Annual report of the managers of the State Lunatic Asylum. : Utica, January 16, 1844.
- New York (State). State Lunatic Asylum
- Date:
- 1844
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Annual report of the managers of the State Lunatic Asylum. : Utica, January 16, 1844. Source: Wellcome Collection.
121/124 (page 121)
![bright sky, the lofty mountain, the flowing river, the fertile 'plain, and a motto that should not have been assumed but by minds stayed to highest purposes ; nor retained, but by those whose lofty principles sanction its use,—your State seal is to me the pledge that you will not delay to remedy those corroding moral evils, to which I have asked your attention ; that you will not be satisfied with having commenced a good and noble work, but that you will go forward to complete and perfect your system. I solicit your action now, on the various ground of expediency, of justice, of humanity, of duty to yourselves, of duty to your families, of duty to your neighbor, and your fellow citizens, of your duty to the Most High God, who, in ordaining that the “ poor should never cease out of the land,” at the same time ordained that nations, not less than individuals, should find sanctification in the exer¬ cise of the higher charities, and the ennobling acts of life. I am told that the world is selfish, that men seek only outward ag¬ grandizement and temporal prosperity. I assuredly see much of this, but society would cease to exist if liberality and enlarged principles of action did not more prevail. I discover that negligence and folly, vice and crime, sweep widely and fearfully ; but I cannot be blind to the fact that there must be a greater amount of care and reflection, of pu¬ rity and integrity, else the fabric of social life would fall in ruins, and the intellectual become subservient to animal life. In view, then, of the ascendancy of the more elevated principles of humanity, I renewedly solicit your action now upon the subject under consideration. I might recommend this on the low ground of expedi¬ ency, and prove by numerical calculations that present complete and ef¬ ficient plans would at no distant time be the cheapest. But while a fit and wise economy ought to be studied, I cannot suppose that you will, in consulting the mere saving of dollars and cents to your State trea¬ sury, lose sight of that justice and humanity which most ennoble human nature, and which should be your governing motives ; these involve also the highest responsibilities. God, in giving to you understanding above the brute creation, and immortal capacities, has revealed that there is a treasury whose wealth does not fail, where riches may be garnered for the harvest of eternity. Provide asylums which shall meet the whole necessities of your State ; give to your sister States an example yet wanting, of complete [Assembly, No. 21.] 16](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30318658_0121.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
