Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

look upon cities, not as necessarily great moral and political nuisances, but as the hearts of the social system to which they belong, in which, from the active intercourse of mind with mind, springs up almost every grand movement by which the condition of society at large is affected, in which alone can be found that energy which is necessary to give impulse at the outset to every enterprise of magnitude and difficulty, where begins the pulsation which shall eventually force the principle of life through every channel of the great system around it. Such are cities, but not such alone. It is a part of the purpose of the Associated Young Men's Societies to reduce them to this simplicity of character. And they feel that he who denounces cities as intolerable evils must in the extension of that principle abandon all social and political compacts, on the theory of Robert Owen.

The agency of the Association formed within the past year under the name of "The Young Men's Society" is particularly alluded to by Mr. Walker, as having accomplished much good, and as promising much more for the future. We are happy to seize this occasion to speak of that Society the value of which in our estimation is very great. Having for some time desired to speak of it to our readers the allusion of the orator furnishes us with a very acceptable opportunity.

The character and purposes of the Young Men's Society are peculiar. It is composed of individuals under thirty years of age, of a good moral character; and its object is to promote acquaintance and fellow feeling amongst young men in the city, and introduce them and those who come to reside in Boston to valuable associates, pure and instructive amusements and modes of spending time, and to safe places of abode.

One of the earliest measures of this Society was to purchase a valuable and carefully selected library of nearly a thousand volumes, and establish a reading-room furnished with the choicest periodical publications. These are open to the members every evening in the week except Sunday and Monday.

Circulars containing a specification of the purposes of the Society, together, with the names and residences of the Board of Managers, were sent to every clergyman in this

Commonwealth, with the request that he would furnish every young man coming from his parish to Boston with a letter of introduction to the Recording Secretary, so that he could instantly on his arrival receive the benefits of the Association.

The Society meets once in each month, in the evening, and hears a report from a committee appointed at the preceding meeting to examine any given subject connected with the moral welfare of the community. Many of these reports have been drawn up with great care and in a form which would have done honor to any committee, whether we regard the facts contained in them, the principles developed, or the ability displayed in their execution. Gambling, Intemperance, Theatres, Slavery, Lotteries, Infidelity in our country, and various other subjects of importance, have already been reported on in this manner. The measures of the Society in relation to Lotteries were particularly vigorous and efficient, and have done much to produce a correct train of public sentiment on this subject. The lecture prepared at their request by Mr. Gordon and by them published, had nothing more been done, would have been justly deemed a satisfactory result of their labors. That pamphlet, it is hoped, will do a great deal to procure the speedy abatement of these moral nuisances, these stupendous systems of legalized knavery, from the United States.

These reports are read, and generally give rise to appropriate Resolutions which are discussed by the Society at large, and accepted or rejected according to their opinions on the subject.

There is no feature of sectarianism or partisanship in the Constitution or conduct of the Society; but, in the accomplishment of purposes which recommend themselves to universal good will, the members labor together on principles which exclude none but the vicious from coöperation.

The number of members belonging to this Society is already very large. There is no initiation-fee exacted; the only requisite is a good character. At each monthly meeting every member nominates for admission whomsoever he pleases, endorsing his own name on the ballot which contains that of the candidate, as a guarantee of his constitutional fitness. These nominations are referred to the Board of

Managers, who act as a committee thereon, and before the next meeting of the Society inquire carefully into the characters of the candidates, so that they may be prepared to make a correct report in the following month. The report of the Government is treated like that of any other Committee, so that membership is granted or refused by a vote of the Society at large.

The plan of this Society's operations is not yet fully matured and perfected. It has not yet furnished its members with a perfect list of boarding-houses of a character such as render them safe homes for young men inexperienced in the ways of the city. It has not yet attracted that general attention throughout the country, which is necessary to its greatest efficiency. But, so far as it has advanced, it has proceeded with sound discretion as well as laudable zeal and from its future labors we are disposed to expect results of very great value.

The Young Men's Temperance Society is also particularly alluded to by the orator, and deserves our attention alike by the number of its members, and the energy which has characterized their efforts in the good cause during the year of its existence.

Twelve hundred young men have signed the pledge of total abstinence; and, so far as our observation has extended, there has been no dereliction from duty on the part of any member.

The organization of the Society was attended with circumstances of great interest. For three or four evenings the matter of organization, and all the leading principles of the Constitution, were discussed in crowded assemblies by the young men, and a widely-extended spirit of inquiry was excited by the debate.

Since the formation of the Society, the whole city has been diligently explored with subscription papers, a series of public lectures has been delivered, thousands of tracts distributed, delegates sent to the National Convention, and the evils of the present license-law examined into and exposed.

Through this Society it is to be hoped that a proper degree of public indignation will be directed towards that municipal patronage, and in some instances practice, of intemperance by which Boston is now disgraced. We cannot believe that even the makers and venders of ardent spirit

1

can regard with any respect, or give a single vote for, a public officer addicted to intoxication. Let them but be made familiar with facts, and we fear not for results.

[ocr errors]

It may not be improper here to remark, that in our opinion the friends of temperance are, not only in Boston, but throughout the State, guilty of inexcusable moral cowardice, and disgraceful neglect, in avoiding to bring the matter of temperance to the ballot-box, to the polls. Why should we not insist on voting for unexceptionable candidates? Why should we fear to separate ourselves from those who will give their suffrages to the devotees of strong drink? Do we dignify and elevate into respect the good cause by doing what we can as electors to confer offices of trust and emolument on the intemperate? Far otherwise. If a friend of temperance votes for a drunkard, he is certain to be despised by all, not excepting the drunkard himself, alike for his cowardice and inconsistency. We are no disciples in the school which teaches the doctrine of making "I would wait upon I dare not." But we are firm believers in the propriety of making the private character, not less than the political creed, of a candidate for office the subject of the most rigid scrutiny. Until this principle be adopted into general practice, our laws will continue to be made and administered by the enemies of moral reform.

The next purpose of the several Young Men's Societies mentioned by Mr. Walker, is "to furnish ourselves and others with innocent and rational amusement."

He assumes it as a fundamental truth that amusements of some description are essential to both corporeal and mental health. That these amusements need not be of a depraving tendency, he clearly demonstrates by the history of the Societies themselves, who have acted on this principle in furnishing the means of relaxing the mind and invigorating the animal spirits in recreations of an innocent and elevating character.

The aid derived from the female sex in the prosecution of this object, the orator acknowledges in the following paragraph, the delivery of which drew forth deserved acclamations.

"We hold the truth to be self-evident,' that females are endowed with intellectual faculties; that they have a natural taste

for rational amusements; that if opportunity be afforded, they will participate in them with as much eagerness and pleasure as the other sex. This doctrine we know has not long been believed; or if admitted in theory, has not been practised. To scenes of splendor and gayety, to the temples of folly and fashion, ladies have for centuries been invited as companions; but from the halls of science, from entertainments of a purely intellectual nature, they have, in past times, been carefully excluded, by the lords of creation; whether from a belief in the maxim of despots, that the more ignorance the more peace,' or from a mistaken apprehension, that the female mind was too weak to grasp the truths of science, too depraved to enjoy the charms of literature, or too trifling and frivolous to be interested in rational pursuits, we will not determine. Certain, however, we are of the fact, and we regard it as one of the most valuable discoveries of modern days, that ladies, to all intents and purposes, have heads, as well as hearts; intellectual powers, as well as tender sensibilities; and that both these may be enlisted in the cause of virtue and knowledge with great facility and success. The application of this principle has contributed more than any one thing to the universal popularity and general establishment of Lyceums in every section of the United States, and will do more than any other towards producing all those happy effects, which the friends of those institutions so fondly and ardently anticipate."- pp. 18, 19.

"To inspire young men with a spirit of mental independence," to give them force of character, to arm them with a moral courage invulnerable to every thing but fear of vice, is mentioned as another grand object of such associations. The prevalent weakness of the times, which makes men fear to think for themselves, and act on their own conviction of right and wrong, is severely lashed, and the fatal effect of such an evil is most powerfully illustrated, by the hitherto universal habit of praising and admiring the enemies of our race, villains gigantic in intellect as well as villany, far more than the benefactors of mankind.

We cannot but regret that in the diversity of his topics, Mr. Walker was obliged to pass over this last important subject so briefly.

[ocr errors]

The great defect in our present systems of education is this: they do not teach young men to reflect, to turn their attention inward, to exercise fearlessly their own understandings, and govern themselves boldly and solely by their own

VOL. XV. -N. S. VOL. X. NO. I.

17

« ElőzőTovább »