the skin of our teeth." But have we not now a

24 ETHICS FOR TEE TIMES.

vastly more alarming struggle before us ? Have we not proofs, in frightful abundance, that we are threatened, as a people, at this moment, with a general moral dissolution? In comparison with such a calamity, secession is but a flea-bite.

At the South this moral dissolution was far advanced years since, and it was rapidly maturing at the breaking out of the rebellion. What but such a general moral dissolution could have emboldened their Jeff*. Davises and Masons to stand up with brazen fronts and pour out their treason even on the floor of the Senate-chamber of the United States? And what but such a moral dissolution running through the whole popular heart of the South could have enabled these perjured traitors to drive the people — against, in many cases, their own votes — like so many unthinking, ferocious brutes into a bloody war against their country ? And — to name no more — what but this state of utter moral dissolution in southern society could have produced such scenes as were daily witnessed among our imprisoned soldiers at Belle Island, at Salisbury and at Andersonville — scenes whose cool, demoniacal atrocity make even Sepoy savages apostles of humanity?

And to come still nearer home, is it not daily

EARLY CULTIVATION OF ETHICS. 25

becoming more and more difficult here at the North to carry out, or even sustain, some of the plainest and most important of God's laws — laws sanctioned, too, by our own legislation, and laws, till within a few years past, universally regarded and upheld ?

Has it not been, for example, next to impossible to convict and capitally punish even the most atrocious murderer ? Indeed, one or two States have already gone so far as to repeal such punishment, thus assuming to be wiser and more humane than the righteous Sovereign of the universe; that they know better than he does what is the just penalty of blood guiltiness, and what would best protect the lives of individuals and guard the general good.

And signs inviting to gambling, in the very teeth of the laws, meet us in every street, and drunkenness is seen reeling all over the land, and, what is still worse, this villainy of intemperance is known to destroy annually millions of dollars' worth of property and thousands of lives by what is most falsely called " Horrible Accidents."

And to such a height has this deluge of shameless profligacy reached, that we now see men in the lofty places of the nation coming

26 ETHICS FOE, THE TIMES.

down and pouring out harangues so low and incendiary to disloyal rabbles, and putting forth manifestoes embodying such notorious misrepresentations, as would make quite respectable the vilest sans-culotte of the French revolution.

After the foregoing was written, there appeared in the Cincinnati Gazette of August 1, 1866, a letter from its Washington correspondent, H. Y. £L B., generally understood to be the gallant and distinguished General Boynton, in which a scene is reported most painfully exemplifying the danger of a moral dissolution pervading the land. We extract the passage:

" After having held and exercised the office of Judge in the Confederacy, and having sworn to support the Confederate Government, he swore before the assembled Senate, among other things, that he had 'never sought, or accepted, or attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever, under any authority, or pretended authority, in hostility to the United States;' and with the former oath admitted, and the latter one on his lips, he took his seat as a Senator."

Taking this to be a correct report, and we see no reason to doubt it, could there be a more palpable instance of flagrant perjury in

EARLY CULTIVATION OF ETHICS. 27

high places, and of a shameless complicity in it by those who sustained the act? A test oath, carefully framed, to prevent traitors from getting scats in the national legislature, had been passed into law just before ; but this law was now trampled under foot, and the President's son-in-law, Mr. Patterson, late a Judge under the rebel government, was admitted to a seat in the Senate of the United States.

"Will the Grand Jury of the District of Columbia present this case ? Do the laws of the District provide for the trial and the punishment of such offenders? If they do not, they must be far below the standard even of the most moderate ethical system. Well might Trumbull, and Wade, and Shellabarger, etc., raise the voice of solemn remonstrance and warning against such a shameful and dangerous procedure. What further evidence need we of a most disastrous moral dissolution threatening our beloved country?

What are w r e coming to ? What are we coming to ? Is not this w r orse than secession? Is it not w r ide-spread, overwhelming evidence of moral dissolution — such a breaking up of "fountains of the great deep" as threatens shipwreck to all w T e hold sacred and dear? Hence, the hearts of very many patriots and thinking men are every-where filled with apprehensions of what is coming upon the nation. But we hope better things. We think we see bright stars, not a few, shedding light over the prospect before us. Good citizens, and Christian men, and patriotic statesmen, in all parts of the land, give hopeful evidence of a waking up to these " signs of the times." They have begun to look the crisis full in the face, and with brave hearts and strong hands are girding themselves up for duty and for danger. They seem to say, " Our country

SHALL AND WILL BE SAVED ! "

But to do this great work we must look back to old foundation principles. We must study these, and determine, God blessing us, to stand upon them and to stand by them. The law of God, and the laws of our country, also, so far as these are in accordance with God's law, we trust will yet stand forth vindicated, and, with all their power to benefit and to bless, be faithfully carried out.

Only in this way will popular morals — the very foundation of our country's liberties — be lifted up and reinvigorated, so as to give us, in the time to come, none but public men worthy of such a people.

Then shall we no more hear our statesmen

EARLY CULTIVATION OF ETHICS. 29

gravely discussing mere policies and expedients, and the embodiment of these in deceitful compromises, framed to favor cunning cliques and selfish aristocracies, while they cruelly oppress multitudes. Do not such crafty, silly statesmen forget — if, indeed, many of them ever knew — that it is principle, and not policy — ■ principle manfully carried out — which alone will save our country? So sure as God reigns, "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Does not a true ethics lie at the foundation of all true statesmanship? and must not mere policy, apart from a true ethics, ultimately ruin a nation?

But, alas ! how short the time — thank God, however, we have almost got safely through it — how short the time when the Higher Law, that is, God's law, was spoken of with the most malignant scorn, even in the Senate-chamber of the United States. Might not the eye of faith have seen, at that moment of impious triumph, a divine hand put forth, and writing on the wall, "Mene, mene, tekel!" — "Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting; the dominion has passed from thee !" (Daniel v: 26-27.) And the then dominant party suddenly rotted down and has perished in its own corruption. Thankful, thrice thankful should we be to Almighty God, that, in his merciful providence, we, as a nation, have been relieved from slavery and its hideous, atheistic outgrowth — a sham Democracy!