UC-NRLF 
 
REPORT 
 
 A COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE THE EVILS OF 
 
 LOTTERIES S 9 
 
 In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
 
 ; ***> H"> 
 
 AND TO SUGGEST 
 
 A REMEDY FOR THE SAME. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PRINTED BY DANIEL B. SHRIEVE9. 
 
 1831. 
 
PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBER 12, 1831. 
 
 AN Adjourned Meeting of Citizens opposed ' t<> l j ;0Ue&6s wan 
 iield at the Supreme Court Room. 
 
 B. W. RICHARDS was appointed Chairman, ;QT>O : \ ; 
 
 GEORGE W. TOLAND, Secretary. 
 
 W. M. Meredith, Chairman of the Committee appointed at a 
 previous meeting, stated that the Committee had attended to the duties 
 assigned them, and were prepared to report. 
 
 The Report was read by George M. Stroud, a member of the 
 Committee, and a Memorial to the Legislature, by William M. Mere- 
 dith. 
 
 The Report of the Committee and accompanying Memorial to 
 the Legislature were adopted unanimously. 
 
 The following resolutions were also unanimously adopted. 
 Resolved, That ten thousand copies of the Report be printed in 
 pamphlet form. 
 
 Resolved, That the Memorial be published in the daily news- 
 papers of the city. 
 
 Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to collect further in- 
 formation, to superintend the printing of the Report and Memorial, 
 and to take all such further measures as they may deem best calcu- 
 lated to promote the objects of the meeting. 
 
 The following named gentlemen were appointed the Committee : 
 B. W. Richards, W. M. Meredith, George M. Stroud, Isaac Collins, 
 Samuel C. Atkinson, Daniel B. Smith, Edward Yarnall, Robert 
 Earp, Timothy Abbott, B. Matthias, Jesse R. Torrey, Jr., William 
 Hodgson, Isaiah Hacker, Charles Yarnall, Thomas Earp, Daniel B. 
 Shrieves, George W. Toland. 
 
 Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in 
 the daily newspapers of the city. 
 
 B. W. RICHARDS, Chairman. 
 GEORGE W. TOLAND, Secretary. 
 
 The following is the Report, directed to be published in the 
 first of the foregoing resolutions. 
 
 974903 
 
The Committee appointed to investigate the evils of Lotteries, and to 
 suggest a remedy for tlie same t respectfully submit the following 
 
 REPORT: 
 
 That, in their endeavors to fulfil the purposes of their appointment, 
 
 they have directed their inquiries to the ascertainment, First, Of the 
 
 ,- character aad oxicnt of the privilege granted by the laws of this 
 
 Commonwealth' for raising money by lottery. Secondly, Of the 
 
 .;eteafr <5f lottery transactions prosecuted under the pretext of this 
 
 privite'ge: l Thirdly," Of the extent of lottery transactions expressly 
 
 prohibited by our laws, and Fourthly, Of the evils to the community 
 
 arising from the two last named sources. 
 
 In regard to the first of these inquiries, it may be premised, that 
 the privilege of raising money by lottery is wholly denied by our laws 
 except to " The Union Canal Company." The attention of the Com- 
 mittee has therefore been confined, on this branch of their labors, 
 to an examination of the privilege which is claimed for this purpose 
 by that company. And your Committee feel themselves justified in 
 saying, that, from the best light which they can obtain on the subject, 
 even this company, at the present time, has no right to the exercise of 
 this privilege. The reasons for this opinion they will lay before the 
 meeting, with as much brevity as the nature of the investigation will 
 permit. 
 
 By act of Assembly of the 17th of April, 1795, authority was given 
 to the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company and the Dela- 
 ware and Schuylkill Navigation Company, to raise, by way of lottery, 
 the sum of $400,000. Under this grant, $ 60,000 were raised, when, 
 on petition of these companies, they became united, and were in- 
 corporated by act of the Legislature, dated April 2, 1811, under the 
 name of " The Union Canal Company." All preceding laws relative 
 to the companies so united were, by this act, expressly repealed. 
 
 The 28th section of this last act empowered the Union Canal 
 Company to raise by lottery $ 340,000, the residue of the original 
 grant to the two companies when distinct. This sum the company 
 was authorized to raise by means of an agent, on such terms as 
 might be thought fit, or to sell and assign, in whole or in part, to 
 any person or corporation, its right to raise the same, upon any 
 scheme or plan of lottery which the Managers might from time to 
 time sanction ; such purchaser or assignee to be vested, for the term 
 so acquired, with the same rights and privileges as were possessed 
 by the company. 
 
 From causes not necessary to be noticed, although authority was 
 
Conferred to increase the stock of the company to any extent that 
 might be thought advisable, no subscription of stock appears to have 
 taken place under the act of 1811; and when, in 1819, in compli- 
 ance with a call of the Legislature, an abstract of the accounts of 
 the company was submitted to that body, the only funds which it 
 possessed were found to be a small balance of the proceeds of the 
 lottery. Under these circumstances, on the 29th of March, 1819, 
 a supplement was passed to the act of 1811, which changed essen- 
 tially the features of this act. It destroyed the old Board of Mana- 
 gers, and created a new one. It authorized a specific augmentation 
 of the shares of the company, so as to produce the sum of $ 500,000 ; 
 and, to induce the subscription of these, pledged the avails of the 
 lottery granted by the act of 1811, as a fund for the payment of an 
 annual interest of six per cent, upon the stock which might be thus 
 obtained. By this provision, it annulled a right sanctioned by the 
 26th section of the former act, of borrowing money on the faith of 
 the lottery privilege conferred by the same act. 
 
 Even the encouragement thus held forth proved unavailing ; and 
 it was not till after the passing of the " Act for the improvement of 
 the State/' on the 26th of March, 1821, that the requisite amount 
 of stock was subscribed. Additional modifications of the lottery 
 privilege were made by this act also, and the provisions on this sub- 
 ject which it contains, constitute the sole authority for raising 
 money by this means, which can legally be claimed by the Union 
 Canal Company. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to state the 
 provisions of this law with considerable minuteness. It enacts, that 
 whenever, according to the provisions of the act, &c., passed the 29th 
 day of March, 1819, 2,250 shares shall have been subscribed to the 
 capital stock of the Union Canal Company of Pennsylvania, the 
 Governor of this Commonwealth be, and he is hereby, authorized 
 and required to subscribe, in behalf thereof, for 250 shares of the 
 stock of said company, &c. And if the proceeds of the lottery grant- 
 ed to the Union Canal Company, together with the tolls which may 
 be collected, shall not hereafter, from year to year, for the period of 
 twenty-five years, yield a sum equal to an annual interest of 6 per 
 cent, upon all sums not exceeding in amount $ 450,000, which may 
 be subscribed by new subscribers as aforesaid, and paid according 
 to law to the capital stock of the said company, the Governor shall, 
 from year to year, for the term of twenty-five years, whenever it shall 
 appear to his satisfaction that such disability exists, draw his war- 
 rant on the State Treasurer in favor of the said Board of Managers 
 for the amount of such deficiency : which money shall be applied to 
 
6 
 
 the payment of an annual interest of six per cent, to such new sub- 
 scribers; and the faith of the Commonwealth is hereby pledged, for 
 the term of twenty-five years, for the full and punctual payment of 
 said interest : Provided, &c. that each subscriber shall be entitled 
 to interest only from the time of the actual payment of each instal- 
 ment (of the shares) respectively. And in order to avoid, as far as 
 possible, all disability to pay such interest, so much of the 3d section 
 of the act aforesaid as pledges any portion of the avails or nett pro- 
 ceeds of the lottery aforesaid to the payment of an annual interest 
 to the holders of shares not forfeited in the late Delaware and Schuyl- 
 kill and Schuylkill and Susqtiehanna Canal Companies, be, and the 
 same is hereby, suspended, until the canal shall be completed ; and 
 the President and Managers of said company shall be, and and they 
 are hereby, authorized to continue, during the said term of twenty- 
 five years, to raise, by way of lottery, any sums that may be wanted 
 for the purpose of paying to the holders of said stock six per cent. 
 as" aforesaid: Provided, That whenever the nett proceeds of the tolls 
 shall amount to the said six per cent, the privilege hereby granted, 
 of raising money by lottery, shall, during such time, be suspended, 
 except so far as is authorized by existing laws ; and it shall in no 
 event be lawful to divide any sum arising from the lottery, over and 
 above six per cent, upon the stock of said company, it being the in- 
 tent and meaning of this act, that all such excess shall be reserved 
 to meet any deficiency thereof that may at any time occur in the tolls, 
 as aforesaid" 
 
 The multiplicity of contingencies provided for in this section, has 
 rendered its meaning less obvious than is usual, or altogether con- 
 sistent with discreet legislation. A slight analysis, however, removes 
 all obscurity, so far as concerns the present inquiry. 
 
 In its cardinal object, the creation of stock to the amount of half 
 a million of dollars, this act is identical with that of 1819. Its distin- 
 guisMng feature is the guarantee, on the part of the State, for 25 years, 
 of the annual interest of 6 per cent, on 2,250 shares of such stock. 
 The residue of the section is taken up with devising the means of 
 redeeming this guarantee without bringing a charge on the public 
 treasury. The lottery system is resorted to for this purpose. On 
 these two subjects the protection of the public treasury, and the 
 lottery grants the anxiety of the Legislature, if we may so speak, is 
 excessive. On the one hand, it is plain that the treasury is, if possi- 
 ble, to be preserved untouched, while a jealousy scarcely less vigilant, 
 is exercised to prevent the extension of the lottery privileges beyond 
 the purpose of the Legislature. What, then, is the precise extent of 
 
'7 
 
 these lottery privileges as conferred by this act 1 After a careful 
 examination, your Committee are satisfied, that nothing more is in- 
 tended to be granted than is necessary to guard the State against the 
 guarantee which she assumes; and this, obviously, cannot exceed 
 27,000 dollars annually for 25 years, or until the tolls of the Canal 
 shall be adequate to the payment of 6 per cent, interest on the stock 
 of the Canal, should such an augmentation occur before the expira- 
 tion of that period. That this limitation is imposed upon the lottery 
 privileges, is evidenced by an affirmative declaration in immediate 
 connexion with the first mention of the guarantee, and subsequently 
 by the rsstriction, that " it shall in no event be lawful to divide any 
 sum arising from the lottery over and above six per cent, upon the 
 stock of said Company, it being the intent and meaning of this act 
 that all sucJt, excess shall be reserved to meet any DEFICIENCY thereof 
 that may at any time occur in the tolls as aforesaid." 
 
 Two lottery grants are, unquestionably, recognized in this law ~ 
 not, however, to be exercised concurrently and at all events but, on 
 the contrary, one is to be postponed until the other shall have been 
 exhausted, and then used to a very limited extent, and on a specified 
 and doubtful contingency. Recourse isjirst to be had to the residue 
 of the existing grant to the company under the act of 1811. A dis- 
 position very similar had been directed of the same fund by the act 
 of 1819. The variation consists chiefly in a slight diminution of the 
 appropriation then made. 
 
 It was apparent, however, that should the whole of the guarantied 
 interest for the entire term of 25 years be required, some further pro- 
 vision would be demanded. Accordingly, it is distinctly enunciated, 
 " in order to avoid t as far as possible, all disability to pay SUCH IN- 
 TEREST, &c., the President and Managers of said Company shall be 
 authorized to CONTINUE during the said term of 25 years, to raise, by 
 way of lottery, any sums that may be wanted for the purpose of paying to 
 the holders of said stock 6 per cent, as aforesaid." On this contingen- 
 cy, for this purpose, and to this extent only, is the second grant autho- 
 rized. Your Committee are unable to discover that any other inter- 
 pretation consistent with the scope and spirit of this enactment, or 
 not in direct conflict with its reiterated restrictions and limitations, 
 can be placed upon it. And they would have deemed it supererog- 
 atory to have said this much on the subject, but that a highly respect- 
 able Committee of the Legislature, during the last winter, in a re- 
 port which has been very widely circulated, have offered an unhesita- 
 ting and wholly contradictory exposition. 
 
 An authority so imposing would seem to demand a more defi- 
 
8 
 
 nite and prolonged discussion, but, unfortunately for this purpose, no 
 reasons are assigned in the report, nor the least indication given to 
 the probable arguments by which so important a conclusion has been 
 evolved. Your Committee, therefore, assuming the correctness of 
 their own construction of the law, will proceed to state the facts con- 
 nected with the exercise of the lottery privileges by the Union Ca- 
 nal Company, so far as they have an application to this inquiry, in 
 order that the accuracy of the opinion before expressed, namely, 
 " that this Company at the present time, has no right to the exercise 
 of lottery privileges," may the more readily be tested. 
 
 By a statement furnished last winter, by the Company to the Le- 
 gislature, it appears, that 136,250 dollars had been raised by lottery, 
 between April 2, 1811, aud March 17, 1821, leaving 203,750 dolls. 
 of the old grant to be received and appropriated according to the di- 
 rections of the act of 1821 i. c., in paying the annual interest for 
 which the State had given her guarantee, and which, in no event, 
 could exceed 27,000 dollars per year. The same statement shows 
 that 231,710 2-5 dollars had been realized by the Company as " nett 
 proceeds of the lotteries from January 16th, 1822, to December 25th, 
 1830," being 27,960 2-5 dollars more than the original grant autho- 
 rized, and which, therefore, must have been raised in virtue of the sc- 
 cond grant. This latter grant, by the very terms which authorize 
 it, is restricted to the raising of, at most, 27,000 dollars annually, 
 and then only in case of a deficiency of funds for the payment 
 of the interest guarantied by the State. No such deficiency did 
 exist when this last amount was drawn on the contrary, the 
 statement above referred to exhibits, on the 1st of January, 1830, a 
 balance of the lottery fund, after the payment of all the interest guar- 
 antied, of 73,677 dollars, and 46cZs. in the hands of the Company. It 
 results, therefore, that the whole of the lottery business carried on in 
 this Commonwealth since the commencement of 1830, has been of 
 doubtful legality, if not an unequivocal violation of positive Legisla- 
 tive enactments. 
 
 The report just noticed, contains another statement, which, if cor- 
 rect, as there applied, would oppose a formidable obstacle to the con- 
 clusion of your Committee. It is gravely said " By the act of 1811, the 
 Company were authorized to raise, by way of loan, any sums required, 
 and to mortgage the nett proceeds and avails of the lotteries. Under 
 this express authority they have mortgaged this lottery privilege 
 for money lent, (borrowed) : Third persons are thus interested, 
 with whom the State have authorized the Company to become in- 
 volved." It is not to be disguised that a provision of the kind indi- 
 
9 
 
 eated in this quotation, is found in the act of 181 1. But it is revoked, 
 as has been already incidentally stated, by the act of 1819, and the 
 abstract of the accounts of the Company, furnished to the Legisla- 
 ture during the session at which this latter act was passed, exhibits 
 no proof, but the direct contrary, of the existence of such a loan and 
 such a pledge, at that period. 
 
 And if a further answer be desired, it may be found in the consi- 
 deration that the lottery, the proceeds of which were authorized to be 
 pledged for borrowed money, was that granted by the act of 1811, the 
 full amount of which, it has been shown, has been drawn by the 
 Company. 
 
 A contract with Yates & JVTIntyre, of New York, by which the 
 Company has tranferred its lottery privileges till the end of the cur- 
 rent year, is also stated in the report, as an obstacle to the abolition 
 of the lottery system. As the lapse of a few weeks must remove this 
 obstacle, your Committee would have contented themselves without 
 a specific notice of it, had they not been apprized, by the recent Mes- 
 sage of the Executive, that a similar contract had been again entered 
 into by the Company. It is proper, therefore, to say, that the As- 
 signee of the Company cau have no better right than the Company 
 itself, by the very language of the act 
 
 Perhaps, however, another ground may be assumed to Uphold this 
 privilege. It may be said, that the proceeds of the lottery grant of 
 1811, were in part pledged by the act of 1819, for the payment of the 
 interest on the unforfeited shares in the original companies, and that 
 the only alteration intended to be made by the act of 1821 in this 
 appropriation, is to suspend it till the completion of the canal, and that 
 having now taken place, this suspension has ceased. The language 
 of the act certainly affords some countenance to this interpretation. 
 Nevertheless, it would conflict with the main purpose, again and 
 again indicated in different parts of the same section, to provide 
 merely for the new stock of 450,000 dollars; and, according to the 
 Company's statement of the disbursement of the lottery funds, no 
 interest has been paid on the unforfeited shares. A practical expo- 
 sition, therefore, so far as depended on the Company, has been given 
 by it, militating against this claim. Its legality is in a course 
 of judicial investigation, and will probably be soon determined. 
 
 But, whether this claim be well or ill-founded, it is plain, that it is 
 to be restricted to the proceeds of the first lottery grant and this has 
 been exhausted, as already mentioned. And, at all events, the num- 
 ber of the unforfeited shares, if there be any free from dispute, is ad- 
 mitted to be very small so small, indeed, that the sum required 
 3 
 
10 
 
 for interest on the aggregate stock of the Company, should these be 
 included, would probably be less than 30,000 dollars annually. 
 
 Such being the views of the Committee on the laws relative to 
 this branch of inquiry, it may be added, that, from the data furnished 
 by the accounts of 'the Company, as laid before the Legislature last 
 winter, the surplus on hand of the proceeds of the lotteries is at this 
 time 72,177 dollars and 46 cents a sum sufficient to defray the 
 27,000 dollars of annual interest for two years and two thirds and 
 30,000 dollars of like interest for nearly two and a half years at the 
 end of either of which periods the strongest probability exists, that 
 the tolls of the Canal, which, during the last year, exceeded 59,000 
 dollars, will be so increased as to dispense forever with the aid of 
 the lotteries. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks, it will be observed, your Committee 
 have regarded the statement of the Company, in respect to the pro- 
 ceeds of the lotteries, as exhibiting the true and full amount of mo- 
 neys raised under the lottery grants. But it is deemed important to 
 state that there is another point of view in which this subject may 
 be considered, worthy of the most serious notice of the Company, 
 inasmuch as, if correct, the drawings of these lotteries, for many 
 years past, have been in contravention of law. The grant of the 
 act of 1811, it will be remembered, is to raise by lottery 340,000 
 dollars and the contingent grant of 1821, authorizes, at most, 
 27,000 dollars a year. In the accounts of the Company, the usual 
 deduction of 15 per cent, on the value of the scheme, is not de- 
 bited to it, as the amount actually raised by the lottery, but less than 
 the twentieth part of this sum ; being, it is understood, the conside- 
 ration paid by the Assignees of the Company, for the right to use its 
 lottery privileges. Thus, as will be more particularly mentioned in 
 a subsequent part of this report, while the Assignees of the Company 
 are entitled, according to the schemes published, to more than 
 800,000 dollars annually, the Company debits itself with but 30,000 
 dollars in the same period. It is thought that the construction which 
 this mode of stating the account presumes, will be found very diffi- 
 cult to sustain. But, as your Committee persuade themselves it has 
 been satisfactorily shown that, even on the Company's own princi- 
 ple, the continuance of the lotteries is not authorized, they excuse 
 themselves from the further notice of this topic. 
 
 Our second inquiry relates to the extent of lottery transactions 
 prosecuted under pretext of the privilege claimed by the Union Canal 
 Company, to raise money in this manner. 
 
11 
 
 To ascertain the precise number of tickets of the Union Canal 
 Lotteries which are sold in a given time within this Commonwealth, 
 is obviously impracticable by any means possessed by the Committee. 
 The number of schemes drawn in a single year, and the value of 
 them, furnish the best data that can be easily obtained. Any one 
 attentive to the subject will have learned, that this lottery is drawn 
 every two weeks throughout the year, and that the schemes consist, 
 alternately, of 34,220 tickets, at four dollars, and the like number at 
 eight dollars, making, in each of the smaller class of schemes, 
 $ 136,830, and in each of the larger class, $ 273,760 ; the aggre- 
 gate of which, multiplied by 13, produces $5,338,220; the actual 
 amount of tickets offered for sale by this Company at the scheme 
 price, during the last as well as several preceding years. To this is 
 to be added 25 per cent., the usual enhancemeut at retail, as may 
 be seen by inspection of any of our daily newspapers. 
 
 In respect to the third inquiry, the same remark, as to the im- 
 practicability of stating the precise amount of tickets sold, is espe- 
 cially applicable. The unauthorized lotteries are believed to consist, 
 exclusively or nearly so, of such as are sanctioned, or pretended to 
 be, by some one of our sister States. Till very recently, the number 
 of these lotteries, tickets of which were vended with but little or no 
 restraint in this city, was at least fifteen. These, together with the 
 Union Canal Lottery, draw eight times a week, throughout the year. 
 
 The number of lottery offices in this city and liberties, for the 
 sale of all kinds of tickets, has been ascertained to be one hundred and 
 seventy-seven. These, severally, employ, on an average, it is believed, 
 two persons, while perhaps an equal number of itinerant venders 
 traverse the city in every direction visit the stalls in the market the 
 taverns and other places of public resort penetrate within the stores 
 and shops of the merchant and mechanic ; and even the domestic 
 abodes of our citizens are not exempt from their intrusion. 
 
 In entering upon the next topic the evils of lotteries an appal- 
 ling picture of vice and crime, and misery, in every varied form, is 
 presented to the mind. Husbands and fathers of families, respected 
 through a long and well-sustained course of years, have, at length, 
 by the mastering influence of this delusive enticement, been seduced 
 from their integrity, and brought to end their days the tenants of a 
 prison, under the just sentence of deep and complicated guilt. Others 
 in the prime of life, holding important pecuniary trusts, have become 
 adventurers by little and little, till their own resources have been 
 swept away, and then, for the desperate chance of retrieving their 
 losses, have betrayed the confidence of their station been detected 
 
12 
 
 and disgraced ar*4, ultimately, forced from the bosom of their fami- 
 lies and their homes, disrupturing the closest and most sacred ties 
 of nature and affinity, and leaving those whom they ought to have pro- 
 tected, a charge on the community. Numerous instances could be 
 adduced of those yet in boyhood apprentices and clerks who, 
 singly or in combination, have purloined the property of their mas- 
 ters and employers, to meet the demands of continued disappoint- 
 ment in lottery speculations. A fourth class might be mentioned, 
 consisting of young men just freed from the control of guardians and 
 friends, with a sufficient patrimonial inheritance to enable them to 
 employ their time and talents usefully to the community, and advan- 
 tageously and honorably to themselves; but who, ignorant of the true 
 character of lottery schemes, have deliberately invested their all, in 
 order to realize the sudden, certain, and independent fortunes, which 
 are so lavishly promised at almost every step they take. 
 
 Examples the most affecting and admonitory might easily be cited 
 in all of these classes, but, with the exception of the last, could be 
 done, perhaps, in no case, without inflicting unnecessary pain to re- 
 latives and friends. A single instance, however, of this excepted 
 class, derived in the most authentic manner, involving no crimi- 
 nal imputation, and relating to an individual now no more, the 
 Committtee believe may with propriety be brought to the notice 
 of the meeting. The narrative is short, and is found in a petition 
 for the benefit of the insolvent laws, signed, as usual, by the applicant, 
 and delivered under the responsibility of an oath. It is in these 
 words: " The petitioner became of age on the 24th December, 
 1828, and immediately commenced speculations in lottery tickets 
 that he received from different sources other than from lotteries, and 
 at different times, about 975 dollars; the greater part of which he ei- 
 ther laid out for tickets, or paid on account of tickets which he had 
 before purchased : That he drew, at various times, prizes to the 
 amount of 4000 dolls., which he invested as soon as received, in other 
 tickets, or paid for, or on account of those which he had purchased 
 before: That he has sunk in these speculations, in the short period of 
 six months, all that he had, and has left him upwards of 3300 dollars 
 in debt beyond his means to pay." The Committee have no reason 
 to believe that this is the most striking example of the kind which 
 could be exhibited. The class to which it belongs must embrace 
 numbers; for so rapidly do the drawings of the different lotteries suc- 
 ceed each other at the present time, that it has become a standing 
 sign at many offices in this city, " LOTTERY DRAWS TO-DAY" a no- 
 tification which is distinguished from almost every thing else con- 
 
13 
 
 nected with these establishments, by being literally true ! ! It is not 
 strange, therefore, that hundreds of individuals should be found, of the 
 thoughtless, the idle, the inexperienced, and the profligate, who con- 
 sume their whole time, and risk their whole means in lottery adventures 
 as their only vocation. From the vast amount of money necessarily 
 expended to warrant such daily or, as might almost be said, semi-dai- 
 ly drawings, entire confidence may be placed in this inference, al- 
 though, from the nature of the scrutiny, but little positive information 
 could be expected from the Committee. 
 
 That hundreds have become impoverished by lotteries, the re- 
 cords of the Insolvent Courts incontestably prove. That our Pene- 
 tentiaries have been supplied with many inmates from the same 
 source, is alike susceptible of demonstration. That the number of 
 idlers, spendthrifts, and gamblers of every description, has been daily 
 augmenting amongst us, no one not wholly unobservant and indiffe- 
 rent to what is passing around him, can have failed to notice and de- 
 plore. Let the true history of all these be investigated, and it will 
 be found, that however differing from each other in the shades and 
 casts of character however various may have been their original pur- 
 suits yet here, they are all pursuing the same phantom, and all de- 
 pend for support on the same treacherous parent. The congregation 
 of such avast horde of human beings, bound to the community by no 
 ties, and obnoxious to continual delusion and disappointment, may 
 be justly ranked among the most alarming evils of the lottery system. 
 
 The Combination plan of lotteries, now and for several years past 
 in use, by which the fate of every ticket is determined in a few 
 minutes the small price at which tickets are sold, and the subdi- 
 vision of these into minute fractions, have enhanced the evils of the 
 system in a degree which defies calculation. Children are tempted 
 to become adventurers, and are thus initiated into a most ensnaring 
 vice, before they are capable of appreciating its true character and 
 danger. 
 
 Frauds of various kinds are continually perpetrated. Tickets 
 drawn, and ascertained to be blanks, find purchasers among the 
 unwary and inexperienced. Prizes actually drawn are sometimes 
 deceptively cashed, as of much smaller than their real value the 
 holder supposing that he has received all to which, by his ticket, he 
 is entitled. Counterfeiting tickets, especially by the alteration of 
 a few of the figures, is largely practised". And it is a common prac- 
 tice for individuals to become possessed of the numbers of particular 
 tickets, and the names of the purchasers of them, living without the 
 bounds of the city, and having secured the most expeditious means 
 
14. 
 
 of travelling, to wait till the few necessary numbers are drawn, and 
 then fly with so much dispatch to the owners of such tickets as to 
 prevent the suspicion of a trick, and become the purchasers, proba- 
 bly at a small advance. The Committee have information on this 
 subject, which warrants the belief that this has been practised for a 
 considerable time, and to a large extent, and throughout many parts 
 of the Commonwealth. 
 
 The questions naturally arise, what has been the origin of a sys- 
 tem fraught with so much mischief? How happens it to have been 
 tolerated among a free and enlightened people? The true and 
 brief answer is, that, at a time when but little thirst for lottery specu- 
 lations was felt, and before the present mode of drawing, which pan- 
 ders so inordinately to the appetite for gambling, was invented, the 
 Union Canal Company was authorized to raise a sum of money to 
 defray the interest on a portion of the stock subscribed for the con- 
 struction of a canal. That the sum wanted for this object could not 
 exceed 27,000 dollars annually and that, for the inconsiderable 
 amount of 30,000 dollars per year, this Company permit two citizens 
 of another State, the proprietors of eight other lottery grants, to raise 
 without limit, as much money, by this means, as they may find it 
 within their power to effect. That, to such a degree has the cre- 
 dulity of the people been wrought upon, as to enable these repre- 
 sentatives and assignees of the Company to offer schemes for sale in 
 a single year, of the value of 5,338,220 dollars, the profits of which, 
 being, as usual, 15 per cent., are equal to 800,733 dollars, in the 
 same short period. Should but half of these profits be realized, 
 the disproportion between what is received by the Company and 
 the Managers of the Lotteries, is too striking to require particular 
 comment. 
 
 The suggestion of a fit remedy for these evils, forms the con- 
 cluding duty imposed on the Committee by the resolution under 
 which they act. From the remarks already submitted on the laws 
 relative to the lottery privileges of the Union Canal Company, a sus- 
 pension of the further drawing of the lotteries, until the fund now in 
 the hands of the Company, derived from this source, shall be ex- 
 hausted in the payment of the interest guarantied by the State, will 
 occur to every one as the proper and obvious remedy. The Com- 
 mittee accordingly recommend the adoption of such measures as will 
 most speedily secure this end; and they know of none so likely to be 
 effectual, as an application for legislative interposition in the manner 
 indicated in the Memorial which is herewith submitted. 
 
15 
 MEMORIAL,. 
 
 TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE COMMON- 
 
 WEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA: 
 
 The Memorial of the undersigned Citizens of the Commonwealth 
 of Pennsylvania, SHEWETH : 
 
 That, in calling the attention of your Honorable Bodies to the 
 subject of Lotteries, it is not the design of your Memorialists to 
 enter on a discussion of the general questions connected with them 
 a discussion which is quite unnecessary, since it is now universally 
 admitted that Lotteries are of a highly pernicious tendency, while, 
 as a mode of raising revenue, they are the very worst, most extra- 
 vagant and most wasteful, that can be devised. 
 
 But your Memorialists beg leave most earnestly to represent to 
 your Honorable Bodies, that the Lottery System, as it now exists in 
 this Commonwealth, is peculiarly injurious to the interests of the 
 public and the morals of the community : that the evils resulting 
 from that system have of late years increased to an enormous amount : 
 that they are still increasing : that they have become insufferable : 
 and that every principle of justice, policy, and humanity, absolutely 
 demands legislative interference to put an end to them. 
 
 By the frequency and amount of the schemes offered to the pub- 
 lic, professedly under the laws of the State, by the almost unrestrain- 
 ed sale of tickets in foreign Lotteries, and by the arts of a swarm 
 of lottery-venders, the spirit of adventure is unduly roused, and 
 the appetite for this (one of the worst) species of gambling, excited 
 to an alarming and inordinate extent. 
 
 The effects are to be traced in the records of our Insolvent Courts 
 in our Almshouses and Prisons in the crowds of squalid beings 
 who throng to the periodical drawings in the tears of deserted 
 wives, of destitute widows, of helpless orphans and in the ruined 
 character and broken fortunes of the unhappy men who have been 
 tempted to abandon the paths of useful and respectable employ- 
 ment, and follow whither the delusive and unholy temptations of 
 the Lottery have led thousands to dishonesty poverty intempe- 
 rance infamy, and destruction. Your memorialists do not paint 
 from the imagination. They pray your Honorable Bodies to insti- 
 tute a serious inquiry into the facts, and the result of such an in- 
 quiry will sustain your Memorialists in the declaration, which they 
 now solemnly repeat, that the evils of the Lottery System are in- 
 sufferable, and that every principle of justice, policy, and humanity, 
 demands the interference of the Legislature to put an end to them. 
 
 Has the Commonwealth an interest in the industry, probity and 
 welfare of her citizens ? The Lottery tends to destroy them all. Is 
 
16 
 
 it the duty of the Legislature to prevent crimes, and discourage vice 
 and immorality, and is it true, that the foundations of the Republic 
 are sapped when the morals of the people are corrupted ? There is 
 no more fruitful and certain source of corruption than the Lottery, 
 and there is scarcely in the catalogue, a crrhie, a vice, or an immo- 
 rality, of which it is not, immediately, or remotely, an exciting 
 cause. Wastefulness, peculation, idleness, the habit of relying for 
 support on uncertain gains, to be obtained without exertion pov- 
 erty ; these are often among its direct results : intemperance, gene- 
 ral profligacy, loss of character the extinguishment of the moral 
 sense the commission of the higher crimes are some of its more 
 distant consequences. 
 
 By several Acts of Assembly, the common games of skill and 
 hazard, at which money is staked upon equal chances, are strictly 
 forbidden, and the prohibition has even been extended to many health- 
 ful and manly sports which were known or believed to afford occasions 
 for gaming ; while the Lottery alone that gigantic fiend is per- 
 mitted to infest all our borders, under the mask of the law itself, 
 tempting to perdition thousands of the unwary, the ignorant, and the 
 simple, and desolating the hearths and hearts of their innocent fami- 
 lies and connections. 
 
 It is true that in the statue book are to be found enactments against 
 all Lotteries not authorized by the laws of the State, but even those 
 enactments are known to be habitually disregarded : it is for your 
 Honorable Bodies to determine whether they shall continue to be 
 violated with impunity. 
 
 The ill which has been done cannot now be repaired, but it is in the 
 power of the Legislature, in the present case, to -destroy the source 
 of future evil, by preventing the farther continuance of the Lottery 
 now conducted within the State, and providing sufficient sanctions 
 to secure the due enforcement of the laws against all Lotteries. 
 
 Your Memorialists do not ask for a violation of the faith of the 
 Commonwealth ; on the contrary, they wish that faith to be preserved, 
 and confidently trust, if there be any existing vested rights, under 
 former laws, in a corporation or individuals, which will be affected 
 by the measures now prayed for, that the Legislature will make 
 such compensation to the parties interested, as may be just and 
 equitable, and sanctioned by the provisions of the Constitution, and 
 will not refuse the payment (if it should be found necessary) of a 
 comparatively paltry sum from the public treasury, for the attain- 
 ment of a great and paramount public benefit. 
 
 Your Memorialists do therefore most earnestly pray that your 
 Honorable Bodies will adopt prompt and efficient measures for the 
 entire abolition of Lotteries for preventing the frauds and evils 
 which attend them, and for the adequate punishment of those who 
 shall persist in advertising or selling Lottery Schemes or Tickets, 
 in violation and contempt of the laws of this Commonwealth. 
 And your Memorialists, &c. 
 
AN INITIAL PINE OP 25 CENTS 
 
Gaylamount 
 
 Pamphlet 
 
 Binder 
 
 G.yU.rd Bro... 1' 
 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 
 T .M.Re 9 .U.S.Pa.- 
 
 97490S 
 
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