VfcOftLEMS OF STATE LIFE . 
 
 A 
 
 SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN D. LONG, 
 
 HIS HONOR BYRON WESTON, 
 
 THE HONORABLE COUNCIL, AND THE LEGISLATURE 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION , KING'S CHAPEL , BOSTON , 
 Wednesday, January 3, 1883. 
 
 BY 
 
 Robert R, Meredith, D, D„ 
 
 Phillips Church, Boston. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS, 
 18 Post Office Square. 
 
 1883 . 
 
<P<RO<BLEMS OF STATE LIFE. 
 
 A 
 
 SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN D. LONG, 
 
 HIS HONOR BYRON WESTON, 
 
 THE HONORABLE COUNCIL, AND THE LEGISLATURE 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION , KING'S CHAPEL, BOSTON, 
 Wednesday, January 3, 1883. 
 
 BY 
 
 Robert R, Meredith, D, D„ 
 
 Phillips Church, Boston. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS, 
 18 Post Office Square. 
 
 1883. 
 
) 
 
 '• 7 
 
 Jn 5 i/f 
 i 
 
 fiEommantoealtj} of lltass&cfwsttts. 
 
 House of Representatives, Boston, 
 Jan. 31, 1883. 
 
 Rev. R. R. Meredith, D.D. : 
 
 Dear Sir, — The Joint Committee on Printing having recommended 
 the publication of two thousand extra copies of the very excellent 
 election sermon delivered by you before the Executive and Legislative 
 branches of the State Government, and the Honorable Senate and the 
 House of Representatives having adopted their recommendation, I 
 am instructed by the Committee to respectfully ask of you the manu- 
 script of said sermon, that the intention of the Legislature may be 
 fulfilled by its publication and circulation. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 ALBERT TYLER, 
 
 Clerk of Joint Printing Committee. 
 
 Boston, Feb. 17, 1883. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — Thanking the Committee for the recommendation, 
 the Senate and House of Representatives for the honor conferred 
 upon me by their vote, and yourself for your courtesy in communi- 
 cating their request, I herewith place in your hands the manuscript of 
 the election sermon, preached in King’s Chapel, on Jan. 3, 1883. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Mr. Albert Tyler, 
 
 Clerk of Joint Committee on Printing. 
 
 R. R. MEREDITH. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 “ Righteousness exalteth a nation : but sin is a reproach 
 TO ANY PEOPLE.” — Pl'OV. xiv. 34. 
 
 In this good old Commonwealth, as fully per- 
 haps as in any known to history, the conception of 
 a “ government of the people, by the people, for 
 the people ” is realized and illustrated. The very 
 success which has been achieved in this direction 
 has become a temptation. We are in danger of 
 forgetting, so complete is the rule of the people, 
 that they do not govern in their own right, — that 
 civil government is an ordinance of God, who is 
 the primal source of all its authority. We need 
 to read often and ponder seriously the words of 
 holy writ: “ Let every soul be in subjection to the 
 higher powers, for there is no power but of God; 
 and the powers that be are ordained of God. 
 Therefore, he that resisteth the power withstand- 
 eth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand 
 
6 
 
 Election Sermon. 
 
 shall receive to themselves judgment.” If the 
 people govern, they do so by virtue of a delegated 
 authority. The state, equally with the family and 
 the church, is a divine institution, and with them 
 is in some form necessary to the existence of soci- 
 ety, as society is essential to the progress, the 
 happiness, and even the existence of the race. 
 They who are chosen to enact or to execute the 
 laws of the state are, by virtue of such election, 
 constituted “ ministers of God,” under a most 
 solemn responsibility, not to a human constitu- 
 ency merely, but to the “ King of kings and Lord 
 of lords.” 
 
 There is, therefore, an eminent fitness in this 
 custom, peculiar to Massachusetts, born of the 
 piety of her founders, and perpetuated now 
 through two and a half centuries, according to 
 which we are assembled in this venerable house 
 of worship, at the opening of another civic year, 
 to make our acknowledgments to Almighty God, 
 to invoke his blessing, and to listen to his Word. 
 
 In the endeavor to turn this service to practi- 
 cal account, it cannot be inappropriate or wholly 
 without profit to consider, in a cursory way, the 
 nature and comprehensiveness of the corporate 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 7 
 
 life of our State, that we may be able more clearly 
 to see what are the most pressing and important 
 of the problems which wait for solution at the 
 hands of those who are charged with the admin- 
 istration of our State affairs. And as the well- 
 being of a Commonwealth like this covers a broad 
 field, and embraces a great diversity of interests, 
 we shall find it helpful to study it, partially at 
 least, in the materials and conditions of individual 
 well-being. Aristotle’s wise saying, “ The nature 
 of a thing is best seen in its smallest portions,” 
 finds illustration here. What is true of men as 
 individuals must be true of the same men as mem- 
 bers of the social compact. The distinction be- 
 tween organic and individual life, if, indeed, there 
 be any distinction, is exceedingly fine. We can 
 hardly conceive of a community apart from the 
 individuals who compose it. So we cannot sepa- 
 rate the character of the State from the character 
 of those who make up the State. Paralyze the 
 industry of men as individuals, and you dry up 
 the resources of the community; depress the tone 
 of morals universally, and you have a wide-spread 
 scene of national degeneracy; and whatever influ- 
 ence predominates, so as to regulate the feelings, 
 
8 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 aims and pursuits of men, must determine the 
 organic character of the commonwealth to which 
 they belong. Whatever is essential to the well- 
 being of the individual is also, in some sort, a 
 condition of the public good. Understanding the 
 one, we have a key to the other. 
 
 The truth is trite that man exists in a threefold 
 condition. He has a physical, a mental and a 
 moral nature — is at once material, intellectual 
 and spiritual. The elements of his well-being are 
 to be found in both the material and the spiritual 
 worlds, and to both he stands intimately related. 
 His physical nature and his sensuous wants bring 
 him into fellowship with “the things which are 
 seen • ” his intellectual nature and his spiritual 
 wants lift him up to the level and necessity of 
 “the things which are not seen.” His welfare 
 depends upon the development and satisfaction of 
 his body, his mind and his spirit. These, in their 
 perfection, constitute the generic Christian ideal 
 of manhood. The Creator’s conception of human- 
 ity would be fulfilled in one who should be physi- 
 cally sound, intellectually accomplished, and mor- 
 ally pure. In proportion as these three depart- 
 ments are developed in harmony shall they be 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 9 
 
 found mutually interacting, and promoting the 
 strength, the happiness and the usefulness of the 
 individual. In proportion as any one of them is 
 neglected, character becomes distorted and life 
 ineffective. 
 
 In all intelligent effort for the welfare of the 
 individual, therefore, this threefold nature must 
 be taken into consideration. The good proposed 
 must be broad enough for the whole being, and 
 the peculiar needs and relative importance of each 
 department must be kept in view. Every element 
 of man’s complex structure requires to be evolved. 
 He has a physical nature, and his bodily wants 
 are not to be overlooked. Abundant and appro- 
 priate provision is to be made for his material 
 well-being. But the effort must not stop here. 
 This is the lowest department of his being, and 
 derives its significance and value mainly from the 
 fact that it is the organ and minister of his higher 
 powers. Care should be taken not to lift this 
 side of the nature into a position of undue promi- 
 nence and importance. Attention to his material 
 interests alone could result, at the best, only in 
 the development of a splendid animal. Mind is 
 the glory of man. He is endowed with intellec- 
 
10 
 
 Election Sermon. 
 
 tual powers by which, when they are rightly 
 trained, he is enabled to hold empire over this 
 material world, to build his temples of beauty, to 
 construct his engines of strength, to yoke the ele- 
 ments to his car and make them tug like a team 
 of giants to do his bidding. Nay, more than all 
 this, he can embody and crystallize his thoughts in 
 forms of immortal beauty on canvas and in song, 
 and forge such rallying cries of justice and of 
 liberty as have swept with resistless power over 
 the nations and down through the generations. 
 He who essays to secure the well-being of man 
 must make the wisest and most generous provi- 
 sion for the training and development of these 
 lofty powers. But there is something higher still. 
 Man is a spiritual being. He has the capacity to 
 know, love and obey his God, bear the impress of 
 the Divine image, and live in daily communion 
 with the Father of his spirit. This, above every- 
 thing else, needs attention. The physical organs 
 are the servants of the intellectual powers, but 
 both are subjected to the moral and higher facul- 
 ties. All intelligent effort for the well-being of 
 the individual must culminate in the development 
 and direction of these. Only when this high end 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 11 
 
 has been reached can the man be said to be com- 
 plete in the elements and conditions of his welfare. 
 
 And this is the standard by which every man 
 must be judged. If we would form a wise and 
 just estimate of the character and life of any 
 given individual, it is not enough to find out his 
 physical condition, count his material possessions 
 and measure his intellectual powers and attain- 
 ments. In these respects he may be in possession 
 of all that heart could wish, and yet be utterly 
 ignoble and unworthy. The inquiry must proceed 
 further until it appears what use he is making of 
 all these things; what proportion the spiritual in 
 him bears to the material; whether his higher 
 nature, under the sway of Grod’s law and love, 
 exercises a wise control alike over his intellectual 
 powers and animal propensities. Not until these 
 inquiries are answered are we in a position to 
 form a judgment which shall be according to the 
 truth. For, as with a nation, so with the individ- 
 ual, it is not health and strength of body, multi- 
 plied material possessions, nor great intellectual 
 power and attainment, but righteousness, — the 
 right use of all these, the employment of them in 
 unselfish service under the sway of lofty motives, 
 
12 
 
 Election Sermon. 
 
 — that “ exalteth ; ” and it is not physical weak- 
 ness, nor poverty, nor lack of mental power and 
 culture, but “ sin ” — the transgression of God’s 
 holy law, the subordination of the spiritual to the 
 material — that is a “ reproach.” 
 
 Now, let it be observed that a threefold condi- 
 tion, perfectly analogous to that which appears in 
 the individual, is characteristic also of the corpo- 
 rate existence of the state. It has its material, 
 its intellectual and its moral departments of life. 
 And he who would promote the welfare of the 
 state must have respect to its conditions and 
 needs in each of these departments of its three- 
 fold being; each must be held in its appropriate 
 place, and accorded the attention which its rela- 
 tive importance may justly demand. 
 
 The application of these principles to our own 
 State, and their bearing upon the duty of those 
 who are charged with the administration of her 
 affairs, is obvious. Whether we consider the 
 character or the abundance of her physical re- 
 sources, we must conclude that in the material 
 department of her life our Commonwealth has 
 been richly endowed. Seventy-eight hundred 
 square miles of compact territory, swarming with 
 
Election Sermon, 
 
 13 
 
 an industrious population, thickly dotted with 
 beautiful and prosperous cities and villages, trav- 
 ersed in every direction by miles on miles of 
 railroad, rent up and dowm by numerous water- 
 courses w^hose banks are lined with busy facto- 
 ries; these, together with all the produce of soil 
 and mill and trade and commerce, make up the 
 goodly body of our State. It has its rights. 
 Material prosperity may not be overlooked. 
 Whatever can be done to increase these physi- 
 cal resources of the State, to lighten the burdens 
 of the people, to facilitate trade, to render the 
 labor of the agriculturist and the manufacturer 
 more remunerative, ought to be done, in so far as 
 it can be done without injury to intellectual and 
 moral interests. But it must never be forgotten 
 that all these things belong to the lowest depart- 
 ment of our State life. Whenever they come 
 into conflict with higher interests they must be 
 pushed aside without hesitation and without de- 
 bate. This is a point of danger in our legislation. 
 The material resources of the State are so con- 
 nected with the self-interest of individuals and 
 corporations, that whatever promises to increase 
 them is pushed with untiring energy. No body 
 
14 
 
 Election Sermon. 
 
 of men will ever assemble in our legislative halls 
 who will not have the interests of commerce, of 
 agriculture, of manufactures, of railroads pressed 
 upon their attention continually and at every 
 point. There need be no fear that these will be 
 overlooked; for the material interests of individ- 
 uals and corporations are locked up with them, 
 and the ; selfishness of humanity may always be 
 depended on; it is a perfectly reliable quantity. 
 These things have their place and must be taken 
 into view. But they occupy the lowest place, 
 and must be held in their appropriate relative 
 position. The subordination of the higher to the 
 lower is just as unwise and as wicked, and will 
 be just as disastrous in the State as in the indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 Above all her material resources and interests, 
 and far more highly prized by her intelligent peo- 
 ple, are those principles which express the intel- 
 lectual life of the Commonwealth. These are 
 manifest in that peerless system of popular edu- 
 cation which throws open the doors of six thou- 
 sand school-houses daily within our borders; in 
 the general intelligence and mental activity of our 
 people; and in the free libraries, normal and high 
 
Election Sermon . 
 
 15 
 
 schools, academies and colleges which crown the 
 State with honor. He who would serve the Com- 
 monwealth must concern himself with its needs 
 in this department of its life. If by any means 
 not injurious to the still higher interests of its 
 moral and spiritual being, the facilities for spread- 
 ing intelligence among the people can be in- 
 creased, the schools be improved, or the illiterate 
 be incited to avail themselves of the opportuni- 
 ties afforded, he will put forth every exertion to 
 secure these most desirable ends. Happily not 
 much remains to be accomplished in this field. 
 The foundations of our educational system were 
 so broadly and wisely laid, and it has been so 
 carefully fostered and developed, that there is 
 little now to be done but provide for its expenses, 
 and perfect its details as experience and observa- 
 tion shall teach us better ways. 
 
 Still following our analogy and ascending a step 
 higher, we enter the highest and most important 
 department of our State life — the moral and spir- 
 itual. This is expressed in that recognition ol 
 God, which underlies all our history as a people, in 
 the principles of pure morality which are imbedded 
 in the constitution, and in the general moulding of 
 
16 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 the statutes of the State into harmony with the 
 divine law. The recognition and dominancy of 
 this element in the founding of our Common- 
 wealth and in its subsequent history are mat- 
 ters for profound gratitude. Massachusetts was 
 founded by men in whom the spiritual element 
 was regnant. They were not drawn to the shores 
 of her beatitiful bay by the hope of material gain, 
 nor by the desire to enlarge the boundaries of 
 their knowledge; they were not merely traders 
 seeking for wealth, nor explorers in pursuit of 
 information. They were driven hither across the 
 stormy Atlantic by the might of a purely relig- 
 ious impulse, and the State which they founded 
 was itself a grand religious protest. They were 
 men who saw clearly wherein the true glory of 
 the Commonwealth lay. They were stern men, 
 but they were upright men. Loyalty to God and 
 the most absolute acknowledgment of his sov- 
 reignty formed the very basis of their lives. It 
 the current of their piety, in some of its aspects, 
 flowed in a narrow stream, it flowed deep, straight 
 and clear as crystal. Never were the altars of 
 religion more sacredly guarded; never was the 
 sanctuary such a power; never were there exhib- 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 17 
 
 ited richer fruits of filial reverence, fraternal affec- 
 tion, paternal devotion, than in the early days of 
 our history. The influence of these grand and 
 good men abides. It is seen to-day in our laws, in 
 our social life, in the number and prosperity of 
 our churches, in our charitable institutions, and 
 in the high morality and simple piety of a large 
 proportion of our people. This is the realm of 
 interests which are more vitally connected with 
 the honor and well-being of the State than any 
 question of education or material prosperity can 
 possibly be. These interests will command the 
 attention and effort of the true statesman, as of 
 the highest importance, and to be attended to 
 when necessary, whatever else may have to wait. 
 
 27ow there are certain matters belonging to this 
 highest realm of our State life, which, as it seems 
 to me, need the immediate and earnest attention 
 of those who are chosen to enact and execute our 
 laws. For while there is much in this aspect of 
 our life, as a people, upon which we may justly 
 congratulate ourselves, and for which we ought 
 to be profoundly thankful to God, there is a con- 
 dition of things respecting at least three interests 
 of the greatest and gravest importance, that must 
 
18 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 be far from gratifying to thoughtful and intelli- 
 gent citizens. Permit me to call your attention 
 briefly to these three interests. I shall attempt 
 no extended discussion of the problems involved; 
 nor do I deem it any part of my duty on this 
 occasion to point out the remedy for any evils 
 that may exist. The discussion and duty alike 
 devolve on those who have been chosen by the 
 people to care for the welfare of the State. It 
 is mine simply to present the facts, which I com- 
 mend to your more leisurely consideration. 
 
 The first respects the observance of the Lord’s 
 Day. This is to a large extent a purely religious 
 question; and, as such, is to be dealt with by the 
 churches and teachers of religion. In the light 
 of Massachusetts history, however, the sacred 
 character and religious uses of the day might, not 
 improperly, be urged on an occasion like the 
 present, as the high ground upon which its ob- 
 servance should be insisted on by the State. But 
 there is another aspect in which the duty of the 
 government with respect to this matter, and its 
 vital interest in it, must be obvious to all. The 
 inalienable right and highest welfare of the citi- 
 zen are involved in it; and these the State is 
 
Election Sermon . 
 
 19 
 
 bound to secure and protect. The right and the 
 duty of the civil power to enforce the due ob- 
 servance of the Lord’s Day have been recognized 
 from the beginning, and is conceded by the laws 
 already on our statute books. It is all too appar- 
 ent that, as a people, we have drifted into a condi- 
 tion of things on this subject which would seem 
 to require immediate attention. Year by year the 
 day is becoming to increasing numbers one of 
 mere worldly pleasure, if not of degrading dissi- 
 pation. And history demonstrates the fact that 
 the step from Sunday as a holiday to Sunday as 
 a working-day has always been a very short one. 
 The Paris correspondent of an English news- 
 paper, writing of Easter Sunday, 1880, says, 
 “ The Bois de Boulogne was thronged to-day with 
 vehicles and pedestrians. The races attracted 
 large numbers of spectators, and many persons 
 were drawn to the Trocadero by the first drawing 
 of the Eranco-Spanish lottery, the chief prize 
 being one hundred and fifty thousand francs.” 
 There is Sunday as a holiday. Another corre- 
 spondent, writing from the same city about a 
 month later, May 8, 1880, communicates the fol- 
 lowing item relating to labor on Sunday: “Both 
 
20 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 the French chambers sat yesterday. The Senate, 
 by 155 votes to 108, gave a first reading to the 
 bill for repealing the Sunday Observance Law of 
 1814. An amendment, moved by M. Chesnelong, 
 prohibiting Sunday labor on state work, and in- 
 suring to railway, telegraph and post-office ser- 
 vants one free Sunday out of two, was negatived 
 by 157 votes to 124.” There is Sunday as a day 
 of labor. This inevitably follows the breaking 
 down of the sacred character of the day. Just 
 this result is being worked out among us. An 
 ever increasing number of men are finding it 
 necessary to work seven days in every week in 
 order to get a living. Thousands of our fellow- 
 citizens are already thus toiling, with no prospect 
 of rest but the grave. It may be said that this 
 is voluntary labor on their part. But that is not 
 true; it is done under the pressure of necessity. 
 It requires no labored argument to prove to an 
 intelligent man that the privilege of rest for each 
 requires a law of rest for all. The workingman 
 needs and has a right to the protection of the 
 State, sometimes from his own thoughtlessness, 
 but oftener from the thoughtless demands of the 
 public, and the cupidity of capitalists and corpora- 
 
Election Sermon . 
 
 21 
 
 tions. The thousand and more men who stand 
 on the platforms of the horse-cars in this capital 
 city of the Commonwealth, seven long days in 
 every week, have as good a right to a rest of one 
 day in seven, as the people who ride in those 
 cars, whether on errands of piety or of pleasure. 
 Their physical and moral well-being demands 
 such a rest. They cannot be deprived of it with- 
 out deep and lasting injury; and whatever injures 
 the citizen must be injurious to the State. Fur- 
 thermore, an overwhelming majority of the people 
 of the Commonwealth regard Sunday as a holy 
 day, observe it under the sanctions of the Divine 
 law, and desire to use it for purposes of worship, 
 and moral and spiritual culture. In the pursuit 
 of these laudable designs they have a perfect 
 right to the full protection of the State. It is 
 becoming somewhat fashionable to meet such 
 statements as these with sundry sneering allusions 
 to “ blue laws ” and “ puritanism.” It is a suffi- 
 cient reply to all this to say, better the “ ism ” of 
 the Puritan concerning this important matter than 
 that of Continental Europe. ]STo intelligent and 
 candid man will contend that the people of Massa- 
 chusetts are the better for their departure from 
 
22 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 those ideas of Sunday observance which prevailed 
 herein former years, — that our laboring classes 
 are getting more out of the life that now is, and 
 a better preparation for that wdiich is to come, or 
 that our young people are growing up more moral 
 and pure and true under the present order of 
 things with respect to the Lord’s Day. It will be 
 a sad day fbr New England w T hen her native-born 
 sons are ready to join those, who, coming from 
 other shores, know little of the Puritan’s history 
 and nothing of his spirit, in their sneer at institu- 
 tions founded by men in whose very excesses and 
 absurdities there was a sincerity, a dignity and a 
 rude strength adapted to inspire something besides 
 levity or contempt. 
 
 A second problem which would seem to demand 
 immediate attention, respects the preservation of 
 the institution of marriage . Nothing can possibly 
 affect the State more vitally than this. Says the 
 venerable Dr. Mark Hopkins, for many years the 
 able and honored president of Williams College, 
 “In my view the continuance of our institutions 
 depends on the purity, the sacredness and the 
 well-ordering of families. Have what public 
 schools you will, enlighten the people as you may, 
 
Election Sermon . 
 
 23 
 
 and without the family as formative, and as offer- 
 ing in' its spirit the only model of right govern- 
 ment, the permanence of free institutions in any 
 such form as to make them a blessing is impossi- 
 ble.” History, in so far as it teaches anything on 
 the subject, vindicates the correctness of this posi- 
 tion. Social decadence has always been intimately 
 associated with the demoralization of marriage. 
 The lessons of antiquity, worked out on a large 
 scale as they are, exhibit clearly the natural and 
 necessary consequences of a disregard of this 
 institution. Gibbon, writing of the fall of the 
 Homan Empire, declares the result of such disre- 
 gard in a few emphatic words : “ When the Homan 
 matrons became the equal and voluntary com- 
 panions of their lords, a new jurisprudence was 
 introduced, — that marriage, like other partner- 
 ships, might be dissolved by the abdication of one 
 of the associates. In three centuries of prosperity 
 and corruption this principle was enlarged to 
 frequent practice and pernicious abuse. Passion, 
 interest or caprice suggested daily motives for the 
 dissolution of marriage. A word, a sign, a mes- 
 sage, a letter, the mandate of a freedman, declared 
 the separation. The most tender of human con- 
 
24 
 
 Election Sermon. 
 
 nections was degraded to a transient society of 
 profit or pleasure. ... A specious theory is' con- 
 futed by this free and perfect experiment, which 
 demonstrates that the liberty of divorce does not 
 contribute to happiness and virtue.” 
 
 Now what does our own history reveal with 
 respect to this all-important matter ? The Report 
 of our State Bureau of Statistics of Labor, which 
 appeared in January, 1880, contains a large amount 
 of valuable information on the subject. The facts 
 there presented show that the founders of the 
 State were right on this question, as they were on 
 most questions. “With a devout reverence for the 
 law of God, and a wise regard for the lessons of 
 history, they recognized in the marriage relation 
 a divine institution essential to the existence of 
 society, and they aimed in their treatment of this 
 great interest to preserve its solemnity and dig- 
 nity. The first legislature under the Constitution 
 of Massachusetts assembled in 1780. The first 
 statute on the subject of divorce was passed in 
 1786. It authorized full divorce for two causes. 
 The first of these was of such a nature as would 
 render the marriage null and void from the begin- 
 ning; and the second was adultery, which subverts 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 25 
 
 the whole moral significance of marriage. There 
 was also a provision for limited divorce, which 
 might be granted on the ground of extreme 
 cruelty. There the fathers left the matter, and 
 there it remained without alteration or amendment 
 for a quarter of a century. In 1810 a further 
 provision for limited divorce to the wife was made, 
 on the ground of desertion, or cruel and wanton 
 neglect on the part of the husband to provide 
 suitable maintenance for her. Thus the law stood 
 until 1836. “ Thus it appears that at the end of 
 
 the first half century from the formation of the 
 Constitution full divorce was allowable to either 
 party in the marriage contract for two causes only, 
 with limited divorce to the husband for one cause, 
 and to the wife for three causes.” The law was 
 enlarged and amended from time to time, until, in 
 1860, a period of eighty years from the formation 
 of the Constitution, three causes for absolute 
 divorce had been added to the original two. The 
 legislatures since that time have been less conser- 
 vative in dealing with this vital interest. One and 
 another has taken it up, and four causes for full 
 divorce were added in the fifteen years from 1860 
 to 1875. Thus it comes to pass that full divorce 
 
26 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 is authorized by our laws to-day for nine distinct 
 causes. Hon. Carroll D. Wright, the efficient chief 
 of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor, from whose 
 report these facts are gleaned, in concluding his 
 summary, well says, “That the uniform and un- 
 broken tendency of the legislation of these hun- 
 dred years has been to make divorce more and 
 more easy of attainment, is a conclusion that will 
 force itself upon the mind of any one who ac- 
 quaints himself with the history of that legisla- 
 tion.” It may be added that in this case, as 
 always, the downward movement gathered ever 
 increasing velocity as it proceeded. What is to 
 be the end? The Word of God and the experience 
 of humanity declare that the existence of society 
 depends upon the family, and that the family rests 
 upon the sanctity of marriage. The evil results 
 of this facility of divorce are already appearing 
 among us. It has been claimed, and the claim 
 has been urged in defence of this lax legislation, 
 that crimes against chastity would thus be greatly 
 reduced in number. There is not a word of truth 
 in it. Indeed, the direct opposite is true. The 
 ratio of divorces to the marriages of the year in 
 our State has risen in twenty years from one in 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 27 
 
 fifty-one to one in twenty-one, and while the 
 number of divorces has more than doubled in 
 these years, the number of convictions for crimes 
 against chastity has doubled two or three times 
 over. Be assured that this is no imaginary evil. 
 The facility and frequency of divorce are silently 
 undermining the whole institution of marriage, and 
 gradually reducing the marriage contract to one 
 of convenience and pleasure, to be continued or 
 discontinued at the will of the parties. 
 
 The third subject which I deem it my duty, on 
 this occasion, to bring to your notice, as needing 
 serious and instant attention, respects the waste 
 and ruin which are being wrought in our Com- 
 monwealth by intoxicating drink . The facts here 
 are so well known, and the evils are so obvious, 
 that but little needs to be said. The condition of 
 things, briefly stated, is as follows: From the 
 Eleventh Annual Beport of the State Bureau of 
 Statistics of Labor it appears that “ sixty per 
 cent, of all crime in this State during twenty 
 years belonged to rum absolutely.” This per- 
 centage, however, includes, as belonging to rum, 
 only the sentences for drunkenness, liquor-selling, 
 liquor-keeping, liquor carrying and liquor nui- 
 
28 
 
 Election Sermon. 
 
 sauce. There were no means at hand by which 
 to ascertain the weight of the influence of rum in 
 the commission of the remaining forty per cent, 
 of crime. The able and worthy chief of the 
 Bureau “ therefore instituted an investigation for 
 the year current from Sept. 1 , 1879, to Sept. 1, 
 1880, with a view to discover what that influence 
 is, in the county of Suffolk, during the above 
 year.” This was done, as he informs us, “ in the 
 interest of all who are a prey to the sin of intem- 
 perance, but more especially in the interest of the 
 youth of our State, with the ardent hope of re- 
 vealing to them, stripped of prejudice and sen- 
 timent, the naked proportions of an evil, prolific 
 in poverty and prodigality, waste and want, the 
 expense of which, while a burden to all classes, 
 falls in a greater degree on the workers and chief 
 consumers of society.” The result of this inves- 
 tigation appears in the Twelfth Keport, and it 
 shows that seventy-two per cent, of the convic- 
 tions for the year were for distinctively rum crimes, 
 and that to this “ must be added twelve per cent., 
 representing the criminals who were in liquor at 
 the time of committing other crimes, — making a 
 total of eighty-four per cent, of all crime due 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 29 
 
 directly or indirectly to the influence of liquor.” 
 Such is the effect of this evil in the production 
 of crime. Anything like a complete view of the 
 waste, misery and ruin of which it is the cause, 
 would involve, in addition, an investigation of the 
 almshouses, with a view to the measurement of 
 that overwhelming proportion of paupers who are 
 made such by rum; and of the asylums for the 
 insane that we might know the large numbers 
 who are reduced to idiocy or madness by this 
 blighting curse. But all this would be only a 
 small part of the wretchedness and woe which 
 are to be traced to rum. By far the larger pro- 
 portion of the crime produced by liquor never 
 appears in our courts. In hundreds of homes in 
 this favored Commonwealth there are cruel tor- 
 tures inflicted daily upon defenceless women and 
 innocent children, by those from whom they have 
 a right to expect protection and love, but whom 
 rum has transformed into unnatural brutes. These 
 crimes rarely find their way to our courts, yet the 
 perpetrators of them are more deserving of the 
 lash of public justice than the veriest wretch that 
 writhes under the stroke. And the greater part 
 of the poverty and disease which are the direct 
 
30 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 results of intemperance never find their way to 
 the almshouse or the hospital. I enter into no 
 computation of the money cost of all this to the 
 State. It is sufficient to say, and the fact is easily 
 demonstrable, that if the rum traffic w T ere com- 
 pelled to pay its own expenses — the cost of its 
 criminals, the support of its paupers, and the care 
 of its maniacs and idiots — it would be bankrupt 
 in a single year. But it proceeds with its costly 
 and destructive work, and sober and decent citi- 
 zens are taxed to pay the bills. Of the wisdom 
 and justice of this arrangement, judge ye! 
 
 But what ought the State to do in the premises? 
 Under these circumstances the answer to that 
 question belongs to you, and not to me. It is one 
 of the responsibilities imposed by the office to 
 which you have been elected. Let me assure you, 
 however, that it cannot be a sufficient answer to 
 say that, as men cannot be made temperate by 
 legislation, the matter must be left largely to the 
 individual conscience, and reform Jbe secured by 
 moral suasion. That may all be true, but it is not 
 the whole truth. It is the unquestioned right and 
 the imperative duty of the State to prohibit that 
 which is injurious to the material prosperity, 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 31 
 
 health or morals of its citizens, anch thus to pro- 
 tect men from the results of their own ignorance, 
 weakness or wickedness, or those of their neigh- 
 bors. This principle is conceded in a hundred 
 ways by laws already in onr statute books. What 
 the influence of rum is upon the morality, the 
 health and the prosperity of its victims we know. 
 And yet, so far from extending its protection to 
 them, and to those who are dragged down in their 
 ruin, the State is to-day a party to the nefarious 
 business, in that she licenses more than five thou- 
 sand places where rum is sold; one for every 
 three hundred and fifty of her people, according 
 to the statistics of her own bureau; one for every 
 two hundred and forty-four, according to the 
 returns of the United States Commissioner of 
 Internal Revenue; the difference being, doubtless, 
 made up of those who sell without license. A 
 Southern member recently stood in his place in 
 Congress, and, citing the Internal Revenue re- 
 turns, declared that Massachusetts had, in pro- 
 portion to her population, a larger number of 
 places where liquor is sold than any other State 
 in the Union. “ Sin is a reproach to any people.” 
 Why must this traffic go on? Who is benefited 
 
32 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 by it? Whom does it make stronger, wiser, 
 purer? J^ot one honest word can be uttered in 
 its defence. All other trades have honorable 
 foundations, but this is the trade of death. If 
 those who are engaged in it are able thereby to 
 gain a livelihood or accumulate wealth, it is at 
 the expense of their highqj- natures, of almost 
 everything that enters into the constitution of a 
 genuine manhood. All this is conceded by the 
 State, whose license laws brand and condemn it 
 even while, for a certain number of dollars per 
 annum, she permits it to proceed. This question 
 is now up for settlement all over our country. 
 The liquor sellers are already banded in leagues, 
 and have raised large sums of money to buy pro- 
 tection for their traffic from the wrath and curse 
 of an indignant people. Avarice, appetite and 
 ambition are invoked to do battle in their defence. 
 On the other hand, there is an ever- enlarging 
 intelligence concerning the evils of intemperance, 
 an ever-growing sensitiveness of conscience, and 
 the combination, in many ways, of the men and 
 women of the land, for the extirpation of this 
 curse. Their appeal is to the God of heaven. 
 This question cannot be set aside. This agitation 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 33 
 
 cannot be stopped. It ought to be .the ambition 
 of Massachusetts statesmen to place the State on 
 the right side and in the front rank in this great 
 movement. That is the position to which her 
 history entitles her. With or without her the 
 question is going to be settled. And he who 
 believes that there is in this universe * 6 a power 
 that makes for righteousness ” cannot doubt the 
 result. When I consider, on the one hand, the 
 absolutely selfish and utterly indefensible nature 
 of this traffic; and, on the other, the indescribable 
 wretchedness and ruin which it entails upon the 
 families, the bodies and the souls of millions of 
 our fellow-creatures in this land, I am ready to 
 believe that the child is already born who shall 
 see the intelligence and the conscience of the 
 American people flash forth in indignant revolt, 
 and who shall witness the disappearance of this 
 hydra-headed curse before the majesty of their 
 angry might. 
 
 These three problems more than any others 
 demand attention. Not the interests of trade, 
 of transportation, of manufactures, not even the 
 interests of education, but these higher questions, 
 should command the most thoughtful considera- 
 
34 
 
 Election Sermon. 
 
 tion of those who are charged with the conduct 
 of State atfairs. The highest must rule in the 
 corporate life of the people, as well as m the 
 individual. The standard of judgment is alike 
 for both. To make up a righteous judgment of 
 the standing of this Commonwealth among States, 
 it is not enough to ascertain the wealth of her 
 material resources, her facilities for culture and 
 the high standard of intelligence which prevails 
 among her people. She may be foremost in these 
 respects, and yet be unworthy and ignoble. The 
 inquiry here, as in the case of the individual, must 
 proceed further, until it is ascertained what pro- 
 •portion the moral and the spiritual in her life 
 bears to these things. Is she controlled by her 
 material interests, or has she the rule over them, 
 directing them ever, under the sway of noble 
 motives, to noble ends? And ultimately she must 
 he judged by this standard. “Righteousness 
 exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any 
 people.” 
 
 Your Excellency the Governor of the Common- 
 wealth: It gives me sincere pleasure to be per- 
 mitted, as I am by the usage of this occasion, now 
 
Election Sermon. 
 
 35 
 
 to address you personally, and offer my most 
 heartfelt congratulations. I am mindful of the 
 fact that you are not about to re-assume, but to 
 lay aside, the robes of the gubernatorial office; 
 and yet I congratulate you. For, whatever the 
 future may have in store for you, — and I sincerely 
 hope that it may bring you all blessing and suc- 
 cess, — your past is secure. I congratulate you 
 on that past, — that, by a pure life adorned with 
 the graces of culture, by the simple dignity and 
 masterly ability of your administration, and by 
 the consummate success which you have achieved 
 in the great office to which you have been again 
 and again heartily and enthusiastically elected by 
 your fellow-citizens, you have placed your name 
 high among the most honorable of those who have 
 preceded you as governors of the Commonwealth. 
 I congratulate the people, that, in your retirement 
 from the office which you have thus filled with so 
 much satisfaction to them, and with so much 
 honor to yourself, the State is not to lose your 
 wise and valuable services. And I pray that the 
 Divine guidance, upon which you have relied 
 and which has led you thus far, may go before 
 you as you go forth to represent Massachusetts in 
 
36 
 
 Election Sermon . 
 
 the Congress of the nation, that your service may 
 be crowned with success in the future as in the 
 past. 
 
 Your Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, members 
 of the Executive Council, gentlemen of the Senate 
 and of the House of Representatives: I congrat- 
 ulate you upon the honor which you have re- 
 ceived at the hands of your fellow-citizens. I am 
 sure you will permit me to remind you that with 
 this honor comes opportunity, — the only thing a 
 strong man asks for, — a grand opportunity to 
 serve your State. The opportunity brings with 
 it responsibility. What you may do you ought to 
 do, for the well-being of the people. It ought to 
 be enough for you that such questions as I have 
 briefly indicated wait for solution. There is 
 enough in these questions to stir the soul of every 
 thoughtful man, and rouse him to wise and per- 
 sistent effort to find this solution. Commit vour- 
 selves to the wise counsel of God, and he will 
 enable you to solve these difficult and perplexing 
 problems. Thus your service will be a benedic- 
 tion to the Commonwealth, and it will be enshrined 
 in the grateful remembrance of the people. 
 

 
 
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