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Editorial
January 6, 1837
The Hillsborough Recorder
Hillsboro, Orange County, North Carolina
What is this article about?
Moralistic critique of the excessive desire for wealth, which leads to personal ruin and dissipation of fortunes by heirs, and the folly of unqualified men seeking public office, resulting in derision and oblivion. Concludes with a poetic excerpt on human aspiration.
Clipping
OCR Quality
92%
Excellent
Full Text
Lust for Wealth—Auri sacra fames.
If anything on earth can characterize folly, it is the excessive desire of wealth. Man is not satisfied with a half a million of dollars, when a fifth part will furnish him with all he can eat and drink and enjoy. No; when he has half a million, he wants a million—and this acquired, he wants another million. He spends years in running, riding, pushing and blowing to get more than he wants, or can use, and soon dies, leaving his money to those who have done little or nothing to earn it, and who do not thank the man who has gained it. And in many cases, the man's money has ruined one or more of his children; in a few years the estate is dissipated, and the children or grandchildren of the nabob are hewers of wood and drawers of water to the servants of their father or grandfather. A great estate seldom descends farther than to the grandchildren—and often is squandered by the children of the man who amasses it in property. I have known many such men whose sons have died sots and vagrants, ruined by wealth.
Less foolish is the passion for office, and particularly those who are not qualified for it. We often see men, by plying equally and love for the more, springing from the common walks of life into some important office, which they have not talent to discharge with credit. They strut about a year or two, or perhaps more, the object of pity and derision, and men neglected and turned to give place to others who are forty times more worthy, are forgotten. Men seem not to know that respect is not to be gained by office. To be respected, a man must be respectable; he must have talents as well as integrity; and a sneaky man to office only renders his insignificance more notorious. We often see men in Congress who are hardly qualified to keep a country school; but when in office, they can do nothing to invite respect, and when they leave it they sink into oblivion.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
If anything on earth can characterize folly, it is the excessive desire of wealth. Man is not satisfied with a half a million of dollars, when a fifth part will furnish him with all he can eat and drink and enjoy. No; when he has half a million, he wants a million—and this acquired, he wants another million. He spends years in running, riding, pushing and blowing to get more than he wants, or can use, and soon dies, leaving his money to those who have done little or nothing to earn it, and who do not thank the man who has gained it. And in many cases, the man's money has ruined one or more of his children; in a few years the estate is dissipated, and the children or grandchildren of the nabob are hewers of wood and drawers of water to the servants of their father or grandfather. A great estate seldom descends farther than to the grandchildren—and often is squandered by the children of the man who amasses it in property. I have known many such men whose sons have died sots and vagrants, ruined by wealth.
Less foolish is the passion for office, and particularly those who are not qualified for it. We often see men, by plying equally and love for the more, springing from the common walks of life into some important office, which they have not talent to discharge with credit. They strut about a year or two, or perhaps more, the object of pity and derision, and men neglected and turned to give place to others who are forty times more worthy, are forgotten. Men seem not to know that respect is not to be gained by office. To be respected, a man must be respectable; he must have talents as well as integrity; and a sneaky man to office only renders his insignificance more notorious. We often see men in Congress who are hardly qualified to keep a country school; but when in office, they can do nothing to invite respect, and when they leave it they sink into oblivion.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
What sub-type of article is it?
Moral Or Religious
Social Reform
What keywords are associated?
Wealth Lust
Office Ambition
Moral Folly
Heir Ruin
Public Derision
Human Aspiration
Editorial Details
Primary Topic
Folly Of Excessive Wealth Pursuit And Unqualified Office Seeking
Stance / Tone
Moralistic Condemnation
Key Arguments
Excessive Desire For Wealth Characterizes Folly And Leads To Personal Exhaustion And Death Without Enjoyment.
Wealth Often Ruins Heirs, Dissipating Estates And Reducing Them To Servitude.
Passion For Office By Unqualified Men Results In Strutting, Pity, Derision, And Eventual Oblivion.
Respect Cannot Be Gained Through Office Alone; One Must Be Talented And Integrous.
Examples Include Unqualified Men In Congress Who Invite No Respect.