Jeremy L. Berg

There’s no shortage of corruption in places of power today. So I found this warning from Henry Ward Beecher from the 1860s interesting. Though, the main illicit behavior he was attacking was leaders spending their spare time gambling at casinos. If only that were our biggest problem today.

“Our land has little to fear from abroad, and much from within. We can bear foreign aggression, scarcity, the revulsions of commerce, plagues and pestilences; but we cannot bear vicious judges, corrupt courts, gambling legislators and a vicious, corrupt and gambling constituency. Let us not be deceived. The decay of civil institutions begins at the core. The outside wears all the lovely hues of ripeness. when the inside is rotting. Decline does not begin in bold and startling acts, but, as in autumnal leaves, in rich and glowing colors. Over diseased vitals, consumptive laws wear the hectic flush, a brilliant eye and transparent skin. Could the public sentiment declare that personal morality is the first element of patriotism, and that corrupt legislators are the most pernicious of criminals ; that the judge who lets the villiain off is the villain’s patron; that tolerance of crime is intolerance of virtue—Our nation might defy all enemies and live forever.”

From The Life of Henry Ward Beecher by Joseph Howard, Jr. (1887), page 80.