Part 4

Lotteries have of late been a very productive source of revenue in this State.--The moral tendency of them has been supposed by some to be injurious to society; and government have been careful to grant them for such purposes only, as that the probable benefit should outweigh the evil. By this means we have seen the interests of literature supported--the arts encouraged--the wastes of war repaired--inundations prevented--the burthen of taxes lessened, &c. Manufactures might also in this way be established. Those which will not support themselves, it is true, will not benefit the community; but there are very important ones, which in their infancy require the nursing hand of government--to such the produce of lotteries might be beneficially applied. There exists a spirit of adventure in all societies, which will lead a number to throw themselves into the hands of Chance in one way or another, & which, under the direction of a wise Legislature, may be made to subserve their best interests. The monies raised by lotteries cannot impoverish the community--as they are not sent abroad, but only taken out of one pocket and put into another.

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There is also in the same paper, of Feb. 25, 1794, another communication, in which the writer apparently takes an entirely opposite view, and quotes a letter of Joel Barlow to the National Convention of France, in which will be found some rather strong language. When one considers the place where these views appear to have been adopted, and recollects the horrible scenes of the French Revolution, which were even then being enacted, one wonders whether the French authorities valued human life as much as they did property.

ON PUBLIC LOTTERIES.

MR. CUSHING,

AS our Legislature have lately had under consideration a bill, for granting a Lottery to Harvard College, I beg you will publish what our countryman, Mr. BARLOW, said on the subject of Public Lotteries, in his Letter to the National Convention of France. It is as follows:

"SINCE I am treating of morals, the great object of all political instructions, I cannot avoid bestowing some remarks on the subject of PUBLIC LOTTERIES. It is a shocking disgrace of modern governments, that they are driven to this pitiful piece of knavery, to draw money from the people. But no circumstance of this kind is so extraordinary as that this policy should be continued in France, since the revolution; and that a state lottery should still be reckoned among the permanent sources of revenue. It has its origin in deception; and depends for its support, on _raising and disappointing the hopes of individuals_--on perpetually agitating the mind with _unreasonable desires of gain_--on clouding the understanding with superstitious ideas of _chance,_ _destiny_ and _fate_--on diverting the attention from regular industry, and promoting a _universal spirit of gambling,_ which carries all sorts of vices into all classes of people. Whatever way we look into human affairs, we shall ever find that the bad organization of society is the cause of more disorders than could possibly arise from the natural temper of the heart. And what shall we say of a government that avowedly steps forward, with the insolence of an open enemy, and creates a new vice, for the sake of loading it with a tax? What right has such a government to punish our follies? And who can look without disgust on the impious figure it makes, in holding the scourge in one hand, and the temptation in the other? You cannot hesitate to declare, in your constitution, THAT ALL LOTTERIES SHALL BE FOREVER ABOLISHED."

In November last, the Convention, in conformity with the foregoing sentiments, passed the following decree:

"Lotteries, of whatever nature they may be, or under whatever denomination they may exist, are suppressed."

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In 1791 the Massachusetts Legislature granted to the proprietors of the Cotton Manufactory in Beverly four hundred tickets in the lottery about to be drawn, and three hundred in the next Semi-annual State Lottery. "Some people, out-doors," says the "Salem Gazette," March 8, 1791, "murmur at this as an ill-judged act of liberality; but perhaps they are not acquainted with the arguments which induced the grant. The disposition of Government to foster our infant manufactures is certainly laudable." This is unquestionably good reasoning; for, granted the premises that lotteries are ever beneficial, then there was no reason why aid should not in this way be extended to business enterprises which were to give employment to the people, as well as to schools and colleges. Employment must be provided as well as education. The Beverly Cotton Manufactory, Stone, in his History of Beverly, claims to be the first manufactory of its kind established in America, that at Pawtucket having been the second; and he also states that it was visited by General Washington on his tour through the country in 1789. The leading proprietors in this enterprise were George and Andrew Cabot, Israel Thorndike and Henry Higginson, men of the highest reputation in New England for integrity and honor.

From the "Salem Gazette," Dec. 25, 1812:

_The Historical Dictionary,_

By EZRA SAMPSON, author of the Beauties of the Bible, is one of the most useful little works of this nature which we have seen. It contains _much in a small compass._ Its subjects are Natural and Civil History, Geography, Zoology, Botany and Mineralogy, arranged in alphabetical order, and explained in such a neat and intelligible manner, as to render it worthy of being (according to its design) a _Companion for Youth._ We select the following article as a specimen of the work.

LOTTERY,

A kind of public game at hazard, in order to raise money for the service of the state. A lottery consists of several numbers of blanks and prizes, which are drawn out of wheels, one of which contains the numbers of the tickets, and the other the corresponding blanks and prizes. Besides the consideration that this, as well as all other kinds of gambling for money, tends to corrupt the public morals, it is also to be considered that the purchasers of the tickets are never permitted to play the game on fair and equal ground. The world neither ever saw, nor ever will see, a perfectly fair lottery; or one in which the whole gain compensated the whole loss; because the undertaker could make nothing by it. In lotteries the tickets are really not worth the price which is paid by the original purchasers, and yet they often sell in the market at a considerable advance: the vain hope of gaining some of the great prizes is the cause of this demand. In order to have a better chance for some of the large prizes, some people purchase several tickets, and others small shares in a still greater number. There is not, however, a more certain proposition in mathematics, than that the more tickets you adventure upon, the more likely you are to be a loser. Adventure upon all the tickets in the lottery and you lose for certain; and the greater the number of your tickets, the nearer you approach to this certainty.

The above is surely a just account of the nature and principles of a Lottery; yet it does not destroy the fact, that, distributed as the tickets always are among thousands, there must be some gainers, and that, in spite of mathematics, there is a lucky number, which must draw the capital prize in the Plymouth Beach Lottery (without any deduction) of 12000 dollars. Both the _Historical Dictionary_ and Lottery _Tickets_ may be had at Cushing & Appleton's old stand, one door west of Central Building;--where BANK BILLS are exchanged.

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Lottery at the celebrated "Wayside Inn" at Sudbury in 1760.

THE Managers of _Sudbury_ Lottery, No. Two, hereby notify the Public, That they shall commence Drawing said Lottery, on Friday the Thirtieth Day of May Instant, at the House of Mr. _William Bryant_ Inholder in said _Sudbury._ --> A few Tickets are yet to be had of the Managers, and _Samuel Hardcastle_ and the Printers hereof.

_Boston Gazette,_ May, 1760.

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Some remarks in reference to supplying Bibles in the eastern part of Massachusetts by means of a lottery.

MR. RUSSELL,

A FRIEND to religion, and one who wishes the memorial of a certain respectable society may have a happy effect, but a zealous enemy to lotteries, asked a member of an important body, the other day, whether he thought the General Court would grant a Lottery for the purpose of supplying every person in the eastern part of the Commonwealth with a bible, who is unable to purchase one, and for the pay of a missionary.--Let not the serious reader frown, as that member did; for if there is nothing contained in that sacred book which can be thought opposed to this method of gambling, neither the one nor the other can give a substantial reason why, in the present rage for lotteries, the people should not be indulged in raising money in the way most agreeable to their humour.

PERSOLUS.

_Columbian Centinel,_ Feb. 26, 1791.

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_MRS. CLARK AFLOAT._

In the Ship Ann Maria arrived at New-Haven the following wax passengers, viz. King George III, _Bonaparte,_ Washington, _Jefferson,_ Hamilton, _Burr,_ Hillhouse, _Madison,_ Pickering, _Giles_ and _Mrs. Mary Ann Clark._ The Custom-House officers made prisoners of all these passengers for violating the Non-Importation Act, but being proved that they were of East-Haven manufacture and unconscious of crime, we are happy to hear they have been all liberated. King George III. was taken in such bad company as is a sufficient proof that he is _crazy._ Napoleon undoubtedly rejoiced when he beheld the faithful execution in our waters, of his continental system. Washington and Hamilton were glad that they were in their graves, before their country had been plunged so deeply in disgrace. Had not Pickering and Hillhouse been indeed made of _wax,_ they would have thrown Bonaparte and Jefferson overboard and given them the freedom of the Seas. If the custom-house officers had kept possession of Poor Madison, they could never have obtained much money for him, as he now is a sorry _figure,_ since he has been scalped and tomahawked by Smith. Burr, the democratic vice-president and traitor, who has now gone home to France, ought to be exhibited for the instruction of the People, in every village. Giles must have been liable to have been York-_sheared_ by Mrs. Clark, who, on a July day, when the weather was at blood heat, must have been in a _melting_ mood and susceptible of impressions. But he is an advocate of Non-Intercourse. The officers of the Revenue, notwithstanding they were in such a _taking_ fit, and had conceived such vain & high blown hope of the immense wealth they should receive as the ransom of their Captives, have not half so good a chance of a _prize_ as those adventurers who will call at Cushing and Appleton's, one door west of central Building, and purchase a Ticket or quarter in Harvard College Lottery now drawing.

_Salem Gazette,_ July 12, 1811.

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Mr. Pardon Sheldon, a respectable citizen of Providence, was the fortunate holder of the $20,000 prize in the North Carolina Lottery which was drawn some days since.

_Salem Observer,_ Dec. 17, 1825.

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A Speedy Cure for a Broken Fortune.

TO all those who bitterly complain of the great dearth of "the root of all evil," and a want of confidence in these speculating times, and who, tremblingly anticipate a long and doubtful conflict, in money operations the coming season, the following beautiful and brilliant schemes offer the means of a sure and an immediate relief.

The Grand State Lottery, Fourth Class Extra, with a capital prize of $10,000, a prize of 500, and 5 prizes of 1000, will draw THIS DAY. Tickets $3 & parts in proportion.

The Rhode-Island Lottery, First Class, New Series, highest prize 10,000, five prizes of 1,000, and a variety of smaller prizes, will draw on the 24th inst. Tickets $3 and parts in proportion. And last, though not least,

The New-York Literature Lottery, Class No. 3, for 1825, with the truly splendid prizes of 100,000, 50,000, and 10,500 and smaller prizes to the amount of more than half a MILLION of DOLLARS, will draw on the 4th of January next. Tickets $50, and parts in proportion.

For PRIZES in the above Lotteries apply to

E.H. PAYSON,

At Dana & Fenno's Office, Central street.

Official Lists of the two first Lotteries will be received by E.H.P. on the evenings of the days of the drawings. tf Dec 10.

_Salem Observer,_ 1825.

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Fortune's Favourite Sons,

ARE informed that _Stonington Point Meeting-House Lottery_ will positively commence drawing the 19th of May--viz. this day four weeks. In this Lottery of only 6000 Tickets, are one of 3000 dollars--one of 1000--five of 500--two of 400--three of 300--ten of 200--twenty of 100, &c. Tickets for 3 Dollars, for sale, and prizes in the _Eastern Stage Road Lottery,_ taken in pay.--Also Cash paid for those sold by THOMAS HILDRUP.

N.B. Adventurers may know their fate from his List of Prizes.

Hartford, April 21, 1794.

_Connecticut Courant._

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To show how largely men's minds--and perhaps women's too--were filled with the lottery mania, if we may so call it, in the days of which we are writing, we will introduce a Southern scheme from the "Petersburg Intelligencer" of 1816, copied in the "Salem Register," September 11 of that year. Some of our readers may think that it is not a bad idea.

_From the Petersburg Intelligencer._

MATRIMONIAL LOTTERY.

On the 21st day of December last, I was passing through the state of South Carolina, and in the evening arrived in the suburbs of the town of ----, where I had an acquaintance, on whom I called. I was quickly informed that the family was invited to a wedding at a neighboring house, and on being requested, I changed my clothes and went with them. As soon as the young couple were married, the company was seated, and a profound silence ensued--(the man of the house was religious.) A young Lawyer then arose, and addressed the company very handsomely, and in finishing his discourse begged leave to offer a new scheme of matrimony, which he believed and hoped would be beneficial. And obtaining leave he proposed:

That one man in the company should be selected as president; that this president should be duly sworn to keep entirely secret all the communications that should be forwarded to him in his official department that night: and each unmarried gentleman and lady should write his or her name on a piece of paper, and under it place the person's name whom they wished to marry; then hand it to the president for inspection, and if any gentleman and lady had reciprocally chosen each other, the president was to inform each of the result; and those who had not been reciprocal in their choices, should have their choice kept entirely secret.

After the appointment of the president, the communications were accordingly handed up to the chair, and it was found that twelve young gentlemen and ladies had made reciprocal choices; but whom they had chosen remained a secret to all but themselves and the president.--The conversation changed and the company respectively retired.

Now hear the conclusion. I was passing through the same place on the 14th of March following, and was informed that eleven of the twelve matches had been solemnized, and that the young gentlemen of eight couples of the eleven had declared that their diffidence was so great that they certainly should not have addressed their respective wives, if the above scheme had not been introduced.----> Gentlemen under 20 and ladies under 15 were excluded as unmarriageable.

You will be pleased to let the public hear of this scheme, and I hope it will be productive of much good, by being practised in Virginia.

_A Married Man without Children._

The weak spot in this plan, we imagine, would be the difficulty in keeping the _blanks_ entirely secret.

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We have not undertaken to give an account of all the lotteries of which we have seen advertisements, as our limits would not admit of it, even if it could be made interesting to those who like to read about such matters; New England alone would fill a large volume. We will name only a few of the more prominent lotteries,--the Land Bank, in 1759; the Pavement on Boston Neck, the same year. Then there was the Charlestown lottery, the Hatfield Bridge, Sudbury, the Amoskeag Canal, the South Hadley Canal, the Philanthropic, the Kennebec, the Dartmouth College, the Gloucester Road, the Plymouth Beach, etc. All these, of course, were public lotteries, and were managed by the first men in the community. In relation to private lotteries it would now be difficult to ascertain the facts. There must have been a great number of these; probably they were not always honestly conducted. We have heard that there were shops where the inexperienced were supplied with bogus tickets,--blanks of some drawn lottery. Bad men, unfortunately, are to be found in all kinds of business; but we know that in Salem all the men whose names we have mentioned were among the very best in the community.

Although laws are now in force in Massachusetts and some other States against lotteries, there appears to be no essential difference, as far as the morality of the thing is concerned, between the old lottery and the modern raffle,--and indeed a certain species of stock gambling, it seems to us, is worse than either in its moral effects. After the year 1826, or thereabout, lotteries appear to have become unpopular, and laws were passed prohibiting them. Their unprofitableness, moreover, seems then to have been more clearly seen. As we have already said, there had always been some who saw the evils which must result from such schemes. Notably among prominent men who in Massachusetts used their influence against them were John Hancock,[1] of Revolutionary fame, and afterwards governor of the Commonwealth, and Peter C. Brooks, a distinguished merchant of Boston, father-in-law of Edward Everett. The "Salem Gazette" of Sept. 16, 1794, says: "Considering the acknowledged immoral tendency of _Lotteries,_ it is astonishing how much is said in the Boston papers in favor of that which our Legislature has lately instituted for Harvard College. Our late worthy Governor Hancock, in a public address to the General Court, gave his testimony against this species of gambling, so calculated to ensnare and injure those classes of worthy citizens who are guiltless of that vice in its common form."

[Footnote 1: Although we have seen lottery tickets signed by Hancock earlier in life.]

In some foreign countries and in a few of the States of our Union lotteries are still lawful; yet we believe there is a growing feeling against them. But if stock gambling is destined to take the place of the lottery, we do not think much will be gained by the change. The losses by lotteries were generally in small sums, and could be better borne by the adventurers than the entire loss of property, health, and reputation which is now too apt to follow a large proportion of the speculative stock operations. In the lottery, too, the risks were generally so small that the ticket-buyer alone suffered; whereas now, whole families are often involved in financial ruin, if not in disgrace, by the operations of a father, brother, or near relative. But we will say no more on this point, as it is a consideration foreign to the object of this book.

Thus far we have written mainly of American lotteries; as it is not our intention to take an exhaustive view of the subject, we will merely say, in reference to foreign countries, that lotteries were instituted in England in 1567, and abolished by Act of Parliament in 1823, although allowed until 1826, when the last drawing of a legal lottery took place. During this period they were patronized by all classes,--royalty, the nobility, gentry, and commoners. The first lottery was for the repairs of harbors and fortifications. The drawing took place at the "west door of St. Paul's Church." In 1612 King James I. granted a lottery for the "English Colonies in Virginia, ... to be held at the _west end of St. Paul's,_" and "one Thomas Sharplys, a tailor, drew the chief Prize, which was 4000 crowns in fair plate."

To this day the lottery flourishes in most of the chief cities in Europe, and lottery tickets are vended in many shops as well as in regular offices. The Cologne Cathedral, as is well known, was only recently finished by the aid of a lottery. Lotteries are upheld, we believe, by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, and many of the priests aid in disposing of the tickets,--at least so we have been told.

The sum of the whole matter as regards this country is that a good work was undoubtedly accomplished through the agency of the lottery in the early days of our national history. By its aid schools, colleges, and charities were founded, bridges, roads, and canals were constructed. In our time public opinion is, of course, as it ought to be, against gambling in any form; but although our ways are almost always thought to be more honest, it is a question, after all, whether we are really more upright than our fathers, who sometimes engaged in transactions that are condemned by modern society, but who, on the other hand, knew nothing of "defaulted" railroad bonds, of "wild cat" oil companies, or of "watered" mining stocks. It is easy enough to

"Compound for sins [we] are inclined to, By damning those [we] have no mind to."

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University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.

BENJAMIN H. TICKNOR. THOMAS B. TICKNOR. GEORGE F. GODFREY.

A LIST OF BOOKS

PUBLISHED BY

TICKNOR AND COMPANY

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Vol. I. Edwin Forrest. By Lawrence Barrett. The Jeffersons. By William Winter.

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Also a limited edition on large paper, especially adapted to the use of collectors and bibliophiles, for extending, extra illustrating, etc. 6 vols. Per vol., $5.00.

_AMERICAN ARCHITECT._ See last page.

_ARCHITECTURE._ See MONOGRAPH.

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