No. 216] 427 ' • 



proving it in both respects, as will, I trust, not only do honor to your 

 head and heart, but lead ultimately to such sanitary regulations, as 

 shall make this great emporium of the commerce of the Western 

 world, not only as renowned for natural and mora\ purity, as for the 

 amount of her wealth and the extent of her commercial enterprise, 

 but as the exuberent goodness of God in bestowing on her naturally 

 a pure air, and civilly and artificially the free use of the Holy Bible 

 and Croton water, has given her the means to be. 



I now proceed to answer the questions propounded. And first, you 

 inquire, " To what extent does the congregation of different sexes, 

 and various ages of the same family of the poor, in 07ie apartment, 

 influence their morals, and do they, or do they not, seem to place a 

 lower estimate on moral character, than others placed a grade above 

 them in physical condition?" As it regards the ex^en^ of the evil in- 

 fluence on morals, arising from such herding together, of all ages and 

 both sexes, it is impossible for me to determine, but that it is of 

 most pernicious tendency, no one who has the slightest acquaintance 

 with poor human nature, can, for a moment, entertain a doubt. Un- 

 der such circumstances, it is impossible from the nature of things to 

 prevent the instinctive modesty of youth from receiving a mortal 

 wound, by a constant familiarity with scenes and sounds fit only for 

 the greatest privacy — " For (truly) nature's blush by custom is wiped 

 off." 



And thus one of the greatest barriers and defences of chastity, is 

 in the very morning of life overturned and destroyed j that jewel of 

 such inestimable value, that the means of its preservation is worthy 

 of the most profound consideration of the statesman and philanthro- 

 pist. That the physical condition of an individual or a family, has 

 a powerlul and important bearing on the moral character, for weal 

 or woe, needs no labor to prove; although neither of us has any idea 

 of embracing Fourierism — the main doctrine of which, I believe, is, 

 that most of the ills of life, as now experienced in the world, flow 

 not from the moral obliquity of human nature, but from the wrong, 

 civil and physical position of men. " Poverty and riches are both 

 severe temptations," the latter, however, by far more dangerous, at 

 least to the final and eternal interests of men. For though abject 

 poverty may lead to brutal degradation, placing families even in 

 Christian communities in circumstances as unfavorable to chastity, and 

 the common decencies of life, as the Sandwich Islanders were previous 

 to the introduction of Christianity among them by American Missiona- 

 ries, when they slept in their one apartment, men, women and children, 



