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HISTORY

DECLENSION OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC

Ub~ited States.

EVIDENCE OF ITS IMPENDING FALL.

By H. H. MUNN.

CLEVELAND, 0. :
FAIRBANKS, BENEDICT & CO., PRINTERS, HERALD OFFICE
1875.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
H. H. MUNN,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
All rights reserved.

NOTE.
Many will notice that there are several translated works from
which facts have been quoted where the names of the translators
are omitted. It is desirable to state that such errors were made in
copying from the original draft. Those works to which reference is
made are au.thorized standard translations. Where the size of book
in the notes is not mentioned, 8vo. et infra are to be understood.

VOLUME I.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Preliminary Remarks — Advance of Science — Backwardness of
History compared to Advancement of the Sciences — Present
and Past Condition of European Civilization — Of the Fac
ulties of the Mind  17 — 35

CHAPTEE II.
Brief Allusions to the Organization of Mankind into Political
Bodies — Reflections upon an Earlier Age, and the Purity
of Man in a Primitive State  36—46

CHAPTEE III.
The System of Education in the United States one of the Causes
of the Moral Degeneracy of its People — Its Defective
Nature having Extinguished the most flourishing Govern
ments of Modem Antiquity — Evidence of its Demoralizing
Tendency from Grecian and Carthaginian States — Intel
lectual and Moral Qualities of the Lower Classes of the

"VIII CONTENTS.
Carthaginians, compared with the same of the Lower
Classes of the Greeks — Rise and Tendency of Philosophy —
Its great effect upon the Intellectual powers — Comparison
of the Moral and the Intellectual Condition of the Educated
with the Uneducated Greeks — The Great Depravity of the
former and comparative Moral Supremacy of the latter —
The Rapid Development of the Propensities under influence
of Greek Education, and consequent Extinction of Hel
lenic Freedom and Independence — Education too limited,
not too extended — Being limited to the Intellectual, to the
Religious and to the Animal — It becomes, indirectly, one
of the Main Causes of the Disappearance of Viitue from
the majority of the People of "The Great Republic" —
Republican Governments dependent on Moral Principles —
The method of Restoration and Preservation of the latter
disclosed  47—187

CHAPTEE IV.
Brief Reflections on the Culture of the Primitive Faculties of
the Mind — Assumptions of Theologians regarding the Ten
dencies of Religion to enhance the Moral Qualities of
Mankind— Effect of those Assumptions indirectly Contrib
utory to the Reign of the Propensities, and to the Dimin-
ishment of the Moral Sentiments, in the United States of
America— More Pertinacity exhibited by Moderns on this
question than by Ancients— Evidence of this Error shown
by Religious and Moral Qualities of the Carthaginians-
Necessities of direct, separate and systematic Culture of
the Moral Sentiments to Prevent the Nation's Fall  188—260

CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTEE V.
Error of the Chiistian Clergy proved from the history of Jewish
mind from the birth of Abraham to the Egyptian Bond
age—From the Exodus to their Dispersion— General Reflec
tions in Retrospect— The Christian Religion not Defective,
but Misapplied— Acts of the Christian Churches in Amer
ica — The Moral Degeneracy of their Communicants —
Increase of Depravity with the Increase of Religion, the
latter indirectly, though not du'ectly, the cause— Christianity
adapted to the Development of the Religious, but not to
the Development of the Moral, Peelings — Direct Culture of
the Moral Sentiments being omitted in the United States,
partially through the influence of the Clergy, one of the
causes of the disappearance of Virtue in the People —
The Religious and the Moral Feelings, being positive insti
tutions of Nature, of different primitive qualities, require
positive but different kinds of Culture — Penalties for neglect
of either  361—375
CHAPTER VI.
Significance of the Mental Faculties drawn from their Organic
Qualities — Their Primitive State — Causes of Degeneracy —
Course of Degeneracy — Moral Condition of Carthage, of
Greece, of Rome and of western Asia — Demoralization of
Rome inherited, through modern European nations, by
settlers of North America — Enquiry into the Depravity of
Man, to ascertain if that Depravity be not a Derangement
of the Moral Powers — Causes which tended to Restore the

CONTENTS.
Moral Sentiments in the inhabitants of Great Britain —
Improved Condition with Defects transmitted to Pioneers
of the Thirteen Colonies — The present Degeneracy consid
ered a relapse into that Derangement which attended our
Remote Ancestors in the Middle Ages— Necessity of so
treating the Mind to effect for it, in the United States, a
healthy tone of action, by which the Equitable Features of
the Republic may be rendered Enduring Establishments  376 — 426

CHAPTER VII.
No Declension without a status exists from which a Nation can
decline — Partial recovery to a primitive state by Settlers of
North America — Causes which contributed to produce that
recovery — Evidences of that partial Restoration in the
People of the Thirteen Colonies at the period of the Amer
ican Revolution — Change of Character in their immediate
Successors — Contrast of the latter to the former — Attitude
of the Southern Slave States on the question of Slavery-
Decline of the Moral Sentiments in the South — Opinions
and Feelings of Southern Slaveholders enter the North and
stifle the Expressions of Humanity— Decline of the Moral
Sentiments in the North  487 — 531

PREFATORY REMARKS.

In submitting the title of the following pages to the
public, the author is aware that it is liable to encounter the
settled prejudices of a certain portion of the people. He
well understands that the past history of the republic, and
the anticipated glory of its rising greatness, are dear to the
feelings of every true American. Its institutions, the noblest
and farthest advanced in civilization of any ever in exist
ence, have closely interwoven themselves with the sympathies
of every person who has a home in this particular portion
of the New World.
But why should such prejudice exist against a work
written expressly to prevent a final catastrophe ? Why should
patriots close their eyes to the fact, and deign not to examine
a question of such momentous significance ? Does it tend
to precipitate a downfall.? Would the declaration that an
individual must perish unless the disease with which he is
afflicted be neutralized, be detrimental to the patient.? Is
it not directly opposed to a premature ending, and some
what adapted to render life more probable ? Shall we be

XII PREFATORY REMARKS.
oblivious of truth that we be not pained by the contempla
tion of error? It is no evidence of wisdom, it is no proof
of attachment to refuse to investigate the nature of those
unnatural conditions which tend to remove a beloved object.
Our pride of self should not be more sensitive than that of
virtue. We should not be so callous to the one as to become
insensible to the other. Shall the fearless indifference of the
Stoic, shall the negative asperities of the Cynic, lightly and
summarily dispose of the welfare of a great people? Shall
the question be ignored, be postponed till evils are remedi
less ? Shall these trivial considerations blindly permit us to
pass over curable difficulties until their immensity impels a
Livy to direct our attention to the "structure of" our
"ancient morals," (viewing its decline) "at first, as it were,
leaning aside, then sinking farther and farther, then begin
ning to fall precipitate until he arrives at the present times,
when our vices have attained to such a hight of enormity
that we can no longer endure either the burden of them or
the sharpness of tjie necessary remedies." Is this the wis
dom that ought to be exhibited by the posterity of those
few revolutionary colonists, who converted one-half of the
globe into republics, and for a time seriously threatened to
reverse the political map of Europe? A passive insensibil
ity under contemptous feelings is accessory to the evil, and
contributory to our overthrow. Late may become too late,
that which is curable become incurable.
But very few can trace their lineage farther back into
the earlier days of the republic, or have their feelings and

PREFATORY REMARKS. XIII
interests more identified with its past history and its future
prospects than the author. His interest and happiness, as
much as those of any other, depend upon its prosperity, his
sorrow and mortification upon its fall. It was, therefore,
not for the creation of capital, pecuniary nor political, it
was no feeling of malevolence, no evil desire that prompted
the author to point out the dangers which threaten the
freedom of the land, and indicate the nature of those for
eign elements which are rapidly decomposing the most vital
principles of the repubHc. Individuals whose characters
remain untarnished by the corruptions of the present gene
rations, cannot be indifferent to the fate of the ship of state
when it is in danger of becoming a wreck from the fury of
the elements.
Those chapters which relate to the Carthaginian, to the
Hebrew, and to the Grecian histories, were written to expose
the errors of our present system of education, as the same,
though more limited, attended those remarkable powers
during their infancy, maturity and decline. The author felt
that the subjects discussed in them could not be omitted so
long as their tendency contributes to remove the republican
qualities from the masses of the nation. To suggest this,
and hint at an application more properly adapted to their
limited scope, limited, as at present it is, to the rehgious
and to the intellectual life, as will appear from perusal, was
one of the immediate, although subordinate, objects of that
portion of the work.
Whether this attempt to control and direct our national

XIV PREFATORY REMARKS.
life by additional culture, as unfolded in the general intro
duction, be successful or not, it depends, in my opinion, on
the action or the inaction of the people. But whichever this
may be, it is certain that we cannot continue to progress
very long in that direction which has hitherto marked our
national career. It is well known to all educated minds
that the constitutions of governments must be molded into
conformity to the moral condition of the people. I And what
is that moral condition in the United States ? Can any one
say that it is very flattering? Every individual, who, by
nature and acquirement, is enabled to comprehend the
principles of civil government as applicable to the mental
powers, is no less astonished than saddened at the great
amount of corruption which is continually springing up
around him.^ And sadder yet it is when to this thought is
coupled the fact that if there should be a complete change
in the people there must follow one in the civil government.
Although a strong centralized government may be better
adapted to control the vile, it is not necessary to influence
the actions of the just, nor desirable with them.
The fall of the republic is one of the most grevious mis
fortunes which an American can possibly anticipate. Unlike
the huge and overgrown monarchies, which were erected by
the brutal qualities of man in the earlier ages of the world
against the interests of the people, it stands to-day without
having had a peer in the institutional features of its organ
ization, the most gentle, the most just and the most enlight
ened. Should it continue another century, it is altogether

PREFATORY REMARKS. XV
probable that no despotism will remain in Europe. If it
fall, if fall it must, in important epochs, the event will be
only second to the general judgment of mankind. It
belongs to you, Americans, to say if the principles of equity
shall cease, and the world be remanded back into those bar
barous relations which beclouded the white races in the
middle ages. /
If the following pages make some contribution, however
small, to check the progress of evil by directing the attention
of our people to the subject of decline and the necessity
of reformatory measures, the author will feel rewarded for
the labor he has bestowed upon them.
East Rockport, Ohio, October 6, 1875.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Preliminary Remarks— Advance of Science — Backwardness of History
compared to Advancement of the Sciences — ^Present and Past
Condition of European Civilization — Of the Faculties of the Mind.
The nses to which history can be applied, depend
npon the treatment of the subject and the capacity
of the reader. A connected narration of the events
of nations merely, may amuse the feelings of such
readers as are unaccustomed to reflect upon the great
laws which govern society, but can force them to
make little advancement, except in a limited intel
lectual view, upon those regretful conditions which
existed in the past. The students of history, with
very few exceptions, have studied only those branches
of the subject which fall withiu the knowledge of
the external senses. Their ultimate object has been
to treat of the wars between independent states, of
the overthrow of nations, or of the fall of dynasties.
But as little preparation to intelligently understand
the tendencies of the human mind and the influences
2

18 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
to which it is subjected by external objects, has been
made by historians, their productions partake of the
same character, carrying the reader no farther than to
a detail of such facts as tend to enlarge his learning,
by generating in him a memory of particulars, to
inflame his passions, to produce feelings of joy or of
sorrow, of indignation or to impress discouragement
on him at the depravity which man has continued to
exhibit through an unbroken series of ages, teaching
him the vanity of struggling for those things which
are sure to be soon swept away by the rude nature
of conquerors, or by the storms of revolution.
All branches of physics have been reduced to
science, and progress has been made in them, which,
had even such attempts been put forward three
centuries ago, would have been overcome by the
fanatic incredulity of mankind. Those phenomena of
nature which were once considered inexplicable, are
now fully explained and understood, and those who
sought to understand them by their investigation, as
guilty of great rashness, impiety and folly, are now at
least exempted from political persecution. Nor have
spirits of scientific tendency been satisfied with knowl
edge thus acquired. The curiosity of the world has
explored the sepulcher of the prince and the peasant
of remote times and countries in pursuit of informa
tion, resulting in partial restoration of languages

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 19
long since lost to human memory, and cities which,
during their thriftiest growth, freighted with living
inhabitants, by convulsions of nature, like man him
self, had gone to their graves without monuments
to mark the site of their burial, have been disen
tombed to satisfy this curiosity of man in the present
of the condition of man in the past. And while
the laws of life, those of birth, growth, sickness
and death are studied from a scientific base with
something like becoming accuracy, and the days of
man thereby prolonged ; while the elements of nature,
by knowledge of their laws, have been subjected and
applied to the ease, comfort and convenience of man,
little progress has been made in the study and
application of history to subserve and promote, in
like manner, the interests of the race. Diseases of
which man formerly sickened and died are now
rendered harmless by application of therapeutics;
and by an understanding of those laws which control
organic life applied to ossifrage and other injuries to
the person, which injuries once, by the backwardness
of science, would have been considered as fatal, are
now regarded as of trivial moment. Most everything
which falls within range of the intellectual faculties
of the mind, but history itself, has been reduced to,
or is approaching, a condition that is in conformity
to a scientific mold.

30 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
In very few instances, and most recently at that,
some works of extraordinary merit have appeared,
contributing very much to bring history forward in
one or two partixjulars to that standard of knowl
edge which, in other branches the white and Semitic
races have been enabled to reach. What avaU is it
to mortal to read a long detail of events made up
of the momentary happiness or lasting calamity of
nations? What lessons of wisdom do we derive by
learning, for example, that the republic of Rome
ceased to be when Caesar triumphed over Pompey in
the civil war, and that the republican rights of the
masses were sacrificed by the selfishness of the suc
cessful competitor, unless we understand the causes
which for several generations had been gradually pro
ducing the result, and making the conquest of freedom
by absolutism possible? The student learns what
followed the civil war and some facts relating to it
which preceded it ; that many of the patrician families
were false to the state and to each other ; that there
was a general corruption among the people, a deteri
oration from the founders of the city and the
conquerors of the world; but farther than this no
inquiry is made. Thus he stops with a knowledge of
those facts which fall within range of the external
senses. But those causes which corrupted the masses
of the nation and thrust the nobler sentiments in

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 21
subordination to the viler passions, and thereby made
the career of Caesar more than a possible necessity,
are never studied and mentally digested. So that
should the same combination of evil causes be in
active life in any contemporary nation, its inhabitants,
even its learned, its professionals, politicians and
statesmen would not perceive their quiet but pro
ductive operations tUl, by the striking similarity of
new troubles to old characters and events, they
should, after the loss of their freedom, in the exu
berancy of surprise, discover that for a long time
nine-tenths of their countrymen had been afilicted
with those moral disorders which, in diverse coun
tries and ages, produced their fruits in giving birth
to the treachery of Napoleon and the treason of
Caesar. Should the causes which degenerated the republics
and constitutional governments of antiquity be known
to mankind as plainly as the events which mark
their beginnings and their ends, those causes, under
a healthy regimen of public thought, might be some
what directed, partially diverted, or totally avoided.
But we are met at the very threshold of the question
with the voluntary statement that they can never be
known with sufficient certainty to warrant general
adoption and action. It is the least considerable
feature of this objection that it savors strongly of

22 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
that stupidity, superstition and ignorance which
obstructed the progress of knowledge, and dissemi
nated darkness throughout Europe during the Middle
Ages. There was a time, no doubt, when this alle
gation might have been held with some approach to
truth; but since many of the questions of inquiry,
to which was once presented more of a forbidding,
more of a formidable opposition from the superstition
of mankind, have been thoroughly systematized, and
thereby erected into sciences, the philosophic histo
rian has but to become acquainted with these that
he may know, by their proper application to any
given nation, the progress it is making toward a
healthy maturity or a sickly existence, and, of course,
an early decay. It is, therefore, by an understanding
of political economy, mental philosophy, physics,
statistics, laws of life, climatic influences and the
causes of the degeneracy of nations, that furnishes
the key to unlock to the student the decline or
progress that any nation of mankind has been forced
or enabled to make.
If it be true that Europe has been advancing in
civilization for the last three centuries, it can be only
claimed as an intellectual one. If man now be
apparently less harsh in the exhibition of his feelings
than formerly, it is to be attributed mainly to his
greater vanity and education. It is in consequence

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 23
of having been changed by several causes, not
essentially in nature but in manner, from the coarse
cruelties of the Middle Ages to the refined barbar
isms of the more modern times. Man, since the
beginning of the Reformation, has advanced, it is
true, but partially so only. The reasoning powers
of his mind have increased in strength and made
positive progress in the knowledge of those laws by
which organic life and external objects are controlled.
But while this part of mental life has thus pro
gressed, a part, also, has remained in that condition
in which it existed during the unbroken reign of the
Papacy. Education has changed man in expression,
has given him more of a smooth exterior, but
on the whole, he has made no very considerable
advancement in ridding himself of those barbarous
feelings of which, eighteen centuries ago, we find him
to have been composed. Although this backward
ness of the moral nature of man cannot be directly
attributed to defective historic methods, this moral
portion would, nevertheless, have come forward with
his intellectual, had history been made to improve
as science advanced.
As everything treated of by man, of an historical
nature, has fallen under the head of efiects than
the causes of effects, the natural order of things on
this subject has been reversed. Hence the great

24 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
degeneracy, as we shall hereafter discover, which man
has suffered in different ages, should no more excite
our pity for his calamities than our surprise at his
stupidity. Had his attention been directed to those
causes which produce , ethical qualities, he had been
somewhat fortified, and I may say, in proportion to
his industry, possessed of the power to shapen their
tendency, to direct the whole mind, and to control
the national as well as the individual life. The
neglect of these truths has, I venture to assert,
overthrown his liberty and deprived him of that
happiness which a permanent prosperity is sure to
produce. Republicanism springs from those moral elements
which desire justice and carry it into individual acts,
acts by which all are equally privileged before the
law, in which all are equally taxed to support the
government. When these primitive elements in the
majority are diminished in quantity, justice ceases
to characterize the acts of that majority, under the
well known law that effects bear a due proportion
to their causes. If this has long been the case, even
for a quarter of a century, in an age like the pres
ent, when everything tends to rapid development in
strange and startling combinations, with any govern
ment of mankind, it is greatly declining in power,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 25
is careering to its fall, notwithstanding it may
present such deceptive appearances as extension of
territory, growth in wealth and great acquisition of
military glory. Greece, Carthage and Rome, the
most renowned republics of antiquity, exhibited as
great heroism, self-sacrifice and military sagacity as
historians have of other nations recorded, the first in
the Peloponnesian, the two last in the Second Punic
war. Yet the first, upon the close of the struggle,
surrendered its liberty and became a slave; the sec
ond, accepting the fire and the sword of the Roman
soldier, ceased to be. The last, very soon after the
close of a war which gave her universal domination,
was transformed into a despotism, and the Eternal
City, instead of continuing the abode of contentment
and might, became the receptacle of every species of
vice and crime and hence not only the happiness
but the comfort of the people also was expunged.
By the conquest of Carthage, (which, although mainly
accomplished in the Second, was not completed tUl
the Third, Punic war,) she was raised to universal
supremacy ; her independency was secure, and none
could hopefully offer successful opposition to her
aggressive claims. But in this, as in many other
instances before and since, it was equally a descent
of the conqueror as well as the conquered to a con
dition of moral wretchedness which must have placed

26 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the contemporary moralist in utter despair. Although
she had conquered the world and placed her inde
pendency beyond question, she had lost her freedom.
Although Rome had achieved a formal triumph over
the political states of Asia and Africa, their vices had
subjected almost every portion of her people, in the
very heart of the republic. Her domination over them
was nominal, while theirs over her was real. WhUe
they left her the honor or odium of claiming uni
versal dominion, they enjoyed it. Although the
formal independency of Grecia, Asia and Africa had
been extinguished, Rome had been subdued by the
vices of the South and the East.
The imperial, which succeeded the republican, form
of government in Rome, seemed to be more of votary
to the vices of the eastern world than an originator of
them. Public crimes and private vices, being prac
tised in the upper, rapidly spread to the lower,
classes, through that imitative genius which the
human mind has never failed to exhibit in all
climes and countries. The three universal mon
archies, which had ruled over Asia, had effectually
expunged all ethical principles from the people ; and
Rome under the Caesars was enabled, by similar
methods, to produce the same results of moral
sterility in the inhabitants of Europe. As the
primitive :faculties of the mind are innate, those

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 27
cultured into active life gave character to the peo
ple, and for several generations before the fall of
the republic and the empire, robbery, theft, adultery,
treason and murder were the barbarous character
istics which bore rule over all tribes and nations.
As far as the effects to the corrupt are concerned,
we may feel almost a total indifference to the calam
ities which their corrupt course of life may have
produced upon them, yet when we come to consider
that vice and virtue are alike descendable from
generation to generation, from age to age ; that also
we inherited the tendencies which the Roman people
had to vices, more fully than did Rome those of Asia
and Africa, it may be made as much a matter of
concernment to know what we received as whence
we came.
Human progress has been about the same at all
periods; political and pecuniary prosperity preced
ing and accompanying a moral decline ; and most
nations, which have fallen, have been overthrown
at or almost immediately after the most prodigious
exhibition of their powers. This ought to teach us
that national is as frail and uncertain as human life.
It teaches us the sad lesson that to-day we may have
the most buoyant hopes and joyous feelings at the
glory to which our nation has arrived, but to-morrow,
comparatively, be called to shed our tears and offer our

28 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
prayers in vain over her mortal remains. It warns us
that the vast edifices, the numerous temples of liberty
which have been planted by the people of "The Great
Republic," in the various portions of the land,
may, long before another century shall have been
added to the age of the Christian era, be dismantled
by the ambitious, by the profane, and the material
of which they are composed be enrobed in the moss
of decay and moldering into dust.
We are usually deceived by those indices of exter
nal conditions, which pertain more to apparent than
to real prosperity, such as multiplication in people,
in wealth and in territory; whereas it is known to
all mankind that riches tends to corrupt its recip
ients ; that very extended dominions more completely
drain the treasury, in erecting fortifications, building
harbors, railways and otherwise developing the
resources of the country; and that in cases of
insurrection or invasion complicate the action of
government in their defense ; and again, as the inhab
itants become corrupt their greater number becomes
more of a standing menace to the symbols of repub
lican life, by giving rise and activity to dissenting
factions, than protectors of its form. The mind in
practical life, being so constantly called to contem
plate effects, seldom dweUs upon causes, and hence
views only the apparent and not the reaL It is

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 29
I say, these deceptive appearances which have
misled man in his estimates of political prosperity
in republics. When we behold the acute ingenuity
of mankind culminating in astounding discoveries
and inventions, we are very apt to conclude that we
are in a state of progression. This, so far as intel
lectuality is concerned, may be correct; in it there
may be progression, but it should not be forgotten
that republican and constitutional governments do
not arise from the intellectual but from the moral
primitive elements of the mind.
As most of the American people are eminentlj
skeptical, their minds reject tolerably well ascer
tained facts and events, adopting instead thereof the
theoretical views of speculative thought. To an
unbounded hope is joined a courage almost as
unlimited, silencing those warnings of caution, which
are produced by the legitimate and natural language
of surrounding circumstances. From such condition
of mental organization is generated a recklessness that
enables individuals to defy the worst possible phases
of co-ordinate evils, giving those individuals capacity
to slumber in peace and quiet on the brink of nascent
revolutions. Hence, national calamities presented to
their understanding meet a critical antagonism that
is strongly tinctured with the vindictiveness and
scurrility of Warburtonianism. As doubt on general

30 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
questions is a fundamental characteristic, a tendency
ensues that is predisposed to dispute the truths of
things which, to a mind of circumspection, appears
evident to the senses. Hence, American mind dis
putes all questions and forces proof. Whoever,
therefore, desires to call public attention to impend
ing national troubles, if he wish to effect a reform
to avert calamities, is necessarily compelled to bring
forward rigid evidence to Support his declaration.
Of this we do not complain, but it may answer as
explanation to the inquiry why the following pages
were brought into existence.
It is not our design to enter upon an elaborate
discussion of mental philosophy, but to such extent
only as we think should be devoted to it by the
requirements of the case, and the space limited to
ourselves in the treatment of the subject. We shall
use, whenever occasion requires, the nomenclature of
the GaUian philosophy, as it does, in our opinion,
correspond better with the primitive faculties of the
mind than any other with which we are acquainted. ^

I In thla view we feel supported by Auguste Comte, one of the ablest
thinkers of modern times. In his great work he says: "Among the
innumerable objections which have been aimed at this fine doctrine,
considered as n, whole, the only one which merits discussion here Is the
supposed necessity of human actions. * * * Gall has fully and clearly
exposed the cowerlessness of metaphysical methdds for the study of
li tellectual and moral phenomena; and in the present state of the human
mind, all diaoussion on this subject is superfluous. The great philosophical

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 31
The reflections of the following pages, in so far as
those pages relate to the united or to the independ
ent action of the faculties, are based upon it as
it was left when it came from the hands of Dr.
Spurzheim, in an improved condition.
There are conditions of individual objects which
are called by philosophers the secondary qualities of
matter. These, for the benefit of the general reader,
may be known as configuration, quantity, color and
impenetrability. The secondary qualities of matter
are not immediately cognizant to the thinking powers
of the mind. They are taken into the mind and
there impressed that instant the eyes rest upon them.
It is empirical with every individual that at a glance
of the eye he has an immediate impression of the
size, color, form and resistance of any given external
object. The impression is as instantaneous as the
action of light, to the rapidity of which it appears
to be in just proportion. The mental faculties which
take cognizance of the secondary qualities of matter,
whatever they may be, when acted upon by external
objects, are in a condition of passive receptivity.
The images impressed upon these faculties by objects

cause is tried and judged; and the metaphysicians have passed from a state
of domination to one of protestation, in the learned world at least, where
their opposition would obtain no attention but for the inconvenience of
their still impeding the progress of popular reason."— PosnrrK Phtlosopht,
330 and 382.

32 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of the external world are not immediately presented
to the reasoning fajculties, although the inceptive
action of the latter and the final of the former appear
to be simultaneous.
The faculties of reason require time for their oper
ation, while the perceptives do not.» With the latter,
the effects produced upon them by external objects
occur in time, or otherwise those faculties could have
no existence; but they do not require a prolonga
tion of time to receive impressions from without.
Everything in the organic world is dynamical in its
primitive nature, requiring time for composition or
decomposition, extension or contraction, the faculties
and organs of which it is possessed being subjected
to the same general law.
Reason and perception frequently occur so as to
mislead the mind into the supposition that they are
compound operations derivable from a single source
or faculty. But the former succeeds the latter, that
is, those faculties which, by their action give rise to
reason, direct their operations upon the impressions
produced upon the perceptions from without. There
fore, the former cannot begin before the latter has ter
minated. If reason require time and perception do

2 The faculties whose peculiar province is to take cognizance of the
secondary qualities of external objects are termed by phrenologists percep
tive faculties.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 83
not, they cannot be derivable from the same faculty
exercising different functions. If, also, the reasoning
faculties are not, in the first instance, cognizant of
the secondary qualities of matter, they have no direct
relative knowledge of the external world. They
receive their knowledge secondarily, and, therefore,
their knowledge is not direcly relative, being fur
nished with the data by the operations of other
primitive powers.
The perceptions cannot be identical with instinct,
for the latter is a feeling which has terminated its
actions, while the former are effects produced upon
faculties which are destitute of emotions.
Judgment is the determinate action of those
faculties whose peculiar province is to reason ; and
are called by the disciples of Gall, Causality and
Comparison. The Consciousness of Sir William Hamilton is not
cognizant of the secondary qualities of matter. It
has no knowledge of things from the external world,
and depends not on its own action. Consciousness is
the condition of one faculty after the action of that one
faculty,— the impression produced upon that faculty
by its own operation, and does not have existence till
after that operation. It is not a primitive faculty.
Man is possessed of fundamental moral faculties,
which, to me, occur as best represented by the names
s

34 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSIOW.
of Conscientiousness and Benevolence.* These moral
powers are among the most important faculties of the
mind, and in the past, have either been overlooked or
entirely misunderstood.* They are designed to render
one individual just in all his relations with another,
and give him feelings of compassion at the misfor
tunes of others. They suppress fraud, cruelty and
oppression. These faculties are feelings.
He has fundamental religious faculties, which may
be known by the terms Marvelousness and Venera
tion. These appear to be designed to render man
credulous in the works of Providence, and reverential
toward His laws and the attributes of His being.
Man is also possessed, to a high degree, of funda
mental faculties, which endear him to his family and

3 It is to be understood that no reference is here made to anatomy.
4. As to the comparative superiority of Dr. G-all's method over the
psychological, Auguste Comte remarks : " As to the doctrine," psychology,
"the first glance shows a radical fault in It, common to all sects,— a false
estini«<^n of the general relations between the affective and the Intellectual
faculties. However various may be the theories about the preponderance
of the latter, all metaphysicians assert that preponderance by making these
faculties their starting point. The intellect is almost exclusively the subject
of their speculations, and the affections have been almost entirely neglected;
and, moreover, always subordinated to the understanding. Now such a
conception represents precisely the reverse of the reality; not only for
animals, but for man also ; for daily experience shows that the affections,
the propensities, the passions, are the great springs of human life and
that, so far from resulting from intelligence, their spontaneous and Inde
pendent impulse is indispensable to the first awakening and continuous
development of the various Intellectual faculties, by assigning to them a
permanent end, without which- to say nothing of the vagueness of their
general direction— they remain dormant in the majority of men."— Positive
FhIIiOSOPHT, 381.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 35
all those friendships formed in the social circle or
around the hearthstones of his fireside.
There are primitive selfish sentiments or faculties.
There are also primitive mental powers which exer
cise the functions of reason, constitute "that god
like intellect" about which we have heard too much ;
no more "god-like" than any of the instruments of
the affective faculties. They constitute the instru
mentality by which the moral, the religious, th6
domestic, the selfish and the animal primitive powers
of the miud accomplish their ends.
He has, as has been implied, in common with other
portions of the animal creation, primitive animal
faculties or propensities. They are designed to render
man executive, or destructive, as the occasion may
require ; bold, acquisitive, secretive, efficient, enter
prising and industrious. Man has all the faculties
of which the animals below him are possessed, and
many more which they have not.

CHAPTER n.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Brief Allusions to the Organization of Mankind into Political Bodies —
Reflections upon an Earlier Age, and the Purity of Man in a
Pnmitive State.

Little is positively known as to the exact period
of time when government first had its beginning, or
the precise locality of its origin. Although we have
the history of the Hebrews, it does not furnish
satisfactory evidence regarding the condition of gov
ernments, or of the organization of mankind into
political corporations, preceding the birth of Abra
ham. But from 2000 B. C. to that epoch their
history makes known to us, by the relation of their
own events, something of the constitutional nature
of surrounding states then in existence. The Egypt
ian monarchy was, at the birth of Abraham, a
highly civilized power, and in the zenith of its
glory. "The very first among the descendants of
Noah whose individuality and personality is clear
to us— the very first whose doings can be brought
(36)

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 37
into relation with events otherwise known or recog
nizable in the history of man— is introduced in a
manner which reveals the fact that different races of
the human family had then already been long estab
lished and widely spread. The memorable and
mysterious journey which brought Terah into Haran
on his way to Canaan, was a journey beginning
in that ancient home, Ur, already known as 'of
the Chaldees.' And when his son Abraham appears
upon the scene, we find ourselves already in the
presence of the monarchy of Egypt, and of the
advanced civilization of the Pharaohs." And again,
"the most moderate computation, however, carries
the foundation of that monarchy as far back as
seven hundred years before the visit of the Hebrew
patriarch."! Before the birth of Abraham's imme
diate progenitor there is no recorded history that is
at all credible. Yet this pristine history of the
Hebrews acquaints us with governments which had
reached a high state of civilization. Beyond this
history of the Israelites all that we know or can
know must come from the reasonable conjectures of
mankind, as the sciences of geology and archaeology

I Primeval Man, by Duke of Argyll, page 82 ; see also the opinion of
Josephus on the length of time which elapsed from the building of Memphis
by Menes, king of Eg3rpt, to the beginning of the reign of king Solomon,
making a period of twenty-three hundred years before Christ. Also the
history of Abraham in Genesis.— ANTiQUiTrBS, liber 8, sect. 2, chap. 1.

38 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
furnish little aid, in consequence of the contradictory
nature of their primitive state.
Before man was subjected to monarchial power,
before he had been organized into any form of
government such as is related by the Jewish patri
arch, Moses, he lived in some manner not wholly
known to us. Governments arise from necessity,
are forced into existence in consequence of a corrupt
state of morals. This period in which man existed
before governmental organization is generally known
to mankind as the primitive age. In this age it
is generally believed that a pure despotism gov
erned mankind. That the sex, the individual,
possessing the greatest physical strength, controlled
the actions of the other. It, however, is altogether
probable that no despotism existed at all. That
doubtless, was the manner by which warriors after
wards became great chieftains, and subjected their
fellow-men to a subordinate condition. We believe it
is nowhere contended that man was as venal, and
if he were less corrupt, he was the more moral.
Man in these early days lived under the influence
of the natural action of the fundamental faculties of
the mind ; and as his moral, religious and domestic
feelings were in about equal proportion, and perfect
in the production of legitimate moral principles,
there is reason to believe that he was just.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 39
It has been supposed, and very correctly, too, that
man is the happiest when in the enjoyment of the
greatest number of his mental faculties ; that is, when
all are in the discharge of their legitimate functions.
Before they had been perverted, before an undue
stimulus of a portion over those of others, and before
those overstimulated faculties had been reduced to a
condition of debauchery by long-continued perverted
action, he was in the full possession of every portion
of his being.
In this primitive condition, man was not subject to
those abnormal relations in the external world which
produced their results in subsequent times, and now
mark his character. With him no gorgeous liveries
were flaunted in the eyes of mankind while their
owners were in a condition of financial bankruptcy.
He lived in no showy and extravagant palace, beyond
the capacity of his means, but according to the require
ments of his needs. He was no member of a popular
church, professing a belief in Divine revelation and the
accountabilities therein contained, while he privately
endorsed the development theories of a pantheist. He
had not the income of thousands, which he uselessly
expended on imposing church establishments, while
the poor were starving for want within the precincts of
his residence. He did not subsidize the corrupt for
political preferment. He pandered not to institutions

40 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of vice, nor to the lust of avarice, for the purpose of
establishing a constituency, when it contributed to
undermine the liberties of his country and to effect the .
enslavement of his race. He did not appropriate the
false notions of a degenerate age, because they were
popular with the masses, when those notions tended
to disorganize society by presenting the characteristics
of duplicity as an example for imitation to rising gen
erations. He did not suborn legislative minds for the
passage of laws made suitable for the success of his
financial schemes. He did not defraud his govern
ment of its revenues by the thief-like importation of
goods, through which was built up the largest mercan
tile fortune in the metropolitan city of his country.
He planted no factory under his residence to intoxicate
mankind by the sale of its productions, and defraud
his fellow-citizens, avoiding the discovery, and thus
the visits, of revenue officials by the secresy of its
locality. His noble qualities prevented him from fall
ing into the nothingness of the ape. He did not
endorse the sentiments of powerful political parties,
because they rewarded his services by the cloyment of
his ambition. He was no contemptible sycophant,
cringing to those in power for patronage. Orgasm
had not arrived at that degree of progression Avhich
impelled one sex to forever blast the happiness of the
other, violating the obligations of the marriage compact

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 41
by the continual recurrence of incontinency, and
culminating in the belief, among many of mankind,
•as it did with the pure and philosophic Essenes, « that
no woman "preserves her fidelity to one man," and
vice versa. He was not a professed Christian, attend
ing divine service with a sanctimonious countenance,
whUe the nature of his stock-jobbing rendered him
doubly meaner than the robber or the thief. He did
not wink at the depravity of others, because he him
self was guilty of fraud. He did not cultivate the
fellowship of the dishonest rich, because of those
riches, and reject the same of the honest poor. He
did not embezzle the funds entrusted to his charge. In
short, he did not make rascality and deception points
of scientific attainment, but appeared what he really
was — a candid man, and a nobleman of nature.
What ruled in this early age of the world, when
every faculty of man' s soul was in the discharge of its
legitimate functions ? Was it the animal powers of the
mind, that do in our own age ? If he were not rich, he
did not study out the method by which he might
become so by fraud upon his feUow. He was not
engaged in the occupation of human bloodshed until
the days of tribal government. His wants were few
and easily satisfied, spending his time in the promotion
" Wars of the Jews, lib. 2. chap. 8, sect. 2.

42 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
rather than in the perversion of the natural laws, by
which he was kept within the effects of those faculties
which produce the greatest happiness and the most.
lasting blessings. Could it have been "barbarism"
that ruled primitive man, as its elements, in a softened
sense, do us ? Was it not rather those great human
attributes, those moral laws of justice and of kindness
which were instituted by Providence in the beginning,
and wUl continue to the end, of the world ; and as we,
as individuals, as societies, and as nations, have
attempted to pervert them, and shapen them to our
own short-sighted purposes, they have invariably
involved us in our own ruin ? Every nation, almost
without exception, that has terminated its existence
from the year one to the close of the eighteenth cen
tury, has fallen by a suicidal hand. Perversity to the
laws was the immediate cause of its extinction.
Man in the primitive age was in an independent
condition, bound to no political rules, and to no
regulations. No combinations of individuals required
a partnership to the profits arising from his industry,
which was no sooner obtained than squandered in
the oppression and slaughter of his fellow men.
His was a self-government, free and not dependent ;
free from all debasing appetites. There were no
centralized organizations so solicitous of his welfare
as to curtail his Hberty. He was independent

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 43
because he owed no obligations to a complicated
and arbitrary government.
Wherever there is a strong government there is
just as strong evidence that a large portion of the
people have a propensity to violate the rights of
others. Under such circumstances monarchial rule
must be maintained. But a free government can
not well exist in a land where an absolute polity
has been the form to which the people have been
accustomed. The reason is obvious. By its long
establishment it has, in a measure, stilled free
thought and inquiry, checked the mutual expression
of principles that arise from equity and the spirit
of independence. The practical effect of despotic
tenets erases from the mind of the subordinate class
all notions of self-government. Accustomed to being
controlled, instead of controlling and keeping self
withiu moral restraint, they know little or nothing
about government in a condition of liberty. Having
become habituated to corruption and misrule, and
to the contemplation of outraged morality from birth
to middle age, mind yields to impressions of pre
vailing evil. The habitude of mind to the impression
of such criminal pleas as potentates foster, soon
extinguishes moral elements from the masses. Prom
generation to generation the operating causes are

44 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the same, dealing mortal blows to man's higher
nature, the people in each succeeding half century
inheriting a greater predisposition to crime, until
virtue, as a controlling power, is entirely driven
from the empire of mind. The bad conduct of the
higher is imitated by the lower, and the views and
habits of persons eminent for wealth, for birth, or
for distinction, are readily appropriated by the nation.
The ruled in despotic governments do not concern
themselves to know whether the course taken by the
executive be a just one. As monarchial powers subsist
on selfish principles, and as also after long contin
uance they are productive of the same elements in
the people at large, the probability is that the
feelings of the nation would in time become entirely
engaged with material, social, and political conse
quences. After these influences have weighed upon
the mind for a couple of generations, the nation
essentially becomes a menagerie, exhibiting naught
but animal qualities. When a thirst for gold has
taken hold of the people, there is little thought of
but wealth, and nothing else respected. Respecting
nothing but riches, for the rich only is legislation.
After the whole nation has, in this manner, exerted
those faculties common to the animals till the effect
on character is complete, there is no true represen
tative of that nation but selfishness. If the power

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 45
be an electoral, or an hereditary, one, the result is
the same. The laws, therefore^ enacted by a legis
lature, or by a crown, partake of the character of
the people and of the times.
If the elements of morality are not fundamental,
then there are no such things as truth, justice and
compassion within the comprehensibility of finite
mind. But as it is generally conceded that there
are moral faculties, it must also be conceded that
they are adapted, by inherent constitution, to a
superintending scope. As also all the other faculties
are appointed to determinate functions, the moral
were designed, or adapted, to predominate over the
others, and thus direct the life.
There is no effect without its cause, and I think
we may rationally conclude that whatever there is,
which is an attribute of man's nature, it is an effect,
the cause of which resides in the mind, and not
educated into it through the intellectual. All men are
possessed of the same number of faculties, although
not in equal degree of development. Few are prepared
to deny that justice and benevolence are intuitive
in man ; they are peculiar feelings, their great devel
opment proper to man only. If man's moral feelings
are derived from innate faculties, we are warranted in
drawing the conclusion that the present man drew
these primitive causes from his genetic predecessors.

46 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
So that as he received the primitive causes of mental
qualities from no other source than from heredita
ment, he must be possessed of the same faculties
to-day that he was in the primitive ages.
When we read the first creditable records, and
find that monarchial governments were already estab
lished, of which mention has been made, our
attention is attracted by a state of things which
corresponds less to a primitive than to a fallen con
dition. * So that the situation in which we first find
man was one which already surrounded him with
those external causes that tended stUl more to widen
the departure. From this time forward, except in
few instances, the course of mind was directed less
toward a restoration than toward a degeneracy.
The idea that man once held a moral status is what
we here wish to impress upon the mind. Although
we claim no more for it, in this place, than con
jecture, we think it to be altogether probable, and
in a subsequent portion of the introduction wUl
expose some views in outline, which, when carried
out, will, we feel assured, establish the position
beyond controversy.

3 I think it may be fairly considered from the following passage,
that the most enlightened ancients believed that monarchial governments
had no existence until after man changed, in his mental qualities, from a
primitive state. Sallust alleges that " reges (nam in terris nomen imperii id
primum fuit)," * * * that is, centralized power by organized govern-
ments.- SAiiiiTTST's Consfikaot op Catiline, by Charles Anthon, page 79.

CHAPTER m.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

The System of Education in the United States one of the Causes of the
Moral Degeneracy of its People— Its Defective Natm-e having Extin
guished the most flourishing Governments of Modern Antiquity —
Evidence of its Demoralizing Tendency from Grecian and Carthagin
ian States — Intellectual and Moral Qualities of the Lower Classes of
the Carthaginians, compared vrith the same of the Lower Classes
of the Greeks — Rise and Tendency of Philosophy— Its great effect
upon the Intellectual powers — Comparison of the Moral and the
Intellectual Condition of the Educated and the Uneducated Greeks —
The Great Depravity of the former and comparative Moral Suprem
acy of the latter — The Rapid Development of the Propensities under
influence of Greek Education, and consequent Extinction of Hel
lenic Freedom and Independence — Education too limited, not too
extended — Being limited to the Intellectual, to the Religious and
to the Animal — It becomes, indirectly, one of the Main Causes of
the Disappearance of Virtue from the majority of the People of
"The Great Republic" — Republican Governments dependent on
Moral Principles — The method of Restoration and Preservation of
the latter disclosed.
The system of education now exclusively pursued,
except a culture of the religious faculties, is the only
one that ever was in vogue. This system has never
addressed itself to any other portion of man's mind
than his intellect. The strengthening of this by dis
cipline has received the almost undivided attention
(47)

48 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of the whole world, in all countries in which prevailed
what is popularly termed "civilization," subsequent
to the extension of philosophy from Greece. Public
educators stUl pursue the same method without any
depa;rture, although they well know that the period
of metaphysical domination has passed away— a sys
tem which dealt wholly with the reasoning powers
of the mind, and with them only. There is not a
system different from this in any institution of learn
ing and education now in being. It absorbs the
attention of mankind at the present as much as in
past ages, with only this difference, that it has been
extended to greater multitudes. Some of the ablest
apostles of this erroneous system have, of late, given
expression to their views, to fasten still closer upon
the feelings of the people that which, to this time,
has never been opposed. The following is a rehash
of it, to which all public educators give a firm
endorsement :
"Since civilization is the product of moral and
intellectual agencies, and since that product is con
stantly changing, it evidently cannot be regulated by
the stationary agent, because, when surrounding cir
cumstances are changed, a stationary agent can only
produce a stationary effect. The only other agent is
the intellectual one, and that this is the real mover
may be proved in two different ways: first, because
being, as we have already shown, either moral or
intellectual, and being, as we have also seen, not

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 49
moml, it must be inteUectual ; and secondly, because
the intellectual principle has an activity and capacity
for adaptation, which, as we undertake to show, is
quite sufficient to account for the extraordinary
progress that, during several centuries, Europe has
continued to make."i
That this doctrine is false in theory and most dis
astrous in practice, we shall now proceed to show,
not by thought-out notions, but by a paraUel history
of the lower classes of the Carthaginians to the same
of the Greeks, and finally, by comparison of the
educated with the uneducated classes of the Hellenic
states. This can only be wrought by an investiga
tion into the intellectual and moral qualities of these
classes. If we are able to prove that the lower classes
of Carthage were more cultivated than the same in
Greece, and if also we afterward prove that they were
less moral, it will necessarily follow that the virtue of
any nation does not depend upon the intelligence of
its people. If, moreover, we are able to establish, by
comparison between the two (the educated and the'
uneducated) classes of the Greeks, that their educated
minds were depraved in proportion to the culture
which they had received, it wUl place this question
beyond controversy, that if the discipline of the intel
lectual powers does not directly contribute to the

I Buckle's History of Civilization In England, vol. 1, pages 130 and 13L
4

50 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
overthrow of the moral sentiments, it cannot be held
that it is productive of their elevation. This is all
we seek to prove, and that, we think, by incontestable
evidence. All that can be gathered of the intellectual educa
tion of this branch of the Phoenician race, from the
remains of Carthaginian literature, is very narrow
indeed. We shall have, therefore, to rely on writers
of contemporary nations. And again in them even
the facts, upon which the investigator has chiefly to
depend, are not readily furnished to his hand, as the
historians of the age in which this government existed
were rather chroniclers of battles, sieges and wars,
than commentators upon the character and condition
of those peoples upon which they pretend to treat.
Carthaginian literature perished with its people.
Being deprived, therefore, of perusing the details of
a Carthaginian in the history of his own country,
and also not fully able to determine these facts of
civilization directly from Roman and Grecian authors,
we shall be compelled to discover the moral and
intellectual condition of this republic from those
collateral relations which it bore, during its long
existence, to other powers. This review shall be a
short one on the Carthaginians.
Soon after her colonization, Carthage built the
foundations of her strength and glory on the ruins

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 51
and fallen liberties of other African states. » She
brought into governmental subordination the wander
ing tribes of the northern portion of the continent,
and taught them the application of those natural laws
to husbandry, to a more scientific extent, than that
which was carried on by her less civilized contem
poraries of the East and the North. This sagacious
people foresaw that their pupils would be rewarded
pro rata to their application to the pursuit ; this
depended altogether on the predisposition of these
nomades for the acquisition of earthly goods.* For
this element of the mind it has long been observed
that no people are more remarkable than the uncivil
ized. The intelligent mind subordinates this appetite
to the conditions of his wants, for the sustenance and

2 "The case with Carthage was entirely different. Built on the edge of
a large quarter of the globe, whole warlike nomades afforded, for pay,
numerous armies; and almost surrounded by countries without a master,
she could conquer, and soon found it her interest so to do. For the first
time, therefore, history shows us a free and commercial state, whose great
ness was founded upon foreign possessions acquired by force of arms." —
Heeren's Historicaij Wobks, vol. i, page 23.
3 "This lino of conduct was planted in the spirit of the aristocratic
government, whero such maxims so easily become hereditary in the ruling
families, of which history gives us such evident proof as to leave no doubt
of the fact.
" This " intermixturo " answered the double purpose of maintaining their
authority and improving the connection and intermixture with the original
inhabitants, which, as wo see, produced the Liby-Phoeniclan race. No state
in the ancient world, probably, understood or prosecuted on a larger scale
the colonial system than Carthage." — Ibid., pages 18 and 23.
" In this vray Carthago preserves tho love of her people. She sends out
colonies continually into districts around her, and by that means makes them
men of property."— Abistot. Or., page 253.

52 ' HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
education of his family. But the more uncultivated
portions of the human race have always been remark
able for possessing strong greed for whatever relates
to the value of property without much regard to the
uses to which it can be applied. The Carthaginians,
foreseeing that one nation cannot introduce a half-
civilized people into industrious pursuits, so that tho
state can draw a revenue from them without first
planting with them the elements of prosperity, made
them thoroughly acquainted with the principles of
agriculture, first regarding it themselves as the most
honorable employment in which man can be engaged.
The first families of Carthage, as well as of Rome,
were agriculturists, many of whom were the greatest
military and political characters of the state.
In the settlement of lands belonging to the republic,
the Carthaginians caused an intermixture of their own
race with the inhabitants of those tribes which they
had subdued and planted as colonists. It requires no
stretch of the mind to understand the effects, — that
there would naturally be a spirit of competition
and strife for those advantages which result from
riches. Accordingly the forests which contained
arable land, and which before had been the retreat
of wild beasts, receded before the ingenuity of this
energetic nation, afterward becoming the source from
which she first drew the principal part of her

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 53
support and a considerable share of her wealth.
Neither Greece nor Rome, with all its boasted supe
riority of intellectuality, presented an example of
the like mental reach, first buying the territory on
which she buUt her city then defrauding the vendors
out of its value, subordinating them into peaceable
citizens and afterward causing them to become
attached to the state. An example of like success
cannot be found in historical records. There is no
nation of modern Europe, or of America, which
effects so much for its poorer classes as did this
republic for the first conquered tribes of Africa.
The Carthaginians seemed to have connected the
interests of these subordinated nations so closely
with their own, by marriage, special legislation and
other acts of similar effects, as to make the welfare
of the state an object of regard and veneration.
She did not make this her policy with Sardinia,
Sicily and Spain. And herein lay her weakness, but
it was toward the closing hours of her existence. By
not carrying into effect, as part of her policy in the
conquest of these territories, those partial moral prin
ciples in their practical application to independent
states, after they were subordinated to her power,
she converted them into so many enemies, who
hated her as a nation and earnestly desired its ter
mination. Spain was principally conquered by her

64 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
to serve as a base of operations in a second war
which she then meditated against Rome. She had
lost, by the first Punic war, her possessions in the
island of Sicily, and therefore could not use it as a
military station from which to proceed. Besides,
had she attempted its reconquest, it would have
brought on the second war with Rome at a time
in which the latter would have been as well pre
pared as herself; this she wished to avoid until she
had a veteran army, subordinated the whole of Spain
and shaken the fears of the Gauls. Having accom
plished these, she could draw her stores, raise her
armies and attack the Roman power at a time when
she would find it destitute of military provisions, of
disciplined troops, and powerless before a victorious
enemy. She had, by the conquest of Spain, pos
sessed herself of rich mines to supply the exchequer
in payment of troops, and for the seventeen years
which the second Punic war lasted she drew her
funds mostly from these mines to defray expenses.
By the wealth which she drew from this new source,
she was enabled to emancipate her subjects in Africa
from the burdens of the war.
Although Rome lost, in different battles, several
consular armies, and was threatened with subjection,
Carthage in the end was brought to the position of
a dependent slave. After the conclusion of the war

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 65
the petty princes of Africa, who had formerly been
chiefs of tributary states, daily insulted a capital of
seven hundred thousand inhabitants. No person
can charge Hannibal with the responsibility of this
war, as his acts were ratified by the nation, when
the Roman embassy visited the capital of that
celebrated nation immediately after the taking of
Saguntum.* Carthage's equitable treatment of the first subdued
people of Africa, surrounding the capital, was to her
as much a matter of necessity as one of justice, as she
could not repose the foundations of government upon
those turbid elements and civil commotions which are
generated by corruption and fraud in the governing
power. As a state constructs its political fabric in
partiality, in favor of one portion of the inhabitants
and in suppression of the rights of the other, so may
be measured the term of its existence. For it is

4 After Hannibal had attacked Saguntum, a Boman embassy was dis
patched by the senate to enquire if this movement of their genera' were at
the orders of his government. After the senators of Carthago had treated
this embassy in the most insolent manner, their speaker concluded his
reply to the Bomans by saying: '"Cease, therefore, to talk of Saguntum
and the Iberus, and let your minds give birth, at length, to the burden of
which they are long in labor.' Tho Eoman [Quintius Fablus] then foidins
up a. corner of his robe said: 'Hero wo bring you peaoo and war take
which you choose.' Which proposal thoy answered with an equal dogree of
peremptory heat, calling out that he should give which ho chose. He then
threw open the fold again, and said that he gave them war. They with one
voice replied that they accepted it, and with the same spirit with which
they accepted it, would prosecute it."— Trrtrs Livins' Histobt oi' Roue,
lib. £1, paragraph 18, Baker.

66 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
a necessity that such should terminate itself. The
.causes of its own destruction are planted in its con
stitution, as the principal and most powerful element
of which it is composed. These inequitabilities, sooner
or later, must work the ruin or subversion of any gov
ernment so constituted, and from them there is no
escape. The first Carthaginians were acute enough,
in their understanding, to comprehend these causes
and effects upon the civil institutions of mankind.
Those distant generations, however, which followed
in time the founders of the republic, were more cor
rupt, and consequently their legislation corresponded
to their moral condition. A long time had elapsed
from the building of the city to the conquest of Sar
dinia, Sicily and Spain. And we find, as we pass
from the first to the last ages of the republic, there
was a proportionate degeneration in the morals of the
state. As Carthage advanced in age, in wealth and
in the conquest of the earth, the abilities of her
statesmen diminished in the comprehension of first
principles. Although she was acute and mostly out
witted her contemporaries, the depravity of her
citizens blinded the nation to the comprehension
of elementary law; her wisdom permitted present
triumph, but insured future defeat. This was true
in her policy at the close of her career. It may
occur to the understanding as something remarkable

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 67
that as a nation becomes enriched, refined and
accomplished, it at the same time recedes in intel
lectuality. But the intellectual faculties are instru
ments by which those faculties which are possessed
of feelings work out certain results satisfactorily to
their quality and condition. For without a moral
nature there can be no comprehension of questions
involving moral principles, however great may be
the intellectuality of any given nation. In proportion
to the atrophy of the former there is, correlatively,
an inability to discover equities in legislative laws.
Therefore, as these, the most important faculties of
the mind, disappear, there arises a certain intellectual
weakness, a certain incapacity to comprehend great
questions, which, when not properly controlled, fre
quently involve a whole people in interminable ruin.
Wherefore, as we approach the last days of Carthage
and discover her corruption, we at the same time find
that as her statesmen were promoting measures which
they supposed would extend her dominions and
forward the supremacy of her power, they were
combining elements into such an antagonism as
wrought her self-subordination, and in the end, her
total extinction.
Had Carthage not bought and sold the offices of
state, by the good or ill administration of which a
political body becomes permanent or endures a

68 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
political death ; had she not made riches and mijitary
skUl a test of public approbation ; had she not substi
tuted the worthless value of a base metal for the
nobler qualities of man; in a word, had she not
exalted vice above virtue iu every manner, she could
not have been conquered by the combined powers of
the earth, and would have survived the wreck of
nations in the ancient and middle ages. Standing
upon the records of the past she would be an apt
representation of well known effects which follow as
a blessing to all who obey those eternal principles
which control the moral universe.
The inhabitants of Carthage, in its earlier days,
foresaw these causes and effects, while their distant
successors did not. The former built for endur-
*
ance, while the latter lived, not to preserve, but to
destroy. A nation which is thus able, in the policy
of her legislation, to forecast the causes of permanent
prosperity and secure it to herself, exhibits a com
prehensiveness in first principles that is far from
being common, even now, (with all our boasted pro
gress,) to the nations of the earth. But the first
institutions of Carthage fell into other hands in more
degenerate days, and were finally extinguished by
the maladministration of their rulers.
Neither Greece nor Rome manifested such capacity
in its treatment of the tribes and nations not of its

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 59
own origin but subjected to its power. The earlier
inhabitants of Carthage discovered greater sagacity
than any nation of antiquity, and even outwitted all
contemporary powers. Greece, during the reign of
Alexander, entered upon her campaigns apparentl}^
for no other purpose than the mere capture of cities
and the conquest of nations. Nor can there be gleaned
from his wars any other motive than that vanity
which flatters the conceit of a weak and dissolute
prince, s Greece gained nothing by these wars but
the hatred of all mankind. Although her soldiery
derived plunder, the nation acquired no more than
implacable enemies filled with revenge. Yet the
lower classes of the Greeks cannot be charged with
the responsibility of Alexander's wars, as they were
not the willful acts of the nation. They themselves
had attempted to resist the authority of his aggressive
policy, but were finally reduced to servitude by his
cunning and unprincipled ambition. During his
foreign wars they were slaves to his empire ; his will
was the highest law and they were forced to obey.

5 The Sythian ambassador spoke very judiciously when he addressed
him in these words : " What have we to do with thee 1 We never once put
our feet iu thy country. Are not those who live in the woods allowed to be
Ignorant of thee and the place from whence thou camest? Thou boastest
that the only design of thy marching is to extirpate robbers; thou art,
thyself, the greatest robber in the world. This is Alexander's exact character.
In which there Is nothing to bo rejected."- Bolun's Ancient History, voL
1, pages 601 and 602.

60 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Upon the death of Alexander his kingdom answered
to the four quarters of the globe by falling into as
many great divisions. These became independent
states, each one of which, being composed of a great
number of different races, habituated to a variety of
customs, in manner of living, language, thinking,
government and religion, that it was next to impos
sible to reconcile the discordant elments and conciliate
them into such an uniformity as is necessary to give
firmness and steadiness to the political and social
composition of a nation. So, therefore, the whole
Asiatic world, with Greece, having been subjected
to a war of twelve years duration by a royal des
perado with his dupes, slaves and victims, were now
to undergo a worse one, if possible, waged by con
tending factions which were themselves generated by
those special creatures of war — duplicity, crime and
barbarity. The double infamy produced by the severe educa
tion that the intellectual faculties of the higher classes
of the Greeks had received, reduced all ranks into
vassalage to the same elements in the Macedonian
princes. The uneducated and non-commercial grades
of Greece were the only repositories of virtue ; becom
ing, in the first instance, victims to a defective mode of
intellectual development; in the second, and depend
ing upon the first for active vitality, they were made

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 61
helpless dupes to the selfish principles which actuated
Philip and his successor in their illusory careers.
With the lower classes of Carthage it was entirely
different. More enlightened in thefr understandings
than the same among the Greeks, they very quickly
perceived and adopted the false, the double attitude
which their higher orders had cultivated for more
than two hundred years before their political organi
zation was extinguished. How much, or whether at
all, to a certainty, the civil wars in the Hellenic states
had injured the moral qualities of the masses, cannot
be very accurately determined ; but it is certain that
as they were constantly the objects of deception, they
were not sufficiently steeped in corruption to detect
the false position which their educated guides were
able to maintain.
Although Greece was the source of speculative
thought, her higher classes were possessed of less
political foresight than those of Carthage. By the
defective policy of the Greeks they became slaves
to one of their own number, while the Carthaginians
came very near being masters of the whole world.
The campaigns of Alexander subjected the con
quered territories to his own interests, while those
of Carthage were spoils of which all partook.
After a careful review of the conquests of Greece
and their final end, one can deduce no real advantage

62 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
which resulted to its empire, neither to its exchequer,
to the morals of the people, nor to the stability of the
state. But on the contrary, it became a prey to inter
nal dissensions, external wars, a depleted treasury,
unimproved morals, and, as far as relates to the
external relations of the people, to the victorious
arms of faction.
While the first few generations of Carthage, from
six to eight centuries before Christ, possessed barely
enough virtue to comprehend moral principles, the
people of Greece at the corresponding time maintained
great endowments of it. As much as the former
were fallen below, the latter were raised above, the
average morality of the age. With the superior
intelligence of the former, although they possessed
less morality, they were enabled to see deeper and
broader into nature's unvarying principles than the
latter. It is, therefore, concluded that as the Greeks
possessed generally greater faculties of a moral nature
to found state constitutions in equitable laws, we
should find with them, had they the same amount
of intelligence, peace, permanence and wealth, with
no civil commotions at home and no wars abroad.
Such, however, was not true. They were constantly
at war— that is, the different states were almost
perpetually at war with each other. The Pelop
onnesian war lasted twenty-seven and a half years,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 63
terminating in the subjection of Athens to the
authority of Lacedsemon.
It was not long before the military strength of
Carthage was increased to such degree as to compete
with Rome for the supremacy of the world, that the
Ionic, the Pythagorean, Eleatic, Atomistic and Socratic
philosophies had their birth in Greece. After the
establishment of these, reason began to dawn upon
the mind of the Greek. But speculative thought never
did extend itself to the people at large. A few only
were enabled by the study of philosophy to develop
their inteUectual powers, the masses remaining in a
totally uncultivated condition. If the masses could
read and write, the reasoning powers were not enlarged
by close application to such subjects as tended to
develop their strength. Perhaps it would be making
a large allowance, before the Peloponnesian war, to
say that one to the thousand derived any benefit from
the study of philosophy. There were no public or
private schools spread over Greece authorized to teach
philosophy; only now and then one sprang up at
various times, and somewhat at distant periods.
The Ionic philosophy, founded about 650 B. C. by
Thales, was little studied, and less understood than
that of the Pythagorean, which shortly after succeeded
it. The latter had but little hold upon the intellectual
portion of the mind, but so well addressed itself to the

64 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
general tendencies of subordination in this age of the
world, as to be readily received and adopted by the
masses. Almost the whole of this philosophy was a
myth, and this accounts for its popularity. It is said
that its founder pretended to raise the dead and work
other astounding miracles. His instructions were
indoctrinated with the absurd superstitions of the
Egyptian priesthood. But the philosophy of Thales
was barely known, so little so, that scarcely anything
now remains of the doctrines he taught. Had it been
extensively studied, it had been as extensively pre
served, as no people of antiquity exhibited greater
care in the preservation' of their moral and intellectual
status, than the Greeks.
Thales endeavored to discover the primary or
original source of the organic world by a rational
method. However irrational this may occur to us,
it had at all events, strong tendencies if followed, to
strengthen the intellectual powers, and this is all
we claim by our present enquiry into the various
philosophies of Greece.
The study of the Pythagorean doctrine, as we
cannot call it a philosophy, tended more to enlarge
those faculties which produce religious characteristics,
than develop the primitive faculties of reason. The
basis of his natural philosophy was an absurd myth,
numbers, and could be supported by no process of

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 65
reasoning which would call the intellect into vigorous
activity. The Eleatic existed as nearly contemporary with
the Pythagorean, both at or about 600 B. C. It was
a departure from the latter by a modification of it.
Anaxagoras was nearly contemporary with Xeno-
phanes, and was the first who established any system
of education at Athens. But this, after it had operated
upon the intellectual powers for many years, was
abruptly brought to a conclusion by the ostracism of
its author. His doctrines directly engaged the intellect
in vigorous activity, and soon expunged superstitious
notions from the mind of the student. This system of
philosophy did not accord well with the marvelous
tendencies of the uneducated, and he was compelled
to fly from Athens, having been accused of profanation
and impiety to the gods.
As for Empedocles, he pretended to be a prophet,
claiming that the operations of the natural laws could
be arrested by the Divine power which he had authority
to represent. It is unnecessary to say more of him
and his teachings than that one, who is so disordered
in his mind, or so infamous in his character, as to lay
claims to such transcendent power, is unfit, in the
organization of his mind, for philosophical investiga
tion. Both Empedocles and Pythagoras, in this
respect, were in one and the same category. The
6

66 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
extreme development of the feelings of superstition
with great imagination, or the strong inherent qualities
in their mental being of selfish exaltation above all
other earthly mortals, silenced the expressions of the
moral sentiments and the lights of reason. But we
have no information that Empedocles was extensively
engaged in teaching philosophy. The doctrines of
Empedocles, as also those of Pythagoras, tended not
so much to enlarge the understanding of the Greek
mind, as they did to distract, and thereby destroy
all energetic concentration of the mental powers,
and thus prepare the way for the establishment of
that atheism upon their ruins, which characterized
the higher classes that immediately preceded the
Peloponnesian war.
Protagoras has the reputation of being the founder
of the Sophistic school of thought at Athens, where
he taught his erroneous principles and from which
he was expelled by the masses. He was driven out
by the populace on account of his doctrines being
destructive, as they supposed, of both systems of
government, the moral and the divine. His philo
sophical conclusions, although rejected by the lower,
were adopted by many of the higher classes, and
became the practical rule of their lives in religion and
in manners. Although Protagoras was a teacher of
morals as part of his system of instruction, the

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 67
general scepticism of his philosophy, denying al] future
accountability, rendered his doctrine of ethics unpopu
lar with the main body of the nation. Besides the
moral instruction which he was said to have given
must have been of a very doubtful character. « But the
successors of Protagoras traduced the principles of
their master, substituting for morality doctrines
wholly selfish in nature.'
The Atomistic, which preceded it by about twenty
years, and, in part, had given rise and life to the
Protagrean, seemed to combine with it in destroying
those elements of the mind, fear on the one hand, and
the feelings of justice on the other, the only foundation
of moral government in the mind of man. The
Atomistic philosophers derived the origin of the
organic world, both mental and material "from an
originally unlimited number of constituent elements,
or atoms," which are constantly changing in respect
to form, but not in quality. This derivation of the
organic world, of the animal and phrenic life, became
S Schwegler says that a part of the Sophists "openly taught the right of
the stronger as the law of nature, the unbridled satisfaction of desire as the
natural right of the stronger, and the setting up of restraining laws as a
crafty invention of the weaker ; and Critias, the most talented but the most
abandoned of the thirty tyrants, wrote a poem m which he represented the
faith In the gods as an invention of crafty statesmen."— History op Philoso
phy, p. 50.
7 "The later Sophists, with reckless daring, carried their conclusions far
beyond Georgias and Protagoras. They were for the most part free think
ers who pulled to the ground the religion, laws, and customs of their birth."—
Ibid.

68 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the prevailing belief of the learned classes, and they
accordingly decreed their own existence, not from the
creative power of a Supreme Being, but from the
combined operations of the natural laws upon certain
properties of matter. While the lower classes were
almost totally ignorant of this negation of all punative
conditions under the natural laws in time, and the
supernatural in eternity, the educated portions, princi
pally through these false philosophies as contribu
tory causes, and regarding everything as expediency
rather than as morality, became abandoned, no longer
believing any kind of laws obligatory upon them, and
were in consequence fallen into a corruption almost
incredible with the Greeks.® At the time of the
Peloponnesian war, the uneducated were moral, while
the learned were base in every respect and committed
all grades of crime from larcenies on the treasury, '
8 " Custom had lost its weight ; the laws were regarded da only an agree
ment of the majority, the civil ordinances as an arbitrary restriction, the
'moral feelings as the effect of the policy of the state education, the faith in
the gods as a human invention to intimidate the free power of action, while
piety was looked upon as a statute which some men have enacted and which
all are justified in using all their eloquence to change. This degradation of a
necessity, which is conformable to nature and reason, ? * * is chiefly the point
in which the Sophistic philosophy came in contact with the universal con
sciousness of the educated classes of the period, and we cannot with certainty
say what share science and what shaie the life may have had iu this connec
tion, — whether the Sophistic philosophy found only the theoretical formula
for the practical life and tendencies of the age, or whether the moral corrup
tion was rather a consequence of that deductive influence which the principles
of the Sophists exerted upon the whole course of contemporaneous thought."
SCHWKGLER'S HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, pages ii and 45.
9 "The very officers now made interest with the people to have him [Arls-
tides] continued a third year in the same employment. But when the time

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 69
to secret assassination and public murder. * " The vir
tues of an Aristides no longer exerted influence on the
ruling classes, and the character of Pericles was tar
nished by a questionable ambition. 1 1 With the latter,
the end justified the means, and as the ruling pas
sions of his soul were those of political pre-eminence
coupled with unlimited power, * ^ he denied himself of

of election was come, just as they were upon the point of electing Aristides
unanimously, he rose up and warmly reproved the Athenian people. 'What,'
says he, ' when I managed your treasure with all the fidelity and diligence an
honest man is capable of, I met with the most cruel treatment and the most
mortifying return, and now that I have abandoned it to all these robbers of
the public, I am an admirable man and the best of citizens. I cannot help
declaring to you that I am more ashamed of the honor you do me this day,
than I was the condemnation you passed against me this time twelvemonth,
and with grief I find it is more glorious, more complaisant with knaves, than
to save the treasures of the republic' By this declaration he silenced the pub
lic plunderers and gained the esteem of all good men."— Bollin's Ancient
History, vol. 1, page 242.
IO When the thirty tyrants had disarmed the public and strengthened
themselves by an armed force of three thousand, they brought many false
chEirges against good citizens, and " put them to death for the gratification of
their hatred, and many others for the sake of their property. And in order
that they might have more money to give the guards, they determined to
choose one each of the resident aliens, and having put them to death to
confiscate their property."
Cleocritus in his speech discloses this horrible state of the ruling classes
at the period of the Peloponnesian war. He said : " Be not persuaded by
those most impious thirty, who, for the sake of their own gain, have killed
almost more of the Athenians in eight months than all the Peloponnesians in
ten years' warfare."— Hellenics, lib. 2, sections 20 and 21.
n Bollin says that when Pericles " saw Aristides dead, Themistocles ban
ished and Cimon engaged almost continually in foreign wars and absent from
Greece, he began to appear in public with greater confidence than before, and
entirely devoted himself to the party of the people, but not out of inclination,
for he was far from effecting popular power, but to remove all suspicions of
his aspiring to the tyranny."— Ancient History, vol. 1, pago 231.
12 The same authority remarks that "Pericles may be said to have
attained monarchical power under a republican form of government, mold
ing the citizens into what shape he pleased, and presiding with unlimited

70 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
every enjoyment, of every right, and privilege which he
deemed to be in opposition to the one end and object of
his life. Distrusting the fidelity of that educated class
to which he belonged, he addressed himself, with all
the energy and sagacity of his soul, to gain the esteem
and electoral favors of the lower ranks. He dare not
entrust his political career to the learned, who, as expe
rience had taught him, were actuated by feelings of
jealousy toward competitors, unscrupulously sacrific
ing the liberties and lives of their contemporaries in
the pursuit of gold and of distinction. That the
source of virtue was the source of energy, Pericles, in
all probability, very well understood, easily discerning
that its only repository in Greece was with the lower
classes. Remembering the fate and illustrious charac
ter of his predecessor, he was actuated by ambition for
present exaltation, and a name famous for vfrtue and
ability in succeeding ages. To ingratiate himself into
the lasting friendship of the people, whose minds had
not been corrupted by the principles of the higher
orders, he introduced among them that extravagance
in living, luxury and debauchery, ^ s -vriiich, when

authority in all their assemblies. And indeed Valerius Maximus makes scarce
any difference other between Pisistratus and Pericles than tho one exercised
a tyrannical power by force of arms, and the other by the strength of his
eloquence." More adroit and deceptive in his designs.— Ancient History
vol. 1, page 2S1.
13 "He was the first who caused the conquered lands to be divided among
the citizens, who distributed among them the public revenues for the expense

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 71
extended to the common people, infects and rots
the noblest qualities of the human mind. The
aping by the poorer after the fashions and prodi
galities of the rich, out of desire to be taken for
what they were not, excited a profusion in expendi
ture, which had it become common, as he intended
it should, would have left the state impoverished in
money and morals. He did drain the treasury, and
to some extent injured the good habits of the people.**
He ruled Athens with almost despotic power for forty
years, the last fifteen of which he had no rival ; and
as he was amply rewarded for his great abihty, not
for his fidelity, by the highest honors of the state, he
was by this same people, who at times were justly sus
picious of his conduct and designs toward their liber
ties, frequently deposed and condemned.'* While
of their games and shows, and annexed pensions to all public employments ;
so that certain sums were bestowed on them regularly, as well to procure
them a place at the games as for their attendance in the court of justice and
the assemblies. It is impossible to say how fatal this, unhappily, was to the
republic, and how many evils it drew after it. For these new regulations,
besides draining the public treasury, gave the people a fondness for expense
and a dissolute turn of mind, whereas they before were sober and modest, and
contented themselves in getting a livelihood by their sweat and labor."—
RoLLiN 8 Ancient History, vol. 1, page 283.
14 HoUin quotes Plato as " saying that the latter [Pericles! formed a Judg
ment of things from their outward splendor,' and "' observes that Pericles,
with all his grand edifices and other works, had not improved the minds of
the citizens in virtue, but rather corrupted the purity and simplicity of ancient
manners.' "—Ibid, 385.
IS "The Athenians did not design to sue for peace any more to the
Lacedaemonians, but the mere sight of Pericles and his presence were insup
portable to them. They therefore deprived him of the command of the army,
and sentenced him to pay a fine, which, acoordlug to some historians,
amounted to fifteen, and according to others, to fifty, talents.'— Ibid, 303.

72 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
mankind have found much to admire in the character
of this remarkable man, they have also discovered in
him an insatiable ambition for notoriety and a greed
for political might, which knew no measures but those
that were adapted by their nature to insure success.
Aristides laid the foundations of the government
upon a basis which tended to insure perpetuity, * «
while Pericles, to whose qualities of statesmanship
sonnets are continually sung, removed their exist
ence. The former increased the morals of the people,
thereby giving vitality to the republic, while the latter
introduced corruptions, which not only lessened the
happiness of the people, but narrowed their earthly
existence, forwarding measures which very much
tended to shorten the age of the republic and end
its liberties forever. Pericles had been educated by
the philosopher Anaxagoras, the most distinguished
thinker in Greece.
The military talents of Miltiades were no protection
to his life, but excited the envy and hatred of Grecian
aspirants for position, and was finally accused of trea
son to the state by them, and condemned to die the
death of an infamous malefactor. In view, however,

i6 The same authority mentions Plutarch as alleging that the house of
Aristides was always open to t^ie young men of Athens, and that it was a
school for virtue, wisdom and politics ; that all young men of Athens used to
consult him as an oracle; he gave them the kindest reception, heard them
with paLience, and when not in ofSce was euways engaged, when opportunity
afforded him, in teaching virtue.— EoiirN'S Ancibnt History, vol. 1, page 871.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 73
of his having rendered the greatest service to his
country, with becoming modesty and prodigious
martial ability, his sentence was commuted to a fine
of fifty talents; and upon the insufficiency of his
estate to meet the demands, was committed to prison,
wherein he died of wounds received while opposing
the Persian arms." The learning or education of a
few of the rich and poor did not enlarge the feelings
of human kindness, but on the contrary became, as
we shall hereafter more clearly discover, accompanied
with the most degrading vices, and in proportion as
the nation became intellectually educated, it became
also correspondingly depraved. Mr. Buckle and
many other, and I may say all other, educators,
distinctly argue that intellectual education correspond
ingly elevates the morality of nations, and tends
to put an end to the crimes and wars of mankind.
The great superstitious tendencies of the minds
of Pythagoras and Empedocles, having been so
much absorbed upon the marvelous and super
natural, were arrested from the contemplation of

17 " Little probability as there was in this accusation (treason), it neverthe
less prevailed over the merit and innocence of Miltiades. He was condemned
to lose his life, and to be thrown into the Barathrom ; a sentence passed only
upon the greatest criminals and malefactors. The magistrate opposed the
execution of so unjust a condemnation. All the favor shown to this preserver
of his country, was to have the sentence of death commuted into a penalty
of fifty talents, or fifty thousand crowns French mcpey. Not being rich
enough to pay this sum, he was put into prison, where he died of wounds
received at Pares."— Hollin's Ancient History, vol. 1, page 245.

74 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
natural principles, and could have had no decided
effect on the culture of the age, other than the influ
ence which enthralls the mental in bondage to the
theological teachings of ancient and anti-christian
priestcraft. Their philosophical doctrines, therefore,
must not be regarded as exerting the intellectual facul
ties, but as an hindrance to the intellectual development
of their disciples. The Ionic, which, as has been
observed, was not preserved otherwise than by tradi
tion, and in this manner, exposed to the dangers of
expunction, was very liable to such modifications and
corruptions, if not so far lost as to render no contri
bution to the activity of human reason. We, therefore,
pass over the philosophies of Thales, Pythagoras and
Empedocles, as producing little activity to the faculties
of reflection, other than that the first gave a new
direction to mentality by the institution of a subject
of thought and reason, not so far removed from human
comprehensibility, but that the mental powers could
seize upon some fact known to the experience of man.
But the Eleatic and the Atomistic, by their directive
and analytic course, introduced the Greek mind into
a more rigid method and habit of investigation, and
although they were not the immediate cause of treas
uring up in the memory storehouses of learning, they,
at least, produced a development of intellectual activity
that greatly strengthened the understanding; and by

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 75
a close and thorough study of these two systems of
thought, the mind of the student would be enabled to
grapple with considerable power the most abstract
theses which were then within the reach of finite minds.
The later advocates of the Eleatic and Atomistic
doctrines, ignored all objective realities, and all finite
determinateness, denied the existence of the gods, and
taught the mere fact of being. This shows that the
reasoning powers had become so far disciplined as to
emancipate their votaries from the superstition, which,
during their age, prevailed in Greece. As this objective
reality was the external world, there was, therefore, no
physical existence, no matter, no time, no anything,
but the void space and the mere postulation of being.
This being was considered by them as an universal
principle It is difficult to discover what this principle
was, if other than a mere name; the discussion of
which involved the explanation of the one by the
other in all probability. This failing to arrive at a
substratum, confounded the name with the supposed
principle, so that neither could take any positive form
in the mind of the instructed. But the analytical
operations through which the mind was necessarily
forced to effect a negation of all other conditions,
wrought prodigious consequences in the intellectuality
of the Greeks.
This doctrine carried out to its utmost limits

76 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
established atheism in the entirety of its meaning.
This constant being of the Eleatic philosophy was, for
the first time, made the subject of philosophical
abstraction, althougn an exact equivalent of it had
been taught ages before this, having been the secret
theological faith in all eastern countries. The priests
among the Egyptians, the Magi among the Chaldeans,
Assyrians and Persians, believed and taught it in
secret councils to those designed for the sacred orders,
while their attitude to the people was marked by a
superstitious belief in working miracles and perform
ing other marvelous ceremonies which corresponded
to the condition of the laity. '
The Eleatic doctors having annihilated the external
world to their satisfaction, directed their speculations
upon the infinite. This soon met the same fate, being
considered by them also as an universal principle,
which was almost the same to them then that pan
theism is to us now. After these doctrines had
reached this stage of the case in their bearings, they
were, we think, divested of some of their first pre
disposing tendencies to development. For, whenever
any system of thought has the embracement of
transcendentalism, it becomes, to some extent, a
subject of feeling, and does not tend to produce
that steady concentrated activity of the intellectual
faculties, which those subjects do that are more

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 77
properly adapted to their legitimate scope. But
even in this phase of these doctrines they produced
developments, which, like the metaphysical school
after the revival of learning, although concentrated
on things that by their method of treatment are
beyond the proper province of reason, rendered the
intellect quite subtile and critical. In proportion as
these doctrines went beyond the legitimate scope of
the inteUectual powers, the activity of those faculties
was diminished. Experience, in spite of the claims of
the psychological school, has positively taught, that
subjects adapted to the development of the intellect
must be of the nature of finite abjectivity. For how is
it possible for finite mind to comprehend conditions of
the infinite? to pass from the facts and principles of
the terminational to the relative attributes of the
interminable without the assistance of a theurgy?"
It was in this manner that these doctrines diminished
their influence on this portion of the mind. They did
not reach this state, however, until the feelings of

iB " It 1 the business of human intellect to adapt itself to the realities of
things, and not to measure those realities by its own capacities of compre
hension. The same qualities which fit mankind for the offices and purposes
of their own little life, the tendency of their belief to follow their own experi-
enoe, incapacitates them for judging what lies beyond. Not only what man can
know, but what he can conceive, depends upon what he has experienced.
Whatever forms a part of his experience, forms a part also of his conception,
and appears to him universal and necessary, though really, for aught he
knows, having no existence beyond certain narrow limits." — John Stitart
Utaxi'a Loaic, 338.

78 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION".
morality and of religion in the educated were com
paratively expunged.
The duration of the Atomistic philosophy was not
far from the same length of time as that of the Eleatic.
It was more of a system of natural phUosopy, and
toward its close denied all but the operation of the
natural laws. The combination of certain properties
of matter, through the action of an universal principle,
generated life and organization. From the time of its
rise to the expulsion of Anaxagoras it had done much
for the intellectual powers, but nothing for the moral.
While the former were thus forced forward in devel
opment by activity, the latter, by non-use, were forced
to diminish. They had, during the whole period
which this system existed as a practical instructor,
continued to decrease till moral qualities formed no
part of the character of the educated classes. As the
intellect is not possessed of feeling, and as there was
a deposition of the moral and of the religious faculties,
as also there were no other faculties but the animal
which were possessed of feeling, after the fall of the
two former, the propensities were left in control of
the mind. History does not instruct us that the
uneducated were thus circumstanced; but, on the
contrary, there is every reason to believe, from the
same records which condemn the higher, that the
lower were in a more moral state, more approaching

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 79
a primitive normality, having not been subjected so
much to the deleterious influences of external phe
nomena and the detractive tendencies of philosophy.
Prom this distance of time, it is impossible to
determine with certainty, if Anaxagoras' expulsion
were caused by the special enmity of the people in
consequence of his negation of deity, or the immediate
result of a conspiracy of corrupt aspirants for power,
who wished to attack all that were connected with
Pericles, for the purpose of bringing the latter into
contempt with the people and thereby force him from
the head of affairs. ^ ® However this may be, the ostra
cism of Anaxagoras put an end to his system of
philosophy and consequently the intellectual culture
flowing from it. Although his doctrines survived
liim, instruction under them, after his death and
during the Peloponnesian war, came to an end.
Those doctrines existed, but during the Peloponne
sian controversy they slumbered in the minds of
corrupt politicians, who had endorsed the general
scepticism of Anaxagoras, without preserving his vir
tues or even imitating his manners. Although the
19 "Aooordlng to some authors, he was tried and condemned either to a
fine and banishment or to death; but in the latter case he made his escape
from prison. According to others, he was defended by Pericles and acquitted.
Plutarch says that Pericles, fearing the event of a trial, induced Anaxagoras
to withdraw from Athens ; and it seems to have been admitted on all hands
that he ended his life in quiet and honor at Lampsacu3."-THIRLWALI.'S
History ov Greece, vol. 1, page 321 ; also note 24, on page 66 of same volume ;
ScHwiGLER's History of Philosophy, page 40.

80 HIETORY OF THE DECLENSION.
moral character of this distinguished philosopher was
not only above reproach but admirable, the infidelity
of his teachings removed all fears of retributive justice
in another world. During the first half of the time in
which this philosophy was engaged in the cultivation
of the intellectual powers, it produced a direct depres
sion of moral activity. During the last half of its
term of life, although its speculative negation of
theogony and preternatural accountability could
work little injury to rigid moral organizations, it
was ruinous to those who were equally disposed to
vice and to virtue, into either one of which they were
drawn by external conditions.
The greater part of mankind then, most especially
the educated Greeks, as the race of man has ever been
since, were weaker in their moral than intellectual
powers, and their attitude was determined invariabl}^
by surrounding circumstances. To this generally
there is an universal admission. When, therefore,
the majority of any particular class, or the majority
of a nation, bear such relation to the minority and
also to themselves, there be no rigid system of moral
culture, and if, also, there be no fear of future punish
ment, there will, in that majority, be an abandonment
of justice, and an embracement of those national poli
tics which extend to them the greatest latitude of
depravation. Although the inculcation of religious

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 81
punitive precepts does not educate the moral sense,
it does, nevertheless, to some extent repress, through
fear, the criminal conduct of a greater share of the
human race. The one or the other must, therefore,
exist for the welfare of mankind. If both cease,
anarchy must result. The subjective method of the
Anaxagorean system, although more critical in tend
ency than original in thought, produced wonders on
the intellectual powers of the Greeks.
What has been said of the Atomistic may, regard
ing the effect upon the moral, be said of every other
school of Greece down to the establishment of the
Socratic philosophy. They cultivated the intellectual
and them only. We have already seen that but few
of the inhabitants of this nation were educated — ^the
ruling classes — and we shall hereafter more clearly
discover, as we have in part already, that they were
the only portion of the Greeks which can be charged
with any considerable degree of corruption.
About nineteen years before the close of the Pelo
ponnesian war, there appeared at Athens a person of
no very remarkable exterior, who was represented as
bowed by age and disfigured by a few of those phys
ical infirmities, which have, in all ages, more or less,
effected an abasement in the external proportions of the
individual members of mankind. His physiognomy
was anything but prepossessing; yet within there was

83 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
a subtile intellect accompanied by a soul stamped with
every element of mortal greatness, which shed brilliant
rays of glory on those days of Grecian degeneracy.
Although his magnificent virtues and principles have
been the- theme of bards and historians, few have fully
appreciated the real worth of the doctrines of this
most excellent philosopher. Amidst those lamentable
times which had fallen on the more unfortunate
inhabitants of Greece, wherein money was mammon,
ostracism or murder, seemingly became a necessity
for public notoriety and political success, it would
appear, if one be inclined to believe in special inter
ventions of a superintending Providence, a being was
let down to this lower world from above, who was, in
almost every respect, competent to arrest the people
from that extinction, into which, by the educated
classes, they were being hurried. The name of Soc
rates has long been familiar to the world.
The schools of thought which preceded and were
contemporary with the Socratic, only sought discov
eries which satisfied the curiosities of the mind, but
added nothing to the welfare and moral stability of
nations in this age of the world. The constant being
of the Eleatic, the becoming of the Heraclitic, the
doctrines of the Atomistic, and the very critical tend
ency of the Pyrrhonic, were addressed exclusively
to the intellect, no wise causing action or humane

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 83
interest in the feelings of the student. Thus while the
intellectual faculties were vigorously exercised on sub
jects which were partially and wholly adapted to their
operation, excluding the sympathetic exertion of every
other faculty, the moral and the religious sentiments
were consigned to repose, to atrophy, and to extinction.
But after the rise of the Socratic, there was manifestly
a new direction given to thought, and a more beneficial
epoch for human investigation came into being. ^ " The
most important fault, which it possessed, was the
tardiness of its appearance. It came when virtue was
fallen, when the vices of rival states had generated
war for conquest and subjection ; too late to accomplish
the moral regeneration of Greece. And herein lay the
principal cause of its failure, for had Socrates founded
his system one hundred years earlier, the fate of
Grecian freedom, if not independence, would have,
in all probability, been entirely different.
No man before hpn had attempted a thorough
3o "Socrates gave a new direction to philosophical investigation. He
united with a penetrating judgment a liberal mind and exalted views, exem
plary integrity and purity of manners." * * * " He estimated the value of
knowledge by its utility ; and recommended the study of astronomy, geometry
and other sciences only as far as they admit of practical application to the
purposes of human life. His great object was to lead men into an acquaint
ance with themselves, to convince them of their follies and vices, to inspire
them with the love of virtue, and to furnish them with useful moral instruc
tion. He thought it more reasonable to examine things in relation to man
and the principles of his moral conduct, than such as lie beyond the sphere
and reach of human intellect, and consequently do not relate to man. His
favorite maxim was : whatever is above us, doss not concern us." — Doctrine
OT THE Mental Phenomena, by J. G. Spurzheim, pages 11 and 13. See also
pages 54-5 of Schweqler's History or Philosophy.

84 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
education of the moral faculties so as to give them
control over human conduct ; no man before him had
endeavored to arrest the wandering thoughts of man
kind after momentary pleasure and bring them back
to those laws which alone can confer lasting happiness ;
no man before him had tried to point out the true
foundations of equitable governments ; no man before
him had, by system, disconnected the religious from
the moral elements of the mind, and successfully
shown that upon the latter alone can securely rest the
just constitutionalities of mortal administrations.
One cannot but dwell with pleasure on the charac
ter of the Socratic philosophy, because it was about
the only thing that enlivened the hopes and gladdened
the heart of the good in- this stagnant period of
Grecian history, when everything was expediency
and policy in the educated classes, and honesty was
winked at as a foolish relic of barbaric times, or as an
invention of the weak and crafty to deceive and delude
the ignorant. A war,, ruinous alike to Athens and to
Lacedsemon, had been in progress, shedding the blood
of relatives and friends, now turned to relentless foes,
for eight long years, each one of which was significant
of the decline of the fortitude and integrity that once
actuated this valorous and austere race of men. All
the rest of Greece, as dependants, were drawn into the
alliance of the one or the other of these powerful

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

85

states, wherein the victory or the defeat, to either,
was equally an annihilation of liberty to all. It
resulted in an aristocratic ascendency of corrupt
demagogues over democratic rights, wherein of the
former all are unequally privileged before the law.
This prepared the way for the machinations of a
Philip, of an Alexander, who shortly after the sub
jection of Athens, began to inflict mankind by the
commission of the most heinous crimes conceivable
under man's moral code.
The nature and tendency of the Socratic philosophy
was to do away and supersede those idle speculations,"
which did no positive good, other than cultivate the
intellectual powers and partially satisfy the curiosity
of enquiring minds ; and, as has been seen, the teach
ings of the pre-Socratic systems blasted all consolatory
hopes, and extinguished all fear, of a future life. And
although it may with truth be said, that they removed
ignorance and extreme superstition from the minds of
the peoplej by a systematic destruction of Polytheism,
and thus prepared the way in the spiritual faculties
of mental being for the reception of a very limited
SI " Observing with regret that the opinions of the Athenians were misled
and their moral principles corrupted, by philosophers who spent their time
in refined speculations upon the nature and origin of things, and by Sophists
who taught the art of false eloquence and deceitful reasonings, Socrates
endeavored to Institute a new and more useful method of instruction. He
conceived that the true end of philosophy is not an ostentatious display of
superior learning, neither ingenious conjectures, nor subtle disputations,
but the love of truth and virtue."- Spubzheim's Mental Phenomena, p. 11.

86 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Monotheism, they finally passed to the extreme,
toward their close, and endorsed Atheism. When
they had reached this condition, they assumed an
entirely different characteristic, and the good which
they had formerly done was more than counterbal
anced by such a decrement of morals, as was in few
places to be found on the face of the earth. This
condition was wrought by the great concentration
of the intellectual faculties upon the absurdities of
ancient religion and the origin of aU things.
It must be borne in memory, that these philosophies
were made the subject of investigation by the rich and
a paucity of the poor only. A very few in those days,
as in the present, were sufficiently industrious to forego
ease and pleasure, and confine themselves to the study
of abstract principles. This is as nearly true of learn
ing as philosophy. Such has been the case in all ages,
and there will always be more inclination to ease than
to energy. The philosopical speculations of Socrates were
directed to the ethical portion of man' s metaphysical
being. He conceived that the first essential requisite
to individuals, to, society, and to governments, was an
establishment of moral principles by a system of rigid
culture of man's moral nature. This alone could
confer upon man lasting happiness, and secure to
persons in relation to others, and to the state, perfect

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 87
productive harmony. This he attempted by subordi
nating mentality to that portion of itself which gives
rise to qualities of moral principles, and thereby
approximating to a correct system of ethics. This
tended to destroy crimes and wars by removing the
causes of their existence.
It was the idle speculations of the pre-Socratic
schools that had accumulated, as time advanced, upon
the intellect of the Greeks, increasing its development,
whUe the moral elements were wholly abandoned,
and, by this doomed to a sickly existence, or a total
extinction. It is a universal law of man's physical
being, that organs of whatever nature, whether fibrous,
nervous, or of any other material quality, by their
inherent constitution require exercise. The penalty is
a dying, or an atrophying condition to the organ so
violating the laws of its being. And hence a single
muscle, an entire arm or limb, perishes for want of
exercise. This law was well understood by the Greeks,
knowing also that it was as applicable to the meta
physical. And thus, as observed, the intellect grew
to prodigious power by its constant activity, while the
moral elements were silently and rapidly disappearing
through neglect, from their jiist and proper influence
in the minds of the educated classes. This course of
the pre-Socratic philosophies, was a generation of
power in one part of Grecian mentality, while it was a

88 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
degeneration of the other ; life to the former, but death
to the latter. So long had this been the condition in
Greece, that the whole educated classes were very
corrupt in their character, except now and then an able
leader, who in order to obtain patronage and celebrity
to his system of instruction, had found it necessary to
unite with himself a pure bearing and exalted virtues.
Such had become the moral qualities of this portion
of the Grecian inhabitants before the Socratic establish
ment ; and when Socrates began teaching his method,
the learned were justly chargeable of possessing the
basest turpitude and of committing the grossest crimes
ever before known to the people of Greece. Although
other causes combined in producing this abandoned
status, the defective system of education of these
schools were the major and more legitimate cause of
it. Although Socrates did not trace these effects to
their sources, he readily discovered the only method,
or means, by which his country could hope to
escape those calamities, which were then upon a part
of her citizens and portended the immediate burial of
her fame, her glory, and the personal freedom of her
people. The politicians of either aristocratic or democratic
parties, who had been pupUs of these ancient philos
ophies after they had attained to political eminence,
misled the masses in the assemblies and courts,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 89
trampling upon the most sacred rights of the people.
Our distinguished philosopher, however defective his
metaphysical speculations may have been, by the
mstitution of virtue as a positive opposition to the
subordination of the whole being to the propensities,
endeavored to stay the corrupting causes which were
then producing fatal effects to the Hellenic states, by
afflicting them with suicidal wars.
This opposition of Socrates to the peculations and
profligate manners of the learned, soon drew upon
him their anger, and they firmly resolved upon his
removal. In order to effect their object, they resorted
to the artifice of deception, causing the innocent mul
titude to believe that he was guilty, as a citizen, not
only of disregarding the usages of state religion, but
of positive crimes against the perpetuity of the com
monwealth. Accordingly he was accused of such
things as gave apparent grounds of offending the
people, by transgressing the laws and customs of the
state of Attica. He was charged, among other
things, all equally false, of introducing strange gods,
of corrupting the youth, and upon these frivolous
complaints was brought to trial and condemnation. ^ ^

aq "The accusation of Socrates, which took place in the year 399 B. C,
(01,95.1,) not long after the expulsion of the thirty tyrants, and which was
brought forward by Meletus, and supported by Arytas, the democratic
politician, and Lycon, the orator, contained substantially the same charges
which Aristophanes had made in the 'clouds.' It ran thus: 'Socrates is a
public offender, in that he does not recognize the gods which the state

90 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
After thirty days he died of poison, administered by
authority of law.^*
Such were the prevailing characters of the times at
this great center of culture, that this celebrated man,
who having used the best part of his life, after the
maturity of his mind, in doing good to his people
and country, was put to death through the machina
tions of a few dissolute politicians and venal judges.
Although the thirty tyrants, with their adherents, had
been driven from authority, the former either banished
or executed, it would appear that the corrupt which
still remained were seething in decomposition, and, if
allowed the expression, their moral faculties so far
diminished as to be beyond the hope of the most
distant redemption, almost extinguished from being.
Athens was a first class asylum for the depraved, but
a forbidding one to those who combined moral with
intellectual qualities.
It can nowhere be charged, to extent worthy of
mention, upon the uneducated ranks of the Greeks,

recognizes, but introduces new demoniacal beings ; he has also offended by
corrupting the youth.' "—History op Philosophy, TJerberaez, vol 1, 81.
23 " The execution of the sentence of Socrates was delayed by the
departure of the Theoris, the sacred vessel, which carried the yearly offer
ings of the Athenians to Delos. Prom the moment that the priests of Apollo
had crowned its stern with laurel, until its return, the law required that the
city should be kept pure from all pollution, and, therefore, that no criminal
should be put to death. The opening ceremony had taken place on the day
before the trial of Socrates, and thirty days elapsed before the Theoris again
sailed into Piraeus."— Thiklwall's History or Gbbbod, vo1.1, page 526,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Ql
that they were guUty of any connection with the com
mission of those crimes which were so frequent after
philosophy had become established as a system of
culture, other than an occasional excited movement
against some celebrated individual, who, as they had
been deluded into the belief by the orators of Attica,
was about to overturn the liberty of the state, or
likely, by his general infidelity to the religion of the
country, to bring upon the people the vengeance of
the gods for the desecration of their sacred laws. In
almost every instance of the kind, the populace had
been harangued by some ingenious demagogue, who
was prepared and supported by a few facts, usually
more apparent than real, which were in most cases
wholly false. Such was the condition of affairs in
the case of Aristides, who, because he had prevented
this corrupt class from robbing the treasury, was
ostracised from Athens with no little disgrace in the
eyes of the inhabitants.** The lower orders voted
against him in the trial which determined his expul
sion, through the fear which they entertained of his
erecting a strong centralized government upon the
ruins of democratic laWs. This was brought about
by the educated rascality of Greece.
There is another source through which intelligence

24 Consult the Else and Fall of Athens, in which Mr. Bulwer has given
this subject careful attention, vol. 2, page 45.

92 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
may be derived to quicken, to some extent, the intel
lectuality of mankind. This may be wrought in two
different ways : by reading the written productions of
distinguished travelers, or by an actual intercommu
nication with the different nations of the earth. The
former is less effectual than the latter, as a cause,
producing, or as it were, creating, intelligence. Either
may be made a poor substitute for an inferior kind of
learning. It does not really produce a culture that
very much strengthens the intellectual faculties ; it
only enlivens the mind, stores the memory, and gives
one an understanding of the customs, manners, laws,
religions, and, to a limited degree, an insight into the
private character of the different races of the globe.
If the array of all the different tribes and races of
mankind, with an exhibition of these phases, could
pass in review before our eyes at some fixed place and
time, it would not, I apprehend, have the effect on our
intellectual being, that it would if we should visit the
countries wherein those tribes and races are located in
succession, allowing time to intervene for retrospection.
This contemplation of different races of men, including
their habits, acts as an education to the perceptive, or
sensuous, faculties of merchant men resident and doing
business in cities of commercial note, to which resort
the traders of different parts of the world. When,
therefore, we add to the last of the above ideas the

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 93
sprightly operation of those faculties which discrim
inate between the various qualities of material objects,
their value, vendition, and all those dependent calcu
lations necessary to be made in a complicated trade,
we derive a compound discipline to those intellectual
faculties which are peculiarly adapted to this kind of
business. We then have culture extended to other
faculties, which extended culture, by its component
character, multiplies the intelligence and therefore
the mental capacity of the individual.
Although Athens was the principal seat of phi
losophy and of learning, it was also among the most
important commercial cities then in existence. Situated
upon the confines of Europe and Asia, it communi
cated in its mercantile transactions with the eastern,
and the more civilized portion of the western, world.
Those men, who were desirous of studying the sciences
and philosophy, flocked to Athens, where they received
instruction from the latest and most improved schools.
All sorts of goods, which were used by civilized
people, were transported from Spain, from Carthage,
and from Sicily, to modern Tyre and Athens, in which
they found a ready sale, or an equivalent exchange for
things equally valuable to the foreign merchant. These
cities were to the traveler in commerce, what Mecca, in
religion, afterward was to the Mahometan pilgrim.
In them was collected by degrees great wealth. As

94 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the merchant became rich, he lived luxuriously, and
attempted to imitate the manners of his superiors,
who had been subjected to rigid culture, and, besides,
possessed of noble qualities, which, when combined in
one individual, generally produces a mien far above
that of ordinary mortals. We may, therefore, conclude
that Athens, possessing other sources from which was
generated intelligence, had intelligent people beside
those of education. But the proportion which this
class of men bore to the state was very narrow.
In the foregoing we have established the sources
from which the states of Greece derived most all of
that intelligence of which they were possessed. No
other portion of Greece offered those advantages which
this great city presented to her race far and near. The
opportunities of acquiring learning, of commercial
knowledge, and those degenerating vices, idleness and
luxury, were in the keeping of this great city. It now
remains for us to set forth the character, the moral
condition, of her public or educated men. * "
As the histories of the ancients are little more than
the chronicles of the martial acts of distinguished
men, it is a severe labor for him who endeavors to

25 "History is rarely more than the biography of great men. Through
a succession of individuals we trace the character and destiny of nations.
The people glide away from us, a sublime but intangible abstraction, and
the voice of the mighty Agora reaches us only through the medium of its
representatives to posterity."— EiSE and Fai.l of Athens, vol. 2, page 9.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 95
unfold the moral civilization of any given race of
antique times, to discover the causes of certain effects,
and thereby understand partly those laws which gov
ern the mentality of man. The course of ancient
writers multiplies the labor of the modern investi
gator, and in consequence of this we are compelled
to be more diffusive to attain our object. The phrenic
condition of any nation can be tolerably well under
stood, if it have credible biographers. "In regarding
the character of men thus concentrating upon them
selves our survey of a nation, it is our duty sedulously
to discriminate between their qualities and their deeds:
for it seldom happens that their renown in life was
unattended with reverses equally signal, that the
popularity of to-day was not followed by the perse
cutions of to-morrow; and in these vicissitudes our
justice is no less appealed to than our pity, and we
are called upon to decide, as judges, a grave and
solemn cause between the silence of a departing
people and the eloquence of imperishable names."
The condition of Athens just before its fall corre
sponded in many respects, to the revolutionary
sentiments which decided the fate of the unfortunate
Louis XVI, the last regal representative who united
in one person the Capetian and Bourbon dynasties.
It will be sufficient for our purpose to trace the
career, rise and fall of those distinguished persons

96 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
in whom originated all the principal events, and who
possessed nearly all the intelligence of these ancient
states on the eve which preceded their overthrow.
And also, as we wish to consider the civilization of
this people in contemporaneousness with Carthage,
it is unnecessary to embrace a longer period than
that which included those days that were at once
her worst and her last.
It is impossible at any epoch, however mortifying
to reflect upon, that does not, during its wide-spread
pestUence of vices, produce individuals who enlist our
warmest sympathies and admiration. But for this
our contemplation would be attended with the most
sorrowful reflections, often generating the condition of
misanthropy. K intellectual culture operates as an
elevation of man's moral nature, then those individu
als who have been educated, when entrusted with a
nation's independence and the execution of its laws,
ought to exhibit a fidelity to the state, and a corre
sponding equity in their relations with the people.
But there never was a people who placed greater
confidence in the integrity of their educated classes
than did the lower orders of Greece; and yet never
Were betrayals so signal as those to which the con
stituency of Attica were subjected, on the eve, during
the progress and at the close, of the Peloponnesian war.
Those men, who had received the best educations, and

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 97
possessed by nature of large inteUectual faculties, were
'those who betrayed the state, robbed the treasury,
murdered their constituents, bankrupted the republic,
and brought on a war which ended in the dependency
of Attica and the enthrallment of all Greece.
We have seen that those philosophies which had
their birth and decay before the Peloponnesian strug
gle, had a strong and peculiar tendency to expunge
the moral qualities of human nature from influen
tial action on the votaries of their doctrines. They
brought the educated into that condition of debauchery
of which we do not find them possessed before ^the
publication of philosophy.
After the tyrannical government of Hippias was
overthrown and he was driven into exUe, a strife
began between the nobles and the people, as to the
form of government that should be established in.
place of that despotism which had already fallen *•
The aristocracy had opposed the rule of the tyrant, ,
not in consequence of the oppression which monarch- 1
ical systems entail on the people, but apparently
because they held a subordinate position. ^^ In the
destruction of the preceding form of government, they

26 "The instant the pressure of one supreme power was removed, the two
parties, embodying the aristocratic and popular principles, rose into active
lite."— Rise and Pall oe Athens, vol. 1, page 231.
27 In modern times there have been modifications by which the crown
divides its power with 'the nobles, both against the people.
7

98 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
were actuated by the feelings of envy and an ego
tistic ambition for political notoriety, irrespective of
the welfare of the people. «» In the struggle which
ensued over the remains of monarchical administra-
tration, there occurred scenes which disgrace the
records of Grecian history. They struggled not for
the people in reality, but for themselves in the end,
each to attain exclusively to that power from which
he had assisted in hurling the tyrant a short time
before. like the French nobles, on the eve of the
French revolution, each was restless and impatient
at the claim of any other to superior descent. All
traced their descent either from the gods or from
ancient celebrated heroes. As if the world were
made for panoramic shows, these individuals must
make an ostentatious exhibition of inordinate vanity
and conceit. What has mortal to be proud of, if
it be not that honesty and fidelity with which he
complies with those laws of nature which God has
established for man's benefit. The enfeebled aristoc
racies of most all countries, down to the end of the
reign of Louis XV, have presented this phase of folly.
The nobles of Athens could not brook a superior,
and consequently joined in the expulsion of a tyrant.
They, therefore, were in favor of a more liberal or a
sS Bise and Fau, or Athens, vol. 1, pages 231-32.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 99
more oppressive form of government. If the nobles
could not rule, they must not be ruled. If the form
of government was to be that of a democracy, in which
the sovereign power was the will of the people, the
administration of the laws must rest lightly and make
very few demands upon them. They had descended
lineally from illustrious parents, had been richer,
better educated, better fed and clothed than the rest
of the people, and hence were in the possession of
better blood, more beauteous bodies, and minds organ
ized on a larger scale. These considerations appeared
sufficiently satisfactory to the educated ranks which
lived in Attica at this period. They were firm in the
belief that their pretensions were not unreasonable,
and, therefore, the people ought to forego those
foolish notions which they entertained of comfort and
convenience, and live to support the measures and
adorn the administration of a legitimate descendant
of a Hercules or a mighty Jove. If these were not the
words in which the higher classes uttered their senti
ments, the record of their deeds confirm the substance
which they contain.
Miltiades claimed descent from the most illustrious
families that preceded the time in which he lived,
dwelling at Athens during the forepart of the reign
of Pisistratus, about 550 B. C.^' The restless and
29 Rise and Faix OV Athens, vol. 1, page 222.

100 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
suspicious conduct of Miltiades occasioned anxiety
on .the part of Pisistratus for the security of his gov
ernment ; and the former, regarding his life, or at least
his liberty, unsafe during the existence of the latter' s
despotic rule, proceeded to the Chersonesus to found
a colony, where he was finally assassinated.
Pisistratus, from a democratic leader, although a
noble by birth, wounded himself, thereby deceiving
the people, although they had been warned by Solon
of the delusion. At his request the inhabitants granted
him a guard for his protection against the Alcmseo-
nidse, who, he pretended, threatened his life.*" As
this guard at first was necessarily small, he secretly
increased it to a commensuration with the dignity of
the protected (under a hypocritical pretension), so as
to secure protection to his person against the jealousy
and hatred of a designing noble not less powerful than
himself. Those sentiments of humanity, compassion
and conscientiousness, have, at all historic times, been
mostly in the keeping of the illiterate: they were,
among the Grecians, the treasurers of both. This
aspiring despot, in all probability, was well apprized
of the locality in which these elements were reposed.

30 "The credulous love of the people swept away all precautions, and the
guard was granted. Its numbers did not Ioi-t continue ntatlonary. Pisistratus
Increased the amount, till it was swelled to the force required by his designs.
He seized the citadel, the antagonistic faction of Megacles fled— an^ Pisis
tratus was master of Athens."— Riss AND I'AiJi of Athens, vol. 1, page Sib.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 101
Destitute of the feelings of either, he did not hesitate
to trample on these beautiful sentiments in others;
and the guards assigned for his protection were the
means by which he subverted the liberty of that very
people, who had thrown an arm of security around his
person, or his life. He established an absolute govern
ment in Athens, and thenceforth he designed that all
law, together with its execution, should proceed from
himself. He became the great fountain of justice,
instead of the people. During his administration there
were but two ranks in the state, the oppressor and the
oppressed ; he was master and they were slaves.
The Alcmseonidse, guUty of murder, fled not from
Athens to avoid the just vengeance of law, but through
fear of the machinations of a rival usurper. Megacles
and his associates, belonging to the popular party,
took refuge in a foreign country. But powerful rival
parties, under the leadership of Lycurgus, were suc
cessful in driving the despot from the state. This
union of opposing rivals for the removal of Pisistratus
was, after the expulsion of the latter, dissolved by
jealousy among the rival leaders of each, at the
aspiring ambition of the other. Against the rival
leaders, Megacles, being unable to make headway,
and establish himself in a centralized government,
proposed to the exiled monarch, each having fled from
the other, to elevate him to the despotic position from

102 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
which he had been driven, in the event that Pisistratus
marry his daughter. Destitute of all shame in this
relation, as in all others, he acceded to the terms, thus
prostituting his person for power by marrying the
Megaclean.** The parent, who was represented as a
mild man and a leader of one of the democratic
.parties, proved to be the very individual who restored
a tyrannical rule to the tyrant, and an oppressive
burden to the people.
But the want of affection toward Ccesyra soon
reached the ears of Megacles, who, regarding it a
contempt of merit, or of dignity in his own person,
resented the insult, became democratic in feeling, and
a second time, by his influence, compelled the tyrant
to descend the throne and flee the state. The usurper
and his sons soon after established themselves in the
government. Megacles and Pisistratus knew no rights
but their own, and the bearings of no measures but
such as contributed to their own riches, and to their
own selfish ends. With them might made right, and
each was desirous of placing all in subordination to his
own interests. The sole end of life with them was the
gratification of their selfish and animal desires. They

31 " Megacles, therefore, unable to maintain equal ground with Lycurgus,
turned his thoughts toward the enemy he had subdued, and sent proposals to
Pisistratus, offering to unite their forces, and support him in his pretentions
to the tyranny, upon condition that the exiled chief marry his daughter
Ccesyra. Pisistratus readily aooeded to the terms."— KiSB and Fall of
Athens, vol. 1, page 216.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. X03
racked Athens by civil wars to subserve the purposes
of these base passions ; and whatever apparent fame
their ambition might have attained in the eyes of the
depraved, it is perfectly evident that their envious
souls were put to the severest torture at the prosperity
of political rivals, and their memory doomed to be
branded with infamy by succeeding generations as
traitors and felons.
Some credit, however, is due Pisistratus, for, being
a man of learning, he was the first who collected the
scattered poems of Homer, ^^ enforced the laws of
Solon, 3* and directed the attention of his countrymen
to the cultivation of letters.
Miltiades, nephew to the one already mentioned,
was both a tyrant and a traitor to the nobles and to
the people.^* He commanded the Greek forces at the
celebrated battle of Marathon, and died in prison

32 "Although the poems of Homer were widely known and deeply
venerated before his time, yet he appears, by a more accurate collection and
arrangement of them, and probably ny bringing them into more general and
active circulation in Athens, to have largely added to the wonderful impetus
to poetical emulation which these immortal writings were calculated to
give."— Rise and Fall of Athens, vol. 1, page 21S.
33 "Amid the tumult of fierce and equipoised factions, it might be
fortunate that a single individual was raised above the rest, who, having
the wisdom to appreciate the institutions of Solon, had the authority to
enforce them."— Ibid. vol. 1, 219.
34 Mr. Bulwer says that this Miltiades arrived at the Chersonesus, "by a
stroke of dextrous perfidy, seized the persons of the neighboring chieftains-
attained the sovereignty of that peninsula, and married the daughter of a
Thracian prince. In his character was united, with much of the intellect, all
the duplicity of the Greek."— Ibid., vol. 1, page 258.

104 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
under, as is believed, unjust sentence of law. After
the death of Pisistratus, his eldest son, Hippias, suc
ceeded to the throne of his father It was during the
reign of Hippias that this second Miltiades was sent
to the Chersonesus, which Hippias supposed bore the
relation of a tributary province to Athens, and there
fore to his sovereign power. Miltiades, after his arrival
in the former country, pretended to be greatly afflicted
. for the loss of his kinsman. Upon the appearance of
this, the most considerable persons on that peninsula
offered every sympathy and satisfaction, which they
could render to the sorrow-stricken chief. When those
influential persons had assembled for that purpose, he
laid hands on their persons and treated them as modern
nations manage notorious thieves. There could be no
baser conduct, or an exhibition of more treacherous
principles, than the action of Miltiades in this affair. *«
He was true in faith to no particular party, nor power,
if he could, by any means, make an act of perfidy
redound to his own emolument in wealth, in honor,
or in fame.
"During the war between Darius and the Scythians,
while affecting to follow the Persian army, he had held
traitorous intercourse with the foe, and proposed to the

3S ¦' The new Miltiades was a man of consummate talents, but one who
scrupled little eis to the means by which he accomplished his object."—
Rise akd fat.t. of Athens, page 228.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 105
Grecian chiefs to destroy the bridge of boats across
the Danube, confided to their charge; so that, what
with the force of the Scythians and the pressure of
famine, the army of Darius would have perished
among the Scythian wastes, and a mighty enemy have
been lost to Greece — a scheme that, but for its wicked
ness, would have been wise. With all his wiles, and
all his dishonesty, Miltiades had the art, not only of
rendering authority firm, but popular. Driven from
his state by the Scythian nomades, he was voluntarily
recalled by the very subjects over whom he had estab
lished an armed sovereignty — ^a rare occurrence in that
era of republics. Surrounded by fierce and restless
foes, and exercised in constant, if petty, warfare,
Miltiades had acquired as much the experience of
camps as the subtilties of Grecian diplomacy; yet,
like many of the wise of small states, he seems to
have been more crafty than rash — ^the first for flight
whenever flight was the better policy — ^but first for
battle if battle were the more prudent. He had in him
none of the inconsiderate enthusiasm of the hero, none
of the blind but noble subserviency to honor. Valor
seems to have been for his profound intellect but the
summation of chances, and when we afterward find
him the most daring soldier, it is only because he was
the acutest calculator." * « This was the true character

36 Rise and Fall ob Axumia, vol. li page

106 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of him who fought the great battle of Marathon by the
introduction of a new mode of attack. Like the class
to which he belonged, whose minds were always turned
to policy and expediency, he held no true relation to
the people. This, we shall show, in a subsequent part
of this work, to be one of the causes which is now
decomposing the principles upon which the constitu
tionality of the republic of the United States is reposed.
To-day it is the life of society? and the duration of
the republic may be determined by it ; for it is evident
that as duplicity becomes common to the members of
society in ordinary life, equity has subsided from the
masses, and depravity become the prevailing fashion
of the age.
Cleomenes had reduced the spirit of revenge to a
science, and, by the subtUty of his address, caused
the deposition of Demaratus from the throne of
Sparta. Demaratus, being more influenced by power
and the prospect of distinction than the love of jus
tice, betrayed his country, taking revenge upon a
whole people for injuries which he had received by
the deceptive policy of Cleomenes and Leotychides.
Demaratus, in the former part of his life, had
defeated the suit which Leotychides was paying to
a young lady and married her himself In conse
quence of this Leotychides readily joined in the con
spiracy of Cleomenes, and puolished the falsehood

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 107
regarding the legitimacy of Demaratus' birth. Cleo
menes knew that the lower classes were as supersti
tious as they were ignorant, and hence would consult
the divine authority with reference to the truth of
the charge. By the assistance of a citizen of no less
standing than his own, he was enabled to bribe the
oracle to confirm the report. The consequence was
that the people, (who if they must have a king desired
one that had received from his ancestors no hered
itary tendency to vice,) deposed Demaratus from
regal power. The fallen potentate, to escape the
further persecution of his enemies, fled from Grecian
authority, and was received at the Persian court by
Darius. Shortly before him Hippias had been driven
from a despotic station at Athens, the last sovereign of
the Pisistratidse, by the envious and jealous rancor
of political enemies who were his equals in wealth, in
culture, and in sagacity. Hippias, repairing to the
capital city of Darius, and pursuing that system of
hatred and revenge so common to the higher classes
of the Greeks, by his influence at the Persian court,
drew upon the inhabitants of his native country the
numberless hosts of its ancient enemies.^'

37 " While, seemingly unconscious of greater dangers, Athens thus prac
tised her rising energies against the little island of ^gina, thrice every day
the servants of the Persian king continued to exclaim, ' Sire, remember the
Athenians I ' The traitor Hippias, constantly about the person of the cour
teous monarch, never failed to stimulate still farther his vengeance by

108 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
The double attitude of Cleomenes toward the peo
ple in bribing the oracle, being discovered, he fled
from the vengeance of the inhabitants and sought an
asylum in a foreign state. Burning with indignation
at the treatment he had received from his countrymen,
he endeavored to direct the sword of Thessaly upon
his native city. He was a man of great abilities and
executiveness, and was enabled to accomplish more in
a direct course than any other individual of his time.
In consideration of the danger which at this time
threatened Greece, the people, notwithstanding Cleo
menes' conduct iu a foreign land, recalled him from
exile. The Persian armies had appeared on the bor
ders of Grecian territory, and hence it demanded every
effort on the part of the latter to protect itself from
conquest and subjection to Persian ride.
However defective may have been the character and
conduct of Demaratus whUe he held the Spartan scep
ter, and also during the first part of his exUe before the
death of Darius, after the succession of Xerxes to the
throne of Persia, and while the mighty armies of this

appealing to his ambition. At length Darius resolved no longer to delay the
accomplishment of his designs. He recalled Mardonius, whose energy,
indeed, had not been proportioned to his powers, and appointed two other
generals— Datis, a native of the warlike Media, and Aristophanes, his own
nephew, son to the former satrap of that name. These were expressly
ordered to march at once against Eretria and Athens. And Hippias,
now broken in frame, advanced in age, and after an exile of twenty years,
accompanied the Persian army," expecting to be restored to the Attlo
throne.— BiSB and Fall or Athens, vol. 1, page 266.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 109
weak prince were being collected for the invasion of
his native land, however destitute of Persian wealth
and luxury, the deep and inherent love which he bore
his country, notwithstanding his persecutions, over
came and conquered his vindictive spirit ; reversing his
action, he became its friend, and once more experi
enced the tender and virtuous feelings of a patriot. It
appears that when Xerxes called on him for his advice
he presented the truth in such manner to deter, if it
were possible, the king from pursuing the course
which had been elected, and thereby arrest a calam
ity which, as it seemed to him, by the immense
preparations, foreshadowed more the ruin of his
country than of his enemies. The love he bore
the former triumphed over the hatred he harbored
against the latter. The nature of his whole conduct
at the Persian court was designed to prepare his
nation to avoid the blow aimed at its independent
life. Although he had received every attention that
was adapted in its nature to cause a forgetfulness of
his exUe and diminish the love of his native land, he,
nevertheless, remembered with endearment the home
of his youth, his friends and the national civilization
to which he belonged. '^

38 Rollin says "that this Demaratus was one of the two kings of Sparta,
who, being exiled by the faction of his enemies, had taken refuge at the
Persian court, where he was entertained with the greatest marks of honor
and beneficence. * * * This prince was very much esteemed in Persia;

110 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
From these facts, if we may believe the conclusions
of common sense, by the malicious conduct of the
higher classes, Demaratus was driven into exUe. At
Sparta, as at Athens, it was dangerous for one person to
unite in himself virtue and ability. By the defamation
of such by the great, the ignorant were deceived and
became dangerous enemies. Old Demaratus, who had
all the former part of his Grecian life been surrounded
by the corruption of his rank, and to considerable
extent had imitated their vices, could not overcome
the latent virtue of his nature, and he grieved as he
beheld the ruin which threatened the land . of his
nativity. The active existence of his indignation,
carried out by a spirit of revenge, showed that he
was alternately swayed by virtue and by vice. His
love of country was called into active life only when
proper objective causes were presented to his reason.
The character of Pausanias was as depraved as the
position which he occupied was potential. After the
relief which the united fleets of Athens and Lacedse
mon had rendered those cities which, during the
invasion of Greece by Xerxes, had been reduced to his

but neither the injustice of the Spartan citizens, nor the kind treatment of
the Persian king, could make him forget his country. As soon as he knew
that Xerxes was making preparations for the war, he found means to give
the Grecians secret intelligence of it. And now, being obliged on this ocoa^
slon to speak his sentiments, he did it with such a noble freedom and
dignity as became a Spsirtan and a king of Sparta."- Ancient HiSTOBYk
vol. 1, page 252, Cincinnati edition.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Ill
domination, and their maritime armaments directed
to the Hellespont, they took the city of Byzantium, in
which were many families of the greatest influence in
the empire of Persia. It was not here that Pausanias
fell, but where he exhibited the evidences of a past
fallen condition. The depravity into which this man
had been lowered, previously to the taking of Byzan
tium, is almost past conception. Individuals do not,
all at once, begin to fall and commit crimes in syn-
chroniety. There is, first of all, a falling away of the
humane sentiments, a gradual degeneration in the
moral faculties of the mind, before individual action
in the commission of wrong. Causes which, however
little known to himself, had been in active oper
ation for a long time, destroying his moral nature.
It is not here assumed that he received an average
amount of this quality by hereditament. But there
is as much reason to believe that he derived from
this source as much as any other of his rank, in
the absence of proof to the contrary. Like the mil
lions of to-day, who feed upon appearances rather
than upon realities, Pausanias was seduced into the
exhibition of his shallow condition by the gaudy
appearances, the vain pretensions, and seemingly
moral but profligate manners of these Persian fami
lies. Rich attire and external accomplishments in
behavior, concealed the turpitude into which they

112 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
had been bred or fallen after the period of adoles
cence. He designed first to bribe aU the most influential
persons that he could, money having been advanced
for this purpose by Xerxes. ^» He also agreed to
deliver the principal Greek cities into the hands of
this potentate. Pausanias at the time was in com
mand of the Lacsedemonian fleet, and hence held a
dangerous power from the people over them, and was,
therefore, able to make the position of the Hellenists
critical and uncertain in the extreme. He not only
had the depravity to betray his country, but he and
Artabazas both added murder to treason. In order to
effectually conceal the traces of their conspiracy, each
put to death the messengers sent by the other in his
communication.*" Pausanias had been twice arrested
and acquitted on a charge of treason.

39 "Pausanias, who from this time conceived thoughts of betraying his
country, thought proper to make use of this opportunity to gain the favor of
Xerxes. To this end he caused a report to be spread among his troops, that the
Persian noblemen, whom he had committed to the guard and care of one of
his oflScers, had made their escape by night and fled, whereas he had set them
at liberty himself ; and sent a letter to Xerxes by them, wherein he offered to
deliver the city of Sparta and all Greece into his hands, on condition he would
give him his daughter in marriage. The king did not fail to give him a favor
able answer, and to send him very large sums of money also, in order to win
over as many o£ the Grecians as should be disposed to enter into his designs.
The person he appointed to manage this Intrigue with him, was Artabazas;
and in order to enable him to transact the matter with the greater ease and
security, he made him governor of all the sea-coasts of Asia Minor."— ROL-
un's Ancient History, vol. 1, page 268.
40 "It must be observed, by the way, that this Persian governor and
Pausanias had agreed together, immediately to put to death all the couriers

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 113
It was ArgiUias, a slave of Pausanias, that furnished
sufficient evidence to convict the suspected, by putting
into the hands of government officers the letter he was
to have carried to the Persian satrap. To the crime of
treason he coupled that of wholesale murder of his
own people, to achieve the ends of a vaulting ambition.
Pausanias was of royal blood, and had received the best
education which was to be had in Greece. Both he and
Artabazas, although men of brilliant minds quite up
to if not beyond the civilization of the times, were not
only destitute of principle, but guilty of the most
revolting crimes. The horrid propositions which the
former made to the latter were not only acceded to but
executed to the letter. There is always a last act of
felony in the criminal, and the crimes of which Pau
sanias was guilty were partly rewarded or punished
by the death which followed a voluntary seclusion
and starvation.** Although one may not be in favor
of extreme punishment, yet he cannot but feel that
there is scarcely a death so severe that such a life as
his does not merit.

they mutually sent to one another, as soon as their packets or messages were
delivered, that there might be no traces left or possibility of discovering their
correspondence. The Argilllan. who «aw none oi hlsf ellow servants that had
been sent, return back again, had some suspicions ; and when it came to his
turn to go, he opened the letter he was entrusted with, In which Artabazas
was desired to kill him as soon as he had delivered It,"— Rollin's Anoient
History, vol. 1, page 269.
41 "Pausanias concealed himself in the temple of Fallaa, and there
starved to death."— Ibid., vol. 1, page 289.
8

114 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
The conduct of Themistocles, by his secret corre
spondence with Pausanias, seemed to implicate him in
the conspiracy to subordinate all Greece to the sway
of a corrupt descendant of Cyrus. He had no hope
to escape in case of trial, so he fled to the court of
Xerxes, and became governor of provinces to him
who, by the conspiracy already mentioned, was to
have been master of Greece. The exact relation
Themistocles held to the intrigue, if any at all, has
never been satisfactorily fathomed, probably never
wUl be. As the beginning of the life of Themistocles,
and his subsequent career, were worse than that of
Pausanias toward the state, up to the time of the
latter' s conspiracy, and as also virtue is not derived
by the practice of evil, such being the life of Themis
tocles, there is litfle reason to believe that the end of
his career was graced with more exalted principles.
Crime increases individual depravity as age advances.
If Pausanias was unprincipled in ambition, Themis
tocles was not less so. If the former was a murderer,
the latter was a thief; and both were traitors. As
we, elsewhere, have seen, he caused the ostracism of
Aristides, one of the most just of men, because the
latter stood honestly in the way of the former's
advancement to power. The latter kept the people
of Athens constantly informed of their rights and the
frauds practiced upon them by the public men of the

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 115
state. Thus interfered with and checked by one as
able as honest, they resolved to get rid of him, and
hence the movement for his banishment. The public
men of Attica and of all Greece were not only men of
intelligence, but combined great mental strength with
intellectual culture. The intelligent, who, as we have
seen, and those whose careers will be hereafter noticed,
were all, except now and then an individual, corrupt
to the very verge of total depravity.
In the ostracism of Cimon, in all probability, it was
the banishment of one who was wholly guiltless of the
crimes of which he was convicted. Very few were
subjected to the ostracism, who were justly worthy
of expulsion. It became rather a means to remove
political rivals than a penalty for crimes, toward the
end of the period which forever closed up republican
freedom in Greece. Although the youth of Cimon
was marked by irregularity, his after life was that of
nobleness, and, to some extent, that of justice.**
Wherever charges are brought against persons,
whether true or false, they furnish evidence of the
character of the men of whom conviction is sought, or

43 "Thus himself gay and convivial, addicted to company, wine and
women, be encouraged shows and spectacles : he invested them with mag-
nifloence."— Rise and Fall of Athens, vol. 2, 173.
"The ill reputation he had drawn upon himself having prejudiced the
people against him, he at first was very ill received by them: when, being
discouraged by repulse, he resolved to lay aside all thoughts of concerning
himself with public business."— Ancient Histobt, voL I, page 276.

116 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of the moral qualities of those making them. This may
be considered as nearly true at all times among all
mankind. And this we believe to be a good rule for the
ascertainment of the moral condition of those in Hellas,
who had not arrived by fortune at such a degree of
political eminence as to hold the first positions of
official stations, and, as a consequence, their conduct
not so interwoven with the affairs of state as to make
them necessary to be traced by historians when study
ing the history of a nation. This rule is true in its
application, and cannot be dispensed with in contem
plating the social movements of mankind. This,
among other methods, we have used in arriving at
the moral condition of the higher classes. Contem
porary and subsequent historians record the crimes,
and the character of the charges above mentioned, the
nature of the times, the excitability of the lower
ranks, and such surrounding circumstances as enable
us, providing care and attention are used in the
investigation, to contemplate the predominant traits
of mentality in any given class. When Alcibiades was
charged with disfiguring the statues of Mercury, at
the time the fleet which he commanded was to have
sailed for the coast of SicUy, may be regarded as
evidence of the religious character of the people ; and
as they looked to the gods for protection against
calamities, and also their determination to punish

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 117
whoever should exhibit such a want of propriety as
to insult them by defacing those things set up in their
memory, produce proof of the integrity of the masses,
so do they as positively establish, providing those
charges were false, corruption as existing somewhere
other than in the body of the people and in Alcibiades.
As we are often met, in the recital of events by his
torians, with only the name, perhaps, of the arraigned,
and none of those who moved his trial and condemna
tion, so when one, or two, or more individuals, having
been so engaged, are known, there are many others
who followed in supporting them in every measure,
their equals in all but political fame, that are
unknown. And thus, in the history of Greece, those
who contributed directly to the movements against
Aristides, Socrates, Alcibiades and others, were equal
in intellectual culture to those whose names are known
as leading conspirators against the corrupt and just,
were far more numerous, with no less capacity in the
distortion of facts and the production of false evidence.
Alcibiades, in the seventeenth year of the Pelopon
nesian war, who, ostensibly at the head of the affairs
of state in Attica, occupied a position which many of
the learned desired for themselves; they resolved
upon his removal, if it involved his life in the fall.
As much as they confided in the ignorant honesty
of the masses, they, on the contrary, to effect his

118 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
overthrow, had to rely on the utter abandonment of
their colleagues. The simple honesty of the one and
the abasement of the other were necessary conditions
to effect their object. Through the ignorance of the
masses, these political demagogues were enabled to
impress upon their minds the belief that Alcibiades
was about to overturn the existing republican insti
tutions and establish a despotic government.** How
ever true this might have been prior to the preparation
of the expedition for Sicily; however ambitious he
might have been after regal honors, at the time of
tile defacement of the statties, the charge was, with
out the slightest doubt, wholly false, and only exhib
ited the turpitude of base and envious rivals. Yet
the character of Alcibiades was marked by the
greatest inconsistencies. He was licentious, conceited,
vain,** tyrannical, overbearing and given to great

43 "As " Alcibiades " was the main obstacle to the advancement of their
own popularity and credit, they concluded that, in case they could rid them
selves of him, they might at once become leaders of the state. Hence they
aggravated the charge, and bellowed, that those mystic frolics and the
defacement of the Mercuries, struck at the very foundation of democracy,
and that none of those outrageous acts had been committed without his
participation."- Smith's Translation op Thuctdides, page 228.
44 "Nevertheless his high birth, his riches, the great families he was
related to, and the authority of his guardian— all these things had conspired
to make him exceedingly vain and haughty. He was full of esteem for him
self and contempt for all others. He was preparing to enter upon the
administration of public affairs, and, from his conversation, it might be
presumed that he promised himself no less than to eclipse entirely the glory
of Perioles, and to attack the king of Persia upon his throne."- Rollin's
Ancient GUstobt, vol. 1, page 316.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 119
drunkenness." «« In spite of the efforts of his great
master, Socrates, he continually relapsed into debauch
ery of every nature. He completely defeated the peace
which had been negotiated and ratified by and between
the states of Attica and Sparta. The war had lasted ten
years, well nigh exhausting the resources of the two
states and their allies. But he designedly caused a
renewal of hostilities, lasting seventeen years longer,
ending in the subjection of republican institutions to
aristocratic power. Alcibiades had no object in the
continuation of hostilities, but to satisfy his ambition
by parading his political and martial abilities before
the inhabitants of Greece.
When the ambassadors from Lacedsemon arrived
at Athens, with full powers** to settle all differences
existing between the belligerents, Alcibiades secretly
represented to them that in the event of their making
a statement to that effect before the people, the latter
would become furious and resort to violence. They

45 Rollin says of him that he was liable to great extremes, either " an
imperious master or a groveling slave ; a friend to virtue and to the virtuous,
or abandoned to vice and to vicious men ; capable of supporting the most
painful fatigues and toils, or insatiably desirous of voluptuous delights."—
Ancient History, vol. 1, page 316.
46 Nicias had been opposed by Alcibiades in every effort to effect a
settlement, "but happily for him, there arrived, at that very Instant, ambas
sadors from Lacedsemon, who were invested with full powers to put an end
to all disputes Being introduced into the council, or senate, they set forth
their complaints, and made their demands, which every one of the members
thought very just and reasonable. The people were to give them audience
the next day."— Ibid.

120 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
had previously said that full powers of negotiation
and ratification had been granted them by their gov-'
emment. Were there no intervention, the people of
both sections desired peace, war would cease, and the
public occupation of vain politicians and warriors—
these occupations in Greece were always united in
one — ^would be brought to a close. It therefore became
necessary for him, to be able to keep himself constantiy
before the public, to make some powerful interposition.
He said, in the event of the ambassadors stating that
they were not fully empowered, he would assist them,
and thus avoid the violence of the multitude and effect
their object. This he took a solemn oath to do. But
the next day, at the convention, he purposely and
premeditatedly committed the blackest perjury against
the embassy and the state.*'

47 " Aciblades, who was afraid they [the ambassadors] would succeed
with them, used his utmost endeavors to engage the ambassadors [of Sparta]
In a conference with him. He represented to them, that the council always
behaved with the utmost moderation and humanity toward those who
addressed them, but tho people were haughty and extravagant in their pre
tensions ; that should thoy mention full powers, the people would not fail to
take advantage of this cirniimstance, and oblige them to agree to whatever
they should take into their heads to ask. He concluded with assuring them,
that he would assist them with all his credit, in order to get Pylus restored to
them, to prevent the alliance with the people of Argos, and to get that with
them renewed; and he confirmed all these promises with an oath. The
ambassadors were extremely well pleased with this conferenoe, and greatly
admired the profound policy and vast abilities of Alcibiades, whom they
looked upon as an extraordinary man; and, they were not mistaken in their
conjecture. "On the morrow, the people being assembled, the ambassadors were
introduced. Alcibiades asked them. In mild terms, the subject of their
embassy, and the purport of the powers with which they were invested.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 121
He caused the disastrous expedition to Sicily, was
recalled and condemned to death. He avoided the
extreme penalty of the law by making his escape to
the kingdom of Sparta, where, by his artful accom
plishments in dissimulation, he contributed to the
ruin of his country.
But he did not long remain in Sparta, as he soon
relapsed again into the habits of the voluptuary, and
mined the domestic happiness of king Agis ;*^ not
only incurred the envy, but was hated and despised
by aU intelligent men of Sparta. They envied him

They immediately answered, that they were come to propose an accommo
dation, but were not empowered to conclude anything. The words were no
sooner spoken, than Alcibiades exclaims against them ; declares them to be
treacherous knaves ; calls on the council as witnesses to the speech they had
made the night before ; and desires the people not to believe or hear men
who so Impudently advanced falsehoods, and spoke and prevaricated so
unaccountably, as to say one thing one day, and the very reverse on the next,
" Words could never express the surprise and confusion with which the
ambassadors were seized, who, gazing at one another, could not believe their
eyes and ears. Nicias, who did not know the treacherous stratagem of Alci
biades, could not conceive the motive of this charge, tortured his brain to no
purpose to find out the reason of it." The peace about to be concluded was
entirely defeated by this bad faith of Alcibiades. — Bolxjns's Ancient His
tobt, vol. 1, page 316.
48 " No reasons are assigned for the difference between Alcibiades and
Agis. Numbers of probable ones might occur from the different tempers
and manners of the persons : but we learn, from Plutarch, that Alcibiades
had been intriguing with Timsea, the wife of Agis, and had had a son by her
who was called Leotychides, disowned afterward by Agls, and incapacitated
from succeeding to the throne. Alcibiades was always dissolute ; and yet
this, it seems, was merely to gratify his pride, since he declared his intention
in this intrigue, to have been that his descendants might reign at Sparta.
This fine gentleman from Athens was exceedingly agreeable in the eyes of her
Spartan majesty ; even though his deportment at Sparta was such as If he
had been trained from his birth in the severe discipline of Lycurgus. He was
a thorough Spartan, shaved close, plunged into cold water, could make a meal
on dry bread, and feast on black broth."— Thuotdides, lib. 8, page 299. Smith.

123 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
because he led the people captive ; they hated him for
the same reason and those great abilities with which
they could not hope to compete ; they despised him
for his utter destitution of prmciple. Their compound
hatred of his great and bad qualities, caused by his
conduct among them, pronounced a second sentence
of death against him. He fled from a people whose
happiness he could not crush, from an educated class
whom he could not trample under his feet.* "
We have discovered that he rewarded the protectors
of his life with the basest ingratitude. The difficulties
which he had brought upon himself, he^attempted to
flee from, and took refuge at the court of Persia^ at
which, like many of his evil-doing predecessors, he
intrigued for his country's ruin. Seeing that iti utter
extinction was about to be his handiworki"; ,that he
could not be commended except for evU by demons J;o
the inhabitants of their abode ; that his 'final restora
tion to his native land, if at all, would be rather a

49 "In the meantime, several of Ionia declared for Lacedsemon, to which
Alcibiades contributed very much. Agis, who was already his enemy in
consequence of the injury he had received from him, could not endure the
glory he had acquired ; for nothing was done without the advice of Alcibia,
des, and it was generally said that the success of all enterprises was owing to
him. The most powerful and ambitious of the Spartans, from the same
sentiments of jealousy, looked upon him with an evil eye, and at length, by
their intrigues, obliged the principal magistrate to send orders into lonia'f or
putting him to death. Alcibiades, being secretly apprized of this order, did
not discontinue his services to the Lacedaemonians, but kept himself so well
upon his guard, that he avoided all the snares laid for him."- Rollin's
Ancient Histort, vol. 1, page 334.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 123
re-introduction to tenantless villages, desolate fields,
and desecrated grave-yards, his heart, under his selfish
nature, repented, not for the many crimes which he
had committed, but for the defeat, which was now
apparent, to the darling objects of his ambition.
The war in Sicily, in which he had involved the
Athenians,'" had come to an end, and noble old
Nicias, who had opposed it at its commencement,
buried his bones in that distant island, in attempting
to serve the vain glory of his country. Although
Alcibiades had been the immediate cause of the war,
he injured its interests, betrayed his companions in
arms by treacherously inducing the allies of the Athe
nians to revolt, and intriguing an alliance of Italy,
Lacedsemon, Syracuse, and the empire of Persia,
against that little state of Attica, his birth-place,
which had educated, and conferred honors upon him,
in which also reposed the remains of his ancestors.
At length the republican government fell before the
unprincipled demagogues of Athens, ^ * and the army.

50 "But the person who most influenced this ardor, [the conquest of
Sicily,] was Alcibiades, by feeding the people with splendid hopes, with
which he himself was forever filled or rather intoxicated," — Rollin's Ancient
History, vol. 1, page 317.
51 Bollin says that the corrupt politicians, after they had done away
with the old political institutions of Athens, " elected new magistrates out of
their own body, observing the usual ceremonies upon such occasions. They
did not think proper to recall those who were banished, lest they should be
obliged to authorize the return of Alcibiades, of whose uncontrollable spirit
they were apprehensive, and would soon have made himself master of the

124 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
alarmed for those popular rights which had existed
for a hundred years, recalled him, and raised him
once more to the command of the Attic forces.** He
immediately accepted the chieftaincy of that army to
which he was in hostUe attitude, entirely reversing
his political position, and those, who an hour before
were his friends, engaged in a common cause, were
now become his foes. He could not, however, undo
his greatest work of treason ; his country was sinking
beneath the blows of the civilized world, its liberty,
its independence, as well as those of all Greece, were
almost in effectual destruction.
He had no feelings of compassion, as his acts prove
too clearly he cared not what sufferings he inflicted on
the innocent, the helpless; he had no conscience, as
he did not respect the rights of others ; all interests,
aU law, whether human or divine, were subordinated
to his selfish ambition. His moral and religious
natures, as well as the honor of a respectable man
hood, were in the service of his sensuaL appetites. He

people. Abusing their power in a tyrannical manner, some were put 'o deat'.i
others they banished, confiscating their lands with impunity. All who ven
tured to oppose this change, or even to complain of it, were butchered
upon false pretexts; and those would tiave met with a bad reception, who
demanded justice of the murderers. The four hundred, soon .ifter their
establishment, sent ten deputies to Samos to gain the concurrence of the
army."— Rollin's Ancient History, page 336.
52 "All that had passed at Athens was already known there," [Samos,]
"and the news had enraged the soldie.3 to the highest degree. They deposed
several of their chiefs, whom they suspected, and put others Into their places,
Alcibiades was recalled, and chosen generalissimo."— IBIO.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 125
was an inebriate, a libertine, a perjurer, a traitor, and
a murderer. Alcibiades was among the most able political minds
that Greece ever produced ; he had been educated in
the most recondite branches of learning, under the
tuition of the ablest masters. According to the pre
vailing theory, his moral qualities should have been
as much exalted as his education was superior to that
of ordinary mortals. But, by the guidance of observ
ation, very few persons, on the contrary, in the whole
history of Greece, could be found more degraded in
their moral nature. Education did nothing to elevate
hid in virtue, but it is perfectly evident, that his
capacity for evU. was increased by it. Metaphysicians,
or those educators who view everything from a basis
of metaphysics, deny possible hereditary qualities;
and if, according to this doctrine, he had an equal
organization for good and for evil with the rest of
mankind, and, as he possessed a greater intellectuality
and a more extended education than the majority
of Grecian learned men, he should have been less
debased. If the circumstances surrounding the individual
wholly form his character, and if, also, education cul
tivate the moral faculties of the mind, as Mr. Buckle,
a good representative of this theory, alleges is true
in both instances, the higher classes of Greece should

126 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
have possessed this quality in greater predominance
than any other contemporary race. Before the fallen
liberties of this nation had been made the basis for the
conquest of the world by a Philip and an Alexander,
the learned classes had carried the culture of the intel
lectual powers to a more extended degree than any
people of their time then in the world. But instead
of finding the educated classes bettered under the
moral law ; instead of its rendering them more virtuous
than the ignorant portion whom they despised, they
were only sharpened in their appetite for evil: in
proportion to the development of their intellectual
powers, they fell from moral position and became the
most debased of mankind, except the Jews just before
their dispersion ; and from that day to this, we firmly
believe, no class of men in the different nations of
the earth, not even the worst leaders of the Jacobin
clubs of the French revolution, have presented such
perfect perfidiousness.
It has been shown in this work, the manner in
which these two extreme conditions are wrought. The
immoral and the intellectual conditions of the learned
classes are traversed by the author, for the purpose of
exposing the false theoretical principles, or defective
system of education, then prevalent and now in vogue
in this country. Its progress is now more rapid
than it was then, and if the defect be not corrected.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 127
the most deplorable consequences may be expected.
The elements of disintegration are now at work in all
portions of the Union, and if some more correct method
of education be not established to form a different
character in the rising generation to arrest its progress,
a helium, interecinum will ensue, our cities be laid in
ashes, or the republic destroyed; the principles of
autocracy superseding those of autonomy. In the
next chapter we shall show that Christianity cannot,
and, in fact, no other system of religion can, check
that increase of evil now everywhere so apparent.
Defective systems of education and ecclesiastical errors
have been productive of great injury to the primitive
elements of morality; and we shall, in its proper
place, proceed to show, by such a statement of facts
as enables us to comprehend the truth of those allega
tions, their bearings on mental life.
At the first opportunity, that is, when the affairs of
government in Athens had become desperate by the
length of the war, they, being opposed in finances by
the treasuries of Persia in addition to those of Lace
dsemon and her allies, the dispiriting of the people by
their late defeats, and the prospective ruin of not only
the state but of the city itself, from a Phoenician fleet
which was approaching it, in co-operation with allied
armies, the higher or learned classes, both civil and
military, those in command of the armies, and those

128 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
also in charge of the administration of civil authority,
betrayed the interests of the people, by disposmg of
all laws of republican equality, and establishing oli
garchial ones in their stead. To this the Athenians
were brought by the designed conduct of the educated,
of whom Alcibiades was but a fair representative. In
concert with the nobles, he represented to the people,
after holding out to them the calamities which were
impending, that if the democracy were abolished, he
could the more easily obtain favor of the Persian king,
as this person, exercising sovereign power, placed
more confidence in the agreement of a privileged aris
tocracy than in a people wielding popular rights.'*
And this he well knew to be wholly and totally false,
for the sovereign of Persia had, for more than a hun
dred years, been burdened by fugitives of this class
from the Hellenic states, who had gone abroad to avoid
execution at home for their crimes. This immoral
condition of the educated of Greece was perfectly
understood by all intelligent nations having commerce
53 " Alcibiades, who was well informed of all that passed among the
Athenians, sent secretly to the principal of them at Samos, to sound their
sentiments, and to let them know that he was not averse to returning to
Athens, providing the administration of the republic were put into the hands
of the great and powerful, and not left to the populace, who had expelled
him. Some of the principal officers went from Samos, with designs to concert
the proper measures for the success of that undertaking. He promised to
procure the Athenians not only the favor of Tissaphernes," [Persian satrap,]
" but of the king himself, upon condition they would abolish the democracy or
popular government ; because the king would place more confidence in the
engagements of the nobility, than upon those of the inconstant and capriolotts
multitude."- Rollin's Ancient History, vol. 1, page 335.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 129
with them. Like ' ' Punic faith, " " Grecian duplicity ' '
was common to the knowledge of mankind, having its
origin in the conduct of the nobles only of that nation,
and confined to them in itsapplication.
Toward the close of the war of the Peloponnesus,
the learned feared nothing so much as each other.
Political animosities, bitter rivalries, and the utter
want of humanity toward enemies, imported that the
nobles had become a generation of thugs.
The foregoing general declarations are thoroughly
supported by historical facts, and to crown every act
of wrong, coeval with their education, the nobles
accepted the conditions proposed by a criminal and
traitor to his country, as a thing desired by them, in
the deposition of the virtuous from all share in the
enactment of legislative laws. This they wrought by
a systematic deception of the populace. As Alcibiades
had betrayed every cause to which he had been
pledged ; so had aU his colleagues. The only differ
ence between him and the rest of the learned was, in
this respect, the great superiority of his natural ability
and boldness. At the time the proposition was made
by him for a change of the republic into an aristocracy,
his class had already brought the government to ruin,
and the people of Attica to a considerable degree of
extinction. After the war in Sicily, in which, by his own

130 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
personal influence, he had engaged the Athenians, had
proceeded to hostilities, he caused a revolt of the
allies of the latter; he then proceeded to Sparta,
exposing those designs which he himself had planned
and pledged himself to ?execute against Syracuse, Car
thage and Lacedsemon. He then betrayed those
obligations which he had made to the people dwell
ing in the land of his asylum; and his course in
Sparta was so villainously depraved, that even the
infamous of that celebrated state could no longer
endure his base conduct, his double treachery to
friend and foe, and they accordingly pronounced
sentence of death against him. Although jealousy
of his brilliant intellectuality had exercised the feel
ings of the Spartan aristocracy, they had, notwith
standing, just ground to complain of the crimes
which he committed among them.
In the event of the reconstruction of the gov
ernment, those who wielded authority at Athens,
represented to the people that if they sacrificed the
sovereignty, which properly belonged to them, until
the state should be extricated from the extinction,
as a nation, by which it was threatened, legislative
power should revert to the people."* It was this

54 " Pysander wa^ sent to Athens with some of the same faction, to pro
pose the return of Alcibiades, an alliance with Tissaphernes, and che abolition
of tbe democracy. They represented that, by changing the government and

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 131
sort of systematic deception, by taking advantage of
the people in the distresses of their hopes and fears,
that the democratic constitution of Attica was over
thrown by those who should have been its protectors,
being at the time its pretended guardians.
The soldiery, after the events which had occurred
at Athens were known to them, would no longer obey
the commands nor tolerate the presence of those lead
ing military officers, who, in violation of the law, had
been concerned in the conspiracy to convert the free
dom of the people into a condition of vassalage to four
hundred tyrants. They, therefore, relieved them from
all official obligation to the army, and elected men,
possessing both virtue and ability, from their own
ranks, and resolved to firmly defend the state against
a common enemy from without, and against those who
had become traitors to the cause of the republic, from
within. * ^

recalling Alcibiades, Athens might obtain a powerful aid from the king of
Persia, which would be a certain means to triumph over Sparta. Upon this
proposal great numbers " of the people] " exclaimed against it, and especially
the enemies of Alcibiades. But pysander, advancing Into the midst of the
assembly, demanded « hether they knew any other means to save the republic
in the deplorable condition to which it was reduced ; and as it was admitted
there were none he added that the preservation of the state was the question
and not the authority of the laws, which might be provided for In the sequel.
* * * Though this change was very offensive to the people, they gave their
consent to it at length, vrtth the hope of re-establishing tho democracy here
after as Pysander had promised, and they decreed that he should go with
ten more deputies to treat with Alcibiades and Tissaphernes."— Rollin's
Ancient History, vol. 1, page 335.
55 "The aimy accordingly organized itself as an independent state. It
held meetings as a legislative assembly; it claimed for itself the revenues

132 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
The nation, by the vices of the higher classes,
divorced its political body from the people and the
army, to the latter of which they were, by the very
terms of civilization, bound to furnish every encour
agement and support, especially when it was opposed
by forces which greatly outnumbered it. The con
dition of this nation was most deplorable. One of the
officers of the army, who had gone from[^Samos to the
capital, returned and represented the state of affairs
at Athens, with a full description of the terror that
reigned supreme in the environments of the city.
"No man's life," he stated to the army, "was any
longer safe there, and no woman's honor. Those in
power shrank from no deed of violence, and," he
added, "intended to bring into their power the fam
ilies of the men serving on the fleet, in order, by
detaining the former as hostages, to reduce the latter
to submission." The army had to resolve itself into a
body politic, as the educated, with a hired army of
assassins, had mastered the people at the capital.

from the allies ; It proceeded to fresh elections, in order to remove all sus
picious persons from the post of general, and to transfer the command to
proved men of Its own choice. Thus Thrasybulus and Thrasyllus were elected
generals, and in face of the double enemy now opposed to the army, there
prevailed in the latter a fuller concord and a more ardent spirit than ever.
Even without the aid of the faithless city, her soldiers felt strong and suffi
cient in themselves; and if they should not be able to return, they at all
events had in their possession ships and arms, by which they might obtain
for themselves a new city and country."— Citbtics' History of Gbeeoe, vol.
3, page 470.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. I33
Of the Athenian allies, most of them had revolted
for no other apparent reason than because half of the
civilized world were in arms against the little state
of Attica. Peloponnesus and her allies ; Persia, with
her mighty treasuries; the revolted provinces had
become aggressive enemies ;"' Syracuse" and Phceni-
cia8 8, were aU in belligerent hostility to this unhappy
nation; and their fleets on the sea, their numerous
armies on the land, were in proximity to the capital,
hovering around it, waiting only for a favorable oppor
tunity to give the finishing blow to Attic existence.
Athenian finances were exhausted, the large property
holders distressed, the mercantile trade of the city, by
constant interruption, broken off and destroyed ; part
of the poor had perished, and those that remained
rendered poorer by the length of the war ; and farmers
impoverished by the payment of those taxes which the
government had been forced to make. Almost every

56 " In fact, the people of Euboea, Chio and Lesbos, with several others,
gave the Lacedaemonians to understand that they were ready to quit the
party of the Athenians, if they would take them under their protection.
"He" [Alcibiades] " embarked with ChalcidEeus for Chio, which took up
arms upon their arrival and declared for the Lacodsemonians. Miletus also
soon after revolted."— Rollin's Ancient History, vol. 1, page 334.
57 "But before the blockade of the city" [Miletus] "was complete, a new
fleet made its approach. It was the most dangerous of all their enemies,
Hermocrates, who again prevented the Athenians from achieving the victory
which they already deemed certain. He had caused himself to be sent, with
twenty vessels from Syracuse and two from Selinus, to continue the war of
vengeance in the ^gean, and to inflict upon Athens her death blow."—
CnETius' History of Greece, vol. 3, page 442.
S8 Ibid. 446.

134 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
family was in mourning for those which had been lost
in the long and bitter conflict. A large part of the
male population had been cut off, leaving a great
disproportion of one sex to the other. In consequence
of this fall of the idolized, the army were more sad
dened, dispirited and weakened than at any other
phase of corruption which the war had developed.
In addition, a civil war was now threatened between
the people and the aristocracy, in consequence of the
intrigues of the latter to establish unlimited power at
the expense of the masses. Doubt and despair, at
the melancholy aspect of surrounding circumstances,
presented themselves on every side.
Such was the inauspicious condition of this unfor
tunate republic, when these — shall we, through the
false delicacy of the age, hesitate to pronounce such
descriptive terms as are applicable to their qualities —
matchless wretches destroyed the last consolation of
a good citizen, for which the army and state for two-
thirds of a generation, had been contending. Far
better were it for Attica to be in socage to the con
stitutional crown of Sparta, than to make greater
contributions, without any sort of liberty, to four
hundred tyrants of despicable character. Did the
educated of this republic in those troublous times,
which were the turning point in the history of all
Greece, try to arrest the country from the conquest

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 135
which now threatened it? Prom a position of unpar
alleled pecuniary prosperity, of peace, and of opulence,
the people were forced into an almost endless war, by
them, more minous to Greece than beneficial to the
contemporary nations of the earth.
They had, as before hinted, represented to the
masses that an oligarchy would be more respected for
integrity with the kingdom and satrapy of Persia,
better command their confidence, enabling the state
to effect a loan with which to continue the war. The
state treasury had been so often depleted and replen
ished by the tax gatherer of the state, that the latter
could not now raise funds to defray the costs of civil
administration. ^ * In these dire necessities, which now
more than ever pressed from all sides upon the repub
lic, the people at the capital listened with some degree
of patience to a proposition of change in the consti
tution. It was also understood by the masses that
if means were obtained, Attica would recover her
revolted provinces, and thus be able, in the end, to
preserve the union of her dominions. They farther
represented that in the form to which the change
was to be effected, there would be no essential

59 "The democracy was far too costly a thing to admit of being carried
on after the revolt of the allies ; in the present period of financial dearth, it
was impossible simply to collect the pay for the council, the courts of justice,
and the public assemblies."— CcBTins' Histoby or Gbeeoe, vol. 3, page 468.

136 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
alteration in the principles of government. «"» Prom
a partial acquiescence of the multitude, the learned
proceeded to take unwarranted liberties till the repub
lican government was entirely removed.^'
After the learned had so initiated the people that
they would not be alarmed at slight departures from
the former usages of government, they supplied
themelves with ruffians armed with concealed lethal
weapons, for the assassination of such as should give
evidence of opposition, or dissatisfaction of the tyran
nical usurpation. «^ Thus prepared, they proceeded
to act, to establish themselves in power. It will
readily occur, from a view of their preparation, that
they did not hesitate as to the means they were to
employ, were it necessary to sacrifice every citizen
in Athens. In spite of education, the great moralizer
of those who place their hopes upon the old system of

60 On this head an able and reliable author has represented the oligarchs
as saying : " But it does not follow that on this account popular rights should
be abolished ; a civic body was to continue to exist, but not in the same form
as hitherto."— duBTius' History or Greece, vol. 3, page 463.
61 "These were the theories which now zealously spread, and which,
owing to the talents and sophistic artifices of their advocates, met with
undeniable success. The conspirators advanced in their proceedings step by
step in order to prepare the decisive coup d'etat ; they passed from permitted
means to unpermitted, from persuasion to force ; for it was one of thoir
sophistic principles that it is unnecessary to be over conscientious in the
pursuit of a good end."— Ibid., pago 404.
62 " They had a common fund for their purposes, and held venal men
in readiness to act as their instruments, as well as armed followers, hired
abroad and fully prepared for any kind of service." — Ibid., page 464.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. ' 137
metaphysics, they preferred to rule supreme over the
dead bodies of their victims, than live in equality and
harmony with them. They murdered in cold blood
a great many of the people who had no political
consideration with the public, and made themselves so
terrible that no one dare whisper his opinions regard
ing the constitutional crisis or the murders com
mitted.^* Many bodies of well known citizens were
found in the thoroughfares of the city, which had
been secretly stabbed by the hired mercenaries of
these tyrants; and fear, through their heartless acts,
had so seized the people, that the latter had not
the courage to enquire as to who committed the
deeds. Secret organizations were formed by them,
and were under the special direction of these des
potic assassins, for the purposes of murder, and
their deeds of this kind were so frequently and
stealthily performed, that they filled every mind with
horror, and paralyzed the courage of the inhabitants
of Athens. It was by such means as these that they
finally triumphed over the friends of the constitution.

63 " Thus Androcles was got rid of by assassination ; and after him other
victims fell. No enquiry was ventured as to the authors of these crimes.
Those who were not members of the secret clubs were awed into silence;
and the power of these clubs seemed doubly great, because it worked in the
dark; liberty of speech was suppressed, and the action of the legitimate
organs of the State were crippled ; the Probuli were either in the plot, or
were aged and infirm persons ; the council was accustomed to be the mere
shadow of authority; and the civic body lacked both leaders and union."—
Cdbtius' History of Greece, vol. 3, page 464.

138 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
stamping out the former and then the latter, flrst by
a system of deception, and then by taking the lives of
the people. By the fear which they impressed on
the minds of the people, they effected a complete
destruction of the democratic government. »*
Before their fall from power, instead of supporting
or strengthening the army in its opposition to the
enemies which now, more than ever, pressed upon
every portion of the state, they entered into secret
treaty of peace with Sparta*^ for the recognition of
their own government, irrespective of the cost in
dominions to the state, if they could only perpetuate
their own aristocratic power over the people of the
nation. It will readily be seen that no one of the
conspirators could expect to conclude a peace with
Sparta without surrendering up to her some prov
inces, as she already had most of them in her
power at the time of the embassy. The true
method, or better course to have pursued, would
have been, had they the interests of the people as
their desire, to have recovered the provinces as far

64 "Externally the forms of the constitution still continued in exisl>-
ence ; but the actual government was in the hands of the conspirators, who
declared their intention with increasing openness, till at last the Athenians,
full of fear and utterly dispirited, consented to regard the alteration of the
constitution."— CuBTius' History op Gbeeoe, vol. 3, page 464.
6s "After, however, this attempt had failed, he" [king of Sparta] "gave
a friendly reception to a second embassy from Athens, and encouraged the
Athenians immediately to dispatch deputies to Sparta to conclude peace in
the name of the four hundred." — Ibid., pago 467,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 139
as possible, to have beaten off the enemy, and then
tendered peace. Otherwise no favorable terms of
peace to the state could be expected. But an hon
orable peace to the nation was not the wish nor the
design of the tyrants. It was the hatred which the
people of Attica bore despotic principles, that fired
them during this long war— a fear of finally falling
under the Spartan despotism. It was the mutual
jealousy of these two states, that, at the rising
supremacy of the one, the other would become
eventually subordinate to the peculiar laws, free or
aristocratic, of the oth«r.
The conspirators did not design to yield up the
provinces, or make equivalent propositions, without
concessions from Sparta, of a military character, to
support their tyrannical government over the people
of Attica.^* Upon a rupture occurring, caused by
jealousy,*'' among them, they proceeded to take the

66 In support of this, a reliable author alleges that " they were resolved,
If no other way should be left open to them, to rule their native city"
[Athens], " even under the protection of Peloponnesian troops ; for la their
eyes the supremacy of their party passed all other considerations. Antiphon,
Phrynlchus, and Archetoleraus accordingly proceeded to Sparta, in order to
enter into fresh negotiations."— Cuetiits' History of Greece, vol. 3, p. 480.
67 The leaders of the tyrannical party desired to construct a fort in tho
vicinity of tho city, for the purpose of receiving the Spartan forces which
were to support their claims to power. But upon the discovery, by a portion
of the tyrants, that they would be thereby dispossessed of long coveted
ambition by the others, they opposed the motion, endeavoring to retrace their
steps, and regain that confidence of the people which they had justly for
feited.

140 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
lives of members belonging to the opposite faction.?'
It was not a love in the laws of democratic equality,
that caused this division, but* a fear, in a part of the
four hundred, that they themselves would fall into
that bondage which they had helped to prepare for
the people, and thus was caused their efforts to protect
themselves from that thraldom which threatened all."
As already seen, they were determined to force them
selves as rulers upon the people without their consent,
supported by the arms of Sparta. This was their
design, irrespective of the interests of the masses, and
they were bound to carry these measures into effect,
were it at the expense of one half of the lives of the
inhabitants of the republic. They were perfectly
regardless of all sentiments of justice, and callous to
all feelings of humanity. Par worse were they, than
he, who upon the highway attacks and relieves the
traveler of his gold, for when the highwayman has
attained this one object, he is satisfied with the result.

68 "The flrst object of vengeance was Phrynlchus. Scarcely had he
returned from the odious embassy to Sparta, when he was assassinated one
evening not far from the council-house, in the densely crowded market
place."— CuETius' History of Greece, vol. 3, page 481.
69 " And now the opposite party (occasioned by the split) restrained itself
no longer; for they perceived their own ruin to be involved in the completion
of the fastness in the Pirseus, and in the success of these treasonable designs.
The moderates were their only chance of safety in joining the popular party.
Thus, then, a counter revolution was plotting among the four hundred them
selves, and In secret conferences the victims were marked out, who were to
be sacrificed to the hatred of citizens, and sacrificed with all possible publi
city, in order to test their authority." — Ibid., pages 480-81.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 141
This was not the case with these tyrants, as they were
called by the Greeks. The tendency of the govern
ment, which they were endeavoring to establish, was
a direction of the revenues of the state to their own
uses, and by such means of taxation, incident to
despotic power, to secure to themselves the servitude
or vassalage of the rest of the state. This is what was
meant by tyrannical governments in ancient times. It
was not the form of its organization, but the effect
which it had upon the people to oppress them, that
made it odious ; and of whatever form it may be, if it
be partial in the enactment of its laws and their admin
istration ; that is, if the rulers extended advantages to
some which they denied to others, it became despotic
to those whose rights were in suppression. ' " This was
the condition to which the tyrants conspired to subject
the inhabitants of Attica."
What education there was to be had in those days,
these men had possessed themselves by long and close
study. Be it remembered that it was an intellectual

70 In America, before the slave-holders' rebellion, a portion of the inhab
itants were held in slavery, and the profits arising from their labor passed to
those who were denominated their masters. The government of the United
states, although a republic, was to the slaves the most oppressive kind of
despotism. From the relation which the one bore to the other, cannot but
lead a rational mind to this conclusion.
71 It will readily occur to him who is acquainted with the history of
Greece, that these tyrants had no other object, just before the close of the
war, but the establishment of an absolute government.

143 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
and religious culture and. none other. These two sys
tems have been in existence for five thousand years
at least, and continue to be the only ones at the present
day. The religious and the intellectual faculties of
the mind have been the immediate objects of all edu
cation, from the earliest recorded ages. The learned
of Greece, in their earlier infancy, had received that
parental instruction in justice and virtue that those of
more subsequent times have. But this is no culture ;
it is only an indoctrination of the views which another
may have of certain principles. This kind of moral
training has some tendencies to store the memory with
both a right and a wrong understanding of the rights
and wrongs of questions, but is not effective in bring
ing the moral feelings to vigorous and active strength.
For six thousand years, mankind have been actively
employed in the discovery of objects and the sciences,
and the world has, all that time, been replete with
religion, by which their respective faculties have been
trained and disciplined to the highest development,
whUe the moral faculties have remained abandoned as
regards culture, except what little effective benefits
there is in parental instruction. That these faculties
have not been entirely expunged from mentality, is
owing more to the efforts of nature to restore that
which has been injured by the ignorance of mankind,
than any disposition in man to preserve that which

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 143
was a gift to him by the creative will of Almighty
God. Should one judge mankind by their acts, in an
impartial manner, he must conclude that almost the
whole human race are rather perverters and destroyers
of truth and other attributions of nature, than students
and cultivators of organic law. But we must return
to our duty of exposing the true moral character of
the learned of Greece by their own conduct ; showing
thereby that education, although not a cause, was a
means, of divesting from this class of the Hellenics
all causes which had a tendency to produce moral
principles. That the higher classes did not desire peace and
prosperity to the state under some other (as one might
suppose) more favorable form of government, such as
a limited monarchy, or some equivalent, we have only
to trace their acts a little farther after their first fall
from that power which they held over the city of
Athens, to convince us.
Before the battle of Arginusse, the affairs of the
Athenians had become the most desperate of any
Greek state, by the defeats which she had received
on land and sea, and the complete abandonment of
almost every province which she had possessed, or
its equivalent as an assistance to Attica, by conquest
to Lacet^semonian arms. Her finances were exhausted,
her people impoverished, and the bones of at least

144 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
one-fifth of her able-bodied males lay bleaching upon
fields of battle, or buried in the bed of the ocean.
The people were reduced to the utmost despair. But
rather than surrender their liberty, they preferred to
surrender their aU. One more fleet was fitted out at
Athens to defend a government which was now in the
hands of the people. ' ^ It was a last hope, a last effort,
almost a last act. The battle of Arginusse was fought
and victory crowned the efforts of Attic arms, and the
power of Sparta and her allies upon the sea were
entirely, for the time, extinguished. Lacedsemon had
fallen under the mighty blow which she had received.
She once more desired peace. ' ^ Now was the time for
Athens to escape from a struggle which had lasted the
better part of a mortal's life. The people required
peace, for they were in a .deplorable condition.
Farmers who, before the war, were in independent

72 "It" [the fleet] "was a levy of all the remaining resources of the state,
made by desperate effort ; and, with a feeling that it was now a question of
victory or absolute ruin, the last fleet of Athens sailed out to sea."— Cnn-
tics' History of Greece, vol. 3, page 633.
73 " The Spartans were doubly discouraged by the news of the defeat, ,
inasmuch as their highest hopes had followed their hero Calllcratidas on
his triumphal career. It was to be anticipated, that after this defeat tho
Persians would again withdraw from co-operation with the Lacedssmonians,
since their money payments, after all, failed to produce any practical results.
As to the lonians, it could not be expected that they would once more show
themselves ready to afford effective aid ; and the Sicilian allies, the Boeotians
and Eubceans, had already done their best. On what then could the hope
of better future success be grounded? Accordingly once more" [Attica]
" had the upper hand ; and envoys were dispatched to Athens, in order to
renew those offers which had been made after the battle of Cyzicus."—
IBTD, page 636.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 145
circumstances, were now in a state of starvation, and
were begging for bread in the streets of Athens.
Sackcloth and ashes, if not on the person, could be
read as a characteristic expression in the countenance
of every citizen and alien in the state. Now there was
a "day of grace" presented to the higher orders to
relieve themselves from a part of that odium as a
consequent of conduct, which must in all subsequent
times attach to their character.
This class well knew that the treasuries of Persia
had almost constantly paid off the naval and military
armaments of Sparta, and, for her own interest, would
continue to do so in the future ; whUe it was as equally
well known that Attica had been compelled, in the
past, and would be, in the future, to raise her own
within the dominions of the republic. The latter
possessed no other resource from which to fill her
exchequer but by the revenues of her provinces.
When she was, during this long war, and just previous
to the battle of Arginusse, deprived of these revenues
by the loss of the provinces, there could be left to
her no other resource, but to surrender at discretion.
This she could have done very easUy at the begin
ning of the war,' and it would have been far better
for her, thus to have avoided shedding blood, expend
ing treasure, and thereby escaped the tedium of a
conflict which had no other tendency but to extinguish
1 0

146 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the prosperity of aU Greece. At no time during the
whole of her campaigns, was there a necessity for
such a disposition of her affairs except at the close.
A number of opportunities had presented themselves
for settlement, and Sparta had been wUling to accede
to any reasonable terms, to save herself from extinction
as a people, as an independent state. The higher
classes of Athens were enabled, through that capacity
which they had acquired for distorting fects and mis
representing truth, by close study and long practice
in duplicity, to present, at this greatest crisis of the
republic, more favorable conditions for the future of
the state,, and thus deceiving the people, caused them
to reject all considerations of peace from Sparta, short
of such as would be to the latter a provincial subordi
nation. This, that a people, as proud and stubborn as
the Spartans, the Athenians well knew would reject.
In peaceful times all is quietude and happiness to
the majority of mankind ; all are engaged in surround
ing themselves with the comforts and conveniences of
life, and any number of pure enjoyments and pleas
ures, alike healthful to body and mind, which, for a
beneficial end, a mighty hand has bestowed upon
mortal existence. It is this innocent enjoyment of
human life, quite short enough for one' s passage, that
a good citizen wishes for all the inhabitants of his
country, and, in fact, to every one on the globe. Yet

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 147
there are many individuals, always have been, and
always 'wUl be, whose mental constitution amounts to
a moral deformity, that are ever desirous of substi
tuting sorrow and misfortune for bliss, blasting the
happiness and hopes of mankind, whenever they can
derive therefrom pecuniary advantages or political
positions. This is a melancholy condition which aU
good regret. That most aU, indeed, with very few
exceptions, of those composing the higher classes of
Greece at this time, were wholly and totally destitute
of aU moral feelings, their acts toward the people and
the generals, after the latter and former had gained
the victory over the enemy at Arginusse, is most
clearly established beyond the doubt of a weak and
vacillating mind.
The great moral principles of the lower orders of
the state, from a period long back in the past, had
caused the officers of the army and navy to pay the
utmost attention to the condition of the dead and the
wounded, to bury the former with solemnity and
honor, and to care for the latter. As no laws could
be passed, causing them to do these, they must of
necessity be such enactments as would deter the offi
cers from abusing these injunctions, by attaching
penalties for their violation. But no laws ever
existed among the Athenians, of a punitive nature,
for those insuperable difficulties, known among

148 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
lawyers in modern times as the acts of God, In no
civilized state is one made responsible for misfortunes
which cannot be foreseen, provided for nor prevented.
The contrary would, did it exist, be characteristic of
an ignorant and savage despot.
The student of Grecian history learns with regret,
that the most cultivated persons of the highly civil
ized state of Attica, long before the beginning of the
Peloponnesian war, also throughout its entfre dura
tion, were steeped in a corruption which has found
few parallels, not even among the darkest pages of
ancient and modern records. From political jobbers,
and corrupt demagogues, figuring for positions in
subjection to the sovereign will of the people, they
aspired to regal power ; they passed from the commis
sions of public crimes to private ones, from treason to
the state, to the murder of public and private citizens.
Before the close of the battle of Arginusse, a furious
storm had set in and made the sea so rough, that it was
an impossibility for the survivors to transfer the dead
and the wounded from disabled vessels to the rest of
the fleet. When the storm abated, it was discovered
that all the wrecks had disappeared from the surface
of the deep, either driven ashore or sunken to the
bottom. During the last of the action, the com
manders of the forces had left a part of the fleet
in the hands of subaltern officers, Theramenes and

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 149
Thrasybulus, charged to recover the dead and
wounded from the sinking ships.'* In making up
the report of the action, the names of Theramenes and
Thrasybulus had been mentioned as the officers upon
whom devolved the responsibUity of delivering the
wrecked. But the foresight of two of the officers, who
seemed to possess a clear understanding of the corrupt
partizans that flooded the assemblies in the city,
changed the report so as not to endanger the life of any
one of their colleagues. '« Although this act of Pericles
and Diomedon exhibited great consideration of the
rights of others, it must be remembered that this was
a combination to resist those hypocritical charges that
would in aU probability be brought against them as
a body, by those tyrants which had, a little before,
faUen from power. But no sooner had the leading
officers of the navy arrived in Athens, notwithstanding

74 "The other part of the fleet was ordered, under the command of
Theramenes and Thrasybulus, to save the wrecked, and to pick up the
dead bodies. But a terrible northwest wind rushing down from Mount Ida
made ail action impossible ; and when the fleet was at last able to issue
from the harbor, it was too late for the accomplishment of either purpose.
The storm had swept away every vestige of the battle."— CuBTitrs' History
OF Greece, vol. 3, page 536.
75 " The report of the battle, drawn up by the generals by common con
sent, simply stated that the storm had made it impossible to save those who
had been wrecked ; a statement originally proposed, in which Theramenes and
Thrasybulus had been mentioned by name as those who had been charged
with taking measures for the purpose, had] been omitted, on the motion of
Pericles and Diomedon ; it being desired to have no handle for throwing
suspicion on any individual persons, but rather, after the manner of faithful
colleagues, to charge the entire body with the work of responsibility."—
Ibid., page 539.

150 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the great victory they had gained over the enemy,
than they were aU, except the Judas Iscariot of their
number, thrown into prison for not rescuing those who
had been wrecked. ''« One of the very generals who
had been most favored in the report, and that one
who, if any were at all guUty, was the principal cul
prit and most at fault in neglect of duty, was the
person who made the charges which sealed the fate of
the rest of his colleagues.'" The fallen conspirators
had systematically deceived the people and wrought
them up almost to a condition of frenzy,''^ so that
when the oral report was delivered by the generals,
the masses were more disposed to condemn the generals
than acknowledge those obligations which they were
under to the ones who had, at a signal blow, saved the
state.'* These learned conspirators allowed the most

76 " The six others, confiding in the justice of their cause, quietly
returned to Athens and made a report by word of mouth in the council.
******* On the motion of Timoorates, a member of the council,
the generals were placed under arrest, and the settlement of the charges
against them left to the civic body."— CcBTins' Histoby of Gbeboe, vol.
3, page 538.
77 "And although, in the present case, Theramenes was himself involved
to this extent, that if any one was to blame for the death of the wrecked,
Tie was the guilty man ; yet he was resolved to take advantage of this oppor
tunity for his party purposes, and to requite the considerate kindness evinced
toward him by the generals, by appearing as their accuser, and calling them
to account for neglect of their religious duty." — Ibid., page 639.
78 " But the most effective measures had been taken by the conspirators,
to produce the desired state of mind in the people, against the day when
the report of the battle was to be publicly read."— Ibid., page 538.
79 "Instead of the report being listened to with gratitude toward the
gods, a furious outbreak of passion ensued immediately upon the mention

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 151
abandoned criminals a legal defense,*" whUe they
denied it to those who, if properly supported by
good counsel and just measures, might have effected
the ratification of a peace, which would have been
a prosperous one to the people of the republic, and
the establishment of a means by which the state might
have recovered from the financial bankruptcy into
which, by the shocking vices of the educated, the
nation had been plunged.
And finally these generals were altogether denied
the rights of trial, and after Theramenes had secretly
passed around and among the private families, using
his influence to inflame their minds and prejudice
them against these brave and noble officers, the con
spirators thought that there was sufficient prejudice
acting upon the feelings of the council to warrant a
conviction. ®i If they could completely distract the

of the wrecked. Loud Invectives were uttered against the generals for hav
ing neglected their duty ; and the answer which they received to the report
of a victory passing the highest hopes, was their deposition from ofBce. It
was not even thought necessary to wait for their defense."— Ccrtios' His
tory of Greece, vol. 3, page 638.
8o "There was a lack of men to watch over the legality of public pro
ceedings; and thus, at the very earliest stage of the trial, the liberty of
defense belonging to the accused was illegally restricted, although only
recently Aristarohus, who was universally known to have betrayed a frontier
fortress to the enemy had, after falling into the hands of the Athenians,
been allowed an unlimited time for his defense."— Ibid., page 540.
8i In speaking of the festival of Apaturia, Curtius says: "Theramenes
found in this an excellent opportunity for exciting the citizens and their
wives against the generals ; and although it was absolutely impossible to
determine how many of the missing had fallen in the flght, and how many
might possibly have been saved, had a search been subsequently instituted

152 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
people of the republic by disorder within, the state
would soon have to succumb to the pressure of out
ward enemies, and thus triumph in their oligarchial
measures over the fallen liberties of the land. They
could in this manner establish themselves in power as
masters over the people, who would then become
slaves. Slavery would not exist, were there not advantages
resulting to the oppressors. There are two of these :
one is an element of vanity, a disposition in the human
mind, however weak it may be, to entertain a sentiment
of superiority of self over the majority of the world,
and one also which foolishly, but strongly, desires
the possession of the superfluities of life. But all the
considerate portions of mankind, while they acknowl
edge the effects of these elements upon themselves,
endeavor to place them in subjection to moral princi
ples, with a due regard for the rights of others. It is
the criminal, however powerful he may be by the
number of his retainers, who derives his sustenance
from the misfortunes of his fellow creatures. Even
the robber is satisfied when he has received what his
victim for the moment has possession. But what shaU

through the fleld of battle, yet it was now declared to be the fault of the
generals, that, on this occasion every one had to wear the black geirb of
mourning on the Apaturia. * * * Thus, by means of a vile abuse of human
feelings, a new tempest of passion was conjured up ; and when this had risen
to a height, the second assembly of the citizens commenced." — Histobt OF
Greece, page 541.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 153
we caU a human being, if he be such, who is satisfied
with nothing short of shackling the necks of his coun
trymen with an odious bondage, and grinding out of
them the little of a laborious life. The mind of man
is not familiar with a descriptive term which fully
defines the moral condition of the tyrant. Nor is one
necessarily a tyrant if he wear a crown. Despotic
principles can as easily emanate from republican poli
ticians as from electoral or hereditary monarchs. This
character of politicians or potentates may be deter
mined by the laws which they enact.
But when we are called upon to contemplate the
character of those who, desirous of living in oppression
of their fellows, hesitate not to murder those that stand
in the way of their advancement to power, we have
altogether different persons from the mere usurpers,
those more abandoned in morals and whoUy given
over to the revelries of the animal faculties of the
mind. The moral faculties cannot be so wrought upon
as to be entirely expunged from mentality, had they an
existence in adolescence. Under such circumstances,
a sufficiency remains to support an appearance of
supremacy in the moral sentiments, while the influ
ence of these upon the mind is very weak. This
condition of the primitive mental powers is favorable
for great dissimulation ; an appearance of one thing,
but in reality another. This mental state, together

154 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
with extensive culture, was the means by which the
educated classes were enabled to gain a complete mas
tery of deception over the people, and by it compel
them to give a helping hand to their own ruin. This,
we say, was the mental status and moral condition in
which we have found, by a careful investigation, the
educated classes to have been just before, during and
after the close of the Peloponnesian war. They had
enough of those moral faculties to render them able to
appreciate these qualities in others, thereby qualifying
them to imitate the characteristics of those possessing
these noble gifts, when the truth was, the moral fac
ulties had fallen into a condition of bondage to the
animal faculties of the mind. After this fall of that
part of their mental nature, that part, too, which was
designed by organization to be in supreme control
over the rest of the mind, — ^those faculties common to
animals became elevated to phrenic supremacy; the
organic constitution of mind in them was then reversed,
the human form became inhuman in character, the
feelings of kindness were exchanged for those of piti-
lessness, virtue for vice.
This permutation of the primitive mental powers of
the higher orders must have preceded the exhibition
of their depravity ; and their conduct at the time of
the arraignment of the generals is conclusive evidence
of the fall hereinbefore mentioned. Of course no

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 155
feelings of compassion could have influenced them in
the least, as they struggled with their utmost might to
forever close the gates of a legal trial to the heroes of
the Arginusse. Sentence of death was immediately
passed upon the six, contrary to all law, and these
unfortunate men were led away to execution. ^^
The higher orders crushed every effort of the people
to bring the war to a conclusion. They involved the
state for their own official popularity and pecuniary
gain. The masses looked to them as trusty counselors
in times of danger and difficulty ; they had been ele
vated by the ballots of the nation to positions of profit,
of honor ; and this was requited with the destruction
of the national polity, and the designed subjection of
the people to the behests of foreign enemies. Although
the true character of this class discovered itself to the
most ignorant, its appearance was too late, for the ruin
of the people was as complete as their deception.*^
Thus far we have discovered, that the cultivation

8z "The sentence of death was pronounced, and the generals were
handed over to the eleven for execution. Thus died the son of Pericles and
Aspasia, to whom his father had made a fatal gift in obtaining for him the
Attic citizenship, and with him died Erasinides, Thrasyllus, Lysias, Aristoc-
rates and Diomedon."— Citbtius' History of Greece, vol. 3, page 545.
83 " Of what avail was it, that the meaning of the villainous game played
by the oligarchs had now become manifest ; that the public Indignation at the
discovery found vent in the arrest of Callixines and of four others, who were
to be subjected to a capital trial 1 The oligarchs were, after all, able to protect
their partizans, and Theramenes escaped without farther hurt ; though he
failed in his candidature for one of the vacant offices of general. The oli
garchic party continued to prevail in the council. The citizens knew not in

156 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of the inteUectual powers has no effect to improve the
moral faculties of the mind, but, on the other hand,
we have seen that, in proportion as the Greeks became
educated, they became correspondingly depraved.
That there cannot be a moral education "without a
special culture of the primitive moral powers; and
that this cannot be wrought by a discipline of either
the inteUectual or the religious, is, by the concurrent
testimony of aU history, positively estabUshed.
There was a depth of corruption in the educated of
Athens, and, in fact, of all the higher classes of the
HeUenic states, that, in our review of their deeds,
we have not reached. Most all the states possessed
classes of men whose turpitude was in exact propor
tion to their education. We did not design to travel
outside of Attica for our purposes of proof, for it is'
enough to' mention that they aU had their Lysan-
ders, who, if thfey did not murder whole armies,®*

whom to place trust. They felt no confidence in their demagogues, Cleophon,
Archedemus, and the rest, and as little in the men of the opposite party, ,
whose villainy had become palpable. The latter ware hated and the former
despised ; and yet the civic body fell alternately into the hands of either."—
CuRTiDB' History of Greece, vol. 3, page 554.
84 " All the other vessels fell into the hands of Lysander, together with
three thousand men; the rest had effected their escape to Setus, The great
body of the prisoners was transported to Lampsacus, and there tried by
court martial, to which Lysander summoned those of the allies who were
present. He thus obtained an opportunity of allowing all the hatred which
existed against the Athenians among the lonians, Boeotians, Megareans, etc.,
to find full vent once more ; and being able to pretend that he was accom
plishing the work of vengeance upon Athens in the name and by the ordsrs
of the Hellenic nation. The Spartans loved to envelop their most cruel

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. I57
committed crimes equaUy inhuman and cruel. Greece
had no contemporary nation which possessed a more
educated class, or a greater number of educated men.
Among them all, none, perhaps, combined greater
intellectual culture with such tremendous depravity,
as did this favored and at the same time unfortunate
nation. The student of history is constantly aston
ished, as he contemplates the vices and rottenness
into which the higher orders had faUen. No term
in the English vernacular is commensurate with its
extent. It is a hopeless undertaking to endeavor to
reach the bottom of the "bottomless."
After the battle of Egospotami, in which the Athen
ian forces were defeated, their affairs were in a more
desperate condition than ever, and were deserted by
all their alUes, except two small democratic states,
the inhabitants of which the higher orders were
neither able to rule nor to corrupt. Let it be ever
remembered to their immortal honor, that the people
of the island of Samos, and the littie state of Argos,
both democratic in their constitutions, adhered to the

deeds in empty forms of legality. Thus, as formerly in the case of the
Fiatssans, they now complacently listened to the most unmeasured accusa
tions against the defenseless Athenians, and sentenced them all to death.
Admantus was the single person whose life was granted him, in return for
the services which he had perf oamed for the foe. But the proceeding which,
among all the horrors perpetrated at that time on the shores of the Helles
pont, most violently affected the feelings of the Greeks, was Lysander's refusal
of even a decent burial to the corpses of his victims." — Cctbtius". Histoby of
Greece, vol. 3, page 553

158 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION
cause of Attica, and shared her joys and sorrows to
the last. But while the uncorrupted inhabitants of
these uncultivated states were true to their oaths,
how was it with the intelligent citizens of Athens —
those of education, of position, and of wealth? Born
to all the advantages resiUting from riches and edu
cation, they possessed the abUity to perform great
services to the state of which they were members.
From him who has talents and wealth, much is
expected, as he is possessed of opportunities which
he cannot, by any principle of equity, claim as exclu
sively belonging to himself.
As Agis and Pausanias surrounded the city on
land, thereby shutting off all communications in this
direction, and Lysander with his fleet of two hundred
ships prevented all ingress from the sea, the prices of
breadstnffs rose to such a height that they were entirely
beyond the means of the poorer people. As starvation
presented its horrid features, the prospects of it to the
city created great excitement and confusion in the
minds of the inhabitants, for they knew that, by a long
siege, they would be finaUy brought to it. The war
was no longer carried on abroad, nor in adjoining
states, but had gradually narrowed down its Umits tUl
the capital of the republic was surrounded on every
side by the imposing armies of the foe, which threat
ened a deplorable death to the inhabitants of the city,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 159
or its conquest by assault upon its fortifications. The
people had lost aU confidence in the higher classes, and
could not rely upon the abUity of those who had not
been favored with advantages peculiar to the oligarchs
of Athens. Alcibiades, who, had they flattered his van
ity, might possibly have dispersed the enemy, although
the democratic constitution, in all probability, would
have fallen beneath the encroachments of his unprin
cipled ambition. But whatever he might have been
able to accomplish for the good of the state, the jeal
ousy of the higher orders had deposed him from
power, and, therefore, the people coiUd not, at this
juncture, avail themselves of his experience and great
abUity. The Athenians had more to fear from the oligarch
ical party within the city, than their enemies which
surrounded it from without. The oligarchs had, as we
have seen, long prior to the siege, entered into secret
and traitorous negotiations -with the Spartans for the
overthrow of the constitution, and the estabUshment
of despotic government upon its ruins. This they
were endeavoring to accomplish, whUe they pretended
to maintain a firm disposition to support the demo
cratic constitution of the state. They now came forward
again, as they had before in every hour of trouble, to
distract the public mind and thereby destroy every
effort on the part of the people to preserve the

160 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
independence of the republic, and those elements of
freedom which had existed from the faU of the last of
the Pisistratidse. »^ WhUe the higher orders thus
represented themselves as loyal to equitable laws, they
were in secret communication with the enemy for the
subversion of freedom, not only of Athens, but of all
the Greek states into which they could carry their
influence. ^ ^
When, during the forepart of the siege of the city,
the state of Sparta proffered terms of peace to Attica,
with several provinces and her constitution intact, the
higher orders caused a rejection of this proposition,
and threatened violence to the person of him, who
should say or do anything in favor of its ratification. ^ ''

85 " But the ancient evil also reappeared, the source of which consisted
in the existence of a small but united number of citizens, who worked against
the honor and independence of the city, and in favor of the foe, whom they
needed, in order to establish the sway of their party on the ruins of the
democracy. This party, always firmly organized in itself, was ever at hand, to
take advantage of every national trouble for its own purposes. As soon as a
storm lowered over the city and spread terror in it, this party came forward as
a real power. At the present moment, Athens was terrified by the tremendous
events which had recently taken place, and was not only weakened as to her
means of defense by her great loss of citizens, but also thoroughly shaken in
her bearing toward her foes both within and witliout- The large influx of
strangers disturbed and confused the conduct of affairs, while terror was
excited by the imminent siege."— Cdettos' History of Greece, vol. 3, p. 562.
86 In speaking of the manner the educated attempted to destroy all
systems of democracy in connection with the aristocrats of Lacediemon,
Curtius says : " And yet, even now, the oligarchs found Athens less easy to
deal with than the other places, where, with the aid of Lysander, the democ
racy was rapidly abolished."— History of Greece, vol. 3 page 863.
87 " Although, then, the Spartan authorities held out the prospects of the
maintenance of the Attic constitution, and even of the continued possession
of Lemnos, Imbros and Scyros to the Athenians, the latter rejeoted all

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 161
Cleophon, one of the oligarchs and an orator of consid
erable reputation, backed by the noble famiUes of the
city, intimidated the populace so that none dare act in
the premises. 8 8 The Athenians did not expect such
favorable terms, but, on the contrary, had reason to
beUeve they would be sold into slavery according to
the existing rales of war. But the lower classes of
Sparta, ha-vang at this time a good control over their
nobles, did not desire to reduce the Athenians to a
condition of slavery to the inhabitants of any central
ized government, 8 » fearing, perhaps, that the same
elements would eventually subject themselves to a Uke
state. But while the majority of the Spartans were
desirous of preserving to the Athenians their freedom,
the higher orders of the former were in secret negotia
tion -with the same class of the latter, for the complete
abolishment of all popular governments.
When the oligarchs foresaw that the greater part of
the Athenians would be starved into the conditions of
the peace proposed by the Spartans, the former had

proposals, including a demand for razing the vralla ; and a civic decree was
even passed, which made all discussion of this point penal." — Cdbtius' His
toby of Greece, vol. 3, page 567.
88 " Sure of the assent of a large number of honorable citizen* on this
point, Cleophon was able to menace any one with open violence who should
say a word in its favor."— Ibid., vol. 3, page 667.
89 "The Lacedaemonians, however, said they would not reduce to bond
age a state which had done great good at the time of the greatest danger that
had ever befallen Greece."- Xenophon's Hei,i,enics, lib. 3, ch. 3, 20.
1 1

163 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
recourse to another device which was in perfect relation
to their past treacherous career. They represented to
the masses that they could obtain more liberal terms
by sending an embassy to those in authority at Sparta,
or those who were in command of its forces.'" On
this occasion, the oligarchs took advantage of what
little confidence the people had left in Theramenes, ' ^
which, although very smaU, was still possessed by
him to a greater extent than any of the other nobles,
because he had opposed the power of the four hun
dred. So many times had the people been deceived
by the many solemn declarations of patriotism, and
their love of the ancient virtue of the people on the
part of the oligarchical party, and this being followed
by their attempts to overturn a government peculiarly
adapted to cultivate these virtues, extend equal rights
and prosperity to all, had occasioned a complete loss
of confidence in their honesty ; and the murders which
they had committed to establish their power, had so
fully unveiled their purposes that the most stupid
could no longer be deceived. There is, however, in
the human mind, an element known as hope, which
qo "Theramenes undertook to obtain far more favorable terms than this,
and even held out the prospect ot a variety of advantages to be secured by
means of a skillful negotiation with Sparta; but at the same time asked
unconditional confidence and absolute powers."— Curtius' History of
Greece, vol. 3, page 568.
91 " In vain the people urged their objections; they guessed his traitor
ous intentions, and warned the assembly against entrusting their all to the
hands of a Theramenes."- Ibid.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 163
frequently gives us a belief, or a desire to believe, in
those in whom, reason teaches, no confidence can be
placed "with any prospect of its being treated in good
faith. With a perfect understanding of the existence
of this element, these adroit knaves undertook to
balance themselves upon it, and those surrounding
circumstances which, as we have seen, were of the
most distressful nature.
By the extension of that time which the embassy
would necessarily require, they could, under the
existing condition of the people and the oligarchical
intrigues "with Spartan nobles, accompUsh the demo
lition of all republican equality in the state of
Attica.'" By the influence of Theramenes and the
rest of the nobles, he and nine others were dis
patched with full powers to effect a treaty of peace.
The embassy departed on its mission, did nothing,
remained away four months, while the people were
starving in great numbers.** But instead of obtain
ing more favorable terms for the cessation of hostUity,

92 "It was, therefore, of double importance for such men as Theramenes
to arrive at an understanding with Lysander, and to ensure themselves of his
support. The other object achieved bj the conspirators through their
embassy was this : that in the meantime no public assemblies were held at
Athens on the question of peace, and that thus the loyal adherents of the
constitution were effectually prevented from taking any measures on its
behalf."— Curtius' History of Greece, vol. 3, page 569.
93 " On their entering the city [at their return] a great multitude poured
round them, afraid of their having returned unsuccessful for it was no longer
possible to delay, owing to the great numbers who were dying of famine." —
Xenophon's Hei,u;nics, lib. 2, ch. 2, 21.

164 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
they got less, and Athens was finaUy stripped of every
province of which she was possessed, besides being
obUged to pull down the wall, which, as a defense to
the city, she most dreaded to do.'* This curtailment
of Attic domination and the number of her inhabit
ants was, without doubt, the desire of the conspirators,
as they could more easily subject a small people than
a great nation. The people, to escape death, con
sented to their dire demands, and thereupon peace
ensued. Thus did Attica become subjected to tho
power of Lacedsemon, not through her own weakness,
but through the traitorous conduct of the educated.
After the fall of Attic independence, and her incor
poration with the Peloponnesian confederacy, it was
doubtless designed by the commonalty of Sparta to
leave the domestic government, or the legislative
enactments, to the people, not interfering with its
local constitutional provisions further than limit its
military strength and make it tributary to Spartan
power. But the higher orders of Lacedsemon had
pursued a poUcy of their own with the oUgarchs
of Athens, which was perfectly consistent with the
moral characters of both. Spartan authorities granted

94 "The Athenians were to pull down the walls of the harbor and the
lines connecting the latter with the city ; their dominion was to be limited to
Attica ; they were to readmit all exiles, to join the Peloponnesian confed
eracy."— Cubtius' History of Greece, vol. 8, page 671; also Heixenics,
lib. 2, ch. 2, SO.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 165
a guard, which they induced their own people to
believe was necessary to remain in Athens till inter
national animosity and bitter hostUity to the conquest
had subsided in the masses. This is what the con
spirators desired, and it was that for which the whole
educated classes had long been in secret negotiations
with the enemy. They needed the strong mUitary
arm of Sparta to crush the freedom of the people, and
estabUsh their aristocratic principles upon the remains
of faUen equaUty. They had already taken the pre
liminary step, i. e., had extinguished the independ
ence of the state. With a well armed and disciplined
guard, the oUgarchs felt positive of subduing all
opposition to their schemes to debar the inhabitant^
from all participation in the sovereignty of the state,
and secure to themselves the positions of despots, and
those revenues of the nation which were not required
to be paid into the treasuries of the confederation.
The great disregard of the laws by the learned, at
times, their necessary suspension, frequent violations,
the forced enactments of half legaUzed measures, mis
constructions, maladministration, the new relations
which Attica bore to Lacedsemon, all this chaotic con
dition of the civil government of Athens, rendered it
necessary to revise the laws. For this purpose thirty of
the most educated of the city were elected to draft ne"W
laws in partial conformity to old but familiar statutes.

166 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
How far the nobles of Sparta had a hand in this selec
tion it is not very easy to determine ; but is worthy of
observation that the Lacedsemonian forces did not
leave the city tUl the Athenians had made this selec
tion. '" They were elected for the purpose of a recodi
fication of those laws which were the acts of their
forefathers, and from which, the people had noticed,
prosperity had formerly extended itself to all. ' ' But
in place of proceeding to meet the requirements of the
people, they intentionaUy put off the question, and,
leaving the state in an anarchical condition, proceeded
to establish a government of their own. ' ' They, then
first of all, commenced to dispose of those, who,
they thought, would be disaffected to their heinous
designs. ' ' The nobles put them to death upon false
accusations," of conspiring against the constitution.

95 In speaking of this election, Xenophon says : " When this had been
done, Lysander sailed away to Samos; and Agis withdrew the land forces
from Decelea, and dismissed them to their several cities." — HEiiLENics,
lib. 2, ch. 3, 3.
96 " It was resolved by the people to elect thirty men, who should draw
up a code of laws from those inherited from their fathers, by which they
should regulate their affairs." — Ibid.
97 "But though elected lor the purpose of drawing up. a codo of laws
by which they should regulate their affairs, they continually deferred draw
ing up and promulgating those lawo, but appointed the officers according
to their own pleasure."— Ibid., lib, 3, ch. 3, 11.
98 It is from Curtius that we borrow these facts, that the oligarchs
" recognized the necessity of seizing the persons of the leaders of tho adverse
movement, before they could proceed finally to regulate the constitution
according to their own wishes."— History of Greece, vol. 3, page 873,
99 •* Agaratus appears to have been forced to bring a statement before the
council, in which he accused a number of honorable men of conspiring

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 167
when none was recognized as being in existence, as
there was a usurption of the rights of the people at
the time, by the same men, with one or two exceptions,
that were now in power. They sent to execution
these men because they supposed in them the tyranny
would meet with opposition. It was the oUgarchs
that caused this wholesale execution and not the
people. * " "
After the execution of those who, as they supposed
by their general candor and attitude, would oppose the
reduction of the republic to the principles of absolut
ism, the nobles began to convict and execute their own
colleagues, so that the latter might not, by ability and
ambition, stand in the way of their own advancement
to centralized power, i"* They did not confine them
selves in their murders to their own ambitious class,
nor to those who offered opposition to their schemes,
but proceeded to put out of the way, in great

against the constitution, although manifestly no constitution was at the time
acknowledged, and only a party government was carried on by arbitrary
means for selflsh ends."— Curtius' History of Gbeece, vol. 3, page 573.
loo To still deceive the people and make them believe there was some
form of popular government intact at Athens, " the council brought the mat
ter" [accusation] "before the ciflzens: an assembly was held in the Piraeus,
in the Munychian theatre, in which, under the influence of the oligarchs,
sentence of death was pronounced on the accused."— Ibid.
loi "And when he" [Calibius] " sent with them soldiers of the guard, they"
[oligarchs]" arrested whom they pleased ; no longer those only who were Ill-
disposed and little worth, but now such as theythought to bear least patiently
being thrust aside, and who, if they should attempt any measure against them,
would find the most numerous supporters,"— Hellenics, lib. 3, ch. 3, M.

168 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
numbers, the best and most harmless men, who did not
meddle with poUtics in the least, although the latter
knew their liberties were being subverted by the
nobles. ^''^ They gave full vent to their feeUngs of
hatred, put many to death through revenge, and
many for the possession of their property. ^ " ^ Being
short of funds to pay their hired assassins, they mur
dered resident foreigners, and confiscated the latter' s
estates to supply the deficiency. ^ "* The higher orders
had not the honesty common to rogues, as, after they
had armed the three thousand citizens, they applied
the cup of poison to the lips of each other. Thera
menes, who had as much to do in the estabUshment
of the tyranny as any one of the rest, as wholly desti
tute of moral principle, caring nothing for the people
nor for their rights, attempted to combine the whole
people of Athens against the thirty, and thereby cut
them aU off at one blow, that the way might be clear for

I02 " But afterward he " [Critiasl " was headlong in putting many to death,
(Inasmuch as he had himself been banished by the people,) while Theramenes
was opposed to it ; alleging that it was not right to put to death any one who,
though honored by the people, did the better kind of men no harm." —
Hellenics, lib. 2, ch. 3, 14.
103 "When this was done," Larmlng the three thousand and the disarming
of the multitude,] " thinking that they might act as they pleased, they put to
death many others for the gratification of their hatred, and many others for
the sake of their property,"— Ibid., lib. 2, ch. 3, 31.
104 "And iu order that they might have money to give to the guards, they
determined to choose one each of the resident aliens, and, having put them to
death, to conflscate their property." — Ibid., lib. a, ob. 3, 81.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 169
his own ambitious purposes. ^ » « But his vaulting ambi
tion overreached itself; he feU a victim to the snares
which he had laid for the whole of the oligarchy, and
died of poison which he was preparing for them."'
After the death of Theramenes the thirty had no
opposition, and by their great number of executions
fiUed the land with mourning and the whole popula
tion with affright. Backed by the three thousand,
the tyrants issued an order to aU of those who resided
in the state of Attica, who were possessed of property,
to remain on their estates, and then began to arrest
and to convict them, by a spurious trial for pretended
offenses, executing aU who did not flee the country.
Besides those whom the tyrants executed, the refu
gees, fleeing from their despotism, fiUed the lands of
Megara and Thebes. So that the designs of the edu
cated were to destroy aU the property holders, is
perfectly evident from the order which they issued,
and the frightful number of murders which they com
mitted against the inhabitants. It is also equaUy true,

105 Theramenes represented the aristocratic element to the Spartan gov
ernment, and was the agency through which issued the disastrous peace, and
in consequence thereof, Athens' f£dl. He played a double game in the
interests of the tyrants against the people, while he pretended to be solicitous
for their good. He caused (in the council) the arming of the three thousand,
and then attempted to array the whole state against the thirty. See his speech
in oonnection with that of Orltiaa, Hellenics, lib. 2, ch. 3.
io6 That Theramenes, at the time of his arrest, was preparing to excite
the populace to madness against the tyrants and thus destroy them, seems
to be evident from his oonnection with the events which followed the arrival
of the guards in Athens, Ibid., lib. S, ch. 3.

170 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
that the number which filled the states above men
tioned is evidence that no crimes had been committed
by them, that by their conviction and the confiscation
of their estates the tyrants would become possessed of
great wealth, while the people wotUd be deprived of
all means of defense against the pretensions of the
oUgarchs to absolute power. ^*''
What must be thought of the moral character of
those who carried into execution such horrible plans
as the excision of a large part of the inhabitants of a
nation. If the reader be disposed to believe that such
an enormous crime is impossible, beyond human con
ception, because it would be at any time inexpedient,
he is compelled to confess its truth from the fact that
the returning refugees, in a body, were of such vast
numbers as to be able to defeat the three thousand in
conjunction with the Lacedaemonian forces which were
sent against them, i" 8 These exiles then drove the
tyrants from all authority which they had exercised
over the state, executed and banished them from the

107 " The thirty thinking they might now " [after the death of Therame
nes] " play the tyrant without fear, published an order to all who were not
in the list" [of the three thousand], "not to come into the city ; while they
brought them to trial from their estates, that themselves and their friends
might take possession of their lands. And when they took refuge in the
Piraeus, they arrested them there likewise, and filled Megara and Thebes
with fugitives."— Hellenics, lib. 2, ch. 4, 2.
io8 See Xenophon's Hellenics, lib. 2, oh. 4, in which he describes the
defeat of the tyrants and Lacedsemonians.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 171
country. ' » » Tlieir executions were so vastly great, they
exceeded those of the Jacobins of the French revolu
tion; they kUled "almost more" in the eight months
of their power than all the Athenians which feU in any
ten years of the Peloponnesian war, and this, too, not
for the welfare of the nation, but for their own inter
est, ^i" That the corruption was not confined to the
thirty alone, is evident from the assistance of the three
thousand, which supported every measure, carrying
into effect the most cruel robberies and murders,
planned by the thirty. And after the thirty had fallen
and been driven from the state, when the government
of a despotism had become impossible in Attica, the
learned continued their murders, and killed a party of
Oxonians while in pursuit of provisions to sustain
nature. ^ ^ ^ The character of the higher classes was so
debased as to be a common by- word among the masses,
and the latter firmly believed that the former did not
possess one single virtue; and the lower orders so
represented it to the higher classes, but through a

109 See Hellenics, lib. 2, ch. 4, 23.
no Cleocritus, in his address to the Athenians, stated these facts to the
tyrants themselves, who did not deny them : " And be not persuaded by these
Impious thirty, who, for the sake of their own gain, have killed almost more
of the Athenians in eight months, than all the Peloponnesians in ten years'
warfare."— Ibid., lib. 2, ch. 4, 21.
Ill " Tl^ey" [armed force of the oligarchy] "also fell in with a party of
.^ixonians going to their own estates for provisions ; whom Lysimachus, the
commander of the horse, butchered, though they begged hard for their lives,
and though many of the cavalry were Indignant at his conduct."— Ibid., 26.

172 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
conscious conviction of its truth, the tyrants did not
offer any excuses in palUation of their black deeds. * ^ ^
At the time that Thrasybulus was put forward by the
multitude to address the oUgarchs, danger to any one
was over, aU were disarmed, and all turbulent elements
becalmed. * ^ ^ Protection under the laws was extended
to all, and every citizen, not included in the thirty,
was, by the manner in which peace was consummated,
exhorted to forget,*^* if it were possible, and at all
events to forgive.*^* As there was, therefore, nothing
to restrain them in a fuU reply by way of defense,
they certainly would have avaUed themselves of the
opportunity and presented it, was there anything they
could say in justification.

112 When Thrasybulus delivered to the three thousand his opinion, he
made this declaration to them, after the thirty were driven into exile by
returned fugitives : " To you, gentlemen of the city, I give this advice, to know
yourselves. And you would best gain that knowledge by considering upon
what grounds you ought to be so lifted up as to attempt to rule over us. Are
you more honest men? Nay, but the people, though poorer than you, never
yet wronged you for the sake of money : whereas you, though richer than all
of us, haveiione many base deeds for gain. But since you have no claims to
honesty, see whether, then, it is on your courage that you should pride your
selves. And what better test of this could there be, than the manner in which
we have carried on war against each other." The supporters of the thirty
tyrants now had an opportunity of expressing their opinion without f ear.—
Xenophon's Hellenics, lib. 2, ch. 2, 40 and 41.
113 Ibid., lib. 2, oh. 4, 39.
114 " And having sworn not to remember past grievances, they still live
together under the same government, and the popular party abide by their.
oaths."— Ibid., lib. 3, ch. 4, 43.
115 At the conclusion of the speech of Thrasybulus, he told the despots
" that they should create no confusion, but live according to their ancient
laws."— Ibid., lib. 2, ch. 4, 43.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 173
Such was the moral character of the educated men
of Greece just prior to its decline, and during its fall.
We have seen that philosophy began with Thales,
from 700 to 600 B. C, and that philosophy continued
to absorb the attention of the Greek mind down to the
middle of the Peloponnesian war, whereat all originality
ended with Socrates. From this time forward, philos
ophy became rather a matter of learning, than a study
and abstract reflection. The learned of Greece, at the
beginning of their education, studied the languages,
the sciences as far as they were then developed, poetry,
music, and traveled for a knowledge of geography
and the character of foreign nations, in distant lands.
No particular system of instruction was adopted and
followed, but all of those that we have mentioned were
pursued by the Athenians, and afforded the means
by which a preliminary education was arrived at. * '"
But none assumed to be educated, who had not, at
some period of his life, followed daUy instruction
under some distinguished speculative thinker. Philos
ophy was to them the finishing up of thefr education,
and while, by the contemplation of their boyhood
studies, the mind was in a condition of passive recep
tivity, under that of phUosphy it was changed into a
state of critical activity.

ii6 This author does not consider learning to be education, but that the
latter to consist in a discipline of the mental powers.

174 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
After the founding of the Ionic phUosophy, Attica
produced many highly educated minds, whose insin
uating subtilty and prodigious weight are still the
admiration of aU mankind. But at the end of their
long war, when philosophic education was extin
guished by the execution or banishment of its votaries,
and those who had received their instruction from its
able masters, had expfred, Attica, and, in fact, all
Greece, brought forward few minds worthy of the fame
extended to them by historic records. So that the
period for a thorough discipUne of the intellectual
faculties of the mind must necessarily be placed
between the birth of the Ionic school of thought, and
the death of Socrates. No nation existed in ancient
times possessing such close and extended culture,
and, at the same time, united to such extreme wick
edness and cruelty, as did Greece, and especiaUy the
Attic portion of it, during the period above mentioned.
Depravity increased "with culture, the former being, at
first, apparently something akin to an effect of the
latter, and then changing to a cause which finally
blotted out the latter -with itself. WhUe the unedu
cated were moral, the cultivated were steeped in
iniquity, and committed all grades of crime.
We do not claim that the education of the intel
lectual faculties produces a degeneration of the moral,
but that by the manner it has been pursued, the system

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 175
lias had a tendency to contribute to this effect. That
this defective system has had this detrimental action
upon the character of man, history bestows the best of
evidence for convincing, and it continues to work the
same ruinous results now that it did in the days of
antiquity. As it was with Greece, so has it been in all
subsequent ages, clinging with the pertinacity of death
to the vital happiness of mankind, tUl societies and
nations have met with disastrous and melancholy
terminations. Greece was selected by us, because its history is
more complete, and better known by scholars, than
any other nation of the ancient world, and being the
birth-place of intellectual life, it presented a better
example of the disproof of an antiquated and stupid
belief. It has been a frequent remark of educators
in this country, and in aU others, that the educated
Greeks, before Christ, possessed less education than a
school-boy now-a-days does at the age of fifteen years.
That this is wholly false, any one at all acquainted
with the history of Greece must know. Nor had they
reached the summit of all human wisdom, as was
supposed by the sacerdocy of the middle ages. But
some of the philosophic schools of Greece have fur
nished the sources from which many of the most
eminent modern thinkers have borrowed their doc
trines. Leibnitz drew the substance of his Nomadic

176 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
philosophy from a combination of the Atomistic and
Heraclitic schools of this ancient people ; and Bishop
Berkeley borrowed from the subtilties of the Pyrrhonic
phUosophy his negation of the material world. These
ancient phUosophies furnished the dialectics for the
scholastic metaphysicians of the medieval ages. Aris
totle's system, although an eclectic, and not an original,
one, is now studied at many tmiversities of learning,
both in Europe and America. One would naturally
suppose that the writings of Thucydides and many
others of equal worth, is suflScient evidence, without
further examination, that the culture of this nation
was no very mean one. Nevertheless it was confined
to the richer people of the republic, whUe the poorer
had to be content with barely enough learning to read
and write, but having little intellectual discipline.
The higher famUies of Greece and Carthage were
somewhat simUar in the discipline of their inteUectual
powers, and we find, by an investigation into their
conduct, that the same conclusion must be drawn
from their moral character. Yet there was no par
aUel between the lower classes of the twc^'' The
lower orders of Carthage were traders and trafllckers,
whatever might be the individual capital invested, and

117 In discussing the mental qualities of the people of a nation, or of a
class of any particular nation, we intend by it, that a majority gives char
acter to that nation, or to that class, of which we at any time have made
investigation.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 177
dealt "with the Uke profession of every portion of the
mercantUe world, both civUized and savage. The
native Carthaginians, or those descended from the
founders of the republic, as has been observed, were
a nation of merchants, who worshiped mammon and
made the ostentatious display of riches an evidence of
thefr social and poUtical consequence. In thefr many
cities which in time sprang up along the northern
boundary of Africa, they traded with every nation
located on the Mediterranean by marine; and the
tropical productions of central Asia and Africa were
brought by immense caravans to this great metropolis.
Slavery of races, as well as of condition, existed as an
mstitution of the government, and, by its sanction,
human beings were bought and sold in the country
as much as any lifeless article. The commonalty of
Carthage, by thefr multifarious mercantUe transactions,
were in continual association "with most all races which
were then known to the world, and that too with
unprincipled sharpers, who cared Uttle as to the
means employed, if it wrought the desfred result.
The moral feelings of the mxUtitude were blunted by
this contiaual contact "with these heterogenous ele
ments of corruption of the different races of mankind,
whose vices were appropriated by the masses, made a
part of thefr being, and thereafter became, if it were
possible, a "second nature," which ruled over thefr
13

178 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
mental constitution anddfrected them in all their pur
poses of Ufe. The agriculturists were by far in the
minority, and those who constituted this minority
were generally large landholders, who had become
rich either by inheritance or by commercial trade,
after the first one hundred and fifty years from the
estabUshment of its poUtical body. But the whole
people of this republic, rich and poor, apparently
had but perverted objects as an end of life; one
was the accumulation of riches to satiate sensual
desires. Most aU races daUy met to exchange
commodities in the streets of the cities, and there
intermingled for the advantages of commercial specu
lation ; so that the vices and the tricks of rascaUty of
aU nations, from the civUized states of Greece and of
Rome to the less cultivated Bedouins of Arabia and.
north central Africa, were there represented. The
wretched condition of thefr moral qualities found
a readier exchange than any marketable goods which
were presented for public barter ; and for it no price
was paid in anything of representative value, but it
secretly and perfectly added its ingredient cause of
Carthage's faU, and was in the end the purchase price
of her independence, her freedom, and the Uves of
her people.
It was by this extensive trade that the commonalty
of Carthage became, in a manner, intelUgent, for by it

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 179
they were introduced into a knowledge of the habits
of aU mankind, and by thefr travels in foreign lands
learned considerable of geography, of history, and of
the social life of distant tribes and nations. Although
this works no thorough discipline to the intellectual,
it nevertheless did, in the age of this republic, acquaint
its people "with a great variety of different objects, and
by it became more perfectly learned in those things
which came -within their range, than they could have
obtained from books. Thereunder they probably
became the most intelligent people in the world.
The poorer classes of Greece, on the other hand,
had no communication with the outside world, but
were compelled to tUl the hard and sterile soil, or
expend their vital energies, day after day, on the
pubUc works. By this non-intercommunication of the
inferior people of Greece with the inhabitants of for
eign states, there was no abnormal action, no wander
of thought aping the corrupt manners of the latter,
but it was turned to its natural channel, the enjoy
ments of domestic life. It wUl be readily seen that
there would be, under its normal action, a Umited
acti"vdty, the excesses of all the faculties being cur
tailed by the affections of the more humane feelings,
which, by constant refinement, were kept in the most
active condition. PoUtical ambition, morbid desire for
superfluous wealth, and aU the sensual appetites, were

180 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
effectuaUy checked by the influence of the famUy
fireside; the love of parents, of chUdren, of relative
consanguinity, of country, were in this manner pre
served in the masses to protect the people and the
entire nation against the barbarous principles of the
educated of native and of foreign states.
The freedom of the HeUenic states did not begin to
decUne untU the intellectual education of the higher
famUies was firmly established under the tuition of
philosophy. But, as has been observed, as rapidly as
they became mentaUy discipUned, they were ruined in
morals. Nothstanding the wrecked morality of the
higher, the lower were greatly in the majority, pre
serving the supremacy of the moral sentiments ; and
it was not tUl one hundred years of gradual degenera
tion of the nobles, that the latter, in conjunction with
the demagogues of foreign powers, were enabled to
extinguish the principles of autonomy. The twenty-
seven and a half years which the war lasted, indicates
the tenacity of the natural laws with which the inferior
classes were supported against the aggressions of their
own aristocracy and the neighboring portions of the
civilized world.
War is the most dangerous calamity that can befall
a nation, for however victorious in arms it may be over
an enemy, there is a constant submission of the noble
to the ignoble, a conquest of the moral by the animal

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 181
faculties of the mind. A nation is not necessarily
fallen because it is subdued ; its conquest is only an
apparent e"7idence of its fallen state. But a poUtical
organization is in declension whenever the morals of
the people are in process of destruction ; the loss of
its independence, and especiaUy that of its freedom,
follows the overthrow of the superior sentiments of
the mind in the majority of its members. InteUectual
culture had not reached and caused a degeneration of
the morals of the majority of the Greeks, they had
been shielded from the bUghting of this system of
education. It requfred something farther to reach
their case and remove their mentality from all normal
conditions. The blasting influences of war were neces
sary, and war they had, foreign, civU and fratricidal,
for the length of a generation. Men were born after
its commencement, grew to manhood, and died in
arms. This atrocious system was adopted and pur
sued by the higher orders of Attica, to terminate its
independence and subvert its freedom, but when
Athens feU aU Greece decUned with her ; the sun of
all their hopes was clouded, and their moral faculties
subverted, all rational government thereunder being
in effectual destruction. War is rather a conflict
upon the mental than upon the physical, and the
Peloponnesian wrought the complete ruin of Greece ;
and although for a time under the guiding hand of an

183 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Alexander, she was enabled to prevail over the degen
erate sons of ancient patriarchs in Asia, it was rather
natural than marvelous ; it was the triumph of the
animal faculties in one nation over the dementia and
effeminacy of others. It was a conquest of slaves by
slaves. It has been set forth in this work that man is
possessed of certain faculties in his mental economy
which, by thefr character, are placed in subordina
tion, and made servitors, to the moral sentiments of
the mind. We have also seen that the intellectual
faculties have no feelings, and, like the animal, are,
as it were, instruments of the ethical part of man's
mental being. Man's propensities^^* being in con
stant activity by the daily business of life, are steadUy
undergoing discipline, whUe the ratiocinating portion
of the intellectual is little cultivated, for in business
transaction individuals rely more upon perception
than upon reason. But those faculties which take
cognizance of cause and effect, of moral and of relig
ious principles, must be, for a lengthened period,
caused to act upon some object belonging to the
peculiar province of each, in order to produce an
education of them. In the higher orders of Greece,
the first and the last were stimulated to operate upon

ii8 The word "propensities" in this work is used as synonymous with
the animal faculties.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 183
legitimate objects, the first by the dfrect and close
study of phUosophy, the last by early devotion to
reUgion. But down to the time of the Socratic from
the Pythagorean, the greater development of the
reasoning powers pretty much extinguished the
fundamental religious elements from the minds of
philosophic students.
There was no system of rigid moral instruction,
and, from reasons heretofore mentioned, the moral
faculties, by long disuse, graduaUy decreased from
thefr former strength, and, as far as their influence to
control individual conduct, they were so far destroyed
as to give little evidence of their former existence, and,
were it not for equitable laws then stUl in being, one
would naturaUy suppose, by the acts of the nobles,
that they were deprived from the first of all functions
in this direction. As the inteUect is not possessed
of feeUngs, and as it is, by its very nature, in sub
ordination to the moral faculties; and whereas, when
the animal powers became stimulated to great activity
by daUy culture, the strong passions of which they
are possessed, elevated them to a condition of suprem
acy, and by it completely ruled over the human mind,
carrying their own feelings into characteristic effect.
So with that class in Hellenic history which is usuaUy
termed the noble, the moral faculties sank into a sub
ordinate position to the animal. When such had

184 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
become the elements that were to rule over Attica,
they became destructive of aU existences, not except
ing thefr own. As the higher famUies principally
dfrected the concerns of the nation, the people, under
the action of the animal powers, were helplessly driven
into the Peloponnesian difficulty, which finally under
mined aU influence of the moral sentiments in the
masses, not for a time only, but for all time, to the
existing generation. It was the fall of the moral
faculties that occasioned the overthrow of the insti
tutions of Greece; for the power of aU equitable
governments is referable only to the moral faculties
in the mind of a majority of its members. The
faUure of the moral faculties was followed by a
failure of all moral effects, and no political consti
tution can long exist in absence of its cause.
The moral faculties were the power of the free
institutions of Greece, and it cannot be truthfully
aUeged that Grecian freedom fell at the extinction
of its poUtical body, for the latter was, at the time
the old Attic government was demoUshed', evidence
only of the former existence of the primitive organs
of morality. All equitable laws, all just organiza
tions, are effects of these last faculties, and when
their acts are swept away by the foolhardiness of
mankind, it is only a disposition of what remains of
their handiwork, a destruction of those monuments

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 185
which testify of the glory of their former power. The
faU of the moral faculties preceded that of the form
of government. So it has been with all republics
which have ceased to exist from that time to this,
and will continue to be the case with them in aU
future time. Political institutions may exist for a
time after the overthrow of the power which erected
them, but they are, by the laws of nature, compeUed
to follow the fate of thefr author.
By the system of education now prevalent, the
moral primitive quaUties, in the higher orders of the
HeUenic states, first feU from all influence which they
had exercised over the mind, and, by the depravity
that was substituted in thefr stead, brought on the
Peloponnesian war, by the corrupting tendencies of
which they were enabled to extend the same lament
able condition to a large portion of the masses. It is
but natural that no free and equitable government
can depend upon a nation of criminals for a faithful
execution of its provisions and support of its meas
ures. The free and equitable institutions were forced
to submit to whatever terms the propensities tended to
impose ; the freedom and the glory of the Greeks were
sealed up and consigned to permanent extinction "with
the good features of Asiatic principalities which more
vigorous contemporary powers had despoiled.
Such was the work of inteUectual education for the

186 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
most flourishing people of antiquity. It is unrea
sonable to suppose that it wUl do better for the
inhabitants of "The Great Republic." The system
of Greek education was only an inteUectual one ; ours
is the same. We have seen that this does not project
a culture of the moral powers ; it did with them, it
cannot with us. However much intellectual education
may be blended with religious, the combined tenden
cies of the two produce no beneficial action "without
both are under the special direction of the moral sen
timents. If the moral are not cultivated with the
reUgious and the intellectual, so as to raise them
above even an equUibrium, there can be no suprem
acy of the moral sentiments. The injurious action
of this defective system of education is somewhat
proportioned to the degree of its extension.
In the United States of America, there are more
coUeges, properly so caUed, exclusively engaged
in this education of the intellect, than in all the
rest of the world. The seminaries, academies, and
high schools are, comparatively, numberless. ^ ^ » The

119 In the single state of Ohio there were, in 1873, thirty colleges and
universities, most of them having been long engaged in their labors. The
flrst was organized in 1804, the last in 1873. There were also forty-one nor
mal schools, academies and female colleges, making seventy-one institutions
established to educate the intellect of the people of one single state. In
addition to these, there were three hundred and fifty high schools engaged,
of course to a more limited degree, in the same occupation.
See report of secretary of state to governor of Ohio, for 1373. Ohio
Statistics, pages 411, 416 and 417.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 187
facilities for education are, therefore, immense, gener
ating a prodigious growth of the intellect, and enlarg
ing the capacity of a large portion of the people for
good or for evU. But we have seen that while it
expands the inteUectuality of mankind, it, at the
same time, expunges the primitive causes of moral
principles, and hence results in evU instead of good,
disorganizing those moral elements of which repubU-
can governments must necessarily be composed. Edu
cation has not been, and is not at present, too
extended, but too limited, Umited to the reUgious
and to the inteUectual powers.

CHAPTER 17

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
Brief Reflections on the Ciilture of the Primitive Faculties of the
Mind — Assumptions of Theologians regarding the Tendencies of
Religion to enhance the JMoral Qualities of IffianMnd — Effect of
those Assumptions indirectly Contributory to the Reign of the
Propensities, and to the Dimiaishment of the IVIoral Sentiments, in
the United States of America — Iilore Pertinacity exhibited by
Modems on this question than by Ancients — Evidence of this EiTor
sho'wn by Religious and Moral Qualities of the Carthaginians —
Necessities of direct, separate and systematic Culture of the^
Moral Sentiments to Prevent the Nation's Pall.
In the creation of organs for particular functions, in
organic matter, there was e"\ddent design, by Provi
dence, that each and all of them should act and be
exercised in a legitimate and proper manner. That
every one should be in operation a portion of time,
is as positive as any law with which man is acquainted.
It must be apparent to aU prudent observers, that
those faculties of the mind, producing characteristics,
must have an active existence or nearly none at aU.
Each and aU can be preserved, cultivated, and thereby
increased to a very great extent, or can, compara
tively, be extinguished. And so perfectly have all of
(188)

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 189
these faculties been adjusted to each other, that no
single one of them can be expunged "without material
injury to all. When aU are well developed and in a
healthy condition, there is a production of a certain
balance, a certain harmony of life and action, which
results in happiness and contentment to the mind,
and even to the body, of its indi"7idual possessor. In
the beginning of the world, those laws regulating the
human mind were the same as now, and wUl be to all
eternity. They are dynamical and not statical, and
the faculties are constantly assuming the conditions of
increase and diminution. Nothing remains, but every
thing, pertaining to mortal organism, is either in a
process of growth or decomposition. Life or death,
the one or the other, is in constant activity, not only
in every being, but in every organ and faculty of all
mankind. As it is a decree for man to die, so it is for
every member which he possesses to undergo a similar
fate. Portions of the human soul and body may
partly perish, whUe the individual of whom they form
a part may be in apparent health. But whenever any
faculty is in a condition of atrophy, it is in one of
death. We know that one may be in buoyant life and
hope, whUe some one or more of his faculties are
approaching, as far as relates to thefr influence upon
character, the period of thefr excision. As any given
muscle of the body may perish by disuse, so may

190 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
any faculty of the mind disappear under the same
regulation of nature. And as the whole number of
faculties exceed the individual members of mankind,
so do the increase and decrease of the former outnum
ber those of the latter. The augmentation of a faculty
may be termed Ufe, and its decrement that of death.
Every faculty, in a healthy state, increases in pro
portion to its exercise, providing that labor be not
excessive, that is, too long and concentrated. And
aU of the faculties can be augmented or diminished
by proper exercise or its corresponding neglect. There
can, therefore, in every faculty, be a creation or an
addition to the original amount, to a very considerable
extent, by the appUcation of the natural laws. Every
one thereunder, therefore, becomes responsible, cor
respondingly, for his own character, and cannot cast
this authority upon a certain fataUty, or a great and
first cause. He, himself, becomes the author of what
he is, although not always what he should be.
The conclusions in the foregoing paragraph were
drawn from those conditions which exist in a land of
Uberty. Heretofore philosophy, in most of its rela
tions, has been addressed to the inteUect only. It has
been confined to the investigations of the inteUect
ual powers, except now and then a thinker who
turned his attention to the reUgious, with the
view that from this arose the moral sentiments

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 191
of the world. This has produced and propagated
the idea of the existence of a moral phUosophy.
Although there has been much written upon this
subject, it has been so done, "without any exception,
by basing the whole structure on the supposition
that the reUgious contains the moral, or upon the
selfishness of utUitarianism. To us no more erro
neous doctrine can be conceived. MoraUty and
reUgion are essentiaUy different in their nature, and
therefore are effects of altogether different causes.
Great efforts have been made to improve the intel
lectual and religious powers of the mind, whUe nothing
but the constant efforts of nature has been done to
construct a system of moral science independent of
reUgion, which was designed to improve the moral
condition of the world. If Christ estabUshed any
system which tended to regulate man to man and
to Himself, it was so left that it has been, in practice,
swallowed up by the religion "with which it is taught
and expounded. But the moral doctrines couched
in divine revelation connect man mostly with his
Maker. Yet the Saviour estabUshed no moral code
by which, through rigid culture, the moral nature
could be raised to a supremacy over the animal.
The tendencies of His gospel subjected everything to
the reUgious. But codes do Uttle, if any, good. The
Hebrews had the code of reUgious morals that was

192 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
given to them by Moses, yet they, according to thefr
own account, were more guilty of evil practices and
bad conduct than the heathen nations which sur
rounded them. If anything could have been done
for the Jews imder the religious faculties, by their
cultivation, they shoiUd have presented an example
of purity nowhere to be found among aU mankind.
Yet the reverse has been the effect; they have been
so far demented in this part of the mind, that their
conduct, their trickery and chicanery, in all portions
of the globe in which they have dwelt, has caused
them to be looked upon by mankind as a distinct
class of petty criminals.
Egypt presents a simUar example. She had thou
sands of priests and large quantities of reUgion with
which to feed the minds of her people, yet she
thought it no wrong to subject hundreds of thou
sands of human beings to a worse servitude than
that of African slavery in America. The Hebrews*^
had a foretaste of Egyptian bondage and its reaUty,
after the death of Joseph; and Moses was accom-
pUshed in aU the learning of the priesthood in this
land of piety. It "wUl not do to say that the reUgion
of this ancient nation was pagan and not from God,
and therefore had no beneficial effect upon the char
acter of its inhabitants. If the reUgious code of the
Egyptians was as true in its appUcations to the

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 193
reUgious faculties of the mind, and as extensive in
amount as the Mosaic, if believed, as without doubt
it was, it would have as great effect upon the char
acter of its people, as it would had it come, as was
pretended by its priesthood, dfrectly from the hands
of God. Yet no greater despotism ever existed than
that of the Egyptian. AU mankind in its Umits were
restrained and their Uberty curtailed in the most
humiUating manner. No contemporary people in
ancient times, except the Israelites, had fallen to a
lower status. This was characteristic alike of the high
est and the lowest classes. The rulers of this people
conducted themselves "with such cruel tyranny toward
thefr subjects, that the latter would not allow the
former to be buried in the pyramids erected by the
kings for that special purpose. So that few, if any of
them, have been entombed in those celebrated monu
ments which have survived aU the governments of
antiquity. If reUgion have the tendencies ascribed to it by
theologians, Egypt ought to have been, for happiness,
a land not inferior to Paradise. AU the contrivances
calculated to work upon the mind and make it devo
tional to, and dependent upon, an unseen "power,
were craftUy introduced and as craftUy promulgated.
Every organic substance possessing automatic power
was an object of worship. There was not an animal,
18

194 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
reptUe nor insect which was not the embodiment
of some spirit of the gods. The priests pretended to
have received revelations from the gods containing
religious and moral doctrines. They pretended, also,
to have power from above to work miracles ; this was
firmly beUeved by the multitude, and vouched for by
the "author of the Pentateuch.
The Egyptians then had those advantages arising
from a beUef in special providences that the Christians
now have. They did not profess one thing and beUeve
another, but were really in earnest, zealously observing
the religious commandments taught them by the most
learned preceptors of their adopted faith. The priests,
in this nation, were next in power to the crown, and,
as a consequence, possessed an authority which gave
them great influence over the minds of the inhabitants.
Notwithstanding the long and close culture of the
religious elements of the mind in this land of plenty,
a desolation, more complete than that of Rome or of
Greece, has swept over her; and were it not for the
historians of contemporary nations who chronicled
the learning and glory of this magnificent power,
she would now be slumbering in oblivion. Her
pyramids might stUl astonish the beholder, but could
convey little information respecting the character
and condition of the people by whom they were
erected. From the beginning of the reign of Menes,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 195
A. M., 1816, to the death of Cleopatra, a period of
twenty-one hundred years, the Egyptians enjoyed a
constant and uninterrupted culture of the religious
faculties of the mind. If religion and morality are
effects of the same mental faculties, this nation should
have enjoyed a prosperity, under the moral laws,
unparalleled by the rest of the nations of the world.
But she did not ; her whole history is one of crime
and venaUty. She was enthusiastic in teaching relig
ion and propagated it day and night without cessation.
The people were as enthusiastic in its reception and
observances; and in proportion as the people, rich
and poor, became more superstitious, they appeared
to pay less attention to moral obligations, and
sank into vices that are perfectly repugnant to our
contemplation. By the continued application of the
same laws of increase to the same faculty of the mind,
generation after generation, the people were rendered
almost perfectly superstitious and whoUy control
lable as far as any reUgion wUl render any possible
restraint. WhUe this reUgious element in the masses was
in continuity of increase by stimulation, that of the
moral was atrophying from continued disuse. Age
after age Egypt made application of the same laws
to the same faculties, and consequently created a
perfect activity in the former and a corresponding

196 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
passivity or extinction of the latter. There is reason
to beUeve that when a nation has fallen so low,
morally, as that of the Egyptian was 1000 B. C, and
for a long time before the subversion of her poUtical
establishment, it is, to say the least, next to an impos
sibility to revive the moral elements of the mind so as
to give them any influence upon the character of the
people. This may in some measure account for the
fact, that none of those ancient states, such as Baby
lon, Media, Persia, Grecia and Rome, could ever be
re-established. This false assumption, this erroneous doctrine, that
the reUgious contains the moral, has been one of two
of the principal causes of aU of man's misfortunes,
past and present. Individuals and nations exist and
expfre only by the natural laws. Nature, has, however,
fixed a period at the end of which aU organisms must
cease, as far as that to which man's individuality
relates. But there is no more necessity for this term
ination of a nationaUty, than there is that the human
race shaU altogether cease to exist. That the disap
pearance of the moral works an extinction of the poUt
ical body, beyond the hope of resurrection, we shaU,
in a subsequent part of this work, attempt to show,
together "with the manner in which it has taken place.
In order to clearly discover the religious character
and conditional opportunities for moral conduct.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 197
together with the principal events influencing both,
it is necessary first to know about the age in which
any given people lived, the portion of the globe which
they inhabited, that the hereditary quaUties and the
influences of climate may be, in part, met "with some
thing like an approximate determination. The origin,
or something of the characteristics of ancestors, assists
us in this investigation, for it is generally admitted
that man not only receives certain qualities, but certain
degrees of quaUty, by hereditament. When individ
uals, in human affairs, observe certain events, such as
commercial crises, repeating themselves in a periodical
manner, they are too apt to suppose them to be opera
tions of the natural laws in a normal state. Statistics
have been studied under the same regulation of
thought. Little attention has been paid to the pres
ent and the primal past state, in order to ascertain
whether man's mind is now in a normal condition or
not. If, by a comparison of the two extremes, the
first and the last, and if, also, by tracing the history of
the mind, it prove to have been warped and rendered
nugatory in some portions of its effects, it tends to
estabUsh that commercial crises and their kind are
rather consequences of incautious and improvident
states of mind, than attributable to any natural law
controlling the human mind in a fuUy developed con
dition. If, therefore, we are enabled to show that, by

198 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the assumptions of divines and the sacerdocy gener
ally, their theological doctrines have been productive
of a mental departure, and the mind tortured into an
unnatural condition, it foUows from it that it is unsafe
to further rely upon their claims or calculations
The history of all nations, in ancient times, exhib
its abundant evidence that, while the people were
extremely reUgious, they were sunken in vices. And
few nations afford better proof of this than the republic
of Carthage.
The Carthaginians were a colony of Tyrians expelled
from their native country through poUtical troubles in
the royal famUy of the latter power. * The foundation
of the city was attributed to a princess by the name
of Dido. She had married Ascerbas, a man of Uke
qualities as to his origin, who was murdered by the
king of Tyre, his own brother, for the possession of
his great riches. This caused the princess to regard
her own life insecure, and accordingly passed out of
the dominions of the kingdom with aU the valuables
that were portable of her husband's effects, and settled
on the continent of Africa, on the shore of the Medi
terranean. She was accompanied by a few followers,
who settied "with her on the coast, secured, by this
distance of locaUty, from the tyranny of modern
Tyre. The place in which they settled had been and

I Rollin's Ancient Histobt, vol. 1, page 78.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 199
then was the abode of pirates. The two classes, pos
sessing a common dread of civilized life, were peaceful,
and, very naturally under the cfrcumstances, consid
ered the interests of the one that of the other — ^they
mingled and blended the objects of thefr lives into one.
Their settlement became united and formed a small
nation, owing allegiance and paying tribute to no
foreign government.
Their ancestors had been and still were a nation of
questionable merchants, the only object and satisfac
tion of whom appears to have been the acquisition of
wealth. They seemed to have been actuated by no
other motives but those of gain, and possessed of no
feeUngs which elevate men above the animals of the
earth. Thefr moral feelings were hardened to every
vice, lowering the nobler sentiments of their minds
to such a condition of subserviency to thefr selflsh
powers, that it gave them the capacity to commit
any crime, however base, that contributed to satisfy
an absorbing desire. About the only true difference
between this commercial nation and the corsairs which
thronged the Mediterranean, in characteristics, appears
from the conduct of each, that the latter possessed
sufficient honesty to declare thefr piu^jose, whUe the
former did not. The pirate took the property of
others "wrongfuUy, by the power of the sword, whUe
the merchant of Tyre, under the garb of legitimate

200 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
and honest trade, obtained his by perjury and fraud.
The pirate was above denying the nature of his voca
tion, whUe the merchant constantly falsified to conceal
his. The former was an odious and dangerous robber
upon the high seas, while the latter was a lying thief,
dweUing in princely residences in a capital city. " The
corsair squandered the spoUs of his unlawful gain,
whUe the accumulations of the merchant rusted and
corroded in his 0"wn possession. The merchant with
his money fitted out ships to prey upon the commerce
of nations, receiving the spoils due to him under the
contract, whUe the pfrate underwent the hazard and
encountered the disgrace which attached to the char
acter of an outlaw.
Yet both were equally reUgious, bo"wing before the
same shrine, and, with due reverence, worshiping the
same gods. At this time Polytheism or Feticism pre
vailed, except among the Jews, throughout the entire
earth. Both outlaw and merchant, back to an inde
finite period, had possessed the advantages of religious
educations. For more than a thousand years they
had been taught by thefr clerical instructors, thou
shalt not steal, nor charge usury, nor lie, nor rob,
and aU the rest of the catalogue of moral "virtues, by
religious teachers. ^ Yet it had little or no effect upon

2 "For there Is, unquestionably, nothing to be found In the world which
has undergone so little change as those great dogmas of which moral systems

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 201
them. The more they worshiped, the worse, morally,
they seemed to become. The constant appearance of
the marvelous rendered their minds superstitious, and
they believed in special providential interventions.
They constantly prayed to benevolent deities to
purify their wicked hearts. They offered up sacri
fices, both animal and human, to appease the wrath
of the gods and balance them in the petitioners' favor.
They constantly reminded these worshipful beings of
the shortcomings of mortality and their own wishes
to become just. Yet aU this address of religion was
wholly unable to even preserve this nation to the
principles of vfrtue, and she continued to descend
into repugnant "vices, until she was destroyed by
those very laws which she had set at defiance.

are composed. To do good to others ; to sacrifice for their own benefit your
best wishes; to love your neighbor as yourself; to forgive your enemy; to
restrain your passions ; to honor your parents ; to respect those who are set
over you ; but they have been known for thousands of years, and not one jot
or tittle has been added to them by all the sermons, homilies and text-books
which moralists and theologians have been able to produce.
" That the system of morals propounded in the New Testament contained
no maxim which had not been previously enunciated, and that some of the
most beautiful passages in the Apostolic writings are quotations from pagan
authors, is well known to every scholar ; and so far from supplying, as some
suppose, an objection against Christianity, it is a strong recommendation of
it, aa indicative of the Intimate relation between the doctrines of Christ and
the moral sympathies of mankind in different ages. But to assert that Chris
tianity, communicated to man moral truths previously unknown, argues, on
the part of the asserter, either gross ignorance or willful fraud. For evidence
of the knowledge of moral truths weis possessed bybarbarlansindependentlyof
Christianity, and forthe most part previously to its promulgation."— Buckle's
HiSTORT OF Civilization in England, vol. 1, page 129. See also note at
bottom of same page.

202 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Wealth purchased about everything. It purchased
influential friends, who endorsed the "dlest of indi
vidual acts, or firmly denied them. The best or
worst social communities took persons to thefr con
fidence, into the bosom of their association, and beset
them with the foulest of flattery, if they possessed
this one element of consideration. But however
much that society may have endeavored to make the
initiated forget his vices and shield them from the
pubUc gaze, they could not be obscured nor with-
dra"wn from the retrospection of his own conscience.
He therefore was accompanied through life with a
strong feeling of disquietude, lessening the effect of
that noble merit, under which, by the full enjoyment
of the moral powers, the individual possessor was
impressed. Although he did not always carry with
him a distinct knowledge of the cause of this effect,
he was nevertheless justly degraded in that self esti
mation, that firm and satisfactory moral courage
which God designed should be the reward of the
"vfrtuous. After this self respect was thus once lost,
however Uttle known to the outside world, the person
was fuUy conscious of his own inner faU and did not
hesitate at the commission of other crimes, if they
came not too suddenly into broad contrast with pubUc
reproval and his own incipient degeneration.
But the moment that fortune frowned — ^the moment

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 203
that that individual had more of an appearance of
want than of wealth, however virtuous and intel
lectual he may have been — that very society which
received him with such polished and flattering
addresses, no longer deemed his social qualities
worthy of the least attention, and probably denied, by
non-recognition or similar acts, that it ever knew him.
Like the savages of Africa, he was no longer possessed
of those bone ornaments of the nose ; he had lost those
accumulations of material objects which were signifi
cant consequences of his untutored associates. He,
perhaps, was unable to tattoo his skin after the most
approved style of the leading savages of his tribe.
All these things predominated in the social world
2000 B. C. ; and from the founding of modern Tyre to
its conquest by Alexander, even down to the day of
the excision of Carthage, the only method of measur
ing one's respectabUity was by the length of his purse.
From that day to this the above, among other sys
tems of corruptions, both generated by ignorance and
superstition, have been repeating themselves. Every
nation that has ever existed, has been compeUed to
pass through them all on its highway to its fall. It is
not necessary, we apprehend, that the whole population
of a government should be subjected to the corrupt
ing processes which have been here enunciated. Yet
when a nation is so far lost to all moral considerations,

204 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
that a majority of its inhabitants seek nothing but
wealth, official distinction, social pre-eminence, and
the vain official exaltation of individual self, there is
reason to believe that the united power of the nation
is departed, and that it is rapidly approaching a period
not far distant at which the top of the edifice of its
poUtical fabric wiU be prostrated to the base.
These ancients were no children; they could see
into the character of their passing predecessors by
daily acts. They witnessed all these barbarous prin
ciples carried out in detail. Their gold was thefr
power; with it the souls and bodies of men and
women could be purchased and in great part con-
troUed. These aU had their dfrect influences in
expunging moraUty from the mind of the Tyrians,
the only basis upon which human happiness and per
manent prosperity can be reposed. It matters not,
however, in the result, whether the descent from a
moral position to one of inner mental turpitude, be
wrought in a den of outlaws or in the poUshed cfr-
cles of society. The one may be rough and uncouth
in his appearance, whUe the other is what is erro
neously caUed refined; but both are alike barbarous
in thefr feeUngs and destitute of all moral principles.
It was from such elements of depravity that the Car
thaginians derived their origin.
'Carthage existed a Uttle over seven hundred

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 205
years. It was destroyed under the consulate of C.
Lentulus and L. Mummius, the 603d year of Rome,
3859th of the world, and 145th before Christ. The
foundation of it may therefore be fixed in the year
of the world 3158, when Joash was king of Judah,
98 years before the buUding of Rome, and 846 before
our Saviour;"*
Babylon, Assyria, Media, Persia, Greece and Rome
were the principal contemporary nations with Car
thage. There were smaUer states in Asia and Africa,
not far distant from the boundaries of the Carthaginian
republic, upon which, without any just cause, she
made war and subjected to tributary provinces, to
subserve her own interests and to aggrandize her own
power. Whatever nation upon the Mediterranean
escaped the avarice of Tyre in the east, most invari
ably feU into the hands of this piratical repubUc of
the west. She began her national career by pur
chasing the territory over which she exercised the
jurisdiction of government. Its value was trusted to
her honesty, the payment of which she soon after
exhibited her worthiness to confidence by whoUy
refusing to satisfy the demands. By the breach of
this contract a war, the inevitable consequence,
under such circumstances, "with independent powers,
foUowed, in which the Carthaginians were defeated
and compelled to execute their agreement, but not
3 Rollin's Ancient Histobt, vol. 1, page 78.

206 • HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
tUl after a severe trial at arms, the desolation of
their country and the subjection of thefr forces. A
just penalty of death to many of her citizens, and
financial distress to the whole nation, was in this
manner visited upon her for her perfidy. Thus the
beginning of her intercourse with independent nation-
aUties was marked by a treachery which she sealed
with her blood, and forever afterward stamped the
character of the nation as one of bad faith aUke to
friends and to foes.
She then carried war into the dominions of Numidia
and Mauritania, ostensibly for the purposes of spoU
and to acquire that mUitary skill of which, in her first,
she was wholly destitute. After thus replenishing her
treasury and possessing herself of this knowledge in
other fields against unoffending powers, she turned
her arms against her benefactor, and blotted out her
indebtedness with the blood and bondage of her cred
itors. After having finished her wars of subjection
of the surrounding nationalities, her armies are next
found in wars of conquest of the independent cities
of the sea and the smaller principaUties of Spain.
After having thus far introduced the political organ
ization of that people, whose character, both religious
and moral, we design to trace, we shall endeavor to
prove thefr great piety, and, after that, the continued
degeneracy of the most important part of their mental

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 207
being. But, as is well known to scholars, the litera.
ture of Carthage ha"vlng been lost so that scarcely any
of its remains have come down to us, and none at all
which bears any relation to the history of the customs
and usages of the people, we shall be compelled to
rely upon the integrity of writers of contemporary
states. And as the repubUcs of Rome and Carthage
were the most extensive and enterprising powers of
antiquity ; as they were nearly the same in the con
struction of their political governments ; as they were
nations of aggression and conquest ; as they were sit
uated very nearly in the same longitudinal portion
of the globe; as the dominions of the one were in
proximity to the other ; in fine, as they bore a great
resemblance to each other in almost every particular,
there is reason to believe from analogy that the relig
ious procUvity of the one was almost a facsimile of
the other. It is, therefore, by tracing the history' of
the religious acts of the Romans during their war with
the Carthaginians — ^the second great contest between
these powers for universal empfre, and that one, too,
which, begun under such favorable aspects for the
Carthaginians, even threatening the subversion of
Rome, ended by the subordination of aU northern
Africa to the valorous arms of Europe — ^that we expect
to impress on the mind of the reader the extreme reUg
ious feelings that swayed the people of this ancient

208 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
state. If the inhabitants of the two states were very
nearly alike in thefr mental habits in other respects, it
is tolerably safe to conclude that they were equally so
in reUgion. A brief recital of the daUy piety and
superstition of the Romans may, therefore, throw
much light on that of the Carthagmians. *
The second Punic- war was, perhaps, the most
remarkable that has ever taken place, as not only
the sovereignty of the world was the reward of the
conqueror, but also servUe bondage and poUtical
extinction to the defeated. Upon such conditions it
was that Carthage and Rome took up arms, and
although the manner of its termination was of the
utmost importance to the parties involved, its dura
tion was stiU more so to that portion of mankind
which was destined by nature to foUow them in suc
cession. To thefr benighted minds the culmination of
aU human glory, or direst disaster, was to follow as a

4 On discussion by analogy, a very able author has observed: "There
can be no doubt that every Lsuch] resemblance which can be pointed out
between B and A, affords some degree of probability, beyond what would
otherwise exist, in favor of the conclusion drawn from it. If B resembled
A in all its ultimate properties, its possessing the attribute m would be a
certainty, not a probability and every resemblance which can be shown to
exist between them, places it by so much nearer to that point. If the
resemblance be in an ultimate property, there will be resemblance in all the
derivative properties dependent on that ultimate property, and of these m
may be one. If the resemblance be a derivative property, there is reason to
expect resemblance in the ultimate property on which it depends, and in
the other derivative properties dependent upon the same ultimate property.
Every resemblance which can be shown to exist, affords grounds for expect
ing an indefinite number of other resemblances."— John Stuaet iim/e
System or LoaiO, page S33.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 209
result, and the sequel folly indicates, as calamity and
good fortune alternately shook the courage and flat
tered the hopes of the North and the South, it did also
increase the zest for reUgious ceremonies of those two
states, among citizens at home and abroad. In either
event "with them, as it has ever had a tendency -with
aU mankind, it proved fatal to the Uberties of both ;
those evU passions which the contest generated finally
overturned thefr freedom, and whatever might be the
appearance of the government of either in its Uberal
formation, it succeeded in removing the only true
foundation of mortal greatness.
It is then by following the bloody trail of devasta
ting armies in the territories of each of these hostUe
nations, that we discover a partial exhibition of the
religion of its, people. History, unfortunately for us,
has not been written in such manner as to give enqufr-
ers the best instruction from facts for our guidance
in the future ; and we are thereupon forced to search
through many and various authors of those and sub
sequent times, and thus snatch our information of facts
from sources in which they appear to be concealed.
During the first Punic war the sovereignty of the
sea and the control of SicUy had by each been alter
nately regained and lost. A war begun by accident
or jealousy, and probably without the design of lead
ing to a regular war on the part of either, grew into an
14

210 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
acrimonious conflict of twenty-four years' duration,
ceasing only when both parties were grown gray and
weary of a burden whose demands had drained the
contending powers of their money and the ablest of
their men. The rivalry, the hatred, of the two nations
were here generated, "with all the force that external
influence is capable of producing upon the inner man.
Its continuance was sufficiently long for the feelings
of bitterness to reach and enthrone themselves on the
soul of every member of each of these great republics.
So perfectly had this been wrought, that the highest
famUies of Carthage and Rome, those whose intelli
gence enabled them to control, in great measure, the
government of the countries to which they respect
ively belonged, had become as embittered as the slaves
or mercenaries whom they bought and sold. The feel
ings of revenge were then not only exercised by the
weak and base, but by the high and powerful also.
It was this spfrit in the Barcine family and faction
that first began the attack upon the aUies of the
Romans and then caused an invasion of their terri
tories. This last conduct on the part of their leading
military commander was, shortly after the taking of
Saguntum, ratified by the republic of the south, and
thereupon became a national act. After the last effort
on the part of the Romans for a maintenance of peace,
and its faUure, both parties, -with the characteristics

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 211
and alacrity of tigers, each intent on the destruction of
the other, sprang to arms. During seventeen years
those two powers exerted every effort which nature
had given them, and, under the action of thefr wUd
and superstitious minds, endeavored to disturb the
peace of the gods, by offerings of sacrifices and of
gold, to purchase a division and thus engage the
heavens in contention on earth in the affairs of men.
Such were the feelings of rich and poor, high and
low, free and slave, of both at the beginning of the
second Punic war.
We have before observed that our only enqufry by
this chapter is to discover the condition of the reUgious
faculties of the mind, by the manifestation of their
effects among the Carthaginians, and then to contrast
whatever we, find this to have been "with their actual
moral status. This we do for the removal of an old
obstacle, an ecclesiastical error, as current to-day as
it ever was, and stands in the way, we feel, of aU
moral progress. By the assumptions of it, divines
have affirmed and pubUcly taught, from thefr pulpits
and works of letters, that it is the only salvation of
men, of society and of civilized governments, when it
has been one of several causes of the destruction of
them all. And so long have these facts hung over the
minds of mankind, and the most inteUigent witness
ing the utter inefficiency of it to meet the requirements

212 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of its earnest claims, that many, disconnected to reUg
ion, have been driven to the other extreme, and in the
abstract, and also in perfect disconsolation, endorsed
the theological doctrine of man's total depravity. But
some of the most comprehensive portions, "with more
elastic hopes, have been un-willing to surrender man
back into that darkness in which this barbarous and
atheistic idea would place him.^
Years before the beginning of the second war, tho
die was cast, and the fate of Carthage was sealed.
Hamilcar, after the close of the African war, conceived
the plan to extinguish the Romans. In him, hatred
found no repose, and so enthusiastic was he in his
feelings and the execution of his plot, that he engaged
in a life labor to subject all Spain by arms and the arts
of intrigues, that it might serve as a base from which
to draw his suppUes of money and mercenaries. But
as life is short and his undertakings great, wishing
above all things to extend the calamities of his ene
mies, and desirous, also, in case of his own failure, to
5 The New and the Old Testament contain moral commandments, but
they were addressed to the moral sentiments and not to the religious.
Because religion and morals were taught by devout personages, subsequent
ecclesiastics confounded the operations of both, supposing that the latter
emanated from the former. But religious lawgivers held two positions, the
one upon religion, the other upon morals ; and it appears evident to us that it
was designed to be left to man to so independently develop the primitive
causes of each that he can obey the injunctions of both. Divines claim that
individuals experiencing religious convictions and repentance are instantjy
reversed in disposition of moral evil, without undergoing any farther disci
pline of tho moral sentiments, thus holding that every moral good arises from
tho spiritual feeUngs.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 213
produce the effect of his scheme, he designedly trans
mitted his animosity to the succeeding generation
of his own famUy. When about to set out on his
expedition to Spain, and was offering sacrifices to the
gods of war, he caused his son Hannibal "to lay his
hand on the consecrated victim," and by oath bind
himself in solemn obligations to the gods, that he
would ever be a vindictive enemy of the Romans.^
It appears, from all that we can learn, that Hamilcar
was strictly devoted to the religion of his country, and
by this act of his we see that he durst not set out on
his adventure "without first making supplications to the
gods ; a combination of piety and animal resentment.
A war thus begun by the hatred which the Carthagin
ians bore to the people of Rome, was not counteracted
by piety nor restrained in the least by reUgious
obligations, but, on the contrary, was the instrument
by which it was rendered more inveterate, having
given it the solemn sanction of its imposing ceremo
nies. Hamilcar, however, did not live to carry the war

6 That the ablest men of Carthage, and those, too, which were the best
educated, were religious to a scrupulous degree, the following produces some
evidence In its support: "We are told that when Hamilcetr was about to
march at the head of an army into Spain, after conclusion of the war in
Africa," [also after the first Punic war,] "and was offering sacrifices on the
occasion," [to Hercules,] " his son Hannibal, then about nine years of age,
solicited him, with boyish fondness, to take him with him, whereon he
brought him up to the altars, and compelled him to lay his hand on the
consecrated victim, and swear, that, as soon it should be in his power, he
would show himself an enemy to the Boman people." — Spillan's Transla
tion OF LrvT, lib. 31, ch. 1.

314 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
into the dominions of his foes, for the same animal
resentment which he manifested toward Rome was
exercised upon him. The command of the armies
then fell to his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, and after eight
years from the death of the father, it was, by the
unanimous voice of the army and the vote of the
senate, conferred upon his son Hannibal.
The Carthaginians and Romans entered into no
obligations nor enterprises, without first offering sacri
fices to the proper divinities, keeping fasts and feasts,
also other religious ceremonies which, as they sup
posed, were necessary to the good wUl of the gods — ^in
other words, to purchase their favor, treating them as
articles of pubUc barter. So, therefore, when any dis
aster or important event was impending, or about to
be undertaken, the sacred oracles, among the Romans,
must read the SibylUne books, and interpret the proph
ecies which they contained. It was also necessary that
the manner in which bfrds took thefr flight, be taken
into consideration; and that the aruspice examine
the entraUs of animals, there to discover the gene
ral or particular nature of the event which they,
good or evU, never faUed to portend. An appear
ance of war alike increased their fears, their courage,
and the darkness of their superstition. As the enemy
against which the Romans had to contend, after the
taking of Saguntum, was under the personal control

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 215
of one of the greatest and most experienced officers
that had ever appeared iu the field to compete for the
glory of empire, they were greatly "wrought upon by
their fears and superstition. Before it was known at
Rome that Hannibal had crossed the Alps, the armies
of the two nations were confronting each other, the
Roman under the command of Scipio, on the banks
of the rivers Po and Ticinus. But an invasion under
the direction of Hannibal, a man of the greatest repu
tation, for no other ostensible object but the conquest
of Rome, was one of deep interest and importance to
the metropolis of Europe. Scipio had dispatched
one-half of the army, the veterans, to Spain, under
the command of his brother, and hence the troops
which he had under his immediate orders, were raw
recruits from the ranks of civilians, who were fresh
from the religious instruction of thefr clerical masters.
As the armies drew thefr lines toward each other to
engage for the possession of Italy, we are told that two
wonderful prodigies'' occurred, which caused fear to
seize the soldiers, and in the battie which followed,
the Roman army suffered almost an entfre overthrow.
But the advance of Hannibal was rapid, and those

7 LIw, in speaking of the hesitancy of the Bomans to engage, observes :
"By no means so great alacrity prevailed among the Romans, who, in addi
tion to other causes, were also alarmed by recent prodigies ; for both a wolf
had entered the camp, and, having torn those who met him, had escaped
unhurt i and a swarm of bees had lit on a tree overhanging the consul's
tent."— SpiLr.AN's Translation op Lmr, lib. 21, sec. 46. A. U. C. 534.

216 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
men of the northern republic who had been accustomed
to look upon a close engagement as a sure defeat to the
Carthaginians, were overthrown in every battle by the
extraordinary abilities of this great master. No such
captain had ever appeared in Europe, and after the
thfrd great battle, near Placentia, his merit as a soldier
was raised above that of any which had ever existed.
Two consular armies had been defeated in desperate
engagements ; and when the Roman people found they
could not rely on their former strength, their invincible
armies, and there was no hope on earth, the mind of
the people inclined to its customary dependence on
the gods above. Everything was magnified into an
omen, auguring destruction to the state and enslave
ment to its inhabitants. Under the apprehension of
pressing danger and the religious notions of the
Romans, in the great city and vicinity several prod
igies were reported, which threw the capital and
country into consternation. ^

8 At the capital and its surrounding neighborhood we are informed that
several supernatural occurrences took place which betokened no minor
calamities to the Inhabitants of the nation. It was reported that " an infant
in a respectable family, and only six months old, in the herb market, had
spoken out, ' Io triumphe ' ; that in the cattle market an ox had, of his own
accord, mounted up to the third story of a house, when, being affrighted by
the noise and bustle of the Inhabitants, he threw himself down ; that a light
had appeared in the sky in the form of ships ; that the temple of Hope, in the
herb market, was struck by lightning ; that at Lanuvium the spear of Juno
had shaken of itself ; and that a crow had fiown into the temple of Juno and
pitched on tho very couch ; that iu the district of Amltemum, in many places,
apparitions of men in white garments had been seen at a distance, but had
not come close to anybody ; that in Ficenum a shower of stones had fallen ;

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 217
With the advance of Hannibal the religious feelings
of the Romans appeared to be reduplicated. In the
year of Rome 535, the second year of the war, and just
before the battle fought on the banks of Lake Trasi-
menus, the minds of the people of Italy were greatly
startled and terrified by the ominous prodigies through
which the ill-disposed gods were, in their peculiar way,
foreshadowing calamities to the Roman state.* Con
sidering the length of the first war, together with the

at Casre the divining tickets had diminished in size; in Gaul a wolf had
snatched the sword of a soldier on guard out of the scabbard, and run away
with it. With respect to the other prodigies, tlie decemvirs were commanded
to consult the books," [Sibylline,] " but on account of the shower of stones in
Ficenum, the nine days' festival was ordered to bo celebrated, and the expiat
ing of the rest, one after the other, was almost the sole occupation of the
state. In the first place was performed a purification of the city ; victims of
the greater kinds were offered to such gods as were pointed out by directions.
An offering of forty pounds weight of gold was carried to the temple of Juno
at Lanuvium, and the matrons dedicated a brazen statue to Juno on the Aven-
tine. A lectisternium was ordered at Caere, where the divining tickets had
diminished, also a supplication to fortune at Algidum. At Rome, likewise, a
lectisternium was ordered in honor of the goddess Youth, and a supplication to
be performed by individuals at the temple of Hercules, and then by the whole
body of the people at all the several shrines. To Genius five of the greater
victims wore offered ; and the pretor Calus Atilius Seranus was ordered to vow
certain performances, in case the commonwealth should continue for ten
years in its present state. These expiations and vows being performed in
conformity to the directions of the Sibylline books, people's minds were, in
good measure, relieved from the burden of religious apprehension."— A. U.
C. 534 ; Baker's Translation of Livy, vol. 8, page 286.
9 " Prodigies announced from many places at the same time augmented
the terror : in Sicily, that several darts belonging to the soldiers had taken
fire ; and in Sardinia, that the staff of a horseman, who was going his rounds,
took fire as he held it in his hand ; that the shores liad blazed frequently
with fires ; that two shields had sweated blood at Praaneste ; that red-hot
stones had fallen from the heavens at Arpi; that shields were seen in the
heavens, Eind the sun fighting with the moon, at Capena ; that two moons rose
in the daytime ; that the waters of Csere had flowed mixed with blood ; and
even the fountain of Hercules had flowed sprinkled with spots of blood ; in
the territory of Antitun, that bloody ears of corn had fallen into the basket

218 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
extraordinary exertions and expenditures which the
state was forced to make, and the almost continual
wars which the G-auls and neighboring tribes were,
during the interval of peace, waging against Rome,
there could have been nothing but depleted treasuries
and impoverished peoples at the commencement of the
second Punic war. Grold and silver were less plenty
then than now, as also were the productions of

as they were reaping; at Falerii, that the heavens appeared cleft as if with
a great chasm, and when it had opened a vast light had shone forth ; that the
prophetic tablets had spontaneously become less, and that one had fallen out
thus inscribed, ' Mars brandishes his spear ;' during the same time, that the
statue of Mars at Rome, on the Appian Way, had sweated at the sight of the
images of tho wolves ; at Capua, that there had been the appearance of the
heavens being on fire, and of the moon as falling among rain. After these,
credit was given to prodigies of less magnitude : that the goats of certain
persons had borne wool; that a hen had changed herself into a cock, and a
cook into a hen. These things having been laid before the senate as reported,
the authors being conducted into the senate house, the consul took the sense
of the fathers on religious affairs. It was decreed that those prodigies should
be expiated, partly with full-grown victims, jjartly with sucking victims, and
that a supplication should be made at every shrine for the space of three
days ; that the other things should be done accordingly as the gods should
declare in their oracles to bo agreeable to them all, when the decemviri had
examined the books. By the advice of the decemviri it was decreed, flrst, that
a golden thunderbolt of fifty pounds weight should be made as an offering
to Jupiter; that offerings of silver should be presented to Juno and Minerva;
that sacrifices of full-grown victims should be offered to Juno Regina on the
Aventine, and to Juno Sospita at Lanuvium ; that the matrons, contributing
as much money as might be convenient to each, should carry it to the
Aventine as a present to Juno Regina; and that a lectisternium should be
celebrated. Moreover that the very freedmen should, according to their
means, contribute money from which a. present might be made to Fiorina.
When these things were done, the decemviri sacrificed with the larger
victims in the forum at Ardea. Lastly, it being now the month of December,
a sacrifice was made at the temple of Saturn at Rome, and a lectisternium
ordered, in which senators prepared the couch and a public banquet. Procla
mation was made through the city that the Saturnalia should be kept for a
day and a night ; and the people were commanded to account that day as a
holiday, and observe it forever."— Spillan's Tbahslation or Lrvr, vol. 2,
pages 76-77.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 219
agriculturists. The earth had not then become a subject
of scientific enquiry. But, as we have seen by our
authority above, their absurd superstition continually
disarmed them by foolishly squandering those means
by which alone a nation can, in times of war, be
strenglihened and supported. In this age, at Rome,
almost as much as at Carthage, money had well nigh
become the chief pursuit of man. In Africa this was
man's highest aim, for by it all honors were obtain
able; in Europe it was very similar, rapidly coming
up to a condition by which it would eventually absorb
every other passion, but had not yet reached the
degree of importance of a perfect supremacy. And,
therefore, when we consider the tenacious greed which
miserly tendencies in the human mind produce for
whatever relates to wealth, and the release of these
strongest passions of the soul in favor of imaginary
divinities, it is conclusive evidence that the religious
faculties have become stronger, in thus controling the
passions of man, than those faculties which are the
immediate and connected antecedents of the feeUngs
for pearls and diamonds.
It cannot be charged to the nation at large that the
ignorant multitude alone were superstitious, for it is
mentioned by Livy that after the battle of Trasimenus
and the defeat of the Roman army, the most intelli
gent senators of the state attributed the loss of victory

220 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
to Caius Flamtnius' neglect to consult the auspices
and to his skepticism of reUgious ceremonies. This
historian alleges that Fabius (at the time dictator)
distinctly proved it to be owing whoUy to Plamin-
ius' great indifference to significant omens, by which
the gods retailed future prosperities and misfortunes
to the inhabitants of earth, i" That the last great
disaster to the national forces was whoUy due to
the irreUgion of Flaminius, was then the determ
ined judgment of both patricians and commons.
And an impartial historian of the times avers, not
in words but in substance, that the Romans were
extremely religious, and this, too, "without exception
of classes or conditions.*' Flaminius was one of

IO "Quintus Fabius Maximus, a second time dictator, assembled the
senate the very day he entered on his office, and commencing vfith what
related to the gods, after he had distinctly proved to the fathers that Caius
Flaminius had erred more from neglect of the ceremonies and auspices than
from temerity and want of judgment, and that the gods themselves should
be consulted as to what were the expiations of their Einger, he obtained a
resolution that the decemviri should be ordered to inspect the Sibylline
books, which is rarely decreed, except when some horrid prodigies were
announced. Having inspected the prophetic books, they reported that the
vow which was made to Mara on account of this war, not having been
regularr fulfilled, must be performed afresh and more fully ; that the great
camea must be vowed to Jupiter, temples to Venus Erycina and Mars ; that a
supplication and lectisternium must be made, and a sacred spring vowed, if
the war should proceed lavonibly and the state continue In the condition it
was before the war."— Spillan's Translation op Ltvy, vol. 2, page 87.
II Just before the battle of Cannae, which almost completed the entire con
quest of Some, contemplating the proneness of the Romans to acccept pagan
ecclesiastical Imposture as consequences of divine will, a philosophic histo
rian observes f " When it was known at Rome that the armies were encamped
In sight, and that frequent skirmishes happened every day between them, the
whole city was filled with agitation and concern. For the people were so

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 221
the very few who was not devoted to the reUgion of
Polytheism. It is almost impossible to recur to any
period of the second Punic war, without finding the
minds of the inhabitants distracted by fear that the
gods had become angry and taken sides against them
in favor of their enemy.
When the people had recovered from their last
reverse, at lake Trasimenus, having recruited eighty-
seven thousand soldiers, by which to oppose the
destructive progress of Hannibal, they were still, not
withstanding the prosperous condition of their affairs,
gi-eatly agitated by fears in consequence of several
prodigies which had then recently occurred,*® And
when Hannibal was unable to entrap the consul
Paulus iEmilius, just before the battle of Cannse, and
much dejected by their remembrance of former defeats and losses, they
seemed now to apprehend the worst that could befall them, and to anticipate
in their own minds all the fatal consequences of an entire defeat. The oracles
of their sacred books were repeated in every mouth. Every temple and every
house was filled with prodigies and portents, which gave occasion to innu
merable vows and prayers and supplicatory sacrifices. For in times of danger
or distress, the Romans take universal pains to appease the wrath of the gods
and men ; and thinking nothing -sordid or dishonorable that is employed in
that design."— Hampton's Poltbhis, vol. 1, lib. 3, page 310.
T2 " Before, however, ihe new-raised legions marched from the city, the
decemvirs were ordered to have recourse to and inspect the sacred volumes,
on account of persons having been greatly alarmed by extraordinary prodi
gies ; for Intelligence was brought that it had rained stones on the Aventine
at Rome and at Aricia at the same time ; that among the Sabines, statues,
had sweated copiously, and at Cffire the waters had flowed warm from the
fountain. The latter prodigy excited a greater degree of alarm, because it
had frequently occurred. In a street called the Arched Way, near the Campus
Martlus, several men were struck by lightning and killed. These prodigies
were expiated according to the books."— Spillan's Tbanslation oe Ltvt,
Ub. 28, ch. 36.

222 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
retreated, the chickens of the consid were portentous
of adversity to his own forces, and, if we may beUeve
the historian of Rome, it was the means by which the
worthless Terrentius Yarro was restrained from ante
dating the calamities of Cannse. i^ With the increase
of misfortunes there appeared to be a revival of the
cruel rites of the Roman religion. Two priestesses
had "Violated the obligations of their sacred office;**
this gave fresh apprehension of impending evil. After
the disaster at the viUage of Cannse, Hannibal marched
against the town of Nola, and there fought a battle for '
the possession of the place. Here he met successful
opposition, the first defeat which he had suffered
during the war by Marcus Claudius MarceUus. After
this, their first victory over Hannibal, the citizens of
13 "Paulus, whom, unwilling from his own suggestions to move, the
chickens had not encouraged by their auspices, ordered the unlucky omen to
be reported to his colleague, when he was now leading the troops out of the
gate. And though Varro bore it impatiently, yet the recent discomfiture of
Flaminius, and the recorded naval defeat of Claudius, the consul in the first
Punic war, struck religious scruples into his mind."— Spillan's Tbanslatioit
OF LrvT, ch. iZ.
14 After the battle of Cannse, in which two consular armies were lost,
the people were less affected by it than they were " by several prodigies ; and
particularly by two vestals, Opimia and Floronia, being convicted of inconti
nence ; one of them was, according to custom, buried alive near the' Colline
gate ; the other voluntarily put an end to her own life. The decemvirs were
ordered to consult the books. Quintus Fabius Piotor was sent also to Delphi
to consult the oracle, and discover by what supplications and worship they
might be able to appease the gods, and by what means a stop might be put to
such a heavy train of misfortunes. Meanwhile, according to the directions of
the books of the fates, several extraordinary sacrifices were performed ; among
which a male and female Gaul, and a male and female Greek, were buried alive
in the cattle market in a vault built round with stones ; a place which had
already, by a practice abhorrent from the religion of Rome, boon polluted with
human victims."— Ibid., lib. 22, ch. 57.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 223
Rome desired to reward the valor and great abilities
of Claudius by elevating him to the consulate. But,
when, after his election, he entered upon the duties of
the office to discharge them, it thundered, whereupon
the patricians reported and declared that it was a
manifest displeasure of the gods, at the election of two
plebian consuls at the same time. In consequence of
it Claudius resigned, the only man at all competent to
discharge the duties of that high office against so
distinguished an enemy. Thunder was not all that
at this time frightened the Romans, and caused them
to earnestly desire the resignation of one of the con
suls. At the time it thundered it was reported that
the sea appeared to be on fire ; and at Linnessa a cow
had given birth to a colt ; at Lanuvium the statues in
the temple of Juno Sospita had sweated with blood ;
and in the "vacinity of the same place stones had fallen
instead of rain. There were many other prodigies,
the report of which has not reached us ; and on aU
these the Romans wasted nine days by stupidly expi
ating them,^' while the Carthaginians were ranging
through the country committing aU to the flames.
This was in the year of Rome 537 ; the following year
they were again frightened by several ominous prodi
gies, which, if no more to them, indicated clearly the
position, or the sympathy, of the gods in this contest
IS Spillan's Tramslation op Livt, lib. 23, ch. 30.

224 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of continents. Crows had made a nest in the temple
of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium ; a green palm tree had
of its Gwn accord taken fire in Apulia ; an eddy of one
of the rivers had changed its color to that of blood ; at
Cales chalk had fallen, as also had blood in showers
in the cattle market of the city of Rome; a fountain
underground in the street Istrian of the great city had
flowed with such force as to carry away the butts and
casks near it ; that one of the courts in the city had
been struck by lightning, as had also the temple of
Yulcan in the Campus Martins; a tree and a stone
wall had been visited by the same power ; the spear
¦of Mars at Prseneste moved to and fro without being
caused by any visible assistance ; and an altar in one
of the provinces was seen in the heavens surrounded
by the spirits of dead men ; a swarm of bees having
made their way into the forum caused, by its alarm,
the arming of the multitude; armed legions were
seen at Janiculum, when in reaUty none were there ;
at Spoletum a woman had been transformed into a
man ; in the womb of its mother a chUd had cried out,
"Io triumphe!" and in SicUy an ox had spoken
instead of an ass.^*
In the year of Rome 539, a stone wall and the
temple of Jupiter had been struck by lightning;
ships had been seen on a certain river, when it was

i6 Spillan's Tbakslation op Livt, lib. 2t, ch. in.

GENERAL INTEODTTOTION. 225
weU known by all in its "vicinity that none were on it ;
arms had been heard to clash in the temple of Jupiter
Vicilinus, and one of the rivers had changed its appear
ance to that of blood. * ' After having expiated those
prodigies, the generals who were to protect the realm
set out to expel the enemy from the heart of Italy.
In the year of A. U. C. 540, B. C. 212, in and about
the capital more prodigies occurred, and were readUy
beUeved by the superstitious Romans, by aU classes
high and low. A shower of gtones had faUen for two
days "without intermission on the Alban Mount ; seve
ral buUdings had been struck by Ughtning ; a rampart
was struck, and by it two soldiers were kUled ; waUs
and several towers at Cumse were demoUshed ; a great
rock had been seen to fly about in the air; and the
sun appeared red as though it had turned to blood.
Several days were occupied by the highest officers of
the state in expiating them, using up large sums of
money in the necessary reUgious ceremonies and many
cattle, when the treasury of the repubUc was in a con
dition of bankruptcy, and the army almost destitute
of provisions.'*
In this year, after the taking of Tarrentum, it
became a question of considerable propriety regard
ing the reUgious ceremonies, which, to aU classes,
17 Spillan's Translation or Ltvt, Ub. Zi, oh. U.
18 Ibid., lib. 25, ch. 7.
IS

226 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
appeared necessary by the extraordinary prophecies
of Marcius, who, as the historian informs us, was a
distinguished soothsayer. It was known that one of
his prophetic utterances had been fulfilled to the
utmost anticipation of the most devout. And a great
misfortune it was to the welfare of Rome, that most
all the copies from the hand of this favored individual
were lost ; but after long search one was found, which
contained others not less important to the republic
than that which had been so completely fulfilled by
the great disaster of Cannse. Several days, by nearly
aU the highest officers of state, were in consequence
used up in consulting the gods as to the best method
of offering sacrifices to their satisfaction. Large sums
of money were expended ; a gUded ox, a gilded heifer
and two gilded goats were this time offered to the
gods as considerations for their favor and good dis
position to the repubUcans of Rome.^*
Capua had been in the possession of Hannibal
three years, but the Romans, desirous of its occupa
tion, approached it with two consular armies for the

19 It may be interesting to see the syllabus of this prophesy, as it was one
to which the Romans attached the utmost importance: Livy says that it was
uttered in almost exact correspondence with the following words : "Romans
of Trojan descent, fly the river Canna, lest foreigners should compel thee to
flght in the plain of Biomede. But thou wilt not believe me until thou shalt
have filled the plain with blood, and the river carries Into the great sea, from
the fruitful land, many thousands of your slain countrymen, and thy flesh
becomes a prey for fishes, birds and beasts inhabiting the earth,"— Spillan's
Translation of Ltvy, lib. 25, ch. 12.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 227
purpose of restoring it to the state. Tiberius Gracchus
was directed, by their orders, to join them at Bene-
ventum "with his cavalry and light-armed troops, to
protect in their absence the latter place. But he
must, as was the known custom of the Romans,
make autopsy of the entraUs of animals and offer
sacrifices to the gods before his departure, by the
former to ascertain what events, good or evil, were
going to follow as a result of the change. During
the examination two serpents found their way, by
divine direction, into the victim, ate some of the
Uver and then disappeared. To get a more favor
able indication, the examination was repeated, and,
says the historian, the vessels containing the entrails
were watched with attention, that there might be no
mistake. The serpents appeared a second and third
time, and went away untouched.^" Gracchus was
cut off by the treachery of some of his own men;
and construing his end with the aruspicy, the people
considered that he had been amply forewarned by the
gods. It is said that, before he set out, he had been
told the omen related to his own death, and also that
it would be the work of those who pretended to be
his friends.

3o In speaking of the effect these prodigies had upon the minds of the sol
diery, Livy remarks that, " Though the aruspice forewarned him " [Gracchus]
" that the portent had reference to the general, and that he ought to be on his
guard against secret enemies and machinations, yet no foresight could avert
the destiny which awaited him."- Spillan's Tkans. or Ltvt, lib. 25, ch. 16.

228 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
And after the battle of Herdonea, in which Cneius
Fulvius, the Roman commander, with eleven miUtary
tribunes and almost the entire army, were either kiUed
or captured, Marcus Claudius MarceUus dispatched
news of the defeat to Rome, but, to inspirit the peo
ple and to serve his country, added, that he would
meet and defeat the conqueror. Notwithstanding,
several prodigies were reported and believed by the
superstitious multitude, noble and non-noble. Among
a large number, a lamb had been yeaned with all the
evidence of maturity at parturition; Ughtning had
struck the ground in front of one of the gates at
Anagnia, took fire, continued burning for twenty-
four hours without being fed by any kind of fuel;
birds had deserted their nests in the grove of Diana ;
large numbers of serpents had miraculously made
their appearance in the sea of Tarricinia; in the
grove of Feronia four statues had sweated blood pro
fusely for twenty-four hours ;^* and most surprising
of all, at Tarquinii a pig was brought forth with a
human face.
The foregoing Ulustrations of the almost daUy per
turbations of reUgious fear and courage in the minds

ai In relating the degree of importance which the government attached
to these marvelous occurrences, the same authority observes : "These prodi
gies were expiated with victims of the greater kind, according to a decree rf
the pontiffs, and a supplication was flxe4 to be performed for one day at Rome
at all the shrines, and another In the territory of Capena, at the grove of
Feronia."— Spillad'b Tkanslation op Livy, lib. 27, ch. 5.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 229
of the Romans during the second Punic war, are only
a few significant facts, fuUy verifying the great piety
and superstition of the people. These are only a few
to the many thousands which occurred. Many more
might have been added, but would have taken up
space -without adding proof to what is already estab
lished. These, though ridiculous in themselves, are,
nevertheless, important when we attempt to discover
the condition of the reUgious faculties of the mind at
any time particularly sought for, "with any given por
tion of mankind. I know of no other method by
which this can be wrought but by tracing particular
classes of effects to the sources of their origin, and, as
it were, there measure those causes which produce
consequences in accordance with their quality, activ
ity and quantity. I have found only one nation, and
but a particular class of that nation, in ancient times,
that had become atheistic, in their belief This class
had been students of philosophy in the Hellenic
states. All nations, and, in fact, all grades in every
nation, down to the Christian era, were strictly reUg
ious, zealously devoted to the pecuUar worship of
their own nationality. If there were any difference
between the Romans and the Carthaginians in their
reUgious characteristics regarding the quantity, it
was in favor of the latter. This devotedness to piety
"was an effect, an exact measurement of the cause or

230 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
quantitative condition of the reUgious faculties in the
minds of the two peoples. If the form of government,
the usages, habits and customs of the people in these
two repubUcs very nearly resembled each other, in
the religious condition of their fundamental faculties
of the mind there was a proportionate assimilation.
Religious, moral, inteUectual and animal character
istics are consequences of actual phrenic causes, and
nothing more nor less. Every one of these charac
teristics of mankind is referable to a distinct and
independent cause in the mind; and it is by decom
position of the second that its consequent is either
deforced or expunged from man's mental nature. If
moral principles are direct and connected conse
quences of the primitive religious elements of the
mind, as divines have claimed, it follows, a priori,
that those nations whose religious qualities are found
to have been in greatest development, should correl
atively present us with the possession of the highest
moral properties. But unfortunately the converse is
too true, as the records of all past ages have always
proven, "without a single exception.
The superstition of the Romans and their reUgious
ceremonies were no more than a fair picture of what
we may unmistakably conclude the Carthaginians to
have been. Such were the daUy occurrences among
the Carthaginians also, and if there were any variance.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 231
it was because those of the latter were darker and
attended with greater ritual severity. But we have
some facts which survived the conflagration of Car
thage, to apply as direct evidence of the devout or
religious proclivity of her inhabitants. ReUgious
worship is an outward expression of the inner man;
and it is, therefore, by studying these effects that
we arrive at a measurement or understanding of the
cause in the human mind.
As has been stated, the most talented of this nation
were as superstitious almost as the tribes of nomades
who hovered upon the borders of the state. Hanni
bal was as devoted to the reUgion of his country
as any soldier he had under his command. The
oath which he had taken when nine years old, by
the direction of his father, to "show himself an
enemy of the Romans," appears, from his subse
quent career, to have been considered by him as a
binding obligation. For almost as soon as he was
clothed "with the authority of command, he directed
the power of his arms against the descendants of
the Trojans, and devoted the best part of his life to
discharging his first religious duty to the gods, and
to elevate his native country, irrespective of the just
impressions of conscience, to supremacy over Europe,
Asia and Africa. But, whatever influence reUgion
might have over the superstitious fancy of his

232 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
ignorant armed followers, Hannibal was himself greatly
swayed by auguries, omens, and the predictions of
soothsayers. He believed in the direct interposition
of the gods, and their superintendence in the affairs of
men. Before he set out from his encampment on his
expedition against Rome, he offered sacrifices to the
gods to propitiate them in his favor. His reUgious
feelings were strong, and his devotions, without doubt,
pure. His pious soul did not omit to pay proper
reverence to the national divinities and do homage to
their almighty power at the appropriate times.
After having taken a thorough review of the troops
which he had coUected for the execution of his oath,
he went a great distance, to Gades (Cadiz), where he
fulfiUed his vows to Hercules, and, according to Roman
authority, bound himself in new obUgations upon the
consideration that this divinity lend his power to Han
nibal in his contemplated conquest of Rome. ^ ^ After
having put his troops in motion from New Carthage
to attack the allies of the Romans, and about the time
he reached the Iberus, we are told by himself that he
had a wonderful dream or vision. He represented
that one of the inferior deities appeared before him
during his sleep, stating that he was sent on an errand
by Jupiter to take him under special care, to lead him
and his army into Italy, and at the same time directing
22 Spillan's Translation op Livy, lib. 21, ch. 1.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 233
him not to look behind. After a reaction of his cour
age from the first terror and alarm at the marvelous
"visitation, he turned his eyes to the rear and beheld
an enormous serpent moving its horrid folds "after the
manner of its kind," and destroying all vegetation in
the circuit of its pathway. A dark cloud foUowed at
an equal pace over the rear of its person, uttering
warnings of thunder. Upon making inquiry of his
guide as to the interpretation of this, he was informed
by the divine youth that it foreshadowed the desolation
of the territories of his enemies by the Carthaginians. ^ *
And after the battle of Cannse, in which the Roman
army was annihilated, he dispatched Mago, one of his
generals, to the capital of his country, for the object
of inducing the people of the whole nation of Carthage
to offer thanksgivings to the gods for granting them so
many signal victories over their enemies.**
Sacred ceremonies, prodigies, omens, and all the
sayings and doings of superstitious minds, were as
frequent in the camp of Hannibal and the dominions
of Carthage, as they were at Rome. The Carthagin
ians were more superstitious than the nations of
Europe. Many things conspired to produce this
result. It has always been conceded by those who
23 Spillan's Translation op Livt, lib. 21, ch L
24 " For these so great and numerous successes. It was proper that the
public should be grateful, and offer thanksgiving to the immortal gods."—
Ibid., lib. 23, ch. 3.

234 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
have given the history of the human mind attention,
that superstition always runs higher among people of
southern cUmes than the less impressible of colder
regions. But with Carthage it was more especiaUy so ;
for the great superstitions of Egypt, among her other
evUs and vices, survived her fall, a continuing curse
to her o"wn people that remained, and the inhabitants
of those nations which surrounded the narrow limits
of the early settlement of Carthage. These, with their
territories, were afterward subjected to Phoenician rule
in this part of the world. Many of these superstitious
tribes became, in the course of time, after their con
quest, a very considerable portion of the inhabitants,
who had grown rich through agricultural and commer
cial pursuits, and subsequently, by intermarriage "with
the descendants of the original settlers, wielded an
influence over the people of the nation not much
inferior to that exercised by those of pure Phoenician
origin. The extreme marvelous development which
Feticism ever generated in the minds of its votaries,
here blended its might "with that system of Polytheism
which was peculiar to the races inhabiting the south
western portions of Asia. Hence it is very naturaUy
supposable that the minds of the Carthaginians, a few
generations after this state of things had occurred,
would be burdened by superstitious fear at things not
readUy accounted for. But as to the reUgious culture

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 235
of the Carthaginians we will let the authority of
another testify:
"The reUgion of the Carthaginians, which was the
same as that of the Tyrians, Phoenicians, Philistines and
Canaanites, was most horrid and barbarous. Nothing
of any moment was undertaken "without consulting the
gods, which they did by a variety of ridiculous rites
and ceremonies. Hercules was the god in whom they
placed most confidence ; at least, he was the same to
them as Mars was to the Romans ; so that he was
invoked before they went upon any expedition, and
when they obtained a victory, sacrifices and thanks
givings were offered up to him. They had many
other deities whom they worshipped ; but the chief of
them was Urania or the Moon, whom they addressed
under different calamities, such as drought, rain, hail,
thunder or any dreadful storm.
"Saturn was the other deity whom the Carthagin
ians j<rincipally worshipped; and he was the same with
what is called Moloch in Scripture. This idol was the
deity to whom they, offered up human sacrifices, and
to this we owe the fable of Saturn's having devoured
his own children. Princes and great men, under par
ticular calamities, used to offer up their most beloved
chUdren to this idol. Private persons imitated the
conduct of their princes, and thus in time the practice
became general ; nay, to such a height did they carry
their infatuation, that those who had no children of
their own purchased those of the poor, that they
might not be deprived of the benefits of such sacri
fice, which was to procure them the completion of
their wishes. This horrid custom prevailed long

236 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
among the Phoenicians, the Tyrians and the Cartha
ginians, and from them the Israelites borrowed it,
although expressly contrary to the order of God.
"The original practice was to burn these innocent
children in a fiery furnace, like those in the valley of
Hinnom, so often mentioned in Scripture ; and some
times they put them into a hollow brass statue of Sat
urn, fiaming hot. To drown the cries of the unhappy
victims, musicians were ordered to play on different
instruments, and mothers — shocking thought — made
it a sort of merit to divest themselves of natural
affections while they beheld the barbarous spectacle.
If it happened that a tear dropped from the eyes of
the mother, then the sacrifice was considered of no
effect, and the parent who had that remaining spark
of tenderness was considered as an enemy to the public
religion. In later times they contented themselves
"with making their children walk between two slow
fires to the statue of the idol; but this was only a
more slow and excruciating torture, for the innocent
victims always perished. This is what in Scripture
is called the making their sons and daughters pass
through the fire of Moloch ; and barbarous as it was,
yet these very Israelites, in whose favor God had
¦wrought so many wonders, demeaned themselves so
low as to comply "with it.
"It appears from TertuUian, who was himself a
native of Carthage, that this inhuman practice con
tinued to take place long after the Carthaginians had
been subdued by the Romans. That celebrated father
teUs US, that chUdren were sacrificed to Saturn or
Moloch down to the proconsulship of Tiberius, who

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 237
hanged the sacrificing priests themselves on the trees
which shaded their temple, as on so many crosses
raised to expiate their crimes, of which the soldiers
were "witnesses who assisted at those executions.
"Diodorus relates an instance of this more than
savage barbarity, which is sufficient to fill every mind
with horror. He tells us that when Agathocles was
going to besiege Carthage, the people, seeing the
extremity to which they were reduced, imputed aU
their misfortunes to the anger of their god, he had
been fraudulently sacrificed to "with the children of
slaves and foreigners. That a sufficient atonement
should be made for this crime, as the infatuated peo
ple considered it, two hundred chUdren of the best
famUies in Carthage were sacrificed, and no less than
three hundred of the citizens voluntarUy sacrificed
themselves — that is, they went into the fire without
compulsion. Such was the reUgion of the ancient'
Carthaginians. " ^ "
And what were the advantages of the people in this
land of religious cruelties? Her dominions for miles
surrounding the city were situated in the most fertUe
portion of the globe. Lying about fourteen degrees
north of the tropic of Cancer, it was in a beautiful
and salubrious region. The land throughout this
entire portion of the country had been embeUished by
the erection of dwellings of the most costly workman
ship. The gardens and grounds surrounding them,
were laid out with equal magnificence, and in them
xs William Bebdu's History op all Religions, pages 510-11.

238 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
flourished the handsomest flowers, and the most deU-
cious fruits of either clime, in great luxurience,
rendering the whole panorama of this part of northern
Africa a deUghtful and enchanting paradise to the
beholder.** Inheriting from their ancestors strong
feelings for the acquisition of gold, they were second
to no other people in enterprise. The earUest settlers
of Carthage had been born and bred in the parlors of
Tyrian wealth, and, therefore, had the double advant
age of usage to opulence and the habitude necessary
in the accumulation of riches, they were thus elevated,
in commercial sagacity and blandishments of address,
above the surrounding nations. Not far distant from
Egypt, and in easy communication "with Greece, she
could have possessed herself of every art known in
the former, and drawn rigid culture from the latter.
At the birth of our Saviour, the literature and the
political organization of this famous republic slum
bered in a common oblivion, no "written work in its
entirety long surviving her fall.
Shortly after her beginning as an independent
power, the greed which this people had for gain,
rapidly extended its commerce over all seas then
known to the world ; its ships and merchants sup
plying all nations with whatever they were in want.*'
25 Rollin's Anotent History, vol. 1, page 121 and note 5.
27 Mommsen says of the commerce of the Carthaginians, that, "At an
incredibly short period we find them in Cyprus and Egypt, in Greece and

GENERAL IIOTRODUCTION. 239
Hence not many years after the founding of the city,
this nascent repubUc was rich by its mercantile specu
lations, and its capital city grown to a port of great
commercial importance. When she had reached this
degree of strength, she began her conquests of the
surrounding tribes or petty nations of north Africa.
With the increase of gain there was, in the disposition
of her people, a corresponding growth of cupidity,
and after a time the inhabitants came to dislike the
slow process of acquirement by trade, and desired the
more efficient assistance of armed power to "wrest
treasures from those states, which, in all probabil
ity, she would be able to conquer. A passion for
wealth, partly derived by hereditament, and afterward
increased by culture from youth to old age, in the
inhabitants, became one of the greatest evUs which
afflicted the republic, and was the principal contrib
utory cause first of extinguishing the freedom of her
inhabitants, and second that of her independence.
Her wars, which partook more of the appearance

Sicily, in Africa and Spain, and even on the Atlantic ocean and the North
sea. The fleld of their commerce reached from Sierra Leone and Cornwall
in the west eastward to the coast of Malabar. Through their hands passed
the gold and pearls of the east, the purple of Tyre, aloes, ivory, lions' and
panthers' skins from the interior of Africa, frankincense from Arabia, the
linen of Egypt, the pottery and flne wines of Greece, the copper of Cyprus,
the silver of Spain, tin from England, and iron from Elba. The Phoenician"
(Carthaginian) " mariners supplied every nation with whatever it needed or
was likely to purchase; and they roamed everywhere, yet always returned
to the narrow home to which their affections clung."- History op Rome,
vol. 2, page 10.

240 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
and reaUty of wholesale robberies than of measures
of self defense, rendered her rising power an object of
danger and dread to existing states, and drew upon
the nation the enmity of aU mankind.
Murder and afterward the plunder of dead men's
effects had become the chief occupation of the Carth
aginians from the rise of their commercial prosperity
to the dismantlement of the city. Although the
reduction of independent states to tributary payment
had been the practical rule of warriors, this did not
appear to be an adequate satisfaction to the Carthagin
ians. This nation made it an invariable rule to sack
and plunder, taking all valuables that a state, "with
which she was in hostUity, was in possession, and
then forcing a revenue from the vanquished by direct
taxation. This filled her exchequer, from which the
highest officers of government enriched themselves by
fraud upon the pubUc. By this venality of appro
priating pubUc funds to individual uses, it having, on
many occasions during the first and second Punic wars,
weU nigh drained the treasury, the repubUc was
thereby disarmed and rendered an easy subject of
conquest by any soldier of fortune. Hannibal, after
the conclusion of the second Punic war, attempted to
correct these abuses.** Although he, by his great
abiUty, had almost raised his native country to a
aS BOLUK'S Anooent Histobt, Tol. 1, page 115.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 241
situation of supremacy by the prostration of Rome,
he was nevertheless, at his attempt at a restoration of
the government to a moral administration, and to the
original powers of the people, driven into exUe by the
public voice of the nation. So that the majority of
the inhabitants were so corrupt that they would not
sustain an effort of virtue to bring 'back the repubUc
to an administration of justice. It is in vain to plead
in extenuation of the good disposition of the multi
tude, that they were ignorant, for, as an entire nation,
they were the most intelUgent people of antiquity.
Their government, in its organization, was the most
efficient and protective of its kind. But the multitude
had become so corrupted, that those principles which
established the form had no operative effect. Its
polity was so constituted in its first estabUshment, and
continued to its overthrow at the end of the third
Punic war, that candidates for official stations had to
depend whoUy upon their wealth, character, or merits,
and popularity with the pubUc. It was therefore, in
its formation, a repubUc in which sovereignty resided
whoUy "With the masses. But we are informed by
Aristotle that after Carthage had arrived at a degree of
considerable miUtary strength, it was not considered
improper for poUticians to buy up the suffrages of the
population. If this be true, as is also declared by
others, the credibUity of which has never been caUed,
1 s

242 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
in question, it shows that the multitude were as cor
rupt as their leaders. This system of bribery had
become so interwoven with the institutions of the state
and its poUtical machinery, that it was done publicly,
and considered not an evil, but a right which every
one had to dispose of his baUot, or bestow his
influence, upon him who paid the highest reward.
Those rights of a free people which gave them a voice
in making the laws by which they are governed, as a
protection to themselves against the encroachments of
the unprincipled, were turned, the same as everything
else "with the Carthaginians, to a calculation of dollars
and cents, and like stocks or merchandise thro"wn
upon the market to the highest bidder who at the
time might be in need of the proffered article. This
exhibits a moral debasement in poUtical elections no
where to be found in other nations of ancient times.
This was as true of the people as of the office-holders.
It is therefore conclusive that at the time Carthage
began her wars of aggression, robbery and conquest,
the accumulation of riches and great devotion to
reUgion were the only great influences which affected
the people, virtue being by the abnormal nature of
their minds something of a foreign element. Those
moral principles, the only repository of free consti
tuted governments, disappeared aU of one hundred
years before the excision of the city ; the repubUc

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 243
¦was faUen, although its poUtical formation was not
destroyed. The Carthaginians Uved under a greater despotism
than the subjects of any monarchy that then existed.
It is weakness to argue about political oppression,
when we are in a worse bondage to the inferior parts
of our 0"wn being — the moral made subordinate to the
animal, the noblest to subserve the purposes of the
meanest. But we return to the testimony of facts, and enquire
what were the morals of this nation, so thoroughly
cultivated in their religious feelings. The acts of the
ablest and most prominent men of the state ought to
be an impartial representation of the moral quaUties
of the inferior orders as well as of their own. For the
geniuses of a nation, "without much labor of their
understanding, come early to regard the practice of
evil as a downward career to all its votaries, although
they are themselves not infrequently swept along with
the popular tide of public sentiment. And since Han
nibal was the ablest warrior of this republic, and was
also, Uke the rest of his class, subdued by his o"wn
ambition for miUtary glory and poUtical power, his
acts, the external indices of his character, as also
those of his peers, wUl give us a fair understanding
of the condition of those causes in his mind which
were productive, in their nature, of "\drtue, flattering

244 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
man "with his divine original and the immortaUty,
of his soul.
After the taking of Saguntum he murdered nearly
all the males, because, by their obstinate resistance,
they had delayed him in the siege of the town.^^ In
his wars against Rome and the nationalities of Spain,
he exhibited the same disposition of cruelty that he
did against the Saguntines ; and this was such a pre
dominant trait of his character, that it came to be
regarded as an incontrovertible fact by all candid
minds among men of letters.^" In the surrender of
Yictumvse to his authority after the battle, it was an
understanding between the contracting parties that the
persons of civUians should be inviolable. When they
had surrendered the town to him, and given up their
arms at his demand, he gave the city up to the plun
der of his soldiers. He Ucensed them to commit aU
kinds of brutal acts, rape, torture, and flnally butch
ered nearly all the defenseless inhabitants. ^ *
In the sixth year of the second Punic war, Darius
AtiUus betrayed the city of Arpi to the Carthaginians,
when it had been in aUiance "with Rome and was con
sidered a part of the dominions of the state. At the
time it surrendered to the Carthaginians the latter had
29 Spillan's Translation op Livy, lib. 21, oh. 1.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid., lib. 21, oh. 1, 27.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 246
been victorious in every campaign ; but when power
changed masters he attempted, for a certain sum of
gold, to betray it back to its la-wful sovereigns. His
person was placed in irons by the Roman consul.
After this came to the knowledge of Hannibal, he
sought out the "wife and children of AtiUus, took
their gold and silver, and then, to glut his revenge
upon the husband, upon the father, for his treachery,
burned them alive. * *
When, toward the conclusion of the war, the fair
territories of Carthage were being made desolate by
the arms of Rome, Hannibal was called to Africa 'to
defend his native country. At the eve of his depart
ure, the Italians in his service refused to go and engage
in the African war. They had previously become dis
affected to the Romans, and had given him signal
proof of their desire for his prosperity and that of
his country. Immediately after their refusal they
were all put to the sword. '^ These are but a few
of his acts, which exhibit the thuggish nature of his
character. Nor can any one acquainted with the
history of the ancient world allege this was a system
which was common to other states than Carthage and
Israel, prior to the time of Hannibal.
We have seen that the people who first founded the
32 Spillan's Translation op Ltvy, lib. 24, ch. 45.
33 Consult MOMMSBN'B HISTORY OF BOMB, vol. 2, page 220.

246 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
city and the government of Carthage, received defective
hereditary quaUties from their ancestors. When we
contemplate the regularity of the natural laws in their
operations, and with what postivity defective conse
quences follow in exact proportion, it becomes a
question of great moment to a people who, among
their number, shall make the constitutional laws by
which they are to be governed. If the reUgious, the
selfish and the animal faculties, be raised to compara- '
live supremacy over the moral, the last are rendered
nugatory in practical acti"vdty. Hence a legislature,
composed of persons whose moral faculties have faUen
before the selfish and the animal, cannot enact laws
which correspond to the needs and requirements of the
nation. And so it was with the Carthaginians, for
although all persons were elected to official stations
by the voice of the masses, yet we find in the organi
zation of its polity certain laws peculiarly derived
from the animal and the selfish faculties of the mind,
which were effects at first, but afterward became and
formed a part of the several causes which finally drove
the last remnant of moral feeling from the multitude
of the republic. What were these defects in the state
constitution, for by them we may be enabled, a poste
riori, to arrive at the phrenic condition of their authors.
Aristotle informs us that several offices could be
held by one person at the same time. One individual

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 247
cannot discharge the duties of a number of independ
ent positions in synchroniety; and as a consequence
must farm them out to others, friends in all probabU-
ity, he receiving a portion of those perquisites which
properly belong to the labor of others. It is not
difficult to comprehend the object of the legislators
who framed this clause of the constitution. This was
probably the first great step of certain parties in the
government toward the establishment of a privileged
aristocracy. The same author tells us also that bribery
was used to influence elections, and the courts of jus
tice were included, as a matter of course, and could
not escape a contagion which would be sure to follow
such a loose condition of the pubUc morals. The
wealthy classes had the power in all elections to secure
the suffrages of the people, and create for themselves
positions by which they could make fabulous fortunes,
in comparison to which ordinary riches are but pov
erty. This would increase their own capacity to buy
the people in succeeding elections, and diminish the
prospects of those who had been less fortunate in the
first campaigns. When they had secured to them
selves these favors, having induced the people to
believe that these pubUc functionaries sacrificed their
own interests to those of their country, if they
received no salaries by which they could enrich
themselves, under the pretext of expenses or some

248 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
equivalent representation, they could draw largely
from the pubUc funds.
Another error of which we are informed by this
phUosopher, was the method by which the constitu
tional provisions excluded the poorer classes, however
virtuous and intellectual they might be, from the
offices most important in the republic. To hold the
offices of chief magistracy or those of senatorial dig
nity, it was made necessary for an individual to be of
noble birth, to have a certain fixed annual income,
and merit. The last is the only one that was at all
worthy of the least consideration. As to the amount
of the income, it in all probability corresponded
with tile rest of the act. If an individual were of
noble extraction, and possessed the required income,
there would be little prospect of successfully dispu
ting his claims to the other. For, as we have
seen, one's good qualities depended altogether upon
the amount of money he had to advance to meet and
to influence pubUc opinion. Therefore, the third
became a farce by which, at the creation of the con
stitution, the public were blinded to the intent and
character of the whole act. Merit, the only one of the
three qualifications worthy of a free people, was placed
subordinate to the others, made dependent upon them
as a thing of minor importance. This was a bold and
rapid advance to aristocratic power. It is not, in our

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 249
opinion, troublesome to understand what was the
meaning of these unworthy poUticians in the framing
of these laws, nor of their unfair deaUngs "with that
people of which the repubUc was composed.
It was only our design to hint at the nature of the
constitutional laws which were drafted by the founders
of Carthage. Those legal measures reflect the true
elements which predominated in the character of their
authors. But what were the moral quaUties of these rich
republicans ; for if any class in the world can afford
to be humane toward their feUow men, it is they. The
complexion of their conduct ought to be a true quaU-
fication and description of their character.
In their attempts at the conquest of SicUy, they,
through pure revenge, tortured several thousand per
sons before the waUs of Himera, because in the former
war their forces had been defeated and their general
slain in battle whUe trying to capture and plunder the
town. After the Carthaginians had put them through
the most cruel tortures their invention could suggest,
they murdered every one. They bound the rest of the
inhabitants in chains, carried them to Carthage, and
sold them aU as slaves. FamUies were separated never
to see each other again ; and, to complete the desola
tion of their hopes, the city, in which they had resided
for many generations, was burned to the ground and

250 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
left in ruins two hundred and forty-four years after
its foundation. No feelings of compassion or sorrow
were manifested by the citizens after the return of the
expedition, although thousands of captives were con
veyed to Africa, afflicted with the most heart-rending
agony. But on the contrary, the public at large
entered into the joys and festivities of the army, and
offered up thanks to the gods. No voice, prompted
by the feelings of sympathy for the suffering, was
raised, in the national halls or out of them, in con
demnation of these barbarous acts. In the same
expedition they took the city of Selinus, and "spared
neither age nor sex." The Sicilians had, in the first
war, defeated the whole force of the Carthaginians,
but granted them peace at their request, preferring a
relation of friendship to one of hostUity. The com
mander of the African forces, which destroyed the
two cities and butchered their inhabitants, was the
grandson of that officer who was lawfully slain in the
former expedition. The son of the latter pusiUani-
mously charged his father "with dishonor in the failure
of the expedition, instead of dishonesty for having
engaged in it. ' * The spirit of revenge, with all the evils
"tvhich it inflicts, was the principle which controUed
the affairs of the nation in this war, for whatever was
34 Consult Rollin's Ancient History, vol. 1, ptiragraph 2, page 81.
Also, Parr's Ancient History, vol. 2, page 220, where the historian says
they murdered eight thousand people.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 251
done by the army was consented to and ratified by the
whole people of the republic.
The Carthaginians had previously entered into an
agreement -with Xerxes, king of Persia, for the former
to plunder and reduce the Greek cities on the island
of Sicily, while the latter should overrun and conquer
the states of Greece. This accorded well "with the feel
ings of this part of the Phoenician race, as it presented
a good opportunity to gratify the rapacity of the sol
diery, the officers of the army, and, in fine, every
member of the republic. These expeditions supplied
their markets with slaves, in proportion to the increase
of which there was a reduction in prices. Whatever
by skUl and industry others had acquired, agricultural
products, silver and gold, men, women and their
children were transported to Carthage as slaves to
work upon plantations beneath the vertical rays of an
African sun. If the Carthaginians did not possess the
brutal greatness to conquer the world, they did the
more humiliating one to rob and steal it. Had not
Rome existed to curtail this military power of the
south, the inhabitants of the world, except those of
the north of Europe, and of Asia, with whatever they
possessed, would have found their way, in aU proba
bility, into Africa, to enrich the republic, to go and
come at the behests of the wealthy and the more
unprincipled inhabitants of the south.

263 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Blinded to the fact, that the moral laws, Uke every
other, -will ever claim all their rights and firmly rivet
the severest penalties upon those who violate them,
the Carthaginians did not discover that, during the
extension of their conquests, and the increasing luster
of their miUtary glory, their prosperity was only
apparent, that the repubUc in reaUty was tottering
upon its foundations, and careening to its fall and
overthrow. Polybius, in dweUing by comparison upon the
morals of the Romans and Carthaginians, says that
"among the latter, nothing is reputed infamous that
is joined with gain; but among the former, nothing
is held more base than to be corrupted by gifts, or to
covet an increase of wealth by means that are unjust.
Forasmuch as they esteem the possession of honest
riches to be fair and honorable, so much, on the
other hand, aU those that are amassed by unlawful
arts are viewed by them with horror and reproach.
Among the Carthaginians, money is openly employed
to obtain the dignities of state ; but aU such proceed
ings are a capital crime at Rome. As the rewards,
therefore, that are presented to virtue in the two
republics are different, it cannot but happen, that
the attention of the citizens to form their minds to
virtuous actions must also be different."'" These
35 Hampton's Polybius, lib. 6, page 176.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 253
reflections of the philosophic historian are just and
true. The great perfidy of the Carthaginians became
a by- word "with the several independent powers of the
earth; and the term "Punic faith" was used by them
as one of ultimate reproach to all those living amongst
them, who were become Unworthy of confidence, by
falsehood and deception.
They held mankind in bondage, not as a penalty for
having unjustly engaged in wars against them, but
they made war upon the innocent and the unarmed,
taking them to serve as slaves, and appropriating the
goods and valuables which they possessed to their
own uses. They carried on a system of slavery as a
daUy business for gain ; and so extensively had this
been conducted, that all the habitable portions of their
dominions were Uterally covered with them. We are
informed that some single individuals owned and held
as high as twenty thousand of them in bondage at one
and the same time.^'
When the Romans were in Africa, near the end of
the second Punic war, and before the recall of Hanni
bal, while the affairs of the Phoenicians were almost in
the last extremity, the latter desired a cessation of
hostiUties for the purpose, as they represented, of
establishing peace between the two hostUe nations.
Their embassy to the Romans, which secured their

36 MOMMSEN's History op Rome, vol. 2, page 16.

254 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
requests, was treated with every mark of respect and
protection. But upon the first opportumty, whUe
the Romans were waiting for an answer from the
government in Italy to the terms proposed by the
Carthaginians, the latter violated the conditions of
the truce, and it was afterward discovered that they
only secured it for the purpose of deceiving and
entrapping an enemy which they had faUed to suc-
cessfuUy confront or conquer in the field. When the
Romans dispatched an embassy to Carthage to make
complaint of their violations of the terms of the armis
tice, whUe returning, the embassadors were attacked
by assassins under the direction of the government,
and they owed their escape to their own prowess and
personal courage. The persons of embassadors had,
by all nations, been regarded as inviolable, and this
murderous assault was an act of the grossest infamy. ' '
During the time that Agathocles was marching
upon the capital of this repubUc with his army,
several cities ha"\dng already faUen by the power of
his arms, the safety of the government, by its own
people, was considered in danger, and, under the
circumstances, very Uable to be subjected to those
conditions which, for a number of centuries, it had
"visited upon less potent tribes and nations. Never
had so great dangers threatened the independence of
37 MOKMeEN'B HiBTOBY OP ROHB, Vol. 2, page 390.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 255
Carthage and the freedom of its inhabitants. Even
at this critical juncture, the selfish ambition of one
of its citizens attempted a revolution in the govern
ment before the enemy, and to estabUsh himself in
absolute power over those liberties which he hoped
to destroy. But BomUcar and his followers were
checked in their advance and hedged in ; the advant
age of position, of numbers, and therefore of probable
success being in favor of the defendants. Having got
ten the better, and to protect itself from aU risks, the
civU authorities guaranteed BomUcar and his forces
immunity from punishment of all and every kind
whatsoever, if they would lay down their arms and
surrender. BomUcar had no sooner complied with
the terms of the agreement than he was nailed to the
cross. Upon the gibbet he reproached and cursed
them for their ingratitude, inhumanity and perfidy. * ^
WhUe they were besieging the city of Agrigentum,
their conduct there shows at once the great piety and
the great brutaUty to which they were predisposed.
To buUd up embankments, or elevations, by which
they could the more easily puncture the waUs of the
town, and thereby make an entrance into it, they
robbed the graves of the monuments standing upon
them in a cemetery outside the place. After this act
of despoUation, a plague spread through the army,
38 Consult Farb's Anoiebt History, vol. 2, page 237.

266 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
sweeping off great numbers of the troops, and the
officer by whom they were commanded. What Uttle
conscience remained, performed, as it ever does, its
functions, and being by it condemned in consequence
of the sacrilege which they had committed, they,
under this condition of religious fear, supposed the
gods had dispatched the souls of those who formerly
had been tenants of the desecrated necropolis, to
punish by pestUence, and reproach by their ghastly
•visages, the Carthaginians for thefr crimes. Spirits
had been seen by the whole army, and there was
no mistaking that the wrath of the gods had been
aroused ; they, therefore, must be appeased ; and
accordingly they sacrificed a chUd to the god Saturn,
(by burning aUve,) "and victims were thrown into the
sea" as offerings to Neptune.** Not-withstanding the
conviction which they had had before thefr eyes of a
manifest displeasure of the gods, it had so sUght an
effect upon their elastic consciences, that they imme
diately after it committed cruelties so enormous that
a moral nature cannot contemplate them without a
shudder. When it was found that the city could no
longer be held by the natives ; that those who remained
would, in all probabiUty, after the Carthaginian cus
tom, be butchered, it became a necessity for aU to
39 Rollin's Ancient History, vol. 1; also. Park's Ancient History,
vol. 2, page 221.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 257
make thefr escape at the first opportunity which
presented itself. It was evident that they could not
secure the departure of the aged and the infirm, for
their flight must of necessity be a rapid one at night,
or otherwise be exposed to an attack of the enemy's
cavalry, by which the whole would be entfrely immo
lated. After shedding many tears for those whom
they must leave behind, they made their escape to a
neighboring city. The Carthaginians then entered
the place, and ran the sword through every helpless
person, although they piteously plead for mercy. * "
For one hundred years prior to the conclusion
of the thfrd Punic war, the Carthaginians had been
declining in their moral character more rapidly than
they had in the same length of time at any former
period. For several generations the principles of
rectitude had evidently been disappearing from the
character of each, at an increased ratio to what it did
in the preceding. In addition to avarice, other cor
ruptions, concomitant with the Carthaginian system
of accumulating wealth, had made their appearance.
Perfidy, licentiousness and profligacy, to an almost
indefinite degree, had seized all classes of the republic.
Yet the reUgious proclivities, the strong tendencies
of the people to bow in holy adoration to the gods,
and to beUeve in their miraculous interposition for the
40 Parr's Ancient History, vol. 2, page 222.
17

258 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
evil, or for the welfare of mankind, had not lapsed
from the minds of the people, nor lessened in their
effects since the foundation of the city. But those
moral elements which, when exercised by necessity,
constitute the fortitude of the hero, the only true saga
city of the statesman, and the most estimable qualities
of the human race, were almost entfrely extinguished
from the mentality of the nation. In thefr character
we find a "wide difference in the effect of the crdture of
the reUgious faculties, by the practice of reUgion on
the one hand, and that of moraUty on the other.
WhUe the attentive reader finds in them prodigious
feeUngs of reUgion, he discovers almost a complete
dearth of "\Trtue.
Thus we have seen to what degree the Carthagin
ians were devoted in religious worship of the gods,
to thefr commands and injunctions. We have also
shown what their moral feelings were, if they can be
said to have possessed any at all. This contrast is
prodigious. The depravity of this people was the
approximate cause of their complete extermination.
Yiewing the vast wealth, the financial sagacity, the
potency of this great repubUc, and its final ending, in
all its features, it furnishes one of the most lamentable
pictures which history records. The annals of this
nation establish beyond a question that a culture of
the religious faculties of the mind, is not, in the least

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 259
degree, efficient to prevent a people's faU into the
lowest depths of criminaUty.
Since, however, two objections, by the Christian
world, may be opposed to our method of disproving
this great metaphysical error of ecclesiastical origin,
by evidence drawn from nations devoted to a false
or to a pagan reUgion, we have, therefore, thought it
not only proper but necessary to entfrely remove this
last shelter from those who have been opposed to the
progress of true Christianity, and to its influemse upon
mankmd, by thefr erroneous, and in some cases unscru
pulous assumptions of its tendencies. So long has this
weighed on the mind, without dissent or opposition,
that the claim has, for centuries, been engrafted into
historical works, and in this manner given a dogmatic
assurance the appearance of truth and instruction.*^
The foregoing chapter is as adapted, in evidence,
41 An eminent compiler of ancient history, in dweUing upon the cruelties
of the Carthaginians and their superstitions, reflected the doctrine that the
Christian religion, in its elements, contains the efficacy of man's moral
elevation. This sufficiency has ever been the claim of the hierarchy of
Rome, and it is weU known that whatever nation firmly and longest adhered
to her teachings, has fallen into greater vices, poverty, brutality and igno
rance than any one of those nations which separated from her at and since
the Reformation. But we quote : " When we read such lamentable facts in
history as these," [the murder of three thousand men by the Carthaginians
after their capture of Himera,] "how ought we to express our gratitude to
God, the source of all good, for the right notions imparted to us in the Bible
concerning the soul of man, and for that knowledge which keeps us from
imbruing our hands in the blood of our fellow men; which makes us wise
unto salvation, tlurough faith which is in Christ Jesus ; and which shows us
how Just will be their condemnation, who, knowing these things, act as did
the ancient heathen, and even with more brutality,"— Fabr's Ancient
History, vol, 2, page 20.

360 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
as it would be had the people Uved at a later period,
under the improved tuition of our Christian masters.
Christians reject all ideas of spiritual improvement
arising from pagan reUgious, and spirituaUsts, mostly
those which spring from modern theological princi
ples, claiming greater spiritual development tendencies
for the pagan, than for the Christian, reUgion. Hence
the evidence of the present chapter is better adapted
to the mental status of the latter, and the next to the
former. We shaU, therefore, in the next, present some
evidence from the history of the Je"wish mind.

CHAPTER V.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Error of the Christian Clergy proved from the history of Jewish mind
from the birth of Abraham to the Egyptian Bondage — ^Prom the
Exodus to their Dispersion — General Reflections In Retrospect —
The Cliristiaii Religion not Defective, but Misapplied — Acts of the
Christian Churches in America — The Moral Degeneracy of their
Communicants — Increase of Depravity with the Increase of Relig
ion, the latter indirectly, though not dii-ectly, the cause — Christianity
adapted to the Development of the Religious, but not to the Devel
opment of the Moral, Feelings — Direct Culture of the Moral
Sentiments being omitted in the United States, partially through
the influence of the Clergy, one of the causes of the disappear
ance of Virtue in the People^The Religious and the Moral
Feelings, being positive institutions of Nature, of different primi
tive qualities, require positive but different kinds of Culture —
Penalties for neglect of either.
While some who believe in the Christian reUgion are
willing to acknowledge that moral and religious feel
ings are effects of distinct and independent causes in
the mind, and, that a culture of each of these causes,
under ordinary circumstances, is necessary to give
them sufficient energy to work man's moral eleva
tion, they, at the same time, hold that the promises
of immortaUty, as couched in the Bible, and the
(261)

263 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
announcement of punitive laws as preventives of trans
gression of the moral code, wholly supercede aU
necessity of a rigid culture of the moral faculties.
Others claim that man ever has been, and is at pres
ent, wholly and totaUy depraved — a dfrect negation of
all fundamental moral powers in man's mental nature.
This last, however, is a declaration of disbelief in our
moral condition before the fall, and an averment that
aU things are now as they were when man was created,
or at the beginning of human organization, and thus
we ha"V"e substantially what is called fate among the
heathen nations, and foreordination with the Christian
world. Under this belief of foreordination, man is
wholly released from all moral obUgations both to his
fellow and to his God^ it is a complete rejection of the
thought of a revelation as well as of all moral respons
ibUity. If man have no fundamental moral powers,
as predetermination and total depravity imply,
he could not comprehend a moral code, much less
obey one.
The author does not care to trouble the reader by
a confutation of those who claim that an individual
must be at a fever heat of reUgious excitement to have
all the advantages derivable from the moral code of the
Old and the New Testament ; those who are constantly
exclaiming "this or that is not Christianity" ! He
would make the same disposition of those who call

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 363
everything natural reUgion, or reUgion, having, them
selves, such a broad idea of the meaning of the word
as in reaUty gives one no understanding of its defini
tion. The Christian reUgion is not defective in itself,
but in the past there has been, and there is at present,
a misapplication of it to the mental powers.
There are two sources from which phenomena may
arise to influence any particular portion of our phrenic
nature; the one arises by an activity of the faculty
from within, and directs an immediate effect upon and
within that particular fundamental power, by anima
tion, in which that activity had its origin. The other
is caused by raising an emotion in that faculty by
some object from without, and may be termed external
influence. So that whatever there is in Christianity,
be it reUgious, moral, or both, it can be increased by
cultivating that or those faciUties by which those
characteristics are produced. If, therefore, the reUg
ious faculties of the mind produce moral impressions,
which they must do to have the ethical influence
claimed for Christianity by its devotees, there must,
of necessity, be greater virtue in that nation so devout
than in one which is not. Its virtues, in proportion to
the reUgious enthusiasm of its people, ought to pre
dominate over its vices.
What we seek to establish in this chapter is, that
those two influences, internal and external, by thefr

364 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
combined operation, greatly increased the reUgious
nature of the Jews. We shaU afterward show, by the
quaUty of thefr conduct, what thefr morals were,
thereby proving, the one being in contrast to the other,
that there can be no culture of any fundamental moral
feeling by the profession and practice of reUgion.
This system wiU also prove that there is not sufficient
Divine power, in the ordinary conception of the term,
in Christianity, to instantly reverse and protect man's
moral qualities from being encroached upon and
superceded by his animal — a. claim which inconsiderate
persons have ever put forward to the great detriment
of all human progress. We shall, therefore, proceed
to offer those facts of history which tend to determine
the reUgious and the moral quaUties of the Jewish
nation down to the destruction of Jerusalem, present
ing, as we firmly believe, a striking contrast in those
two characteristics of its people.
It was in Abraham and Isaac that a blessing was
pronounced to all mankind, and, more especiaUy, that
great prosperity should be the inheritance of thefr
descendants, the Jews, in riches as weU as in political
power, so long as they walked "with God, or adhered
to the reUgious virtues of their Ulustrious progenitors.
To Abraham was given the promise of mighty and pow
erful nations, possessing the land of Canaan, in which
he, at the time, dwelt a stranger, .by the sufferance

GENERAL INTR0DUOTION. 265
of the idolatrous hordes which surrounded him.
God entered into a covenant "with Abraham, in which
he bound his descendants forever ; the generations of
Abraham were to be born "within the compact, for it
was ever afterward ratified by a ceremonial on the
eighth day after bfrth, before they had arrived at any
discretion regarding the matter ; and they were thus
bound to observe the statutes which God should, from
time to time, estabUsh among them.^ Here God
appeared personaUy to Abraham,^ as he did many
times afterward to other patriarchs of Israel, as his
guide and dfrector,^ so ordaining, that although he
and his kindred were then poor and few in numbers,
they eventuaUy came into possession of a very large
tract of land called Canaan, as an everlasting domin
ion, and became also a very powerful nation. God
sent three angels to warn Abraham and Lot of the
destruction which He was about to visit upon the
Sodomites for thefr "wickedness.* God appeared to
Abraham a second time, and, because he had so
fuUy observed aU the commandments, told him He
would bless the blessings which he had formerly
received, and that the Jews should ever afterward

1 See flrst book of Pentateuch, oh. 17.
3 Ibid., verse 22.
3 We see no reason why this passage should be regarded figuratively.
4 Genesis, ch. 18.

366 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
possess the gates of their enemies, and have an
estabUshed abode. ^ Sodom was destroyed almost
immediately after the declaration was made to Abra
ham and to Lot, so that they, retaining a remembrance
of the prediction, and afterward the ruin which
occurred to the city, were, per force, compelled to
beUeve the evidences of their senses, and know that
God, in reality, was the governor of the world ; that,
here in time. He had inflicted punishments upon the
unjust according to their merits.
God frequently appeared also to Isaac and fore
told him that great personal prosperity should be his
reward ; it was so amply fulfiUed in his lifetime, that
he became far richer and more potent than any of the
PhUistines. ^ The Almighty also appeared again to
Isaac, and reaffirmed the prediction which had been
made to his father with reference to the power and
national prosperity of his descendants. /" So that curse
which was pronounced upon man at his fall was partly
"withdrawn from Abraham, Isaac and thefr descend
ants, the earth once more producing its hundredfold. *
The herds belonging to Isaac had increased almost at
an equal ratio, so that his retinue of servants became

S Genesis, ch. 22, verses 15-19 inclusive.
6 Ibid., oh. 26, verses 13-15 Inclusive.
7 Ibid., oh. 26, verse 24.
8 Ibid., ch. 26, verse 12.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 267
remarkably great, and outshone all the rich and
powerful among the PhiUstines; they en"vied his
prosperity and drove him from the land. This
rapid worldly prosperity did not attend the efforts
of the idolatrous inhabitants of Canaan, for they were
subjected, like aU the rest of mankind, to constant
disappointments. Hence it was not surprising that
the natives of Canaan came to regard the success of
Isaac as being the signal favor of Divine providence ;
and so it was. The natives seemed to regard Isaac' s
power something beside and beyond the number of
his servants and his prodigious wealth. They feared
this Other power, and solicited peace after they had
told him to go from the land, thereby sho"wing that
the whole land of Canaan, in some remarkable man
ner, were inferior to Isaac in might. It was a "Tirtual
confession of their weakness when they said, "We
saw certainly that the Lord was "with thee; and we
said. Let there be an oath bet"wixt us, even betwixt
us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee,
that thou "wilt do us no hurt as we have not touched
thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good,
and have sent thee away in peace ; thou art now the
blessed of the Lord."' This was as complete a con
fession of their weakness and of his strength as could
in any manner be made. So it was not then known
9 Genesis, ch. 26. verses 23, 29.

268 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
only to the descendants of Abraham, but to the idol
atrous world also, that God attended upon the affafrs
of Isaac, and was the immediate source of aU his
greatness. The Almighty also appeared to Jacob, and gave
him to understand that He would accompany him
wheresoever he went and be his preserver through
life. Jacob saw God in a dream, standing above a
ladder which reached from earth to heaven, the angels
of the Lord ascending and descending upon it. Jacob
was then told that the Divine person who stood above
the ladder was the God of Abraham, of Isaac, that He
would also be the God of Jacob; that his posterity
should be as numerous as the dust of the earth, and
should spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the
north and to the south. In a word, his descendants
should become a considerable part of the inhabitants
of the world, and that they should be victorious in aU
those directions which answer to the four quarters of
the globe. Nothing should be able to resist their
arms. God greatly prospered the worldly affairs of»
the two brothers, Jacob and Esau, for we are told
that "their riches were more than they might dwell
together; and the land wherein they were strangers
could not bear them because of thefr cattle."^"
It seems that the farther we trace the history of the
lo Genesis, ch. 36, verse 7.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 269
descendants of Abraham, tUl we reach the time of
Daniel's vision of the cleansing of the sanctuary, we
find more signal and extraordinary manifestations of
Providence in guiding this portion of mankind and
making His marvelous power known to them. For
Divine goodness continued "with Joseph, whom God
apparently raised up to protect the people from famine,
and to instruct the heathen king of Egypt in the ways
of the "only true God." The Egyptians were fetich
worshipers, as were also the inhabitants of the sur
rounding country ; thefr worship was offensive in the
sight of God. He designed to bring a famine upon
the earth, upon Egypt and that portion of the world
which immediately surrounded it. A heathen king,
to convince those in power, should be one of the
agencies through which the greatness and suprem
acy of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob and
of Joseph, should be made known to the Egyptians,
and assist in bringing the favored people of heaven
into consideration with the greatest poUtical govern
ment in existence. It made its appearance in the
way of a dream, and partook more of the nature of
substance than of shadow, of reaUty than of fiction.
But we are told that none of the "wise men of Egypt
could interpret the dream of Pharaoh. Joseph,
through the favor of Heaven, made known to the
king the interpretation of it; it being, as is known

270 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
to every one, seven years of plenty and seven years
of want. This dream was so interpreted more than
seven years before the famine began, and thus there
could be no skepticism regarding its divine original.
In consequence of the wonderful discovery and inter
pretation of it by Joseph, he was made ruler over
all Egypt, second in eminence and power only to
Pharaoh himself. As God had saved the famUy of
Noah from drowning during the flood, He now saves
the people of Egypt and Canaan, during the severest
famine which, before or since, has ever been upon any
part of the earth.
Joseph was dfrected by Pharaoh to foUow his own
judgment, and that he should have the power of the
crown to enforce whatever measures he thought neces
sary to save mankind from the impending ruin which
now threatened the world. Joseph therefore proceeds
upon his duty, and purchases aU the grain that is to
be bought in the market, against the dearth which is
to come. For seven years he bought and stored the
surplus products of the earth. After the seven years-
of plenty had ceased, the famine, in perfect accordance
"with the prediction of Joseph, began, and greatly dis
tressed the inhabitants of the surrounding countries
as weU as those of Egypt and Canaan. But there was
a refuge, a place to which aU might come and pur
chase the support of life. Nor did God except the^

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 271
idol worshipers ; aU heard that corn could be bought
in Egypt, and aU the great highways leading down to
the capital of Egypt were, we have reason to beUeve,
fiUed "with immense caravans laden with money or its
equivalent in goods to exchange for corn. But when
the money of the inhabitants of those countries was
exhausted, the governor of Egypt indicated to them
he would take thefr cattle. When their money and
their cattle were both expended, he took thefr land in
exchange for provision. Everything, therefore, within
the dominions of Pharaoh became the property of the
crown, by the time that the seven years of scarcity
had ended and the waters had inundated the valley
of the NUe. Joseph then farms out the land to its
original owners, upon the payment of a revenue of
twenty per centum per annum to the king.
If rulers were disposed to charge such a tax upon
thefr subjects now, aU the bayonets in the world could
not support them upon thefr thrones; thefr governments
would be overthrown, or thefr dominions abandoned
by their subjects. But the manner in which the whole
property, personal and real, of Egypt was parted with
by the inhabitants and paid for by the government,
was an eqmtable transaction which involved the
welfare of most aU mankind. The revenue of twenty
per centum per annum continued down to the time
of Sesostris ; and, in aU probabiUty, there have been

272 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
very few monarchs of ancient or of modem ages
who have received such a tremendous revenue. The
Pharaohs became richer than aU other potentates, as
Egypt was the most productive part of the world. »*
But Jacob, in his old age, had a vision, when he
was on his way down to Egypt to see Joseph, in
which God instructed him to fear nothing, as God
himself was bringing him and all his posterity into
Africa, and would continue with him and his chU
dren, ^^ finaUy returning them aU back again to that
country from which they departed; and that they
should continue many ages the sole owners and rulers
of Canaan. Joseph, before his death, foretold to his
brethren that thefr descendants should, according to
the promise of God to Abraham, to Isaac and to
Jacob, be brought back again to own and to rule
over the land of the Canaanites for many centuries.
Joseph also told his brethren, after the death of
Israel, that the sale which they made of him was
not a matter of perfidy in them, but an act of God's
to save His people from that scourge "with which He
designed to inflict certain idolatrous nations. And
Joseph bound his brethren by oath, before he died,
to take his bones with them when they returned east
into thefr everlasting possession.
II Consult JosBPHus' ANTiQirrriEs of the Jews ; also Genesis, oh. 47.
13 Genesis, ch. 46, verses 3 and 4.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 273
Such were the mfraculous interpositions of provi
dence in behalf of the Hebrews, from the maturity
of Abraham do"wn to the death of Joseph and the
bondage of the children of Israel. Can it be for a
moment doubted that a people, so guided by the
hand of God, would not believe all His commands?
Can one suppose, "with any degree of reason, that
reUgion would be less potent when there were
personal providential interventions in the affairs of
man than when there were none ? So long as mfracles
continued to be brought to the knowledge of the
Hebrews, before the death of Jacob even do"wn to
that of Joseph, they kept the commandments of God.
Nor were they very immoral, except the dishonesty
practiced upon Esau by Jacob, through the intrigues
of his mother, and the sale of Joseph by his brethren
to Egyptian merchants. But these were at the
special instance of God to more effectually fulfiU his
promises to Isaac regarding the great poUtical power
of his descendants, and more immediately to protect
the Hebrews from that famine which he brought upon
the idolatrous nations of Asia and Africa.
After the death of Joseph the crown of Egypt
passed to the possession of a different famUy, which
hated the IsraeUtes, fearing that their continued
multipUcity would eventually outnumber the inhabit
ants, and seize the government itself; they were,
18

274 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
therefore, impatient for thefr extinction. Hence the
force of the Egyptians was used against them con
stantly, for their slavery and oppression. ^ * It was
predicted by a sacred scribe of Pharaoh that one out
of the Hebrews should be bom who, if he grew to
maturity, would become a great and "wise man, per
forming many extraordinary deeds, and with the pro
digious numbers to which the Israelites had already
increased, would be a standing danger to the realm.'*
An order was accordingly sent, by authority, to
slay aU the male chUdren of the Israelites as soon
as they should be born. But the chUd, the Ufe
of which it was their object to destroy, was saved
by the daughter of the reigning prince, was raised
and educated by the royal famUy, and that, too, when
the scribe who had predicted his birth, told the king
that he was rearing that very infant which eventually
would become a terror to all the Egyptians. ' " In this
manner God caused the enemies of the IsraeUtes to
nourish, to educate, and to adorn the mind of that very
babe, in opposition to their wishes, for the destruction
of which they had committed so many murders.
Moses was not much sooner grown to physical and
mental maturity than God appeared to him as had
13 BxoDtrs, ch. 1.
14 Josephus' Antiquities oe the Jews, book 2, ch. 9.
IS See conclusion of the ninth chapter of Josephus' Antiquities OI"
THE Jews, book 2.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 275
been foretold by the Egyptian. And as to this mfracle
we wUl let the learned historian Josephus testify, as
his narration of the fact corresponds to that of Moses,,
from which he drew his knowledge. Moses had gone
"with the flocks of his father in-law to Mount Horeb
for pasturage. "And here it was that a wonderful
prodigy happened to Moses; for a fire fed upon a
thorn bush ; yet did the green leaves and the flowers
continue untouched, and the fire did not at all consuine
the branches, although the fiame was great and fierce.
Moses was affrighted at this strange sight, as it was to
him : but he was still more astonished when the fire
uttered a voice, and called him by name, and spake
words to him by which it signified to him how bold he
had been in venturing to come into a place whither no>
man had ever come before, because the place was
divine ; and advised him to remove a great way from
the flame, and be contented "with what he had seen ;
and though he were himself a good man, and the
offspring of great men, yet that he should not pry any
farther : and He foretold to him, that he should have
glory and honor among men, by the blessing of God
upon him. He also commanded him to go away
thence, with confidence, to Egypt, in order to his
being the commander and conductor of the body of
the Hebrews, and to his deUvering his own people
from the injuries they suffered there: 'For,' said

276 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
God, 'they shaU inhabit this happy land which your
forefather Abraham inhabited, and shall have the
enjoyment of aU sorts of good things ; and thou, by
thy prudence, shaU guide them to those good things.'
But stUl He enjoined him, when he had brought the
Hebrews out of the land of Egypt, to come to that
place, and to offer sacrifices of thanksgi-^ing there.
Such were the divine oracles which were deUvered out
of the fire." Moses distrusted his own abiUties to
execute these commands, as he feared his own people
would not believe God had thus spoken to him, and
if they were disposed to foUow, Pharaoh would not
let them go, as the Egyptians were amassing great
riches from their labor.
"But," says the historian, "God persuaded him
to be courageous on aU occasions, and promised to be
"with him, and to assist him in his words, when he was
to persuade men, and in his deeds when he was to
perform wonders. He bid him also to take a signal of
the truth of what He said, by thro"wing his rod upon
the ground, which, when he had done, it crept along,
and was become a serpent, and rolled itself round in
its folds, and erected its head, as ready to revenge
itself on such as shoiUd assault it, after which it
became a rod again as it was before. After this, God
bid Moses put his right hand into his bosom: he
obeyed, and when he took it out it was white and in

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 277
color Uke to chalk, but afterward returned to its
wonted color again. He also, upon God's command,
took water that was near him, and poured it upon the
ground, and saw the color was that of blood. Upon
the wonder that Moses showed at these signs, God
exhorted him to be- of good courage, and to be assured
that He would be the greatest support to him; and
bid him make use of these signs in order to obtain
belief among aU men, that 'thou art sent by me,' and
dost aU things according to my commands. Accord
ingly, 1 enjoin thee to make no more delays, but to
haste to Egypt, and to travel night and day, and not
draw out the time ; and so make the slavery of the
Hebrews, and their sufferings, to draw out the longer.
"Moses having now seen and heard these wonders,
that assured him of these promises of God, had no
room left him to disbelieve them ; he entreated Kim
to grant him that power when he shoxdd be in Egypt ;
and besought Him to vouchsafe him the knowledge of
His own name, and since he had heard and seen Him,
that He would also tell him His name, that when he
offered sacrifices, he might invoke Him by such His
name in his oblations. Whereupon God declared to
him His holy name, which had never been discovered
to man before ; concerning which it is not lawful for
me to say any more."**
i6 Josephus' Aniiquitieb of the Jews, book2, ch. 12; also, Exodus, ch.3.

S78 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Having thus seen where and under what authority
Moses began to effect the emancipation of the Hebrews,
we shaU see, first, what were the mfracles which the
Israelites witnessed; what reasons thereunder they
had for believing in the powers of reUgion; and,
second, what their moral condition was before the
exodus, and their conduct during it to their arrival
in those lands to which they were led by Moses and
Joshua. We shaU attempt to show, by facts, that
these descendants of Abraham had greater reason and
inducements to have faith and belief in religion than
any other people that have ever Uved, and that they,
notwithstanding this, feU to the commission of more
than brutal crimes, and also were sunken in vices to
an equal magnitude. Those signs and mfracles "wrought
by Almighty power came within range of the sensuous
faculties of thefr minds, and thereby save them posi
tively relative knowledge of a direct administration
from above upon the affafrs of men below.
After Moses had arrived in Egypt and related the
authority which he had to lead them out of bondage,
they beUeved him to be an impostor, whose marvel
ous statements, if followed, would expose them to
destruction, by arousing the whole united power of
the Egyptians against them. They refused to give the
least weight to his allegations. * ' When Moses could
17 Exodus, ch. 0, verse 9.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 279
not prevail upon the IsraeUtes to depart, God instructed
him and Aaron to go in before Pharaoh and demand of
him the manumission of Israel and the right of thefr
departure.* 8 But when Moses distrusted his capa
city to infiuence the king, God told him he was
much superior to Pharaoh ;*» more than this, that
he should be a god to Pharaoh, and that Aaron
should be his prophet, in a word giving power to
dispose of Pharaoh and the kingdom if he chose.*"
After miracles were performed before the king, he
stUl refused to let them go, and Moses and Aaron
were dfrected to smite the river of the Nile and the
waters throughout the land, which, after the compli
ance, became blood through all the country, so there
were none to drink ;** all living creatures in the waters
died, and from these two causes they became a stench
and pestUence to aU in Egypt. ^® All streams, ponds,
springs, wells, and whatever water there was stored
up iu vessels, became blood. ® ^ A miracle so univer
sal in a country as to prevaU all over it, must have
come to the knowledge of the Hebrews, and the causes
made known to thefr understandings. In this there
i8 Exodus, ch. 6, verses 10 and 11.
19 Ibid., ch. 7, verse 1.
2a Ibid,
SI Ibid., ch. 7, verse 20.
32 Ibid., verse 21.
83 Ibid., verses 19 and 20; also Josephus' Aktiquitibs of the Jews.
book 2, ch. 14.

280 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
could be no deception; they did not have to rely
upon the testimony of Moses and Aaron, but it
became absolute knowledge to those faculties of the
mind which take cognizance of the secondary quali
ties of matter. The Lord brought frogs up out of
aU the waters, and they died, so that every house
in the nation was fiUed "with disagreeable odors from
thefr decaying carcasses.** He caused the dust of
the land to become Uce, so as to cover man and
beast. ^^ God also afflicted the land with a plague
of flies;** but there were none of all these things in
the houses or on the persons of the Israelites. Next
spread the disease of the murrain, so that it affected
every beast in all Egypt ; He sent a pestilence of boUs
upon man and beast, not excepting Pharaoh and his
magicians ; and one of haU mingled with fire, which
destroyed every green thing.*'' The Lord smote the
land with locusts and darkness.** And, finaUy, to
finish up the last warning to the Egyptians, and to
teach them the power of the true God — ^that he stood
by the oppressed and against the oppressor — ^the first
born of this nation, from him who should succeed
34 Exodus, ch. 8, verses 1-6 ; also Josephus' Antiquities op the Jews.
book 2, ch, 14, sec. 2.
2S Exodus, ch. 8, verse 17; also Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews,
book 2, ch. 14, sec, 3.
26 Exodus, ch. 8, verse 24; ch. 9, verses 1-3.
27 Ibid., ch. 9, verses 1-7.
38 Ibid- ch. 10.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 281
Pharaoh upon his throne, to the eldest chUd of the
lowest family, were smitten "with death. Every family
in this flourishing kingdom was lamenting its own
dead. But none of these plagues afflicted Israel.
So far as a detaUed history of the Israelites is
concerned, during thefr bondage, which took place
after the death of Joseph, it is such a blank in
Genesis that Uttle conjecture can be made as to the
influence of external objects upon thefr minds, or as
to the positive effect which thefr various mental facul
ties, reUgious and moral, had either to exhalt or to
depress the relations which they maintained toward
God and to the Egyptians. But before they moved
into Egypt, it is known that they led the lives of
shepherds, in extended and unpopulated plains, and
meeting "with that corruption which is ever prevalent
in crowded cities but seldom, there was very Uttle
in opposition to thefr chosen occupation, by way of
competition, to stimulate the animal and selfish facul
ties of the mind. They were, therefore, more acted
upon by the nobler parts of their own nature than
by the selfishness, hypocracy and turpitude of the
external world. And such were the facts, for when
they entered into the land of Egypt they were pure
in morals, and reposed entfre faith and confidence
in the promises and rectitude of Almighty God.

282 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Thefr minds had been subjected to but few baleful
influences from without, hence their moral and
religious elements strengthened as they grew older,
giving these two qualities complete control over the
inferior portions of thefr nature. But after the com
mencement of that rigorous bondage to which they
were subjected, they came in contact with those baser
quaUties which are the offspring of cold and selfish
natures, predominant in all political organizations,
as symptoms of that decay which ever mark the
last days of their existence. It was here, under task
masters, fresh from the elegant and refined society
of the Egyptians and from thefr holy orisons to the
national gods, that the Israelitish character was first
imbruted by imitating and absorbing the popular
notions of a degenerate age. The surrounding influ
ences were those which had already first corrupted
and then destroyed aU good qualities from the minds
of the native inhabitants, it now began, as it were,
the decomposition of the same elements in the minds
of the Hebrews. When we come to calculate the vast
influence which external objects, be they evU, have
to extinguish moral principles in a single genera
tion, we shall be, by force of reason, compeUed to
acknowledge the hopelessness of any people so con
ditioned for four hundred, or even two hundred,
years. In fact, should they issue "with any elements

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 283
of justice or of benevolence remaining, it would be
a greater mfracle than any which are related by the
patriarchial "writers of the Jews. The lower the con
dition of servitude the worse it is both for the master
and the slave. The predominant selfish characteristics
of the two are reciprocal; and, as must be the case,
the moral status of the master being lower than that
of the slave, there is a compUation of evil causes
which, taken together, complete the ruin of both. To
such a degree of skepticism, by their oppressions
and associations, had the Hebrews been reduced,
that they, with all their traditional remembrance of
the prosperity of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob and of
Joseph, believed those representations made by Moses
and Aaron to emanate from the same source of the
mind which held them in bondage. They looked
upon all mankind as whoUy destitute of good inten
tions, and that God had abandoned His government
of the world, if they did not regard aU statements
of Divine revelation to their first progenitors as
impositions practiced upon them by their more
immediate ancestors.
Such was the mental condition of the Hebrews
when Moses undertook, by the dfrection of God, to
lead them out of Egypt into the land of Canaan and
the countries which surrounded it. As Moses indi
cated, when receiving commands upon Mount Sinai

284 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
from authority above, it was, "without Divine power,
a hopeless task. But as we have seen, that pewer
was so given that aU the incredulity of the IsraeUtes
was overcome, and under it they began thefr pUgrim-
age in defiance and in opposition to the whole forces
of Egypt. But the miracles of the plagues were
sufficient to drive from being the last reUct of infidelity
which could possibly inflict any race of mankind.
It required a vast amount of marvelous signs to
induce the Jews to undertake the expedition, and
notwithstanding that these were sufficient for that
purpose, they nevertheless relapsed into a panthe
istic condition of thought when they arrived at the
coast of the Red sea, Pharaoh being in the rear,**
although the wonderful phenomena which they had
¦witnessed had not ceased, for they were led by a
pUlar of fire by night, and one of cloud by day, for
thefr instruction as to the course they should pursue
in making their escape. It was also to show them that
they were visibly conducted by the power of Heaven.
And when Pharaoh arrived with his hosts in thefr rear,
these pUlars changed from the front to the rear, thus
obscuring the Hebrews from the sight of the Egypt
ians.*" Yet they, when surrounded by the sea and

29 Exodus, ch. 14, verses 10-13; Josephus' Antiquities or the Jews
book 2, ch. 15, where it would appear that he drew from facts which eire not
in our version of the Bible.
30 Ibid., chap. 14, verses 19, 20.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 285
thefr enemies, clamored against thefr leader, and his
Ufe was in danger. Were there no graves in Egypt,
that thou hast taken us to die in the "wUderness? is
the language "with which they reproached Moses. ^*
But Moses exhorted them to remain quiet, and that
they should witness the salvation of God, "for the
Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shaU see
them no more again forever." The Lord then parted
the waters of the sea, and the IsraeUtes entered into
the sea upon the bottom and crossed over. When
they were pursued by thefr masters, the Lord caused
the latter to be overwhelmed in the sea, and they were
there dro"wned in sight of the Hebrews.** When they
had thus gotten clear of the shackles by which they
were formerly held in cruel slavery, they found means
to complain, for the water which they had taken to
drink was not palatable. But Moses, through that
power which always stood by him and them, changed
it to a delectable taste.** And, as though their quar
relsome nature had no bounds from gratitude, they
complained to Moses that he had brought them into
strange lands to die of hunger, when they, in Egypt,
31 However much this passage may appear to the minds of skeptics to
militate against the existence of the miracles wrought in Egypt, it is a thing
with which the author has nothing to do. He addresses, in this chapter,
believing Christians.
32 Exodus, ch. 14, passim; Josephus' ANnQuniES or the Jews, book
2, oh. 16.
33 Exodus, ch. 16, verse 25.

286 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
were accustomed to sit by the flesh-pots and "eat
bread to the fnU,"** Moses made known the com
plaints of the people, and to satisfy their wants God
rained food from heaven.** After they had passed
through the "wUderness of Sin they again became des
titute of water, upon which Moses smote a rock "with
his rod, and water poured out in great abundance. * ^
To strengthen thefr faith, if there were further possi-
bUity of a lurking doubt, God told Moses that He
would appear in person to the people upon Mount
Sinai ; all of which they witnessed with great terror.*'
Just before this last marvelous exhibition of Almighty
power, it was that the decalogue was given to the
Jews, and God instructed Moses to say to the multi
tude, "Ye have seen that I" [God] "have talked "with
you from heaven," that they might have no apparent
grounds for doubting the reputed authenticity of the
commandments, the first of which says, "Thou shalt
have no other gods before me." *^ But in the absence
of Moses, immediately after the rendition of the deca
logue and the personal appearance of the Most High
to the absolute knowledge of the IsraeUtes, they
rebelled against the first of their laws — ^they caused
34 Exodus, ch. 16, verses 1-3 inclusive.
35 Ibid., verses 1^.36 inclusive.
36 Ibid., oh. 17, verses 5, and 6.
37 Ibid., chap. 19 and 20, passim.
38 Ibid., eh. 20.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 287
Aaron to make an image of a calf, which they set up
as a god and worshiped it.*» The people, in the pres
ence of Moses, were charged, "without thefr dissent,
of possessing unruly passions;*" that they had sinned
a great sin;*^ and for their evil conduct the Lord
visited plagues upon them.** During their journey-
ings through the wilderness, the places in which they
were to pitch their tents were indicated to them by
a cloud in dayUght, and by fire, or its appearance,
at night.** The scarcity of water, and immediately
afterward its abundance, caused a second time by the
rod of Moses, gave evidence to the masses that the
presence and power of Jehovah were stUl in their
midst.** Some of the chiefs rebeUed against heaven,
to possess themselves of the priesthood of Aaron.
Fire was sent down from above and consumed burnt
offerings in sight of the multitude, upon altars erected
by them for that purpose. Yet the sons of Aaron
mocked the religious ceremonies instituted by the
Most High, returning by derision to their idolatrous
worship of former days, and were consumed by the
flames which they had made and used in contempt of
39 Exodus, ch. 32, verses 1-6
40 Ibid., ch. 32, verse 23.
41 Ibid., verse 31.
42 Ibid., verse 35.
43 Numbers, oh. 9, verse 15-18.
44 Ibid., ch. 20, verse 11.

288 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
reUgion.*"* Yet, notwithstanding these visible pun
ishments upon the "wicked, they relapsed into rebel-
Uon against the authority of God, because a part
of those who had been sent to spy out the land of
Canaan reported falsehoods about the great statute
of its inhabitants. *« They reproached God, saying,
"Wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this
land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our
children should be a prey? Were it not better for
us to return into Egypt."*'' The whole multitude
were preparing to stone Moses and Aaron to death,
but the glorious presence of the Lord in the taber
nacle restrained them.**
The conduct of the masses, "with three or four
exceptions, being most wretched and hypocritical, God
threatened to exterminate the whole multitude, except
Moses, Aaron, Caleb and those under twenty years of
age. Their selfishness again opposed the authority of
Omnipotence, and the earth and fire consumed them
to the number of two hundred and fifty.** Thereupon
the anger of the people became violent at this act of
God, and fourteen thousand and seven hundred were,
45 Josephus' Antiquities op the Jbvts, book 3, ch. 8, sec. 7 ; also Levit
icus, ch. 10, verses 1-3.
46 NuMBEBS, chap. 13, verse 33
47 Ibid., ch. 14, verse 3.
48 Ibid., verse 10.
49 Ibid., oh. 14 and 18.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 289
in consequence, destroyed by the flames which God
sent to punish them and to curb their violent pas
sions."" The Lord sent a plague of fiery serpents
among the people, which bit them, causing the death
of many. " *
The above are a few of those manifestations of
God's marvelous power, which it has been the good
fortune and glory of but a small portion of mankind
to behold. The reader may think that these recitations
are an intrusion upon his time, but it must be borne
in memory that they formed the true history of the
Jewish mind from the commencement of the exode to
their arrival in the promised land. They show what
were the predominant characteristics of the nation
during the time in which they took place. The only
true moral and religious condition of a people can be
determined by their outward acts, the latter being
effects of the controUing elements of the mind, to which
they are in exact proportion. The author of the Pen
tateuch is almost silent as to whether the Jews held
any communications, and if they did, what thefr con
duct was toward those tribes which inhabited the
territories through which they passed, leaving us in a
labyrinth respecting the outward expression of the
predominant quaUties of the former toward the latter.
so Ibid., ch. 16, verses 47-49 Inclusive
SI Ibid., ch. 21, verse 6.
19

290 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
We are, therefore, partly deprived of the evidence by
which to estimate their morals during the time of their
escape from bondage. We are also, for the same rea
son, not able to ascertain what influence the customs
and qualities of these idolatrous foreigners had upon
the inner nature of the Jews to mold a modification
in their mental condition. But on the question of
religion, we are most amply provided, as it has been
made obvious, to exhibit a culture of piety nowhere
to be found among the inhabitants of any other nation
of mankind. And we shall hereafter discover that
Divine Providence continued with them down to the
destruction of thefr holy house in the reign of Yes-
pasian. But we have afready found that they were
rebelUous, immoral and wicked to Moses, Aaron and
Him, who extricated them from an abject condition
of slavery which almost crushed thefr Uves by its
severity. Had there been any moral properties in the
religious faculties, or any moral principles evolved by
action of the spfritual feelings, which tended to modify
their harsher nature, it should have produced its effect
in unbounded gratitude to God, and obedience to His
commands. There certainly were no opportunities for
skeptical doubts, as they witnessed the most aston
ishing mfracles, and those, too, the most numerous
and frequent, which have been experienced by the
human mind. The protoplast was preceded and

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 291
foUowed by such supernatural evidence of its divine
original as to expunge the cold and uneasy feeUngs of
Pantheism from the most dogged infidel. If there
were any of those divine influences in the reUgion of
this people, which have been ascribed to it by Christ
ians, by changing or so re-creating the dispositions of
the minds of its devotees, or converting one from vice
to virtue, we should have met some evidence of it in
the Je"wish nation during the exode. But no such
conclusion can be drawn from their history. On the
contrary, it most clearly estabUshes that this theologi
cal dogma is without foundation. It is an assumption
which injures Christianity and retards the progress of
the better portions of man's higher nature. This class
may stUl adhere to the beUef that the later develop
ments of Jewish theology, and the modifications
wrought in succeeding ages by Divine Providence,
have produced such changes as include "within thefr
scope those principles which, without them, are
more immediate consequences of the primitive moral
powers. We shaU soon see what there is in this
"change of heart" to recommend it to our consider
ation, as weU as to expose other erroneous assumptions
which come to us from the middle ages, tinctured "with
thefr errors, and somewhat modified by the reforma
tion. It wUl also appear that a culture of the reUgious
produces none to the moral elements of the mind ; that

292 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
religion and moraUty are effects of distinct and inde
pendent causes ; that the neglect to educate the moral,
and bestowing the whole attention upon the reUgious,
were the immediate causes of the overthrow of the
Jewish nation, of the frequent conquests to which it
was subjected, and of the final dispersion of its people.
We have traced the principal events, or those,
rather, which we "wished to present, without suppress
ing any facts that related to those truths which we
had sought to discover, from the beginning of their
pilgrimage in Egypt to their arrival in the country of
the Canaanites. We shaU follow the history of their
religious and moral condition down to the time of
their dispersion.
The Hebrews had no sooner effected thefr settle
ments, than they began to exhibit qualities which
characterize only the immoral status of savages.
When there were no people upon whom they could,
with any reasonable pretexts, make war, they began
to destroy each other. Sometimes thefr inordinate
lusts were the causes of exterminating confiicts, at
others, love of gain, and their restlessness under all
governmental regulations. The evU passions of this
people could not be kept "within the limits of reason,
unless they were ground down in a servile condition ;
for in disposition of e"val they had had no superiors
in the ancient or the modern ages of the world.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 293
The amount of rapes, robberies and murders which
these twelve tribes committed, from thefr establishment
in Asia Mllior till the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus
Vespasian, "will excel the same in any other nation
which has existed for an equal period. The crimes of
the Jews would be whoUy incredible if reported by
the historians of any other nation ; but since it is the
narrated confession of thefr own darkening deeds, it
cannot by them be called in question.
The first war which broke out among the twelve
tribes, was caused by the commission of a rape upon
the person of the wife of a certain Le"vdte, whUe he
was passing from the house of his father-in-law to the
place of his own residence. At the in"\dtation of a
resident of Gibeah, the Levite took up lodgings "with
him, supposing, but "without sufficient reason, consid
ering the moral condition of the Jews, that he and
his famUy were safe, as they were among thefr distant
relatives. But not long after his entrance into the
abode of this hospitable stranger, the house was sur
rounded by men who demanded the "wife of the Levite,
in violation of the laws of the twelve tribes, which was
given them through Moses from above. The host of
the house interceded in behalf of his guests, but could
not dissuade the rabble from thefr purpose. They had
intended to murder the Levite, if it were necessary to
effect their end. His wife was removed by them, and

294 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
subjected to the most brutal outrages,^ after which, in
the morning, she was allowed to return to her hus
band, but immediately afterward expfred from the
effects of her treatment. Those who committed the
double deed were of the tribe of Benjamin, and inhab
ited the city of Gibeah.
When this act of brutaUty became known to the
other tribes of the IsraeUtes, they determined to
punish the criminals according to those laws by
which they were aU governed. They, therefore,
made a demand upon the Benjamites for the pos
session of the criminals, and attempted thefr arrest,
but found that the whole citizens of Gibeah defended
them, and thus made, the crime of others thefr own,
even taking up arms to protect the guUty parties.
This issue brought on a fierce war which nearly
exterminated the tribe of the Benjamites, leaving
only six hundred alive. In the two first battles
which were fought, forty thousand of the assailants
were slain ; but on joining battle the thfrd time, those
engaged on the part of the Benjamites were aU
kUled but those excepted."* After the victory over
the army of Benjamin, the IsraeUtes murdered aU
the women and chUdren, not saving one alive in
the city, so aU who were left were the combatants

52 Consult by comparison. Judges, ch. 19 and 20, with Josephus'
Antiquities or thi Jews, book 5, ch. 2.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 295
who made thefr escape.** They burnt the city to the
ground, and, not satisfied with thus far having com
mitted a slaughter of the innocents to punish the
guUty, they passed from the double reality of execu
tive justice to pure cruelty itself. Not sufficiently
gorged "with the blood of the innocent "victims of
Gibeah, they proceeded to "wreak the same vengeance
upon all the other cities of the Benjamites, and,
after murdering the inhabitants, burnt the cities to
the ground. They "spared neither age nor sex,"
but put aU to the sword, old people and yoxmg infants,
those who implored thefr mercy as weU as those who
defied thefr strength, all from the cradle to the brink
of the grave, irrespective of condition, were "wiped
out of existence."* Then, after reflection, they began
to be affected, not for the brutaUties which they had
committed, but under the action of fear their intel
lectual faculties began to practice arithmetic, to
calculate thefr numerical strength, and they dis
covered that they had destroyed one-twelfth of their
miUtary power. They saw that they had wrought
a great work in favor of thefr old and inveterate
enemies, the Canaanites, and shoiUd they rely upon
thefr own earthly efforts, another success of the same
53 Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, book 6, ch. 2.
54 Judges, ch. 20, and last passage cited in Josephus' Antiquities of
the Jews.

296 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
nature would render thefr position in the land of the
heathen whoUy untenable. " " Then, and not tiU then,
were they stricken "with mortification. We are told
they wept."®
But there were, notwithstanding, six hundred of
the tribe of Benjamin left, and, to restore that miUtary
strength to themselves, as a means of self protection,
which they had lost by this horrible excision, they
determined to expunge all the males of another peo
ple, seize upon thefr unmarried women for "wives to the
Benjamite remnant. It is not difficult for those who
are committed to the profession of slaughter, to dis
cover pretexts for hostiUties, and, accordingly, the city
of Jabesh-gilead was selected as the next victim. An
army of twelve thousand of their most savage fighting
men were dispatched, with instructions to spare none
but the maidens. All the inhabitants, save the four
hundred maidens, perished at their hearthstones. It
"wUl readily present itself to the understanding of the
intelUgent reader, the direction which the Je"wish mind
had, in some previous age, graduaUy taken, and to
what mental faculties the whole Hebrew nation was
now being subjected in control.
Phineas, the high priest, and Hophni, committed
robberies upon the people, who came up to the temple
55 Judges, ch. 21, veiee 3.
56 Ibid., verse 2.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 297
of the people to worship. They were guilty of the
commission of other crimes, and finally, thefr course of
life being attended "with such depravity, they involved
the Hebrews in a war with the surrounding idolatrous
nations, " "^ by which they were partly deprived of their
liberty."* By the mfraculous powers of God, the
PhUistines were affrighted and defeated, and the Jews
restored to thefr former condition of independence. " °
But the contagious elements of corruption were per
meating aU classes of the race, and the principles of
honor, of probity, and of equity, by degrees come
gradually to be regarded, by persons of official sta
tions, as a very harmless and proper means by which
to effect a deception of the just, and thus make them
subsidiary to the accumulation of riches. The sons of
Samuel took bribes whUe they were judges of Israel,
and rendered their judgments accordingly. «* Tho
whole people used the venaUty of Samuel's successors
as pretexts to draw into their own midst the evil of the
surrounding nations, and rejected the government of
the Most High. The element of imitation in the human
mind is both pleasurable and beneficial when dfrected
57 I Samuel, ch. 2, verses 23-25 inclusive, and ch. 6, passim : also compare
Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, book 6, ch. 10 and 11.
s8 Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, book 6, oh. 2, and I Samuel,
ch. 5 and 6.
59 I SAMUEii, ch. 7, verse 10. Compare Josephus' Antiquities op the
Jews, book 6, oh. 2.
6o I SamueIi, ch. 8, verses 1-6: God's directions to Samuel.

298 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
to ennobling objects, but is more than demoralizing
when used in the appropriation of those manners
which are the production of vicious principles. They
desfred a form of government, fashionable with the
people of the east, not"withstanding the demoralizing
infiuence which it had on the morals of mankind.
Samuel informed , them of the oppressions they would
be subjected to in the event that a king were to reign
over them. But they preferred bondage to freedom,
if rectitude were a dependence of the latter. As the
conditions of an absolute government were founded in
injustice, it was but fair to presume that the monarch
would wink at the vices of the multitude. By the
inauguration of the monarchy, we find that they had
added new troubles to old difficulties. For immedi
ately subsequent to the anointment of Saul as king,
the multitude exhibited a disposition, and urged the
propriety, of slaying aU of that party who were
opposed to the government of a kingdom ; and were
only repressed by the greater humanity of the sover
eign. "^ Thus they rejected the sovereignty of God,
although He had led them from a lowly and enslaved
condition into one of prosperous independence.
Among them vice and "wickedness increased "with
thefr prosperity. We do not understand that there
was any difference between this people in these respects
6i Josephus' Antiquities or the Jews, book 6, ch. 5.

gen:eral introduction. 299
and those nations that surrounded them, and were
devoted to a false, to a pagan reUgion, except in so far
as the Hebrews had not an equal degree of moraUty.
The surrounding tribes, in their wars, disdamed the
brutaUty of murdering women and chUdren when
taken prisoners. « * But when the IsraeUtes took pris
oners of war, they put them through a cruel torture,
sawed them asunder, dragged them to death under
harrows, chopped them to pieces "with axes, and burnt
themaUve.«* This was during the administration of
king David. We are informed by the sacred authors
that this was the course pursued in aU of thefr wars
against the children of Ammon. « * But before David' s
reign, at the organization of the monarchy, Saul was
crowned, "with an obUgatory understanding, that he
should live a godly and moral Ufe, doing everything
according to the decalogue, the supreme laws of the
land, and for the prosperity of all Israel. Yet the
royal household and Saul were corrupted ; they were
envious, jealous, and indulged the feeUngs of hatred,
following the last up "with a spirit of revenge. The

62 "The third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and
Ziklag, and smitten Zlklag and burnt it with fire ; and had taken the women
captives that were therein ; they slew not any, either great or small, but
carried them away. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it
was burnt with fire ; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters
were taken captives."— I Samuei., ch.'SO, verses 1-3.
63 II Samuel, ch. 12, verse 31.
64 Ibid.

300 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
valor of David had made him a person of distinction
with the masses, and, in consequence, the prince
hated his existence and desired to destroy it. Saul
knew well the law "he that sheddeth man's blood,
by man his blood shaU be shed." Yet it did
not deter Saul from his wretched deeds, nor stay his
own hand from the commission of murder. For,
although he faUed in his assault upon young David,
he directed assassins to put him out of the way.''
But Saul' s cruelty was the cause of his destruction.
Although David's character was none of the best in
his youth, it became worse after he was elevated to
regal dignity. He was guilty of crimes which should
shame any German boor out of all pretensions to
chastity and to compassion. He committed adul
tery;'® and he murdered Uriah that he might keep
up a continued and incontinent inter^new with his
widow.®' David, through his great piety, took judicious
pains to educate his chUdren up to a zealous observ
ance of reUgion, yet Amnon committed a rape upon
his own sister Tamar, and was slain by his brother.**
Absalom made war upon his aged father, and feU in
the conflict. The people, from the least to the greatest
6s I Samuel, ch. 19, verses 10-24.
66 II Samuel, ch. 11.
67 Ibid.
6S Ibid., ch. 13, verses 13, 13 and 14.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 301
in the Jewish nation, were extremely cruel, and pre
sented a very savage appearance for those whom the
public have put forward the claims of possessing
moral principles. Thefr vicious course ashamed the
most iniquitous inhabitants of Asia Minor. Solomon
attempted the life of Jeroboam, because a prophet had
foretold that the latter should become king in place of
the former. «» Nor did God, during all this time,
¦withhold the manifestations of his power. After the
temple was finished, the Lord filled the house with
the effulgence of His own glory, so that thousands of
people saw that no one could enter it in consequence
of the brightness of the light.'"' But Solomon was
a Ubertine, and because he allowed his wives to influ
ence him to worship the gods of their country, he was
pronounced worse than king David in moral princi
ples, although the latter was convicted by his acts
of the crime of murder. The kingdom was not rent
out of the possession of the posterity of Solomon
because of his libertinism, but for having set up
idols to please his courtezans.'^ Jeroboam and
Rehoboam, the successors of Solomon, were immoral
and wicked, although they were reUgious. Rehoboam
was a tyrant and oppressed the people;'* he was a
69 I Kings, ch. 11, verse 40.
70 11 Chronicles, ch. 7.
IX I Kings, ch. U.
78 II Ohbonioles, ch. 10, 11 and 12.

802 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
libertine, as he had eighteen wives and sixty concu
bines." Jeroboam was unjust and dishonest toward
God, as he, after the Lord had made him king,
rebeUed against His authority, overturning and driv
ing out of the kingdom the priesthood which Omnip
otence had estabUshed.'* He was also a tyrant;.
he forced the people to worship the images of two
calves.'" Abijah, successor of Rehoboam to the king
dom of Judah, was as tyrannical, overbearing and
oppressive as his predecessor;'* in violation of the
laws which he was crowned to administer, he kept
fourteen courtezans." And, finaUy, in the whole line
of kings of Israel and Judah, from Saul to Abijah, we
are reUeved by finding one vfrtuous prince in the per
son of Asa. Yet it is not an easy matter to discover
what his moral quaUties were, for the Jews considered
thefr kings remarkably just if they did not disturb the
order of the priesthood and reduce the principles of
thugs to too extensive a practice.
Nadab, son of Jeroboam, ruled "with such tyranny
that his subjects rebeUed against his authority and
assassinated Mm. He was succeeded by the person
who slew him; and Baasha conducted the government,
73 II Chbonioles, ch. 11, verse 21.
74 Ibid., ch. 13, verse 9.
75 Ibid., verse 8.
76 I Kings, ch. 15, verse 3.
77 n Chkonicles, ch. 13, verse 21.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 303
for twenty-four years, with aU the tyranny that the
Jews had ever suffered, and was a terror to aU within
his dominions. '8 Elah, his son and successor, was
kUled in a drunken debauchery two years after he
came to the succession." Zimri, who headed the
revolt which disposed of the preceding sovereign,
only reigned seven days, meeting the fate of his pre
decessor.*" Omri was, if anything, more vicious,
more tyrannical, than Baasha, leading the nation
into his own degrading vices, and, with few excep
tions, the whole people became corrupt. * * But Ahab,
Omri's son, was also crafty and selfish; foUowing the
popular manners of the times, he set the laws of
Jehovah at defiance. Whatever was the prevaUing
fashion of the age he adopted, rejecting all just laws,
both moral and divine. Whatever were the popular
notions of the inhabitants of the east respecting relig
ion and government, he endorsed and made his own.
By pandering to the vanities of the age, he became
a hypocrite, and enforced the expensive reUgious cere
monials of idolatrous nations. He put the priesthood
which adhered to the commands of God to death, so
that only one was left in that whole dominion of

73 I Kings, ch, 15.
79 Ibid., ch. 16, verses 9 and 10.
80 Ibid,, verse 18.
81 Ibid., verses 25 and 26

304 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Israel. 8 2 He was more cruel than aU that "had
reigned before him."^*
Jehoram violated the laws of his kingdom, and
by his example brought the whole nation into the
same condition of morals;** he murdered many digni
taries of state;*" he murdered his brothers Azariah,
Jehiel, Zechariah, Michael and Shephatiah. * ' Ahaz-
iah was immoral, unjust and "wicked, and for his
oppressions was slain by his subjects.*' Jehu mur
dered Jehoram and Ahaziah, all the children of each
of them and the relations both UneaUy and coUater-
aUy;** he directed forty-two persons, who had done
him and the people no harm, to be put to death, and
they were beheaded ; he murdered the whole relations
of Ahab, personally superintending the murder of
Ahab's sons, seventy in number. The cruelty was so
atrociously great he made an apology to the pubUc,
and cast the horror of the crime upon the disposition
of the Almighty.** He slew the ministers of Ahaz
iah;^* he murdered Jezebel,*^ because she pronounced
Sz I Kings, ch. ig, verse 14.
83 Ibid., ch. 16, verses 30-34 inclusive.
84 n Chbonicles, ch. 21, verse 13.
85 Ibid., verse 4. •
86 Ibid.
87 Ibid., ch. 22.
88 II Kings, ch. 10.
Sg Ibid., verse 9.
90 11 Kings, ch. 9.
91 Ibid., verses 30-37 Inclusive.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 305
the course of Jehu to be that of treason ;»* he allowed
not the clergy of a different beUef to escape from
his cruel tyranny, but hypocriticaUy murdered every
one;»^ and finaUy, after he had thus butchered about
one-tenth of the whole kingdom, he pursued the
course of a Ubertine, and about the only good act
with which he could be accredited, consisted in, and
terminated with, his death.
Jehoash was a virtuous prince, but the predisposi
tion of the people for bloodshed consigned him to that
fate which was usual "with the kings of the Hebrews.**
Jehoahaz, king of Israel, foUowed the brutaUty of his
father, Jehu;*" became a devotee to the vices of Jero
boam;*' the whole people relapsed into the idolatry
of the surrounding nations, and were become corrupt. *'
Azariah' s noble conduct during his administration
reUeved the dynasties of the Hebrews from much of
the odium of those degrading "vices and brutal charac
teristics which had ever been, with very few exceptions,
concomitant elements of king and people. But during
his reign over the tribe of Judah, Zachariah came, by
lawful inheritance, to the throne of the IsraeUtish
92 U Kings, oh. B, verse 81.
93 Ibid., oh. 10.
94 n Kings, ch. 12, verse 20.
BS Ibid., oh. 13, veise S.
96 Ibid., ch. 13.
97 Ibid. 30

306 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION
nation. Zachariah, nevertheless, conducted the gov
ernment "with such tyrannic power and severity toward
the rights of the people, that he was assassinated six
months after he began to rule. ** Shallum became the
usurper, as he was the assassin, * * and for these had
the good fortune to live thfrty days, * " " being kUled
by Menahem, the commander of Zachariah' s army.
The last misrided the people for ten years, beginning
by murdering aU the citizens in one of the cities
because they did not surrender to him at discre
tion.^"^ He did not even spare the infants of the
place.*"* Such barbarities could not have been per
petrated had not the prince been supported by a large
majority of the people, whose character was as detest
able as his own. He was succeeded by his son,
Pekahiah, in depravity of character as weU as in the
government of the nation. If the latter could not
excel the savage cruelty of the former, the sequel
showed that he had equaled it.*"* But the ambition
of aspiring despots put an end to his tyranny, i "* and
if he were not executed according to law, he met with.

98 Compare Josephus' Antiquities or the Jews, book 9, oh, 11, vrith
II Kings, ch. 15.
99 Ibid.
100 Ibid.
loi Ibid., verse 16.
iM Ibid.
103 Ibid., verses 23-24,
104 Ibid., verse 25.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 307
by it, no more than his reward. The people's thfrst
for bloodshed supported the Ulegal measures of the
assassin.!"" The acme of brutal behavior had been
attained ; and although neither Israel nor Judah pos
sessed indi"vdduals whose talents enabled them to
outstrip their predecessors in the refined arts of
oppression, we know by history that they could
rival and imitate the coarser qualities of their
crimes.*"' For twenty years the IsraeUtes sub
mitted to the despotic rule of Pekah,'"' and if the
people were oppressed, if their pure social rela
tions were destroyed, if their money were unlaw
fully extorted from them by the government, they
balanced the account by fraud upon each other, or
upon the tribes, states and nations in the "ncinity.
Whatever were the customs, fashions and condition
of morals at the courts of the kings, became appro
priated by the masses and was the rule by which they
were governed. As corruption thus became popular,
all classes of the twelve tribes were polluted, "vice
being antagonistic to virtue, the latter was extin
guished, the former being in great predominance.
But as the assasination of the kings of Israel and
of Judah, had become a habit of the people, Pekah
was removed by the same measures which had
105 II Kings, ch. 15, verse 25.
106 Ibid.
107 Ibid.

308 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
terminated the lives of most of the sovereigns of the
Hebrews.'"* Regicide entitled and qualified its author
for the vacant throne, to which he immediately suc
ceeded; and Hoshea became king of Israel.*"* As
many of the former kings of Judah and Israel had,
at different times, exterminated the priesthood which
ministered to the spiritual wants of the Hebrews
according to the laws of thefr sacred office,"" the
nation degenerated ; adopting the idolatrous religions,
passions and corruptions of foreign states, forced
upon them by the cro"wn, they at first acquiesced,
after a time admfred, and finaUy were captivated by
those debaucheries to which the Jews, in the land of
the orient, were ever predisposed. The reign of
Ahaz throughout was characterized by the burning
of innocent chUdren aUve, to worship the gods of
the Phoenicians. He was succeeded by Hezekiah,
for whom the laws of nature had done much to
restore to a normal condition, in spite of defective
hereditary quaUties and the corrupting vices of the
times. As far as relates to the personal qualities
of Hezekiah, and a few others in the twelve tribes,
the natural laws restored those internal causes which

io8 Compare Josephus' ANTiQurriES op the Jews, book 9, ch. 13, with
II Kings, ch. 15.
X09 Ibid.
no I Kings, ch, 19, veiae 18.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 309
insure moral principles, and which external phe
nomena had well nigh completely extinguished. It
was during the reigns of Hoshea and Hezekiah that
the ten tribes were supplanted, and forever lost to
all knowledge of the rest of the Hebrews, according
to predictions made by prophets centuries before.*"
Manasseh succeeded Hezekiah to but one quality,
the thrope of his father. Farther than thefr official
stations there was no resemblance between them.
Manasseh introduced polytheism into the nation,
made vice more popular, and plunged the people
more deeply into it than had ever been kno"wn to
exist with the surrounding heathens.**" Those vices
which he introduced continued, for fifty-five years,
to act upon what moral properties remained in the
people, tUl they, as a nation, became more immoral
and degraded than the Sodomites. He murdered all
the priesthood of Aaron, and by his slaughters of
the innocents "filled Jerusalem with blood from one
end to another."**^ It is remarkable that such
monsters as Manasseh should die natural deaths
among a people as turbulent and base as the Hebrews
had become. It is stiU more remarkable that those
III Compare JosaPHUS' Antiquities op the Jews, book 9, ch. 14, with
II Kings, ch. 17.
112 II Kings, oh. 21.
113 Compare Josephus' ANnQUiriES op the Jews, book 10, ch. 3, with
II BiNGS, ch. 21, verse 16,

310 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION
animal facullics which he had whoUy and only
exercised, save his religious, and caused the people,
by imitating his example, to perpetrate the most
brutal outrages toward their fellows, had not extin
guished his Ufe in the beginning of his administration.
His son, Amon, discipUned in all the corruptions of
his father and of his age, was slain by his own
subjects for those cruelties which he had inflicted
upon them.*** But the majority of the inhabitants
were indignant at the murder of Amon, and slew
his assassins.**" It foUows, from this, that they
endorsed the character of Amon, and also, that they
had not done so had they not been as vicious as he.
The multitude then placed Josiah upon the throne.
Yet he, although pronounced just and righteous,
slew all the clergy who did not foUow the reli^on
instituted by Moses. * * ' Those kings who were beUeved
to be moral by the Je"wish writers, invariably slew
or murdered all the ecclesiastics of opposing faiths.
So that from Saul to Josiah, the whole kings of Judah
and of Israel were engaged in the occupation of mur
der. The whole Jewish nation, not included in the
slaughter, endorsed these acts and carried them into
effect at the request of the kings. Whenever a person
114 Compare Josephus' ANTiQuaTiEs of the Jews, book 10, ch. 4, with
n Kings, ch. 21.
115 Ibid.
it6 II Kings, ch. 23, verse 20.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 311
was elevated to the throne of either Judah or Israel,
he became intolerant to aU reUgious opinions but his
own. He did not allow the clergy the pri"VTlege of
recantation, but immediately put them to death; and
as often as the opinion of the crown changed "with
each succession, there was to his side, a reversal of
apparent belief in the people. But the ecclesiastics,
under aU circumstances, must suffer death. The
hierarchical portion of the government of these kings
exercised greater severity toward dissentients than
did the papacy in the middle ages. In the time of
Ahab we have an instance of this, when Elijah told
the Lord that all the clergy were destroyed by the
government, that he was the only one that remained,
and that they were seeking him to bring him to
execution. ' ^' But the slaughter of the Aaronic priest
hood, during the reign of Ahab, was partly retorted
by Elijah when he excited the multitude to slay
the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. * * ^ When
there was an alternation of reUgion, of polytheism
-with monotheism, in the person of the sovereign,
there was one also "with the people. Whichever
became the pleasure of the king was fashionable
with the masses, and those who held on to thefr faith
were swept away as if it were a matter of justice.

117 I Kings, ch. 18, verse 22, and ch. 19, verse 14.
118 Ibid, ch. 18.

312 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION
And thus "with the Jews vfrtue was wiped out by
hypocrisy. It was impossible to exist and at the
same time oppose the professed belief of the majority,
although it is evident, from the history of the twelve
tribes, that for more than two-thirds of the period
which elapsed from the reign of Saul to that of Josiah,
the whole nation was a body of moral hypocrites. We
have seen that they not only adopted the reUgion, but
the form of government common to neighboring states,
because they were more fashionable in this portion
of the world. Fashionable reUgious and popular
forms of government were more acceptable to the
masses than those which emanated from above. It
has been shown that from the estabUshment of the
Hebrews in Phoenicia, after thefr escape from bondage,
that there was a constant degeneracy of the moral
faculties of the mind.
But during these rebelUons of the Hebrews against
the government of Jehovah ; during the time in which
they were divided up into parties for the commis
sion of thefts, frauds, robberies, rapes and murders,
there was a constant visitation of God's marvelous
power. Miracles continued to be wrought by God
through his prophets before the people, so that the
evidence of a di"vlne administration was not taken
upon the statement of others in distant ages, but was
brought within the absolute knowledge of the Jews.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 313
There must, therefore, have been a perfect conviction
of this truth; and if, under such circumstances, the
people degenerated from a moral condition, what bet
ter can be hoped from it eighteen hundred years after
the theocracy has altogether ceased to exist. If the
Hebrews had every reason to beUeve in the existence
of a God, and in the institution of a thearchy, that
then, in pursuance of these con"victions, they were
accustomed to reUgious exercises in feeUng during
worship; if, we say, under all these circumstances,
they relapsed into depravity and the practice of aU
forms of vice, it conclusively estabUshes that a relig
ious culture of the mind does not work a discipline of
the moral. We have seen with what miraculous signs,
during God's guidance of them, they were led, from
the birth of Abraham to their arrival in the promised
land, and also the condition of their morals and of
thefr religion during that long period. We have also
shown what their moral condition was, from the estab
Ushment of the theocracy to the supplanting of the ten
tribes and the captivity of Judah. It now remains
to discover what was the evidence upon which they
could depend for a beUef in divine revelations, from
the beginning of the thearchy to the conquest of
Judea by Babylonia.
When the Israelites had become firmly settled in
the land assigned to them by Moses, and their slavish

814 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
minds had begun to ape the foolish manners of the
Amorites in reUgious ceremonials, disregarding what
ever pertained to truth and to justice, they abandoned
the charges of the decalogue. For reproof and correc
tion of thefr ways, the Lord appeared to them through'
the agency of an angel. It was a personal appearance
to the majority of the Israelites, and "they lifted up
their voices and wept."*^° An angel of the Lord
appeared to Gideon and conversed "with him face to
face;*"" but when he was overcome by the marvel
ous visitation and serious condition in which he was
placed, the Lord God spoke to him and said, "Peace
be unto thee; fear not; thou shalt not die."*"* The
Lord first charged him to throw down the altars
erected by the people for the purposes of worshiping
Baal, and buUd one in its stead,*"" upon which to
offer sacrifices to the God of Israel.*"* God mani
fested his presence personaUy by the trial which
Gideon made with the fleece;*"* but the most signal
exhibition of Jehovah's presence was the manner in
which Gideon destroyed the hosts of the alUes, as God
had previously told him He would do it, that aU Israel
might know that Omnipotence had not yet deserted
119 Judges, ch. 2, verses 1-6; B. C. 1425.
120 Ibid., ch. 6, verses 11-22 inclusive ; B. C. 1258.
Z2I Ibid., verse 23.
123 Ibid., verse 25.
133 Ibid., verse 26.
124 Ibid., verses 36-40.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 315
the Hebrews.*"" Three hundred men, "with pitchers
and trumpets as arms of attack, slaughtered one
hundred and twenty thousand of the enemy. ^^^ AU
these marvelous things came "vdthin the positive
knowledge of the people.*"'
It was foretold that Samson would be born with
such physical power as to be able to oppose and
defeat an army. It came to fulfiUment according to
prediction; being so much greater than anything which
was human, all Israel and Judah knew that it was
immediately derived from God.*"* God appeared and
conversed with Samuel 1165 B. C.;*"* and the revela
tions made to Samuel were fulfilled in such manner
as to convince all Israel that he was a prophet of
the Lord. The Lord raised up Samuel from the
grave to converse "with Saul in the presence of three
witnesses, and Samuel told Saul that he and his sons
should sleep in the sUence of death on the foUo'wing
day,**" 1056 B. C. In the year 951 B. C. Jehu
prophesied that the whole dynasty of Baasha should
be extinguished by the sword.*** They were aU
destroyed twenty-one years afterward.***
125 Judges, ch. 7.
136 Ibid., oh. 1, verso 19, with ch. 8, verse K).
127 Ibid., ch. 7, verses 20, 21 and 22.
128 See chapters 13, 14, 15 and 16, passim.
139 I Samuel, ch. 3.
130 Ibid., ch. 28.
131 I Kings, ch. 16, verse 7.
133 Ibid., verses 10, 11 and 12.

316 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Ahab rebelled against the ecclesiastical laws of
the Hebrews as weU as against the rights of man.
For his acts in violation of the former, the Lord sent
EUjah to him to rebuke him and the people, "vsdth
power from above to "withhold dew and rain from
the earth in the region of the Hebrews. Ahab and
his court were told by EUjah there should not be
dew nor rain but according to his word.*'' And
accordingly Elijah "smote" the land "with drouth
into the third year,*** so that there was a great
scarcity of both water and provender for man and
beast. •^» Elijah prayed for rain, and it poured
down in abundance.'^' Elijah called fire down from
heaven, by which he burned up the sacrifice, wood
and water,'*'' and thus demonstrated, by the drouth
and the fire, (the last before four hundred priests of
Baal and a large multitude of people,) that the God
of Abraham did stUl preside over the world, that he
still wrought mfracles to convince mankind of his
being and his administration, 906 B. C. The people
133 "And Elijah the Tishblte, who was of the inhabitants of Gllead, said
unto Ahab, 'As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall
not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.' ' — I Kings, ch. 17.
134 "And it came to pass, after many days, that the word of he Lord came
to Elijah in the third year" [of the drouth] " saying, ' Go show thyself unto
Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.' "—Ibid., chap. 18, verse 1.
135 Compar&lBiD., verses 3-7, with Josephus' Antiquities op the Jews,
book 8, ch. 13, sec. 4.
136 Ibid., ch. 18, verse 45.
137 Ibid., verses 30-39.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 317
were so firmly con"mced by the testimony of the
miracle that they, at the instance of the prophet,
slew aU the priests who ministered to Baal.*"
God, through the intercession of EUjah, burned
up one hundred men;*^« he foretold Ahaziah' s death,
which immediately afterwards occurred;**" EUjah
parted the waters of the river Jordan, he and his
disciple passing over on dry ground, * " * 896 B. C. ;
and, in the sight of fifty-one men was separated by
a whirl"wind from earth, and taken up into heaven
by a chariot of fire.**'
God, through the sacred office of Isaiah, answered
the prayer of Hezekiah, and destroyed his enemies
to the number of one hundred and eighty-five thou
sand, * " ' 710 B. C. ; the prayer and the wonderful
manner in which the Hebrews were deUvered out of
their distress being known to aU Israel.*** Before the
taking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, Jeremiah,
the prophet, foretold it to the king and the people ;**"
Isaiah uttered a prophecy to the same purport, about
one hundred and forty years before the prediction of
138 I B:ings, ch. 18, verse 40.
139 Compare II Kings, ch. 1, with Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews,
book 9, ch. 2.
140 Ibid.
141 Ibid., ch. 2, verses 7 and 8.
143 Ibid., verses 7-13.
143 Ibid., ch. 19.
144 Ibid.
145 Compare Jebimiah, ch. 25, with Jobbpbus' Antiquities or the
Jews, book 10, ch. 7.

318 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Jeremiah. '* « Jerusalem was captured and destroyed
in the manner which God had made kno"wn to the
Hebrews.**' Jeremiah prophesied the return of the
Jews, which took place according to his word,'*'
seventy years afterward.
Such were the marvelous phenomena which occur
red from time to time after the exode to the captivity
of the twelve tribes of the Hebrews. Those mfracles
which had taken place were convincing evidence of
God's existence, government, and his special inter
vention in behalf of man. All this was sufficient to
induce any people to believe in reUgion, to obey its
ordinances and commandments.
Thus we have seen what were the moral and
reUgious characters of the Hebrew nations, from thefr
first conquest of the Canaanites, 1444 B. C, to the
Babylonish captivity, about 590 B. C. At no time
during this period did they relapse into infidelity, for
they were devoted to the religion of thefr fathers, or
to that of polytheism, the then prevaUing beUef of the
nations of western Asia. They constantly worshiped
the God of the Hebrews, or the gods of the surround
ing heathens. As the inhabitants of Asia were more

146 Compare Isaiah, ch. 1, with Josephus' ANTiQumES or the Jews,
book 10, ch. 2.
47 II Chronicles, ch. 36.
148 Compare Jeremiah, ch. 25, with Daniel, ch. 5.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 319
numerous than the Jews, and thefr ideas of reUgion
therefore more popular, the Jews frequently adopted
them at the mere indication of the court of their
kings. The miracles were true, according to their
testimony, and they must have been convinced, not
only of a divine revelation, but of an administration
and special interventions in their behalf from above.
Having related those facts which, by way of proof,
bear upon the reUgious and moral condition of the
Hebrews down to the time of thefr captivity in
Babylon, we shaU omit the narration of about four
hundred years of the history of these two elements
of their character, taking it up just before the begin
ning of their war against the Romans. It appears to
us that at the time to which we have last made
reference, they had arrived at a condition of turpitude
which is wholly unparaUeled by any other race or age.
Just before the time the war broke out between
the Jews and the Romans, the former were in a state
of social disorganization. Everything had the appear
ance, and took the direction of a final reckoning;
not only the different states, but the people within
the many cities gave evidence, by thefr conduct, of
being seized "with a pecuUar madness to rob and
murder aU natives as weU as foreigners. It naturally
occurs as something remarkable that the suicide of
this peopl9 "^^s deferred so long, that they had not

320 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
disappeared by the complete and perfect destruction
of themselves. The only feculties of thefr minds
which they had cultivated were the religious and the
animal, and this having continued for fifteen centuries,
they were wrought into a condition, characteristic of
the fiercest species of the animal creation. From a
theological stand-point it is evident that, for some
ulterior object, an invincible power chained those
fierce elements, suppressing thefr fatal manifestation,
and postponed thefr disastrous effects to a more
distant time. They were as reUgious as when they
settied in the dominions of Pharaoh. They were
scrupulous in thefr attendance upon the reUgious
ceremonies which were rife among them ; they con
stantly, according to thefr ecclesiastical laws, offered
sacrifices, observed feasts, fasts and the Sabbath. In
a word, they obeyed, as near as can be determined by
outward appearance, the canons transmitted to them
by Moses and Aaron. Centuries before the time of
which we now "write, they were constantly rebeUing
against their ecclesiastical laws, and murdering the
prophets. But as we approach that period in which
they present to our contemplation the most "ncious
natures and the most cruel dispositions, thefr conduct
brings into strong contrast "with their base character
the characteristics of habitual piety and devotion.
The government of Rome, which held them in

GEWERAL INTRODUCTION. 321
subjection, was unable to suppress the disorders, riots,
robberies and murders which were constantly occurring
in the territory of the two tribes. The Roman power,
although strongly impregnated at this early day "with
those corrupting elements which finally produced its
overthrow, was sufficiently equitable in its administra
tion, to be a blessing to a more savage and barbarous
people which the Jews proved to be. Inordinate
avarice, licentiousness, a peculiar characteristic of the
Jews, poUtical and ecclesiastical ambition, distinction
in private and public life, goaded the masses to the
commission of all sorts of crimes to attain their desfres.
Armed bands, composed of men beUeving and observ
ing the reUgion of thefr ancestors in ceremonials, were
prevalent in all parts of Judea. But the highways
were infested by no worse men in point of depravity,
than those of the Jewish tribes who exercised the
functions of ci"dl administration over thefr own peo
ple, by the permission of the Caesars. The time had
arrived when the government preferred the associa
tion of outlaws to that of just men and more perfect
organizations. All classes, from the boor to the high
priest, pressed in one dfrection and toward the same
object; all classes were readUy persuaded of the
justice of the cause of those Utigants whose purses
were the most amply suppUed. All grades were
accessible to bribery, and from the nature of thefr
31

322 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
affafrs, the prevalence of the outlaw gangs and their
successful operations, it is fafr to presume that they
had sUent confederates in official stations of the civil
government and in ecclesiastical robes of the hier
archy. While each vied "with the other, and zealously
contended to win social and pubUc esteem through
reUgious devotion, we discover a degree of cruelty and
injustice which did not characterize the nation five
centuries before. Their cruelty was not exercised
upon the guUty, but upon the innocent. Thefr frauds
were practiced upon those only who were unable to
penetrate the vail which obscured their designs or
comprehend the status of thefr moral condition. The
devotee of justice, had he dared to act in reformatory
measures, would have found himself confronted by
powerful enemies in the persons of poUtical and eccle
siastical functionaries. Although the curmudgeon
"withheld bread from the starving widow and orphan,
his calUng was made respectable by the previous fall
of the people into greater vices. The worst forms of
depravity pervaded all relations, and perjury, incon
tinence, soricide, uxorcide, paricide, fratricide, and
filicide were become common to the knowledge of the
masses of the nation, and no longer curdled the blood
of the fastidious. As all ranks, ages, and sexes,
seemed to be possessed of an unlimited disposition for
the commission of evil, the devout, for want of better

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 323
reasons, might argue that the entfre nation was forced
on to self-destruction by demons of the nether world.
If the agents of Nero were oppressive to the Jews, if
they stirred up strife among them, it was because they
found the latter parasitical and feloniously predis
posed. Had the people been moral, the subsidiary
interests of Neronic power in that portion of the globe
would have been weak and ineffectual. But the gov
ernors of the Roman tyrant readily discovered by the
condition of the people, that whatever acts of barbarity
they were disposed to enforce, would be endorsed by
aU those of the Hebrews who were aUowed to share in
the spoUs, or in the apparent honors of position. If
neither of these were accorded to the learned, to the
rich, or to those of iUustrious bfrth, they were known
to be sUently assisting the marauding bands in their
raids upon the masses, or actively and publicly
engaged in the burning of cities and the plunder of
towns. Although the Roman governors were not
reluctant to remove, by violence, the persons of what
few private individuals there were who dared to oppose
the encroachments of the executive upon their own
peculiar stations, yet they always found at hand
among the Jews, servUe and ready slaves to carry
their bloody measures into execution. 15 2
153 See the case of the high priest, Jonathan, when assassins were hired
by Felix to treacherously put him to death.— Josephus' Antiquities op the
Jews, book 20, ch. 8, sec. 5.

324 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
The most intimate friend of Jonathan, for a large
sum of money given to him by the procurator, plotted
his death and thus caused his murder. * " " The friends
of the high priest were in friendly communication with
marauding gangs and murderers. ' = * These outlaws
were alternately employed by the government and by
the pious friends and relatives of those in exalted sta
tions in the church.*'" Although the employed had
less pride, he had not less moraUty than his employer.
Yet the robbers of the nation were accustomed to go
up to the temple for the double purpose to worship
God and to secretly stab those whom they were
employed by reward to destroy.**' If one in the
holy city had enemies who were possessed of means,
he stood in fear of being murdered by hfred assassins,
either in his own house, in the streets, or even in
the temple.*'* Persons of ecclesiastical pretensions
imposed upon the multitude, and while the latter
were deluded into the "wilderness, they were slain by
their kindred from the city. * ' '
The robbers were not wholly in the employ of
wealthy civilians; they were retained by the high
150 JosEPHEUs' Antiquities of the Jews, book 20, ch. 8, sec. 6.
151 Ibid.
153 Ibid.
153 Ibid.
154 Ibid.
155 Ibid., sec. 0.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 325
priests, by whom also they were led on to riot, and
by force to seize upon the highest positions in the
church for their ecclesiastical leaders."" The cov
etous nature of the high priests was not modified by
the condition of the victim, but by the elements of
their own fear ; might made right, and as the defense
less could offer no resistance, the primates of the
church preyed upon the poor and the weak. Nor
did they have regard to the relation of consan
guinity, of friends or foes, for whoever fell into their
hands was stripped of whatever he possessed, and
whUe he thus became destitute, his former goods,
although of little worth, went to sweU and increase
the riches of the highest and most exalted men of
God. They left nothing, but in many instances took
all ; and one would naturaUy suppose that they must,
through mercy, have spared their clerical brethren,
but they did not; they took, by armed force, the
grain off the thrashing-fioors of the poorest priests,
which was in preparation to sustain their own Uves
and those of their families. The consequence was
that vast numbers of the latter, together "with thefr
families, starved to death.*"''
The high priests, backed by those outlaws whom
they had retained, fought small battles against each
156 Josephus' Antiquities or the Jews, book 30, ch. 8, sec. 8.
157 Ibid.

326 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
other, to obtain the perquisites and the ecclesiastical
honors of the church.*"' Yet they offered sacri
fices and burnt incense in the holy house to the
Most High. They observed the feasts, the fasts, the
sabbath, and all those injunctions except the moral
laws, such as thou shalt not steal, nor defraud thy
neighbor, nor rob him;*"° thou shalt not commit
adultery ;•"' he that killeth any man shaU surely be
put to death;*"* if thy brother be waxen poor, and
fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him,
yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, that he
may live with thee.*'* But as a large part of the
Jewish nation had, from the lowest citizen to the
highest functionary, already become robbers, assas
sinations were cheap and plunder common.*"'
As years added to the age of the hierarchy, and
gave weight and reverence to the forms of worship,
the people were being converted from a partial moral
condition into one of professional criminality. * ' * They
threw off all restraints, and aU claims even to apparent
respectability

i£8 JosEpaus' Antiquities op the Jews, book 20, ch.8, see. 3.
139 L"EYiTicus, ch. 19, verses U-13.
i6o Ibid., ch. 20, verse 10.
i6i Ibid., ch. 24, verse IV.
162 Ibid., ch. 85, verse 85.
163 See Antiquities op thu Jews, book 20, ch. 6, sec. 10, where Josephus
says that Judea was so afflicted by robbers that they were enabled to subdue
whole cities.
164 Ibid.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 327
For fifteen centuries the Hebrews had been pro
gressing, and with them as with us in America, as
they were successful in the accumulation of riches,
surrounding themselves with the real and the imagin
ary comforts of life, they rejected all ideas of a moral
retrogression."" Those who held different opinions
were murmurers, croakers and foreboders of evil, who
envied the prosperity of others The whole world
was growing intellectually greater and morally better.
In reality, as their whole history shows, from the
time of their first establishment in Canaan to the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian, they
graduaUy grew worse and worse in morals; they
progressed in reUgion and criminality, but not in
virtue. * " " Concurrent "with the accumulations of the
miser, or of the debauchee, there is proportional
satisfaction at the condition of the world. The latter
can erqoy his animal appetite to its full, and the
former be lost in the worship of the means. The
learned, the professional, the rich, defrauded the
poor and the ignorant; they robbed and oUt-robbed
the robbers.*"' But we find that all classes, even the
i6s Matthew, ch. 23.
i66 See Matthew, ch. 23, verses 28-33, where Christ denounces them as
being possessed and actuated by the utmost wickedness.
167 See the case wherein Doras, a "faithful friend" of Jonathan, the
high priest, was employed by Felix "to bring the robbers upon Jonathan,
In order to knl him; and this he did by promising to give him a great deal
of money for so doing. Doras complied with the proposal, and contrived

328 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
robbers themselves, went up to the temple to worship
God, and zealously regarded aU ceremonials of the
spiritual laws, although they paid no attention to
the moral commandments. * ' ' Such was the religious
and moral condition of the Jews at the breaking out
of hostilities between them and the Romans in the
twelfth year of the reign of Nero.
Their evU passions were the immediate cause of
the war, as these were afterward, during the siege of
the holy city, the productive agencies of their o"wn
immolation.*^' Whoever "will take the trouble to
closely study the condition of the Je-wish mind, from
the founding of the theocracy to the confiagration of
the holy house, "will not fail to discover the two
diverse directions in which their moral and religious
faculties must have progressed. Mankind are either
controlled and directed by the moral or by the
animal ; they are agents of the one or of the other,
and hence it becomes the intelligence of mankind to
elect by which the world shall be governed. Shall
matters so that the. robbers might murder him, after the following manner :
Certain of those robbers went up to the city as if they were going to worship
God, while they had daggers under their garments, and thus mingllns them
selves among the multitude, they slew Jonathan. "^Josephus' Antiquities
OP the Jews, book 20, ch. 8, sec. 5.
i68 Ibid, passim after ch. 8.
169 See Josephus' preface to The History op the Destruction op
Jerusalem, sec. 4, where he says : "Accordingly it appears to me that the
misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if they be compared
to these of the Jews, are not so considerable as they were ; while the authors
of them were not foreigners neither."

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 329
"vdce and crime be the ruling elements in the future,
as they have been in the past? These can only be
determined by a contemplation of thefr conduct. The
Jews had progressed, religiously, into a condition of
piety, and were become bigots in their beliefs; yet
they had not advanced in the feelings of justice and
compassion, but had, on the contrary, degenerated
into the wretched status of the pirate, had fallen
wholly under the influence of the animal faculties
of the mind. Yet they were firmly convinced that
they held a better moral relation to mankind than
did thefr forefathers. In the advancement of these
ideas of progression, they told the Saviour of the world
that had they lived in the earlier ages of the church
they "would not have been partakers in the blood
of the prophets."*''''
They closely adhered to the traditions of the
church, but zealously imitated the vicious conduct
of mankind in the past. These were the only two
advances they had made, for in the arts, in architec
ture, and generally in aU those things which are the
results of the intellectual faculties of mankind, they
had faUen behind their progenitors ; they exalted the
wisdom of their ancestors, and in comparison felt a

170 Consult Matthew, ch. 23, verses 30-31, where Christ answered this
conceit of theirs, and in His peculiar language pronounced them as culpable
as those who slew the prophets.

330 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
disparagement of their own.*''* The Jewish temple
was buUt more than six hundred years before the
final dispersion of the Jews. It was a work of mas
terly art, and although not as magnificent as king
Solomon's, which was destroyed by Babylon, yet had
long been the admiration of the world. Its workman
ship exceeded anything constructed in posterior ages.
But even knowledge, of whatever kind it may be,
is a curse to mankind if it tend not to elevate man
moraUy and socially. The intellectual powers, from
which much knowledge and learning arise, are subject
ive agents of the affective faculties of the mind. It
matters not, however, whether the Hebrews advanced
in knowledge or not, it is e-vident that they did not
in wisdom. But that they advanced in their spfritual
condition, and also that they at the same time degen
erated from a moral one, is beyond question.
We shall now introduce a few of those facts which
relate to the moral and religious condition of the Jews
just before their dispersion and during the siege of
Jerusalem. We have traced the decline of thefr moral
powers from Abraham to the conquest of the two tribes
by the Babylonians, and from the period just before
the commencement of their war against the Romans
to the breaking out of hostilities. We have afready
shown that after their restoration by Cyrus they no
171 Matthew, ch. 24 ; Mark, ch. 13, and Ihtejh, oh. 21.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 331
more rebelled against the religion of their ancestors,
but increased their devotions to the outer and inner
forms of spiritual worship. By the side of this
steady growth of their religious principles we find a
constant and continued disappearance of aU moral
elements from the nation. A final summing up of
the facts of their condition in these two particulars
wUl end our reflections upon their history.
Perhaps there is no better method by which to
discover the moral quaUties of a people than to
wholly emancipate them from all penal laws; that
when this is done, the true character of the nation
wiU appear fuUy to the satisfaction of the most stupid
incredulity. It would, to say the least, be a danger
ous experiment, and, although no one can conceive it
without a decided disapproval, it has been often
carried into practical effect in both ancient and mod
ern times. The venaUty of the judiciary and of the
executive has ever been a source of complaint in the
past, and wiU ever continue to be in the future. It
is principally from these two stations that civU wars
are evolved, although the latter are not the direct and
immediate consequences of the former. For it is evi
dent to the most superficial that, were the people just,
the power to do evU would have no being in these
functionaries of government. And if the people should
become such, the corruption of official persons would

332 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
disappear. Whenever venaUty has become practical
with officers of state, it has also "with the people.
There is a market for it, and its quantity is in pro
portion to the demoralized condition of the masses.
Therefore whoever affirms that his country has been
ruined by governors of venal motives, directly charges
his own people "with depravity. It is also evident
that mankind do not become corrupt all at once, but
that it is by a long and constant operation of the
natural laws that moral principles are made to dis
appear. And when it is made known to our under
standing that litigants and competitors, at any former
period, owed thefr success not to the merits of thefr
cause, but to the unwarrantable partiaUty of func
tionaries, we are driven, by force of reason, to the
conclusion that venality existed in both before they
came in contact.
This was the condition of affairs in Judea when the
relation of peace was broken off between it and Rome.
For several centuries before the procuratorships of
Albinus and Gessius Florus, an infordinate thfrst for
gold had become one of the chief riding passions in
the majority of the nation. The respectable classes in
former ages, who had disdained to violate the civU laws
of the land, and openly obtain thefr desfres by plunder
of the unwary, now took an indirect, but not the less
systematic and disreputable, course to accomplish

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 333
the same end. In the elections or appointments to
the civil and ecclesiastical governments, this passion
placed the higher classes in bonded obUgations to
success, and no means, however unscrupulous, was
omitted which was designed, by its nature, to warrant
a favorable issue. The same corrupt system was the
measure of individual prosperity in the trades and in
the professions, and as this soon became common to
the majority as an external assistant to the amassment
of wealth, the symptoms of moral decay came to
the knowledge of aU as an example for imitation.
Although these external acts were lightly considered
by the people, they had a direct and dangerous effect
on their inner nature. WhUe they thus satiated their
ambition, they expunged thefr manhood. Moral prin
ciples were no longer known except in, a few individual
instances, the baser passions becoming the predom
inant and ruling elements of the respectable.
WhUe this system of demoralization was in pro
gress with the higher ranks, the lower, influenced by
the "vicious conduct of the prosperous, took a bolder,
but no more dangerous, attitude to the existence of the
state. They abandoned all pretensions to honesty,
organizing themselves into companies for pUlage and
plunder upon the public. In no considerable time the
bands of outlaws had so increased their numbers as to
become potent, and very influential upon officers of

334 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
state and church. In the meantime they conducted
thefr enterprises against their own people. They
became a dangerous power in the land to the just,
and more especiaUy to those who divided the spoils
of the nation among themselves for pretended official
services to the state. The remaining portion of the
masses, not lost to virtue, were the "victims of both.
The dishonest peculations of the functionaries of the
kingdom, of the hierarchy, on the one hand, and of
the robbers on the other, became a crushing weight to
the poor, and as the sustenance of the nation depended
upon the labor of the last, their earnings were severely
reduced. Life became burdensome, its support diffi
cult, changing the feelings into bitterness and disgust.
When such ha,d become the mental condition of the
poor, there "was a rapid accession to the ranks, and
multiplication of the power, of the robbers.
Such was the ambition of the Jews, and of thefr
country, when Albinus and Gessius Florus were
appointed by the Roman government as procurators
of the Hebrews. Certain "writers of the Jewish war
would desire us to believe that these governors were
the immediate cause of hostilities, when it is well
known that they could have accomplished but a littie
more than nothing, had they not been supported by
a large portion, if not by the majority, of the ruled.
All the time of Albinus' appointment, the land was

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 835
overrun by gangs of highwaymen, i' " Although the
governor was secretly in league with them, released
them from prisons and granted them indulgence to
commit plunder, yet the principal citizens had previ
ously either organized bad men into gangs, or had
coalesced "with others already formed, and carried on
their pecuUar vocation in the large city.*'" Perhaps
no country in the whole world could, at any period of
its. history, present such an example of moral degen
eration. Nearly a moiety of the people were either
secretly or openly engaged in the commission of crime.
The caUing of the outlaw had been so long treated
with lenity by the government, and countenanced by
the masses, that it had gro"wn into power and respect
ability. Their operations in the capital indicated
their number and their power, as they were able to
sUence and put in fear all persons peaceably predis
posed. Although the masses were robbed, none dare
utter a murmur against the act.'''*

172 Josephus' Waes op the Jews, book 2, oh. 14, sec. 1.
173 Ibid.
174 As to the extent of their power over the people, and the fear which
the latter stood in, may be gathered from the following passage of Josephus :
"At this time it was, that the enterprises of the seditious at Jerusalem were
very formidable : the principal men among them purchasing leave of Albinus
to go on with their seditious practices ; while that part of the people who
delighted In disturbances, joined themselves to such as had fellowship with
Albinus : and every one of those wicked wretches was compassed with his
own band of robbers, while himself, like an arch-robber, or a tyrant, made a
figure among his company, and abused his authority over those about him.
In order to plunder those that lived quietly. The efFect of which was this.

336 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
But the Jews, instead of being corrupted by the
Roman governors, were the corrupters of them ; they
subordinated the agents of Rome to the advancements
of thefr own pecuniary ends. Those among the
Jews who had wealth purchased the influence, or
the sUence, of the latter to the robberies which the
former had committed. Nor can this act, so far as
we are informed, be chargeable to the lower classes
of the inhabitants, for it and many more of a simUar
nature were the acts of the prelates of the church.
Ananus, the high priest during the administration
of Albinus, had surrounded himself "with a gang oi
Jews who went out of the city and committed rob
beries upon the agriculturists, returning the plunder
to their leader.
But when it became known at the seat of empfre
that Albinus had been influenced by money to tolerate
the barbarous acts of the clergy and wealthy civUians,
he was removed by the imperial government, and
another appointed to fill his position. During his
administration robberies had been the most numerous
and frequent that had ever been kncwn in Judea.

that those who lost their goods were forced to hold their peace when they
had reason to show great indignation at what they had suffered; but those
who escaped were forced to Hatter him that deserved to be punished, out
of the fear they were in of suffering equally with the others. Upon the whole,
nobody durst speak their mind, for tyranny was generally tolerated and
at this time were those seeds sown which brought the city to destruction." —
Josephus' Wabs of the Jews, book 2, ch. 14, sec. 1.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 337
He both tolerated them and destroyed their enter
prises ; but none met "with disfavor who were wUUng
to contribute to his private purse. It is evident, from
his acts, that he intended to license all who were
"wUling to divide the spoUs "with him ; those who did
not were antagonistic to his interests, and those only
did he punish. Although he was accessible to bribery
and joined himself to the interest of some of the out
law gangs, he was no worse than the high priest,
Jesus, for Albinus and Jesus were bought to favor
the schemes of that gang of robbers which was
headed by another high priest, Ananus, at one and
the same time. In these cases money was more
potent than the feelings of reUgion and equity."*
But when Gessius Florus succeeded Albinus, we
find an entire change in the appearance of the higher
class of the Jews. Florus emancipated the people
from all penal laws by encouraging them in the com
mission of crimes. Then it was that the higher
classes, in both state and church, threw off aU reserve,
and plied thefr vocation with the pubUc avowal of
their object.*''" And the higher we ascend in the
different classes of this people, from the poorest
peasant to the most iUustrious prelate and prince,
we meet with corruption in proportion to our advance.
17s Josephus' Anhquties op the Jews, book 20, oh. 9, sec. 2.
17* Ibid., ch. 11, sec. 1.
23

338 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
The Jews dreaded thefr own governors; they preferred
those of Roman extraction, because the latter were
less odious and cruel. At the death of the Je"wish
king, Herod, sixty-nine years before Vespasian invaded
Judea with the Roman armies, the people opposed
the succession of his son, Archelaus. The reasons
which they had for opposing Archelaus, was the
tyrannical and cruel nature of the man.*'''' He had
slaughtered three thousand of the people that had
gpne up to worship, while he and they were offering
sacrifices. ^'^^ The Hebrews considered the Romans
to be barbarians, without religion, and doomed to be
lost at the day of judgment, yet they acknowledged
the greater humanity of their foreign governors. But
Archelaus was not the only governor of the Jews who
directed his official power to the murder. of his own
people, for at the breaking out of hostUities, the
toparch, Simon, ravaged, robbed and murdered all
the wealthy of his own nation in Idumea for thefr
m oney and otlier valuables. * '' ^ This he did while all

177 "And indeed the purport of his' [Antipas] "discourse was to aggravate
Archelaus' crime in slaying such a multitude about the temple, which multi
tude came to tho festival, but were barbarously slain in the midst of their own
sacrifices, and ho said there was such a vast number of dead bodies heaped
together in the temple as even a foreign war should that come upon them
before it was announced, could not have heaped together.'"— Josephus'
Waes op the Jews, book 2, ch. 2, sec. 5.
178 Ibid., ch. 1, sec. 3.
179 See the horrid acts of this villain drawn by Josephus, ia Wars op
the Jews, book 2, ch. 22, sec. 2.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 339
the cities of the Jews were being fortified for defense
against the advance of the Roman arms. A fine exhi
bition of patriotism, of compassion and of justice,
that, when the whole people of the country were in
excitement and endeavoring to prepare themselves for
defense against a nation that comprehended within its
grasp the entire civiUzed earth, one of its generals with
his army murders thousands for mere money, and
afterward by blows brutally disfigures the bodies of
the dead. The more discerning of the nation foresaw
that the calamities which were being committed by
their o"wn generals, upon themselves, were worse than
any that would be perpetrated by any foreign power.
They desired in aU instances at this time to be deliv
ered from their own people. But it was a small portion
of the Hebrews, for, by the paucity of their numbers,
in comparison to the whole body of the nation, they
were enabled to make very little opposition to that
mad energy which controUed the seditious and urged
them on to thefr own complete national extinction.
To convince one that the- selfish and the animal
faculties of the mind of this people were in uncondi
tional supremacy over the moral, it requfres but an
indifferent scrutiny of the character of the conduct in
the majority. All this majority, who were possessed
either of great physical strength, or of sufficient riches
to exercise influence over the lower classes, abandoned

340 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the cause of their country, of their people, of aU but
the gratification of thefr own brutal natures and spir
itual feeUngs in the reUgion of thefr ancestors. The
degree to which the last two were carried is, indeed,
almost as marvelous as miracles at which skeptics
have been disposed to scout since the introduction of
primitive Christianity into Rome. They were dfrectly
engaged either in their own devotion to despotic posi
tions over the nation, or the accumulation of great
riches by the plunder of the people. ¦ Judas, Simon,
Athrongeus, and a great many others put cro"wns on
thefr own heads, setting themselves up as kings of
the Hebrews.^'*

x8o " At this time there were great disturbances in the country, and that
In many places ; and the opportunity that now offered itself Induced a great
many to set up for king. * * * In Seporis, also, a city of Galilee, there was
one Judas, (the son of the arch-robber Hezekias,) who formerly overran the
country, and had been subdued by king Herod ; this man got no small multi
tude together, and broke open the place where the royal armor was laid up,
and armed those about him, and attacked those that were so earnest to gain
the dominion. * * * In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants of the king,
relying upon the handsome appearance and tallness of his person, put a diadem
upon his own head also; he also went about with a company of robbers that
he had got together, and burnt down the royal palace that was at Jericho, and
many other costly edifices besides, and procured himself very easily spoils, by
rapine, as snatching them out of the fire. * * * At this time it was that a
certain shepherd ventured to set himself up for king; he was called Athron
geus. It was his strength of body that made him expect such a. dignity, as
well as his soul, which despised death ; and besides these qualifications, he
had four brethren like himself. He put a troop of armed men under each of
these his brethren, and made use of them aa his generals and commanders
when he made his incursions, while he did himself act like a king, and med
dled only with the more important affairs ; and at this time he put a diadem
about his head, and continued after that to overrun the country for no little
time with his brethren, and became their leader in killing; both the Bomans
and those of the king's party ; nor did any Jew escape him, if any gain could
accrue to him thereby."— Josephus' Wabs op the Jews, book 2, oh. 4.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 341
What reaUy was the number that attempted, dur
ing the distresses of the nation, "to gain control of the
masses and establish themselves in tyrannical author
ity, never can be known with any certainty, but,
according to a credible historian, they were in all
probability very great.
Yet these were literally nothing in comparison to
that portion which were concealed in another direction,
under those influences emanating from one and the
same source of the inner nature of thefr minds. At
the time a part had crowned themselves and were
making war upon the Jews as weU as against the
arms of Rome, a greater number had become aUied
to the freebooters, and pursued a course of unre
strained crime. The fatter attacked the innocent at
night in their dweUings, murdered them, robbed them
and burned their dweUings to the ground. . They
attacked those of the Roman legions who had strayed
too far from camp to receive protection, murdered them
and plundered their dead bodies of all effects. The
defenseless condition of the Jewish army organized
for the protection of the state met the same atrocious
treatment. This class, at the breaking out of hostUi
ties, was by far the most numerous of any caUing in
the nation, and amounting almost to a moiety of the
adult male inhabitants, was in a state of unrestrained
piracy, attacking, "without regard to nationaUty or

342 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
condition, all mankind within Judea. * °^ Being more
powerful than the authorities of the law, they congre
gated in the city of Jerusalem, there not only robbing
the most respectable people, but murdering them
upon the pretense of treason to the Jews. The first
officers of government whom they dispatched were
Antipas, Levias and Raguel, all of royal descent. '^^
They then began to place their own agents in positions
over the people in state and church. This resulted in
conflicts between the people and those who were termed
robbers. But the people were led against the outlaws
by Ananus, whose own character seems to have been,
several years prior to this time, very similar to that
of those whom he now denounced as robbers and
viUains. ^ ^ ^ We have seen that by his gifts, he had
bribed Albinus, the procurator, and Jesus, the high
priest. ' ' " He it was who while high priest, condemned
James, the brother of Christ, to be stoned contrary to
law. ' ° '

i3i Josephus, in speaking of the moral condition of the masses at this
time, observes, that " in the flrst place, all the people in every place betook
themselves to rapine; after which they got together iu bodies, in order to rob
the people of the country," [the Jewish agriculturists,! " insomuch that for
barbarity and iniquity those of the same nation did no way differ from the
Bomans ; nay, it seemed to be a much lighter thing to be ruined by Bomans
than by themselves."— Wabs op the Jews, book 4, ch. 3, sec. 2.
182 Ibxd., sees. 4 and 6.
183 Compare JosispHus' Antiquities op the Jews, book 20, ch. 9, sees.
1 and 2, with his Wars op the Jews, book 4, ch. 3, sees. 9 and 10.
184 Josephus' Ahtiquities op the Jews, book 20, ch. 9, sec. 3.
185 Ibid., sec. 7.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 343
He had accumulated great riches during his pontifi
cate by robbery of the people, some of whom, from
want, in consequence of his act, starved to death. '^°
But the other high priests of his time did so likewise
before the breaking out of hostUities, and thus when
the poorer classes of the people saw that of whatever
they were the lawful owners, was taken by the prelates
of the church through their greed of gain, they came to
regard the offices of both state and church as positions
from which the fortunate enriched themselves by fraud
and oppression practiced upon the masses. And thus
in those first confiicts in the city, the character of one
party was but little better than that of the other. Both
parties, the one by practice, the other by retrospec
tion, looked upon the higher ecclesiastical trusts as
desirable ends, possessing two distinct objects, and
comprehending "within thefr range all there were in
time and eternity, inordinate riches below and ever
lasting happiness above. The opinions which each
of the beUigerent forces, in Jerusalem, had of the
other, were verified by the conduct of both prior to,
as weU as at, the time of the civil war. Ananus and
Jesus, high priests, and their leading foUowers, had
maintained, as they thought, sufficient modesty to
dissemble thefr purposes of Ufe, that thefr real objects
were partiaUy concealed under the appearance of thefr
Josephus' Antiquities op the Jews, book 20, ch. 9, sec. 2.

344 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
sanctity. To the characteristics of the robber and the
murderer, they added that of hypocrisy. But that
vulgar party, which were now endeavoring to seize
upon the pontifical benefices, cannot be charged with
this last element of depravity. The zealots, robbers,
were under the command of those whose ancestral
origin were as iUustrious for piety, as that of Ananus,
or of Jesus.*"
But when the superior power of the high priests
was about to eject the zealots from the temple, which
the latter had appropriated to thefr own uses as a
fortress and as a place of worship, the lying cunning
of thefr leaders outwitted the chiefs of the people,
Eleazar and Zacharias, through representations, which,
although apparently false, yet were supported by
something approaching to truth. Nor were the Idu-
means slow to be convinced that the high priests and
the principal citizens were about to treacherously
surrender the city to the disciplined armies of the
Romans. It had been known that the prelates were
opposed to the war, and, although peace was prefer
able to a contest of arms with the world, yet the
majority of the nation, in a case of hostiUties, had a
right to be heard on a question touching thefr national
independence. But when the twenty thousand armed
187 See reply of Simon to the high priest, Josephus' Wabs op the Jews,
book 4, ch. 4, .sec. 4.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 345
Idumeans ^,Jews) had gotten inside of the city, the
true character of the nation gave a fuU exhibition of
itself. The shocking cruelties which were then com
mitted, would freeze the spirit of an Indian thug.
And although the Idumeans had, as long as any
other tribe of the Hebrews, been thoroughly educated
in all matters pertaining to their spiritual natures,
they were, even in times of peace, with great difficulty
restrained from the commission of murder. The
slaughters of which they were guilty, at Jerusalem,
extended to the innocent and to the corrupt, to infancy
and to old age, to those who were suffering from
disease and to those who were in the full strength of
manhood and thus able to oppose them in arms. The
nature of the confiict, the dead bodies in the houses
and thoroughfares of the city, fully indicated the
character of the Idumeans and of the zealots The
entrance of the former into the city had been effected
in the night, which, when it became known to the
inhabitants, created great consternation among them.
The bloody brutality of this tribe was known through
out Israel to exceed that of the robbers themselves.
The slightest offense, were it but a mere • act of self
protection, was a capital crime in the eyes of the
Idumeans, and the person exercising it worthy of
death "without right of burial.
They took no prisoners, granted no mercy, and, as

346' HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
they ' ' spared neither age, sex, nor condition," their only
concern apparently was the amount of killing they
would be enabled to accomplish in the shortest period
of time. "They are naturally a most barbarous and
bloody nation" ;!«» "they were murderers." "» These
are the descriptive heads under which they were classed
by their most truthful and Ulustrious historian. But
what need has one to rely upon the generalized char
acteristics Josephus has given of this nation when he
records thefr acts? From these none can come to any
other determination. Of the aristocratic portion of
the inhabitants in the city, they murdered twelve
thousand. If we are allowed to estimate the relative
proportion of rich to poor, the slaughters of the latter
were at least tive times that of the former. This was
caused by the predisposition of the Idumeans and of the
zealots for the shedding of human blood, and not in
consequence of the refusal of Ananus and Jesus to per
mit them to enter the city during a storm. It could
not be expected by them that they would be welcomed
by that class which they had come armed to oppose.
This is a weak and untenable position which Josephus
assumed -without being at all warranted by the nature
of the facts. But if one suppose, as the same author
relates, that they were first incited to take up arms
i88 Josephus' Wau op the Jews, book 1, oh. 5, see. 1.
»Bo Ibid.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 347
against the authorities of the city through the belief
that the latter were about to betray the cause of the
people to the Romans, he cannot arrogate to this their
mad inclination to slaughter those in whom no such
disposition was discovered. If Ananus and Jesus had
taken precautionary measures of self defense, in which
they were by all known principles justified, the aged,
the infirm, the women and children had not. If the
high priests, in contemplation of the unrestrained
disposition of their people to cruelty and plunder,
had favored the occupation of the country, or even
the holy city, by the army of the Romans, there
were those who knew nothing of these intentions, if
they did their opinions could have added no weight
whatever to the affafr.
As the people, a miscellaneous assemblage, from
private dwellings, of all ages and sexes, collected to
ascertain the cause of excitement, when the Idumeans
effected an entrance into the city, they were pressed
upon and slaughtered in heaps, while women and
children implored them for mercy. After such a
portion of the people had been cut off as gave the
government of the city uito the power of the zealots,
the Idumeans quitted it, returning to their gwu land,
where they soon underwent the same fate which
they had visited upon the defenseless of Jerusalem.
Another band of robbers, under the command of

348 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Simon, numbering not far from sixty five thousand,
by their slaughters and conflagrations, left Idumea
depopulated and a smoking desert.'"" So that one
entfre nation of outlaws perished at the hands of
another as devoted to murder and plunder as itself.
Masada was like"wise under the control of the same
class of the Jewish nation. Throughout the entfre
country surrounding this city, they murdered those
who did not make their escape, and then plundered
their residences.'"' They slew at the small city of
Engaddi, while the men of the place were absent at
the feast of unleavened bread, "above seven hun
dred women and chUdren."'"* The whole country
surrounding Masada was left by them in complete
desolation."" Every village in the "vicinity was pU-
laged by robbers. The marauding armies that were
marching through the country were so powerful that
fortified cities were in danger of being taken and
sacked by them. The city of Gadara wa^ a tempting
prize to the avaricious tendencies of the marauding
Jews, and its wealthy citizens, knowing that thefr
property was the price of their lives, were forced to
surrender the city into the hands of the Romans to
preserve both. They, however, were not in danger
xgo Josephus' Wabs op the Jews, book 4, ah. 9, sees. 6, 3 and 7.
191 Ibid., ch. 7, sec. i.
192 Ibid.
193 Ibid.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 349
from bands without the city, but were about to be
overpowered and butchered by the same but hypo
critical elements from within.*** The fear which the
inhabitants of this city had of falUng into the hands
of their own nationality, amounted almost to a feeling
of terror, and although not remarkable considering
the cfrcumstances, disappeared at the entrance of the
Romans: they welcomed them "with joy.'"^ Through
out the whole war, the unarmed feared nothing more
than the savage nature of thefr own people. Thefr
only refuge, for life and property, was in the protec
tion of their political foes.
At the breaking out of hostilities, as we have already
observed, about one-half of the entire population were,
dfrectly or indirectly, committed to the crimes of rob
bery and of murder. But after the war had progressed
a year or more there was a change, not in the proclivi
ties but in the conduct of the masses, not less than
three-fourths of the nation being engaged in these pur
suits. Their acts were external exhibitions of innate
mental conditions which had long existed; moral
hypocrisy and dissimulation were suppressed, and the
crimes of which the people were guUty were but the
natural language of their evU dispositions. The whole
tribe of the Idumeans, "with scarcely an exception,

194 JosEPHtre' Wabs op the Jews, book 4, ch. 1, seo. 8.
ijs Ibid.

350 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
were devoted fuUy to the slaughter and plunder of
others. They were a powerful tribe, yet there were
those of purer descent, of not less piety, but of more
bloodthfrsty tendencies, who extinguished them by the
sword, appropriating thefr effects. Greed and cru
elty were the characteristics which governed the whole
Hebrew people at this period of their history. These
two feelings, consequences of thefr corresponding prim
itive causes when perverted and unopposed by the
subordinate condition to which the moral had faUen,
produced a correlative determination of the Jewish
mind to those states of active criminaUty by which the
nation was finaUy expunged. A greed for gold, and
an innate love of inflicting death upon whatever is
possessed of life, as horrible as it may appear, were
the perverted feelings to which the major part of the
nation had, at length, become enslaved. Before the
war was two-thirds concluded, every city in the
whole land of the Jews, not in the immediate pos
session of the Romans, was held and controUed by
Jewish robbers, '°° who slaughtered its people for
the double purpose of plunder, and to enjoy the
pleasures of witnessing the dying agonies of thefr
"victims. '"^

196 Josephus' Waes op the Jews, book 3, 4 and 6.
197 The Jews had mostly become robbers, and of them Josephus says:
"They agreed in nothing but this, to kill those that were innocent."— Ibid.
book 6, ch. 1, sec. 6.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 351
After the piratical portion had robbed and mur
dered the country people and desolated nearly the
whole land, they were finally driven by the legions
to the holy city, where they continued that calUng to
which, by the perversion of their mental powers, they
had long been predisposed. Before the arrival of the
legions at the walls of the city, the revolting crimes of
the Jews in it fully justified the idea of searching for
gross brutality, not in the animal creation, but in man
himself. Their career was one of pure cruelty, without
the excuse of those triflingly mitigating circumstances
which usually attend the mercUess life of the corsair.
The nature of thefr phrenic condition was destructive
of all else, and death followed th.jfr movements. The
armed and the unarmed aUke feU beneath the blows
of the same blade. Death was the doom of the con
queror and the conquered. From death, in Jerusalem,
none could escape, and the Uving envied the sUent and
happy state of the dead.
But it appeared to make no difference what part or
class of the nation had the power in numbers, or was
clothed with the civil administration backed by the
mUitia of the realm, as the same lamentable acts were
sure to result, the one and same characteristics exist
ing in aU sexes, ranks and professions. For ages
external phenomena had dealt, with an unsparing
hand, fatal blows to the primitive moral powers.

352 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
The day of judgment, under the natural laws, with
this people had arrived; the last penalty to which
they were liable could no longer be deferred; they
were to be extinguished by those very faculties which
they had caUed into active predomina«nce. ' " '
Having shown what were the moral qualities of the
Jewish nation down to the time of its dispersion, we
have only a few facts of a religious nature to add by
way of contrast to the civil Ufe of its people. We
shall see by the following array of facts, in addition
to those already given of the same kind, that the
reUgious feelings of this people were in full life,
strength and activity; that their veneration for the
reUgion of their ancestors had suffered no diminu
tion, and that they worshiped, as devotedly as any

198 Josephus himself says, "that it was a seditious temper of our own
that destroyed it, and that they were the tyrants among the Jews who brought
the Eoman power upon us, who unwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the
destruction of our holy temple. Titus Csssar, who destroyed it, is himself a
vritness who, during the entire war, pitied the people, who were kept under
by the seditious, and did often delay the taking of the city, and allow time to
the siege, in order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance. But if
any one makes an unjust accusation against us, when we speak so passionately
about the tyrants, or the robbers, or sorely bewail the misfortunes of our
country, let him indulge my affections herein, though it be contrary to the
rules of writing history ; because it had so come to pass, that our city of Jeru
salem had arrived at a higher degree of felicity than any other city under
the Boman government, and yet at last fell into the sorest calamities again.
Accordingly, it appears to me, that the misfortunes of all, from the beginning
of the world, if they be compared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable
as they were ; while the authors of them were not foreigners neither. This
makes it impossible for me to contain my lamentations. But if any one be
InHcxible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves to the
historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only."— preface,
seo. 4, to tho Histoby op the DESTsucnoir op Jebusai,eu.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 353
race can worship, the Supreme Being with aU the
enthusiasm that is possible under the primitive reUg
ious faculties of the mind. And also whUe they were
the worst depraved, they were the most reUgious and
superstitious inhabitants of western Asia or of eastern
Europe. AU classes, high and low, had regularly attended
upon divine service for several centuries before the
expunction of the nation. They were very easUy
and seriously affected by those signs which were
termed evU, or those omens that they supposed por
tended good or Ul consequences to the individual or
to the nation. Like the inhabitants of Europe in the
the middle ages, thefr fears were greatly influenced
by many of the accidences of Ufe. It foretold misfor
tune to the person to have discovered the new moon
over the left shoulder, to have turned back after
departure, and more ridiculous stUl, to have passed
a gray horse "without pulling a hair out of his taU.
The most educated minds of the Jews, such as Jose
phus', were alternately in subordination to the reUgious
and to the animal faculties. The former is made known
to us by the great confidence which Josephus placed
in a dream, relating to the fall of Jotapata, his o"wn
capture by the Romans, and the elevation of the
Vespasians to universal empfre. He believed it was
UteraUy fulfiUed that he was saved aUve by the wisdom
23

354 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of God, to predict future events to certain eminent
persons of Rome."" But the whole people of the
Jews were easUy imposed upon by the prediction of
felse prophets. During the siege of the city of Jerusa
lem, toward its close, when the besieged could offer no
further successful resistance to the legions, the people
got upon the holy house "wdth the firm belief that, as
they had been told, they should there witness, by a
providential act, their own salvation and the destruc
tion of the Romans.""'
As the facts belonging to the last days of the nation
are narrated by one, in a manner which is at once
reverential and superstitious; as they were indorsed
by him whose mind was, perhaps, the least burdened
by the superstition of his age, we have concluded to
aUow him to testify, in his own pecuUar way, to the spir
itual condition of himself and of his own nationality.
In connection with the last fact given in the preceding
paragraph, Josephus says: "Thus were this misera
ble people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as
belied God himself; while they did not attend nor give
credit to the signs that were so evident, and did so
plainly foretell their future desolation, but Uke men
infatuated, without either eyes to see or minds to con
sider, did not regard the denunciation that God made
199 Josephus' Wabs or the Jews, book 3, ch. 8, seo. 9.
300 Ibid., book 6, ch. 6, aeo. 2.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 355
to them. Thus there "was a star resembUng a sword,
which stood over the city, and a comet that continued
a whole year. Thus also before the Jews' rebeUion,
and before the commotions which preceded the war,
when the people were come in great crowds to the feast
of unleavened bread, on the eighth Xanthicus, and
at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone
around the altar of the holy house, that it appeared
to be bright day-time ; which light lasted for half an
hour. This Ught seemed to be a good sign to the
unskillful, but was interpreted by the sacred scribes
to portend those events that followed immediately
"upon it. At the same festival also a heifer, as she was
led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a
lamb in the midst of the temple. Moreover, the eastern
gate of the inner temple, which was brass, and vastly
heavy, and had been with great difficulty shut by
twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed "with fron,
and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor,
which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to
be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of
the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple
came hereupon running to the captain of the temple,
and told him of it, who then came up hither, and not
without great difficulty was able to shut the gate again.
But the men of learning understood it, that the secu
rity of the holy house was dissolved of its own accord,

366 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
and the gate was opened for the advantage of its
enemies. So these publicly declared, that the signal
foreshadowed the desolation that was coming upon
them. Besides these, a few days after the feast, on
the one-and-twentieth day of the month Artemisius, a
certain prodigious and incredible phenomena appeared.
I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable,
were it not related by those who saw it, and were not the
events that foUowed of so considerable a nature as to
deserve such signals; for before sun-setting, chariots
and troops of soldiers in thefr armor, were seen run
ning about among the clouds, and surrounding of
cities. Moreover, at the feast which we caU Pentecost,
as the priests were going by night into the inner court
of the temple, as the custom was, to perform their
sacred ministrations, they said, that in the first place
they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after
that heard a sound of a great multitude, saying ' Let
us remove hence.' But what is still more terrible,
there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and
a husbandman, who, four years before the war began,
and at a time when the city was in very great peace
and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our
custom for every one to make tabernacles to God in the
temple, began on a sudden to cry aloud, 'A voice from
the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four
winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 367
a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a
voice against the whole people.' This was his cry as
he went about by day and by night, in all the lanes of
the city. However, certain of the most eminent among
the populace, had great indignation at this dire cry
of his, and took up the man, and gave him a great
number of severe stripes; yet did not he either say
anything for himself, or anything to those that chas
tised him, but stUl went on "wdth the same words which
he cried before. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as
the case proved to be, that this was a sort of di"vdne
fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procura
tor, where he was whipped till his bones were laid
bare ; yet did ^lot he make any suppUcation for him
self, nor shed any tears ; but turning his voice to the
most lamentable tones possible, at every stroke of the
whip his answer was, 'Wo, wo, to Jerusalem.' And when
Albinus (for he was then our procurator), asked hivn
'Who he was? and whence he came, and why he
uttered such words?' he made no manner of reply
to what he said, but stUl did not leave off his melan
choly ditty, tUl Albinus took him to be a madman,
and dismissed him. Now, during aU the time that
passed before the war began, this man did not go
near any of the citizens, nor was seen by them whUe
he said so ; but he e"veTy day uttered these lamentable
words, as if it were his premeditated vow, ' Wo, wo, to

358 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Jerusalem.' Nor did he give iU words to those that
beat him every day, nor good words to those that
gave him food ; but this was his reply to aU men, and,
indeed no other than a melancholy presage of what
was to come. This cry of his was the loudest at the
festivals ; and he continued this ditty for seven years
and five months, without growing hoarse or being.
tfred there"with, until the very time that he saw his
presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased ;
for as he was going the rounds upon the wall he cried
out "with his utmost force, 'Wo, wo, to the city again,
and to the holy house.' And just as he added at the
last, 'Wo, wo, to myself also,' there came a stone out
of one of the engines and smote him, and killed him
immediately ; and as he was uttering the very same
presage he gave up the ghost. "^'' By refiections
upon these facts he continues:
"Now if any one consider these things, he "wiU
find that God takes care of mankind, and by aU
ways possible foreshows to our race what is for thefr
preservation, but that men perish by these miseries
which they madly and voluntarUy bring upon them
selves; for the Jews, by demoUshing the tower of
Antonia, had made thefr temple four-square, whUe
at the same time they had it written ia thefr sacred
oracles that 'then should thefr city be taken, as weU
20I Josephus' Wars op the Jews, book 6, ch. 5, sec. 3.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 359
as their holy house, when once thefr temple should
become four-square.' But now, what did most elevate
them in undertaking this "war was an ambiguous oracle
that was found also in the sacred writings, how 'about
that time one from their country should become
governor of the habitable earth.' The Jews took this
prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and
many of the "vrise men were thereby deceived in thefr
determination. Now this oracle certainly denoted the
government of YespasiaJi, who was appointed emperor
in Judea. However, it is not possible for men to avoid
fate, although they see it beforehand. But these men
interpreted some of these signals according to thefr own
pleasure, until their madness was demonstrated both
by the taking of the city and thefr own destruction." • •*
The foregoing chapter closes aU the testimony we
have to offer by way of reflections upon the Jew
ish mind, in disproof of an old doctrine which has
been as prejudicial to the advancement of Christianity
as it has been to the best interests of the human race.
We now submit them, by way of contrast, to the
judgment of the reader for his determination, satisfied
that the evidence is ponderous and overwhelming in
proof that the reUgious and the moral feeUngs are
consequences of distinct and independent causes in
the mind of man.

203 Josephus' Wabs op the Jews, book 6, oh. 6, sec. 4.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
In Abraham and his descendants there was a res
toration of man to his primitive moraUty, and it
continued "with them to that generation which imme
diately succeeded the death of Joseph. From that
time forward, during thefr bondage in Egypt and
down to thefr dispersion, this assumption of theology
was one of the main productive elements of the great
moral degeneracy of the Hebrews. The religious and
the animal faculties of the mind in them were culti
vated to an extraordinary degree, and, as a consequence
of this supremacy, the people under them alternated
between the worship of God and. the murder of thefr
feUow men. No system of culture was inaugurated
designed by its nature to stimulate the feelings of
justice and of compassion, and those two noble
faculties, instituted by the "wisdom of Divine Pro"vd-
dence to properly adjust man in all his relations of
life, perished from all influence over the mental
horoscope of the Jews.
Excepting the efforts made by Socrates, there has
been no change from that day to this. In lands of
freedom, like the United States of America and the
United Kingdom of Great Britain, the severe reflections
of the press upon the injustice of indi"vdduals and the
cruelty inflicted by savages and desperadoes, have had
some tendency to stimulate those faculties into active
vigilance. But whUe the old aggressive doctrine of

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 361
theology is still acting upon the reUgious "with no
influence over the moral nature, and the schools and
the universities of learning are stUl operating upon the
intellectual powers, the external phenomena are rap
idly bringing the propensities forward to a position of
more perfect empfre over the entfre soul. In the two
last countries mentioned, they now overawe justice
upon the bench, -virtue in the pulpit and in the legis
lative halls of the nation. This we -will demonstrate
to be the case "with the former when we come to trace
the events which mark its decline.
The course of religion has not so much tended to
dfrect nations to the true principles of ethics, and to
impress upon them the characteristics of moraUty, as
to endorse the prevaUing sentiments of the times,
whatever those sentiments might be, short of down
right rejection of the authenticity and integrity of
Divine revelation. This has met its undivided oppo
sition and condemnation. During the mediaeval period
it was a lever in the hands of despots for the oppres
sion of the weak ; and this appUcation of reUgion had
become so commonly known as an auxUiary of central
ized power, that "No bishop, no king," became the
logic of princes. If monarchial tenets were fashionable
with the nation, it became an agent to reduce those
tenets to practice, arguing the '¦'¦jwre divino" of kings
into pubUc favor. If the equitable rights of man were

362 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
generally acknowledged as most desirable among a
people, they had the hearty support of the church, and
any abridgement of his freedom, by anti-republican
laws, was a "violation of the sacred books.
From the fifth to the fifteenth century, it did not
prevent mUUons from being burnt at the stake and
otherwise murdered for dissenting opinions. But from
A. D. 1519, when Luther began his disputations "with
the Roman hierarchy, forward to the completion of
the reformation, the outrages which it had perpetrated,
roused the moral feeUngs of a portion of the white races
into active life; and, as opposition begat protracted
persecutions, the moral, "with dissenters, continued to
progress toward a condition of supremacy in the mind.
This mental status, when reached in our British ances
tors, discarded, in a measure, moral hypocrisy, became
a support to the true principles of Christianity, propor-
tionaUy enforcing the obUgations man is under to the
moral laws. When this partial supremacy of the moral
sentiments arrived in this country, reUgion, by thefr
influence, opposed the crimes of the west, and engaged
in a decided opposition to slavery both north and south.
But in 1820, when there was an apparent change in
the condition of mind in the Americans, when the
symptoms of the times warranted the belief that the
moral sentiments had become subordinate to the pro
pensities, although religion was much more popular,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 363
and had greatly extended the power of its influence, U
lent its aid to enforce and to multiply African slavery
then here in existence.
Prior to 1850, the moral sentiments had been wan
ing for two generations. Religion both favored and
opposed the wars of 1812 and 1847, the last being for
the acquisition of slave territory, for the ostensible
object of bringing this curse into such general use
as to finally extinguish the remaining sentiments of
morality, which stUl continued to manifest an active
antagonism to the injustice of slavery. This was
essentially a struggle between the moral and the
animal; and religion, watching the contest, foUowed
in the wake, and sided "with whichever rose to power
in the government. But when, by the continued efforts
of the moral sentiments, through the greater develop
ment which they had apparently acquired in 1859 and
1860, had very nearly divided the suffrages of the nation
for and against slavery at the north, the political char
acter which reUgion then held somewhat corresponded
to the ballots of the republican and democratic parties.
As the abolition proclivities of the moral faculties
grew more active and embittered the feelings of the
North and the South in the conflict, religion, corre
sponding to the sentiments in the two different sections,
both supported and condemned human bondage. In
the South, and to some extent in the North, slavery

364 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
was a di"vine institution, having been estabUshed ages
before by Jehovah through the agency of the Hebrew
patriarchs. He deUvered the Jews into bondage to
the Egyptians, to the Babylonians, and finaUy to the
Romans. God had dfrected Jeremiah to say to his
people, "I "wiU cause thee to serve thine enemies in
the land which thou knowest not, " * " * " and this whole
land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment ; and
these nations" [the tribes of Israel] "shaU serve the
king of Babylon seventy years.®"* The slave advocates
continued, "Don't the Bible say 'cursed be Canaan,'
and 'servants obey your masters.'"^'" But as religion
was divided on this question, it, on the other hand,
repUed through its agents and servants by citing the
golden rule : "Do unto others as ye would have them
do unto you" ; and, "thou shalt neither vex a stranger
nor oppress him."^"' As the controversy sharpened
the animosity of the North at the arguments and gar
bled authorities quoted from the Bible by the party in
favor of the local evil, the aboUtionists denounced
them in the language of Christ: "Wo unto you,
scribes and Pharisees^ hypocrites ! for ye are like
unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are "within full of dead men's bones, and
203 JEBEMIAH, oh. 17, verse 4,
204 Ibid., ch. 25, verse 11.
205 Mes. H. B. S. for it, in tJNOMi TOM'S Cabin.
306 Exodus, ch. 22, verse 21.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 365
all uncleanness. Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye devour widow's houses, and for
pretense make long prayer : therefore ye shall receive
the greater damnation. Ye serpents, ye generation of
vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of heU."^"''
But the pecuUarity of the position assumed by
reUgion on other questions was not less conspicuous.
It was but a few years ago that certain parties,
not drinkers and drunkards, but temperate men,
foresaw that the old system of the .temperance cause
was an utter faUure, productive of no reform, and
notwithstanding thefr efforts in favor of the faUen,
drunkenness was increasing at a fearful pace; that
unless some more powerful barrier than had been
previously used were interposed to arrest its progress,
the sufferings of the helpless and the innocent would
be greatly multipUed, the results impossible to fore
see, but of which, to say the least, the worst could
but be anticipated, as intemperance was rapidly
spreading to aU ranks. These persons, after much
careful reflection on the condition of the case, could
discover but one remedy that would be effectual.
The brewing and distUlation in the country could be
easily estopped by law; the crimes of importation
and manufacture of ardent spirits could more easily
be suppressed than those of larceny and murder.
207 Matthew, ch. 3.

366 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Under these cfrcumstances, not doubting the moral
qualities of the masses, they organized themselves into
a poUtical party to carry this new system of reform
into effect, which, when successful, would banish the
suffering and misery arising from intemperance, car
rying happiness and prosperity to the hearthstones of
the afflicted. All that was requfred was an united
action by a majority of the people.
Here was an opportunity for the exhibition of those
great human principles, which the churches claim to
be thefr peculiar prcvince to foster into life and buUd
up. Surely, said prohibitionists, most of whom were
communicants of the churches, the reUgion of our
Saviour cannot withhold its influence from a question
which has as an end the purest of aU earthly objects.
Who, thought they, but Satan and his sateUites, could
oppose its progress and prevent its successful issue ?
It was plain that the churches must support this
moral question, (if reUgion have the efficacy claimed
for it,) or lend its power for the dissemination of crime
and the worst forms of human misery. Should the
chosen ground of the church be the former, (and who
for a moment doubted that it would?) one of the
greatest reforms would be completed — a, reform not
much inferior to the emancipation of African slavery
itself. And after the organization of the prohibition
party, what position did the churches assume ou this

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 367
great question? Mirahile dictu! they continued in the
services of poUtical parties, corrupt poUticians, and
those who were occupied in vending poisonous liquors
to the drunkard. Notwithstanding the appeals of the
prohibition advocates to the better sense and feeling of
the churches, they stUl continued to contribute to the
orphanage and "widowhood of our large cities, assisting
to carry want, squalor, suffering, starvation and death
into the lowly hovels of the poor.
When the churches were reminded that thousands,
subject to the control of appetite, were daUy sinking
into thefr graves, and, according to the words of our
Saviour, destined to be lost in a future Ufe, prohibi
tionists received the flattering reply that "the cause
of it is in the temperance movement. And," they con
tinued substantially, "if persons are bound to drink
themselves to death and into the displeasure of God,
they must abide the consequences as of thefr o"wn
making." In other words, "What is that to us?
see thou to that." Prom time to time they were
implored to come forward "with the might which they
possessed, and assist in expelUng intoxicating liquors
from the land, as, in consequence, thousands of hapless
chUdren were suffering in "winter from cold, and starv
ing to death. But answer came from them, "the cause
of it is in the temperance movement ; for by agitation
of it the question is brought into notoriety, and people

368 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
are thereby impeUed to tipple, finaUy becoming habitual
drunkards. If intoxicating Uquors are purposely with
held from the pubUc, they wUl obtain them somehow or
other, for upon such acts of others they feel an impul
sion to indulge." "But, sfrs, have you no sympathy
for the suffering women and chUdren." "Oh, yes ! we
have as much as you or your party ; we would do any
thing for the innocently afl^cted." "Then, sirs, give
us a vote to dry up this fountain of evU." "Oh! it
would do no good ; my vote would be lost, as you can't
hope to succeed. Besides, the democratic party would
come into power and 'get the niggers back into slav
ery.' And, at all events, you wUl certainly fail ; you
cannot carry prohibition ; it is a hopeless undertaking,
as temperance has often been tried before in other
forms, iand in localities, too, where the people were
bound to exterminate intemperance. Just join our
party, and I trust the next legislature "wiU do some
thing to help the cause more than you can accompUsh
by yourselves."
"No, we shall not faU, we shaU succeed; our cause
is a just one. Likely our hold on life is as frail as
your own, but so long as we do remain we wUl use our
might in wrestUng with this monster evil. So long as
its operations exist to torment our soiUs by its gen
eration of misery; so long as murders come to our
knowledge, to which brewers, distUlers, importers and

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 369
an apathetic pubUc are contributory causes ; so long
as the "wailings of helpless chUdren and of broken
hearted women, victims to the cruelty of your indif
ferent policy, continue to harrow up our feelings by
thefr pitiful afflictions, you may expect no compromise,
no peace from us, for we -will oppose it tUl our last
breath is expfred. WUl you not do as much as to
remain neutral, not go to the polls, not vote at aU?
This, at least, you owe to your humanity and to the
professions of your faith. Slavery is aboUshed ; the
fifteenth amendment haB become a part of the constitu
tion ; there are, therefore, no vital points of contention
between the repubUcan and democratic parties. They
have both served the purposes for which they were
organized, their labor is finished, and they have but
a formal existence, barely holding together for the
benefit of time-serving poUticians."
"We will not remain neutral; your party is made
up of disappointed office seekers, croakers and men
who look on the dark side of all questions, in con
sequence of soured minds produced by frustrated
ambitions while members of the old parties, men who
are now trying to run a party of thefr o"wn for thefr
own emolument."
As the interchange of sentiment between morality
and propensity reaches this stage of development,
if the dead are not raised up to rebuke the moral
24

370 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
hypocrisy of social power, the dialogue at aU events,
in aU such cases usuaUy comes aloruptly to an end.
If the above be not exact quotations, word for word.
of what passed between the reputed parties, they are,
in substancoj what actually took place between them,
to the author's own personal knowledge
Though such were the attitude of almost the entire
Christian membership toward this great reform move
ment, they soon afterward made an effort to accomplish
the same end by the spiritual conversion of venders
of alcohol. But it was observable that during the time
"the temperance wave" was passing over the country,
its leading advocates held bitter feelings against pro
hibition, which tended to render their fidelity to the
cause of temperance, if not dfrectly doubtful, at least
somewhat ambiguous. It, however, helped prohibi
tion, as many of the leading clergy throughout the
country endorsed political action.
i WhUe religion has been increasing in strength by
additional wealth and membership; whUe church
communicants have in number gained on a growing
population, there has been in the body of the churches,
with thefr communicants, such a degeneration of mor
als, that it perfectly staggers one by its magnitude,
clouding his feelings "vnth the saddest reflections. It
not only attracts the attention of the student of passing
events, but of the press and of the more advanced

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 371
clergy of the day. And the reUgious press, bound
not to be gagged by the general cry of progression,
seem, to have some understanding of our great degen
eration in morals, to which they give corresponding
expressions. The follo"wing, from one of the best and
also one of the most liberal religious periodicals of the
times, appears to see the want of efficacy in religion
to check this gro"wing dearth. Under the head of
"The Religion we want," it says: "We want a relig
ion that bears heavily, not only on 'the exceeding
sinfulness of sin,' but on the exceeding rascality of
lying and steaUng. A religion that banishes small
measures from the counters, smaU baskets from the
staUs, pebbles from the cotton bags, clay from the
paper, sand from the sugar, chiccory from the coffee,
alum from the bread, and water from the milk cans.
The religion that is going to save the world will not put
all the big strawberries at the top, and all the Uttle ones
at the bottom. It wiU not make one-half a pair of
shoes of good leather, so that the first shaU redound
to the maker' s credit, and the second to his cash. It
"wUl not put Jouvin's stamp on Jenkins' kid gloves;
nor make Paris bonnets in the back room of a Boston
milUner shop ; nor let a piece of velvet that professes
to measure twelve yards, come to an untimely end in
the tenth ; nor a spool of sewing-sUk that vouches for
twenty yards, be nipped in the bud at fourteen and a

372 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
half; nor all-wool delaines and all-linen handkerchiefs
be amalgamated with clandestine cotton; nor coats
made of old rags pressed together be sold to the unsus
pecting public for real broadcloth. It does not put
bricks at five dollars a thousand into chimneys it con
tracts to build "with seven doUar material ; nor smuggle
white pine into floors that have paid for hard pine;
nor leave ya"vvning cracks in closets where boards
ought to join ; nor daub the ceUings that ought to be
smoothly plastered ; nor make "window blinds of slats
that cannot stand the wind, and paint that cannot stand
the sun, and fastenings that may be looked at but on
no account touched. The religion that is going to
sanctify the world, pays its debts. It does not con
sider that forty cents returned for one hundred cents
given, is according to the gospel, though it may be
according to the law. It looks on a man who has
failed in trade, and who continues to Uve in luxury,
as a thief." 2»8
We can imagine that others may suppose this
developed phase of reUgion, which has run through
all ages, manifesting the same fatal tendency to endorse
the popular sentiments, and embrace the vices and
crimes of the times, is not religion at all, but is only
characteristic of those who profess and do not. But

208 Mobninq Stab, January 14, 1874. By this niuuber quoted from The
Christian.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 373
this is admitting the question. So far as reUgion
causes man to repent "from the error of his ways,"
(from not reverencing God, and for being indifferent to
the worship of Him in the spirit,) it is true in theory
and in fact.
The position which the clergy hold assumes, "vrith-
out evidence, that the religious primitive elements are
productive of moral impressions, when those religious
faculties are active on spiritual objects. But we hold
tliat one faculty does not perform the functions of
another ; that the reUgious and the moral faculties act
as independent causes, no"wise necessarily involved or
related, thefr operations resulting in different effects.
That they, in thefr primitive constitution, being thus
distinct, thus independent functionally and constitu-
tionaUy, are not receptive of the same external influ
ence. The one does not produce those characteristics
which are referable to the other as primitive cause. It
necessarily foUows that a system of instruction which
is appUcable to the development of the one is not to
the other.
The question is not whether reUgion be true, but
has it been properly appUed, subjectively to designed
objects, to the adapted, to such as are its receiving
elements, to those mental powers which, by the "wisdom
of God, were adjusted for its reception and evolution.
We say not; that the ground covered by the clergy in

874 HISTORY" OF THE DECLENSION.
aU ages, and to which they stUl tenaciously cling, has
been too broad, and, to say the least, is wholly unsup
ported by Di"vine revelation. The moral and the relig
ious histories of the Hebrews and Carthaginians show
conclusively that thefr claims to the broad efficacy of
religion, have not the shadow of a foundation upon
which to repose their assumption.
The moral commandments in the Bible were
addressed to the moral sentiments of the mind
through the inteUect, and not to the religious. A
being that is destitute of predominant moral quaU
ties, is not competent to obey moral injunctions. But
Creative Wisdom has given man an inteUect, by the
operations of which, if he be destitute of sufficient
moral causes, he can work out his own temporal
salvation. Any portion of human organization upon
which culture is intelUgently directed, can be made
to overcome hereditary defects, and hence the con
demnation of man should be, not so much for the
crimes which he commits, as for the neglect to culti
vate the moral faculties to such capacity as enables
him to obey moral laws. This culture cannot be
wrought by homUetic discourses through the induce
ments which they contain of future rewards and
punishments, nor by social ostracism, nor by any of
those reUgious exercises which produce excited ope
rations of the spiritual feeUngs, nor by firm resolves

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 375
and stubborn determinations. Each of these, the
reUgious and the moral, faculties, being in itself a
positive organization, is capable of positive develop
ment when subjected to scientific principles.
The ecclesiastical order has had confrol of the
white races for thirteen centuries, and the saddest
consequences have been the result. The churches
have not only failed to protect the moral qualities of
their communicants, but the very clergy itself, at
times during that long period, has exhibited the very
worst quaUties of the outlaw. It has not only faUed
to moralize the world, but has been wholly unable to
preserve itself from great moral degeneracy.
If the quaUties of religious devotees are, at times
"with the non-professing world, thus in frequent and
rapid progress of demoralization, what relevancy is
there in talking of the "conversion of the people,"
when, as is supposed, virtue "vnll ensue and evU
disappear? Such being, then, the hopelessness of religion to
arrest those growing "vices, which now so seriously
threaten the dissolution of society by debauching the
greater portion of its members, our attention must be
dfrected to some other method by which the people
can be protected and the repubUc preserved,

CHAPTER VL

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Bignlflcance of the Mental Faculties dravm from their Organic Quali
ties — Their Primitive State — Causes of Degeneracy — Course of
Degeneracy — Moral Condition of Carthage, of Greece, of Rome and
of western Asia— Demoralization of Rome inherited, through mod
em European nations, by settlers of North America — Enquiry into
the Depravity of Man, to ascertain if that Depravity be not a
Derangement of the Moral Powers — Causes -which tended to Restore
the Moral Sentiments in the inhabitants of Great Britain — Improved
Condition with Defects transmitted to Pioneers of the Thirteen
Colonies — The present Degeneracy considered a relapse into that
Derangement which attended our Remote Ancestors in the Middle
Ages — Necessity of so treating the Mind to effect for it, in the
United States, a healthy tone of action, by which the Equitable
Features of the Republic may be rendered Enduring Establishments.

To finish up the introduction, it remains for us to
make some enquiry into that phrenic condition of
which we find that our ancestors were possessed at
the time of their resistance to the aggressive measures
of the House of Brunswick. This wUl embrace a very
short chapter. We shall attempt to discover the men
tal status of the nation at its inception, and afterward,
in a subsequent part of this volume, by retrospection
of events, its decUnation, which, we verily believe, has
(376)

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 377
been more rapid than that of any other power which
authentic histories record.
But in order to fuUy understand that status, it is,
we think, first necessary to become acquainted "with
that mental condition at which, in the lapse of ages,
the human mind had arrived. This "wiU shed some
Ught upon the question of the hereditary quaUties of
those European races which are now flooding this
country as weU as our own, and indicate how far we
are possessed of the mental deformity which charac
terized the inhabitants of Rome just before its final
overthrow. By contrasting the primitive moraUty of
man also to that which the human mind now occupies,
we shaU Ukewise be somewhat able to determine the
departure, and finally approximate to that degree of
alienation to which the mental powers, by various
causes, have been subjected. It wUl also show, we
hope, that constitutional governments, unlike organic
bodies, are not subject to the laws of decay.
The very fact of man's having moral elements is
evidence that they were designed by Creative Wisdom
to govern all the rest of his mental nature. For if
this were not so, why were the feelings of justice and
of compassion created, unless it were the design to
suppress the feelings of injustice, and those other
perverted and anti-compassionate feelings which give
rise to acts of cruelty. If it were designed for man

378 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
to be just, it was not that he should be unjust; if it
were intended for him to be compassionate, it was not
that he should be pitUess. These two positions are
antithetical and cannot, therefore, be held by one
individual at the same time ; the one or the other he
must surrender. And again, if he surrender the one
he must hold the other, as he cannot deny both, nor
can he adopt an equal modification of them. The
question, therefore, caUs on us to elect, first dropping
aU conceived prejudices, which we shall consider most
reasonable, whether man's moral nature was designed
to be governed by his animal, or whether the latter
was to be controUed by the former ; or, if an individual
think he can take a tenable position between the two
extremes, whether he was created the sport of cfrcum
stances, in such manner as to alternate under the
control of the animal and then the moral ; or if he
had, at the time of his first organization, certain laws
of mind as well as of physical life by which he should
be governed and protected.
The natural laws are not, in themselves an evil but
a positive blessing, nor are they in their effects, but
there is an evU in their misapplication. Thus in their
appUcation to the growth of certain genera of animals,
the latter can be improved in size, beauty, speed,
strength, in quaUty of edible fiber or of adipose sub
stance, by the wisdom of man ; or they can be caused

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 379
to degenerate in size, beauty, speed, strength and aU
those other good qualities with which man is now
pretty thoroughly acquainted, until those laws gen
erate deformity, or completely extinguish some one
or all of them. The latter "view, when carried out in
practical life, may be said, with truth, to be an e"vil
application of the natural laws, because, principaUy,
their effect is detrimental to the interests of man as
well as to the proper being of the animal species. It
may also be said that such is a misapplication of the
natural laws. But if left to themselves those same
laws wUl generate perfection. It is well known to all
that they wiU restore injured parts of organic life,
such as broken limbs, wounds of flesh, and diseased
bodUy organs. And thus the natural laws not only
endeavor to preserve whatever they apply to, but
struggle to correct the errors into which man has
faUen, by restoring that which his carelessness has
injured, or attempted to destroy through desire.
Although there be no analogy between mental fac
ulties and physical organs, yet there is one in the
application of the natural laws to the operation of
their growth and decay. This is all we seek to claim
of the analogy.
When, therefore, man was created, every faculty of the
mind, and every organ of the body, was made in such
manner as to be regulated by certain laws, estabUshing

380 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
its growth, and more especiaUy its preservation in
a certain relation of harmony to all other portions
^of his mental and physical powers. And, taking him
altogether, he was impressed "with a determinable and
intelligible constitution in aU of his outward expres
sions of features and bodily organizations. And hence
it seems but reasonable for us to conclude that, what
ever faculties of the mind and organs of the body there
are, it was the design of Providence that they should
be in the keeping of certain rules of action, and not
alternate under the mild sway of the moral and then
under the violence" of passion, which, through such an
organization, would subject man to the sport of cfrcum
stances. If it were not, therefore, intended in the
beginning that the rest of the affective faculties of the
mind should be controlled, at one time by the moral,
and at another by the animal, faculties, it must, per
force of reason, have been designed by Nature, that
either the moral or the animal, the one or the other,
class, should exercise the functions of sovereign con
trol at all times, exclusive of the ether, except a
subordinate condition, Uke the rest of the faculties,
at which, at the moment of creation, it "was placed.
It e-vidently, then, not being the design that the two
should exist in equUibrium, and influence the destiny
of man pro rata to their mutual relation, could it
have been intended that the animal faculties should

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 381
be placed in actual position of supreme authority over
the rest of the entfre metaphysical nature of man?
This is an important question. And first of all let us
make a short inquiry into the essential natures of the
animal faculties. To make the question more readUy
understood, we may say that it would have been super
fluous for the Unseen Power to have prepared a record
containing the uses to which are appUed every organ,
every faculty in the animal creation, and more espe
cially those which are proper to man. External
constitution in the material world, we repeat, plainly
and fuUy impresses our understanding "with the defi
nite character of every object with which man comes
in contact. For example, the web-foot of the duck
indicates to the naturalist that Nature adapted its
possessor for aquatic elements. So, too, large nerves
of motion connected to proportionate "wings, instruct
him that the organization to which they belong was
intended for a bfrd of flight. But when the web-foot
and the large nerves of motion are joined to wings
which maintain thefr due proportion, they form a
compound organization by which the naturaUst is
apprised that it is both a water fowl and a bfrd of
flight. And thus it is by a method of observation in
the characteristics of particulars, that phUosophers
rise to conclusions upon general laws governing
beings in the organic world. By a similar method.

382 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
it is not only very possible, but very probable, that
we can determine, not hy outward structure, but by
internal primitive quality, the position which the ani
mal faciUties occupy in the empire of mind. Let us
inquire into the constituent elements of those faculties,
which elements we, perhaps, cannot comprehend by
external structure, but can by outward acts. It is the
duty of one to acquire sustenance for the whole being,
both mental and physical; of one to ingest the food
which the first has supplied ; of one to execute and
carry into effective operations the "wUl of the whole
mind ; of one to continue the species ; of one to com
bat and overcome the difficulties with which the
pathway of man is constantly beset; and of one to
inform us, with a sort of instinctive penetration, of
those combinations of external cfrcumstances to which,
if we were not adjusted by some internal monitor,
might more frequently involve us in disaster, and as
frequently blast our hopes. ^ These are the principal
elementary properties of which the animal faculties are
composed. It will readUy occur to the mind of any
reader of ordinary sagacity, that the constituent quaU
ties entering into thefr composition are limited, have
a determinate function, p,re particular, and not gen
eral, in the primary nature of their several activities.

1 it will here be understood that we adopt the nomenclature and defi
nitions given by phrenologists. See former part of this work, ch. 1 and 3.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 383
Acquisitiveness supplies man with the necessaries of
life, but, xmder perverted action, surrounds its pos
sessor "with superabundance, adorning his person and
beUttling his name "with those foolish titles and orna
ments which bespeak for the wearer the contracted
nature of his mental being. The function of the second
is to refurnish the exhausted vital powers "with those
substances which are required to support Ufe. The
office of the thfrd is to carry into effect the intentions of
which the indi"vidual, at the time, is possessed : under
perverted action, it is tinctured with the bitterness
of hatred, is revengeful, and not infrequently commits
acts of murder. The object of the fifth has been
sufficiently stated above : when changed from its legit
imate sphere to one of irregular activity, it indulges
in feuds and wars. The functional nature and essen
tial primitive qualities of the fourth and sixth, have
been fully explained in the manner of their definition.^
And hence it must be seen without further explication
that the several faculties have no superintending sig
nificance, and were, therefore, placed by nature in a
subordinate station to some other higher and more
general internal power.

2 The names of these faculties, for with their Einatomy we have nothing
to do, sometimes called by phrenologists, propensities, are Acquisitiveness,
Alimentiveness, Destructiveness, Amativeness, Combativeness and Secretive-
ness. See Fhrenoixiot, ob ihi! DoOTBioii of the Menxai, Powers, by J.
G. SPUliZHEIAI.

384 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
It has been stated in the former part of this work,
that the intellectual faculties, in thefr function, occupy
a subordinate position like the propensities. But of
these and the religious faculties, it has been proven
that they, in the history of their acts among the Car
thaginians, the Hebrews, and the Greeks, have no more
than a particular and limited sphere of activity. But
if this be admitted of them, and still claimed by the
votaries of these systems of error that they exercise
moral functions, we repeat that it has been fuUy proven
and completely estabUshed, that while the one, and
the other, were the most amply developed by culture,
they Ucensed the animal faculties to the commission
of outrageous "wrongs and horrid cruelties. Had the
reUgious and the inteUectual faculties possessed any
constituent elements of morality, the feelings of justice
and compassion had certainly suppressed the "wrongs
which the propensities perpetrated.
But the elementary primitive quaUties of the moral
powers have both a particular and a general scope
over the operations of the mind. It is the province of
one (conscientiousness) to see that justice accompanies
and enters into the qualities of every act which foUows
as a consequence of individual existence. Prom the
simplest relations in private, to those of the most
compUcated in pubUc, Ufe, in the hovel, and in the
legislative chambers of nations, every one is conscious

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 385
that, notwithstanding its degenerate condition, less or
more impression is produced by it upon the feeUngs of
the law-maker, and upon those of the boor. It adds
some ingredient, however small, to the speculative cal
culations of the merchant, to the skiU of the physician,
to the dextrous sagacity of the lawyer, to the acts of
the clergy, of the farmer, artizan, and, in fact, it enters
into the operations of aU classes, ranks and professions
known in the world. These are facts which none
can dispute, and hence need no further treatment to
bring them to every one' s understanding as recognized
truths. If there be such an element as justice in the
human mind, which none can doubt, there is one which
has a generaP scope in its operations, effecting at once,
by way of dfrect government, the simplest and the
most compUcated problems of metaphysical action.
There is one other phrenic power of a fundamental
characteristic, to which we are much indebted, not-
"withstanding our course in the past has had a
tendency to desfroy, and has, to a very considerable
degree, extinguished its Influence over our perverted or
faUen condition. Benevolence expresses the abstract
character of the constituent elements which enter into
the pecuUarities of its constitution. It has been felt

3 In the sense in which this term is here used, we desire to be under
stood as meaning control o^er the operations of all the mental powers,
universal and not common in its import to the mental elements of any cue
mmd. What is true of the term of one mind, is universally so to all.
26

386 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
in different degrees by most all mankind. Its action
is antagonistic to that of those faculties which, when
perverted, gloat in the perpetration of cruelty, revel
in mockery at the waUings of a broken heart, and are
whoUy indifferent in "witnessing the agonizing pangs
of thefr victims. Its effects in normal conditions are
prodigious, softening or changing the action of the
harsher faculties, forcing them to contribute their mite
to aUeviate the woes of earth, and to extend universal
tolerance to the conflicting opinions of mankind on the
great variety of subjects upon which they are divided.
The two last faculties, taken singly or together, have
not only a particular scope, but a general superintend
ence over the whole conduct of the individual. They
are internal monitors, given by Providence, or adapted
by nature, to carry an impression of the elements of
justice and compassion into the quaUties of every act
of every human being, and that, too, was designed to
accompany him during his entfre passage from "his
cradle to his grave." Under subordination to the
propensities, they give rise to dissimulation, to
hypocrisy, and to fraud in the conduct of persons,
of societies, and of nations. They clothe the indi-
"vidual "with power to assume, at his pleasure, all those
attributes which are dfrectly referable to thefr action,
by which he is enabled to practice his craft upon
his fellow. While societies have the appearance of

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 387
virtue, and denounce, under the sanctity of this garb,
the errors of the faUen, they secretly practice thefr
"vices. It is now well known to all educated minds
that to successfully dfrect the affafrs of state, it is
first necessary to master all possible positions which
dissimulation may assume.
Thus having traced, and we hope satisfactorily, the
moral faculties, by an investigation into the bearing of
their elementary properties, to the genesis of thefr
primitive condition, we have arrived at a stage or
chapter at which it was our desfre, if it be consistent
"with truth, to draw some conclusions "with reference to
man's position past and present. It has been proven
that the inteUectual and the reUgious faculties have no
moral action ; and shown also, that the animal facul
ties have but a particular and determinate function to
perform. And it has, by an exhibition of thefr quali
ties, been estabUshed that the moral powers have a
dfrective action upon aU the other faculties of which
the mind is composed.
This was the condition in which man existed in the
primitive ages, and to it his inward, as weU as his
outward, deportment corresponded in all relations of
the internal and the external world. To this perfect
moral position are not to be imputed the different
phases of deception, hypocrisy and fraud which were
characteristic of succeeding ages. During this state

388 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of the mental powers, man was perfectly rational,
exhibiting none of those extremes of feelings which
denote a want of harmony and of normality of mind
now so common to all the different races of mankind.
In the course of these essays it has appeared as most
probable that the first fall of the moral elements from
thefr supreme position occurred among the later inhab
itants of primitive times by deformity at birth. In the
next generation this departure was increased by the
effects of external phenomena emanating from the
same natal deformity.
It is most probable, also, that some sort of reUgious
ceremony and theological instruction which, by the
errors of its oracles, went beyond the designs of its
origin, assuming that the system contained everything
necessary for the best interests of man, began its cul
ture of the spiritual feeUngs, and thus developed them
at the sacrifice of the moral, by an omission of all dis
cipline of the latter. That this was the course of the
sacerdocy we have the best evidence for believing, as
we find it to have been their conduct in the earliest
recorded ages which are authentic. This system of
controlling and cultivating the mental powers must
have had an earUer time for its origin than that which
is mentioned in either sacred or profane history. In
other words, its beginning must have antedated by
several centuries the period of its narrated action.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 389
About two thousand years before the Christian era,
it was already estabUshed and bore the appearance
of an organized system in Egypt, in every nation of
central and of western Asia. It had penetrated and
become a durable institution in all the half-civiUzed
tribes which were known to the inteUectual classes
of the Egyptians, of the Hebrews and of the Persians.
It held a power second to none but that of the heredit
ary chieftains of the tribes and nations of the east, of
the west, of the north and of the south. From the
completion of its systematic organization it manifested
great energy of action, became productive of enormous
culture to the spiritual feeUngs, and finaUy resulted in
the superstition of all classes. Not very modest in its
presumptions, it put forward claims for effecting a
higher terrestrial condition for man by his manifest
moral improvement. While it thus pretended to do aU
for his best earthly interest, it contributed to extin
guish every one but his bare hope in eternal life. From
the time the ecclesiastical establishments had become
permanent down to 700 B. C, a period of more than
thirteen centuries, the moral powers became the
victims of external phenomena and theological assump
tion. Defective hereditary nioral elements, external
phenomena and ecclesiastical dogmatism combined
in thefr operations, producing a continuing injury to
man's highest and noblest powers. There was no

390 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
accession of any importance to the ranks of these
three causes, untU the development of phUosophy in
the Hellenic states.
For thirteen centuries, at least, we know that the
moral elements sustained an uninterrupted contest
against three opposing forces for their own restora
tion to the mental supremacy of the primitive ages.
Although they were constantly lessened in their influ
ence, they could not well be wholly extinguished from
being, and were destined to receive redoubled opposi
tion down to the time of the fall of the Roman empfre
in the west and the establishment of the papacy. At
length, by the study of philosophy and the rigid cul
ture flowing from it, a fourth, an external, element was
added to this compound antagonism, and although
this new auxUiary dfrected its operations to a new
field, to the intellectual, it rendered, in this great
conflict of constituent elements, the waning position
of the moral faculties not the less critical and mor
tal. Three phenomena, having labored vigorously for
thfrteen centuries, had given not the least evidence
of decay, but had, on the contrary, increased the
weight of thefr influence by time and activity. But
when the fourth element added its rapid action to the
former number, the disappearance of the moral was
so marked that it becomes the distinguishing feature
in the history of those ages. From the time of this

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 391
junction of Grecian phUosophy to those causes afready
mentioned, down to the third century before Christ,
Babylon was in ruins, the other powerful monarchies
of western Asia had hopelessly fallen, gross supersti
tion and inteUectual darkness reigned in silence around
the monuments of Egypt, and the political institutions
of Greece and of Carthage were, comparatively, in
dust and in ashes. Oriental bigotry and conceit were
confoimded in thefr political calculations, could not
comprehend the reasons why western barbarism had
triumphed over eastern piety. Ignorant of the true
sources of government and the causes of thefr perpe
tuity, they marveled at the mysterious ways which
the wisdom of the gods had in disposing of the
prosperity and magnificence of powerful kingdoms.
This conquest of the east by the west was one of
deeper significance than the mere "victory of one poUt
ical state in battle over that of another: to the defeated
it was a blast that aU time could not heal. Desolation
preceded rather than foUowed the footsteps of the
warrior; ruined buUdings and devastated estates
making themselves prominent in the memory of the
historian. The desolation was a complete waste of
those elements upon which alone ci"vil society and
constitutional government can be either founded or
maintained. There was no prospect of thefr revival
"without a new creation.

392 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Within three centuries from the beginning of the
sixth before Christ, the proud master, the haughty
noble, the king of kings, of Asia, were at the feet of
the rude inhabitants of Europe. But at the year one
of the Christian era, it "wUl be observed, that these
causes had proceeded farther westward than the west-
em boundary of Greece, and farther southward than
the southern shore of the Mediterranean, had pene
trated Europe and Africa ; Greece, Syracuse, and the
other nations of the Mediterranean, were dependent on
Rome, and the plow of formaUty had given the final
touches of annihUation to the last seat of opulence, of
magnificence, of learning, and of power in the south.
Accustomed to think only of the ways of acqufring
wealth to satisfy their ambitions and passions, this
doomed people did not understand the causes which,
although they had been witnesses of them for seven
hundred years, had leveled nation after nation.
Although Rome, by the forty-fifth year before Christ,
is said to have conquered the world, that, which had
ruined the east and the south, had afready begun its
operations at its capital, and the equitable rights of
the republic had given place to the inequitable mights
of the empire. But before this political crisis in the
republic of Rome, the rigid moral principles indoc
trinated into the minds of youth, by parental instruc
tion, had, for several centuries, preserved them from

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 393
corrupting principles, had resisted the action of exter
nal phenomena, and the encroachments of a defective
reUgious instruction, by keeping the moral raised to
an equilibrium "with the spiritual feeUngs. As long as
this mental condition existed, the liberty of the state
was in no great danger from the ambition of any of its
own citizens, for the "violent action of the propensities
was in part suppressed. But the latter, in times of
danger, by being thus partially subjected to the influ
ence of the moral, became a support to the state ; and,
however selfish, however unjust and despotic all must
consider it, it was under this very mental condition
that the Romans performed their greatest conquests,
and finaUy subdued the greater part of the habitable
earth. At the beginning of the third century before
Christ, Grecian philosophy and the effeminate customs
of the east and the south, had made no very consider
able advancement among the inhabitants of Rome.
Toward the close of the last half of this century,
there was a change, and the great question which
weighed most upon the minds of mankind of the intel
Ugent world, was the dfrection from which, in future
times, laws were Ukely to emanate to restrain man's
free action, whether from the south or from the north,
whether the ruthless ambition of the former was to
triumph over the rude virtues of the latter. Would
Rome faU by conquest, or would Carthage be subdued.

394 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
But the sequel to the solution of this difficult problem
soon determined that both had fallen, it terminating
against the latter no more than against the former. The
African dominions of Carthage were the abode of men
whose mental powers were deranged; their higher
nature had faUen in subjection to their lower; their
prosperity was one of the latter and not of the former.
At the breaking out of hostiUties of the second Punic
war, Carthage was a great madhouse. And when she
transported her armies into the vicinity of Rome, the
mental diseases "with which the Carthaginians were
aflaicted, infected the Romans. The corrupting prin
ciples of the former had not made those impressions
on the "virtuous quaUties of the latter in the first
Punic war, which they were destined to receive in
the second. It was in the second that Rome received
a stab which, as an external cause, "without the aid
of the diverting tendencies of intellectual culture,
must have, in the end, proved mortal, not to her
independence only, but to her freedom also. All
tendencies to fideUty, to chastity, and to that noble
system of economy for which the Romans had ever
been most remarkable, were sadly shaken by the cor
rupt and profligate manners of the Carthaginians. The
sixteen years which the latter continued on the terri
tory of the former, in the vicinity of thefr capital,
were sufficient to produce lasting impressions upon the

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 395
minds of the young and middle-aged generations then
in existence, and to give a direct and powerful deter
mination to the feelings of their minds.* During this
sixteen years in which the worst passions in the people
of both powers were constantly exerted and kept in
the greatest activity, there was a great change in the
conduct of those Romans who lived in proximity to
the scene of conflict or partook in its strife. It was
in this manner that the vices of the south began, and
continued to bear, month after month, and year after
year, on the animal faculties of the Romans, cultivating
them into such an abnormal condition, that they were,
by the close of tlie war, raised to such a permanent
position over the moral, as to become ever after pro
ductive of naught but those crimes and vices which,
before, had been more properly limited to the south in
this portion of the west. But as the Roman people were
nearly all immediately engaged in this conflict of inde
pendence, for the second Punic war involved this ques
tion, the corrupting vices of the south extended their
blighting infljiences to the great masses of the nation.

4 It will be seen that this period would extend the last part of middle life
to the borders of old age, and that of youth to middle age, by which, in all
probability, any people like the Bomans, whose virtues had been barely suffi
cient to repress a disposition for the commission of crime by that of conquest,
there would be decided difference in the conduct of the two generations
before the commencement of the war and after it had closed. These two
generations would form a very large class from which the succeeding gen
erations would Inherit their habits of thought and modes of feeling, and
strive to imitate them in the false glory of a military life.

396 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
After these positive influences had stood and con
tinued to act upon the propensities of the Romans
for sixteen years, their moral feeUngs were to a great
extent extinguished, and, by consequence the founda
tions of the republic were destroyed. Although the
time which the political form was destined to remain
must be considered to have been uncertain, the causes
of the death of its internal qualities were already
secure. But the poUtical government was of small
consideration when compared with those evil quaUties
which the Romans, by nature, were destined to trans
mit to succeeding generations. This is the question
which more immediately concerns us, for, however
remote it may be considered, however humiliating the
fact may be, we came by lineal descent from some
portion of the degenerated inhabitants of the Roman
empfre. The bad princiDles of the Carthaginians only
ceased to be when the sources of their origin had
come to an end When Carthage was annihUated
and its people had perished, the iU^ example of
their conduct no longer held an educating influ
ence over the minds of mankind. But before
thefr mortaUty they had given root to a plant and
cultivated it in a northern clime,, which was destined
to bear the most bitter fruit to the inhabitants of
Rome and modem Europe. Thefr evUs survived

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 397
them, and if not with aU the force of African matu
rity, they were bom, partly developed, and rapidly
gro"wing to such proportions as to bid fair to as
fuUy deprave the north as they had the south.
Before Carthage disappeared from among nations,
causes had been planted by her in Rome, and there
fostered "with such care, that they became permanent,
formidable and generative in thefr position, produc
ing the saddest consequences to Roman posterity in
succeeding ages.
When, by the expunction of Carthage, Rome was
without a rival, the principles of conquest, (might
makes right,) which had ever been the doctrine of
the former, became the guiding star of the latter,
and she accordingly dfrected her arms to the three
remaining quarters of the globe. The shattered
remains of two universal empires, Babylon and
Persia, and the populations of those less formidable
states of which they had formerly been composed,
were doomed again to undergo the formaUties of con
quest to delusively flatter the vanities of Rome by their
testimony, not to the potency, but to the frailty and
general moral debUity which had seized upon the "vital
life of the republic, and was rapidly drawing its exist
ence to a close. Although the effeminate manners of
the Medes, ^ and it is ventured that of the Babylonians
S "Gradual degeneracy of the Persians."— Xenophon's CTKOP.ffiajiA. ''

398 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
also, were the principal causes of the immediate degen
eracy of the Persians before the death of Cyrus, and,
the last having given a flnal poUsh to the wretched
character of the Greeks by the conquests of Alexander,
an aggregation of the vices of these three powers was,
by the senseless course of Rome, to be concentrated
upon its people, and shall it be said, what the Romans
thought it to be, for thefr glory? when every student
knows, that this conquest of Asia and Grecia by Rome
added another ingredient poison to the life of the
repubUc and to the "vital happiness of its people. And
thus by her conquests Rome became the receptacle of
aU the evU that was known and practiced in a world
which had afready faUen by its own corruption, and,
in this western capital, the infectious elements began
the work of death, and that decomposition of those
moral powers which had heavUy marked its pathway
among the inhabitants of the east and the south. It
was after the propensities had been elevated to a
position of supremacy over the moral, after the bare
predominant influence which the latter had previously-
held over the former, had been entfrely shaken and
cast to a lower and subordinate condition to the
animal faculties, that the latter became permanent
and generative, supplying themselves with those other
! external agencies which, although not necessary to
icomplete the desolation of the internal world, would

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 399
be required to more rapidly forward the expunction
of the moral faculties from the mental powers of the
Romans. PoUtical organizations being but the effects of the
mental powers, it foUows that the great variety of civil
governments is a perfect denotation of the conditions
in which the mind has been formed in different coun
tries. Democratic and republican governments spring
from those faculties of the mind which produce acts
of justice in the external world. Monarchial and
aristocratical ones arise from purely selfish feeUngs,
are enforced by the same authority, having no other
basis upon which to repose their security than the
power of the sword, and no other claims to existence
than that which "might makes right."
The principles of the centralized and despotic gov
ernments of the Orients, as weU as thefr general
systematic depravity, were cherished and finally
absorbed by the Romans as desirable ends to satisfy
the selfishness of their fallen nature. Love of self
throughout the republic, with the faU of the moral,
had triumphed over that of country, t Those feelings
which form attachment to places of nativity, had rel
atively become weaker, and as the empire took tho

' t About the age of Christ, contemplating the vices of the people, Livy
observes that " Of late years, indeed, opulence has Introduced a greediness of
gain, and the boundless variety of dissolute pleasures has created in many a
passion for ruining themselves and all around them."— Baker's TbansIiAtioii.

400 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
place of the repubUc, it is evident that sound patri
otism had suffered an entfre overthrow in this great
elementary confiict. All the domestic relations of the
Romans had become lightly regarded by them before
the usurpation of the republic, every class being
infected by the reckless, profligate, and lecherous
manners which prevaUed among the effete inhabitants
of Greece, Carthage, and western Asia. The equita
ble pecuniary relations between man and man were
disregarded; the natural bonds between parents and
chUdren were partiaUy dissolved ; marriage vows, sin
cerely made at the altar, generally became annulled
by subsequent violations; and the feeling which the
people had formerly entertained for the welfare of the
republic, had become second to individual interests
and sordid ambitions. Dishonesty, instead of honesty,
in business transactions ; disobedience, instead of
obedience, to lawful authority; infldeUty, instead of
fideUty, to the marital contract; positive cruelty,
instead of compassion; and, in addition to these, a
base ambition, which the people then had the doubtfnl
inteUigence to eulogize, forced all classes to struggle
for those positions and that wealth which would gratify
the "vilest of thefr passions ; all these had become the
predominant quaUties of the Romans before the empfre
rose to power upon the ruins of the repubUc. It was
under the coUected, united, and concentrated action of

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 401
aU the vices that had ever been generated in Egypt,
Greece, Carthage, and western Asia, that the mental
faculties of the people of Rome became disarranged
in their organized action, and deranged in the function
of thefr original design. Grecian philosophy had, to
some extent, monopolized the attention or action of
the mentality of the higher classes, and reUgioil had
extended its influence over the masses by multiplying
the number of the gods, thus increasing the objects of
worship. It would be somewhat strange if, among a
people such as the Romans had become, the fashion
of reUgion did not correspond to the advances of the
age, if there would not be some change in the objects
of religious regard to which the people bowed the knee;
that the shrine of Venus would be better patronized
than that of Minerva; those of Medea, Midas, and
Mercury, than those of Astraea, Nemesis, and ^acus.
Much has been "written by historians upon the
crimes and vices of the emperors of Rome, and by
making their names prominent in depravity, the con
dition of the masses is entirely overlooked by the
reader, or, if thought of at all, they are supposed
to be Tictims to the cruelty of centralized power.
The turpitude of the imperial monsters was but a
spontaneous outgrowth of the general corruption
which existed in the nation.
Having estabUshed the faU of the moral powers
36

402 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
among the inhabitants of Rome, and, as every student
of history well knows that the mental faculties of the
Europeans continued in the same moral darkness,
notwithstanding the efforts of Christianity, down to
and during the middle ages, it remains, as has been
observed, to draw some conclusions with reference to
man''s mental condition. This may enable us, when
the history of the United States is reached, to compre-"
hend the manner in which he has been treated in the
past, and what reUance, in his present condition, can
be placed upon his course in the future.
For many years the author of these pages, whUe
reading ancient and modern history, was affected to
sadness and mortification at the wickedness which the
race has manifested in every age and nation. Feel
ings, too, of more lasting consequences than those of
sorrow have dropped the records of man' s past career
from perusal, leaving oppressions which were sure to
be repeated upon the resumption of the course. These
soon led to the enquiry, was man, in the beginning,
predisposed to that depravity and those miseries to
which his own depositions bear testimony? Having
given a negative answer in the first part of this
chapter, we invite the reader to a serious and can
did investigation into that condition in which man
appears to be, and put the dependent and final ques
tion, is this condition one of insanity?

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 403
And first it is necessary to understand the meaning
of the term insanity. Of this we may be aided by a
comprehension of its antithetical one, sanity. Web
ster defines this latter term as a " condition or quality
of being sane; soundness or healthiness of body or
mind, especiaUy the latter." Again, he says of its
adjective sane, "In a sound condition; not disordered
or shattered ; especiaUy not disordered in intellect ; in
one's right mind, or of sound reason; sound, healthy,
underanged."* Therefore insanity must be defined,
according to Webster, as being "a quality or condi
tion" of unsoundness or unhealthiness of body or
mind, "especially the latter." And of its adjective
we may say, in unsound condition, disordered or
shattered. And again of the term derangement
(used nowadays as synonymous "with insanity), as
a substantive, meaning an "act of deranging, or
state of being deranged; disordered, especiaUy men
tal disorder; insanity, disarrangement, confusion,
embarrassment, irregularity, disturbance, lunacy,
madness, delirium, mania; see insanity."' Insanity
is defined by him as a state of "unsoundness of mind,
derangement of inteUect; lunacy, madness, derange
ment, alienation, aberration, mania, delfrium, frenzy,
6 Webster's Nationaii Pictokial Diotionakt, pages 637 and 638, the
word " intellectual " by Webster, being general and meaning mental, applies
to the whole mental powers.
7 Ibid., page 195.

404 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
monomania, dementia. Insanity is the generic term
for all such diseases ; lunacy has now an equal extent
of meaning, though once used to denote periodical
insanity; madness has the same extent, though orig
inally referring to the rage created by the disease;
derangement, aberration, alienation, are popular terms
for insanity ; delfrium, mania and frenzy denote excited
states of the disease." ^ These are the definitions
given by Webster, and are very near correctly
abridged from the best standard works on the sub
ject from the old school. Yet it is our duty to rely on
the definitions of those mostly who have made insan
ity a Ufe-long study, and combine with experimental
knowledge a thorough understanding of the mental
powers. By this method we would be better enabled
to reach truth and reason. It is, therefore, thought
best by us to give Dr. Spurzheim' s definition nearly
in full, it corresponding better "with the advance of
phUosophy and science than any work of the kind
¦with which we are acquainted. It is as foUows:
"Insanity deprives an individual of the rights of
society, and often involves property, conjugal and
other relations; it is subject to various inconven
iences of the greatest consequence, which certainly
are sufficient motives to examine it "with more accu
racy than hitherto has been done. Insanity might be
8 Webster's National Pictoriai, Dictionabt, page 385.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 405
defined an aberration of the manifestations of the mind
from their state of health; that definition, however,
could have a determinate meaning only for those who
have a previous knowledge of the operations of the
mind in a healthy state. Artificial signs and ideas,
definition and knowledge, are in the most intimate
relation. Where information is deficient, nomencla
ture wUl be vague; where there is no exact knowl
edge of the nature and properties of anything to be
described, an exact definition is impossible.
"Yarious definitions of insanity have been given;
all are founded upon the opinions of the schools with
respect to the mind, its properties and the conditions
of its manifestations. In the introduction, we have
mentioned that no branch of medicine is so intimately
connected with the philosophy of the human mind as
insanity. Mr. Haslam says, 'The difficulty of pro
posing a satisfactory theory of the human mind must
have been felt by every person who has touched this
delicate string since the days of Aristotle.' * * *
It is, therefore, not astonishing that the knowledge
of the derangement of the mind is so little under
stood. * * * *
"As, in the prevailing phUosophical opinions of the
schools, the activity of the mind was looked for in
the inteUectual powers, as, according to an axiom, its
whole activity began "with sensation, so that there was

406 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
nothing in the mind which did not come into it by
the senses, it was very natural to think always of
the intellectual powers if derangements of the mind
were spoken of. Moreover, the intellectual derange
ments are the most ob"vious. It is, for instance, easUy
observed, if any reject what is excellent, hate what is
useful, fear when there is no reason to fear, suppose
perceptions of external impressions which do not
exist, etc.
"Among the derangements of the mind, memory,
judgment and imagination were particularly attended
to, and for a long time it was believed that deranged
judgment is the basis of insanity. It is true, that as
long as judgment exists and corrects erroneous percep
tions, the morbid affections of the five senses are not
considered as insanity. The mind, for instance, may
be deprived of voluntary motion, or of any other
sense; the senses maybe morbidly affected ; we may
feel burning heat on the skin; may see fiames, the
external objects double, reversed, or red colored; we
may hear noise, perceive various odors or savors ; as
long as we know the incorrectness of our perceptions,
such diseases are not called insanity : but a patient i-s
styled insane, if he beUeve in such perceptions from
external impressions which do not exist. He, for
instance, who thinks he has a frog in his stomach, or
that he has feet of glass or straw, wUi be caUed insane.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 407
"At the present time, it is well ascertained that, in
insanity, the power of judging is not always deranged.
Many insane persons, if we grant their premises, rea
son "with perfect consistency ; nay, in many that power
is increased. For that reason, one sort of insanity is
designated by the name reasoning foolishness {follie
raisonnante). This truth might be iUustrated by
many cases ; but it is superfluous to mention them,
since every one who takes care of insane persons must
have had occasion to make observations of that kind.
I shall only extract from Dr. Cox's work on insanity
that passage where he refers to a part of the speech of
Lord Erksine, when at the bar, in defense of Hadfield.
'I remember,' said the advocate, 'the case of a man
who indicted another for imprisoning him; and in
the course of the trial, though I endeavored by every
means in my power, by every question I could put, to
draw from him some proof of the real state of his mind,
yet such was his subtilty and such his caution, that
he baffled me at every point ; and it was only by Dr.
Sims' appearing in court that he discovered himself;
for he no sooner saw the doctor than he addressed him
as the Lord and Saviour of mankind. The person
indicted was, therefore, acquitted. But such was the
subtilty and perseverance of this man, that, recoUect-
ing that the doctor had one day confined him in his
house in town, he indicted him fbr the same offense,

408 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
and so well did he remember what it was that lost
him his cause at Middlesex, that nothing could
extort from him the same beha"vior; and yet there
was not the smaUest doubt in the mind of any one
who knew him, that he was really and truly a luna
tic' I have chosen this sample as a proof, that such
cases do not faU within the observation of medical
practitioners only.
"Sometimes it happens that the manifestations of
all inteUectual powers, as perception, memory, judg
ment and imagination, are perfect, nay, improved.
whUe, however, the patients are decidedlv insane. At
Vienna, a melancholy person having seen the execu
tion of a criminal, the spectacle produced in him so
•violent an emotion, that he was seized "with a pro
pensity to kiU. At the same time, he had clear
consciousness of his situation, and preserved the
strongest aversion to such a crime. Weeping bit
terly, he described his deplorable situation with an
extreme confusion; he struck his head, wrung his
hands, exhorted himself, and cried to his friends to
take care, and to fly ; and he thanked them if they
resisted and menaced him. Pinel speaks of a mad
man who did not show any mark of alienation in
respect to memory, imagination, and judgment, but
who confessed that in his narrow seclusion his pro
pensity to murder was quite involuntary, and that his

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 409
wife, notwithstanding his tenderness for her, was near
being immolated, he having time only to warn hei to
fly. In his lucid intervals, he made the same melan
choly reflections, he expressed the same remorse, and
he was disgusted with life to such a degree, that he
several times attempted to put an end to its existence.
* * * Hence there can be no doubt that insanity
embraces more than the derangement of the intel
lectual powers.
"With respect to the morbid affections of the senses,
and to the errors of the intellectual powers, we are
insane, if we cannot distinguish the diseased functions,
and do consider them as regular; and in the derange
ment of any feeling we are insane, either if we cannot
distinguish the disordered feeling. If, for instance, we
reaUy think we are an emperor, king, minister, gen
eral, etc., or if we distinguish the deranged feeling,
but have lost the infiuence of the "will on our actions,
for Instance, in the morbid activity of the propensity
to destroy. Thus, insanity, in my opinion, is an
aberration of «iny sensation or intellectual power from
the healthy state, without being able to distinguish
the diseased state ; and the aberration of any feeling
from the state of health, without being able to dis
tinguish it, or without the influence of the "wiU on the
actions of the feeUngs. In other words, the inca
pacity of distinguishing the diseased functions of the

410 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
mind, and the irresistibUity of our actions, constitute
insanity."* Here we have a deflnition which is not so uuconfined
by its extended comprehension as to be rendered
nugatory in meaning, and sufficiently broad to
embrace within its scope every phase of the disease.
In the above we are informed that when any one of
the faculties of the mind is deranged (changed) in its
function (peculiar or appointed action) it is under
stood, by those devoted to this branch ctf learning, to
place the person to whom it belongs in a condition of
insanity.*" Then if a faculty do not act in that
sphere which was designed by nature, but does in
some other, the mind including it is deranged. * * Or
if there, be a disarrangement in the order of the
faculties, so that those which were designed, in the
beginning, to be subjected to the influence of the moral,
become emancipated, or rather ejected from the lat
ter' s subserviency, then the mind, in that condition,
is deranged; because, first, there is a change in the
function of the moral and subservient faculties ; and
9 See his work on insanity, flrst American edition, ch. 3, pages 49, 50,
51, 52 and 53.
IO The term insanity is probably derived from the Latin word, insanitas,
meaning unhealthiness or unsoundness of the mind's action ; and the latter
was used by the Boman writers in the same sense which we now apply to the
former.— See Anthon's Latin-English and English-Latin Dictionary,
page 418.
II It must have been observed that derangement is frequently caused
by disarrangement.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 411
second, in the tendency and bent of the whole mind.
In such disarrangement of the faculties the mind is
entirely deprived of the ostensible object of its crea
tion, misdirected and deranged in nearly all the
appointed actions to which it was designed to be
appUed. A single faculty becoming deranged, or
changed in its peculiar function or appointed action,
effects, more or less, a derangement of the whole
mind, but in proportion to its primitive quality and
original harmonious relation to the rest of the facul
ties. *^ When, however, several faculties become so
situated, the general effect upon the tendency of the
mind is increased or multiplied, not in exact propor
tion to their number, but in due correspondence "v^ith
their numerical quantity and the relative position

12 The derangement of a single faculty gives rise to that condition of
Insanity which is known by the name of Monomania, the latter being defined
by Webster as a " Derangement of a single faculty of the mind, or with regard
to a particular subject only." Wharton, in his Medical Jubispb0Dence,
relates a case to illustrate the character of this disease, in which, during
the investigaton, the Court entered into a long conversation upon various
topics with a subject of the disease. The subject was a man of thought as
well as of learning, and, if we may believe the report, discovered greater
reason, a more careful study and reflection on the various branches to which
his attention had been directed, than the Court. Thereupon the Court,
surprised at the turpitude of those who desired an application for his com
mitment to an asylum, turned to them and said : " This man mad, verily, he
is the ablest man I ever met with." At this development of the case, the
friends of the afflicted slipped a piece of paper upon the bench on which
was written the name, Ezekiel. The Court then began a very careful criticism
of the various writers of the Old Testament, in nearly consecutive order,
until he spoke Ezekiel. The lunatic then asked him if he liked the writings
of Ezekiel, to which the Court replied in the affirmative. " Well," said the
madman, "I wQl tell you a secret, I am Ezekiel."

413 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
which they occupy, and the positive influence which.
they severaUy have.*^
The effect produced by excessive fear, recurring
in periods or continuous in action, casts a veil over
the feelings, and, as every person well knows who
is at all acquainted with the subject, frequently results
in a derangement of the affective powers. There
is constantly a large proportion of those who are
confined in asylums afflicted "with that peculiar disease
of the mind known as MelanchoUa. But an excessive
greed for the possession of whatever is of value in
the material world, when the faculty which gives
rise to this state deprives all the modifying faculties
of their influence over the action of this one, is as
certainly a derangement of the mind as any of those
diseases of which persons, placed over the insane,
have had the opportunity to observe and to treat.
If a faculty of the mind, having a particular action
and not a general scope, be diminished in quantity,
but not in quality, from a normal condition, then the
case does not necessarily constitute insanity, but does
constitute a loss of power in that faculty. Although
13 The following, from Benjamin Hush, M. D., illustrates this peculiar
condition : " Persons who are afflicted with it (Dissociation) are good tem
pered and quarrelsome, malicious and kind, generous and miserly, all in
the course of the same day. In a word, the mind, in this disease, may De
considered as floating in a baloon, and at the mercy of every object and
thought that acts upon it. It is constant in some people, but oocurs in
paroxysms, and is sometimes succeeded by low spirits." — Diseases of the
Mind, page 25S.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 413
this may affect the whole mind, it does not necessarily
derange the action of those moral faculties in which, in
a moral person, the wUl may be said to be reposed.
The mind is made up of an aggregation, not of nega
tive, but of positive primitive powers. Although one of
these powers, if it have only a particular function, suffer
decrement and this be understood as nothing else but
a diminishment of that weight formerly characteristic-
of it in primitive normality, it may nevertheless give
rise, under certain external influences, to a different
general active direction of the whole mind, and still
not constitute that mental condition kno"wn as insanity.
Thus, during moments of great danger, the element of
fear may be more active than that of courage, giving
its corresponding quaUty to individual conduct. And
in like manner, when the latter possesses greater
potency than the former, temerity is the result.
Although, under the two circumstances, the moral
faculties be not properly supported, they are, notwith
standing, strongly active in themselves, failing only in
forming such combinations in thefr support as would
carry out their inherent impressions. But these con
ditions which exist, with a maintenance of sanity, are
limited and confined in action with, and counter action
to, the moral, to a very few propensities. For a much
greater development in some of the animal faculties
ihan that, which is possessed by the moral, would

414 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
give them such pervertive prominence over the latter
as to be productive of different outward expressions
than that to which they were originally adapted. A
feeUng which, not infrequently existing, some people
have for the commission of murder to satisfy a per
verted faculty, overcomes the active influence of the
primitive elements of justice and compassion. A
case of this kind would not only be considered one
of insanity, but of madness also, by those who have
devoted much attention to the subject,** Again, if

14 See the Vienna case quoted in deflnition given by Spurzheim where ho.
says, "I have quoted more examples in my work on Phrenology," which Isu
here reproduced in the following . " Highwaymen are frequently not content-
wlth robbing, but manifest the most sanguinary Inclination to torment emd
murder, without necessity. John Bosbede not only maltreated his victims to-
make them showtheir concealed treasures, but Invented and emp"loyed the most.
outrageous cruelties, merely to witness their sufferings ; neither fear nor torture^
could break him of this horrible habit ; after his flrst apprehension, he was-
conflned for eighteen months in a small subterranean dungeon, his feet loaded
with chains, standing in muddy water up to his ankles ; in addition to all this,
he'was tortured most cruelly. • * * On being enlarged, his flrst act was
to steal in full daylight, and having committed new murders, was flnally
executed. ' At the beginning of the last century, several murders were committed
in Holland, on the frontiers of the province of Cleves. For a long time the
murderer escaped detection, but at last suspicion fell on an old man, who
gained his livelihood by playing on the violin at country weddings, in con
sequence of some expressions of his children ; led before the justice, he-
confessed thirty-four murders, and said that hfe had committed them without
any cause of enmity, and without any intention of robbing, but only because
he was extremely delighted with bloodshed. At Strasburg, two keepers of
the cathedral having been assassinated, all efforts to discover the murderer
for a long time were ineffectual ; at last a postilion was shot by a clergyman
called Frick. This monster had hired a post-chaise for the express purpose
of satisfying his horrible propensity to destroy. Arrested, he confessed him-
self the murderer of both keepers of the cathedral. This wretch was rich
and had never stolen. For his crimes he was condemned to be burned at
Strasburg. Louis XV,' says M. de Lacretelle, ' felt a rooted aversion against..
a, brother of the Duke of Bourbon Conde, Count Charlois, who would havei.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 415
the moral faculties have so entirely fallen as to give
the propensities dfrective power over the individual,
it is at least a certain grade of madness, however
much the inteUectual faculties may be able to dis
tinguish those diseased conditions under which the
mind labors. Such is not necessarily a derangement
of the last, but is of the first.
In the contemplation of this question, if the con
duct of mankind be taken into consideration, with
such definitions as are given by the most experienced
¦writers on the subject of insanity, (they are based
upon observed facts, too,) it wiU be found that but
a small portion of the human feimUy can escape some
sort of classification under the disease. By a close

renewed all the crimes of Nero, had he ever mounted a throne. While a child,
he betrayed a cruelty of disposition which excited horror. He delighted in
shedding the blood of those he had debauched, and in exercising various
barbarities on the courtezans who were brought to him. Popular tradition,
as well as history, accuse him of different homicides, and it is added that
these were committed without any cause, and when unnerved by anger ; f or-
he shot at slaters, merely to have the barbarous pleasure of seeing them fall
from the tops of the houses.'
" These latter facts, which fortunately for humanity are very rare, prove
that this terrible propensity Is sometimes quite independent of education, of
example, or of habit, and that it depends on innate constitution alone. Many
crimes indeed are as detestable, and are accompanied with such repugnant
and horrible circumstances, that it would be impossible to explain them in
any other way. Frochasca relates that a woman of Milan caressed little chil
dren, led them home, killed them, salted their flesh, and ate of it every day.
He quotes also the case of a person whom this passion excited, and who killed
a traveler and a young girl to eat them. Canbius speaks of a girl whose father
was Incited by a violent Impulse to eat human flesh, and who, to gratify his
singular desire, committed several murders. This girl, though separated from
her father for a long time, and educated carefully among respectable people
not related to her family, was overcome by the same horrible desire to eat
human flesh."— Sfubzhecu'S PhrenoiiOGT, pages 141, 142 and 143.

416 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
and careful investigation into the conduct of people
one wiU find that all ranks and vocations are more
. tinctured "with those abnormal mental conditions which
are now, and ever have been, characteristic of the
various degrees of madness, than he could, at first,
have been led to suppose. By this method alone one
i can discover the lamentable condition of the internal
causes of those external acts, against both of which
man has been forced to labor, in the major part of
the earth and a greater part of the time, for more
than fifty centuries. If we see individuals kill them
selves intentionally ; if they kill others for the purpose
of bringing the penalty of death upon themselves,
by execution of law, to avoid self-murder; if they
murder their "wives or children, or vice versa ; if they
are so enchanted by gold as to become slaves to the
tedious processes of its accumulation while they are
surrounded by opulence ; if they directly or indfrectly
defraud others for the purpose of multiplying fortunes
already large ; if we should find man so intoxicated
"with the love of fame as to trample upon every natural
law, finally extinguishing the best portions of his
being and the only substantial happiness of his life,
to subserve the ends of a weak, a delusive and an
imaginary glory, existing in the mind of himself and
his base parasites only, when he must inevitably be
looked upon "with contempt for his depravity and

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 417
imbecUity by the "wise and just of his, and of those of
succeeding generations; if he so conduct his career
as to defeat the object which he sought and plunge
himself into misery, we aye constrained to pronounce
him either fatuous or lunatic, which, in either event,
places him under the general term of insanity. If
he connive at aU kinds of hypocrisy and dishonesty
to gain an election which, when attained, adds nothing
to his happiness, little good to his name, but is fleet
ing, is passing away, and terminates in disappointment
to his senseless hopes ; if he have an idea measured
only by weight of gold, as a consideration upon
which he bases those marital relations which are
sure to meet that merited disaster that the least intel
ligence might have foreseen; if he so conduct his
business in the acquisition of property that whatever
it
little morality he possessed at his birth and majority
are extinguished at his death ; if he acqufre property
for the purpose of giving a bridleless license to his
passions; if he reduce others to indigence to enrich
and aggrandize his own famUy, ijot appreciating the
consequences which the heinous process "wUl have
to brutalize himself, or unable to comprehend its
effects when completed, he is, we say, a lunatic, and
requfres rather the watchful care of a doctor of
philosophy than one of medicine.
An ambition arising from the propensities, or from
27

418 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the selfish sentiments, so much exalted in the past
and present, when it subordinates the moral to this
one end, however Ughtly regarded, is a condition of
insanity. It is also one of the highest degrees of
absurdity to which conceit can be carried, to suppose
that there can be a general progressive improvement
to man' s advantage, because the intellectual faculties
are manifesting an active development in discoveries
and inventions, while the moral, at the same time,
are in a state of great degeneracy. This, if it did not
originate "with the ignorant, did with that class which
have utterly faUed to comprehend the extent to which
man' s mind was organized, and to which again it may
be developed. A development of the intellectual,
"without a corresponding one of the moral, faculties,
only multipUes the power, and consequently the
extent of human depravity. ^ " Depravity and crime
are results of those mental conditions of which derange
ment was the cause. Man is stUl in that condition in
which he has existed for at least four thousand years,
under the reign of the animal faculties and selfish
sentiments of the mind.
15 There are more colleges in the state of Ohio, which have this scope,
than there are in England, France and Germany combined, in no part of the
earth is there an institution of learning which educates other faculties than
the religious and the Intellectual. Text-books there arc, it is true, on moral
science, but they are almost wholly reiigiousln their nature ; students, there
fore, come from college with an education of the religious and intellectual
only. Thus Ohio, under the present system of education, is a great moral
disorganizer, and becomes a standing menace to the freedom of the people
and the perpetuity of the republic.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 419
If we behold man one day acting "within the bounds
of reason, and on a subsequent one suddenly exalted
to a degree of impudence, for instance, in consequence
of the possession of a fortune, when by it he is not
made the better, nor the "wiser, but only rendered the
more comfortable, and begins to despise his fellow
men more fortunate, who are his superiors in internal
quaUties, and tramples upon their vested rights to
satisfy his arrogance and fiatter the immediate cause
of his vanity, we are forced, by the nature of the
case, to allege that he is shaken in his reason and
deranged in his morals. If, as a public functionary,
we see him one day courting peace, and for this end
exhausting aU the arts of a deceitful diplomacy, but
on another plunging his country into a deadly confiict
of arms, which must invariably dig the graves and
perform funeral rites over the mortal remains of thou
sands of human beings, because he is possessed of
sufficient power to revenge his nationaUty upon an
enemy for some stupid error of the latter, we say
that he and the people who support his measures
have given evidence of a derangement of thefr moral
faculties. Although in the latter case the inteUectual
powers may not be deranged, they have, as it were
changed masters, have become agents and servants of
the propensities, there being a disarrangement in the
natural order of the faculties by thefr permutation.

420 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
The inteUectual powers, in such a condition, are
controUed and dfrected by those faculties which,
when perverted, give rise to the irrational feelings
of malice, hatred and revenge. When men make
statutory laws which are designed, in thefr nature, to
prevent the recurrence of crime by the punishment of
those who violate them, and then substantiaUy per
form what they endeavored to forestall, escaping
punishment because, by a little sagacity, their offense
was so committed as to be too narrow or too broad
for the particular misdemeanor described in the code,
we charge them with both sanity and insanity, corre
sponding to the two contradictory positions of their
mental powers at the time of the conception and exe
cution of both law and transgression. They were
possessed of reason when they made the law, because
thefr reasoning faculties were properly directed; but
though not divested of some appearance of reason,
as considered in and of itself, when they violated it,
yet there was a derangement in the manner in which
its qualities were used. ¦• '
i6 The many cases we have put forward in the above more clearly consti
tute insanity than the following one quoted from Dr. Benjamin Rush, on tho
same subject, by which case he labors to demonstrate to the reader the
appearances which a person afflicted with demence or dissociation usually
presents: "The celebrated Lavater was afflicted with it, and although he
wrote with order, yet his conversation was a mass of unconnected ideas,
accompanied with bodily gestures, which indicated a degree of madness. I
shall insert an account of a visit paid to him at Zurich by the Rev. Dr. Hunter,
an English clergyman, in which he exemplifled the state which I wish to
describe :

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 421
Again, if individuals pursue, follow or endorse
those pubUc customs which, by their nature, tend
dfrectly to the diminishment of those mental causes
which are productive of compassion and of justice,
when the same come within the range or scope of
the inteUectual powers of a person of ordinary mind,
and fail to comprehend the effects of the terrible opera
tion, such individuals, we say, are deranged in the
reasoning powers of the mind. If, on the other hand,
their intellectual faculties take full scope of the given
operations from first to last, in all thefr bearings, and
do not oppose the tidal current of corruption, or at
least stand aloof from it, then the case becomes a
derangement of the moral faculties of the mind.
Because when the current of public thought, in any
age or among any people, tends to destroy, by its
final effects, the health, comfort and happiness of

'"1 was detained,' says he, 'the whole morning by the strange, wild,
eccentric Lavater, in various conversations. When once he is set agoing there
is no such thing as stopping him till he runs himself out of breath. He starts
from subject to subject ; flies from book to book, from picture to picture ;
measures your nose, your eye, your mouth, with a pair of compasses ; pours
forth a torrent of physiognomy upon you ; drags you, for a proof of his dogma,
to a dozen closets, and unfolds ten thousand drawings ; but will not let you
open your mouth to propose a difficulty ; crams a solution down your throat
before you have uttered half a syllable of your objection.
" ' He is as meager as the picture of famine ; his nose and chin almost
meet. I read him in my turn, and found little difficulty iu discovering, amidst
great genius, unaffected piety, unbounded benevolence and moderate learn
ing, much caprice and unsteadiness, a mind at once a.spiring by nature
and groveling through necessity, an endless turn to speculation and project ;
in a word, a clever, flighty, good-natured, necessitous man.' "—Diseases op
THE Mind, fifth edition, page 258.

432 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
mankind through the diminishment of their causes
in the human mind, the embracement or endorsement
of, or acquiescence to, that pubUc thought or custom,
becomes an act of suicide and hence irrational. It is,
we repeat, only by the external acts of persons that
we become acquainted "with thefr internal condition.
To conclude: if we should discover that the human
famUy, or any considerable portion of them, be irre
sistibly driven by those passions or desires of which
we find them possessed, to the embracement of those
wrongs which, as such, are easily comprehended by
thefr understandings, we say that it constitutes a case
of derangement of the moral faculties, because the
latter are put out of thefr natural order, and no longer
perform thefr proper functions : those faculties having
a general scope no longer subordinate and direct those
which have a particular action only, the last having
become first. This is necessarily the case "with all
monomaniacs, and many mad people suffering from
general derangement that are confined in lunatic asy
lums. A part of the modifying faculties are so far
lost to power over the mind that some of those pro
pensities which have prodigious activity, not being
counterbalanced, render the subject highly dangerous
to the members of society.
The irrational condition in which man has existed
for above five thousand years, in our opinion, accounts

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 423
for the £act, that the days of every nation are num
bered, and that, sooner or later, it must foUow the fate
of its predecessor. That "history repeats itself," is
almost as true as trite. " It is an easy matter to deter
mine that people afflicted "vrith melancholy insanity,
during the worst periods of the disease, "vdll be very
liable to commit homicide. It is also as easy to pre
dict, as experience has proven, that every twenty
years, other conditions being equal, there wiU be
financial crises throughout all commercial nations.
But these and other similar calculations of statis
ticians, are only predicable under the reign of the
propensities. They could not occur if man should be
returned to a normal condition.
Having seen, in the histories of the primitive
reUgious and moral elements of the Hebrews and
Carthaginians, of the inteUectual and moral powers
of the Grreeks, the disproof of an ecclesiastical error,
and, a popular notion, long entertained by educators,
to be equally erroneous, we, in addition to these, dis
covered that a general depravity had, before the birth
of our Saviour, an almost universal existence among
all civUized nations, and had also extended its blight
ing curse to the savages and barbarians who inhabited
the remote corners of the earth. In addition to other
leading objects in the foregoing histories, we say, that

ir John S. Mux's Logic of thu Moral Sciences, oh. 10.

424 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
a general depravity was sho"vvn to have an almost
univeral existence; aU tribes, races, and nations of
mankind having faUen under the domination of the
propensities. In this chapter it has been one of our
leading desires to make a closer examination into that
mental disease under which man stUl labors, and to
which we had, in the former chapters, applied the term
depravity. In this chapter we have also endeavored to
prove that the primitive condition of man consisted in
the supremacy of his moral sentiments, and subse
quently, the antithetical one with which he is now
afflicted, to be a derangenent of his mental powers.
Our attention has been brought to the mental condi
tion in which, for several thousand years, man has
been placed. We have seen that although man is
reUgious, he is, nevertheless, in consequence of his
tenacious vices, a melancholy and disgusting being to
behold. ReUgion, instead of elevating him morally,
has been one of the chief causes of plunging him into
crime and debauchery, not in consequence of its
having such tendency in and of itself, but because of
the broad and unwarrantable efficacy assumed of it by
its apostles. So far as its final effects are concerned,
in ministering to the wants of our spiritual nature, it is
just, glorious and true. Farther than this, nothing
can be claimed for it. By an increased culture of the
reasoning powers, we find a paraUel multipUcation,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 425
not of virtue, as is supposed, but of vice, its antagon
istic element. These claims put forward by the sacer
docy as a quaUtative effect of the former, is almost
as old as religion itself; but that of the learned is
of more recent origin. These scholastic and ecclesias
tical opinions are stUl taught in the United States "with
aU the fervor and confidence which might be expected
of the times under the present notion of human pro
gress. If they, or either of them, had protected man in
the past, or had they exhibited such tendency, we
might indulge some hope that they would arrest the
progress of corruption in the present. But we know,
by ha"ving seen, that they have no such tendency, and
the more confidence we place in their efficacy, the
surer and more rapid "will be the blast of our faith.
Let us, therefore, be awakened from farther reUance
in thefr pretended preserving powers, and understand
the benefits and evUs which, in the United States, are
derivable from each.
Mankind was degenerated before the founding of
Rome, and degenerated "with it whUe it had control of
the earth. After the fall of the empire, the European
races were in a deplorable condition of morals, and so
continued down to the reformation, during which, in
the British isles, causes so combined as to produce a
partial restoration. This degeneracy was a derange
ment of the moral sentiments. Whatever restoration

426 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
there was, it was inherited by the pioneers of the thfr
teen colonies, and, by causes which arose through the
maladministration of parUament and the executive of
Great Britain, continued to progress in them farther
toward a status of normaUty. But, as time added to
the age of the repubUc, as wealth was accumulated,
generations multipUed, education increased, and reUg
ion become more popular "with the masses, the people,
as we shall hereafter show, relapsed back into that
disease of the moral sentiments which is so traceable
in the dark and gloomy history of man.
Having given, at the close of the preceding chapter,
some hints by which this derangement can be removed,
and that no equitable government can possibly endure
"without its removal, we shaU proceed, in the foUow
ing chapter, to treat of the events which mark, more
immediately, the rapid declension of morals in the
United States of America.

CHAPTER Vn.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
No Declension without a status exists from which, a Nation can
decline — Partial recovery to a primitive state by Settlers of North
AmericaA-Causes which contributed to produce that recovery-
Evidences of that partial Restoration in the People of the Thirteen
Colonies at the period of the American Revolution — Change of
Character in their immediate Successors — Contrast of the latter to
the former — Attitude of the Southern Slave States on the question
of Slavery — ^Decline of the Moral Sentiments m the South — Opin
ions and Feelings of Southern Slaveholders enter the North and
stifle the Expressions of Humanity — Decline of the Moral Senti
ments in the North.
The declension of a country cannot, "with beneficial
results, be contemplated apart from those conditions
which existed at the time of the founding of the poUt
ical body. Human society being dynamical, there is
at one and the same time, progression and retrogres
sion. While some of the qualities and interests,
material or otherwise, are advancing to apparently
enhance the pleasure, comfort, health and welfare of
man, others frequeii,tly, not the less, but the more
necessary, are actuaUy passing away and disappearing
from that society which they had previously founded
(4 31)

428 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
and composed. And perhaps there are few notions
upon which mankind, at large, are more di"vided than
upon that idea which the term prosperity represents.
Blinded by self-interest, prejudice, passion, bigotry,
and conceit, man is always putting such constructions
upon the condition of the times as best suit the meas
ure of his speculations, best pander to false opinions,
or uses such influences as are designed by thefr nature
to fiatter the vanities of a frivolous and hypocritical
age. Such, lamentably, has been too much the conduct
of man in all periods of the earth's history. Could
the race profit, under existing institutions, by the
calamities of others in the past, who were as fortunate
and as potent, it might be made happier, healthier
and wealthier in the future. Under those systems
of discipline which have always been in vogue,
nothing better could have been expected, and stUl less
can be hoped from them as we advance in the accumu
lation of evil quaUties Although the intellectual
operations of man have produced different effects in
the arts and sciences at various periods, more or less
surrounding him -with the comforts and conveniences
of life, he has, nevertheless, invariably foundered his
political organization in that sea which had engulphed
the hopes and enclosed the remains of so many of his
predecessors. Why marvel at the calamities of man, when the

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 429
very tendency of that mentality which he has traduced
works the "wreck of what he seeks ? If he has suffered,
he has deserved to suffer; he has only met those
rewards which Providence has seen proper to admin
ister, under the natural laws, to those who violate them.
He should have prospered, as their design is protec
tion ; but whenever he has placed himself in opposition
to them, he and his institutions have invariably been
swept away. This, under similar conduct, must be
his fate in the future. Whether this is to be the lot
of the Great Republic of the United States, can .only
be known by the sad experience of some after the
misfortune has transpired, by the prudence and knowl
edge which others have of the history of past nations,
and the wisdom "with which they apply that knowledge
to causes which produce human events. Although the
Declension of the Great Republic is a melancholy
subject for a patriotic and intelligent American to
contemplate, yet it is not as blasting in its effects as
"will be the nature of the case when the political
fabric shall have been laid in the dust. A knowledge
of the question, and a proper application of right
remedies, may avoid those calamities which otherwise
are sure to arrive.
Of those races and classes of men and women who
settled North America, it is generaUy known that they

430 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
were of EngUsh and Scottish origin. Although of two
of the most warlike races of Europe, they were,
nevertheless, more fully possessed of the mental qual
ities of independence, of compassion, and of justice,
than any other nation hitherto existing in modern
times. Notwithstanding, at the expatriation of our
progenitors, the Europeans generaUy had made no
very considerable advancement in the improvement of
their higher mental powers, there was, at the time of
the reformation, in the various states of that continent,
and more especially in Scotland and England, a revival
of that intelUgence, and of those principles, which
had, to a considerable degree, characterized the earUer
inhabitants of Rome. The corrupt selfishness of the
Catholic hierarchy being exposed, wakened to activ
ity the slumbering intelUgence of those who were not
entfrely lost to sense and to shame. By investigating
the designing cruelty and cupidity of the church, the
feeUngs of justice and benevolence were brought into
thoroughly active operations, subordinating the pro
pensities to the service of morality, and giving out
indignant expressions as evidence of an aggressive
disapproval. The result of these effects upon the
moral faculties of the mind was to produce in them
those active and acute conditions which, since the
second Punic war, had been lost to Europe. As the
long conflict between the papacy and the reformers

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 431
increased the animosity of the contestants, these same
primitive elements in the latter were stimulated to
greater critical efforts, and the propensities in the mem
bers of the former were making as rapid progress to
extinguish the last portion of that conscience which,
if still left, might have been lurking in the more
clouded recesses of the soul. The passions of envy,
hatred and revenge, in and of themselves, never work
aught but evU effects to the higher sentiments of their
possessor. WhUe the reformers were thus gaining
moral strength in this theological controversy, by a
resumption of a long neglected portion of thefr nature,
those who adhered to the ecclesiastical notions of the
older clergy were, by a simUar process, declining in
mental energy. From the reign of Henry VIII to the
Prince of Orange, a period of one hundred and eighty
years, did these conflicting questions of the church
continue to agitate the pubUc, and more especially the
private, conscience of the EngUsh and Scottish races.
The increased activity of the moral quaUties which
had in this maimer been acqufred by one generation,
would very naturaUy, like any other, be inherited by
the succeeding. These external causes on the one
hand, and the internal quaUties on the other, the
latter being transmitted from parent to chUd and
acting through a period of five generations, -wrought
great changes in the two principal races of the British

432 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
isles and the Catholic nations on the continent. There
was a great superiority discernible in aU the acts of
the former over the latter. Rome taught her laity
that faith with Protestants was not to be regarded,
and inaugurated, as far as her influence extended, a
weak but bloodthirsty policy against those peoples
and nations which had emancipated themselves from
her superstitious despotism. Not so with the reform
ers in England in their pastoral charges to their
followers; for though frequently driven, through
fear of a rising political power, to restrain the exer
cise of their religious beliefs and the resuscitation of
popery, to the exercise of unwarrantable authority, it
was under strong moral convictions.
But when the tyrannical authority which the prim
acy of Rome had long exercised over the civilized
world, was shaken from the people in this portion of
the globe, we find that the EngUsh and Scottish minds,
for obvious reasons, were directed to dissent from many
trifling doctrines and immoral acts which the state and
reformed church, under the reigns of the Tudors and
Stuarts, had thought to be for their interest to enforce. ^

1 The following from Hume indicates about the force with which they
bore up against both state and church: "Sir John Elliott" [in the house of
commons] "framed a remonstrance against levying tonnage and poundage
without consent of parliament, and offered it to the clerk to read. It was
refused. He read it himself. The question being then called for, the speaker.
Sir John Finch, said, ' that he had a command from the king to adjourn, and
to put no question ;' upon which he rose and left the chair. The whole house

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 433
The people were not unnecessarUy refractory against
good government, but were restless at the impositions
(as they supposed them to be) of thefr ecclesiastical
superiors, and the tendency of those pernicious prin
ciples which had manifested themselves during the
administration of thefr rulers. Against these the feel
ings of the people were aroused, and seemed disposed
to arrest the progress of those evils which had always
appeared to increase in strength over the common
mind as they advanced in age. Though during this
partial restoration, not to poUtical rights of which
they had been despoUed, but to the supremacy of
their moral sentiments, the masses were not infre
quently urged to the extremes of justice, even
bordering on cruelty to the person, they appeared
upon such occasions, nevertheless, to have arrived
at a condition by which they were caused to feel the
poignant workings of a compassionate soul. These

was in an uproar. The speaker was pushed back into the chair, and forcibly
held in it by Hollls and Valentine, till a short remonstrance was framed, and
was passed by acclamation rather than by vote. Papists and Arminians were
then declared capital enemies to the commonwealth. Those who levied ton
nage and poundage were branded with the same epithets. And even the
merchants who should voluntarily pay those duties, were denominated betray
ers of English liberty and public enemies. The doors" [of the commons]
" being locked, the gentleman usher of the house of lords, who was sent by the
king, could not get admission till this remonstrance was finished. By the
king's order he took the mace from the table, which ended the proceedings,
and a few days after the parliament was dissolved." * * * Of the Arminians
he says : '* Throughout the nation they lay under the reproach of innovation
and heresy. * * * Their protectors were stigmatized, their tenets canvassed,
their views represented as dangerous and pernicious." — Histobt op Eng-
liAND, vol. 5, pages 66 and 69 : Fhillips, Sampson & Co., Boston.
28

434 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
were symptoms which foreboded good, instead of e"vil,
to the race of man. In tracing the events of this people
immediately after the execution of Charles I, oppres
sions 'of mortification, grief and even horror were
generally manifested throughout the great body of
the English nation, which, there a century before,
and on the continent a century afterward, could not
have occurred under similar external circumstances. ^
Although the papacy had extinguished the fourth
cause which operated to degenerate the Greeks, it was
through no good wUl or intention of her own. She
had checked one of the natural agencies of civUized
corruption, as it were, and substituted in its stead the
most savage barbarism. This condition, which she
had "wrought upon the great majority of the European
masses, continued down to the opposition of Luther
and Melancthon. From this mental state, which gave
2 Speaking of the effect which the regicide had upon the more humane
sentiments of the nation, the historian says : "In proportion to their former
delusions, which had animated them against him," [Charles I,] "was the vio
lence of their return to duty and affection ; while each reproached himself,
either with active disloyalty towards him, or with too indolent defense of his
oppressed cause. On weaker minds the effects of the complicated passions
were prodigious. Women are said to have cast forth the untimely fruit of
their womb ; others fell into convulsions, or sunk into such a state of melan
choly as attended them to their grave; nay, some, unmindful of themselves,
as though they could not, or would not, survive their beloved prince, it is
reported, suddenly fell down dead. The very pulpits were bedewed with
unsuborned tears ; those pulpits which had formerly thundered out the most
violent imprecations and anathemas against him. And all men united in their
detestation of those hypocritical parricides who, by sanctified pretenses, had
so long disguised their treasons, and In this last act of Iniquity had thrown an
indelible stain upon the nation."— Hume's History op EnqiiAnd, vol. 5, page
378. Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston,

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 435
rise to no tender sentiments, but thfrsted to glut a
morbid appetite in witnessing and committing the
most exquisite cruelties, the English and Scottish
minds were delivered at the end of the great contro
versy. Thus it was that these two races were elevated,
not in conceit and bigotry, but in substantial moral
qualities, above the same in any other people of the
continent, except those nations in the north of Europe
and the south of France, which, as we have before
intimated, had embraced the principles of the reform
ation. Having merely indicated that process and those
agencies by which our EngUsh and Scottish progeni
tors were mentaUy carried above the moral darkness
which obscured Europe in the middle ages, we shaU
conclude this portion of our reflection upon the sub
ject, as a farther extension of it would be inconsistent
"with the Umits of this work. But as to their moral
superiority, and the manner in which it was wrought,
volumes, as evidence, can be supplied in its support.
It is hoped that this conclusive reflection upon our
metaphysical origin, wUl not be regarded as a mani
festation of vanity, but, by the necessities of the case,
be conceded as truth and justice.
However much this was the case "with the EngUsh
and Scotch, when compared with the other nations of
the west, and more especially of the south, of Europe,

436 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
they had, by no means, arrived at that mental status
which placed the animal faculties and selfish senti
ments of the mind in entfre subjection to the moral
powers. From this metaphysical condition the pil
grim fathers, and those who subsequently arrived from
these two states of the kingdom, were descended, and
partook, as their history establishes, its quaUties,
and transmitted them to those generations which
immediately succeeded them in the colonies of Amer
ica. As the EngUsh minds were not entirely under the
infiuence of their moral faculties, they were engaged
alternately in suppressing the "wrongs which sprang
up among the various classes, sects, and reUgious
denominations in their own land, and, in transporting
from the coast of Africa its inhabitants, and selling
them as slaves to the planters of North America.
The propensities being more active, having been more
acted upon by objects of the external world, have
always, since the fall of the moral faculties, trans
ferred the monuments of their labor, from one
century to another, -with greater force and with more
evil consequences, than have the higher sentiments
of the mind.
It being understood that this work pertains solely
to certain portions of the metaphysical nature of man,
and not to external events farther than they reflect the
various degrees of weakness and strength, which, by

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 437'
different causes, and at different periods, the mental
faculties were forced to assume, we shall omit all
narration of the events of American history which do
not contribute to this one end. Besides, this branch
of the subject would be superfluous, as several able
historians have already treated it in a masterly way.
The first colonial settlers of North British America,
those who cleared the forests of New England, and
the plantations of the South, excepting a certain inde
pendence of spirit and a more fervent zeal for reUgious
opinions, were not, as a whole, in a much more exalted
condition in those faculties which produce moral prin
ciples, than were their brethren whom they left behind
in thefr native land. Whatever evidence there may
be on this question, wUl, without doubt, be founPd by
the history of each in fevor of the early emigrants.
The difference, however, in mental characteristics
which existed between them, is not to be regarded as
very considerable. The very first settlers of the coun
try, more especiaUy those who landed at Plymouth
Rock and at James Town, Yirginia, if one take not
into consideration the character of those who arrived
shortly thereafter, might, as respects the general
principles embodied in moraUty, be regarded as the
apostles of the British nation. But, during this
refiection, it must not be forgotten that they were
foUowed by a host of the most ambitious and

438 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
enterprising men, who were as unprincipled as thefr
undertakings were dangerous. They came over the
sea with appointments of the crown and with land
grants, in most cases unmerited privUeges, or for the
purpose of peculation, by gathering power from the
necks of the people, in fraudulent collusion -with the
agents of the imperial government.
The whole political career of Great Britain toward
her newly planted colonies was adapted, in its nature,
to more deeply nerve the feeUngs of justice and com
passion in the early Americans, than had that
great controversy which gave bfrth to the reformation.
As the former began where the latter left off, and con
tinued much the same action upon the mental powers
of the people, they were making rapid progress to
entfrely surmount those difficult conditions of the pro
pensities, under which the inhabitants of England,
after a partial growth of the colonies, appeared
to be relapsing.^ In this mental status, parliament,

3 " "With the restoration of the royal house, immorality had come in upon
England like a flood. The hatred of Puritanism extended itself to the vener
able things that Puritans revered, and to those habits of blameless living that
Puritans bad attempted (not always wisely) to enforce. The king's example
of ostentatious vice was attractive to loyal minds. The court, with which the
church was enthusiastically allied, was flagitiously and imprudently profligate.
The fine gentleman scarcely maintained his character, unless, besides being a
libertine and a scoffer, he was a pensioner and a pimp. The king's bishops
had to keep on civil terms with the king's harlots. The latest historian is fain
to record, as ' an unquestionable and a most instructive fact, that the years
during which the political power of the Anglican hierarchy was iu the zenith,
were precisely the years during which national virtue was at the lowest
point.' "—PALraET's History of Nbw England, vol. 2, page 437.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 439
supported by the middle classes, forwarded measures
more adapted to finally destroy, than in the end to
promote British interests in the west. Whatever these
classes desired, which tended to increase thefr fortunes,
was sanctioned, aided, and even enforced by the repre
sentative powers of the realm. * And, moreover, those
of Great Britain who had assumed the care of the
spfritual welfare of the people, had professed, as a sole
object of earthly Ufe, to be actuated by divine inspfra-
tion to save the souls of men, were seized with the same
uncommon greed for gold, for power and for distinc
tion. They endeavored, by the aid of parUament, of
the estabUshed church, and of the crown, to found an
hierarchy in the colonies of America, which was Uttle
less odious to the inhabitants than had been that of
Rome to the most enthusiastic reformers. They were
triumphant "with home authority. ^ The executive

^ To support home interests, perhaps nothing was more designed, for the
time only, to carry out this object, than her financial policy toward the colonies.
' In 1738, the New England currency was worth but one hundred for five hun
dred ; that of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, one hundred
for one hundred and sixty or seventy, or two hundred ; of South Carolina, one
for eight, while of North Carolina— of all the states the least commercial in Its
character — the paper was iu London esteemed worth but one for fourteen, in
the colony but one for ten. And yet the policy itself was not repudiated. The
statesmen of England never proposed or desired to raise the domestic currency
of the colonies to an equality with that of the great commercial world." —
Bancboit's History op the United States, vol. 3, page 389.
5 "The ministers of Massachusetts," [of the English church,] "by the
hand of Cotton Mather, desired a synod, ' to recover and establish the faith
and order of the gospel.' The council assents ; the house hesitates, and, by a
reference to the next session, gives opportunity for instruction from the
people. The bishop of London anticipates their decision, and a reprimand

440 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
strove to enforce those unjust and pernicious princi
ples, which created the code of partial descent in
England, in the case of intestate estates in the colony
of Connecticut. It amended the law of equal distri
bution, although, by the energetic resistance of the
provincials, George II and his government were com
pelled to recede from their position. "
Though the aristocracy met "with disappointment in
many of their schemes, they appeared to be emboldened
to more unprincipled measures and more hazardous
undertakings. The governor of New York, in 1734,
opposed the whole inhabitants of the colony, and
declared it his purpose to set the laws of surveys, of
proprietary rights, at defiance; and it was evident
that, by new conferences of those lands, the title of
which had long been settled, upon those devoted to
the crown, he designed to establish absolute princi
ples over the rising empire of the west. It was also
as reasonable to conclude, from most of the cir
cumstances which attended his conduct, that he was
from England forbids ' the authoritative ' meeting, as a bad precedent for dis
senters. An English prelate was once more the opponent of the religion of
New England."— Bancroft's History or the United States, vol. 3, page
391 ; also note 2, on page 330 of vol. 3, Palfrey's History of New England.
6 " The farmers of Connecticut loved to divide their domain among their
children. In regard to intestate estates, their law was annulled in England,
and the English law favoring the eldest born was declared to be in force
among them. Republican equality seemed endangered; but, in the short
conflict between the European system and the American system, the new
legislation triumphed, and the king receded from the vain project of enforcing
English rules of descent on the husbandmen of New England."— Bancroft's
History of the United States, vol. 3, pages 392 and 393.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 441
carrying out a systematic and deliberate policy of the
home government. When told that his course was in
violation of law, he replied: "Do you think I mind
that? I have great interests in Ireland." But mon
archical influences had reached and tainted others
beside the imperial executive agent. The legislative
body concurred in his schemes and sanctioned his
measures. It is also a little remarkable that this legis
lature should be wholly unUmited in its duration, so
far as the colony was concerned, and at the same time
for its existence made dependent upon the crown.'
That the governor had secret instructions to remove
judges and appoint new ones, more adapted by deprav
ity to acquiesce in his course, appeared from the man
ner in which he displaced them and supplied thefr
positions. Publishers of papers, who warned the
people of the danger to be apprehended from an
increase of absolute principles, were arrested and
imprisoned. Thefr counsel were disbarred for having
taken exceptions to the jurisdiction of the court. * The

7 "At New York the people and the governor are in collision. Casby,
imitating Andros in Massachusetts, insists on new surveys of land and new
grants, in lieu of the old. * * * * The assembly, chosen under royalist
influences, and continued from year to year, offered no resistance. The rights
of the electors were impaired, for the period of the eissembly was unlimited.
The courts of law were not so pliable ; and Casby, displacing the chief-justice,
himself appointed judges, without soliciting the consent of the council or
waiting for the approbation of the sovereign."— BAirCBorc's Histobt of xhb
United States, vol. 3, page 393.
8 Ibid.

442 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
juries, however, belonging to a class less corruptible
than the courts, in cases of libel gave evidence of
superior moral qualities by thefr verdicts of not
guUty. «
But during these oppressive acts of the crown and
commercial classes of Great Britain, the courage of the
colonists was being subjected to an unusual growth by
an unseen power. That power was from within, th,e
exciting cause from without. There appeared a steady
progress of opposition to all the aggressive acts which
emanated from abroad. England was doing no evU
service, for as she took their substance from them
against law, and subjected them to dependency upon
absolute principles, she was at the same time develop
ing in them those faculties and feelings which are more
enduring than gold and garters.
In the other colonies, the administration of the
selfish feeUngs of the EngUsh was not less traceable. In
Massachusetts, as early as 1684, the charter, which had
existed fifty -five years, had extended some freedom,
and a little latitude, to the feeUngs of the people with
out violating their moral feelings, was abrogated, and
the prosperity and welfare of the inhabitants of that
province were made dependent upon the whims of a
prince, whose mind was stiU darkened by the doctrines

9 See case of Zenger, Bancroft's History of the United States, vol,
3, pages 393 and 394.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 448
and ceremonies of the Romish faith. But his acts
cannot be regarded solely as the result of his despotic
wUl ; he had, as executive, but given expression to the
feelings of avarice which pervaded, without a proper
balance, all the commercial classes of England. ^ " The
abrogation of the charter was procured by the mer
chants and the manufacturers of England, and visited
on the colonial people as a penalty for having violated
the Navigation Act, which, by compliance, compelled
the provincials to buy English goods at EngUsh prices,
and in payment therefor return American products at
whatever values the latter thought it to be for thefr
interests to advance. * ^ Those who traded with nations
IO That the Navigation Act was passed in the interests of the merchants
and manufacturers, none ever doubted ; that they procured its passage by
bringing their Influence to bear on the parliament and the crown, there Is as
little doubt. After its passage they treated it as a creature of their own. The
following supports both views : " Complaints were brought against them,"
[the people of New England,] " the preceding year, by the merchants and
manufacturers of England, for their disregard of the Navigation Act. The
governors of the colonies were therefore commanded to enforce a strict
obedience to the commercial regulations. Commissions were transmitted,
empowering persons to administer an oath framed to secure a strict observ
ance of those laws."— Hinton's United States, vol. 1, page 66.
"Moreover, the interests of the trade of the nation had precedence of
the political Interests of the princes. The members of the legislature watched
popular excitements, and listened readily to the petitions of the merchants;
and these in their turn did not desire to see one of their own number charged
with the conduct of the finances as chancellor of the exchequer ; but wished
rather for some member of the aristocracy, friendly to their interests. They
preferred to speak through such an one, and rebelled against the necessity of
doing so, as little as they did at the employment of a barrister to plead their
cause in the halls of justice."— Bancroft, vol. 5, page 50. See also page 92 as
to the complaints and the influence of the merchants on Grenville.
II "The Navigation Act of the commonwealth was made the basis of
further and stricter legislation, A law of the convention parliament forbade
the Importation of merchandise into any English colony, except in English

444 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
bordering on the Mediterranean, in the south of
Europe, were not to have passes granted them, by
which they could be protected in thefr lives from the
merciless ferocity of Turkish pirates. ^ " Notwithstand
ing that Englishmen, wherever they are domiciled, had,
under the British constitution, equal privileges before
the law, the American branch of that great family were
to be subjected to a loss of vessel property, to impris
onment, or to a penalty of death, for not donating the
principal amount of the value of their goods to the
middle classes of their mother country; if by so

vessels, with English crews ; and, specifying various colonial staples, it prohib
ited their exportation from the place of production to any other ports than
such as belonged to England. The penalty in both cases was forfeiture of
vessel and cargo. The oppressive system was further extended by an act
which confined the import trade of the colonists to a direct commerce with
England, forbidding them to bring them from any other country, or in any
other but English ships, the products, not only of England, but of any Euro
pean soil."— Palfrey's History of New England, vol. 3, page 44i.
It cannot fail to be seen from the above, that in securing such a, close
monopoly to themselves, the prices at which the English bought and sold,
would be regulated by the supply and demand. There was much of the time
an over supply of American products, and hence the prices at which the mer
chants bought, were as low as their hearts could desire. " There were articles
of New England production, which the English merchants, whether by con
sumption or commerce, could not exhaust ; while it concerned the English
merchants, that the colonists should somehow get money to pay for English
manufactures." — IniD., note 1.
12 " Complainants stated, that the inhabitants of New England not only
traded to most parts of Europe, but encouraged foreigners to go and traffic
with them; that they supplied the other plantations with those foreign pro
ductions which ought only to be sent from England." * * "To add weight
to these measures," [a close enforcement of the Navigation Act,] " it was
determined that no Mediterranean passes should be granted to New England,
to protect its vessels against the Turks, till It is seen what dependence it will
acknowledge on his majesty, or whether his custom-house officers are received
as in other colonies."— Holmes' Amxbioan Annals, vol, 1, page 385 ; cited by
Mr. Hinton, vol. 1, page 66.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 445
doing they were disposed to part "with them at higher
prices to nations in the south of Europe, bordering on
the sea. And thus the speculative classes, for it can
be attributed to none but them, under the rule of the
propensities, had the disposition to starve the people
of the colonies, when it contributed to their riches,
and indfrectly, by abandoning them to those whose
character was no better than freebooters, be the means
of their imprisonment and death. They were accessory
before the fact to the enslavement or murder of all nav
igators of New England who should be so unfortunate
as to fall into the hands of Turkish pirates. They
were in this manner engaged in the same offenses
against whole peoples, for which, in single cases, they
were, by thefr statutes and the law of nations, in the
habit of transporting and executing felons.
Even after these oppressive burdens to the colonies,
through which a major part of the commercial classes
of England had amassed great fortunes, they pro
ceeded by new tactics to emancipate themselves from
the payment of home taxes. This was to be effected
by discharging a public debt, contracted in their own
interests, by redisposition of lands in the colonies. In
"view of this object, these classes, at a period of history
when the British empire was felt by all mankind to
be the first among potent nations, through their gov
ernor, who, if not in form, was thefr agent in reaUty,

446 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
proceeded to deprive the farmers of title to their Ut
tle plantations, for which, to people of Great Britain,
payment in full had once been made. He declared
the titles to be void, and forced them to repayment.
There appeared to be no end to British greed and lust
of power; having impoverished the inhabitants by
enforcement of the Navigation Act, the abrogation of
the charter, and the reduction of agriculturists to want
by plundering them of their farms, this agent of Brit
ish interests imposed restrictions upon marriage cer
emonies, pubUc worship, and the administration of
estates. These acts were designed to extort money
from the people, and, by dfrecting it into another
channel, give it to those who were in nowise entitied
to it. ^ * America was a grand field to amass fortunes
for the English, but for no others. But in Massachu
setts, no less than in New York, tyranny, by being
rendered practical, had the same effect upon the
minds of the people.** They exhibited a stubborn
13 "This latter appointment caused the most gloomy forebodings. Sir
Edmond Andros had been governor of New York, and it was known that his
conduct there had been arbitrary and tyrannical. Having secured a major
ity in the council, he assumed control over the press, appointing Bandolph
licenser. He estabished new and oppressive regulations concerning taxes,
public worship, marriages, and the settlement of estates. His subordinate
officers, as well as himself, extorted enormous fees for their services. He
declared, that the charter being cancelled, the old titles to land were of no
validity, and compelled the inhabitants, in order to avoid suits before judges
dependent on his will, to take out new patents, for which large sums were
demanded."— Hinton's Unetbd States, vol. 1, page 66.
14 " But, though the charter was gone, the spirit which it had cherished,
and the habits which it had formed, were retained."— IBID.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 447
opposition; and, if to their antagonists they were
unequal in power, they served to render the odious
administration of James II unpopular, and somewhat
contributed in driving him from the throne. * ^
The people of Virginia were more devoted to the
interests of the cro"WTi, the aristocracy, and the estab
lished church, than were the inhabitants of New
England. Through their great fondness of aristocratic
origin, they made pretensions to Ulustrious descent, or
in living, aped the manners and extravagance of the
landed proprietors of England. By these characteris
tics, they were regarded, by the people of the home
government, as secure dupes to a craft which, if it did
not wholly arise, did receive more lasting vigor, and
more forbidding impressions from the stagnant state of
morals in the middle ages. It was through this state
of feeling toward the same race in the east, that the
early Yirginians received more favor and less despotic
administration from the rulers than the other colonists.
Their courtier-Uke dependency upon the most success
ful pillagers of feudal times, well recommended them
IS " Happily, this despotic rule was not of long duration. In the begin
ning of 1689, a rumor reached Boston that William, prince of Orange, had
invaded England, with the intention of dethroning the king. Animated by
the hope of deliverance, the people rushed spontaneously to arms, took pos
session of the fort, seized Andros, Randolph, and other obnoxious persons,
and placed them in confinement. A council of safety, consisting of their
former magistrates, was then organized to administer the government until
authentic intelligence should be received."— Hinton's United States, vol.
1, page 68. See also PaiiFbkt's Histort OI" NEW ENGLAim, vol, 3, pages 674
and 57S.

448 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
to the favor of Charles II ; and they were to have the
inestimable privUege of being governed by constitu
tional laws which secured, as the world had been
much informed by British statesmen, Ufe, liberty and
protection of property to every member of the king
dom, however hunqble might be his station. * ^ Perhaps
they supposed it was far better to be in bondage to
the crown, as it was easier to submit to his arbitrary
measures than be plundered by his eastern commercial
subjects through the acts of thefr parliament. But
the people of this colony, like those of the other
colonies, were soon brought to contemplate the arbi
trary administration of a more potent force than could
be constituted by the king and aristocracy alone.
When the Navigation Act of the commercial classes
was passed, the gross injustice of its terms moved
what conscience they were possessed of into active
opposition to English misrule.

i6 "The colonists of Virginia, or a majority of them, were Episcopalians,
and attached to the church of England ; the religion of that church, indeed,
was established by law in the colony ; and it is evident that they were strongly
In favor of the royal cause. Their warm-hearted loyalty could not fail to be
exhilarating to Charles II, during bis banishment. He transmitted from
Breda a new commission to Sir William Berkeley, as governor of Virginia,
declaring his intention of ruling and governing the colony according to the
laws and statutes of England, which were to be established there. Thus while
that prince was not permitted to rule over a foot of land in England, he exer
cised the royal jurisdiction over Virginia. On receiving the first account of
the restoration, the joy and exultation of the colonists was unbounded." —
Hinton's United States, vol. 1, page 36.
Parliament made war on Virginia for this loyalty of the people to the
king.— Ibid., page 36,

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 449
The inhabitants of the CaroUnas were subjected to
aU the indignities and oppression to which a people
could be treated. For six years, under the adminis
tration of Seth Lothel, the honest were defrauded and
robbed. He cultivated crime, and, so far as his influ
ence extended, suppressed aU practical appearance of
vfrtue. Devoted by the whole powers of his soul to a
vicious Ufe, he persecuted the innocent, but allowed
felons to go at large with aU the Uberty of perfect
saints. Although weU informed in regard to his
character, the home government did not remove hiTn
nor interfere to check the corruption of his administra
tion; he was impeached and expeUed the colony by
the people whom he had so outrageously wronged.
During the administration, or plundering adventure,
of Colonel Robert Quarry, the government of Eng
land, from the CaroUnas, encouraged and suppUed the
pfrates of the West Indies. With a prospect that the
gold, which these freebooters had taken from thefr
lifeless victims, would eventually flow into the pock
ets of oflS.cers and colonists, enabling the latter to pay
their dues of tenancy to the proprietaries, they were
treated with more courtesy than men of good manners
and morals. They were made associates of the gov
ernor, and, being always weU received, rendezvoused
in the province. Charles II went so far in endorse
ment of thefr life and conduct as to knight Henry
39

450 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
Morgan, a piratical chief, for his daring acts* on the
high seas in violation of the laws of nations. '' But
the morals of this colony were of a detestable nature,
for they appeared more turbulent under good govern
ors than when ruled by despotic usurpers. Though
this was the character of a small majority, nearly one-
half were people of good morals. "Lord Granville,
one of the proprietors, a bigoted churchman, in con
junction with the governor," his "tool" and parasite,
James Moore, notwithstanding that the Episcopalians
were in the minority, by "interfering "with the elections
and bribing the voters, succeeded in procuring a
majority in the assembly," by which the Episcopalian
reUgion was fastened on the people of the colony.
"The dissenters thus saw themselves at once deprived
of those privUeges for which they had abandoned their
17 " During the time of his government " [HoBert Quarry's] " a number of
pirates put into Charleston, and purchased provisions with their Spanish gold
and silver. Those public robbers, instead of being tried by the laws of Eng
land, were treated with great civility and friendship, iu violation of the laws
of nations. "Wliether the governor was Ignorant of the treaty made with
Spain, by which England had withdrawn her former toleration from these
plunderers of the Spanish dominions, or whether lie was afraid to bring them
to tried from the notorious courage of their companions in the West Indies,
we have not sufficient authority to affirm; but one thing is certain, that
Charles II, for several years after the restoration, winked at their depreda
tions. ****** He even knighted Henry Morgan, a Welshman, who had
plundered Porto Bello and Panama, and carried off large treasures from them.
For several years so formidable was this body of plunderers in the West
Indies, that they struck a terror into every quarter of the Spanish dominions.
Their gold and silver, which they lavishly spent in the colony, insured them a
kind reception among the Carolinians, who opened their porta to them freely,
and furnished them with necessaries. They could purchase the favor of the
governor and the friendship of the people, for what they deemed a trifling
consideration."— Htnton's United States, vol. 1, pages 114 and 145.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 451
native country, and encountered the dangers and the
hardships of the ocean, and a wilderness."" If the
proprietors, after a long time, had partly discounte
nanced the transactions of Governor Quarry with the
West India pfrates, and thereby partially recovered
thefr standing in the eyes of humanity, they, at a
subsequent period, exhibited the worst of qualities in
refusing to bear any portion of the expense of the
great Indian war directed against the inhabitants of
the province. The proprietaries being the only laad
owners, were justly chargeable with the whole expense
of the war ; and the people, as vassals to thefr liege
lords, were, according to the principles of feudalism,
bound to foUow thefr superiors to battle. But in this
instance, when the tomahawk, the scalping-knife and
the stake threatened every individual iu the province,
it became extermination to the people or to the
Indians. This, fortunately for the whites, proved to
be the fate of the latter. After the proprietaries had
wholly refused to respond, in the smallest amount,
to the payment of the indebtedness incurred, the
colonists, like good citizens who were bound that all
should equaUy bear the burdens of the miUtary
administration, disposed of the lands, from which
the Indians had been driven, to five hundred Irishmen,

iS HtNTON, vol. 1, page 148: Samuel Walker, Boston, second quarto
edition.

453 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
appropriating the proceeds of the sale to discharge
the pubUo debt. After this people from the "emerald
isle" had endured the severest trials at sea, had paid
their aU, and become settled upon their lands, they
were driven from these frontier possessions by Lord
Granville and his associates. Many of the exiles died
from want. * * Had the money of these Irish purchas
ers passed into proprietary possession, no complaints
would have been made. "The people were exasper
ated, and longed for a change of masters; and the
corrupt and oppressive conduct of Trott, the chief-
justice, and Rhett, the receiver-general, increased the
discontent. Of the former the governor and councU
complained to the proprietors, and soUcited his recall ;
but instead of removing him, they thanked him for his
services, and removed the governor and councU. They
drew up articles of impeachment against Trott, accus
ing him of corruption and gross misconduct, and sent
an agent to England to maintain their accusation before
the proprietors; but he was still continued in office."*"
19 In this war the aborigines almost completely exterminated the settle
ment of the palatines. So fully was this wrought, that the historian says that
" Before them was the repose of innocence ; behind, the sleep of death."
Eight nations had formed an alliance to murder every inhabitant. The Indian
forces were composed of all the warriors contained in the Yamassees, Conga-
rees, Catawbas, Cherokees, Tusoaroras, Corees, Creeks and Apalachlans. * * *
" The terms offered were so favorable that five hundred Irishmen immediately
came over, and planted themselves on lands. The proprietors most unwisely,
as well £is unjustly, refused to sanction the proceedings of the assembly, and
deprived these emigrants of their land. Reduced to extreme poverty, some
perished from want."— Henton's United States, vol. 1, pages 149 and 150.
20 Ibid.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 453
But the very beginning of the operations of these
grantees, across the sea, was adapted, by the measures
of the legal draft, to inspire dread had they been
known to the pubUc. In constitutional provisions
the proprietors endeavored to bind upon the people
those barbarous enormities which originated at an
early period with the uncultivated savages of the north
of Europe. The pen of a philosopher, John Locke, was
employed to draft its articles, among which was one
to estabUsh feudalism in America. Three degrees of
nobility were to be formed, which ever after were des
tined to debar the rightful owners of the soil from
possession in fee, and make them dependent on those
whose ancestors had come into ownership, not by pay
ment, not by law, civil nor natural, but by the assump
tions of a superior chief, who, himself, had no claim to
exercise such authority except such as he derived by
injustice and fraud. The tfrst and most consider
able title of nobUity established in the colony was
that of landgrave, -with unalienable possessions pf
forty-eight thousand acres of land; the third, the
cazique, of twenty-four thousand; and the baron,
"with possession of twelve thousand acres of unalien
able land.*^ It' "will at once be seen that it would

21 Three nobles collectively would be entitled to hold 84,000 acres, and
taking an average, would give to the possession of each 28,000 acres. There
being in North America 8,500,000 square miles, or 6,440,000,000 acres, it would
require but 194,286 such persons to take up the whole vast area.

454 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
requfre but one hundred and nuiety-four thousand
two hundred and eighty-six persons to hold from
the rest of mankind the whole of the vast territory
of North America.
But this greed for gold, for power, and for fame,
which had overstepped its limits, had trampled on
every right, moral and divine, of others, "without a
symptom of remorse, was about to be deprived of
those great and desirable ends for which it yearned.
The proprietors were arraigned in court for thefr
corrupt, venal and oppressive conduct toward the
colonists, for having grossly violated the compact
made with Charles II, which, by its extraordinary
terms, had given them almost unUmited power over
the Carolinians. The disposition which they mani
fested to plunder a people whom tyranny and
misfortune had planted in the provinces, had been
carried into such systematic and active operations
that, had the scene of their exploits been laid in
England instead of America, they would have at
once been degraded from the social ranks which
they held in the civU state, convicted as common
malefactors, either executed on the scaffold or
expeUed the kingdom. They, however, did not
entirely escape punishment, as they were convicted
of the charges aUeged against them, to thefr dis
comfiture, and, by consequence, declared to have

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 455
forever forfeited all rights of ownership to the col
onies of the CaroUnas.** Thus we see how those
mental faculties, to which the grantees had become
subordinated, when not directed by those of justice
and compassion, not only conduct the individual to
disappointment, but lead him to those disasters and
to that ruin from which he and his posterity can never
be wholly emancipated. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon,
Persia, Greece, Tyre, Carthage, Syracuse and Rome
had been subdued to those faculties, and as they, in
thefr very nature, when uncontroUed by the moral
sentiments, are self-destructive to the individual and
to the nation, aU these ancient states were wiped out of
existence, or so far wrecked as to be easUy destroyed
by any chance soldier of fortune. These men were
learned in the history of them aU, yet they gathered
no salutary lessons from the sad misfortunes of thefr
fe,U. Although learned in the great events of kings,
of remarkable battles, of the constitutions of renowned
repubUcs, and all the knavery of modern diplomacy,
they were whoUy ignorant of the producing causes of
true glory and of gross infamy; and one must conclude

22 " The agent from Carolina at length procured a hearing from the lords
of the regency and council in England, the king being at that time in Hanover,
who gave It as their opinion that the proprietors had forfeited their charter,
and ordered the attorney-general to take out a scire facias against It. In con
sequence of this decision, in September, 1720, they appointed General Pianols
Nicholson provisional governor of the province, with a fiommission from the
king."— Hinton's United States, vol. 1, page 152,

456 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
that, whatever might be the opportunities which they
possessed for obtaining knowledge, or the positions
which they occupied, by the organizations of thefr
minds, they were wholly unqualified to direct the
legislative affairs of a nation. Like most politicians,
they assumed to know everything ; but, in fact, knew
nothing more than the history of a few events, and the
modes of pulling political wires for their own selfish
purpose by corrupting the vulgar. Half a century
afterward the same causes, which deprived them of
those great possessions, dismembered the British mon
archy, and out of the western division erected a
powerful rival to her commercial interests. But
those injuries which they inflicted on the colonists
were slight, when compared to those evU effects
which, by hereditary laws, they were destined to
produce, through lineal succession, on the moral
qualities of England and the society of Europe.
Such was the character of the acts of those who
were largely interested, by a pecuniary view, in the
plantations of the Carolinas. MiUions of acres of
land, territory larger than the British Isles, had been
granted to these proprietaries by the crown, without
the cost to them of a single doUar for the fee. Who
could suppose that such great fortune would not be
sufficient in itself to induce its recipients to be just, if
no more? It is perfectly evident, however, from the

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 457
history of thefr conduct, that it was the dfrect effect
of thefr lower nature, having greatly faUen behind
that semi-moral state, in possession of which their
grand ancestors had issued from the storms of the
reformation. They had relapsed under an almost
complete rule of the animal faculties, a condition
which characterized the entfre speculative classes of
the British nation at the close of the first, and at the
beginning of the last, half of the seventeenth century.
All these various acts, arising from egotism and
greed, predominating quaUties in the larger portion of
the EngUsh race east of the ocean at this period, con
tinued to act as an external influence on the colonial
mind down to the breaking out of war between France
and Britain. For the seven years which this war lasted
there was, for the first time after the rupture of Henry
YIII with the primacy of Rome to 1756, a period of
about two hundred and twenty years, a partial repose
of the moral faculties of the mind in the Puritans
of America. During the struggles of the primitive elements of
morality on this side of the ocean against the selfish
and animal quaUties of the speculative classes on the
other, there had, by reciprocal action, been a corre
sponding growth in the antagonistic faculties of the
two races in both worlds. The parliament of Great
Britain was controUed by the passions and prejudices

458 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of men, whose character was in conformity to an age
and country which had been molded by relentless
civil wars ; by strifes of a people to obtain individual
power by checking and appropriating the encroach
ments of the crown, the prerogatives of which they
both exalted and diminished at pleasure ; by attempt
ing to control the commerce of the great west, which
by nature was free to aU ; by stealing human beings
from Africa, and forcing them as slaves on the settlers
of North America ; by unremitting efforts to accumu
late great fortunes by unjustifiable means ; and by an
odious and belittling ambition for useless titles, for the
procurement of which the middle classes did not scru
ple at any measure employed designed to forward this
one object. Internal refinement, produced by virtue
and intelUgence, had undergone wonderful changes in
two generations — existed in great minority and reposed
in the tombs of thefr great ancestors. The condition
of mind in the masses of England better resembled
those of the later days of Tyre and of Carthage than
the earlier ones of Persia and of Rome. It was these
elements in the eastern branch of the EngUsh race that,
through a period of nearly two centuries, performed
and mostly finished up the work of emancipating the
moral faculties from their bondage to the animal in
the inhabitants of America.
At the close of the French war, in 1763, those moral

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 459
faculties, which had partiaUy slumbered in want of
agitating causes for seven years, were destined to be
moved to more active conflicts against man's lower
nature than had previously characterized thefr pro
gress under British rule. The mental powers were,
however, better fortified for succeeding antagonisms
by confidence of successful resistance to EngUsh arro
gance, through the moral courage which the propensi
ties had gained in the controversy of the royal house
of Brunswick, of Bourbon, and of Castile. When this
contention for the entfre possession of America, on the
continent of which the colonial people had borne the
brunt, had terminated, the belUcose tendencies of the
ruling classes of England renewed thefr attacks on
English residents of the provinces. "The conquest
of Canada had scarcely been effected, when rumors
were extensively prevalent that a different system of
government was about to be adopted by the parent
state ; that the charters would be taken away, and the
colonies reduced to royal governments. The officers
of the customs began to enforce "with strictness all the
acts of parliament regulating the trade of the colonies,
several of which had been suspended or had become
obsolete."*' The principal acts of the British parlia
ment and dependent appointees of the crown, which
contributed to promote activity in the moral faculties

S3 HiNTON'9 United States, vol. 1, page 183.

460 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of the Americans from this time to the dawn of inde
pendence, were less potent in number than in nature.**
The principles which dfrected tho English mind to
that system of commercial restraint which was inflicted
on the colonies for about one hundred years, had orig
inated and become thoroughly introduced as part' of
the policy of government in almost every despotism of
Europe. "Might made right," and the weak, under
the rule of the strong, had become accustomed to sub
mit to arbitrary exactions. But whatever might have
been the principles upon which the nations on the
continent were based, it was claimed by EngUsh states
men, and it was true for all practical purposes, that
by the constitution, British dominions were territories

24 As Mr. Abbott has put these principal questions of contention between
the two countries in concise form, I deem it best to subjoin them :
"In the confiict of jurisdiction in respect to the government of the
American colonies, between the colonies themselves on the one side, and the
king and parliament of Great Britain on the other, there were four principal
points in regard to which the parties came most frequently and most earnestly
into collision. ***** These four points, respecting claims made by the
British and disallowed and resisted fr m time to time, with more or less
eirnestness, by the colonies, were the following :
"1. The English government claimed the exclusive right to regulate and
control the whole foreign trade and commerce of the colonies.
" 2. They claimed that the J udges In all the colonial courts should be not
only appointed by the king, that Is, by the home government, but that they
should hold office not permanently, but only during the king's pleasure, thus
making them wholly dependent on his will.
" 3. That the governors, too, should not only be appointed by the king or
his ministers, but should also be made Independent of the colonies, by having
a permanent salary settled upon them.
"4. That besides the control of the foreign commerce of the colonies.
parliament also had the right of internal taxation, in respect to them— that is,
the right to levy taxes upon the people themselves, as they were accustomed
to do upon the people of England."- American History, vol. 6, pages 36, 37.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 461
in which political liberty was enjoyed. Laws, how
ever, maybe created -with the most equitable provisions,
yet if the qualities of a majority of the people are
such that they cannot be carried into effect, there is
no more protection to the person and to the rights of
property under and by them, than there would be did
such laws have no existence. Such was the condition
in which the British government and its dependent
colonies were placed. Yet it being known to EngUsh
lawyers that whatever might be the customs and
usages of other nations toward thefr colonists, they
had no binding influence on British subjects by which
the same could be erected into a system in any of the
territories of Great Britain -without first having passed
parUament and become a law of the empire, it became
necessary for the legislature to give formal sanction to
a measure which was in keeping only "with the most
absolutely despotic minds.
There was, however, one difficulty which British
statesmen had to surmount, that did not arise to inter
fere with the autocratic wishes of the other nations in
their progress of legal and political frauds. This
difficulty was one of the fundamental laws of the
constitution, which gave every subject the privilege of
representation. Without the subject was represented,
he could not be bound by any of the acts of parlia
ment, because he was not party thereto ; the principles

463 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
of contracts being the basis upon which the constitu
tion and the whole judicature of Great Britain were
reposed. Whether this principle of the constitution
was, during the reign of George III, carried into
practical operation or not, it was, nevertheless, the
palladium of English liberty, and will forever be the
most distinguishing feature which made British ci"vil-
ization superior to her great contemporary powers.
"'The declaratory bUl,' a bill affirming the right of
parUament to tax America, 'now lying on your table,'
said Camden in the house of lords in 1766, 'is abso
lutely iUegal; contrary to the fundamental laws of
nature; contrary to the fundamental laws of this
constitution: a constitution grounded on the eternal
and immutable laws of nature ; a constitution, whose
foundation and center is Uberty ; which sends Uberty
to every subject that is, or may happen to be, "within
any part of its ample cfrcumference. ' Nor, my lords,
is the doctrine new ; it is as old as the constitution ; it
grew up "with it, indeed it is its support ; taxation and
representation are inseparably united 5 God hath joined
them; no British parliament can separate them; to
endeavor to do it, is to stab our very vitals. My posi
tion is this ; I repeat it ; I wUl maintain it to my last
hour; taxation and representation are inseparable.
Whatever is a man's own, is absolutely his own'; no
man hath a right to take it from him "without his.

HISTORY OF THE DEpLENSION. 463
consent, either expressed by himself or his represent
ative ; whoever attempts to do it, attempts an injury ;
whoever does it, commits a robbery.' " * ^ " 'As subjects,
they' " [the Americans] " 'are entitled to the common
right of representation, and cannot he bound to pay
taxes without thefr consent.
" 'Taxation is no part of the governing power. The
taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the commons
alone. In an American tax, what do we do ? We, your
majesty's commons of Great Britain, give and. grant to
your majesty, — what? Our own property? No. We
give and grant to your majesty the property of your
majesty's commons in America. It is an absurdity
in terms.'"** Taxation without representation was
regarded by the ablest statesmen and lawyers of the
empfre as a legislative fraud, not on the Americans only,
but on the great masses of England also. Up to the time
of the passage of c. 7, by 8 Henry VI, suffrage was exer
cised by aU in England, however smaU might be the
amount of thefr fortunes."'' Before the passage of this

25 Speech In the house of lords, as quoted by Bancboft, vol. 6, page 447.
26 Speech or WhiIXAM Pitt, In the house of commons, January 14, 1766.
Ibid., 384.
27 The exordium of this act acknowledges universal suffrage : " Item.
'Whereas the elections of knights of shires to come to the parliaments
of our lord the king, in many counties of the realm of Bngland, have now of
late been made by very great, outrageous, and excessive numbers of people,
dwelling within the same counties of the realm of England, of the which, most
part Was of people of small substance and of no value, whereof every of them
pretended a Toioe equivalent aa to suoh elections to be made with the most

464 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
act, suffrage had long been universal, had become the
settled law of the land, having had its origin in nature,
and finally become estabUshed by immemorial usage
as a fundamental law of the British constitution. No
statesman of Epgland ever before claimed that a
subject could.be taxed without he was represented,
yet these "rotten parUaments," as they were called,
entirely ignored this constitutional law whenever
it confiicted with their passions or interests. The
house of commons owed its creation to the suffrages
of the nation, it was subordinate to the people, it
could not have been superior to its creator; and
hence, when the act was passed which made forty
shUUngs of free lands the qualification of the right
to the baUot, it became only the expressed wish of
those who passed it, and not a law, as a constitu
tional measure had limited legislative power. Yet as
a majority of the members of the legislature would
have small chances of success in succeeding elections
for new parUaments under this impartial law of the
constitution, they, in connection with the aristocratic
branch, claimed that parUament was the supreme
sovereign power of the kingdom, and that the con
stitution was composed of legislative enactments. By
worthy knights and esquires dwelling within the same counties, whereby man
slaughter, riots, batteries and divisions among gentlemen of the same coun
ties shall very likely rise and be unless,' etc."— The English Constitijtion
by Dr. Fischell, page 422.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 465
this unwarrantable assumption of power almost the
entire legislature were in rebellion against the rights
of the people, and continued in usurpation of those
rights, without any modification, from the reign of
Henry YI to the passage of the Reform BUI in 1832,
a period of four centuries.*'
It was by virtue of this constitutional law that the
parUament of Great Britain had no authority to
impose internal or external taxes on the colonists of
America. They had never been represented at West
minster, and had they submitted to taxation by the
parliament, it would have placed them in a worse
condition than that of slaves let out for reward. The
Na"vigation Act, which, for many years, had enriched
the commercial classes of England, was, to use plain
language, open robbery. What made it stUl worse, it
was performed under color of legislative authority,
when forty per cent, of the members knew that 'no
aB William Pitt, the earl of Chatham, awed the house of commons into
an acquiescence and acknowledgment of this truth when he said : " 'Accord
ing to the theory of our constitution there should be a constant connection
between the representatives and the electors. Will any say that this connec
tion now exists? ' And Paley, after having laid bare the evils of the electoral
system, affirms— 'In the end it would only come to this, who ought to be
elected ? and not who should elect ? ' Junius is entirely of opinion," ibef ore
the Keform Bill,] "'that just as easily as they may disfranchise rotten
boroughs, even so might they disfranchise all commoners by a parliamentary
resolution.' "—FisCHELn, English Constitdtion, page 434. It is extremely
doubtful if the acts passed by the parliaments during the time which elapsed
from the Disfranchising Act to the Reform Bill, 1832, were binding upon other
residents in England than such as had a voice in creating the house of
commons. If statutes were enforced by the courts upon the disfranchised, it
waa, it seems to us, only adding judicial to legislative frauds,
30

466 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
such authority existed, that when officers, under pre
tense of official duty, commit a misdemeanor, it
becomes a more aggravated case of felony than if
perpetrated by private individuals. Yet the house of
commons had pretended to represent the body of the
nation for four centuries, comprising in its embrace
more than one-fourth of the period from the fall of
the Roman empire in the west, to the passage of the
Stamp Act in 1765. It had gradually, without order
or system, degenerated into a body of brigands. All
this was as weU known to able lawyers and statesmen
on this side of the ocean as it was to those of the
same degree of abiUty and acquirement on the other.
Samuel Adams, James Otis and thefr compeers in
America did not faU in their duty in making known
to the people the true condition of the premises, and
in advising them of their rights. The passage ot the
Navigation Act, the Stamp Act, the Declaratory BiU,
the extension of the Mutiny Act to American colonies,
and those other acts of parliament which related to
the administration of the thirteen colonies, together
with the constant interference ot the crown to reduce
them to royal governments, to make judges, governors
and all appointees dependent upon favors of the royal
court, kept the feelings of the Americans in a furious
state of resistance and revolution from the close of the
French war, in 1763, to the nineteenth of April, 1775, ,

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 467
when the slaves of Brunswick were addressed in no
very flattering terms on the bloody field of Lexington.
During the whole period of this political revolu
tion, before things had so culminated as to place both
divisions of the empfre in armed opposition to
each other, there were but very few members of either
branch of the British legislature who had sufficient
moral courage to raise a voice or cast a vote against
those acts which were as much iu subversion of Eng
Ush Uberty at Westminister as at the plantations of
America.** Even the "Great Commoner" urged that
"The sovereign power of this country over the
colonies be asserted in as strong terms as can be
advised, and be made to extend to every part of
legislation, that we may bind their trade, confine
thefr manufactures and exercise every power what
soever except" raising a revenue from them by
internal taxation. ^^ " 'If ever one Uved more zealous
than another for the supremacy of parliament and the
rights of the imperial crown, it was Edmund Burke.'
29 "In the commons, the resolution," [right to tax America,] " was pre
sented by Conway, who himself, at the time of passing the Stamp Act, had
publicly and almost alone denied the right of parliament to impose the tax
and twice within twenty days had publicly reiterated that opinon. He now
treated the question of power as a point of law, which parliament might take
up. For himself, he should never be for Internal taxes. He would sooner cut
off his right hand than sign an order for sending out a force to maintain them.
Tet he begged not to be understood to pledge himself for future measures
not even for the repeal of the Stamp Act."— Bancroft's HiSTOBr Off the
TTnited States, vol. 5, page 415.
30 BANCROFT'S History of the United States, vol. 5, page 395. See also
vol. 6, page 351.

468 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
He was the advocate 'of unlimited legislative power
over the colonies.' His wishes were 'very earnest to
keep the whole body of this authority perfect and
entfre.'"*^ The whole members of parliament were so intoxi
cated with the desfre to arrive at political distinction,
office, power and fortune, that each, "wishing to be
foremost in being applauded by the popular senti
ments of the masses, or advanced by favors of the
crown, "vied with the other in robbing and crushing
America. As a generaUty, the ministers of the times
were corrupt beyond comparison, were the leading
members of parliament, and were nought but a fafr
representation of its moral qualities. But what were
the moral quaUties of this parUament? Let the histo
rian, who has studied the character of its acts more
than any other, testify : "The administration of pubUc
affairs had degenerated into a system of patronage,
which had money for its object, and was supported
by the king from the love of authority. The govern
ment of England had more and more ceased to be the
representative of the noble spirit of England. The
twelfth parliament, which was now dra"wing to a close,
had never been rivaUed in its bold profligacy. Its
predecessors had been corrupt." "But there never
was a parliament so shameless in its corruption as this
31 Bahcboet's History or the TTnited States, vol. 6, page 397.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION,

twelfth parliament, which virtually severed America
from England. It had its votes ready for anybody
that was minister, and for any measure that the min
ister of the day might propose. It gave an almost
unanimous support to Pitt, when, for the last time in
seventy years, the sovereign politics of England were
on the side of liberty. It had a majority for Newcastle
after he had ejected Pitt ; for Bute when he dismissed
Newcastle; for Grenville when he became Bute's
implacable foe; and for the slender capacity of the
inexperienced Rockingham. The shadow of Chat
ham, after his desertion of the house, could sway its
decision. When Charles Townshend, rebeUing in the
cabinet, seemed likely to become minister, it listened
to him. When Townshend died. North easUy restored
subordination. "Nor was it less impudent as to measures. It
promoted the alUance with the king of Prussia, and
deserted him ; it protected the issue of general war
rants, and utterly condemned them. It was corrupt,
and it knew itself to be corrupt, and made a jest of
its own corruption. WhUe it lasted, it was ready to
bestow its favors on any minister or party ; and when
it was gone, and had no more chance at prostitution,
men wrote its epitaph as of the most scandalously
abandoned body that England had ever known." ' * Of
33 Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. 6, page 137.

470 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the succeeding parUament, the historian says: "The
thirteenth British parUament, the last which ever leg
islated over America, was returned. So infamous was
the old house in pubUc esteem, that one hundred and
seventy of its members faUed of being rechosen. But
stiU corruption lost nothing of its effrontery; bor
oughs were sold openly, and votes purchased at
advanced prices. The market value of a seat in
parUament was four thousand pounds ; at which rate
the whole venal house would have been bought for
not much over two miUions sterling, and a majority
for not much over one mUUon."^^
The house of commons was constantly being ban
died abroad by Englishmen, who boasted of thefr
Uberty, as of a democratic nature, whereas it was so
only in the manner of its deliberations after the reign
of Henry VI, but did not come into constitutional
existence by an impartial election of its members. It
originated from the pockets of the rich, and not from
the voice of the people.
"Rotten boroughs were put up publicly for sale;
Jews and Catholics were not allowed to sit in par
Uament; but if they had cash enough, none could
prevent them from purchasing rotten boroughs, and
thereby exercising a direct influence on politics. In
1814, Lady Montague "wrote thus to her husband:
33 Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. 6, page 147.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 471
'The best thing will be to entrust a certain sum to a
good friend, and buy a small Cornwall borough.' In
1761, the 'nabobs' entered the field as purchasers; in
1766, the borough of Sudbury was pubUcly put up
for sale. Winchelsea, in 1784, had but three voters,
and was the property of a rich nabob ; the borough
of Basstney, in Cornwall, had one voter only. A bor
ough which had been swaUowed up by liie sea, stiU
continued to be represented ; the owner of the beach
on which it had stood rowed out in a boat with three
voters, and there played out the electoral farce. In
1790 there were thirty boroughs, "with three hundred
and seventy-five voters, which sent sixty members to
the lower house — amongst them Tiverton, "with its
fourteen voters ; Tavistock, having only ten freehold
ers; and St. Michael's, with seven scot and lot
voters, returned one member each." But, "in 1790,
five hundred towns, although possessing an indus
trial population, not unfrequentiy wealthy, remained
unrepresented, from the simple fact that the rich
merchants and manufacturers were not at the same
time 'freeholders' in the country."**
Nor was the manner in which the house of com
mons came into existence in these degenerate days less
fraudulent of the rights of the people in Scotland and
Ireland than in England. "At an election at Bute,
3+ Dr. FisCHELL, pages 426 and 427.

472 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
not beyond the memory of man, only one person
attended the meeting, except the sheriff and the
returning officer. He, of course, took the chafr, con
stituted the meeting, called over the roU of freehold
ers, answered to his own name, took the vote, as to
the presses, and elected himself. He then moved and
seconded his own nomination, put the question as to
the vote, and was unanimously returned. None, of
course, took the sUghtest part in the elections, which
were usually conducted in some small room. The
Scotch magnates nominated nearly aU the Scotch
members, and sold themselves "with their proteges
to the ministry of the day. In Ireland, two-thirds
of the one hundred members were 'nominated' by
some sixty influential patrons. The thoroughly aris
tocratic character of the lower house in the eighteenth
century renders the striking sameness in its outward
features somewhat expUcable."'^
"Previous to the union with Ireland only about one
hundred and thfrty or one hundred and forty English
members had been actually elected; as these members
preserved the equipoise between the two aristocratic
factions, a stout fight occurred in the places of elec
tion ; whenever one party sought to insure the return,
bribery was the ready instrument at hand. * * *
"In the eighteenth century bribery was the rule in
3S Dr. Fischeia., pages 430 and 431.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 473
aU boroughs dependent on the aristocracy; thus, in
the election of 1764 very gross bribery prevaUed and
out of forty-two elections only one electoral contest
actually took place ; still more lavish was the bribery
resorted to in 1761. Foot,, in one of his comedies,
makes an elector to say: 'When I first became an
elector, I could only get thirty guineas for a pafr of
knight's boots, whereas my neighbor, for just the
same affair, had the luck to receive a fifty pound
note for a pafr of wash-leather breeches.'
"In 1790 a gooseberry-bush was sold, during elec
tion, for eight hundred pounds; thus astutiely were
the penal enactments evaded.
"In 1767 Lord Chesterfield "wrote to his son, 'that rot-,
ten boroughs were to be had for three thousand to five
thousand pounds,' but they soon rose to nine thous
and pounds." * * But the minor evU acts of candidates
to gain admission into tne lower house were not less
disreputable, for they were as much designed to pur
chase the favor of the voting masses as though they
paid do"wn a certain sum in gold. Doctor FischeU
quotes Lord Jeffrey as saying, "In three and a half
hours I knocked at six hundred and thfrty-five doors,
and shook four hundred and ninety-four people by
the hand." And upon this particular head a disaf-"
fected Englishman exclaims, "nothing is so common '

36 Dr. Fischell, page (

474 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
as a candidate ! this famiUarity has made the populace
so impertinent, they are aU a purchasable and cor
rupt rabble."^''
Of a body which had come into existence by vice
and fraud, what could be expected but outrages on
the legislative code? If criminals become law-makers,
thefr deliberations, without the shadow of a doubt,
¦wiU correspond to their mental condition, and partake
of a felonious character A.nd such was the true con
dition of several parliaments of Great Britain, one
, hundred years after the colonies were planted and
before the American revolt.^ The Americans, during
the whole period of the political controversy, desired
to be governed by constitutional law, but strenuously
resisted pfratical regulations.
In the contemporary moralist, this state of things
must have produced the melancholy reflection, that
virtue was in great minority in a race once the noblest
in modern Europe; that like the final operations of
the Uving body, the moral faculties easUy become
incurable and mortal ; that in the great majority of the
present parliament as in those and thefr generations
which immediately preceded it, they had afready
i moldered to decay. The greatest exhibitions of
j Roman valor sagacity and power were offered upon
37 Dr. Fischell, page 432.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 475
the grave of Roman liberties, for comparatively but
a short period of time after Hannibal had ceased to
breathe, the laws of the repubUc were traUed in the
dust. In fifty-two or three years after the African
chieftain had struck terror into the inhabitants of
Rome by the energy of the sword, his native city
and his people were no more. In quick succession
to the termination of the Peloponnesian war, the inde
pendence of the HeUenic states was gone; the wUl,
the welfare, the personal freedom, the very lives of the
Greeks, were made dependent on the behests of a
Macedonian prince. This analogy of decline and
progress, in synchroniety, of various mental qualities
in dissimilar governments, races and ages, was, per
haps, felt by Pitt, Camden, Conway, Barre and thefr
colleagues, many of whom were among the most com
prehensive statesmen and debaters of the eighteenth
century. Britain had arrived at the summit of aU
national glory, had become mistress of the seas and
extended the blessings of an enlightened civilization,
under constitutional laws, over nearly a fourth of the
earth's population. But now, in presence of the
"Great Commoner," to whom the empire principally
owed its unparalleled fortune, in presence of him
whose main aspfrations in life had been to promote
the interests of his country, and aUeviate the sufferings
of man, it appeared to be receding and taking up a

476 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
, position among the effete and worn-out monarchies of
a half civilized age. Chatham was approaching his
fifty-seventh bfrth-day when the stamp act was passed,
in bad health, and breaking more from the pressure of
disease than the infirmity of years. His health was,
indeed, gone, but his love for England and her laws
was as bright as when he humbled the Bourbons and
raised up Britain to be the most potent nation in
Europe. Not"vnthstanding his great ability, his past
services to his country, his acute sensibilities on ques
tions of right and wrong, touching the welfare of his
countrymen, the parasites of despotism would not post
pone the burial of constitutional grandeur tUl the great
man had ceased to be. He had long witnessed with
pride the progress of his country, but was now forced
to contemplate the humUity of its morals and the
decUne of its power. With extreme anguish of nund,
his penetrating inteUect parted the veil, which usuaUy
obscures the future from mortal vision, and foresaw
one branch of his race arrayed against the other in
fraternal strife ; he beheld the throne of the Bour- ,
bons, endorsed by a polished and powerful nation,
united "with the weak and oppressed of his own
kindred, language, laws and reUgion. The demo
cratic portion of the British legislature, "within his
memory, had degenerated into a farce, and become a
foul receptacle in which were hatched the embryos of

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 477
tyrannic measures.. Supported by a misguided multi
tude, it had the might to crush the last hope of those
who had been subjected to every misfortune among a
"wUdemess of relentless foes. But amidst the suffer
ings which British arms would then be inflicting on
the brave and injured, he saw that they had kindled
the spfrit of revenge in an absolute prince, an ancient
enemy, and the magnanimity of a people whose kind-
Uer qualities had not yet become hardened to, the
cruelties of man's more savage nature. He beheld
his country issuing from the terrible conflict drenched
in blood, dismembered, dishonored, broken in spirits
and crushed in hopes, the scorn of the world ; public
burdens increased by augmented debts, and the arbiter
of Europe numbered among the subordinate if not
among the faUen powers of the earth. These were
more than adequate to press him into his grave, and
if not the last, he was far from being the first who
owed to his countrymen the sorrows of a broken heart.
Although the glory of Britain had departed and
gone, was, in two or three generations, lost to the world,
it planted and unconsciously cultivated those immortal
principles in the inhabitants of the New World, where
it was uninfluenced by the corruptions which, nearly
to completion, had twice decomposed them in the
different tribes and principaUties of Europe. The
unjust measures which issued from the body of

478 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
corruption, for such the commercial classes and the
British parUament had become, produced thefr effects
on the moral faculties of the Americans. PoUtical
acts of a government, which bear upon the interests
of a portion of its people, when those acts "partake
the characteristics of injustice and fraud, never have
fhiled, and never will fail, of producing an excited
action in those faculties of the mind whose peculiar
functions are to give bfrth to feeUngs of benevolence
and justice. The effects correspond to the enormity
of the acts. Such was the true condition of things
between the east and the west. WhUe those immortal
faculties were in process of decay in Great Britain,
they were in corresponding growth in America ; while
they were being lost in the eastern branch of the Eng
lish race, they were being saved in the western. The
manner of thefr death there, insured and nurtured
their growth here, to a greater degree of "vitaUty than
had been known in Europe posterior to the days of
Numa and of Cincinattus, and that on the whole,
although thefr tendency had been downward more
than upward, they had reached, in the Americans, a
higher elevation than had existed in the world for two
thousand years.
In the noble inhabitants of Yirginia and the Caro
Unas, it is observable that by the year 1775 there had
been a marvelous change, if not an entire creation of

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 479
character. From aristocratic they had become demo
cratic in feeling ; from tenacious fondness for clinging
to perverted tastes and fashions of an old civilization
now passing away, they, with all that elegance of
bearing which ever distinguished the cultivated
southerner, came forward with the sons of the more
northern colonies and inaugurated the new ci"vilization
upon the ruins of the passing one. To the uncon
stitutional acts of the British oligarchy they opposed
no repulsive boasting, no daring disposition ; none of
those types of depravity which are common to the
ruffian warrior and coarse politician found a repository
in the classical minds which composed the represen
tative material of these southern colonists. Com
bining the abilities and mildness of Melancthon with
the heroic quaUties of Luther, they gave no exhi
bitions of bravado, but resisted the piratical claims of
the British parliament with a true courtesy and an
undiminishable firmness. Nothing but justice was
asked, and that only, to all British subjects of the
west, would be received. The moral faculties, having
reached a potency over the mind unparaUeled in the
Christian era, would not permit their possessors to
be degraded, bribed, swerved, influenced nor ensnared.
Nor was this growth of the primitive moral elements
less remarkable in the inhabitants of the northern
than in those of the southern colonies. The former, in

480 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
the time of the early settlement of the country, were
more gloomy in their spfritual beUef, and less royalist
in sentiment. The persistent efforts of Samuel Adams
and James Otis, toward the close of this period of
moral culture, fanned the flames of indignation in
the masses of the Americans ; and to no small degree
sharpened and pointed the minds and memories of
British statesmen on the constitutional laws of the
empfre. The breaking out of hostilities into beUigerent acts
was but another form of the old antagonism between
"virtue, bravery and poverty on the one hand, and the
principles of piracy merged in a visible hypocrisy on
the other. It was but a continuation of the struggle
between these combatants of the internal world. The
, sympathies of a majority of the nations on the eastern
continent were enlisted on the side of the former, Brit
ain being both feared and hated by every nation in the
world. Among them all she had not a single friend.
The more the aristocracy of the mother country had
attempted to curtaU the increasing power of the new
and little understood rising empire of America, the
more the latter extended its principles over the earth,
taking root in France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland,
and even in the British isles themselves. The long
looked-for aurora of a new dispensation, "the good
time coming," had at last made itself "visible to the

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 481
suffering miUions. The doctrines of those mental
faculties, which had the last half of their restoration
in the "New World," had spread out, Uke the cloud
seen by Elijah from Mount Carmel, untU they covered
the whole horizon of the political world, threatening
the transposition of the same principles to the decaying
thrones of European monarchies. Their practical
operations finaUy swept the absolute government of
the Bourbons and its dependent and corrupt aristoc
racy out of existence, and, amid the storms of fury,
madness and folly to which thefr principles had been
traduced, the Uves of many noble men and women.
are to be regretted, the sorro"wful circumstances sur
rounding their melancholy fate wringing tears from
the eyes of the better portion of mankind. The "gray
powers of the old world" now for the first time felt '
the insecurity of their positions, that they were as
uncertain as volcanic eruptions. They began feebly
to comprehend that in view only of immediate conse
quences, a justice as inevitable as inexorable was sure
to overtake and punish the prince as the pauper. For
eighteen centuries, the warning "fiee from the "vraath to
come" had not been pronounced in more unmistakable
terms, or with more ominous significance. Those
nations ruled by princes of weak understandings, of
conceited and despotic feeUngs, thoroughly disciplined
in the trade of reducing thefr subjects to bondage.

482 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
starvation and death, although they hated Britain,
looked upon every American as a mortal enemy to
their existence.
From soon after the settlement of the colonies to
the breaking out of political hostilities, all the colonies
had opposed the farther introduction of slaves among
them, and frequently petitioned the imperial govern
ment to put an end to the trade. ^ ^ They looked upon
the bondage of one human being to another as a viola
tion of natural and divine law, a heinous crime against
God and man.^° But as steaUng negroes in Africa
and selling them as slaves to western planters was a
lucrative business to English merchants, in harmony
38 See Hinton's United States, vol. 1; Bancroft's History of the
* United States, vols. 4 and 5 ; and History of Slavery in the Colonies
chap. 21.
39 The following is no more than a moderate representation of the feel
ings existing in nearly all the people of the several provinces: "In the year
1'772, a disposition favorable to the oppressed Africans became very generally
manifest in some of the American provinces. The house of burgesses of Vir
ginia even presented a petition to the king, beseeching his majesty to remove
all those restraints on his governors of that colony, which inhibited their
assent to suoh laws as might check that inhuman and impolitio commerce, the
slave-trade : and it is remarkable that the refusal of the British government
lo permit the colonists to exclude slaves from among them by law, was
enumerated afterward among the public reasons for separating from the
mother country.
"In allusion to the fact just stated, Mr. Jefferson, in his draft of the
Declaration of Independence, said; 'He '[the king of England]' has waged
civil war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life
and liberty, in the persons of a distant people, who never offended him ; cap
tivating and carrying them into another hemisphere, or to incur a miserable
death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium
of inidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain."—
Blake's History of Slavery, page 177.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 483
with thefr feeUngs of avarice, the royal will forced the
slaveholders to submit. The Americans had two dis
tinct views in which they contemplated the case ; the
first and principal reason, as afready suggested, and
the second, that trouble might be apprehended from
a rising of the blacks should they greatly outnumber
the whites. The former was the most important objec
tion, bearing strongest upon their feelings, and they
looked forward to the time when the humanities of
the mother country would predominate over its vices,
enabUng the master to emancipate his slaves, as the
condition of their tenure was a too repulsive and
degenerate form of an odious feudalism.*" But in
less than half a century from 1772, it is observable
that these sentiments respecting human slavery, in
certain sections of the country, had become reversed.
From a desire to aboUsh it as an enormity at the
first part of that period, at the last there appeared
a disposition to bind it more firmly and promote its
extension. * *
After the passage of the act, in 1808, to prohibit the

40 Consult evidence, compiled by Mr. Helper, of the feelings of Washing
ton, of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Henry, Bandolph and others of the south ;
and of Dr. Franklin, Hamilton, Jay, Adams and others of the north. Impend
ing Crisis, ch. 3 and 4 ; also Blake's History of Slavery, ch. 21.
41 As to this change in the character of the Southern states on this ques
tion, see the struggle which they maintained in congress in 1819-20, to procure
the admission of Missouri territory Into the union with a slave constitution.
American Statesman, ch. 23 : more especially Blake's History of Slavery
ch. 24, in which all the violent debates are detailed In f uIU

484 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
importation of Africans from abroad into the United
States, Maryland, Yirginia and the CaroUnas became
the great marts from which the settlers of the south
western states and territories were suppUed. ^^ The
policy of the British government had been to subject
one entire people to servitude by the acts of a spu
rious legislature, by which means, after having first
of all introduced and promoted African slavery
among them, she could easily flatter the planter that
he was lord, while the truth was that his condition
became worse than that of his slaves; for besides
being without poUtical rightSj and thus himself a'
serf, he, in time, also entered into more repulsive
bondage to his own evU passions, hy the evil effects
which slavery has never faUed to produce upon the
master. * '
But after the twenty-fifth of September, 1783, when
the independence of the United States of America was
42 "The settlement of the so'.ithwest proceeded rapidly after the "war,"
[vpar of 1813.] The great profits derived from the cultivation of cotton kept the
African slave-trade alive in spite of the prohibitory laws. The domestic slave-
trade increased, and Washington became a great resort of the traders, who
were engaged in buying up slaves in Maryland and Virginia for transportation
to the southwest. Governor Williams, of South Carolina, iu a message to the
legislature, denounced ' this remorseless and merciless traffic, this ceaseless
dragging along the street of a crowd of suffering victims to minister to insatia
ble avarice.' This which he condemned was the domestic slave-trade."—
Blake's History of Slavery, pages 449 and 450.
^3 In the debates at the time of the adoption of the federal constitution
in convention, Mr. Mason, of Virginia, and most others of that body, held sim
ilar Views. In the course of the debate on the three-fifths representative
clause, Mr Mason said' 'Slavery discourages arts and manufactories. Tho
poor despise labor when performed by slaves. They produce a pernicious

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 485
acknowledged by the British crown at Paris, there
were such modifications in the external circumstances
of the slave-holder as, in years, to prove fatal to his
freedom, although they did not effect his political
independence. The invention of the spinning jenny
in 1796, by Hargrave, and soon after, that of the gin,
increased the demands for cotton in England and also
in the rest of Europe. Cotton goods, subsequent to
these great inventions, were manufactured with greater
rapidity, and of course in much larger quantities. The
goods fell in price, and were more freely used by aU.
The scarcity of the raw material, caused, first by the
reduction in the price of cotton goods, and second, by
its more extensive use in consequence of the first,
multiplied the amount of skilled and agricultural
labor which had formerly existed for its production.
As the consumption of the product became greater,
the price of the raw material was enhanced. This
addressed itself to the acquisitive feeUngs of the plant
ers of America and both the Indies, the sources from
which manufacturers drew their suppUes. As the his
tory of all nations testifies, there is but one step from
a proper degree of acquisitiveness to its degenerate
effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring
the judgment of heaven on a sountry. He lamented that some of our eastern
brethren, from a lust of gain, had embarked in this nefarious traf&c. He held
it essential, in every point of view, that the general government should have
power to prevent the increase of slavery."— Blake's History of Slavery,
page 397.

486 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
form, avariciousness. Although this descent must be
gradual, by certain combinations of external circum
stances it may be effected in a single generation.
The only manner by which the morals of a state
can be studied, with any prospect of arriving at a tol
erable solution of its metaphysical status, at a given
period, is, in our opinion, by contemplating the events
and acts of the people comprising that state in suc
cessive steps up to that given period from the era in
which it was founded, or by contrasting the move
ments of the masses on different questions, at or about
the time of political organization, to the conduct of
the nation at an age when the moral faculties of
mind present such appearances as warrant the beUef
that they have suffered a partial or a total overthrow.
As "vice is in antagonism with virtue, so is slavery
¦with freedom. The one, in both cases, is the opposite
of the other. Both cannot exist in harmony, or to an
equal degree, long among a people. The one, by its
very nature, will first subordinate and then extinguish
all controlling infiuence of the other. Accordingly,
we find, at two different periods, not very remote from
each other, in the history of this country, that the
propensities and moral sentiments were almost in con
tinual conflict over the question of slavery. Before, at
the time of, and immediately subsequent to, the days of
the revolution, the very great majority of the people of

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION. 487
the federal states were firmly opposed to its existence.
But in 1820, thirty-seven years after the complete estab
Ushment of our independence, as has been observed,
these sentiments in the majority had become as much
reversed. The fathers of the republic, in whose wis
dom and virtue the people placed sufficient confidence
to elect them as their representatives in all political bod
ies assembled in the dominions prior and subsequent
to the birth of freedom, were one and all positively
opposed to slavery. They were the chosen represent
atives of the people on questions of ethics, for this
was the main point on which all controversies had
been maintained between the two countries for at
least one hundred and fifty years. And what were
the expressed sentiments of these great advocates
of freedom? "I never mean, unless some particular
cfrcumstances should compel me to it, to possess
another slave by purchase ; it being among my first
"wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery,
in this country, may be abolished by law."** "I
can only say, that there is not a man living who
wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted
for the abolition of it. But there is only one proper
and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished,
and that is by legislative authority ; and this, so far
as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting."**
44 Letter of George Washington to J. F. Mercer, September 9, 1786.
45 Letter of George Wiishington to Robert Morris, April 12, 1786.

488 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
"The scheme, my dear marquis, which you propose
as a precedent, to encourage the emancipation of the
black people in this country from the state of bondage
in which they are held, is a striking evidence of the
benevolence of your heart. I shaU be happy to join
you in so laudable a work ; but wUl defer going into
detaU of the business tiU I have the pleasure of seeing
you." * ' That a gradual emancipation of slavery was,
after the revolution, the predominant feeUng of the
greater part of the inhabitants of Maryland and Vfr-
ginia, appears from the foUowing: "There are in
Pennsylvania laws for the gradual abolition of slav
ery, which neither Yfrginia nor Maryland have at
present, but which nothing is more certain than they
must have, and at a period not remote."*'
The author of the Declaration of Independence
says: "There must doubtless be an unhappy influ
ence on the manners of our people, produced by the
existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce
between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the
most boisterous passions — the most unremitting des
potism on the one part, and degrading submission on
the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate
it, for man is an imitative animal. This quaUty is the
germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his
46 Letter of George Washington to De Lafayette, April 15, 1783.
47 Letter of George Washington to Sir John Sinclair.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 489
grave, he is learning to do what he sees others do. If
a parent could find no motive, either in his philan
thropy or his self-love, restraining the intemperance of
passion toward his slave, it should always be a suffi
cient one that his child is present. But generally it is
not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on,
catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs
in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose rein to the
worst of passions; and, thus nursed, educated, and
daUy exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it
•with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy
who can retain his manners and morals undepraved
by such cfrcumstances. And "with what execration
shoxdd the statesman be loaded, who, permitting
one-half the citizens thus to trample on the rights
of the other, transforms those into despots and these
into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and
the amor patrice of the other ; for if a slave can have
a country in this world, it must be any other in prefer
ence to that in which he was born to live and labor
for another ; in which he must lock up the faculties of
his nature, contribute, as far as depends on his indi-
"vidual endeavors, to the evanishment of the human
race, or entail his own miserable condition on the
endless generations proceeding from him. With the
morals of the people, their industry also is destroyed ;
for, in a warm cUmate, no man "wUl labor for himself

490 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
who can make another labor for him. This is so true,
that of the proprietors of slaves a very small propor
tion, indeed, are ever seen to labor. And can the
liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have
removedthefr only firm basis?" * * * "Indeed,
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is
just; that this justice cannot sleep forever."*' And,
again, in the convention of 1774, of Virginia, Jefferson
further denounced slavery and the British government
for having introduced and licensed the African slave
trade. The following shows that he represented the
sentiments of the masses of his state on the question
of slavery when he said: "The abolition of domestic
slavery is the greatest object of desire in these colo
nies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant
state."*' That the feelings of Jefferson were those of
the majority of the colonists, would appear from the
original draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Although this clause was rejected by the convention,
it was doubtless done because it was irrelevant to the
cause of the colonists, being in the nature of an indict
ment of George III for high crimes and misdemeanors
committed against people nowise poUtically connected
with Americans. He says: "He has waged cruel war
against human nature itself, violating its most sacred

4S Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, pages 39 and 40.
49 Helper's Impending Crisis, page 196.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 491
rights of life and liberty, in the persons of a distant
people who never offended him, captivating and carry
ing them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to
incur miserable death in their transportation thither.
This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel pow
ers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain.
Determined to keep a market where men should be
bought and sold, he has at length prostituted his
negative for suppressing any attempt to prohibit and
restrain this execrable commerce."^" And, "North
ward of the Chesapeake, you may find, here and there,
an opponent of your doctrine," [emancipation,] "as
you may find, here and there, a robber and murderer ;
but in no great number. Emancipation is put into
such a train, that in a few years there will be no slaves
northward of Maryland. In Maryland, I do not find
such a disposition to begin the redress of this enormity
as in Yirginia. This is the next state to which we may
turn our eyes for the interesting spectacle of justice in
conflict with avarice and oppression, a conflict wherein
the sacred side is gaining daily recruits.""*
Mr. Madison published simUar views when he said :
"The dictates of humanity, the principles of the peo
ple, the national safety and happiness, and prudent
poUcy, require it of us. It is hoped that by expressing
50 Helper's Impending Crisis, page 196.
51 Ibid.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.

a national disapprobation of the trade, we may destroy
it, and save our country from reproaches, and our
posterity from the imbecility ever attendant on a
country fiUed "with slaves." And "it is wrong to
admit into the constitution the idea that there can
be property in man."
"In the thirty-ninth number of The Federalist, he
says : 'The first question that offers itself is, whether
the general form and aspect of the government be
strictly repubUcan. It is evident that no other form
would be reconcilable with the genius of the American
people, and "with the fundamental principles of the
revolution, or "with that honorable determination which
animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our
political experiments on the capacity of mankind for
self-government.' And in the federal convention he
thought that, ' in the third, where slavery exists, the
republican theory becomes stUl more fallacious.' On
another occasion, ' We have seen the mere distinction
of color made, in the most enUghtened period of time,
a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exer
cised by man over man.'
"In a speech in the Virginia convention, Mr. Mon
roe said : ' We have found that this evil ' [slavery]
'has preyed upon the very vitals of the union, and
has been prejudicial to aU the states, in which it has
existed.'

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 493
"The eloquent Patrick Henry says, in a letter dated
January IS, 1773 : ' Is it not a Uttle surprising that
the professors of Christianity, whose chief excellence
consists in softening the human heart, in cherishing
and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a
practice so totaUy repugnant to the first impressions
of right and wrong? What adds to the wonder is,
that this abominable practice has been introduced in
the most enlightened ages. Times that seem to have
pretensions to boast of high improvements in the arts
and sciences, and refined moraUty, have brought into
general use, and guarded by many laws, a species of
"violence and tyranny which our more rude and bar
barous, but more honest, ancestors detested. Is it not
amazing that at a time when the rights of humanity
are defined and understood "with precision, in a country
above all others fond of Uberty — ^that in such an age
and in such a country, we find men professing a relig
ion the most mild, humane, gentle, and generous,
adopting such a principle, as repugnant to humanity
as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destructive to
liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects it in
speculation. How free in practice from conscientious
motives I Would any one beUeve that I am master of
slaves of my own purchase? I am drawn along by
the general inconvenience of living here without them.
I wiU not, I cannot justify it. However culpable my

494 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
conduct, I wiU so far pay my devofr to virtue as to
own the exceUence and rectitude of her precepts, and
lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a
time "will come when an opportunity will be offered to
aboUsh this lamentable evU. Everything we can do is
to improve it if it happens in our day ; if not, let us
transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves,
a pity for their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence for
slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished for reforma
tion to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with
lenity. It is the furthest advance we can make toward
justice. It is a debt we owe to the purity of our reUg
ion, to show that it is at variance "with that law which
warrants slavery.'
" 'It would rejoice my very soul, that every one of
my fellow beings was emancipated. We ought to'
lament and deplore the necessity of holding our feUow
men in bondage. Believe me, I shaU honor the Quak
ers for their noble efforts to aboUsh slavery.' "
The feelings of John Randolph, of Roanoke, were
not less opposed to the enormities of slavery.
'"With unfeigned respect and regard, and as sin
cere a deprecation on the extension of slavery and its
horrors, as any other man, be him whom he may, I
am your friend in the literal sense of that much
abused word, I say much abused, because it is
appUed to the leagues of vice and avarice and

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION. 496
ambition, instead of good wUl toward man from love
of Him who is the Prince of Peace.' And in congress,
'Sfr, I envy neither the heart nor the head of that
man from the north who rises here to defend slavery
on principle.'
"In the debates of the North Carolina convention,
Mr. Iredell, afterward a judge of the United States
supreme court, said: 'When the entfre abolition of
slavery takes place, it wUl be an event which must be
pleasing to every generous mind and every friend of
human nature.'"
In the house of delegates of Maryland, in 1789,
William Pinkney denounced slavery and spoke for its
aboUtion in the following terms: "Iniquitous and
most dishonorable to Maryland, is that dreary system
of partial bondage which her laws have hitherto sup
ported with a soUcitude worthy of a better object, and
her citizens by their practice countenanced. Founded
in a disgraceful traffic, to which the parent country
lent its fostering aid, from motives of interest, but
which even she could have disdained to encourage,
had England" been the destined mart of such inhuman
merchandise, its continuance is as shameful as its
origin. "I have no hope that the stream of general Uberty
wUl forever flow unpoUuted through the mire of par
tial bondage, or that they who have been habituated

496 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
to lord it over others, wiU not, in time, become base
enough to let others lord it over them. If they resist,
it "will be the struggle of pride and selfishness, not of
principle." In the state of Virginia, there were societies formed
for the aboUtion of slavery. One of them addressed
congress, in 1791, in the foUowing language: "Your
memorialists, fully aware that righteousness exalteth
a nation, and that slavery is not only an odious degra
dation, but an outrageous violation of one of the most
essential rights of human nature, and utterly repug
nant to the precepts of the gospel, which breathes
'peace on earth and good wUl to men,' lament that
a practice so inconsistent with true policy and the
inalienable rights of men, should subsist in so
enUghtened an age, and among a people professing
that aU mankind are, by nature, equally entitled to
freedom." In 1773, Georgia was equaUy opposed to the suffer
ance of slavery, for "In a letter to Granville Sharp,
dated October 13, 1776, General Oglethorpe says: 'We
(the settlers of the territory) determined not to suffer
slavery there. But the slave merchants and their
adherents occasioned us not only much trouble, but
at last got the then government to favor them. We
would not suffer slavery, (which is agaiost the gos
pel, as well as the fundamental law of England,) to

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION 497
) authorized under our authority; we refused, as
ustees, to make a law permitting such a horrid
ime. The government, finding the trustees resolved
rmly not to concur with what they beUeved unjust,
ok away the charter by which no law could be
issed "without our consent.' "
And "the representatives of the extensive district
: Darien, in the colony of Georgia, in 1775, adopted
le foUowing:
" '5. To show the world that we are not influenced
y any contracted or interested motives, but a general
bUanthropy for all mankind, of whatever climate,
nguage or complexion, we hereby declare our disap-
robation and abhorrence of the unnatural practice of
avery in America, (however the uncultivated state of
ir country or other specious arguments may plead
r it,) a practice founded in injustice and cruelty, and
Lghly dangerous to our liberties, (as well as lives,)
3basing part of our feUow creatures below men, and
)rrupting the "virtue and morals of the rest ; and is
ying the basis of that liberty we contend for, (and
hich we pray the Almighty to continue to the latest
asterity,) upon a very wrong foundation. We there-
re resolve, at all times, to use our utmost endeavors
r the manumission of our slaves in this colony upon
le most safe and equitable footing for the masters
id themselves.'" 33

498 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
"In 1790, in the name and on behalf of this society,"
[the abolition society of Pennsylvania, J "Dr. FrankUn,
"jvho was then within a few months of the close of his
Ufe, drafted a memorial to the senate and house of
representatives of the United States, in which he said :
' Your memorialists, particularly engaged in attending
to the distresses arising from slavery, beUeve it to be
thefr indispensable duty to present this subject to
your notice. They have observed, -with real satisfac
tion, that many important and salutary powers are
vested in you, for promoting the welfare and securing
the blessings of liberty to the people of the United
States, and as they conceive that these blessings ought
rightfuUy to be administered, without distinction of
color, to aU description of people, so they indulge
themselves in the pleasing expectation that nothing
which can be done for the reUef of the unhappy objects
of their care, "will be either omitted or delayed.
'"From a persuasion that equal liberty was origin-
aUy the portion, and is still the birthright, of all men,
and influenced by the strong ties of humanity and the
principles of their institution, your memorialists con
ceive themselves bound to use aU justifiable endeavors
to loosen the bonds of slavery, and promote a gen
eral enjoyment of the blessings of freedom. Under
these impressions, -they earnestly entreat your atten
tion to the subject of slavery; that you "wUl be

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 499
pleased to countenance the restoration to liberty of
those unhappy men, who, alone, in this land of free
dom, are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who,
amid the general joy of surrounding freemen, are
groaning in servile subjection ; that you will devise
means for removing this inconsistency of character
from the American people ; that you will promote
mercy and justice toward this distressed race ; and
that you wUl step to the very verge of the power
vested in you, for discouraging every species of traffic
in the persons of our fellow men.' " "And," says
FrankUn, "slavery is an atrocious debasement of
human nature."
In the year 1774, Alexander Hamilton thought that
"Fundamental of aU your errors, sophisms and false
reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of
mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with
these, you could never entertain a thought that all
men are not, by nature, entitled to equal privUeges.
You would be convinced that natural Uberty is the
gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race,
and that civU liberty is founded on that."
The feelings of John Jay were in abhorrence of it.
He claimed that "till America comes into this meas
ure," [the aboUtion of slavery,] "her prayers to
Heaven wiU be frapious. This is a strong expres
sion, but it is just. I believe that God governs the

600 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
world, and I beUeve it to be a maxim of His, as in our
courts, that those who ask for equity ought to do it."
General Warren, who fell at the battle of Bunker
Hill, said: "that personal freedom is the natural
right of every man, and that property, or an exclu
sive right to dispose of what he has honestly acqufred
by his own labor, necessarily arises therefrom, are
truths that common sense has placed beyond the
reach of contradiction. And no man, or body of
men, can, without being guilty of flagrant injustice,
claim a right to dispose of the persons or acquisi
tions of any other man or body of men, unless it
can be proved that such a right has arisen from some
compact between the parties, in which it has been
expUcitly and freely granted."
But why occupy space upon this evidence, when it
is well known to every inteUigent person in this coun
try that the entfre northern states, and, with very few
exceptions, those of the south, were, at the time of the
revolution, decidedly opposed to slavery, as being in
repugnance to their feelings of right. Mr. Helper,
who has canvassed the opinions of the early Ameri
cans on this subject probably as much as any other
man, remarks: "Volumes upon volumes might be
filled with extracts similar to the above, from the
works of the deceased statesmen and sages of the
north, who, whUe Uving, proved themselves equal to

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION. 501
the task of exterminating from their own states the
matchless curse of human slavery."*
"Massachusetts had abolished slavery. Pennsylva
nia (1780) adopted a gradual system of emancipation.
Also Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
In New York, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and
Virginia, further importation was prohibited. * * *
In Maryland and Virginia all restriction on emancipa
tion was removed, and many of the most distinguished
citizens were for entire emancipation. Virginia and
Maryland were hostUe to slavery, and South Carolina
and Georgia its advocates.
"In 1774, the first general congress resolved against
the slave-trade.
_ "In 1785, an aboUtion society was organized at
New York.
"TUl 1804, even South Carolina passed acts prohib
iting the slave-trade.
"In 1784, a majority of six states to three, and six
teen members to seven, was for aboUshing slavery after
1800, in the whole of the territories. This proposition
was, ' that after the year 1800, there shall be neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said
states, otherwise than in punishment of crimes,' etc.""
In seven of the original states, and one"* admitted
52 Helper's Impending Crisis.
53 The Making op the American Nation, pages 279 and 280. See, also,
Blake's Histoby or slavery, ch. 22 and 23.
54 Vermont was admitted as a state in 1791.

603 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
into the union almost immediately after the revolution,
the moral sentiments were soon enabled to expunge
the law of slavery from the legislative code. But six
out of thirteen continued in the same condition in
which they were placed by the piracies of the previous
century. The first propositions of emancipation in
the north were met with as much bitterness as they
encountered in the south. But the sentiments of the
majority of all the different states, except South Caro-
Una and Georgia, at the period of the revolution, were
opposed to the institution.
From what can be gathered by the movements of
the masses in Vfrginia, Maryland, Delaware and North
Carolina, from agitation of slavery, in these early days
of thefr national existence, we may "with fairness con
clude, that the moral faculties of the inhabitants had
become as nearly restored to a condition of normality,
as they were in those of Massachusetts, Connecticut,
and the other states of the north. But after the excit
ing causes of the revolution had passed away, and the
attention of the people had become released from its
close vigilance over the youthful form of liberty, the
mental faculties of the people, in the two different
sections of the union, by dissimilar causes, were forced
to assume diverse dfrections, culminating in the pro
duction of contradistinguished characteristics.
In 1790, at the taking of the first census, the slave

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 503
popxdation of the states of Maryland, Delaware, Vir
ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, amounted to six
hundred and forty-two thousand, two hundred and
eighty, whUe in the original states of the north it was
only twenty-eight thousand, nine hundred and forty-
seven. But in 1820, when Missouri was admitted into
the union, the slaves of the former had increased to
the number of three miUions, twenty-eight thousand
and twenty-four, whUe the same in the latter had
diminished to eighteen thousand and one. The old
revolutionary states of the north had diminished the
number of their slaves more than thfrty-three and a
thfrd per centum, whUe the southern states had more
than quadrupled theirs. "The increase in Vfrginia
for the last decade," [from 1810 to 1820,] "had been
only eight per centum ; in North CaroUna twenty-one,
and in South Carolina thfrty-one per centum. The
rapid settlement of the southwest had stimulated the
domestic slave-trade, and the market was suppUed
chiefiy from Maryland and Virginia, which accounts
for the decrease in the former, and the small increase
in the latter, state. Slavery in Tennessee had increased
seventy-nine per centum; in Mississippi ninety-two,
and in Louisiana ninety-nine per centum."""
Prom the revolutionary states of the south much of
the increase in slave population had, by the year 1820,
SS Blake's History op Slavery, ch. 27, page 498.

604 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
been forced westward to the banks of the Mississippi,
and northward to the shores of the Ohio river ; so that
the vast expanse of land lying between the former and
the Atlantic ocean, and extending from the Ohio river
to the gulf of Mexico, territory larger than the British
isles, France and Germany combined, was devoted, by
the controlUng infiuence which slavery had acquired
in the government, to this "matchless curse."
In attempting to discuss the various effects which
slavery tends to produce in demoralization of a free
people in proximity to its locaUty, one is confounded
by its obvious simpUcity. We "wiU, therefore, omit
it, as of this every inteUigent reader must be fully
informed. All that is here sought to be understood is
the stimulation which the institution affords to work
an increased growth of certain mental faculties, the
permutated states of which give rise to the different
mental phenomena, which have been exhibited in aU
ages, except in man's primitive condition, and which
we now everywhere behold.
It is indisputably observable that slavery generates
feelings of bitterness, hatred and revenge in a people
who hold thefr fellow men in bondage. By the
same causes they are rendered pugnacious and tyran
nical ; given to command from chUdhood to old age,
it steadUy produces more fatal effects in the owner
than in his bondman. The latter submits to arbitrary

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 505
dictation, the former to his vUest passions. With
increase of time, under the same influences, there is
a continual growth in those propensities which inflict
cruelty and wrong upon the slave. The exhibition of
these elements most frequently excite corresponding
feeUngs in those ' against whom they are directed,
which, by their expression, stimulates those of the
former to more active conditions. Habituated to wit
ness the separation of famiUes, the feelings of compas
sion are rendered nugatory, and the heart becomes
caUous to the sufferings of others. The holder is
continuaUy at "war with himself, the faculties, in his
case as in all others when elevated to supremacy,
assuming conditions that are self-destructive. Slav
ery generates licentiousness, theft, robbery and mur
der. It generates indolence, ignorance, falsehood,
perjury and effeminacy; it is the cradle in which
are nurtured all the "vices of the voluptuary. In
fact, it is a fertUizei" of every evU which is, or ever
has been, known in the world. It has long been con
sidered that "it was born of heU," to be "a heU," a
"monstrous institution," a "matchless curse," and
"the sum of aU "viUainies."
The nature of the whole institution is inimical to
virtue, although the latter may reside in the midst of
slavery. It raises the propensities above the moral
sentiments, gi"ving them control of the individual.

606 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
This condition, rending and decomposing the latter
feelings in the great majorities of the slave states, soon
left them in complete ruins, the animal nature being
the only element which subsequently gave impulsion
to individual character and political ambition. Indo
lence begets desfre for sport and entertainment, which,
again, demand means to supply gratification. By
the continued appUcation of the same objects to the
same faculties, those affective feelings upon which
they act are graduaUy developed to a higher state
than that which they held before the culture began.
The greater the development of those faculties, the
greater the desire of action in those faculties, and
although they may not be carried to the excess of
thefr o"vvn strength, they are almost invariably found
to be in excessive contravention of the moral senti
ments. In aU countries moraUty is indigenous with the
people, but in a land where slavery exists it soon
becomes exotic. The golden rule is abated in all
its features, justice a thing not desfred, the "terms
slavery and right contradicting and excluding each
other." It is as much opposed to the material
prosperity of a nation as to the virtue of its citi
zens, substituting poverty for wealth.*' A land

s6 The comparison made by Mr. Helper very well Illustrates the influence
of slavery upon the wealth of nations. He says that " in 1790, when the flrst
census was taken. New York contained 340,120 Inhabitants ; at the same time

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 507
in which iajustice is sovereign in administration, is
not only checked in its advancement in civUization,
but is ine"vitably forced back of those who hold a
higher moral position. Vice tends to prostrate the
judicial, the poUtical, the religious, the social, and the
pecuniary interests of a people. Thus whUe those
states which emancipated thefr slaves and extended
full poUtical privileges to all, were prospered to an
unparalleled degree, others, which adhered to the
old system of wrong, fell far behind the contempo
raries of their years in possessing themselves of

the population of Virginia was 748,808, being more than twice the number of
New York. Just sixty years afterward, as we learn from the census of 1850,
New York had a population of 3,097,394, while that of Virginia was only 1,421,661,
being less than half the number of New York I In 1791, the exports of New
"Fork amounted to $2,505,465; the exports of Virginia amounted to $3,130,865.
In 1852, the exports of New York amounted to $87,484,456 ; the exports of Vir
ginia, during same year, amounted to only $2,724,857. In 1790, the imports of
New York and Virginia were nearly equal ; in 1853, the imports of New York
amounted to the enormous sum of $178,270,999 ; while those of Virginia, for
the same period, amounted to the pitiful sum of only $899,004. In 1850, the
products of manufactures, mining and the mechanic arts in New York
amounted to $337,597,249 ; those of Virginia to only $28,705,387. At the taking
of the last census, the value of real and personal property in Virginia, includ
ing negroes, was $391,646,438; that of New York, exclusive of any monetary
valuation of human beings, was $1,080,309,216.
"In August, 1856, the real and personal estate assessed in the city of New
York amounted in valuation to $511,740,491, showing that New York city alone
is worth far more than the whole state of Virginia." * * » " The cash value
of all the farms, farming implements and machinery, in Virginia, in 1850, was
$223,423,315; the value of the same in New York, in the same year, was
$576,631 568."— Impending Crisis, pages 12, 13 and 14.
Governor Wise said that the "records of former days show that at a
period not very remote, Virginia stood pre-eminently the flrst commercial
state in the union ; when her commerce exceeded iu amount that of all the
New England states combined ; when the city of Norfolk owned more than
one hundred trading ships, and her direct foreign trade exceeded that of the
city of New York, now the emporium of the north."— Ibid.

508 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
those advantages which are derivable from a pro
gressive civilization."''
WhUe the northern srates got rid of some of the
external causes of moral degeneracy, the southern
not only clung with a pertinacious policy to the old
system, but multiplied the complexity of a condition
already untenable, by the increase of slavery. That the
latter should have remained thirty years, a whole gen
eration, without reversal of moral sentiment, "without
a change from conscientious scruples against slavery,
which they held in 1790, to its endorsement in 1820,
would have been almost miraculous. And accordingly
they fell "willing "victims to the delusive flatteries of this
system of wrong. From a conscientious denunciation
of slavery in 1790, as a "crying evil," in 1820 it became
an object of the most tender care. Immediately after
the close of the revolution, they publicly urged its
gradual emancipation in states where it existed, but
when Missouri appUed for admission into the confed
eration, they threatened a dissolution of the union if
57 It has been the opinion of many residing in the south, that slavery has
not only suppressed the civilization of' the people, but has produced a retro
gression. James G. Birney, in 1844, when he was one of the nominees for
president of the United States, very well expressed this sentiment of a few
leading minds in the south. He said :
" Our slave states, especially the more southern of them, in which the
number of slaves is greater, and In which, of course, the sentiment of Injus
tice is stronger than in the more northern ones, are to be placed on the list of
decaying communities. To a philosophic observer, they seem to be falling
back on the scale of civilization. Even at the present point of retrogres
sion, the cause of civilization and human Improvement would lose nothing
by their annihilation."— Helper's Impendinq Crisis, page 214.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 609
congress imposed any restrictions upon slavery in
this new state. "Beware of the fate of Csesar and of
Rome," « 8 and, "we have kindled a fire which all the
waters of the ocean cannot put out, which seas of blood
only can extinguish." «» At the time of forming the
federal constitution, they "lamented that some of our
eastern brethren had, from a lust of gain, embarked
in this nefarious traflac," the African slave-trade. Then
it was "essential, in every point of view, that the
general government should have power to prevent the
increase of slavery." so But in 1819, when this power
was sought to be applied in the case of Missouri as a
restrictive constitutional provision, its advocates were
charged "with "endeavoring to excite civil war," and
that they personaUy were "no better than Arbuthnot
and Ambrister, and deserve no better fate."®^
In 1776, the south held "that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life,
Uberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure
these rights, governments are instituted among men,

s8 Speech of Mr. Scott, of Missouri, in congress, in 1819 : " Beware of the
fate of Home." Thus at this early day was the political freedom of the people
and the republic of the United States of America threatened with destruction.
59 Speech of Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, in the house, at the time Missouri was
admitted. History op Georgia, page 457.
6o Speech of Colonel Mason, of Virginia, on provision to inhibit importa
tion of slaves. Helper's Impending Crisis, page 308.
fii Speech of Mr. Colston, of Virginia, in the house, iu 1819.

510 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
deriving thefr just powers from the consent of the
governed." But in 1820, a portion of the people of
the slave states had no rights, in the opinion of thefr
representatives, "and that the proposed amendment,
prohibiting the further introduction of slavery," they
held to be "unconstitutional."" In 1787, "the old
congress" passed an ordinance prohibiting slavery in
the " North- Western Territory," and it was ratified
"by the new congress at thefr first session" under the
constitution; "Vfrginia, North Carolina, South Caro
Una, and Georgia had, by the unanimous vote of thefr
delegates, approved that ordinance."** But in 1820,
"several of" [these same] "slave states passed res
olutions declaring that congress had no power to
prescribe to the people of Missouri the terms and
conditions upon which they should be admitted into
the union, and that congress was bound in good faith
to admit them upon equal terms with the existing
states,"'* in "violation of the ordinance made by the
old congress, and ratified by the new one, which
assembled immediately after the adoption of the con
stitution. Although the morals of South CaroUna and Georgia,
in 1787, had become so abandoned as to endorse and
63 Speech of Mr. Tallmadge. Blake's History of Slayxrt, page 460.
63 History op Politioal Parties, page 396.
64 Ibid., page 319.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION 511
struggle for an extension of the slave-trade for twenty
years, their depravity had not reached so shameless
a condition as to attempt to justify or support slavery
upon principles of morality and religion. These states
then held slaves upon the principle that " might makes
right." They had not then arrived at that degree of
turpitude which adds hypocrisy to oppression, but
boldly avowed that "religion and humanity had
nothing at all to do with this question. Interest,"
said they, "is the governing principle."^* But in
1820, and thereafter, not only in South Carolina and
Georgia, but thoroughout the whole slave states, the
people endeavored to persuade mankind that they
were real phUanthropists ; that slaveholders were
doing a genuine service to the blacks ; that it was
a great blessing to these benighted heathens to be so
tenderly drawn within the pale of Christian infiuence,
and their poor darJcened souls saved from the tor
ments which the unredeemed sinner cannot escape.
It had now become a blessing to the African that
a place existed where he could be purchased and
enslaved, for the negroes who were brought across
the ocean were lawful prisoners taken in war, and,
that had they not been disposed of to the trader,
made possible by the planters, they, as such prisoners

6s Speech of Mr. Butledge of South Carolina in constitutional conven
tion of 1787. Blake's History op Slavery, page 396.

612 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. '
of war, would have been cruelly put to death by
thefr sable conquerors, in conformity to the rules
of negro warfare in Africa.
Nor did selfishness and dissimulation stop its
effrontery here. Their arguments soon assumed
such bearings as tended to justify slavery irrespect
ive of color. Although a vindication of the enslave
ment of one race is a justification of the servile
subordination of all races, the southern people had
never before possessed the temerity to approach and
thus avow this form of the question. Said they, and
that, too, in the halls of congress, did not all the states
of antiquity hold slaves? Carthage, Syracuse, Greece
and Rome held them, and were they not iUustrious
nations ? The people of Carthage composed and con
stituted a prosperous and powerful republic existing
many hundred years; from Greece, continued they,
mankind received the first impressions of profound
thought; and what people were more noble than
those of Rome? And finally, is not slavery a divine
institution? Does not the Bible sanction it? And to
support themselves, they said that the Hebrews, after
the death of Joseph, were given into bondage to the
Egyptians, so remaining for several centuries, and
when God saw fit He raised up Moses to lead them
out of this lowly condition into the promised land,
as He had foretold to their fathers. Were not these

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION. 513
chosen people afterward sent into bondage to the
inhabitants of Babylon also, at the instance of di"vine
wisdom, to punish them for the violation of God's
commands ?
These shaUow and shameless arguments were also
uttered in the stage-coach, in the social cfrcle, on the
stump, in the lecture-room, and in most of the pul
pits throughout the south. That there had been some
change in the moral feeUngs of the masses in the north
also, is evident from the facts, first, that they had
emancipated their slaves, as the tenure being antag
onistic to principles of right ;«« and second, that in
time after this emancipation, a majority of them
repeated these southern arguments, respecting a jus
tification of slavery, as a final conclusion disposing
of the whole controversy, and those who attempted
to write or speak against the inequitable relations
of the friendless and "down- trodden" slave were
denounced as "fanatics" and "black abolitionists."
66 It appears to us about ab weak a position as one can possibly assume,
to suppose that the northern states abolished slavery because it was not
remunerative in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and the New Bngland
states. If this were true, why were our ancestors a whole century without
discovering it ? If it paid to have services performed for reward, it oeitainly
paid better if they were rendered for nothing. At this stage of the case we
are told that slaves will not perform the same amount of labor In the same
time that free persons will. But this applies as much to the south as to the
north. "And northern climate is too cold for the negro ;" yet he thrives here
as much as the white man, and does as much labor. Our ancestors should
have been wise enough, by their long experience, to have discovered this fact.
This is of more modern origin. The truth is, the minority in the north were
as reluctant to yield up their slave property as would have been Virginians
in 1820. 3 S

614 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
In the constitutional convention of 1787, Virginia,
Maryland, North Carolina, and Delaware were deadly
opposed to the African slave-trade ; and Virginia and
Maryland soon passed acts permitting emancipation.
In 1778, the legislature of Virginia prohibited the
importation of slaves from abroad, or from surround
ing states ; and four years later all restrictions upon
manumission, which had previously existed, were
removed, abolition being encouraged.^'' The acts of
Virginia planters under the new regulations fully indi
cated that they were not unequal in quality of humane
feelings to the modest and moral condition of their able
representatives; for within ten years manumitted slaves
became so numerous that thefr number alarmed the
more iron hearted holder. "Maxyland followed the
footsteps of Virginia, both in prohibiting the intro
duction of slaves, and in removing the restrictions on
emancipation.' ' * ^
In 1831, by the Southampton insurrection, the
slave-holders of the south were alarmed for them
selves and famiUes. They became awakened to the
fact, that things were becoming most delicately com
plicated; that the family of the isolated planter,
surrounded as it was by numerous slaves, was Uable
to be slaughtered at any moment before succor could

67 Blake's History op Slavery, page J
68 Ibid.

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION. 615
arrive. This threatening attitude of forthcoming
events moved a few members of the Virginia legisla
ture in favor of the emancipation and exportation of
the colored race from the territory. For safety of
famiUes, domestic slaves had to be locked out of the
house of the master ; and it was pubUcly declared by a
few in the legislative haUs of the state, that to protect
the lives of the people was the principal reason why
emancipation should be enforced. The critical state
of affairs, the worst of which might be anticipated at
any moment, alarmed the most placid increduUty.
In the chambers of the state, it was alleged that
"many a brave man, who would face without shrink
ing the terrible array of battle, and with a fearless
heart spur upon the cannon' s mouth, has felt his blood
in icy currents flow back upon its source from the
chiUing, the fearful thought, that when he should
return to the home he had left, he should be greeted,
not "with the smUes of joy and of welcome, but by the
mangled corses of his butchered family." * ' This move
ment toward emancipation in the breasts of a paucity
of individuals, was directed by the element of fear, and
by very little more. It served, however, to discover the
feeUngs of the masses, presenting them to the consid
eration of the world. This insurrection served to show
also that, although the masses were stirred to thefr

69 BiSE AND Fall op the Slave Power in America, vol. 1, page 196.

616 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
depths at the dangerous relations which they held to
the colored race, they were little actuated by feelings
of humanity toward their slaves. Whatever move
ment was made toward emancipation, it amounted to
nothing, for, "looking to ultimate emancipation and
expatriation, however remote and gradual, it alarmed
the slaveholding aristocracy which had so long ruled
Virginia, and which at once took the alarm. Discus
sion," [of the abolition of slavery in the legislature,
which had taken place,] "sternly frowned upon,
ceased. Most of the men, prominent in this debate,"
[favoring emancipation,] "were either placed under
the ban of the slave power, or were compeUed to pla
cate it by succumbing to its behests, disowning thefr
own words, and becoming the active agents in defend
ing what they once so severely condemned.'""'
From the moral status which Vfrginia held in 1787,
by the just condemnation of slavery as a crime of
horrid villainy, the masses had become sufficiently
changed to add sacrUege to hypocrisy and oppression,
in falsely charging to the Author of Christianity the
sanction and endorsement of human bondage. During
this debate upon a prospect of gradual emancipation,
it was hel(l that slavery was not an evU, and " Mr.
Burr" [an influential member] "denied the sinfulness
of slavery ; said there were more than forty millions of
70 Bise and Fall op the Slave Power in America, vol. 1, page 196.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 617
slaves at the beginning of the Christian era, and that
Christ saw them in thefr "wretchedness, and, although
he came into the world to rebuke sin, he did not
condemn slaveholding;" meaning that by His silence
He acquiesced, countenanced and supported slav
ery. ''^ Nor was this sacrilegious feeling, that slavery
is justified upon a reUgious foundation, confined to
the south. The pernicious sentiment had penetrated
the north, finding millions to endorse it, and among
the thousands to advocate it was the best scholar
of the age. Edward Everett, whose checkered career
unfolded the double policy of his Ufe, in con
gress aUeged that, "the great relation of servitude,"
[the right of agitating the slavery question being in
discussion,] "iu some form or other, "with greater or
less departure from the theoretic equality of man, is
inseparable from our nature. Domestic slavery is
not, in my judgment, to be set down as an immoral
and irreligious relation. It is a condition of life as
any other to be justified by moraUty, reUgion, and
international law."'®
In considering the demoralized condition of a sepa
rate people, it would, at first, appear that they could
faU to no lower grade of depravity than to endorse the
"highwayman's plea," that "might makes right."
71 BiSE AND Fall op the Slave Power in America, vol. 1, page 196.
72 Ibid.

618 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
But there are far lower states of demoralization to
which a people can be plunged. South CaroUna and
Georgia, in 1787, as we have seen, justified themselves
on the right of the stronger; but subsequent to the
admission of Missouri, their attitude on the slavery
question indicated that, in the feelings of the people,
there had been a change for the worse ; and that the
tendency of their moral faculties, during a period of
half a century, had been downward, reaching a lower
paraUel. A change had been "wrought, but not for the
better. Instead of a frank avowal of wrong resting
upon power, acknowledging the right of revolution,
(the right of the oppressed to become the oppressor,)
thefr character had so differentiated as to couple to the
above the elements of a time-serving and accomplished
hypocrisy. Other pernicious feeUngs than those of
the freebooter had made thefr appearance in the char
acteristics of thefr inhabitants, and posited themselves
upon the ruins of justice and of reason.
The lead of these extreme southern states was fol
lowed by all slaveholding portions of the union ; and
to South Carolina and Georgia, in a smaU measure,
are to be attributed the decUne of morals in the rest of
the south. In 1787, when aU the rest of the southern
states desfred some plan adopted by which manumis
sion could be effected. South CaroUna and Georgia, if
slavery were interfered with, if the African slave-trade

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION. 619
were estopped by constitutional provisions, would
withdraw from the old federal compact, not ratify the
new constitution then in process of formation, and
hold independent national existence. To cement the
thirteen nationalities into one, concessions were yielded
by the northern states, and the faUen principles of
extreme southrons triumphed over the moral senti
ments of eleven larger and far richer states. Although,
in the constitutional convention, the representatives of
the rest of the southern slave states felt insulted at
being forced to associate in convention with CaroUna
and Georgia delegates, who openly professed piratical
principles, in 1835, the former endorsed the sentiment
of the latter, when they aUeged that slavery "in all its
bearings was a blessing," being justified by both mor
aUty and reUgion.'"^ So rapid had been the decline of
morals in the four other southern states, that it is to be
beUeved that they took the degree of hypocrisy as soon
South CaroUna and Georgia. Those subUme moral
principles which ruled Virginia in 1787, had become
practically annulled in 1838 ; and John Quincy Adams
thought that "it is not an occasional ebullition of
popular passion and feeling which marks the contrast

73 Compare the speech of Mr. Butledge, of South Carolina, iu the consti
tutional convention of 1787, (Blake's History op Slavery, page 386,) with
the speech of Mr. Thompson, from the same state, endorsed by the entire
^southern delegation, in the house of representatives, in 1835, (EiSE and Fall
OP THE Slave Powrn i-f America, vol. 1, page 347,)

520 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
between the sentiments of the fathers and the slave-
holding doctrines" of thefr immediate descendants.
"It is the perversion of inteUect, the degradation of
man to the standard of the brute, which marks the
American school of servile philosophy." And he
aUeged that were George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson alive, and "should dare to show their faces,
and to utter the self-evident truth of the Declaration
"within the state of South CaroUna, they would be
hanged.'""* After the African slave-trade had been formaUy
prohibited by the United States, it was secretly carried
on by the slave-holders of the south. But worse than
this was the domestic slave-trade, which sprang up in
the more northern of the southern slave states. The
horrors of the domestic, it has been averred by those
who were acquainted "with all the features of both,
were more afflicting to the feelings of compassion than
those of the African, slave-trade. Those states of the
south, which once so earnestly desfred emancipation,
considering slavery too heinous an evil to be counte
nanced by any "but the uncivUized tribes of central
Asia," before the admission of Missouri, became the
great marts from which divided famiUes, in gangs,
wound thefr way in anguish to the sugar and cot
ton plantations of the gulf states. "Maryland, the
7+ KiSB AND Fall op the Slave Power in America, vol. 1.

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION. 521
District of Columbia, and Virginia, became the seat of
the disgraceful traffic, the head-quarters and field of
operations of those who, in the prosecution of their
terrible business, here sought its victims and fur
nished suppUes for the southern market. So cruel
and shameless did the trade become, that many
masters themselves, and defenders of the system,
revolted at such demonstrations" of inhumanity,
"and entered thefr earnest protests against the log
ical sequences of their own theories. John Randolph
denounced it as inhuman and abominable, and moved
for a committee of investigation, but nothing ever came
of it. Even the governor of South Carolina, in a mes
sage to his legislature, denounced 'this remorseless
and merciless traffic, the ceaseless dragging along the
streets and highways of a crowd of suffering victims to
minister to insatiable avarice.'"''^ Throughout Ken
tucky the domestic slave-trade was stimulated to an
unusual activity. It is fortunate for historians that
human feeUngs cannot be so extinguished from the
mind as to reduce every individual to the level of
degenerated brutaUty. They exist in aU ages, coun
tries and races, and, by their strong action upon
individual being, produce vigorous expressions of
disapprobation at the barbarous cruelties which the
depraved portion of mankind are prone to commit.

75 EisE AND Fall op the Slave Power, vol. 1, page I

522 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
From the sad features of the domestic slave-trade these
outspeaking sentiments of a Presbyterian synod pro
nounced the system of American slavery an " iniquity;"
that in the state of Kentucky "there" was "not a vil
lage," it said in complaint, which "does not behold
the sad procession of manacled victims."''* "Mr.
Paulding, afterward Mr. Van Buren's secretary of
the navy, thus describes a party of these northern
slaves, which he met in 1815, sold for the southern
market. 'In a cart,' he said, 'tumbled like pigs, were
half a dozen half -naked chUdren, who seemed to have
been actually broiled to sleep, followed by scantUy
clothed women, "without shoes or stockings, and men,
bare-headed, half-clad, and chained together with an
ox-chain,' followed by a white man with pistols in his
belt. A southern editor wrote of the same kind of
procession as 'with heavy, galling chains riveted
upon their persons, half-naked, half-starved,' these
"victims of man's unfeeling rapacity were traveUng to
a region where ' their miserable condition wUl be sec
ond only to the wretched creatures in hell.' " '''' " Nor
were these rare, extreme, exceptional cases. They
were the order of the day. The border states had
become slave-breeding communities, making the rais
ing of slaves a special and fostered interest. A
76 BisE AND Fall op the Slave Power, vol. 1, page 99. -
77 Ibid.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 533
Baltimore journal said: 'Dealing in slaves has
become a large business ; estabUshments are made
in several places in Maryland and Vfrginia, at
which they are sold like cattle. These places of
deposit are strongly built, and well supplied with
fron thumb-screws and gags, and are ornamented
with cow-skins, 'oftentimes bloody.' Mr. Gholson
said that much of the wealth of the slave-breeding
states was produced by this traffic. Professor Dew,
afterward president of WUliam and Mary CoUege,
in a review of the great debate in the Vfrginia
legislature, in 1831-32, on the slavery question, felt
called upon to answer the objection that this traffic
would depopulate Virginia of its black population,
which he did by saying that it added largely to
its revenues, and thus 'becomes an ad"v^ntage to the
state; and does not check the black population as
much as at first view we might imagine, because it
furnishes every inducement to the master to attend
to the negroes, to encourage breeding, and to cause
the greatest number possible to be raised. * * *
Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising state for other
states.' "Now when it is remembered that this was not
spoken in the heat of debate by a poUtical partisan,
but written by a cultivated, scholarly man in the calm
retirement of his study— an educator, too, of young

624 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
men in the venerable coUege of his state-discoursing
of slave-breeding and slave-selUng as if they were
mere matters of poUtical economy, precisely as he
would write of raising stock and improved breeds of
cattle, coolly putting the two abhorrent ideas together,
the one as indecent as the other was inhuman, and
arguing that the stimulus thus given to slave-breeding
was an adequate compensation for the losses incurred
by slave-selling, something of the moral tendency of
the system he defends and advocates may be esti
mated." The historian continues to say that "what
gives its deepest shading to this dark picture is the
fact that this increase was secured by a persistent
ignoring of the family relation, that these slaves were
born out of wedlock, and were the fruits of a promis
cuous concubinage. If this were the style of thought
and feeling pervading the upper strata of society, the
sentiments of the lower classes must have been simply
horrible, and the utter social demoralization which
the rebellion revealed ceases to be a matter of won
der. In the prosecution of this terrible business, by
the confession of the slave-traders themselves, the
family tie was disregarded, and infants were taken
from the mother's arms, while she was sold and
they retained. And this traffic had become so enor
mous, that in 1836 it was estimated that the number
sold from the single state of Virginia was forty

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION. 625
thousand, yielding a return of twenty -four millions
of dollars." ''8
A people who have arrived at conditions which
enable them to endure "with calmness, and without
indignation, the sights which American slavery pre
sented to the beholder in districts where it existed,
have descended to degrees of doubly degenerated
brutaUty, of which no rational person would desire
to be possessed, the external and horrible effects of
which the most transcendent genius must, by the
Umits of human reason, faU to comprehend. So low
had already faUen the moral faculties in a people
who once would have rejected with disdain anything
bearing against principles of equity and compassion ;
who once would have scorned to be classed by the
naturalist in the same species with those possessing
the turpitude to furnish, in and from themselves,
facts which so strongly tend to establish the proof of
total depravity in mankind.
The sovereignty which the moral faculties exercised
over the feeUngs of the southern people at the close
of the American revolution, (1783,) had been usurped
by the propensities by 1820, the passions of which were
everywhere exhibited, and to which, with very few
exceptions, the next generations in the south became
stUl farther subdued.
After the animal faculties had completely triumphed

78

Bisk and Fall op the Slave Power, vol. 1, page 101.

636 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
over the moral powers in the mentaUty of the south,
and the mind of the people left in anarchical ruins,
the activity of the propensities pointed and deter
mined the character of the people. Duels, premedi
tated murders, fire-eating fanaticism, licentiousness,
the sales of sons and daughters of vendors, marked
the character of both sexes of the white race in the
southern slave states. Had these elements of the
nether world confined thefr influences for evU to
southern territory, it had been far less detrimental
in its effects to the welfare of the Great RepubUc.
But southern statesmen, at the instance of thefr con
stituents, thrust these decayed principles upon the
north, so that upon old towns, made memorable
by love of Uberty, such as the city of Boston, where
for more than a century poUtical struggles were main
tained against Stuart oppressions, the pugUistic, the
thug-like principles of the south were imposed."
So much had southern degeneracy been absorbed by
the high and low, rich and poor, of the free states,
that it became not only unpopular and disgraceful,
but extremely dangerous, for persons to favor by pub
lic expression, the cause of the persecuted blacks.*"

79 Consult History op Bisb and Fall op Slave Power, vol. 1, pp.381 and
385, in which is related the manner iu which a meeting was broken up that had
assembled to give expression of Indignation at the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy.
8o Wherever abolition meetings were held In the north, the mob law
violence of the south prevailed in them, outraging the persons of men, and
in some instances those of women.— Ibid., passim.

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 627
The movements of the masses in base subserviency
to southern quaUties, is well Ulustrated by the action
of the authorities, elected by a majority of the
voting population, of the city of Boston after the
murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy. When intelligence of
it reached this old city "Dr. WUliam EUery Chan
ning and a hundred of its citizens applied for the use
of Faneuil Hall to give expression to their horror at
this murder of a Christian clergyman. But their
appUcation was rejected. This refusal, and especially
the reason assigned therefor, greatly increased the
popular indignation and apprehension; affording, as
it did, but another iUustration of the national vassal
age and subserviency to the slave power, when even
the doors of the cradle of Uberty were rudely closed
against those who would mourn over the martyrdom
of one of its honored and most heroic defenders.
Men of all parties and sects were greatly excited."
With the fearlessness demanded by the crisis. Dr.
Channing addressed an appeal to the citizens of
Boston to reverse this arbitrary action of the city
government. Avowing that the purpose of the pro
posed meeting was to maintain the sacredness of the
press against aU assaults, he declared that to intimate

8i I think the historian is mistaken in supposing the indignation to have
been very extensive, as it occurred in 1837, the proportion of abolitionists to
whigs and democrats, who supported at this period the slave power, being
very small.

638 HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION.
that such action did not express the public opinion
of Boston, and that it would provoke a mob, was to
'pronounce the severest libel upon the city. Has it
come to this?' he asked. 'Has Boston fallen so low?
May not its citizens be trusted to come together to
express the great principles of Uberty for which their
fathers died ? Are our feUow citizens to be murdered
in the act of defending thefr property and assuming
the right of free discussion? and is it unsafe in this
metropolis to express abhorrence of the deed ? If such
be our degredation, we ought to know the awful
truth; and those among us who retain a portion of
the spfrit of our ancestors should set themselves
to work to recover thefr degenerate posterity.'"^*
Therefore, the old city of Boston, at this time,
was ruled by the principles which predominated in
the south. If such were the condition of morals in
Boston, what must have been that of the rest of the
north ?
As the elements of north African depravity passed
from Carthage to Rome two centuries before Christ, in
like manner, twenty centuries afterward, the same, after
having decomposed the moral faculties of the southern
people, were transferred to do the work of death to the
causes of the moral sentiments in the northern masses.
Although the southern people manifested growths of

83 History op Bise and Fall op Slave Power, vol. 1, pages 383 and 384.

HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION; 529
prosperity and power, they were the vigorous pro
ductions of those propensities which, on the eve of a
nation's fall, seldom fail in astonishing us "with the
prodigy of thefr actions. Such, however, are but the
"struggles of pride and selfishness,"'* not those of
moral principles. And there are facts on which man
kind fail to take correct distinctions. The progress of
depravity and of virtue, the apparent of the one, the
real of the other, are so misunderstood by the entire
population of the world, that their predictions of the
careers of nationaUties are sure to result to them in the
disappointment of their hopes and expectations.
After these causes of the moral degeneracy of the
south had completed the ruin which they were adapted
to effect in that section of the union, their secondary
forms enteired the free states to stifle the activities of
the causes of compassion and of the sentiments of
justice in the mentality of their inhabitants.
It produces sorro"wful feelings in an American who
loves his country, to contrast the noble, the god-like
condition of the southern mind at the revolutionary
epoch to that depraved and fallen one which it had
reached fifty years aflierward. That the noble princi
ples which actuated the inhabitants of these states in

83 The phrase Is irom oneDf the fathers of the republic from the South,^
predicting the nature of the military prowess which southern people would
exKiblt if slavery Uiould long obntinue in the territoileB.
34

630 HISTORY OP THE DECLENSION.
their resistance to European aggression, should, in
so short a period, cease to influence their immediate
descendants in territories where they had existed in
such potency; that a people in whom, a locality in
which, the solemn fortitude of the humane qualities
was once in such vigorous proportions as to force to
revolution all the despotisms of the white races in
Europe, should be in mortal repose in half a century,
can justly challenge the world for a contrast of equal
magnitude. The fathers of the republic from the four
southern slave states, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia
and North Carolina, were scarcely in their graves,
when the piratical principles of the Bourbons, of the
Hapsburgs, and of the Braganzas, controlled the feel
ings and actions of their posterity.
Although slavery was abolished as a mUitary
necessity during the "great rebellion," it had pos
sessed being among the southern people sufficiently
long to leave the moral faculties in complete desolation.
In the six southern revolutionary states, and in the
south-western ones admitted into the union in time
afterward, by 1835, republican sentiments had faUen
and given place to those of anarchy and despotism.
By that year the republic in the southern half of the
United States had become a nullity, its formal existence
beiag dragged along tUl 1861, by the elements of free
dom existing in the non-slaveholding states of the

HISTORY OF THE DECLENSION. 531
north. Although the people in this one portion of
the territory of the United States could render no
support to the repubUcan sentiments of the nation,
for lack of republican quaUties, it was only a prostra
tion of about one-third of the vital power of freedom
in the great confederation.

END OP VOLUME 1

E UNIVERSITY

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