Care for the Religious-moral Education of Children. Sunday Schools and Bible Classes. The Christian Association of Young People. The Society for the Suppression of Vice. The Temperance Society. The Civic Virtue of the American People. The Essence of American Democracy and its Instructive Aspect. (Cont.) (2)

That same sound judgment characterizes the widely distributed network of so-called “temperance societies” in America[1]. It must be said that the people of America, despite the entire sea of diverse immigrants continuously pouring in from various parts of the world and of course bringing with them their established habits and customs, displays remarkable sobriety, especially the rural population. In large cities, especially where the incoming German and Irish element is strong, the vice of intemperance of course finds rich soil for its spread, but even here it is confined to the lowest, unsettled, ignorant classes, and visibly weakens as people rise in mental and social station. In the middle-educated classes, which include teachers of city schools, minor officials, clerks, college students, and such people, American propriety requires almost strict temperance. Once invited to an entertainment evening where hundreds of young people of both sexes from exactly these classes had gathered for public amusement, I was struck by the unusual-for-us-in-Russia fact that such an evening was completely a “temperance evening”—that is, the strongest drink served was merely lemonade (and it, I must confess, involuntarily and immediately transferred my thoughts to that “lemonade” with which certain evenings of our student youth are enlivened). When public opinion, so to speak, so regards the vice of intemperance, the law and courts have every opportunity to boldly and openly take the side of the virtue of temperance. And indeed, the law and courts in America, to a degree remarkable for a republic, even sternly punish the vice of drunkenness. On Sundays drinking establishments are obligatorily closed, drunkards on the streets are subject to arrest and fine, the law and courts in every case side with sobriety, for example by fining the proprietors of drinking establishments where workers are allowed to get drunk and squander their earnings. Every mother of a family has the right to bring suit for recovery from the proprietor of a drinking establishment where her husband squanders his hard-earned money, in full confidence that the court will side with her. But even all this does not satisfy public conscience, and it strives for even greater suppression of vice—through the medium of “temperance societies.” Their chief aim of course consists in spreading the idea of sobriety among the people through sermons, the press, meetings, and so forth, but at the same time agents of the society step forward, so to speak, as public keepers of existing laws against intemperance. These laws, through negligence or deliberate leniency by police officials, may sometimes not be observed, as indeed they are not observed in some cities. But in such case the unrelenting punishers of law-breakers are the agents of “temperance societies.” It has often happened that agents of these societies, penetrating on Sundays into drinking establishments through hidden entrances under the guise of patrons, at the same time caught the law-breaker red-handed. These same agents serve in court as voluntary and unrelenting prosecutors where intemperance must be punished, and as selfless defenders where they need to support the side of the virtue of temperance, as for example in cases of suits against proprietors of drinking establishments. Temperance societies are spread throughout the country and it is remarkable that all are organized according to the system of religious societies. They are usually headed by preachers and pastors, members upon joining sign a special “confession,” call each other brothers and sisters, at meetings sing exclusively religious hymns, and so forth. In a word, these societies too fully reflect that profound religious spirit with which the entire life of the American people is stamped. And the meetings of these societies, as we ourselves have had occasion to observe, produce on those present such an engaging impression as the meetings of religious communities. In some states temperance societies have gained such significance that they came to head the government, and the natural result of this everywhere is the complete closure of all drinking establishments, with the right to sell alcoholic beverages confined only to pharmacies, and that only upon a doctor’s prescription. An example of the force of persistence in advancing the society’s ideas by its individual members can be found in the well-known case of the former President of the United States, Hayes. He and his wife belonged to one of the temperance societies, and upon moving into the White House to the high presidential office, they resolved to remain true to the society’s oath, and to this end undertook a gigantic struggle with the highest Washington society, which, like any capital society, is not averse of course to the consumption of wine, a favorite accompaniment to grand public and state dinners. First of all, they banished this custom from the White House, then with truly heroic self-denial applied the ideas of the temperance society also to grand public and state dinners, and finally, after stubborn struggle with the established custom of capital society, a struggle that cost great moral suffering and self-denial and was borne chiefly on the shoulders of the heroic Mrs. Hayes, the idea of temperance triumphed. Washington society resigned itself to the necessity, and dinners without wine even acquired a particularly fashionable character. And so thanks to the persistence of the president’s family, the capital of the North American republic was, at least during the four years of Hayes’s presidency, the most sober capital in the world, and Mrs. Hayes with her distinguished husband were honored with the most enthusiastic addresses of thanks and praise from all the temperance societies in the country. It is remarkable that the ideas of temperance societies find favorable soil in American colleges and universities, and we ourselves have had occasion to meet educated young men who, having signed the “confession” of temperance societies, positively avoided even touching the insidious drink with what seemed like superstitious fear. It is unsurprising that there are found fanatics of temperance who carry their preaching about it to absurdity. In a Baptist community there once arose, on the initiative of extreme temperance advocates, even a question of whether wine could be used in the Eucharist. And it is remarkable, this question at one time became an all-consuming interest of the day: entire series of scholarly and publicistic articles appeared about it, daily newspaper press zealously occupied itself with it, reporters scoured the city gathering and printing opinions of all more or less competent people, and finally this question was resolved by the answer that yes, it could be, but only unfermented wine, on which supposedly the Last Supper was celebrated. As is evident from individual articles appearing in American journals, this question has not lost its living interest down to the present time, and this entire curious movement presents a not uninteresting feature of public life of our trans-Atlantic friends.

Besides these societies one could point to a whole series of others in which again the power of the religious-moral self-awareness of the American people manifests itself, but the examples already given are sufficient to show how deeply the religious element penetrates the public life of this people, how it imparts special vitality and moral seriousness to their life and activity. But to complete the characterization, I will point to one more feature that, flowing from the power of the religious-moral and indeed spiritual self-awareness of the people, excellently characterizes the general moral aspect of this young and highly promising people. This feature is an extraordinarily strong sense of civic virtue. The American—merchant, railroad magnate, scholar, professor—never confines himself within the narrow shell of selfish indifference to public interests, and hence the remarkable responsiveness to public needs and demands. One need only clarify some public need, and funds flow abundantly from everywhere. It only needed for the Roman Catholic cathedral held in Baltimore in 1884 to express the need for establishing a special Roman Catholic university in America, and money—literally hundreds of thousands and millions—poured in from all sides, and the university was opened one year after the idea was proposed. That same civic virtue showed itself in the fact that American society raised and maintains its entire system of higher education exclusively through public efforts, without any government assistance: all universities and colleges are founded and maintained from private means, professors are also maintained through private stipends, libraries associated with them are formed from private donations. Public libraries, museums, the Academy of Arts in New York were founded through private means of individual philanthropist-capitalists and are named after their founders (e.g., Astor Library, Lenox Library, etc.). Finally, every American considers it his sacred duty, by will, to set aside a portion of his capital for public needs—for churches, colleges, public schools, or generally for educational and charitable purposes. In newspapers one constantly reads of large donations by individuals, and a typical example can be found in the donation by California millionaire Stanford of twenty million dollars (i.e., approximately forty million rubles in our currency) for founding a university in California. Scholars and writers also for the most part bequeath their savings to the cause of science and education, and in most recent times one can point for example to the well-known historian Parkman, who bequeathed around one hundred thousand dollars to Harvard University. All these facts (many more of which could be cited) undoubtedly point to a high development of the sense of civic virtue, so to speak the consciousness of moral connection with the social-state organism, and again here the moving motive is undoubtedly that profound religious-moral spirit that lies at the foundation of all the life of the American people and which alone can lead the individual out of the pernicious mire of narrow selfish interest into the expanse of true Christian fraternity—which in everyday language is civic virtue. In observing such facts we often found ourselves involuntarily transported in thought to our distant homeland, and in such comparison the indifference stood out in an even sadder light, an indifference which complaint about serves as a constant refrain of journalism and all friends of public undertakings and enterprises. While for example we hear crying everywhere about the lack of means for public education, especially for maintaining the newly opened system of parish schools, in America according to official reports ten million dollars per year are contributed voluntarily in money and other donations for public education—that is, approximately twenty million rubles. But never did this unfavorable contrast for us stand out so starkly as in 1883, when our great writer passed away, one who had glorified our literature in the Western world (I.S. Turgenev. — Editor’s note). He, by his own declaration, ardently loved his homeland, was such a great patriot that from love for his fatherland he spent almost his entire life abroad (!). He possessed a huge fortune, which gave him an annual income of up to thirty thousand rubles, lived and died a bachelor. In such circumstances an American would certainly have founded an entire college in his name or forever secured the maintenance of public schools for an entire district, and thereby immortalized his name in a grateful country; but our great writer, who painted so artistically and eloquently in his works the spiritual poverty of the Russian people, that cry about the lack of means for education that resounds from end to end—it must be that out of love for this people and his homeland he left all his acquired and even inherited fortune to—his French friends… Of course, de mortuis aut bene, aut nihil; but when the time comes for criticism, it will undoubtedly evaluate this sad stain on the moral person of the talented writer at its true worth, and scarcely will all the brilliance of his literary genius be able to redeem this glaring lack of civic virtue and patriotic good sense…[2]

But we must conclude. From the observation and study of the life of the North American people, the conclusion naturally follows that the life of this people is pervaded by a strong religious-moral element, and that this element, as the most general and all-encompassing, imparts special vitality, so to speak an engaging enthusiasm and passion to every public activity and every public enterprise. The famous author of “The Life of Jesus Christ” F. Farrar characterized this peculiarity of the American national spirit strongly and expressively when, during his recent trip to America, characterizing the teeming industriousness of the people, said in one of his speeches delivered to students of Harvard University that the moving motive of this extraordinary activity is nothing other than faith, that faith which moves mountains. And in this respect lies an instructive aspect of American life for us. The sluggishness and lack of cohesion that characterize our public life, alas, goes hand in hand with religious indifferentism, which like winter frost slows all the wheels of our public life, enlivened only sometimes by the eccentric outbursts of sensational preachers alien to the national spirit of rationalist pietism. But if there is something instructive for us in the positive aspect of American life, then even more instructive is its negative aspect, which will form the subject of our next reading.

St. Petersburg.

March 30, 1886

Footnotes

[2] When this lecture had already been read, we came across in the “Rural Bulletin” a fact which presents such a striking example of the contrast displayed in this regard by a simple Russian peasant that we find it appropriate to bring it forth here as proof of how much healthy patriotic sense can be found in the simple soul of a peasant than in the soul of a highly educated “intellectual.” Here is this fact: “In the village of Khabne, Radomysle district, Kiev province, during the first week of Great Lent, the local priest Fr. John was invited to give final rites to a peasant named Semyon Kovalev, who was dying of consumption and had no children. Kovalev was known for his exemplary management and thrift. After receiving the rites, the dying man expressed his wish that all his property, consisting of a house with its estate and three and a half desyatinas of arable and hay-cutting land, after his death pass into perpetual ownership of the local village school, toward the construction of which he donates 300 rubles, and another 300 rubles he donates to be deposited in the State Bank in perpetuity, so that the interest would go to aid homeless children. If for any reason the authorities did not permit him to establish a school on the property he had donated, then in that case he donates separately 1,100 rubles, with the stipulation that the money be placed in the State Bank and the interest be used to assist poor children attending the village school. The dying man wished that in the presence of the priest and several peasants invited for this purpose a will be drawn up and confirmed by the village administrator, which was done on February 24. Then the dying man expressed the wish that while he was still alive, building materials be brought to his estate for the school’s construction, so that he could see this with his own eyes from his bed. The peasants, fulfilling the will of the donor, began to bring wood for the future school and stacked it in the estate of the dying Kovalev.” Soc. Bulletin no. 14–15, p. 162.