Slavery, which was almost universal at the beginning of the century, has been abolished. Forty millions in Russia, four millions in the United States, and many more millions in other lands have been made free.
Nor has this freedom been confined to the chattel slave. The courts of Europe were debauched beyond description. Even in England among the higher classes, “the supreme crowning evidence that an entertainment had been successful was not given till the guests dropped one by one from their chairs, to slumber peacefully on the floor till the servants removed them.”
The temperance movement belongs to our present century, and while it has not yet accomplished all that could be desired, it has done much to lessen some of the grossest evils of society, and is full of promise for final triumph. The first temperance society was only eleven years old when the subject of this biography was born. It was organized in April, 1808, at Morean, Saratoga County, New York, with forty-three members. The American Temperance Society was formed at Boston, February, 1826, and, in 1829, the New York State Temperance Society, which in less than a year had one thousand local societies with a hundred thousand members. Soon the movement extended to the Old World, and a society was formed at New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland, and within a year sixty other societies were formed in different parts of the country. The Father Mathew crusade began in 1838, and it resulted in the enrollment of one million eight hundred thousand men and women in the temperance cause. The wave spread to Scotland, England, Wales, and the Continent. The Washington movement, started at Baltimore in 1840, doubtless advanced the cause of temperance in our country, half a million having signed the pledge. The great progress made in this direction is seen not so much in the number of temperance societies as in the fact that while there is difference of opinion as to the moderate use of wines and liquors, there is but one opinion among respectable people as to the immoderate use, and any one indulging in orgies such as those to which we have alluded would be excluded from all participation in decent society. No man of standing in good society glories in the shame of beastly intoxication; multitudes do not use liquor at all, and many others use it only as a medicine or aid to health.
The duel was made a legal way of settling disputes between gentlemen, and even, “Fox, Pitt, Castlereagh, Canning, O’Connell, and Wellington, had all attempted the slaughter of a foe.”
Profanity was almost universal. “Erskine swore at the bar. Lord Thurlow swore on the bench. The King swore incessantly. Ladies swore orally and in their letters. The chaplain cursed the sailors, because it made them listen more attentively to his admonition.” Obscene books were exposed for sale by the side of bibles and prayer-books.
Education was limited in its range and extent, and only the more wealthy could enjoy its benefits. In 1818, more than one half the children in England were without school advantages. In manufacturing districts, forty per cent. of the men and sixty-five per cent. of the women could not write their own names.
Penny postage, first proposed by Rowland Hill in 1837, adopted by Act of Parliament in 1839, and followed since then by every civilized country in the world, has proved to be a great adjunct in the education of the people.
The freedom and expansion of the press during this century have also been a great power for the enlightenment of mankind. True, it has not been an unmixed good, but let us hope the good has been, and will continue to be in the ascendant.
Canals, before the days of railroads and steamships, did much for the transportation of merchandise and intercommunication of the people. The Erie Canal, 363 miles in length, commenced in 1817, and finished in 1825, is said to have been one of the first impulses given to New York City in its ascendancy over every other city in the United States. On account of its great cost many of the people were opposed to it; “but in 1866, it was ascertained that besides enlarging many of the principal cities, and adding to the comfort and wealth of nearly all the people of the State, it had returned into the public treasury $23,500,000 above all its cost, including principle, interest, repairs, and superintendence.”
In this same year, 1825, New York City was first lighted, partially only, with gas.